Upgrading internal SSD

[Jimmy2027]

Hello, I would like to upgrade the internal SSD storage of my laptot, from 300G to 1000G.

For this I was thinking of doing the following steps:
1. mount new SSD with USB
2. format the new SSD with fdisk
3. copy everything from old SSD to new SSD with:

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 rsync -aAHXv / --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found"} /mnt/MyNewSSD/

4. install the bootloader on the new SSD with chroot from liveusb
5. physically remove old SSD and insert new SSD

Would this work in theory?

A few questions regarding this:
* When chrooting from liveusb what steps do I have to do in order to install the bootloader? Do I have to mount the same directories as described in the installation handbook
* The new SSD is accessed from /dev/nvme0n1 while the old one is accessed from /dev/sda. Is there anywhere other than the fstab file where this difference matters?

Thanks for your help

[carcajou]

It should work. I did pretty much the same thing...

My current Gentoo install started in VM, then moved to my internal HDD (used only for backups) for compilation speed-up and after I set everything the way I wanted - I booted SysRescueCD from usb flash, re-partitioned my SSD (BIOS boot partition, /boot partition + LVM), mounted new partitions and copied Gentoo install from HDD to SSD (just mind the flags for cp to keep the permissions and other properties; I did not use rsync).

After everything was copied: chroot-ed (the way it is described in handbook), fixed fstab and reinstalled GRUB to /dev/nvme0n1.

[NeddySeagoon]

Jimmy2027,

No. It will fail because of all the open files on the the old SSD. Well, the copy will not fail but the result will not work.

Attach the new SSD via USB.
Boot some live media.

mkdir /mnt/old
mkdir /mnt/new

Partition the new SSD.
Make filesystems on the new SSD.
Mount the filesystem tree at /mnt/new.
You will need to make /mnt/new/boot and so on as you go.

Mount the old directory tree at /mnt/old with the read only option.
This will prevent you ruining your mid winter festivities if you mess up the direction of the copy. :)

Copy the old filesystem tree to the new one. cp -a will do. There is nothing to exclude except maybe /mnt/old//media/* as everything else will be empty.

If you UEFI boot. That's it.
If you BIOS boot, the bits of the boot loader outside of the filesystem need to be reinstalled, as you say, as they are not copied.
That could be copied with dd if you are very careful.

Now you have two *identical* filesystem trees.
If you intend to boot the old SSD elsewhere, you should change hostnames and host keys on one of the systems.
Hostnames will stop you getting confused.
Host keys will stop remote systems getting confused.

If you have ever set WiFi MAC addresses by hand, having two identical MAC Addresses on the same network won't work.

[figueroa]

Restore from a system backup. See my script for a stage4 backup in the following thread:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1132899.html

You need a backup routine anyway, so start now.

After installing the restore, edit /etc/fstab if there were any changes, install the boot loader, and your done.

[mike155]

* The new SSD is accessed from /dev/nvme0n1 while the old one is accessed from /dev/sda. Is there anywhere other than the fstab file where this difference matters?

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cd /etc
grep -r sda .
cd /boot
grep -r sda .

There could be entries in /etc/smartd.conf or in /etc/crypttab, for example.

[figueroa]

* The new SSD is accessed from /dev/nvme0n1 while the old one is accessed from /dev/sda. Is there anywhere other than the fstab file where this difference matters?

Code: Select all

cd /etc
grep -r sda .
cd /boot
grep -r sda .

There could be entries in /etc/smartd.conf or in /etc/crypttab, for example.

If you are asking about my stage4 script, yes, there could be. Thank you for asking. Your search (with grep) should have found them. For example, I have /dev/sda and /dev/sdb in my /etc/smartd.conf. Users that have such configurations will have to make other adjustments according to their system. /etc/smartd.conf is not a show stopper. Users should notice the errors. I don't know about /etc/crypttab as I'm not using it.

I do use my stage4 script and restore from the resulting archive in order to have a working backup partition on the 2nd hard drive and to move Gentoo between computers, and I test the results. (Rebuilding may be necessary if the computer architectures are not compatible, but that's easier and faster than a re-install from scratch.) And, I have had plenty of hard drives die, some with sudden death like now you see it now you don't.

ADDED: And, it should work for your situation.

[Irre]

When I replaced hdd, I simply did i full image backup. Removed hdd and installed ssd, restored from image backup. Last partition was expanded to fill the size of the new ssd. These step were run on linux on an external usb-stick. All systems, Windows inclusive, were succesfully moved to the new ssd.