[SOLVED} Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
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There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
[SOLVED} Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
Its about 1 week I installed Cinnamon 20.1 in my desktop. The desktop has 2 IDE HDD, 160GB & 80GB, Cinnamon is installed on the 160GB and there is no other OS installed in this desktop. When I started installing Cinnamon it was for experimental purposes but now I discovered that I like this system.
I have another SATA hard disk 250GB which currently I use to store backups of my Windows laptops thru a SATA to USB adapter cable. Since I have other means for my backups I thought to install this SATA hard disk in the desktop and transfer the Cinnamon OS into the SATA disk.
Is it possible to transfer the OS from one HD to another or it is better to re install Cinnamon form the DVD I made originally?
If I have to re install of course I will lose all my settings but if that’s the better option I will do it.
Thank you
I have another SATA hard disk 250GB which currently I use to store backups of my Windows laptops thru a SATA to USB adapter cable. Since I have other means for my backups I thought to install this SATA hard disk in the desktop and transfer the Cinnamon OS into the SATA disk.
Is it possible to transfer the OS from one HD to another or it is better to re install Cinnamon form the DVD I made originally?
If I have to re install of course I will lose all my settings but if that’s the better option I will do it.
Thank you
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Nicolas
Re: Switching Linuxmint from 1 HDD to Another
You can clone the 160GB HDD to the 250GB HDD. Sounds like an old PC if it has IDE drives, so suspect it is booting legacy?
If you are running LM20.1 then you must have a 64 bit processor. Try foxclone (I developed it):
https://foxclone.com/ (US download)
https://foxclone.org/ (UK download)
Download the iso, burn it to a usb stick (or CD) and boot from it. Read the user guide.
Note - I've not tested it with IDE drives.
If you are running LM20.1 then you must have a 64 bit processor. Try foxclone (I developed it):
https://foxclone.com/ (US download)
https://foxclone.org/ (UK download)
Download the iso, burn it to a usb stick (or CD) and boot from it. Read the user guide.
Note - I've not tested it with IDE drives.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
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Re: Switching Linuxmint from 1 HDD to Another
Hi
There are several tools to clone a hard disk like clonezilla for example, search on the web Linux disk cloning, I recommend you to read carefully the manual before proceeding.
Greetings!
There are several tools to clone a hard disk like clonezilla for example, search on the web Linux disk cloning, I recommend you to read carefully the manual before proceeding.
Greetings!
HP - Ordinateur portable écran UHD 15.6, AMD Ryzen-3 7000 series, Radeon graphics, SSD 500G, 8G Ram, Linux Mint 21.2 cinnamon edge edition (kernel 6.6.1)
Infiniment libre
Infiniment libre
Re: Switching Linuxmint from 1 HDD to Another
Clonezilla is an option, but for a newbie, Foxclone is the easiest. Just download it, burn it to a USB stick using Unetbootin, and then boot your computer into the Live version of Foxclone Ubuntu. Plug the drive you want to clone to into a USB port (you'll need an adapter for your drive to USB--about $20 for SATA--with power supply, get one of those not just the adapter-- and another $10 if you need to adapt the SATA to IDE). After plugging your new drive into the USB port and open Foxclone and it will scan your drives. Choose 'Clone' and after that, Foxclone is practically a no-brainer. Clonezilla can be problematic and isn't for the faint of heart or inexperienced, in my opinion. A clone is truly a 'clone' and replicates not only the files on the drive, but the UUID of the cloned drive, so your computer will boot from it in exactly the way it booted the original drive because it sees no differences. Just swap the drives and power on. Those SATA/IDE to USB adapters come in really handy and over time you'll find they are well worth the small amount of money you paid..
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Re: Switching Linuxmint from 1 HDD to Another
As already pointed out, cloning is the way to go however if you do this on the same machine, you should shutdown the machine immediately and remove either the clone or cloned drive after the clone has finished otherwise you will confuse the operating system by potentially generating undesirable effects, such as the partitions specified for the OS to be on one drive mounting on two different drives.
