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Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders, total 117231408 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x20f15306
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7acc25c3
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 146563071 73280512 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 146563072 302815231 78126080 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 302817278 312580095 4881409 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 302817280 312580095 4881408 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/sdd: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x52d03597
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 2048 625136436 312567194+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
The Windows 10 Entry has gone from grub as you said, thanks.
I know need to get the Mint system partition moved to sda1 but leave the Home partition on sda2 & then presumably tell Mint where it is, is that right.
ok, so you have a completely empty hard drive with 60GB, formerly windows.
there's no partition on it, so it's just sda, not sda1.
you have linux mint, presumably on sdb1, and /home on sdb2.
it is possible to copy sdb1 to sda, and evtl. make it work with the /home on sdb2 and swap on sdb5.
but please consider:
am i right to assume that the 60gb disk is (much) older and slower than the 160GB disk?
maybe you should use it for data, and leave the input/output intensive operating system on sdb?
in case you still want to do this, fire up the live system again (it might be possible to do it from within mint, but it's safer, easier and simpler if you do it from the live medium), find an application called gparted, and see if you can figure out how to copy sda1 to sdb.
since you are copying, you aren't deleting the original and there's no harm if you keep write actions to sda. gparted doesn't execute the changes until you click some sort of OK icon, and always asks for confirmation).
What is now sda I.E the old Windows drive is an SSD, only a few months old so it's faster than the hard drive that Mint is now on, that's why I want to copy Mint to that drive.
You are right to assume that sdb1 is the boot partition, sdb2 is home & sdb5 is swap. What I therefore need to do is copy sdb1 to sda, but how do I then point Mint to use the home & swap partitions (sdb2 & sdb5) that will now be on a different drive.
It might be easier as suggested to copy your /(root) partition from the live disk. No need to update grub at the moment.
I have assume that sda1 is /, sda2 is /home and sda5 swap.
Be sure you have backed all important data to the external drive just in case.
Once the Mint live is running create a sda1 partition and format it as ext4. Make sure that sda is still the SSD.
Mount the old /root (sdb1) as /mnt/oldroot and new root sda1 as /mnt/newroot
You can copy from old to new.
cp -rp /mnt/oldroot/* /mnt/newroot/
You can find the new root sda1 UUID by using the blkid command
Then edit /mnt/newroot/etc/fstab file and update the UUID for / using the information from the above command for sda1
Hopefully, rebooting will be successful and now / is on the ssd.
Always verify your command is correct before pushing the enter key...
What I therefore need to do is copy sdb1 to sda, but how do I then point Mint to use the home & swap partitions (sdb2 & sdb5) that will now be on a different drive.
step by step.
first you copy.
did you manage that already?
as i said, there's a graphical tool can do that (gparted) but i didn't check it out step by step, because i haven't done it myself. time for you to take a few steps without handholding.
Thank you for all the replies, I clearly have much to learn in terms of the basics of Linux before attempting this so I intend to read up a bit more as I feel I don't fully understand yet what I have to do & don't want to mess up the system as it's taken a long time to configure.
Thanks again.
Talk about too many cooks... That's ok, let me just add a possible methodology. First, some assumptions:
/dev/sda is the 60GB SSD
/dev/sdb is a spinning hard drive
/dev/sdb1 is the boot partition (everything but /home)
/dev/sdb2 is the home partition
1. Boot Linux Mint from a live DVD/flash drive
2. Install to /dev/sda1
a. Ensure that any users have the same UID as on the old system
3. Edit /dev/sda1/etc/fstab to mount home from /dev/sdb2
4. Reboot
Your assumptions RockDoctor are all correct, 1.) & 2.) great then a & 3 how do I do that? I don't seem to be making anyone understand that I'm not up to speed with all this linux command line stuff, for instance ~
"Ensure that any users have the same UID as on the old system
Edit /dev/sda1/etc/fstab to mount home from /dev/sdb2"
How do I do that?
I don't know what etc/fstab means, where to find it or how to edit it.
This is what I'm struggling with. I can almost hear all the Linux users saying "Oh for God's sake go back to windows if you can't understand it" but I want to learn but without clear instructions how can I.
I want you to realise that I do appreciate the help I'm being offered but at the moment it could be written in Chinese. I have tried to back up all this advice by trawling google to see if it becomes clearer but everyone seems to think the reader will know what it all means & I'm sorry to say I don't.
I'm not up to speed with all this linux command line stuff, for instance ~
The symbol "~" simply means the /home directory. If you are in a terminal in for example the /media directory and type: cd ~ you will then be in your user home directory. Type pwd and it will show that. It's the same as typing: cd /home/gillsman if that is your user.
Logged in as your user on the old system, just type: id and it will output some data including the id for the user.
fstab (file system table) is a text file in the /etc directory. So to edit it, you need admin/root privileges. In the terminal, type:
sudo gedit /etc/fstab should open it. Not sure if you have gedit which is a common text editor. If you don't just replace gedit in the command with whatever text editor you have. Take a look at the fstab file on your current system so you know what it looks like before changing and make a backup of the file in case things go awry.
Sorry about that, gillsman. I had intended my procedure more as an outline for the others who had posted here. Step 2a can be more-or-less translated into newbie-speak as, "when doing the new installation, add users in the same order as you did when you installed Linux Mint onto /dev/sdb1." It's not essential, but it makes things a little more efficient. Feel free to ignore it. I'm going to backtrack on my step 3. The proper (and easiest) way to deal with using your /home partition in /dev/sdb2 as the new /home partition is in the installation process. The installer should offer you the option of using any existing partition (other than those you've deleted or will be overwriting) and mounting those partitions at any desired mount point. If you specify mounting /dev/sdb2 at /home (be sure you do not reformat it), your old /home directory will appear as your new home directory.
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