I want to move Slackware from a 40GB harddrive to a 60GB. Is there a way
to copy the whole partition including the MBR? I remember seeing a way to
do it a while back, but forgot where it was anymore.

Selex

Bob Someguy <bob@someguy.com> wrote:
> I want to move Slackware from a 40GB harddrive to a 60GB. Is there a way
> to copy the whole partition including the MBR? I remember seeing a way to
> do it a while back, but forgot where it was anymore.
>
> Selex

Just use "cp -a" from outside the system (a live-cd for example). There
is no need for copying the MBR too. You have to modify /etc/fstab and
lilo.conf anyway, so you can chroot afterwards into you new system and
run /sbin/lilo. If chroot doesn't work for you, boot the system with the
install cd (follow the instructions at the boot prompt) to run lilo.

> Just use "cp -a" from outside the system (a live-cd for example). There
> is no need for copying the MBR too. You have to modify /etc/fstab and
> lilo.conf anyway, so you can chroot afterwards into you new system and
> run /sbin/lilo. If chroot doesn't work for you, boot the system with the
> install cd (follow the instructions at the boot prompt) to run lilo.

I think that booting from the liveCD then using "dd" should do it.
FYI, what I did when I changed laptop was backup laptop1, install basic
system on laptop2. Overwrite laptop2 with backup of laptop1 and check
/boot and /etc/lilo.conf. You might want to make a custom kernel if
changing hardware.
E.

Ed wrote:

> I think that booting from the liveCD then using "dd" should do it.

"dd" will certainly make a perfect copy of the drive, but will create the
same 40GB filesystem on the new disk. The other 20GB will be wasted (if I
understand "dd" correctly.)

Jeffrey

Bob Someguy wrote :

> I remember seeing a way to do it a while back, but forgot where it
> was anymore.

Was it this Hard-Disk-Upgrade HOWTO?

/usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Hard-Disk-Upgrade
--
Thomas O.

This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.

Kai Brust schreef:

> Bob Someguy <bob@someguy.com> wrote:
>
>> I want to move Slackware from a 40GB harddrive to a 60GB. Is there a way
>> to copy the whole partition including the MBR? I remember seeing a way to
>> do it a while back, but forgot where it was anymore.
>>
>> Selex
>
>
> Just use "cp -a" from outside the system (a live-cd for example). There
> is no need for copying the MBR too. You have to modify /etc/fstab and
> lilo.conf anyway, so you can chroot afterwards into you new system and
> run /sbin/lilo. If chroot doesn't work for you, boot the system with the
> install cd (follow the instructions at the boot prompt) to run lilo.
>
>

Using "cp -a" will do fine, if you take a few precautions

* Boot from the Slackware install CD2;
* Create partitions on the new disk like you have them on the old disk
(only a little bigger, let them fill up the wole disk)
* Create two mountpoints for the two harddisks, like
"mkdir -p /disks/old; mkdir -p /disks/new"
and mount the two hard disks' partitions under these directories (for
simplicity i am assuming you've only got one partition per drive, if
not repeat the procedure for each partition)
* Check the contents below the "/disks/old" mountpoint and if you see
a "proc" or "lost+found" directory below, you should /not/ copy them over!
* Run something like:
"cd /disks/old; for i in bin boot home ; do cp -a $i /disks/new/ ;
done" where the "bin boot home" bit should reflect what you saw under
/disks/old ... excluding any proc and lost+found directories.
* After copying, remove the old disk, boot from the boot CD again and
take note of the option to boot the linux on your harddisk instead of
the linux on the cd
* Once you booted up and logged on, run "lilo", remove CD, and reboot
again - done!

Cheers, Eric