LinuxQuestions.org
Share your knowledge at the LQ Wiki.
Home Forums Tutorials Articles Register
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Mandriva
User Name
Password
Mandriva This Forum is for the discussion of Mandriva (Mandrake) Linux.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 12-16-2004, 05:20 PM   #1
ddrfreak
Member
 
Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Distribution: Mandrake 10.1 Community, Windows Longhorn Beta
Posts: 82

Rep: Reputation: 15
External Hard Drives/Hard Drives


I ran out of room on my computer (I personally blame easy to use torrents). But I need more space. And I want to keep everything on my computer. If I get an external hard drive. Does it just add memory to my internal one? Can I choose programs off there like I'd gop H: or what? Also Is there anyway to transfer everything exactly how it is to another hard driv like all the settings or what?
And If I was goning to add hard drive memory and to keep everything how I have It what would be the best solution???
 
Old 12-16-2004, 06:12 PM   #2
beaucoup
Member
 
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Florence, SC
Distribution: Gentoo i386
Posts: 180

Rep: Reputation: 30
You have a choice really...you could set up the drive so it is separate from your internal, like having a hard drive on D: and E: in windows; they'd probably show up as /dev/hda and /dev/sda. (I'll make that assumption here).

As for copying everything over to your new drive seamlessly; that should be fairly trivial. It'd probably be best if you booted from a third drive, like your rescue disk. Reformat your new drive to have a Linux filesystem:

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda

Then mount both the drives:

mount /dev/hda /drive1
mount /dev/sda /drive2

And copy from 1 to 2:

cp --archive -v /drive1/* /drive2

It's also possible to combine the capacities of both drives into one big volume; this is slightly more complicated, but either Linux software RAID or Linux LVM can be used to achieve this effect:

Linux Software RAID Howto
(You'd want to use Linear mode, or maybe Stripe mode if both drives are the same size).

Linux LVM Howto
(This is generally more flexible, and probably more desireable, though I don't have any personal experience with it)

Either way, though, if you did this, your external drive would be a pretty much permanent fixture; it wouldn't work on other computers without being reformatted first, and your computer's internal hard drive wouldn't work without it, since all the data will be spread out between the two.
 
  


Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
External hard drives nickd_1999 Linux - Hardware 2 12-19-2005 11:39 PM
external hard drives in linux cwl157 Linux - Hardware 1 09-27-2005 08:18 PM
USB External Hard drives lukepiewalker Fedora 2 08-03-2005 09:14 AM
External Hard Drives for Linux vicky4u_hyd Linux - Hardware 18 06-13-2004 08:37 AM
External Hard Drives New2Lindows Linux - Software 1 08-15-2003 09:35 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Mandriva

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:35 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration