At Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:39:07 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 09:03:13AM -0400, Robert Heller wrote: > > At Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:12:46 +0100 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > Is there a document with instructions for this? > > > I've had smartd warnings that a hard disk in my server is sick, > > > so I am installing a new drive (in addition to the old). > > > > > > > Here is an article I wrote about doing this: > > > > http://www.deepsoft.com/2009/01/how-to-transfer-a-linux-system-from-one-disk-to-another/ > > > As someone who came from FreeBSD, dump restore was always considered > best there. Hoewver, I've heard (though not deeply investigated), that > due to various things in the Linux kernel, dump restore isn't the best > approach for Linux, and there will be metadata loss. DISCLAIMER--this > isn't something I've really looked into, however last time I was going > to do it, I saw enoughw warnings about it to make me look for another > method. If Robert has been doing it successfully, then, chances are > he's right. (Perhaps these changes in the Linux kernel are newer than > the CentOS kernel.) I've used dump & restore so many times over the years with Linux systems to believe there is nothing wrong with using dump & restore. Note: dump & restore are only for ext2/ext3. It does not work for riserfs, xfs, etc. I don't know about ext4 (and the problems you've heard about might be related to ext4 or something else). > -- 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/