[SOLVED] Can you move a HDD from one machine to another...

[chowanec]

Ok... My other thread must have scared folk away (viewtopic.php?f=90&t=7838)

That said, here's my new idea -- and it may be flawed... so...

Can I install Mint on one PC (different motherboard, video card, processor) and then move that hard drive to a different PC? Will the install hold up? I'm assuming not, but you guys (and gals) all know a truckload more about linux than I do. I'm assuming it is like XP in the sense that it is establishing a hardware set that, if messed with, will cause weird things?

-Chow

[The Darkone]

Yes, definitely yes.

Don't forget set your videocard into vesa-mode. But it is possible.
I've made this at my school the performance ist not 100%, but it is ok.

Only the HDD was orginal. Under Debian 3 unstable with Xfce 4.4

[Acid7711]

It's kinda a mixed answer, yes in something like XP it can be done, but how many old driver's are still hanging around?

On a default install of something such as Mint, you'll have no problems, but if you get into more advanced things such as kernel compilation/optimization, setting modules by hand, etc, putting that into another random machine might not yield the results you're looking for. If it's a base install of Mint, you'll have no problems most likely.

[chowanec]

So...

No dice. I gave this a shot tonight -- installed from my desktop PC, using my mini-ITX's HDD as the system drive. Then I plugged THAT drive into the mini-ITX and it fails to find /dev/sda1 and drops me into busybox. From there, I have no idea what to do...

Is it possible on the install machine it is seen as SDA1 and on the mini-ITX it would be seen as something else?

Any help at all and I will preach to others how wonderful this forum is. Please help. I really don't want to use a different Distro...

[Acid7711]

Ahh yeah, I forgot about that all together. The harddrive controler might register under a different /dev location, so...grub might be off as well as the fstab entries.

Best bet would be booting from the live-cd and comparing your /dev locations. Not exactly the most fun, but not really that difficult. There are probably better ways of doing this, but it's late and I'm not thinking properly.

[chowanec]

Heh. Problem is, I can't boot the LIVE CD when I do the install from the Mini-ITX system. It won't start X for me to actually do the install. I was hoping to just get to a cli in Mint and I'd install OpenChrome. Ah well... I'm SO bummed... I want to run Mint, damnit.

[chowanec]

Finally got it all working via the OpenChrome drivers. If anyone does a search later and is having the same issues as me, here's the link to that one: http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=7838

Ah... happiness again.