Move system to SSD - how?

I have Leap 15.2 on a 160GB HD in a 9yo Intel DX79SI desktop with 16GB RAM. It was upgraded from 15.1. There are 3 partitions, sda1-3: swap, /, and /home, using ext4 (I had a bad experience recovering from some sort of btrfs failure once). I’m getting a 1TB SATA SSD and want to move to that.

My first thought was to partition the SSD similarly, make it bootable, and copy both partitions’ data across, with rsync say. But I read that YaST will optimise for SSD if I do a fresh install (filesystem options? swap?). OTOH I’d rather not have to reinstall loads of stuff (e.g. Python modules, pkgs from community repos) unless there are benefits in terms of SSD performance or longevity.

So how should I go about this? Just copy the partitions or clean install then copy my home directory across? Or some hybrid approach?

I recommend this approach:
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/536408-Distro-invariant-SSD-HDD-cloning-procedure-to-an-equal-size-or-large-size-using-dd

You can clone then use gParted or the default Paritioner (part of OpenSUSE Yast) to expand the partitions. The only thing I think you would benefit from after simple cloning is reconfiguring the /etc/fstab to have options such as “noatime, discard”

Hi
I would not use dd, that will create unnecessary writes. Likewise with any changes to the defaults especially with new i/o schedulers in use. @OP, would suggest taking with the openSUSE kernel developers before proceeding with tweaking the defaults as to possible impact on the SSD (openSUSE:Communication channels - openSUSE ). Also what brand/model of SSD?

"Crucial BX500 1TB CT1000BX500SSD1 - Up to 540 MB/s (Internal SSD, 3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch) " to quote Amazon
Cheap, I know.

Hi
I see it’s a limited warranty of three years, but based on the product spec of 120TB over 5 years gives a daily write rate of 65GB/day so you should be fine. If you use the likes of dd/rsync, your write rate will be up to start, but level off over time. Also to let the system install determine optimal settings for your system and SSD consider a clean install…

I have a Crucial_CT120M500SSD1 here for one of my QEMU machines, it has a little bit of wear after 27K hours but is still working fine…

Again, I would really suggest asking the kernel devs about any tweaks… Are you planning to suspend/hibernate the system? I don’t here for my desktop, if you don’t with 16GB of RAM consider reducing swap and settings for using it.

Given the small extra stuff to reinstall the preferred method is a fresh install of Leap and rsyncing /home. By the way I moved my media files to a CT2000BX500SSD1 a few months ago.

No, I always shut it down.

Use Clonezilla

https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php

use disk to disk to copy from old to new. It copies UUID’s and boot sectors for you.

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Thank you to everyone who replied.

I incline towards a fresh install, following the installer’s defaults, including (I assume) btrfs for the root partition. I’ll then rsync my old /home to it.

What is the difference with good old dd?

Clonezilla only copies allocated space - much faster than dd and it resizes smaller to larger partitions.

So it is not a clone (what the name suggests).