UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I have two laptops that I need to switch Harddrives in, but I want to try and retain the data on on of the machines.

This has a hd with win2K/Rhat6.2 dualboot, and I really only need to keep the Linux partition data.



can I tar the files in the linux partition and then untar it to the new hd and off I go after I have reset the MBR with LILO? or is there any issues I need to take into account?

I was just going to create the partitions with the same name/type as on the original machine, so I think it will work.

Anyone done this before have any tips?

thanks,

tar is one way to do it. You might look into using dd .

Hi Neo,

tar did the trick alright, I had heard about dd, but could not use it as I was dealing with having to swap a 10Gb Dell laptop HD for a 20Gb one, and they could not be connected to the same machine.

for anyone interested, I started with a laptop with Linux/win2K dualboot.

I booted in Linux, and created 2 tar files, one of the windows partition, the other of the Linux partition. I then made a boot disk for the linux partition.

I used fdisk on a second machine to configure the partition table the same as on the first machine.

I then installed windows on a second machine onto the hard drive that I wanted to use for the first machine, and used a crossover cable to transfer teh 2 tar files to the new hard drive.

I then swapped hard drives, and booted from a Linux floppy, mounted the windows partition, formatted the Linux partition, and untarr'ed the Linux partition back to place.

Next I copied the windows.tar to the linux partition, did a rm -rf on the windows partition, and untarr'ed the windows files back.

I booted from the Windows disk, and repaired the windows install.

Final step, boot from the Linux floppy and run lilo to reset the boot options, and voila:
Both Os's moved to a new HD, but in the same machine, same configuration :-)