--- a/tests/test-verify	Wed Jun 03 22:58:43 2009 -0400
+++ b/tests/test-verify	Thu Jun 04 17:33:30 2009 -0600
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 hg ci -m a
 
 echo 'corrupted' > b
-head -c 20 .hg/store/data/a.i > start
+dd if=.hg/store/data/a.i of=start bs=1 count=20 2>/dev/null
 cat start b > .hg/store/data/a.i
 
 echo