Re: Switching Linuxmint from 1 HDD to Another
YES! Having two identical drives in the system will confuse BIOS, so once you have done the clone, swap the drives over and reboot. Once happy that the clone is worked correctly, you can reformat the old drive.Kadaitcha Man wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:21 am you should shutdown the machine immediately and remove either the clone or cloned drive after the clone has finished otherwise you will confuse the operating system by potentially generating undesirable effects, such as the partitions specified for the OS to be on one drive mounting on two different drives.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Switching Linuxmint from 1 HDD to Another
I’m sorry for the late reply but I didn’t receive email notifications about these replies and so I thought I had no replies and I went ahead and re installed Cinnamon on the same disk and all is fine now.
As been new to this forum, I received email notifications from my first posts so I thought it will happen again but it didn’t. Now I know better and I will check the forum as needed.
The cloning seem a good way to go and since I’m thinking to install a new SSD as the boot drive I may use what is posted here when the time comes.
Thank you all
As been new to this forum, I received email notifications from my first posts so I thought it will happen again but it didn’t. Now I know better and I will check the forum as needed.
The cloning seem a good way to go and since I’m thinking to install a new SSD as the boot drive I may use what is posted here when the time comes.
Thank you all
Nicolas
Re: Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
Correction:
So what you installed was Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon.
Please, cf. here: Linux Mint Releases and here: Editions for Linux Mint 20.1 "Ulyssa"
You do not have to trust my words. You execute the terminal command
The operating system is Linux Mint. Its version is 20.1. Cinnamon is merely one desktop environment out of 3 available DE's for Linux Mint: Cinnamon / Mate /xfce.
So what you installed was Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon.
Please, cf. here: Linux Mint Releases and here: Editions for Linux Mint 20.1 "Ulyssa"
You do not have to trust my words. You execute the terminal command
inxi -Sxxx
or you launch System Settings => System Information. The people of Alderaan have been bravely fighting back the clone warriors sent out by the unscrupulous Sith Lord Palpatine for 762 days now.
Lifeline
Re: Switching Linuxmint from 1 HDD to Another
You have done an amazing work AndyMH with your foxclone. I downloaded the instructions and they are very well written / documented. I will also download the ISO and burn it on a DVD because I got a new 240GB SSD and would like to transfer the Cinnamon 20.1 from my SATA HD to the SSD.AndyMH wrote: ⤴Sun Mar 07, 2021 5:42 pm You can clone the 160GB HDD to the 250GB HDD. Sounds like an old PC if it has IDE drives, so suspect it is booting legacy?
If you are running LM20.1 then you must have a 64 bit processor. Try foxclone (I developed it):
https://foxclone.com/ (US download)
https://foxclone.org/ (UK download)
Download the iso, burn it to a usb stick (or CD) and boot from it. Read the user guide.
Note - I've not tested it with IDE drives.
I followed the instructions and formated the SSD but I stumble on making a partitions: what size? what type?
If you have a chance please let me know. I attache a picture of the formated SSD
Nicolas
Re: Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
I wanted to give it a try and do the cloning tonight but my knowledge is limited here......
I got the ISO and made the foxclone DVD and got it going but then it said”
Source ends at 232.89GB
Target drive is 223.57GB
Shrink the Source
Now when I reboot and go to Gparted, first I’m not sure if I should resize the sda2 or the sda5. Clicking on either the new menu coming up I’m not sure what numbers to put. I attach a picture of the source disk which I must shrink to do the cloning.
I got the ISO and made the foxclone DVD and got it going but then it said”
Source ends at 232.89GB
Target drive is 223.57GB
Shrink the Source
Now when I reboot and go to Gparted, first I’m not sure if I should resize the sda2 or the sda5. Clicking on either the new menu coming up I’m not sure what numbers to put. I attach a picture of the source disk which I must shrink to do the cloning.
Nicolas
Re: Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
First, when you are cloning you don't have to do anything to the target drive - whatever is there gets overwritten, so no need to format it.
Because you are booting legacy with a drive formatted with a msdos partition table, you need to do two things to your source drive, sda:
To resize sda5, in the gparted main window, right click on it and select resize/move, then drag the arrow left. Then repeat for sda2, the extended partition.
A window will appear at the bottom of the gparted main screen telling you what it needs to do - edit > apply all operations.
