SSD, Dual Boot, NILFS

ScottKidder · 2010-02-04 01:38:35

Lots of questions here! . A new Windows 7 install that botched my Arch install prompted me to take what little money I have and order a OCZ Vertex Turbo 30gb SSD from newegg. I'm obviously going to keep my 320gb WD drive. I figured that I could probably just install Arch to the SSD and leave Windows and my data on the WD drive, but what fun is that? If I can get Windows and Arch to boot off the SSD that would be ideal. I've already seen a few things about partition alignment and how Windows doesn't like the ideal alignment for SSD performance (probably best left to the forums at OCZ but input is welcome). Also, I would really like to try NILFS and am not sure of it's current status and what I'll have to go through to install it? Basically I'm just looking for some input and maybe for someone who has first hand experience with what I'm trying to accomplish here. I'd really like to have as much as I can sorted out before the drive comes early next week. Cheers!

raymboard · 2010-02-04 15:18:47

The on-disk format for NILFS2 is not finalised and I recomend that you don't use it. But if you do want to use it you need to install "nilfs-utils" and then you can type

mkfs.nilfs2 device_name

were "device_name" is the name of the drive or partition you want to format.

ScottKidder · 2010-02-04 15:59:46

So I've basically done a test run on my WD drive and formatted a partition as nilfs. How would I go about copying my current system to the new partition and getting it to boot? Or should I do a fresh installation onto the new nilfs partition? How would I go about doing that?

raymboard · 2010-02-04 16:43:50

Use a livecd to mount your root partition and the nilfs2 partition.

"cd" to the folder in which your root partition is mounted.

Type

cp -a * nilfs2_partition/

Where "nilfs2_partition" is your nilfs2 partition.

The -a flag makes it recursive and stops it from changing the filesystem permissions.

Grub can't read nilfs2 filesystems so you will need a seperate partition for /boot . You will need to adjust /boot/grub/menu.lst if you are using grub or /boot/grub/grub.cfg if your are using grub2 to set up dual booting.

Last edited by raymboard (2010-02-04 17:07:35)

ScottKidder · 2010-02-06 23:15:44

I've gotten the drive, I'm going to make a 128mb boot partition. So when I copy the OS over to the new drive from the LiveCD I should be able to just copy boot to the boot and then the rest of the install to / ? Or is there a way to just go ahead and do a fresh install with nilfs as the FS? I would also considering ext4 if there were a way to do a fresh install with it.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-04 01:38:35

SSD, Dual Boot, NILFS

#2 2010-02-04 15:18:47

Re: SSD, Dual Boot, NILFS

#3 2010-02-04 15:59:46

Re: SSD, Dual Boot, NILFS

#4 2010-02-04 16:43:50

Re: SSD, Dual Boot, NILFS

#5 2010-02-06 23:15:44

Re: SSD, Dual Boot, NILFS

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