Karl Larsen wrote: > > I have this computer on /dev/sda and the new hard drive is /dev/sdb. > This F7 is all in /dev/sda6 and I want to copy /dev/sda6 to /dev/sdb5. I > tried dd but it failed I think because /dev/sdb5 is smaller 10 GB than > /dev/sda6 which is 30 GB. It ended with an error message. > > So back to cp -a but there is a hitch. I redid /sdb5 with another > ext3 file system and I can mount it to /mnt on this computer. So it is > easy to cp all from /dev/sda6 to /dev/sdb5 but, with a simple # cp -a / > /mnt it will do all that fine but then want to copy /mnt to the new > /dev/sdb5. > > Does anyone know a secret that will work? I will read man cp again :-) > 1 - make sure the target partition (/dev/sdb5 from the looks of things) is AS LARGE OR LARGER than /dev/sda6. You can do this check by: $ su # become root # fdisk /dev/sda ... Command (m for help): p # you enter the "p" part at the end ... Command (m for help): q # you enter the "q" part at the end # fdisk /dev/sdb ... Command (m for help): p # you enter the "p" part at the end ... Command (m for help): q # you enter the "q" part at the end # then compare the "Blocks" column entry for /dev/sda6 and /dev/sdb5, making sure the one for sdb5 is larger. 2 - Make a clean partition on /dev/sdb5: # mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb5 3 - Check the partition you just made: # fsck -f /dev/sdb5 4 - Mount the new partition: # mount /dev/sdb5 /mnt 5 - Copy over everything from sda6 to sdb5 # cd $MOUNT_POINT_FOR_sda6 # probably "/" # find . -mount -print | grep -v '^./lost+found' | cpio -pdumva /mnt Cpio will preserve any hard and soft links it finds and will also correctly copy any device nodes. I'm not totally sure you can say that about "cp -a". As above, the find command piped into cpio will also preserve any mount points, but not try to copy the stuff inside the mount point. Note also the "grep -v '^./lost+found" part of the pipe prevents copying over any bad/orphaned files from sda6 to sdb5. BTW: using dd(1) on two different partitions usually results in the "of=" partition thinking it's the same size as the "if=" partition. When the "of=" partition is the smaller of the two, this means trouble later on. When the "of=" partition is the larger of the two, you'll end up wasting some disk space. Most of this kind of issue is fixable in file-system editors, but these are pretty much "guru only" sorts of tools, too. Hope this helps'idly, -S -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list