Re: replacing boot and only disk drive
On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 11:29:20PM +0000, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> I have a laptop (an old Asus EEEPC), and I need to replace its only disk
> drive with a larger one. The hardware aspects are easy -- keep static
> electricity away and use a screwdriver. I have the new drive on my desk
> already.
>
> And it's not hard to copy the file systems, either. I can temporarily
> access the new drive using a USB adaptor. fdisk and the lvm utilities
> will create the new partitions and then I copy, using dd or rsync or tar/
> untar or even cp --archive. Perhaps a recursive checksum script afterward
> just in case.
>
> It's currently a dual boot between Debian Jessie and Windows XP. I can
> copy the Windows partition using ntfs-3g. Or maybe dd if that fails.
> Windows XP comes with the usual C: drive (/dev/sda1), a hidden Windows
> partition (/dev/sda3), and en EFI paritition (/dev/sda4). All of Linux
> hides out in the so-called extended partition (/dev/sda2). I have no
> idea what Windows does with the space at the start of the drive before he
> first partition. Presumably grub messes with this space, too.
>
> But I'm concerned about installing the bootloader. I presumably have to
> do this before I actually swap drives, or the machine won't boot.
>
> Currently I'm using grub-legacy to boot. Presumably I'll want the
> configuration file in the new system to be pretty well the same as the
> old, but there may have to be changes. And when I'm installing the boot
> loader it's got to set everything up to refer to the new disk drive even
> though when that gets used it will be in a different electronic location
> on the machine. (it'll be /dev/sda instead of /dev/sdb)
If you use UUIDs instead of /dev/sd??, you avoid the
issue of locations changing.
If the new /dev/sda drive has GRUB in the MBR, I believe
you should be able to boot from the command line in any
case.
Grub can boot Windows just fine.
regards,
Joel
> What are the gotchas that are easy to get wrong in an operation like this?
>
> -- hendrik
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
> Archive: [🔎] m4r68g$o6n$2@ger.gmane.org">https://lists.debian.org/[🔎] m4r68g$o6n$2@ger.gmane.org
>
--
Joel Roth
Reply to: