Re: [debian-user] How to copy a laptop HD?
On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 4:27 PM, Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca> wrote:
> On Tuesday 20 May 2008 01:47:03 pm Javier Vasquez wrote:
>> I did a copy of the contents of each partitions, except by /proc under
>> root, into the new created ones, but I used "cp -a" instead of "dd".
>> This might have prevented copying the boot sector, necessary for the
>> boot sector probably...
>>
>> Do you suggest using "dd" instead? Would it work even if the destine
>> partition is bigger (I read somewhere it works perfectly when source
>> and destine are the same size, but I never read it works perfectly
>> when destine is bigger)...
>
> You did it the right way the first time. dd only works with same-size block
> devices anyway.
>
>> What about the HD MBR? I've tried already using "dd if=/dev/hda
>> of=~/full_mbr.bin bs=512 count=1 && dd if=~/full_mbr.bin of=/dev/sda
>> bs=446 count=1", but it didn't seem to work... I wouldn't know if
>> using count=2 to include the boot sector would work since the boot
>> partition is the 2nd one (the swap is the 1st one)...
>
> Don't try to copy it, reinstall it. Less messy, less prone to failure.
You mean grub-install it? I couldn't... For some reason grub doesn't
even find the stage1 file after running something similar to
"grub-install --root-directory /mnt/sda-boot /dev/sda". So I tried
chroot to /mnt/sda-root (I also made the bind between /mnt/sda-boot
and /mnt-sda-root/boot) and run "grub-install --root-directory /boot
/dev/sda" and it worked better but now the stage2 file is not found by
grub... So yet under chroot, I did a search for /boot/grub/stage2,
and it was found under (hd0,4) or (hd0,5), so then I did "root
(hd0,4)", and then setup (hd0), and it said it finished successfully,
but that was all a lie, since I rebooted and I had the same thing as
when copying the MBR, a whole lot of "grub" words filling up the
screen. So I have tried everything that had occurred to me and that
have read on the web, and at least just by "grub-install", or plane
grub, I don't seem to find a solution.
I you meant even more time consuming installing the distribution
again, just basic stuff to then override everything with the other
disk, except by the MBR and probably the /bott/grub directory, then I
don't feel pretty much up to it. I'd like to go other paths 1st, :).
>> Any ways, I'm still on trials, but I haven't gotten grub to work yet.
>> I tried also "grub-install" on sda, but that doesn't seem to work, it
>> only does with chroot to the mounted root of sda and with a bind to
>> the mounted boot of sda, however partially since it doesn't get to
>> read stage2. Running manually grub over the chroot seems to overcome
>> the stage2 thing, but I still don't get grub to work after booting.
>
> You're on the right track, I remember getting it to work from approximately
> that point, I just can't remember what I had to change to get it to work from
> there.
>
> --
> Paul Johnson
> baloo@ursine.ca
I've heard something interesting, although as the destine HD is
bigger, I don't know if something might get wrong at the end any ways,
:)... Blank the bigger new disk, copy bit to bit the smaller old HD
(whole) into the newer bigger one (not sure if the copied partition
table would still work, but if all it does is leave free space after
the last partition, then that sounds OK, but I think that's not the
whole story since the cylinders shouldn't be the same, or at least at
thought so). Then if things worked, it would be a matter of resizing
the last partition, which is the root one, :)... Not sure if that'd
work though...
Before trying this last thing I heard, I'd like to try then copying th
whole 512 1st bytes of the old HD, just in case that'd work (I
understand that'll inlcude the partition table though). Any ways,
just thinking about what to try next when I'm back home, :)...
--
Javier
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