[SOLVED] sda hda clone nightmare!

noobface · 02-22-2011, 02:38 PM

Hi all,

We have a problem trying to boot a Linux RAM image (PING Release 3.00.04, with kernel 2.6.33.2.) from both IDE and SATA hard drives.

The Linux image is on the 2nd partition of the drives and the PING program restores the 1st partition.
We need this setup to be able to boot on IDE (hda2) and SATA (sda2) drives without changing any config files etc.

Is this possible??

Many thanks

David1357 · 02-22-2011, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noobface

Is this possible?

The folks on the PING forum might be better able to answer your question. Here is a link to a question similar to yours.

vtel57 · 02-22-2011, 05:44 PM

I don't know anything about Ping, but I run numerous distributions on a hybrid (EIDE/SATA) system with no problems. GRUB can do it all.

jefro · 02-22-2011, 07:18 PM

:PING can copy a partition or a drive.

If you make a partition then restore the original to sda2 then all you'd need is grub or another loader to load the OS.

noobface · 02-23-2011, 04:57 AM

OK, forget I mentioned PING

, the problem is with booting the system after transferring it to a different hard drive (eg. IDE > SATA)

Is there a way to configure LILO to "sense" the correct boot device or is there an alternative that can do the job?

For the record, altering files AFTER cloning is not an option for us.

Cheers

PS. I've attached a mock up of the system if that helps describing it!

jefro · 02-23-2011, 03:33 PM

I think the problem is how the drives are being described for your loader. What loader are you using? Lilo?

vtel57 · 02-23-2011, 06:21 PM

LILO is a bit behind the times. You'd be better off using GRUB and using UUID numbers to boot the drives/partitions.

noobface · 02-24-2011, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vtel57

LILO is a bit behind the times. You'd be better off using GRUB and using UUID numbers to boot the drives/partitions.

That would only work for us if the UUID was the same for every hard drive.

It seems I've got this working now by cloning the drives sector-by-sector

which takes forever!
I'll mark this thread solved.

Cheers

EDDY1 · 02-24-2011, 01:30 AM

I can't remember command to get uuid, but there is 1.
Also I believe that grub2 detects and updates them upon installation, atleast in debian.

vtel57 · 02-24-2011, 07:41 PM

To determine drive/partition UUIDs for all installed drives on your system:

Code:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

EDDY1 · 02-24-2011, 09:44 PM

Originally posted by; vtel57

Quote:

To determine drive/partition UUIDs for all installed drives on your system:

Quote:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

That's what I was talking about.

vtel57 · 02-25-2011, 11:46 AM

Glad to be of help, Eddy.

Have a great weekend.

~Eric