Greetings!
*Laptop Specs* :
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/...5480Rsp2.shtml
*The Skinny*
I purchased a new HDD from Skyline (authorized Gateway parts dealer) for this Gateway ml6732 that is still running. I am planning to install Linux Mint Debian Edition to the new drive. I'm currently running LM 11 Katya on the old one, which still runs well, but does have an encrypted home drive. I want to install the old hdd, still operational, to an closure and access the files externally.
*Reasons for this procedure*
I want to, for now, leave a large number of media files on the old drive until I can land a system I think will be able to better handle converting 75 gb of m4v to mpeg2 than this 4 year old Gateway can. (The Gateway can and does conversions well, but I'm just nervous about pushing its CPU to that level continuously...ffmpeg works both cores, back and forth, at around 90%+ for about an hour for each 1.5-2 hour movie, according to htop.)
*Some More Background*
In LM 11 Katya, I did an update and I kept getting this strange looping errors when I'd try to view youtube videos (or similar).
[ 696.364047] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 7s5770832
[ 696.364149] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 75770832
and also...
[ 720.280069] INFO: task flush-ecryptfs-:2679
[ 720.280134] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout secs"
I researched the issue and the overwhelming response I received was that it seemed like the HDD was failing. I did the SMART DATA analysis of the drive in Disk Utility and everything from all the available tests showed that the HDD was in "good" working order.
The only other possibility was a heat problem of some sort. The fan has gotten progressively noisier and definitely needs to be replaced. However, I had already ordered the HDD by the time I made this realization, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to start clean with a different distro that I like that's still in the Mint family without having to sacrifice 9 seasons of a TV series, or risk frying my cpu by converting and then burning all 9 seasons to dvd.
*Decrypt /home on old hdd and/or change permissions first?*
Previously, I couldn't manage to access my files on this current HDD from a Lucid Puppy live cd (presumably because the /home folder is encrypted). Do I need to somehow decrypt my /home folder before I attempt to access data from this old HDD after I've installed it to an enclosure? If so, how do I do this?
Also, since I do still have the luxury of the hdd currently being operational, will I need to change the permissions to all of the files, which will be accesses externally at a later date?
