[wplug] moving partitions

[Gentgeen]

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:43:14 -0500
Zach <netrek at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have 2 machines: one is a laptop, the other is an old desktop.
> Neither has a CD/DVD burner nor do I have broadband internet access
> yet however both machines have NIC cards so I thought I could buy a
> few feet of CAT5 ethernet cable and connect them to transfer
> everything from the laptop to the desktop (which has an extra 50GB
> hard disk that is empty and would be perfect for this task).
> 
> The laptop has 2 partitions: /hda1 for Win32 and /hda2 for Linux.
> 
> Both machines are running Debian testing release. The laptop machine
> is up to date howver the dekstop has not been updated in 3 years and
> it would not be practical to update it at this point since I don't yet
> have broadband. Hopefully that will not hinder me from the task at
> hand.
> 
> The desktop has 3 partitions: /hda1 for Win32, hda2 for Linux and hdb1
> (IIRC) which is either blank or was formatted for Linux Swap.
> 
> I've never hooked up ethernet or setup a LAN nor transferred a hard
> disk image from one machine to another. I want to transfer the Win32
> AND Linux partitions from the laptop over to the desktop extra hard
> disk.
> 
> The ethernet cable I just plug into each NIC. Never setup a NIC before
> so does someone know how I do this?
> 
> After that is working what should I do to get the 2 machines talking
> to one another.
> 
> And what is the method method for transferring the data (20GB Win32
> and 16HB Linux partitions).
> 
> Also should I copy the data over rather than move it in case there is
> a problem? I don't have enough spare space on the laptop side for this
> though (only about 200MB free total on the entire disk including Win32
> and Linux partitions).
> 
> Regards,
> Zach
> _______________________________________________
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> wplug at wplug.org
> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug
> 


I am thinking the best thing to do is:

  1) Set up network
  2) Mount the free space of the Desktop on the Laptop
  3) use dd


Setting up your network -- this could be computer to computer IF you use
a cross-over cable.  Or just plug them both into the router.  You did
not mention what kind (if any) of network you already have.  

Mounting:  Assuming the desktop already has all the right packages, and
set up right (gonna need some help here, has been a long time since I
did this, so not sure what packages you need)  but you will want
something like this in the fstab of you laptop:

desktop.ip.address:/desktop/share/dir   /laptop/mnt/dir   nfs
rw,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=14,hard,intr,user,auto 0 0

Copying:
  On the laptop, do something like:
      
         dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/laptop/mnt/dir

Then just wait :-)


BTW, this will make a copy of the partition, not copy all the files. 
(just like a CD ISO)


-- 
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