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GosuSan

Member

Registered: 2014-08-19

Posts: 32

Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

Hey everyone,

I'm here with another question:

I got an SSD for christmas and I am now planning on moving to it.
But there are still some questions I want to clarify before starting.

Info:
I have multiple Partitions on my HDD right now (/ , /home and swap)
I also have some pathetic ocd regarding my drives, so I'd love to have the SSD be "sda" and my HDD to be "sdb" after the transfer

I still want to keep / and /home seperated. actually fuck that.
But I heard swap partitions are not good on SSDs, so I'll need to remove that, right?
The HDD should become some kind of Data, Music etc storage drive.

So what is the right order then? My guess is this:
- Create partitions on ssd ( / and /home )
- rsync all files for both partitions
- edit /etc/fstab
- reboot
- check if all works
- format HDD to become DATA storage

Can I control what drive becomes "sda" an what drive becomes "sdb"?

Anything else I forgot?

Thanks in advance

Last edited by GosuSan (2016-01-12 16:58:37)

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

I have multiple Partitions on my HDD right now (/ , /home and swap)
I still want to keep / and /home seperated. actually fuck that.
But I heard swap partitions are not good on SSDs, so I'll need to remove that, right?

(I stopped using a partition for swap space years ago. I have 4 GB of RAM and have never come close to using it all up.)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,349

Re: Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

I have 4 GB of RAM and have never come close to using it all up.

Try building Android from source

Last edited by ewaller (2016-01-12 17:24:58)

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Trilby

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Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,333

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Re: Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

I also stopped using swap years ago.  I'd never try to build android.  Period.  But if I did, I could always create/activate a swap file.  With that ability, I don't know why anyone would create a swap partition on any computer made in the last decade.

(edit: ok, maybe hibernation could need it, not even sure anymore.  With ~1s boot times, hibernation is just silly)

edit 2: this may be overstated a bit weighted by my personal needs (or lack thereof - I have no workspace to maintain).  But I do think the idea that swap partitions are some sort of generic default just needs to go away.  If you need one, use one.  Most people probably don't need one, wouldn't use it, and wouldn't miss it.

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Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,418

Re: Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

I also stopped using swap years ago.  I'd never try to build android.  Period.  But if I did, I could always create/activate a swap file.  With that ability, I don't know why anyone would create a swap partition on any computer made in the last decade.

Assuming your filesystem supports swapfiles.

(edit: ok, maybe hibernation could need it, not even sure anymore.  With ~1s boot times, hibernation is just silly)

Hibernation allows you to keep your workspace

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

*sigh* Sorry for derailing the thread.

@GosuSan
Don't forget to install a boot loader on your new primary drive. Other than that, your list of steps looks good.

I'm not positive, but I think if you connect the SSD to SATA0 it will be recognized as "/dev/sda", and the HDD on SATA1 will be "/dev/sdb".

GosuSan

Member

Registered: 2014-08-19

Posts: 32

Re: Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

I am not planning on using hiberante nor am I going to compile Android sources.
So I'll ignore swap. I also won't need seperate / and /home partitions anymore, I guess.
Is it possible to select wich drive is sda and wich is sdb?
And is the overall process correct like mentioned in my first post?

Thanks for your anwsers so far!

Edit: @drcouzelis: Thanks for staying on topic I'll try that suggestion with sata ports, and yes, the bootloader, I would actually have forgotten that

Last edited by GosuSan (2016-01-12 17:54:58)

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,696

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Re: Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

The bios will dictate which is sda and which is sdb.  Just set them up in the order in which you want them.ll if the bios does not allow for this, the order in which they are connected to the motherboard dictates which is which.  SATA0 is before SATA1 etc.  consult the motherboard manual to see the order.

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GosuSan

Member

Registered: 2014-08-19

Posts: 32

Re: Some questions before moving from HDD to SSD

Thanks for clarification graysky!

I guess I got all Information I needed, then I'll go to work now
Thanks again for all your answers! (and so fast too!)

Will report back when everythin is done!

EDIT:

Everything worked fine! I used this guide and all of this worked fine.
The  sda1 / sda2 thing worked fine, I just rebootet with the SSD plugged in SATA1 and HDD in SATA2, that's all.

Thanks for all your help, I now have a super-fast PC

Last edited by GosuSan (2016-01-15 08:56:25)