Re: How to restore BIOS-based backup on a UEFI machine
On Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:26:26 +0000
Alain D D Williams <addw@phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 04:41:50PM +0100, Jesper Dybdal wrote:
> > I backup my Buster server simply as a (compressed, encrypted) cpio
> > archive.
> >
> > Restoring it to a BIOS-based machine is simple: boot a rescue cd,
> > partition the disk, restore all files, fix fstab if necessary, run
> > update-grub and grub-install in a chroot environment. That works.
> >
> > But if the machine should some day die and I can only find/buy a
> > UEFI-only machine to restore it to, how do I do that? And are
> > there any precautions I should take in advance (on the BIOS system,
> > before creating backups that may be needed on a future UEFI system)
> > in order to make it easier to restore to a UEFI machine?
> >
> > (My knowledge of UEFI is almost non-existent, and my knowledge of
> > grub is very limited.)
>
> If/when your machine dies I would suggest that the simplest thing is
> for you to do a completely fresh Debian install (which will get EUFI,
> etc, right)
I wouldn't necessarily guarantee that, see my earlier post in the
thread. Upgrading to buster killed booting to grub, and even a fresh
installation didn't fix it.
This has just given me an idea for when I have a couple of days spare:
I could try a clean installation of stretch to my problem machine. If
that fixes booting, I could leave /boot/efi untouched, and basically
copy / and the rest of /boot from my problem buster installation, which
I would previously have backed up. There are undoubtedly reasons why
this might fail, but it's the first new idea I've had in months on this
subject.
--
Joe
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