[resolved sorta]Advice on Partition Shuffle on SSD.

Convergence · 2012-05-31 01:19:37

So I have this SSD with several partions. Out of habit, when I built this rig, I created a /boot partition, a swap partition, a / partition, and I put /home on a big fat traditional spinny drive. Then I went ahead and backed the whole thing with an external. Then, a year later, I realized that I had goofed; I didn't align the partitions correctly, and I didn't figure in the erase block size (and I realized that my 8g of ram makes swap unnecessary). So now, I'm thinking of rectifying this situation, and there are several options before me:

1. Complete reinstall, wiping out the SSD, using just one partition (correctly aligned) for / and /boot.

Pros:

I know how to do this!
I've been kind of wanting to cut down on clutter anyway.
This would be relatively easy on the drive.

Cons:

I know how to do this!
If I remember correctly my wireless card was very difficult to get working without a hard internet connection. Ugh.
I've done a lot of configuring that I would have to completely do over. (made easier by the fact that I have /etc backed up.)

2. Wipe out the drive, partition correctly, and then copy files from my backup to the root partition using some live disc.

Pros:
Sounds easy
Never done it before
I wouldn't have to reconfigure things (printer, cpu fans, etc. networking)
I wouldn't have to mess around with my wireless card again
fairly easy on the drive

Cons:
I've never done it before
I wouldn't know what I was doing

3. Try to correct the problem without wiping the disc. I don't know if this is possible actually, but gparted can do some funky things.

Pros: Assuming it's possible
could save some time

cons:
Probably hard on the drive.
Possibly impossible (huh?)

What would you guys do?

I should mention that all partitions involved are ext4. Here is my fstab

tmpfs			/tmp		tmpfs  nodev,nosuid	   0	0



/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
LABEL=booty /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
LABEL=gamey /usr/local ext4 defaults,noatime,discard 0 1
LABEL=homey /home ext4 defaults 0 1
LABEL=rooty / ext4 defaults,noatime,discard 0 1
LABEL=winey /games ext4 defaults,noatime,discard 0 1

and here is the output of df -h:

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs           30G   21G  8.2G  72% /
/dev            3.9G     0  3.9G   0% /dev
run             4.0G  320K  4.0G   1% /run
/dev/sda3        30G   21G  8.2G  72% /
shm             4.0G     0  4.0G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           4.0G   28K  4.0G   1% /tmp
/dev/sda1       136M   19M  111M  15% /boot
/dev/sda4        30G   17G   12G  59% /usr/local
/dev/sdb1       931G  263G  622G  30% /home
/dev/sdc1       120G   48G   66G  43% /games

I should also mention that I used this (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fu … with_rsync) method to back up my system. It comes with directions on how to boot directly from the backup, which could potentially be very helpful, but I couldn't get it to work. In my opinion that part of the directions was a little confusing. (everything else about it was great though).

Oh, and yes, I have a separate drive for games. You can ignore that.

Last edited by Convergence (2012-06-07 02:22:26)

Gcool · 2012-05-31 08:39:57

Option 2 should be fairly easy to accomplish. Basically do the following:

- Make a backup of everything (yeah)
- Boot from a livecd
- Remove the involved partitions and create 1 new partition
- Copy the files you've backed up.
- Regen initramfs
- Install bootloader

Convergence · 2012-06-06 21:31:50

Lol. I need help. I've copied all of the files over, booted into an arch install disk, and chrooted into the environment, and am now stuck. I dont know how to regen initramfs. I've tried reinstalling the kernel via pacman, but it says "duplicated database entry..."

Terminator · 2012-06-06 22:52:21

mkinitcpio -p linux

also, adapt your fstab

Good luck, I wonder if it will work. I would just reinstall.

Last edited by Terminator (2012-06-06 22:55:18)

Convergence · 2012-06-07 01:57:24

Yeah, I gave up before I got your advice. I just reinstalled, and having other problems now.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-05-31 01:19:37

[resolved sorta]Advice on Partition Shuffle on SSD.

#2 2012-05-31 08:39:57

Re: [resolved sorta]Advice on Partition Shuffle on SSD.

#3 2012-06-06 21:31:50

Re: [resolved sorta]Advice on Partition Shuffle on SSD.

#4 2012-06-06 22:52:21

Re: [resolved sorta]Advice on Partition Shuffle on SSD.

#5 2012-06-07 01:57:24

Re: [resolved sorta]Advice on Partition Shuffle on SSD.

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