Arch Linux

RiceKills

Member

Registered: 2010-05-31

Posts: 72

Moving hard drive from one computer to another

Hi I have a computer without a hard drive thats going to replace one of my computers. I was wondering if it is really necessary to reinstall arch on it, or if I could just move the hard drive from the old computer to the new one without reinstalling.
?

Barrucadu

Member

From: York, England

Registered: 2008-03-30

Posts: 1,158

Website

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

You can just move it and it should work fine; the HDD I'm using in my desktop currently had Arch first installed on it back when it was inside a laptop. Massive hardware changes seem to be handled pretty well.

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lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

Theoretically the latest kernel should see all the new hardware and load appropriate modules. I would give it a try, but if you have special modules loaded in /etc/rc.conf for hardware which does not exist in the other computer then you could have some problems.

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bangkok_manouel

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From: indicates a starting point

Registered: 2005-02-07

Posts: 1,556

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

you may have to boot using the fallback image too.

RiceKills

Member

Registered: 2010-05-31

Posts: 72

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

Ill try it out and let you know

Cdh

Member

Registered: 2009-02-03

Posts: 1,098

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

It should be no problem.
Windows up to windows 7 will bluescreen on chipset change but my archlinux survived it easily.

You have probably to boot from the fallback image, because you'll likely need another module for the hard disk controller in your initrd.
If you have another graphics card also remember to boot in text mode and install the correct driver + set the correct driver for xorg if needed. If you have loaded modules for your graphics card or other hardware in /etc/rc.conf, remove or change them. If you have set modules to be loaded from /etc/mkinitcpio.conf for your initrd, change them too.
Then you can do mkinitcpio -p kernel26 and should be fine.

If you need to set another default sound card for alsa I recommonend asoundconf from AUR.

That was everything I needed to do.

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Army

Member

Registered: 2007-12-07

Posts: 1,784

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

And you might have to additionally install some packages, e.g. xf86-video-* for the graphic card.

rwd

Member

Registered: 2009-02-08

Posts: 664

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

This is one of those linux nicities you can be smug about.

RiceKills

Member

Registered: 2010-05-31

Posts: 72

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

My modules line in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf is blank and I have udev and autodetect hooks enabled, will I be good just deleting my xorg.conf or will I need to boot into fallback mode and play with my initrd?

Last edited by RiceKills (2010-11-15 19:35:28)

rwd

Member

Registered: 2009-02-08

Posts: 664

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

Why don't you just try it?

RiceKills

Member

Registered: 2010-05-31

Posts: 72

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

I was about to but I just realized I need to get a vga to dvi adapter first.

Echo

Member

From: Ohio, United States

Registered: 2006-05-16

Posts: 239

Re: Moving hard drive from one computer to another

I rebuilt my HTPC (new motherboard, graphics card & all that goes w/it) and used the old hard drive. Boom booted first try & going strong. It can work as others said....