Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
One thing to be carefull of - you may need a BIOS update before the
system will see the 80 GB drive. I don't know if your version of Ghost
will handle the Linux partitions. You may need to use something like
Ghost for Linux or partimage to transfere them.
Well, I haven't tried 'cloning' Linux partitions
with that version of Ghost yet (it is a part of
Norton System Works 2001 - you just make a
bootable floppy of it and follow the
instructions). Two weeks ago, I used it to clone
some older Compaq Deskpro boxes, having 2.4 GB
disks, running a Compaq diag utility on its own
app 15 MB partition and W2k in the remaining
space. Those boxes were the members of a W2k
domain system and there I also had some 25+ user
roaming profiles on them. The problem was I got
almost without free space on those 2.4 gig disks.
You bet, what I wanted to do was to preserve all
existing data - without spending much time with
re-installing the boxes from scratch etc.
Well, it took app 1/2 hour per box to transfer all
data to a new 40 GB disk (including both diag and
W2k part). When finished, I noticed that Compaq
diag partition remained fully functional (it
remained of the very similar size as it was on the
old HD, and amazingly the W2k's partition managed
to widen itself to the whole remaining HD space) -
completely what I wanted to have.
Since then, I haven't noticed any problem with the
new cloned disks (they remained the members of the
old domain and now they have enough room for more
users' data etc). They even seem to be speedier
than the old disks. That is why I have been
thinking of doing something similar with my
Win/Lin combo disks (I also have a couple of
computers running such combinations). I suppose
that Ghost 2001 cloning process is somehow forcing
W2k to use all the free space it finds on the new
disk, but I am not sure if Linux would be capable
to do the same or similar - say to enlarge the
existing /, /swap, /boot etc. Anyway, I will try
to look for newer version of Ghost.
You may want to split your Linux install into more partitions on the new
drive. I would definitly split /home off into its own partition.
In that case, wouldn't be enough to copy the old
/home content to the new created one? And, btw -
is there a tool to make a separate /home from an
existing Linux system? I mean, is it possible to
make a separate /home partition from some free
space within an existing / one?
when creating your new /boot partition, make sure it is in the part of
the drive that the BIOS can read.
How to be sure about that? I am familiar with
using LILO and always put it into the MBR and
never had problems with booting either Win/Lin.
If you go this route, you may want to
create and format the Linux partitions using a live CD, mount the entire
new tree, and then copy all the files over. There are several different
copy commands that will copy the files while preserving the ownership
and permissions.
In particular, I might be interested in preserving
my Mozilla's 1.7 email messages content and, if
possible, the parts of some software running now
(to avoid re-installing the software and setting
all parameters again :-) ). Btw, somewhere earlier
I used to copy the entire mailbox content to the
other Win (fat) partition, that I used a s a
storage part of the disk. After a new Linux
installation, I used to restore that content back
(sometimes it used to be a painful procedure and
that is also why I would like to clone the system
without much turbulences).
What I usualy do is put the /boot partition first, then the Windows
partitions, and then the Linux partitions. It is usualy a good idea to
use windows fdisk to create the windows partitions, leaving enough room
for the /boot partition before the first Windows partitions. this way,
Which way do you make your /boot partition at
first? If you do that with some Linux setup disk,
are you sure that, a bit later, W2k would allow
you to install it?
you are sure both Windows and Linux agree on the dist geomitry. Linux
has not trouble adjusting to how Windows sets things, but Windows does
its own things, and can mess up the Linux partitions if they are created
first.
One thing I find strange is that you have 2 primary Windows partitions.
I didn't think Windows fdisk would let you do that. Windows usualy want
only one primary partition, and then creates logicial partitions for the
rest...
Well, at the moment I am not sure about. I think
that several years ago, when I bought that disk, I
made those two Windows partition: The first one
was NTFS for Windows NT and W2k later. The other
one was FAT for storing/backup some data and
exchanging data with Linux. As long as I remember,
Windows never complained of those two primary
partitions. Finally, the remaining part of that 8
GB HD, was created/prepared to various partitions
- depending on Linux I was useing (RH 7, 7.1, 9,
Mdk 9.1).
Misko
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