Date: 26 Apr 2006 08:00:40 -0400 From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org> To: nthwaver@gmail.com Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Cloning boot drive - more details Message-ID: <44k69clf6f.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> In-Reply-To: <17b33a80604251541h7140866cp46e680404204c61c@mail.gmail.com> References: <17b33a80604251541h7140866cp46e680404204c61c@mail.gmail.com>
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nthwaver@gmail.com writes: > My system partitions (/, swap, /usr, /var, /home) are currently spread > onto a 10GB and a 20GB IDE drive, but I'd like to save space by > consolidating these along with some (not heavily accessed) data > partitions into a larger 250GB disk. The other drives (at this point > a couple of SATA in RAID0) should be unaffected. I'm a relative > newbie and although I've read the handbook and the past months' > threads regarding cloning, I still have a few questions. > > 1) Am I correct in understanding that I can simply connect the new > drive to a spare IDE controller and boot from the old disk, using > sysinstall to make the new partitions and give them temporary mount > points (choosing "yes" to install bootmanager), then dump | restore to > move each FS, and simply take out the old drives and switch over to > the new one? Will this boot and run seamlessly? At what point should > I edit the old /etc/fstab that was copied over? If I *can* do this, > then what are the benefits of doing a fresh install on the new drive > first? > > 2) If I dump | restore from a *running* system, will the resulting > clone be confused when it's booted up? Are any crucial changes or > balancing acts made upon shutdown that the new drive will miss? Or, > is its main purpose fulfilled when it's loaded into memory on boot? > > 3) The handbook also recommends using boot0config, but how necessary > is this if I just plan on simply replacing the original drive? > > 4) How are the prospects of data recovery affected by FreeBSD's use of > "slices" for filesystems on top of partitions? Experience tells me > that with traditional partitions, a corrupted file tree or data in one > area needn't prevent retreival of the other areas. Is this so with > "slices" as well? I suspect that a slice *is* what you mean by a "traditional" partition. Either way, yes, problems on one shouldn't affect another. For the rest of your questions, start with the FAQ entry on "How do I move my system over to my huge new disk?".
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