An Exercise: Manually creating a new boot disk from an existing one

[Philip Rhoades]

People,

I am interested to see if it is possible to boot on an existing disk - 
say /dev/sda ("A") - and then manually create everything required on a 
second disk - /dev/sdb ("B") eg:

- create the partition table and partitions on B

- dd the existing boot track(s) from A to a file and then dd that to B - 
or create it from scratch somehow?

- rsync the the first level directories into the appropriate places on 
the new drive and partitions (maybe by temporarily booting on a Live USB 
so we are not copying from a running system?)

If this is possible, what else would need to be done on B so that when 
drive A is removed, the remaining B (the new "A") drive will be able to 
boot and run normally?

Thanks!

Phil.
-- 
Philip Rhoades

PO Box 896
Cowra  NSW  2794
Australia
E-mail:  phil at pricom.com.au