[KLUG Members] Re: Members digest, Vol 1 #273 - 2 msgs

[Bruce Smith]

Disclaimer:  It's been YEARS since I've tried this, but I used to do it
back when I ran windows part time.  This was when Windows 95 was
current.  (1995'ish? :)

I'll assume you are running some kind of FAT filesystem, not NTFS,
otherwise give it up now.

One problem you will probably run into Linux will lose some of the FAT
filesystem attributes (like "system", "archive", "hidden", and maybe
"read only") during the copy.  So you will _probably_ get a system that
runs, but a lot of files will show up that you shouldn't see.

The other problem you'll probably run into is #6.  I don't think that
will work.  You'll need to do something like a "sys c:" from a DOS boot
floppy after the system has moved to primary master.

To really do it right, you'll probably need something like Norton's
"ghost" program.  Otherwise, you may be able to reset the missing
attributes manually (like I used to do) after the copy.

On the bright side, you don't have anything to lose by trying it (except
for time), as long as you mount the old drive READ-ONLY.  :-)


> My brother-in-law is looking for a way to upgrade his Hard Drive (his
> kids need more space for their harry potter game).  He uses windows, but
> I thought this may be a great time to show him the *power and ability*
> of linux.
> 
> I would like to purchase a new hard drive (20 - 40 GB) physically
> install it in his computer, and copy the contents from his old hard
> drive (~8 GB) to the new one.
> 
> Are the following steps viable:
> 
> 1) FDISK and format the drive under windows.
> 2) Boot from a rescue floppy disk or cdrom.
> 3) Mark the new drive as bootable using linux fdisk.
> 4) Mount both drives under linux.
> 5) Use 'cp -a' to move the contents of the old HD to the new HD.
> 6) Copy the boot sector from the old HD to the new HD;
>    example: dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdd bs=512 count=1
> 7) Jumper the new HD as the primary HD, remove the old HD.
> 8) Boot windows.
> 
> Has anyone done something like this?
> Am I missing any steps?

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Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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