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Re: Theoretical drive swapidge.



On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:36:08 -0400 (EDT), jeremy jozwik wrote:
> 
> hello list. i am contemplating beefing up my laptops hard drive. i did
> a little google search and most of the hits seem to be forum posts.
> and those that are not use different methods.
> 
> this is a big move so i would like to know the most tried and true,
> least down time tutorial for this.
> 
> can someone either link me to a page that is the best method or reply
> with nice step by step instructions.

That's really not enough information, Jeremy.  For example, you didn't
tell us whether you need to keep the information on the old drive or
not.  A hard disk upgrade is much simpler, for example, if you're
going to wipe the hard disk and start over from scratch than if you're
going to need to keep some or all of the existing data.

Then there are hardware issues.  Sometimes there is a "system partition"
or a "host protected area" where stuff is stored, and there are
special migration procedures needed to avoid loss of hardware functionality,
etc.  You really need to dig into the details with your hardware vendor
to check into this possibility.  In other words, you're going to need
to do your homework and plan this carefully.

One tool which may aide you in the process is the partman utility
present in the Debian installer.  I believe it has the capability
to copy partitions.  Whether it can copy between partitions on different
hard drives I don't know.  I've never tried that scenario, since
I've never used it on a machine with more than one hard drive.
Also, it doesn't necessarily support all filesystems.  Again, you 
have to do some homework and planning.  A Debian live CD may provide
more tools, such as gparted.  There's no "one size fits all"
five-minute answer.  It depends on the exact situation.  Do your homework!

-- 
  .''`.     Stephen Powell    <zlinuxman@wowway.com>
 : :'  :
 `. `'`
   `-


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