Your new drive, sdb is only 10GB smaller than your existing system drive sda, so to be on the safe side shrink both sda5 and sda2 by 20GB. If it is any consolation I had the same problem cloning from an mSATA SSD to a 2.5" SSD, both nominally 240GB, but the SSD was around 10GB smaller.
Using gparted is explained in the user guide, page 46.
Before you start, take a backup.
Because you are booting legacy with a drive formatted with a msdos partition table, you need to do two things to your source drive, sda:
- you have to shrink the logical partition sda5,
- then when you have done that you need to shrink the extended partition, sda2. Think of the extended partition as a container that the logical partition sits inside.
/
partition, so you can't do this booting normally (you can't change a mounted partition and you can't unmount your /
partition). So boot foxclone and run gparted from that.To resize sda5, in the gparted main window, right click on it and select resize/move, then drag the arrow left. Then repeat for sda2, the extended partition.
A window will appear at the bottom of the gparted main screen telling you what it needs to do - edit > apply all operations.
Your new drive, sdb is only 10GB smaller than your existing system drive sda, so to be on the safe side shrink both sda5 and sda2 by 20GB. If it is any consolation I had the same problem cloning from an mSATA SSD to a 2.5" SSD, both nominally 240GB, but the SSD was around 10GB smaller.
Using gparted is explained in the user guide, page 46.
Before you start, take a backup.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
Thank you for your time AndyMH
Not very smart of me at all, I should have thought that I could not have done that work on a live HD. But yesterday it was a stressful day for me, the cooling fan fell off my CPU and I had to do a homebrew contraption to re secure the fan.
Anyway I’m back to “normal” now and I’m doing the work you described right now
Much appreciated
Not very smart of me at all, I should have thought that I could not have done that work on a live HD. But yesterday it was a stressful day for me, the cooling fan fell off my CPU and I had to do a homebrew contraption to re secure the fan.
Anyway I’m back to “normal” now and I’m doing the work you described right now
Much appreciated
Nicolas
Re: Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
The cloning finished successfully, very easy and fast process
However I was expecting the see the 240GB SSD in the BIOS as a second or first drive to boot from but I still have the SATA 250GB as the only bootable drive.
I even swathed the data cable between the 2 drives but the SSD looks like it’s not bootable.
I attach the 2 disks pictures from the disk utility for info (they both look the same)
I wonder what I did wrong
However I was expecting the see the 240GB SSD in the BIOS as a second or first drive to boot from but I still have the SATA 250GB as the only bootable drive.
I even swathed the data cable between the 2 drives but the SSD looks like it’s not bootable.
I attach the 2 disks pictures from the disk utility for info (they both look the same)
I wonder what I did wrong
Nicolas
Re: Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
They will be, that is the whole point of a clone.
You didn't read the user guide! Remove the old drive, replace with new drive.I wonder what I did wrong
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
I did this before and it shows my 160GB HD only which is not bootable
Now I did it again and I attach a picture of the BIOS screen
As far as I know in Windows the BIOS shows all the HD on the PC which are bootable
Perhaps I should mount the SSD, I did try this too ar per paragraph 111 page 45 of 58
but I get "File/Directory does not exist
Now I did it again and I attach a picture of the BIOS screen
As far as I know in Windows the BIOS shows all the HD on the PC which are bootable
Perhaps I should mount the SSD, I did try this too ar per paragraph 111 page 45 of 58
but I get "File/Directory does not exist
Nicolas
Re: Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
I got it now Andy
I went in the BIOS and disabled all HD except the SSD and now she boot nicely
I dont know why the SSD was not shown as bootable in the BIOS boot section
Anyway all is fine, your help is greatly appreciated
Thread is now marked SOLVED
I went in the BIOS and disabled all HD except the SSD and now she boot nicely
I dont know why the SSD was not shown as bootable in the BIOS boot section
Anyway all is fine, your help is greatly appreciated
Thread is now marked SOLVED
Nicolas
Re: [SOLVED} Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
Next time read the manual FIRST.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: [SOLVED} Switching Linux Mint from 1 HDD to Another
I will print and study the manual Andy
It is an excellent educational source, very well written and I like the subject
Thanks again for your time
It is an excellent educational source, very well written and I like the subject
Thanks again for your time
Nicolas