OK...question for any Linux-familiar computer savvy people/IT techs out there...

"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
12/23/2019 at 18:42 • Filed to: Computerlopnik

Been searching for an answer to this all evening and cannot find anything definitive.

I have a Win10 desktop with 256GB Samsung SSD ‘OS’ drive and 500GB Western Digital HDD ‘Data’ drive. I cloned the ‘OS’ drive from an HDD drive a few years ago onto the new SSD. Windows then recognized it was now on an SSD, adjusted everything automatically as such, and all has been 100% great.

NOW...I also have an HP laptop running Linux Mint 19.3 MATE 64-bit. All is great and it runs on an 750GB HGST HDD. I have three SSDs laying around and want to clone the install from that HDD onto one of the SSDs and install that in the laptop to speed things up. BUT... I cannot find ANYTHING ANYWHERE that confirms if Linux Mint (which is Ubuntu-based) will detect it has been cloned to an SSD and then configure itself automatically...or if I have to change SSD-related settings (like TRIM) myself.

Any of you folks have any idea...?

DISCUSSION (14)

Clunker Connoisseur - In Lucas we (don't) trust > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/23/2019 at 19:09

I’ve only done a drive clone once on a non-server linux device, but usually it’s fine with whatever you do and will adjust automatically. The kernel may do a bit of reconfiguration upon first boot, but should be fine other than that

diplodicus forgot his password > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/23/2019 at 19:42

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=290781

Have you read that thread? Op eventually made a backup to an external drive then fresh installed mint on ssd. Sounds like you have a few options though

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > diplodicus forgot his password
12/23/2019 at 19:46

Ooo, I had missed this thread, thanks! I am hoping I don’t have to do a fresh reinstall though...

coqui70 > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/23/2019 at 19:55

Treat the SSD as a bootable USB drive and create a disaster recovery image. Linux doesn’t really care what type of media you use to boot from but you may need to optimize the kernel afterwards and then create another DR copy.

https://linuxhint.com/timeshift_linux_mint_19_usb/

jminer > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/23/2019 at 20:10

It won’t care as long as you do a sector level copy to a same size or larger drive . The issue is that I assume you’ll be going down in drive size which means you’ll have to resize partitions so it'll be difficult to do but doable if you're good with managing Linux partitions.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > jminer
12/23/2019 at 20:12

Planning to use Gparted to delete the swap partition, shrink the partition to fit the SSD (it has enough free space), then clone it, then recreate the SWAP part ition. I’ll be using Clonezilla to do a disk-to-disk copy.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Clunker Connoisseur - In Lucas we (don't) trust
12/23/2019 at 20:13

OK!

Aremmes > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/23/2019 at 20:50

If you’re moving to a different disk, just use dump to write a bsckup archive to external media, boot from a live CD or USB disk, restore to the new disk, and edit /etc/fstab on the new root partition to point to the new partition(s). Anything to do with TRIM and other such low-level things will be handled by the kernel and relevant parameters that you may have to set, but this will get you running on the new disk quickly.

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/storage_administration_guide/ext4backup

jminer > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/23/2019 at 22:17

You should be good then, the change should be transparent to the OS other than resizing of the partitions.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > jminer
12/24/2019 at 07:04

Thanks for the help!

Are you just another user, like me, or do you deal with Linux for work? :)

jminer > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/24/2019 at 14:10

Good Luck!

Both - I do like 80% windows admin but still handle a Linux boxes. Mostly Ubuntu at this point but a few Red Hat too.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > jminer
12/24/2019 at 20:20

Coolness. I’ve never dealt with Linux other than in a consumer capacity. My main desktop PC for gaming and photo editing, etc is a Win10 Pro Core i7 machine, but my ‘daily’ laptop is an HP with Linux Mint 19.3 MATE 64-bit.

I also run Mint on my old Core 2 Duo box that I use as a Media Center PC and it works great!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Aremmes
12/24/2019 at 20:21

Thanks!:)

jminer > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/24/2019 at 22:37

More and more systems admin work is Linux based these days. I’ve gotten a bit rusty as the job I’ve had for 5 years is mostly Windows admin while the rest of everything migrated to Linux leaving me behind.

I’ve had to up my homelabbing lately (and need to more) to keep up with current tech and maintain my skills.

I’ve definitely gotten rid of all my old C2D equipment and even all of my iX generation kit older than 3rd gen. It’s still good for some tasks but I’ve replaced most of my lower end jobs with Raspberry Pis now.