jeremy jozwik wrote at 2010-03-18 22:52 -0500: > i am considering installing a larger drive. > debian linux lenny running on a lenovo thinkpad x61 tablet. hard disk > currently in system is a 80gig slow lil 5400rpm sata. looking to > upgrade to a 7200 160 or 250 drive > what i am hoping for however is to more or less mirror the current > drive / instillation over to the larger drive that will be installed. > i would rather not have to re-install debian and all its > configurations to the larger drive. Here's how I would do it, with micro-examples: - BE CAREFUL, you could easily destroy your data - Plan your partition sizes, etcetera - Connect both drives to a system, any system - Run Linux (LiveCD or whatever) - Mount the old drive's partitions (mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/old_sda1) - Check the contents, so you know you've mounted the correct devices - Build the partition table on the new drive (fstab /dev/sdb1) - Format the partitions (mkfs.ext3 -L label /dev/sdb1) - Mount the new partitions (mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/new_sdb1) - Copy the stuff over (cp -a /mnt/old_sda1/* /mnt/new_sdb1/) - Unmount everything (umount /dev/sda1) Then I think you would have to run "grub-install /dev/sdb"; I'm not sure about that... You may have to chroot into the new system? > ok, does it help if i have another machine where i can mount both the > old laptop drive and the newer laptop drive and then do a copy > everything from old to new and still retain a working machine? You need a separate Linux, ideally. So you can use a different computer with Linux available or boot from LiveCD on your ThinkPad (I suppose your X61 has no CD drive).
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