transfering linux system to another hard drive

[Gregory Nowak]

Format your new drive, and create the ext2 or whatever Linux fs you want.
Next, mount your new drive to /mnt or whatever mount point you want.
Then make the following directories.
mkdir /mnt/proc
mkdir /mnt/mnt
Then cd to the / (main directory), and get a list of all dirs in that directory.
Then copy over all of thoes directories from the list to your new drive.
However, do not copy lost+found, proc, and mnt directories.
For example, assuming you mounted your new drive on /mnt, and you want to copy your var
directory to your new drive, you'd do,
cp -a /var/ /mnt/
I would not recommend using mv, because programs still running on your system would need the moved dirs.
Don't forget to update /mnt/etc/fstab.
Then, prepare a loadlin disk to boot your new drive.
I recommend loadlin, because this is the easiest way.
Once you booted your new drive, look over /etc/lilo.conf to make sure it is ok,
then run 
lilo
to install it to the new drive, and reboot. You should be all set.
Someone please correct me if I missed something here.
Hth.
Greg


On Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 08:29:31AM -0600, Cheryl Homiak wrote:
> I apologize for the cross-post, but I'm trying to get info as soon as
> possible; even if somebody has just seen this on one of these lists and
> can steer me toward the correct archive it would be appreciated.
> My hard drive with linux is failing; I have just obtained a 20gig drive
> which will have both my dos and linux on it. All drives--my dying linux
> drive, my old and tiny dos drive, and my new drive--are all connected to
> the computer. I will have to partition the hard drive, but it is being
> recognized correctly in the bios and linux. Eventually, the dying drive
> (hda) will be removed as will the dos drive (hdd) and the new drive (hdb)
> will become hda.  I want to know if there is a way to transfer my linux
> from the dying 2.5gig drive to the new 20gig; I am assuming I will first
> need to partition the hard drive and the partitioning will probably be
> somewhat different from the old drive due to the difference in size.
> Sorry for the info repeat to those on blinux.
> I know I saw a discussion of just this problem somewhere recently but
> haven't been able to locate it.
> Also, can I make my partition that will hold dos with linux since I have
> no data already onthe hard drive to protect?
> thanks.
> Cheryl
> 
> 
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