From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 24 22:59:35 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57FEF106566C for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:59:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from stapleton.41@gmail.com) Received: from wa-out-1112.google.com (wa-out-1112.google.com [209.85.146.180]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 221678FC22 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:59:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from stapleton.41@gmail.com) Received: by wa-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id k17so3573096waf.3 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:59:35 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; bh=rGjKpf1tIajrIZGkCppuPNHLJd4uV9fELmQAq0hxQr0=; b=K7eOyaEWXyHSlDSVemboUb7Dhn/IAUOiRmACjq3X4I6SfrWhjH2aQV/CbRPOGsJtTj3Qhoes/qeYN+p28D/oPqZhIvrwvZxF4cu9SZQ7ZVOI62/4hgOkhPWns9lxfhHwIIWZyPVlaGGXQ/ktRULDVVHwAUtgvG+CUq+HfdcwAQw= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=FPcyJ4Vjd4x3O2mCZJ8/KQJ9eum7cLYSxstBMniWPw3G3zOIdk1821LNaVdDvl7tGYGNyVcFKAdJKRT+m0E79P+irPfb7WFVeCedHx+hbCxt1eWiexKn64IRZWUJ/qaFeVZwRWVFRQMHwJ3gO3Pg1WqaMTyyEgLgDspBm9IjiVA= Received: by 10.114.76.1 with SMTP id y1mr12936539waa.38.1206399574980; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:59:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.114.113.11 with HTTP; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:59:34 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <80f4f2b20803241559v4fbb6162k44fcbeb0fd17ad3e@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:59:34 -0400 From: "Jim Stapleton" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Is this safe? Copying a complete install from one HD to another X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:59:35 -0000 I have a 6.2 machine I just upgraded to 7.0. I did a fresh install on the second HD. I'm almost to the point where I'm sure the install is at least as functional as the previous install (i.e. I didn't break anything). The second HD has always seemed a bit chintzy to me (and you can hear the drive heads when it is active), so I'd just as soon get the 7.0 OS off of there, and onto the main drive. I also prefer to use the main HD, because it's partitioned nicer. I heard you can tar data from an old drive to a new one, and have it work properly, provided the MBR is set up to boot that partition, is this correct? Planned method: use sysinstall to reformat the old /, /usr, /var and /tmp mount the old /, /usr, /var, and as /old, /old/usr, /old/var respectively. (in /old) $ tar -cf - -exclude /old -exclude /tmp / | tar -xf - edit /old/etc/fstab appropriately reboot. Should this work? Thanks, -Jim Stapleton