My question is slightly related to this post, so I'm posting it here.
I'm currently running my Sid on a 40GB hdd which is running out of life, In a few days I'll buy a new 80GB. Now what is the best way 2 dump my whole / to my hdd so that I can boot and do all my stuff from that hdd? I mean the above discussion is for /var/lib/mysql, will the same work for / ?
Bought a new hdd yesterday and solved the problem in my way.
First i booted with ubuntu live cd. Partitioned the new hard drive with some ext3 filesystem. Then mounted them:
#mount -t ext3 /dev/hda5 /mnt/new_debian
#mount -t ext3 /dev/hdc6 /mnt/old_debian
#cp -av /mnt/old_debian/. /mnt/new_debian/.
then mounted proc
#mount -t proc /proc /mnt/new_debian/proc
#chroot /mnt/new_debian /bin/bash
editted fstab and mtab to reflect my new hdd setting
#vim /etc/fstab
#vim /etc/mtab
Then run grub
#grub
> root (hd0,4)
> setup (hd0)
> quit
#grub-install /dev/hda
My new system is working as good as my old one now.