Hello all,

I followed the tutorial here to clone my linux partition to another hard drive.

Problem is after running the copy (cp -a *) successfully, I'm unable to make to partition bootable.

Some info first

Clone : /dev/sdb7 -> /dev/sda6

sudo blkid

/dev/sda1: UUID="DCA0652EA0651076" LABEL="Windows 7" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="cf335fa5-136b-48e3-b56d-3ed6039506f8" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda6: UUID="95978c58-699c-4e87-9253-edd02f2cc32c" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda7: UUID="FE940D8E940D4B1B" LABEL="NewData" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"



Here's what I've tried and the result

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /tmp/sda6
root@ubuntu:/# grub-install hd0
/dev/sdb7: Not found or not a block device.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/tmp/sda6 hd0
The file /tmp/sda6/boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub --boot-drive=/dev/sda6
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
Error 15: File not found

and when I try to boot from the drive the Grub loader returns "Error 21"


Tried modifying the menu.lst and /etc/fstab as well

For menu.lst I changed the root value from (hd0,6) to (hd0,5) as below. And in the kernel value I set 'root=/dev/sda6', before it had UUID value for /dev/sdb7 (original/source partition)

=============menu.lst=============

#title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-22-generic
title Hardy Heron
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-22-generic root=/dev/sda6 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-22-generic
quiet

title Windows 7
root (hd0,0)savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
-----------------


For fstab all I changed were the UUIDs from the source values to the new destination values.

=============/etc/fstab=============

# /dev/sda6
UUID=95978c58-699c-4e87-9253-edd02f2cc32c / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

# /dev/sda5
UUID=cf335fa5-136b-48e3-b56d-3ed6039506f8 none swap sw 0 0

/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0

# /dev/sda7
UUID=FE940D8E940D4B1B /media/NewData ntfs users,defaults,umask=000 0 0
-------------------



Please help. I am familiar with ubuntu but I'm still a bit noobish, so kindly save me from myself

Thank you

I just cloned my debian setup from a 20gb to a 40gb drive, I used This howto. I should note when you use the live-cd make sure both the drives are umounted before you use the dd command.

Nope, "dd" is just a *bad* option - the "cp -a ..." is much preferable.
But grub-install is too inflexible - it's just a wrapper after all. Try this (as root/sudo) after the chroot(presumes /boot is under the root, not a separate partition).

Hi,
Why is the 'dd' a bad option?

Because if there is an error on the source, it will (quietly) stop. There are options to specify what you want done on error - none of them good from a filesystem point of view.
"cp" is filesystem aware - when you get an error, you will know about it. Much more preferable.

Thank you guys for your willingness to help


I had tried that as well, I think it gave an error after the setup(hd0) command but don't remember the exact error. I think something about it not being mountable.

Actually after waiting for a helpful response on ubuntuforums and getting none, I opted to just backup my data and reinstall. I couldn't wait much longer, had school and needed the lappy.

Thank you all though. It is appreciated.