Move Arch from USB to HD

miky76 · 2012-03-21 12:25:24

Hi,
actually i'm running arch linux from a 4GB USB key and I would like to move it from a brand new Hard disk I've just bought

I would like to know, in your experience, what is the best way to move it, without reinstall everything from zero.

I was looking in the wiki and I found 2 ways:

- move everything https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mi … w_hardware (the second way explained below)
- or clone it with dd https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Disk_Cloning

the new hard disk will be in the same box the usb key is, so there will be no problems for thansfer the datas.

another question I would like to ask you is.

in the 3TB hard disk, how big have to be the partitions for the OS?
I believe thay should be biggere than now, but how much big? (of course I do not want to use all the 3TB for it )
thanks

Cory_j · 2012-03-21 12:38:49

i used disk cloning on windows and it works realy well for windows but on linux your partitions maybe going to be the hard part i use a 200 MB boot 15GB var 20GB / the the rest for /home do dont need a swap on your partitions and can just make a file for it or you may not need one at all i dont use swaps do to i have 16GB's of ram

Gcool · 2012-03-21 12:41:02

Depends a bit on how much you want to install (cliche answer, I know). My personal setup is about as follows:

3 partitions:

/boot: around 100Mb
/ 10Gb (which is even on the generous side; only about 3,5Gb in use atm, including pacman cache).
/home: 63'ish Gb (whatever space was left on the Raptor hdd basically). This is even total overkill, I have around 8Gb in use atm.

All the stuff that actually takes up space (Movies, music,...) is stored on separate disks/partitions.

So bottomline, just dedicate some odd Gb of space on your new hdd for the OS and use the rest of the space to make a separate partition on which you can store big files.

miky76 · 2012-03-21 16:31:04

thanks for all the answers,

sound it good to have the partitions like this:
/boot 100MB
/ 7GB
/home 15GB

I'm not sure I do not need to have swap partition, my box is 4GB ram

my other question was how move the current OS to the new one, I do not want to install from zero and copy all the conf file from one to the other. I would like to move everything in one shot and do small configurations after it

can you please tell me the best way for do that?

thanks

nomorewindows · 2012-03-27 15:51:13

Mount your /var/cache/pacman/pkg then
mount proc -t proc <wherever your new installation goes + proc>
mount sys -t sysfs <wherever your new installation goes + sys>
mount /dev -o bind <wherever your new installation goes + dev>
pacman -Syu base --cachedir /var/cache/pacman/pkg -r <wherever you want to install the new installation> --dbpath <wherever your new installation goes + var/lib/pacman>
It will reuse the package files you already have and just apply them to your new installation. It goes fairly quick. This will get you a base installation in which you can boot from and then you can add the rest of the packages with your packages database and go from there.

You may need to create the proc, sys, dev, var/lib/pacman directories on your new installation prior to running pacman.

I would also suggest separating /usr out as it will be the biggest partition you'll need, in such case you'd have to add fsck and shutdown to the new installation's /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Last edited by nomorewindows (2012-03-27 15:52:22)

miky76 · 2012-04-01 17:50:16

probably I do not know how to do it but I'm trying to partitioning the 3TB hd with cfdisk, for install on them the new OS.

I would like to make 5-6 partitions al least but I cannot make more than 4 (as you see in the screenshot below the "new" option is not available anymore)

also, I would like to change the partitions as Ext2 (the boot) and Ext4 for the others, but seem not possible.
do you know how I can do?

                           cfdisk (util-linux 2.20.1)

                              Disk Drive: /dev/sda
                      Size: 3000592982016 bytes, 3000.5 GB
             Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 364801

    Name        Flags      Part Type  FS Type          [Label]        Size (MB)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    sda1        Boot        Primary   Linux                               98.71
    sda2                    Primary   Linux swap / Solaris              1998.75
    sda3                    Primary   Linux                            24996.63
    sda4                    Primary   Linux                            29997.60
                                      Unusable                       2943501.32*


     [   Help   ]  [  Print   ]  [   Quit   ]  [  Units   ]  [  Write   ]

nomorewindows · 2012-04-10 01:24:00

You have to make extended partitions to go past four. You only need one primary extended to get it. Then when you make partitions in the extended partitions they have one partition of your choosing plus another extended partition. So if you want to use a certain area for the extended partition to use the rest of the disk, you have /boot and maybe /, possibly linux swap in the primary, and then everything else in the extended. You have to set the primary extended partition for the full size you want to use, so that all of the following extended can use it.

You make the partition tables and then mkfs.* each filesystem once the partiton table is made.

Last edited by nomorewindows (2012-04-10 01:25:13)

miky76 · 2012-04-17 22:29:03

sorry for my very late answer but I was away for few weeks, and I couldn't access to my linux box

I've deleted the partitions and I tryed to make them again logical, but there is something I do not understand, when I try to make them Extended, (option 05 Extended or 85 Linux Extended) it says "Cannot change FS Type to extended"

do you think is it ok like it is below?

                         cfdisk (util-linux 2.20.1)

                              Disk Drive: /dev/sda
                      Size: 3000592982016 bytes, 3000.5 GB
             Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 364801

    Name        Flags      Part Type  FS Type          [Label]        Size (MB)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    sda1        Boot        Primary   Linux                               98.71
    sda5                    Logical   Linux swap / Solaris              1998.75
    sda6                    Logical   Linux                            24996.63
    sda7                    Logical   Linux                            29997.60
                            Pri/Log   Free Space                     2943501.32*


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                 Toggle bootable flag of the current partition

Mr.Elendig · 2012-04-17 23:03:14

If you are not dualbooting windows on a system without uefi, then I would suggest using gpt instead. Unlike mbr, it is not limited to max 2TiB partition size, 4 primary partitions etc

nomorewindows · 2012-04-18 13:48:15

One of the primaries, 1-4 needs to be extended (05 or 85), and then when you create new partitions in the extended space (it will create the extended linkages automatically whatever it decides) all you would need to specify is what regular type you'd be using (83 - Linux Swap probably only need one) and the rest would be (82 - Linux). Then when you get everything lined out, then you can keep extending as much as you'd like with whatever size you'd like. The nice thing about extended is you don't have to use all the space right now. Make your primary extended for all the space but inside of that, you can use whatever you like. Then when the partition table gets written and the kernel adopts the new table (usually after a reboot) then you can format the partitions whatever filesystem. Each partition can have a different filesystem.

miky76 · 2012-04-30 10:06:31

Hi,
I've installed a brand new arch linux from a USB key in the new HD in 4 partitions
I've mounted the old arch linux home partition on the new arch linux and now I'm trying to replicate everything.

but maybe, it's easyer to install everything from zero manually, i'm not sure

Last edited by miky76 (2012-04-30 10:07:01)

nomorewindows · 2012-05-03 01:14:29

All you need is one extended partition out of the first four and you can then keep extending them from the extended partition.
If you'd try the automatic partitioning method, you could maybe get a better idea of what I'm talking about, and maybe it would be suitable for your purposes.

Last edited by nomorewindows (2012-05-03 01:22:03)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-03-21 12:25:24

Move Arch from USB to HD

#2 2012-03-21 12:38:49

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#3 2012-03-21 12:41:02

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#4 2012-03-21 16:31:04

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#5 2012-03-27 15:51:13

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#6 2012-04-01 17:50:16

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#7 2012-04-10 01:24:00

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#8 2012-04-17 22:29:03

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#9 2012-04-17 23:03:14

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#10 2012-04-18 13:48:15

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#11 2012-04-30 10:06:31

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

#12 2012-05-03 01:14:29

Re: Move Arch from USB to HD

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