Howto move 13.1 to new HDD

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

First, I would like to extend my thanks to the OpenSUSE team! I had a stable system running in 12.3. There are 2 SATA disks which I will refer to as sda and sdb. Various linux distributions litter sda and sdb. OpenSUSE 12.3 and my data live on sdb.

I backed up my data in order to do an upgrade of 12.3 to 13.1. Grub2 (I guess)is installed on sda with boot files on sdb. I booted from the OpenSUSE dvd, and followed the upgrade prompts. The installer figured everything out, did a smooth upgrade, and now I have a working, stable 13.1 system. Many thanks to the team who did this!!!

Here is what I want to do now: I have a new SATA disk (I’ll refer to it as sdc) that I would like to move 13.1 and my data onto. I want to remove the old sda and sdb disks from the computer and just have one SATA disk.

So as I see it, I have to:

  1. Physically remove sda from the system.
  2. Install grub2 on sdb so that I can boot into 13.1. (I need suggestions on how to do this…)
  3. Backup 13.1 and my data. (easy)
  4. Restore from the backup to the new disk. Physically remove the old sdb from the computer and boot into 13.1 on sda and be ready to go. (Is there a “gotcha” here or will just unplugging the old disk and booting work?)

Am I missing any steps in my plan?

Also, thanks for any suggestions for my questions with step 2 and step 4.

Mark

#2

According to my humble opinion you could do the whole thing much easier.
But gimme some more info abt your System please:

  • Is it MBR or GPT partitionned disks?
  • If MBR is your new disk >2TB or not ?
  • Exact partitionning scheme (/boot(?) /, … on which /dev/sdx).

Depending on these information I might describe a more straightforward method.

[size=2]Regards,

Суворов
[/size]My friends call me by Name, others call me by value.

#3

Start from there :wink:

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/496784-make-a-bootable-clone-of-the-hard-disk

#4

I’m saying that the disks are MBR. The one I describe as /dev/sda is 750 Mb, /dev/sdb is 500 Mb and the new /dev/sdc is 1TB. So, nothing over 1TB. I have not partitioned the new disk…yet.

This is the partition table for /dev/sda:
Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes, 1465149168 sectors
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00099df1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 122 979933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 123 1338 9767520 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 1339 2554 9767520 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 2555 91201 712057027+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 2555 2919 2931831 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 2920 3041 979933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 3042 91201 708145168+ 83 Linux

The OpenSUSE system does not use /dev/sda. There are old debian and mepis partitions on /dev/sda.

Here is the partition table for /dev/sdb:
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xa7d037e6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 2120579 1060258+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 2120580 44082359 20980890 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 44082360 52484354 4200997+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4 52484355 976768064 462141855 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 52484418 976768064 462141823+ 83 Linux

Command (m for help): ^C

/dev/sdb1 is /boot
/dev/sdb2 is /
/dev/sdb3 is swap
/dev/sdb5 is home

All of these partitions are used by OpenSUSE 13.1 .

Is this the information that you needed?

Thanks,
Mark

#5

Hi, Mark!

Sorry for coming back so late.

If I did understand you well you do not want to preserve what is on /dev/sda. So I will only deal with /dev/sdb and the running openSuSE 13.10 on it.

  1. Remove /dev/sda and insert the new disk instead.
  2. Boot a live openSuSE from DVD or USB stick.
  3. Create same partitions like on /dev/sdb on /dev/sda but make either / or /home larger to use entire disk.
  4. dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/dev/sdb1 && dd if=/dev/sdb2 of=/dev/sdb1 && dd if=/dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb3 && dd if=/dev/sdb5 of=/dev/sdb5
  5. From yast write new boot loader into /dev/sda.
  6. Adjust Partition sizes again to fill entire disk.

That should be all.