In reply to:

If you change the xf to an xvf it will print each fid number as it copies it:

(cd /drive1;tar cf - fids) | (cd /drive0;tar xvf -)

And you can avoid the two sub-shells and their cd's using tar's -C option:
tar c -C /drive1 -f - fids | tar x -C /drive0 -v -f -
_________________________
Toby Speight
030103016 (80GB Mk2a, blue)
030102806 (0GB Mk2a, blue)