[mythtv-users] OT: Best way to migrate to new hard drive?

[IvanK.]

On Friday 11 June 2004 11:08 am, Kevin Kuphal wrote:
> Steve Frank wrote:
> >What's the best way to move my MythTV box from a dying hard drive to a
> >new one?
> >
> >Before you answer, understand I'm using LVM in this case for my
> >recordings partition (everything else is currently ext3 on plain
> >partitions).
> >
> >Symantec Ghost is an option up until LVM enters the picture. I've looked
> >at Mondo Rescue (http://www.mondorescue.org/index.html),  PartImage
> >(http://www.partimage.org/), and g4u (http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/).
> >
> >Mondo Rescue comes close because it supports LVM, but not in a
> >disc-to-disc fashion.  It's more geared up for doing a rescue CD or up
> >to the network.  G4u doesn't care about the filesystem, but it's mostly
> >for moving from the same geometry, rather than resize, and in this
> >process I'm putting in a larger drive. Partimage doesn't seem to mention
> >much about LVM, so I'm a little confused there.
> >
> >I may just remove the LVM partition entirely and recreate it.
> >
> >I'm not a LVM guru. Fedora Core set it up nicely, and it allowed me to
> >span to a second drive to get a really big store for Myth.  I was able
> >to get that drive removed after archiving off some old recordings so
> >this process could be simplified down to one drive.
> >
> >I'm guessing some of you gurus in MythTV-users have done this sort of
> >thing before?
>
> It may seem simplistic, but can't you create a new LVM volume on the new
> disk and just copy the data from one to the other and then remove the
> old disk.  Once done, you can mount the new LVM volume in place of your
> old one and everything should be fine.  Or am I missing something?
>

Exactly my suggestion.  Plus a little know switch to cp is -a which is 
shorthand for -dpR, where d=--no-dereference --preserve=link, 
p=--preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps, and R=--recursive.

-a effectively makes a backup of a filesystem.  I've used it many a time to 
move a working operating system from one partition (or disk) to another.  
Never fails.  That would avoid the need for ghost-like programs.

You still have to cope with the failing hard drive of course.  But usually in 
the first stages of hard drive failure, the partitions are still accessible, 
albeit a few tries may be required to mount the file system(s).

IvanK.
> Kevin
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