Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 09:31:20 +0300 From: Nadav Eiron <nadav@barcode.co.il> To: Jerry Dunham <jdunham@fc.net> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.de> Subject: Re: Need help upgrading to larger disk Message-ID: <338BD138.12AD@barcode.co.il> References: <199705280309.WAA00312@rider.fc.net>
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Jerry Dunham wrote: > > Well, I'm in over my head again and sure could use some help. I have a > little-used notebook running FreeBSD, and I'd like to make more use of > it. First, though, I'd like to take advantage of an opportunity to > upgrade the hard drive in it from the current .5 GB to a .8 GB, but I > need to do it rather quickly so as to free up the .5 for use elsewhere > (otherwise the .8 gets used there). This may be easy for some of you, > but it's not immediately obvious to me how to go about it. I've poked > around in the Handbook and in Greg Lehey's "The Complete FreeBSD" but > didn't stumble across anything that really covered my situation. Here's > what I've got to work with: > > A LapLink cable > > A Dell Latitude LX I built from leftover parts running FreeBSD, > containing the .5 GB drive > > Another Latitude LX I built from leftover parts running Windoze > > An empty 810 MB hard drive > > This here desktop machine running FreeBSD, connected to the net, > with an attached SCSI CD-ROM drive (I have the Walnut Creek CD- > ROM), a SCSI 525 tape drive, and nonworking floppy drives > > FreeBSD 2.1.5 on both FreeBSD machines > > What complicates this is that the notebooks have no SCSI capability, and > only one each floppy and hard drives. > > My assumption is that I ought to be able to put the blank .8 drive in the > Windoze notebook, boot from a floppy containing a minimal FreeBSD, > connect the two notebooks with the LapLink cable (using either the serial > or the parallel ports), and suck all the contents of the .5 drive over to > the .8. I have no idea how to do this, though I could do it easily on my > old Atari (but then that was SCSI). > > I have successfully formatted a UFS floppy on the FreeBSD notebook, but > can't find boot.flp on the hard drive to try sticking it on the formatted > floppy. I assume that I could use the LapLink cable between the FreeBSD > notebook and my desktop machine to suck the needed file(s) off of the > CD-ROM, but have never done that before. If someone could tell me what > bare minimum set of files to copy to the UFS floppy to boot and transfer > the files, perhaps I won't need to involve the CD-ROM drive. > > This is further complicated by my need to do this by Friday morning or > give up and let the .8 drive go on to other uses that the .5 could serve > equally well. Surely, this can't be difficult, and must be something > that others have faced when upgrading as well. Or does everyone else > just reinstall from scratch every time (something I've never done)? > Assume that I have no idea what I'm doing and you won't be wrong. > > Thanks for any assistance y'all can provide. > > -- > Jerry Dunham GS650G Atarian ordinaire > jdunham@fc.net (512)335-0674 (H) > jdunham@awesome-f0.us.dell.com (512)728-4026 (O) > > Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation. Building a bootable FreeBSD floppy is a very nontrivial task, and it's not required here. What I suggest you do is: First install FreeBSD on the new drive. The easiest would be to set up your desktop machine to FTP or NFS (I prefer the latter personaly) serve the CD-ROM, connect the machines over the parallel port and set up PLIP (Parallel Link IP, the lp0 interface - see the handbook for details). Then, simply boot the install floppy on the laptop where the new drive is and install to it as usual. Once you're done you can boot FreeBSD off the new disk and repeat the trick with the other laptop and transfer whatever you like out of it (again, either with FTP or NFS), or better still (if you can) have both disks on the same machine (temporarily) and copy over whatever you need. Hope this helps, Nadav
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