[Luna] Another one bites the dust

[Christopher Bradshaw]

Kyle,

One way to do this w/out any special software is:

1. Drop a new drive in your machine,

1. Boot into Linux

2. Configure your existing kernel/initrd to support any hardware changes 
- like switching to SATA. (see below)

3. Create the file systems you want/need on the new drive (to mirror 
your old drive)

4. Reboot the machine with a live distro or rescue disk

5. Mount the two drives and copy all of the contents over from the old 
to the new (making sure to edit your /etc/fstab if device nodes change).

6. Install a boot loader. (Most distro' have an advanced option in 
either install or rescue mode that allow you to easily do this.)

7. Reboot, enter setup, switch your boot device in BIOS, and boot from 
the new disk.

I've done this before, and though it sounds like an involved process - 
it really isn't too difficult or time consuming. If you are are going to 
change to a SATA drive, make sure your system  is going to load the 
proper modules at boot, otherwise the disk won't be visible. If I'm not 
mistaken it should be a non-issue with the 2.6.16 - 2.6.17 and later 
kernel(s).

If you are running an older kernel, you can either update/upgrade, which 
is the easiest solution - or you can download and build the drivers,  
patch your kernel, and add the reference(s) to ata_piix, libata, sd_mod, 
scsi_mod, mptscsih, mptbase, etc...  to /etc/sysconfig/kernel in the 
INITRD_MODULES field. After that, just use "mkinitrd" to rebuild the 
ramdisk and reboot.



Kyle Winfree wrote:
> Hi All,
>     Just had another hd fail on me yesterday.  However, the hd my OS is 
> on is about the same age.  I'd like to replace it asap.  However, is 
> there an easy way of replacing it without reinstalling the whole OS (ie: 
> ghosting, given a hd of a different size n such)?  What if I move to 
> SATA, do I need to do the full on reinstall?
> Thanks,
> Kyle
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