I have R5A16 installed on a 120 GB drive, and I'd like to move to a new 250 GB drive I just bought. I've read through all of the threads here about the topic, but they suggested either LVM or doing a backup->clean install on new drive->restore. I don't want to use LVM, because of space/heat issues, and I also have another use for the old drive. I also didn't want to/don't have the time to do a clean install.

I put both drives in my Windows box and used Partition Magic to copy all of the partitions (root, cache, swap and myth) from the old drive to the new one, then I put the 250 in the Myth box but it would not boot. Was I mistaken in believing I could just copy the partitions to the new drive? Is there anything else I would need to do, or should the drive be bootable? Is PM not the right tool for the job? If so I think I have an old copy of Norton Ghost somewhere that I could install and use. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Hi aaronb,

I have diddled a little with what you trying to do, one learns a little by experimenting I am doing simular because of serial drives being such a pain.

Please note, this is not gospel and but should get you pointed in the general diection. You are procedding at your own risk.

Long story shortened a bit, I put a serial drive into an external usb box. Set up /etc/fstab to look at /dev/sda4 for mounting to a directory for temp usage. Piece of cake with ide drives as /dev/hdb or in external usb holder.

Before mounting the big bad boy (500gig) I ran cfdisk, made the four partions (just like a manual install procedure) and set first partion as bootable. Set the types, write it then quit. Next, format, sda4, sda3, and mkswap (all in same wiki guide). Make a backup with KnoppMyth Backup,then mount /dev/sda4 From there it is a simple matter of copying /myth/* to your temp usage location / Depending on how much "stuff" it takes a while. Once it was done I chown mythtv:mythtv your temp usage location / going down several layers /* /*/* etc. Then Since it was a new drive, I then did a simple upgrade after physically installing the drive as a replacement. That way hda1 is formated properly also.

Please note that you are of course doing most from a cli as root except the backup. As a note, if you put your current drive in the external usb holder, you will still have access to your old settings and tweaks.

Also haven't really test this yet, however if you were to copy hda1 to sda1 (setup fstab first) I would suspect it being a simple matter of running lilo -v from a chroot. Only problem for me is I don't know what the format for xda1 is other than ext3.

At least it is a thought for you, since you used PM, maybe just boot from the cd, do quit and at the prompt. chroot to /dev/hda1 so you can run lilo -v. There are a few tricks for wite permission so homework is required on your part.

Good luck and have a great day.
Mike

Thanks a lot for your help. Not all of that was entirely clear to me as I'm somewhat of a newb, but it should be enough to get me started once I do a little homework. I figured it had something to do with formatting the disk and making it bootable, but I tried just copying the partitions because I wanted it to be that easy.

I probably won't have time to look at it until next weekend, so I'll just put the old drive back in for now, and I'll post a detailed walkthrough once I get it working in case anyone else ever needs to do the same thing.

IIRC ghost ver 10 can handle ext2/3 partitions. A straight partition copy should preserve them (bootable flags and all). On top of that it should extend the partition out for you.

AC

did you copy the master boot record as well? That shuld work no problems, as long as you mirrorred the bulk partitions correctly. Simply use "dd". It shuld work out okay.

_________________
My knoppmyth system:
P-III 850 MHz
256 Mb RAM
Hauppauge PVR-350 connected to tv via tv-out
Hauppauge PVR-150 in another PCI slot
using ivtv version 0.8.2 in Knoppmyth R5E50
PVR is both frontend and backend

Would copying the 4 partitions have copied the MBR as well, or would I need to do that separately?

Yeah, I think you may need to do that separately.

_________________
My knoppmyth system:
P-III 850 MHz
256 Mb RAM
Hauppauge PVR-350 connected to tv via tv-out
Hauppauge PVR-150 in another PCI slot
using ivtv version 0.8.2 in Knoppmyth R5E50
PVR is both frontend and backend

Never tried newer versions of PM, but using below HOWTO I used Ghost to upgrade my HDD. Just have to repair lilo after the image.

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6074

I hadn't found that thread, I'll try it tonight. Thanks.

I can't get past the third step, because I can't format the floppy. I get this error:

/dev/fd0u1440: Read-only file system

I've done a bit of googling but everything I find gives pretty much the same instructions for formatting a floppy. I've checked to make sure the disk is not write-protected, and I've tried 3 different disks. Any ideas?

Check your floppy cables, is unlikley but recenlty I had same problem and turned out my cable wasn't connected firmly.

I am pretty new to Linux but I have gotten good at swapping hard drives.

I use Acronis to copy my drives but I am sure it works like all disk copy programs. After the partitions are copied you have to repair lilo.

To do this I use a Fedora Core Intall disk and use rescue mode.

I mount the boot drive:

#mkdir /fix
#mount -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /fix
#/fix/sbin/lilo -r /fix

Just reboot and it works for me.

Thanks. I'll try this tonight, since I never could get the floppy working. I don't have a FC disk but I think I should be able to do it with a Knoppix disk.

Hi aaronb,

Your floppy issue is curious, all I had to do to make the floppy happy was give it a home.
# mkdir /floppy
then
# mount /floppy
I usually clear my floppy with
# rm -rf /floppy/*
as it is quick.

may wish to check the /etc/fstab for a line like this one, should be there by default
/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022 0 0

remember to unmount the floppy before you remove it,
# umount /floppy
or it may not write out everything in time.

If you add a line changing /dev/fd0 to /dev/sda1 and you may be able to use a usb stick instead.
make a home for it also so you can use it at the same time. I use a one gig stick frequently.

Mike

I had disconnected the power cable on the floppy drive when swapping the disks and didn't reconnect it. Dunce cap is on

I'm going to try this now, and hopefully I'll be reporting back with good news in a few minutes.