Arch Linux

luciferHasa

Member

Registered: 2018-08-20

Posts: 29

How to move the installation (on usb) to a hard disk

hello,

I installed to a usb by booting the ISO to ram and installed the os to the same usb

because I had only one usb drive with me at the time of installation and I was in a hurry

to get the pc running because windows was crashing and resetting power at login screen

now I want to move to arch from windows.

So if someone can guide me through the process of moving the installation to a HDD that would mean a lot.

And i kinda have a rough idea about whats going to happen but since I'm new to I'm like struggling

maybe it works as cloning the usb to the hdd and then extending the partitions,

but I'm not sure how to..

plus there are two partions visible from the usb, one for home and another 100mb one saying boot

so it got me more confused, any help would mean a lot.

thanks

ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: How to move the installation (on usb) to a hard disk

If you're confused about separate /home and /boot partitions on installation that you performed yourself, you should probably just go ahead and re-install the system from scratch.

There are plenty of existing threads about moving installation to another disk. If you can't understand those, you should ask specific questions about what you don't understand.

luciferHasa

Member

Registered: 2018-08-20

Posts: 29

Re: How to move the installation (on usb) to a hard disk

I see, I'll check them out, is there a way to clone the installation without a booting with a live iso?

just clone the usb to a hard disc while logged in to the installation on the usb?

will I have to delete this thread and create a new one for that or just this comment will suffix?

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,646

Re: How to move the installation (on usb) to a hard disk

You can use rsync to copy a running system, but it is generally safer to do it with a live iso. If you want to use more than one partition for the copied system, make sure you mount all those partitions before you copy.

Given your skill level at this point, a new install on the hard drive might be easier for you.

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2018-08-25 17:21:26)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,333

Website

Re: How to move the installation (on usb) to a hard disk

A fresh install will *definitely* be easier and safer.  You can then copy over any configs you may want to keep.  You don't need to 'reburn' the iso - you can install from your existing usb system.  Just first install arch-install-scripts to the usb system, then just continue the installation from there as normal.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

luciferHasa

Member

Registered: 2018-08-20

Posts: 29

Re: How to move the installation (on usb) to a hard disk

You don't need to 'reburn' the iso - you can install from your existing usb system.  Just first install arch-install-scripts to the usb system, then just continue the installation from there as normal.

I see, that sounds like a good plan I'll do it that way then, I won't have to download all the packages i installed again..

You can then copy over any configs you may want to keep.

so if I do a fresh install can I move the software I installed to the new installation from the old one? larger software with many dependencies? so that the supporting software will also move along with the big one? eg: will cuda and nvidia plugins etc move along with blender or will i have to search them all separately and move/ copy them one by one?

You can use rsync to copy a running system, but it is generally safer to do it with a live iso. If you want to use more than one partition for the copied system, make sure you mount all those partitions before you copy.

Given your skill level at this point, a new install on the hard drive might be easier for you.

**So if I make 3 partitions in the new hdd and since i've got only one partition on the usb (referring to home only. boot, swap excluded) is that gonna be a problem?

"You'll never know unless you try", they say

I want to try cloning a system while it is running as well as with a live ISO

I might just use another pc for that

cant wait to help building some software so that others might benefit from it I think i'm starting to get the hang of this new life with arch <3

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP Trilby and 2ManyDogs

Last edited by luciferHasa (2018-08-25 19:34:20)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,334

Re: How to move the installation (on usb) to a hard disk

You don't need to 'reburn' the iso - you can install from your existing usb system.  Just first install arch-install-scripts to the usb system, then just continue the installation from there as normal.

I see, that sounds like a good plan I'll do it that way then, I won't have to download all the packages i installed again..

You can then copy over any configs you may want to keep.

so if I do a fresh install can I move the software I installed to the new installation from the old one? larger software with many dependencies? so that the supporting software will also move along with the big one? eg: will cuda and nvidia plugins etc move along with blender or will i have to search them all separately and move/ copy them one by one?

You do not move any software pacman installs it on the new installation but can use the cache to save downloading cached packages.  Pacman will handle dependency management.

You can use rsync to copy a running system, but it is generally safer to do it with a live iso. If you want to use more than one partition for the copied system, make sure you mount all those partitions before you copy.

Given your skill level at this point, a new install on the hard drive might be easier for you.

**So if I make 3 partitions in the new hdd and since i've got only one partition on the usb (referring to home only. boot, swap excluded) is that gonna be a problem?

You are copying the contents of /home with a tool such as rsync it does not matter how the new or old systems are partitioned really.

I want to try cloning a system while it is running as well as with a live ISO

Be careful with the list of exclusions if you are trying to clone a full live system.
Edit:
It might be a good precaution to backup /home of the USB before you start with the new installation.

Last edited by loqs (2018-08-25 20:50:39)