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Date:      Thu, 21 Nov 2002 14:26:51 -0800
From:      "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg@monkeys.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   disk-to-disk backup of root/bootable filesystem (?)
Message-ID:  <3001.1037917611@monkeys.com>

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I have an x86 system here that contains an 18GB SCSI drive and also
a 20GB IDE drive.

The 18GB SCSI drive contains a complete FreeBSD system that has been
installed and then tailored to my personal preferences.  It also
contains a lot of my personal working files.

The SCSI drive contains only a single defined BIOS partition.  That
BISO partition, in turn, has been sub-partitioned into one (1) FreeBSD
root partition and also a smallish FreeBSD swap partition.

I want to make a full, complete, and _bootable_ backup of everything
that is on the SCSI drive onto the IDE drive.  Ideally, I want to end
up in a situation where I can remove the SCSI drive, and then boot
from the IDE drive and then just carry on working as if nothing had
happened.

I prefer not to waste time copying empty disk space (e.g. using dd).

Assuming that I am am able to make the necessary receiving partitions
on the IDE drive, and assuming that I make suitable ufs file system on
the IDE drive, and assuming that I then use `cpio -p' to copy all
of the files from the one ufs filesystem on the SCSI drive to the
(new) corresponding ufs partition on the IDE drive, what else will
I need to do in order to make sure that I can then boot from the new
(copy) partition on the IDE drive?

I assume that I'll have to set up some sort of a MBR on the IDE drive.
I would appreciate exact instructions for doing that.

I also assume that I'll have to diddle the /etc/fstab file on the 
IDE drive, after copying files, so as to have it make reference to
the IDE drive partitions, rather than to the original SCSI drive
partitions.  (I think that I can handle this part.)

So anyway, what else might I need to do in order to make this work?


P.S.  The system in question has a reasonably modern Aware BIOS that
allows me to specify whether the system should try to boot from SCSI
or from IDE first.  Of course, once I get all of the files over onto
the IDE drive, I will toggle that from its current setting (SCSI) to
its new setting (IDE).

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