Re: Replacing hard disk used in existing filesystem
On Mon, 2011-04-18 at 11:32 -0400, Dan Ritter wrote: You had it pretty much correct; don't worry. Double-check your backups are good before beginning. Thanks a lot, Dan! Mark -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1303218119.3184.4.camel@satellite
Replacing hard disk used in existing filesystem
Hello the list! My Debian (wheezy am464, upgraded from an original squeeze install) system started complaining yesterday that one of my hard disks is about to fail. I suspect it suffered damage in the earthquake that recently hit Japan (I'm in Tokyo) and has been quietly deteriorating since. Anyway the disk concerned is a 1TB disk on which is mounted /opt, so I feel I should be able to replace it without major hassle. I have already backed it up fully to NAS. The only issue is that I don't have enough spare power connectors on my PC's power supply to attach both the new and the old disks at the same time. What I want to know is how can I remove the current drive from the filesystem so I can remove it physically without sending the machine into a tailspin? I have only ever set up the mapping of disk partitions to mount points at installation time, never afterwards, and so am not sure what to do. I am thinking the procedure will be something along the lines of: 1) modify my computer's mount settings such that /opt is part of the root filesystem instead of a separate mount point (HOW? manual edit of /etc/fstab or something more sophisticated?) This will cause me to lose access to everything on the old disk which is OK because it's all backed up and there is nothing there that's critical to the running of the machine. 2) Power down the machine and remove the old disk, attach the new disk. 3) bring up the machine, partition and format the new disk. (is the tool for this fdisk?) 4) modify the machine's mount settings to go back to mounting /opt on the new disk (HOW?) 5) restore everything I want in /opt back from the backup. Even assuming I'm on the right lines, I don't know how to do steps 1 and 4 and am not totally confident about how to do 3, so would appreciate any advice. Cheers Mark -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1303138354.9098.11.camel@kazuki
Re: Replacing hard disk used in existing filesystem
On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 11:52:34PM +0900, Mark Fletcher wrote: Anyway the disk concerned is a 1TB disk on which is mounted /opt, so I feel I should be able to replace it without major hassle. I have already backed it up fully to NAS. The only issue is that I don't have enough spare power connectors on my PC's power supply to attach both the new and the old disks at the same time. What I want to know is how can I remove the current drive from the filesystem so I can remove it physically without sending the machine into a tailspin? I have only ever set up the mapping of disk partitions to mount points at installation time, never afterwards, and so am not sure what to do. I am thinking the procedure will be something along the lines of: 1) modify my computer's mount settings such that /opt is part of the root filesystem instead of a separate mount point (HOW? manual edit of /etc/fstab or something more sophisticated?) This will cause me to lose access to everything on the old disk which is OK because it's all backed up and there is nothing there that's critical to the running of the machine. Just comment out the /opt mount line in /etc/fstab. The comment feature here is putting a # at the beginning of the line. 2) Power down the machine and remove the old disk, attach the new disk. 3) bring up the machine, partition and format the new disk. (is the tool for this fdisk?) fdisk for partitioning, mkfs to create a filesystem on the partition. You could create a label on the filesystem partition at this time. Read the man pages first. Use fdisk without writing anything at the end to see what your current settings look like. 4) modify the machine's mount settings to go back to mounting /opt on the new disk (HOW?) Uncomment the /etc/fstab line, and make sure it points to the right disk interface, or UUID, or filesystem label if you created one. 5) restore everything I want in /opt back from the backup. Even assuming I'm on the right lines, I don't know how to do steps 1 and 4 and am not totally confident about how to do 3, so would appreciate any advice. You had it pretty much correct; don't worry. Double-check your backups are good before beginning. -dsr- -- http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr/eula.html is hereby incorporated by reference. You can't defend freedom by getting rid of it. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110418153206.gx19...@tao.merseine.nu
Re: Replacing hard disk used in existing filesystem
Mark Fletcher put forth on 4/18/2011 9:52 AM: The only issue is that I don't have enough spare power connectors on my PC's power supply to attach both the new and the old disks at the same time. What I want to know is how can I remove the current drive from the filesystem so I can remove it physically without sending the machine into a tailspin? I have only ever set up the mapping of disk partitions to mount points at installation time, never afterwards, and so am not sure what to do. It won't go into a tailspin unless you have programs in /opt that you've configured your system to run automatically, such as daemons. If you haven't, you'll simply get a mount error at startup, which is harmless. I am thinking the procedure will be something along the lines of: 1) modify my computer's mount settings such that /opt is part of the root filesystem instead of a separate mount point You don't want to do this. (HOW? manual edit of /etc/fstab or something