Tool for semi-cloning a hard drive: recommendations?

[John Summerfield]

Dan Thurman wrote:
> On Friday 11 January 2008 10:52:50 am Phil Meyer wrote:
>> Dan Thurman wrote:
>>> Is there a [Fedora/Linux] clone/partition tool that will clone a hard
>>> drive with features that allows one to specify any partition size to the
>>> target new drive?� For example, the original drive may have a partition
>>> with a size of say, 10GB and instead of a direct clone, I'd like to
>>> specify a larger target partition size of say, an increase of 25GB?
>>>
>>> As a feature, I'd also like the capability if need be, to be able to
>>> change the source drive's partition sizes and to be able to move
>>> partitions around so as close partition gaps?� System Commander was such
>>> a tool for windoes but is there one for Fedora/Linux?
>>>
>>> Any suggestions?
>>> ��
>> Copying the contents of one drive to another is as simple as:
>> cp -a <source> <target>
>> Or there is the most correct way:
>> cd <source>
>> find . -depth -print | cpio -pdmu <target>
>> If both file systems are LVM or hardware raid, then that solves the
>> other part of your question.
>> But lets look at a specific example since you did not provide one:
>> Lets assume that /var keeps filling up and its currently on / which is a
>> fixed partition.
>> You have hardware based raid from a SAN or new shoebox.
>> Use whatever tools are appropriate to create <new volume>.
>> Mount the new raid device on /mnt
>> mount <new volume> /mnt
>> Quiesce applications
>> cd /var
>> find . -depth -print | cpio -pdmu /mnt
>> umount /mnt ; mv� /var� /foo ; mkdir /var ; mount <new volume> /var
>> revise /etc/fstab to correct the new /var
>> restart apps or reboot
>> rm -fr /foo
>> You need to MOVE /var because there will surely be something running
>> with a file open in /var
>> You need to be quick making the changeover to the new /var, thus the
>> commands all on the same command line.
>> Don't remove the old /var until you are positive that all apps that use
>> /var have been restarted.� Sometimes a reboot will be necessary.� If
>> unsure, reboot.
>> Tried and tested many times. :)
>> Good Luck!
>>
> 
> First, thanks for your tips!  I am sincere here and please do not be offended 
> if I come across as an ignorant idiot, of which I can be at times.

We all do that at times.

> 
> What happens when you have a multiboot drive, of which there are windoes of 
> many variants (98,2K,XP,...), Solaris, Linux(Fedora,Ubuntu,...)?
> 
> Which is why it is not so simple. :-/

Of course, not properly defining the problem deserves your suggested 
idiot tag:-)


I use ntfsclone and its companions for handling NTFS.



> 
> Also - manually "walking through" each partition of the source drive and 
> manually creating/copying partitions to the target drive could be quite a 
> chore I think, and getting all of the MBRs for each partition could be a 
> nightmare?

dd gets the partition boot records. A drive has an MBR, and there's only 
one:-) It copies the whole partition, the target must not be smaller.

*solaris will require special attention from within &Solaris, Linux does 
not do ZFS.

*BSD* and Apple's filesystems, probably same as solaris, need fixing 
from the owning OS.

Z/os disks would be a further challenge.

> 
> Which is why I said: "semi-clone" tool...
> 
> I must be joking, right?  Unfortunately, no.  Am I asking for a "pie in the 
> sky"?  Maybe.
> 
> But then that is why I am asking - although you are absolutely right, I did 
> not 'specify' the conditions and I apologize for that - must be getting old 
> at my age and forget important details.  *sigh*
> 


-- 

Cheers
John

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