The procedure I normally use is to connect the new drive to the same system, create partitions of identical size to the existing system partitions (root, /usr, /var /opt etc) and any user partitions whose size does not need to change, and make new partitions out of the additional space. Then boot single user (so / and /var are readonly) and dd those across to the appropriate partitions on the new drive. These are usually small partitions, so this is fairly quick. The other partitions I normally mount readonly by default, so those I dd while the old system is running.
If I need to expand an existing filesystem, like /home, I format the expanded partition and use rsync to copy the contents. Be careful about things like preserving attributes, like hard links. If preferred you could also dump and restore using tape. Then make the new drive the primary drive and boot to it. You can either use a boot floppy or CD initially, and then rewrite your boot sector in the usual way to make sure the new system disk is bootable, or if you are careful you can update the boot sectore from the old system. This system is simple because it works even for my partitions which contain Windows, BSD, and other operating systems. (I certainly don't want the pain of trying to re-install the original windows system, which is needed if I ever need to prove to a vendor that their hardware is defective...). So far this method has always produced an exact copy my original system, whose original 2GB drive has doubled in size about 5 times over the years. Don't try to copy the old partition table with DD, as sometimes it will reflect differences in drive geometry. But the content of partitions can be treated as a simple array of blocks, so dd can duplicate it, and it doesn't matter if individual partitions move - except that if the order changes then you will need to update /etc/fstab, and other OSs (like Windows) may have more restrictive rules - I normally reserve the first three primary partitions for 'other' OS's to avoid problems with this.. Regards, DigbyT On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 04:55:55PM -0300, Fernando Cacciola wrote: > Hi, > > I have Debian Sarge, full of stuff, installed on a HD, but it's running out > of space. > What's the simplest way to transfer the entire system to a bigger HD? > > TIA > > Fernando Cacciola -- Digby R. S. Tarvin digbyt(at)digbyt.com http://www.digbyt.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