more sophisticated?) This will cause me to lose access to everything on the old disk which is OK because it's all backed up and there is nothing there that's critical to the running of the machine. If you plan on mounting the new replacement disk in /opt, then I wouldn't touch the settings in fstab until after you get the new disk in, partitioned and formatted. After that, make the necessary changes in fstab (such as disk UUID or /dev/sdX change) to mount the new device at /opt. 2) Power down the machine and remove the old disk, attach the new disk. 3) bring up the machine, partition and format the new disk. (is the tool for this fdisk?) cfdisk is easier (menu driven) 4) modify the machine's mount settings to go back to mounting /opt on the new disk (HOW?) If the new disk shows up with the same /dev/sdX you shouldn't have to change anything in /etc/fstab, unless you're currently mounting by-label or by-uuid. If it doesn't show up as the previous /dev/sdX then simply change that to match the new /dev/sdX name. 5) restore everything I want in /opt back from the backup. Just make sure you're using the proper backup/restore procedure so you get all the appropriate bits set for directories and files, such as ownership, execute perms, etc. Even assuming I'm on the right lines, I don't know how to do steps 1 and 4 and am not totally confident about how to do 3, so would appreciate any advice. It would always be helpful if you add relevant information to your post, such as a copy of your current /etc/fstab. That would allow us to better answer your questions, telling you exactly what to modify, etc. -- Stan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4daca3ab.7050...@hardwarefreak.com
Re: replacing hard disk
Jan Willem Stumpel wrote: Are there any tips on moving the whole system from the old disk to the new one? Or do I just have to re-install ubuntu, re-install any updates and extra programs which are installed, find and copy modified config files, mails, bookmarks, etc? Disclaimer: I have no experience with ubuntu, therefore I'd recommend installing debian on the new disk. I've successfully done the following (for my debian): - place the new disk in an usb housing and attach it to the computer running the 'normal' OS - format the disk and create file systems as needed (usually the new disk is larger than the old, so file systems will be larger than on the old disk - copy all data as files (rsync) for / and /home (my two partitions) - install grub on the new hard disk - remove the hard disk from the usb housing and put it into computer - boot to old system on new disk - be happy 8-) Ie. this can be done without the need of live CDs. Note that it helps to keep the partitions in the same order, or you have to modify /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst Cheers, Johannes -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: replacing hard disk
On Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 04:43:12PM -0300, Claudio wrote: I think this tool *dd*, resolve your problem. http://www.linuxweblog.com/dd-image http://www.mckeay.net/2004/10/18/using-dd-to-clone-a-hd/ Or, you can use tar to create to stdout, pipe the output to another tar process to extract from stdin. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: replacing hard disk
On Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:12:17 -0400 Stefan Monnier monn...@iro.umontreal.ca wrote: Are there any tips on moving the whole system from the old disk to the new one? Or do I just have to re-install ubuntu, re-install any updates and extra programs which are installed, find and copy modified config files, mails, bookmarks, etc? If you can connect both disks at the same time, and boot off of a Live CD (or a USB key), then the simplest option is: - connect both disks - boot off of your rescue USB/CD. - dd if=/dev/[olddisk] of=/dev/[newdisk] - wait I prefer System Rescue CD: http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page : using ddrescue for the copy if there is any reason to suspect bad spots in the hard drive. With System Rescue CD all your hard drives will be sda, sdb, etc doesn't matter whether they are sata or pata. You can use the command: fdisk -l : to verify where the disks show up. Then issue the command: ddrescue /dev/sda /dev/sdb : assuming your old disk is sda and the new one sdb, new dis needs to be at least as large as the old. Doing: ddrescue --help : will show you the syntax and list of available options. The advantage ddrescue has is, on the first pass, when it hits a bad spot on the disk it spends minimal effort attempting to read it before moving on reducing the chance the drive will fail completely before you get all the stuff from the good parts of the disk, once the first pass is done it will make additional passes, breaking the bad spots into smaller chunks in order to get much data as possible. If you have a relatively small amount of stuff you consider to be of high importance, it would be suggested to try to recover that stuff first. Usually I will try with the file manager first, then if there are errors during the copy, move on to other options. Never tried ddresue with individual files, but it should be the same as a partition or disk. If the outfile needs to exist first you can use touch to create an empty file: touch /mnt/mountpoint/directory/filename Later, Seeker -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
replacing hard disk
My wife's computer which runs ubuntu heron made a funny sound today. I now think it must have come from the hard disk, which is quite old; the motherboard and cpu are fairly new, however. And just now the computer became unusable because it could no longer save any files. /var/log/syslog told about a disk error which resulted in the disk being remounted read-only. Restarting the computer caused an fsck, and now the machine works again, but it is clear that the disk is nearing the end of its life. So tomorrow it's off to the computer shop to get a new hard disk. Are there any tips on moving the whole system from the old disk to the new one? Or do I just have to re-install ubuntu, re-install any updates and extra programs which are installed, find and copy modified config files, mails, bookmarks, etc? Regards, Jan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: replacing hard disk
On Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 07:39:08PM +0200, Jan Willem Stumpel wrote: So tomorrow it's off to the computer shop to get a new hard disk. Are there any tips on moving the whole system from the old disk to the new one? Or do I just have to re-install ubuntu, re-install any updates and extra programs which are installed, find and copy modified config files, mails, bookmarks, etc? Moving the / partition to a new drive is very OS-specific. You may want to ask on a ubuntu mailing list. Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: replacing hard disk
Jan Willem Stumpel wrote: My wife's computer which runs ubuntu heron made a funny sound today. I now think it must have come from the hard disk, which is quite old; the motherboard and cpu are fairly new, however. And just now the computer became unusable because it could no longer save any files. /var/log/syslog told about a disk error which resulted in the disk being remounted read-only. Restarting the computer caused an fsck, and now the machine works again, but it is clear that the disk is nearing the end of its life. So tomorrow it's off to the computer shop to get a new hard disk. Are there any tips on moving the whole system from the old disk to the new one? Or do I just have to re-install ubuntu, re-install any updates and extra programs which are installed, find and copy modified config files, mails, bookmarks, etc? Regards, Jan You should probably be asking this question on the Ubuntu list. Nonetheless, you could use livemagic and livehelper, both available in the ubuntu repos, to my knowledge (at least, I'm pretty sure they're available to jaunty, not sure about hardy), to make a livecd iso of the existing system, from which you could install to a new disk. do apt-cache search livemagic to be for sure or just aptitude install livehelper which should install livemagic and livehelper livehelper being a gui frontend for livemagic You should, of course, back up all data/documents/music etc. to another disk before doing any of that stuff. /tony -- http://www.baldwinsoftware.com free/open source software tcl yer os with a feather... -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: replacing hard disk
I think this tool *dd*, resolve your problem. http://www.linuxweblog.com/dd-image http://www.mckeay.net/2004/10/18/using-dd-to-clone-a-hd/ -- Claudio Bazán. Registered User LINUX #439481 On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 2:39 PM, Jan Willem Stumpel jstum...@planet.nlwrote: My wife's computer which runs ubuntu heron made a funny sound today. I now think it must have come from the hard disk, which is quite old; the motherboard and cpu are fairly new, however. And just now the computer became unusable because it could no longer save any files. /var/log/syslog told about a disk error which resulted in the disk being remounted read-only. Restarting the computer caused an fsck, and now the machine works again, but it is clear that the disk is nearing the end of its life. So tomorrow it's off to the computer shop to get a new hard disk. Are there any tips on moving the whole system from the old disk to the new one? Or do I just have to re-install ubuntu, re-install any updates and extra programs which are installed, find and copy modified config files, mails, bookmarks, etc? Regards, Jan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: replacing hard disk
Are there any tips on moving the whole system from the old disk to the new one? Or do I just have to re-install ubuntu, re-install any updates and extra programs which are installed, find and copy modified config files, mails, bookmarks, etc? If you can connect both disks at the same time, and boot off of a Live CD (or a USB key), then the simplest option is: - connect both disks - boot off of your rescue USB/CD. - dd if=/dev/[olddisk] of=/dev/[newdisk] - wait Stefan PS: This presumes the new disk is at least as large as the old one. And it will leave the additional space free: you can later on change your partitioning (resize the last partition, or add another one) to make use of the extra space. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: replacing hard disk
Stefan Monnier wrote: Are there any tips on moving the whole system from the old disk to the new one? Or do I just have to re-install ubuntu, re-install any updates and extra programs which are installed, find and copy modified config files, mails, bookmarks, etc? If you can connect both disks at the same time, and boot off of a Live CD (or a USB key), then the simplest option is: - connect both disks - boot off of your rescue USB/CD. - dd if=/dev/[olddisk] of=/dev/[newdisk] - wait Stefan PS: This presumes the new disk is at least as large as the old one. And it will leave the additional space free: you can later on change your partitioning (resize the last partition, or add another one) to make use of the extra space. I use Clonezilla for such things, saves a lot of time (dd is slow), more flexible with disk size, and takes care (if appropriate) of MBR, grub installation on the target, and more. http://clonezilla.org/ Handy tool. Tom -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
