At Sat, 3 Oct 2009 08:33:48 -0700 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > > More follow-up as I am discovering and learning: > > >> You don't even need the live cd. Just boot up single user, plug in > >> the > >> USB drive, format it with ext2 or ext3 to match the box and do your > >> cp > >> -r, although there are probably better options (eg dump/restore, tar, > >> etc.) that might do a better job. Warning: there might be more than > >> one > >> partition (eg /boot and/or /home might be a separate partition, esp. > >> if > >> the machines are using LVM). You might need to cp each partition/ > >> file > >> system separately. > > > > I booted to a the CentOS 5.23 LiveCD. > > > > Yes, it looks like LVM is running because I do have VolGroup00- > > LogVol00 in Local Logical Volumes on the desktop. > > > > Can I get the whole VolGroup00 at once, I see an entry in /etc/fstab > > for /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00? > > So after booting to the CentOS 5.3 LiveCD, I can get to '/mnt/ > VolGroup00-LogVol00' > > doing a: 'sudo du -h --summarize /mnt/VolGroup00-LogVol00' I get: 28GB > used. > > So can I 'rsync -av /mnt/VolGroup00-LogVol00/. /mnt/disc/sda1/.' > (sda1 is the 500GB USB Drive that I am wanting to put the data on.) There is *probably* a /boot file system somewhere on the original machine's disk (not even grub can boot directly from a LVM volume). The /boot file system will contain the kernels, initrds, and grub's config files. Probably not much else, but if you do want to resurect these machines as *working* systems, you will need the proper kernels. This is partitularly true if you want to bring them up in a virtualized environment. I am not sure if your rsync command will pick up the /boot file system or not, since I am not sure if the live CD mounted under there or mounted it as /mnt/boot or something like that. > > Best, > -ML > > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/