[CentOS] Replacing a hard drive

[John Summerfield]

Edward Milstein wrote:
> 
> On Mar 14, 2007, at 9:35 AM, Bowie Bailey wrote:
> 
>> I have a CentOS 4.4 system where all of the main filesystems are on a
>> single hard drive.  This drive is starting to give some errors, so I got
>> a new (larger) drive to replace it with.  What is the easiest way to
>> copy my filesystems over to the new drive?
>>
>> I considered using dd, but I lose the extra capacity of the new drive
>> that way.
>>
>> I tried using SystemImager, but it is giving me some errors.
>>
>> I think the easiest way may be to boot from the LiveCD, recreate the
>> partitions, copy the info with rsync and then fix the boot partition and
>> grub.  Any tips or pointers to a good how-to?
>>
>> -- 
>> Bowie
> 
> Here is what I recently did for a similar operation.
> 
> 1) Download the system restore iso http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

If you have Knoppix, that works well too.

> 
> 2) Boot into the sysrescue cd
> 
> 3) Run partimage against your old disk to save the slices.
> 
> 4) Partition your new disk as per your old disk (sfdisk -d /dev/disk1 | 
> sfdisk /dev/disk2)

That can give rise to funny errors if the geometries are different in 
some ways.


> 
> 5) Use partimage to restore backups you just did to the new disk.
> 
> 6) Remove old disk
> 
> 7) Remove CD
> 
> 8) Reboot
> 
> Viola..
> 
> -ed-
> 
> PS.  You might need to fix grub if addressing for the new disk changed 
> but there are smarter people to comment on that aspect.

Your recipe requires fixing grub (I didn't see you copying the boot 
sector). It's something I forgot to mention, but it quickly becomes 
apparent.



-- 

Cheers
John

-- spambait
1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu  Z1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu

Please do not reply off-list