10:34 PM, Aug 6, 2006
SATA Linux
I discovered, last night, the ease with which an entire linux system can be transferred from one hard drive to another. I got my new serial ATA drive working with a linux kernel update and decided that since the BIOS doesn't treat it like a normal hard drive, but rather as a SCSI drive, I figured it wouldn't hurt anything to try.
So, I copied all 629 MB of system data over to my new drive, and extracted it all in the places it would need to be in the new filesystem. I figured that the kernel was responsible for populating the "proc," "sys," and "dev" filesystems, and that just making empty directories would be enough. I was right about the first two, but after my first attempted reboot, and telling the BIOS to boot from SCSI, the system wouldn't come up, complaining that it was unable to create an initial terminal.
I changed the boot order back to using the main hard drive again, and when back into my old installation, which came up fine, as I had changed nothing on it. I tried tarring up the "dev" directory and extracting that into the new filesystem, and to my great surprise, it worked like a champ when I rebooted into the SCSI disk.
My linux machine is officially back up and running and in better shape, concerning both hardware and software, than it has ever been.
Here's to another 487-day uptime!
Jeff brooked no delay in saying:
I'm not being factious when I say this, but I'd get a UPS. They're just a Good Idea.
10:24 AM, Aug 7, 2006
bahua cut in with:
Is there such a thing as a quiet UPS? If so, I would definitely consider it. However, a surge protector that isn't spent, like the one I have now, would suffice.
2:43 PM, Aug 7, 2006