<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Copy the files from the old disk to the new disk</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.56"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Hard Disk Upgrade Mini How-To" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Mount the new disk" HREF="mount.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Modify /new-disk/etc/fstab as appropriate" HREF="modify.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Hard Disk Upgrade Mini How-To</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="mount.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="modify.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="COPY" >7. Copy the files from the old disk to the new disk</A ></H1 ><P >You might want to go to single-user mode before starting to copy the disk, in order to shut down the system daemons and preserve the state of the logs, and to prevent users from logging in: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >/sbin/telinit 1</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></P ><P >When copying the hard disk, you want to copy all directories and files, including links.</P ><P >However, you don't want to copy the directory <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk</TT >, since this would copy the new disk to itself!</P ><P >Furthermore, you want to create the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/proc</TT > directory on the new disk, but you don't want to copy its contents: <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/proc</TT > is a <I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >virtual</I > file system and doesn't have any actual files, but rather contains information on the processes running on the system.</P ><P >Here are three different ways to copy the old disk to the new one. This may take quite a while, especially if you have a large disk or little memory. You can expect to be able to copy 10 Mb per minute, and possibly much more.</P ><P >You can follow the copy's progress by using the command <B CLASS="COMMAND" >df</B > from another terminal. Try <B CLASS="COMMAND" >watch df</B > or <B CLASS="COMMAND" >watch ls -l /new-disk</B > to see a report updated every two seconds; press <B CLASS="KEYCAP" >Ctrl</B >-<B CLASS="KEYCAP" >C</B > to end the display. Be aware that running the <B CLASS="COMMAND" >watch</B > program itself will slow down the copying.</P ><P ></P ><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><B CLASS="COMMAND" >cp -ax / /new-disk</B ></DT ><DD ><P >This is the simplest method, but will only work if your original Linux system is on a single disk partition.</P ><P >The <TT CLASS="OPTION" >-a</TT > option preserves the original system as much as possible. The <TT CLASS="OPTION" >-x</TT > option limits cp to a single file system; this is necessary to avoid copying the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk</TT > and <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/proc</TT > directories.</P ><DIV CLASS="FORMALPARA" ><P ><B >SuSE only. </B >With this method only, you must also create the directory <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/dev/pts</TT > on the new disk. Use the command <B CLASS="COMMAND" >mkdir /new-disk/dev/pts"</B >.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NOTE" ><BLOCKQUOTE CLASS="NOTE" ><P ><B >Note: </B >When using the <TT CLASS="OPTION" >-x</TT > option, recent versions of <B CLASS="COMMAND" >cp</B > will create the directories <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk/new-disk</TT > and <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk/proc</TT >, although the directories will be empty. If these directories are created, you should delete <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk/new-disk</TT >, and keep <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk/proc.</TT > </P ></BLOCKQUOTE ></DIV ></DD ><DT ><B CLASS="COMMAND" >cd / && echo cp -a `/bin/ls -1Ab | egrep -v "^new-disk$|^proc$"` /new-disk | sh </B ></DT ><DD ><P ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(write this all on one line)</I ></P ><P >This goes to the root directory and then copies all files and directories except <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk</TT > and <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/proc</TT > to <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk</TT >. Note that the first option after ls is the number 1, not the letter L!</P ><P >This command should work in all circumstances.</P ></DD ><DT ><B CLASS="COMMAND" >cp -a /bin /boot /dev /etc /home /lib /lost+found /mnt /root /sbin /tmp /usr /var /new-disk </B ></DT ><DD ><P ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(write this all on one line)</I ></P ><P >The last directory, <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk</TT >, is the destination for the <B CLASS="COMMAND" >cp</B > command. All the other directories are the sources. Therefore, we're copying all the directories we're listing to <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk</TT >.</P ><P >With this method, you simply list yourself the directories you want to copy. Here we listed all the directories except <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk</TT > and <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/proc</TT >. If you can't use the other methods for any reason, you can always use this command to manually specify the directories you want to copy.</P ><P >With this method only, if there are any files in the root directory itself, you need another command to copy them. In particular, this is required with Debian and Slackware, since these distributions put files in the root directory: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="90%" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >cp -dp /* /.* /new-disk</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ><P >Previous versions of the Mini How-To stated that you could also use <B CLASS="COMMAND" >tar</B > to copy the disk, but this method was found to have a bug. There are of course many other ways to copy the disks, but these three are the simplest, quickest, and most reliable.</P ><P >After using any of these three methods, you must also create the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/proc</TT > directory on the new disk, if it doesn't already exist: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >mkdir /new-disk/proc</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></P ><P >At this point, you may verify the file structure on the new disk, if you wish: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >umount /new-disk fsck.ext2 -f /dev/hdb1 mount -t ext2 /dev/hdb1 /new-disk</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P ><P >If the new disk has more than one partition, you must unmount them from the <I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >bottom up</I > before running <B CLASS="COMMAND" >fsck.ext2</B >: in the example mentioned above, you'd first unmount the 3rd level partitions, then the 2nd level partitions, and then the 1st level partition.</P ><P >You may also compare the two disks, to ensure that the files were copied properly: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >find / -path /proc -prune -o -path /new-disk -prune -o -xtype f -exec cmp {} /new-disk{} \;</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></P ><P ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >(write this all on one line)</I ></P ><DIV CLASS="FORMALPARA" ><P ><B >Slackware only. </B > A basic Slackware installation ("A" series only) doesn't include the <B CLASS="COMMAND" >cmp</B > command, so you won't be able to run this command if you have only installed the basic files. The <B CLASS="COMMAND" >cmp</B > command is in the "AP1" series.)</P ></DIV ><P >This will only compare regular files, not character or block special files (in the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/dev</TT > directory), sockets, etc., since the <B CLASS="COMMAND" >cmp</B > command doesn't work properly with these. We would welcome suggestions on how to verify these "special" files.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="mount.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="modify.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Mount the new disk</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Modify <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/new-disk/etc/fstab</TT > as appropriate</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >