Quickly Check If Linux System is Using BIOS or UEFI<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPartition New Disk<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Next, partition the new disk to match how the old disk is partitioned. Ensure the partition scheme and firmware interfaces are same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my system, the firmware interface for the old disk is UEFI, with GPT partition table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parted \/dev\/vda p<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nModel: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)\nDisk \/dev\/vda: 118GB\nSector size (logical\/physical): 512B\/512B\nPartition Table: gpt <\/strong>\nDisk Flags: \n\nNumber Start End Size File system Name Flags\n 1 1049kB 1128MB 1127MB fat32 boot, esp<\/strong>\n 2 1128MB 3276MB 2147MB ext4\n 3 3276MB 118GB 115GB\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThe new disk has no partitions yet;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parted \/dev\/vdb p<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nError: \/dev\/vdb: unrecognised disk label\nModel: Virtio Block Device (virtblk) \nDisk \/dev\/vdb: 21.5GB\nSector size (logical\/physical): 512B\/512B\nPartition Table: unknown\nDisk Flags:\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSo, let's partition it. You can use gdisk\/fdisk or parted command. Let's use parted<\/strong> command here.<\/p>\n\n\n\nInitialize the disk to GPT partition;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parted \/dev\/vdb mklabel gpt<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreate EFI partition. We set it to 512MiB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parted \/dev\/vdb mkpart primary fat32 1MiB 513MiB<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nInitialize the ESP partition;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parted \/dev\/vdb set 1 esp on<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreate Boot partition of 1GB;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parted \/dev\/vdb mkpart primary ext4 513MiB 1537MiB<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreate the root partition;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parted \/dev\/vdb mkpart primary ext4 1537MiB 100%<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreate filesystems on the partitions;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EFI parition should be set to FAT32<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mkfs.fat -F32 \/dev\/vdb1<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nBoot device, set to EXT4;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mkfs.ext4 \/dev\/vdb2<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreate Logical Volume on the Root Filesystem<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
As seen above, the old disk had an LVM the root filesystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
lvs<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta% Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert\n ubuntu-lv ubuntu-vg -wi-a----- <106.95g \n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSo, we have to create a logical volume on the new disk root filesystem;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
pvcreate \/dev\/vdb3<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nvgcreate ubuntu-vg-01 \/dev\/vdb3<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nlvcreate -n ubuntu-vg-01 -l +100%FREE ubuntu-vg-01<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nConfirm;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
lvs<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta% Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert\n ubuntu-lv ubuntu-vg -wi-a----- <106.95g \n ubuntu-vg-01 ubuntu-vg-01 -wi-a----- <18.50g<\/strong>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreate Filesystem on the new root disk logical volume;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mkfs.ext4 \/dev\/ubuntu-vg-01\/ubuntu-vg-01<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nConfirm the changes;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parted \/dev\/vdb p<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nModel: Virtio Block Device (virtblk)\nDisk \/dev\/vdb: 21.5GB\nSector size (logical\/physical): 512B\/512B\nPartition Table: gpt\nDisk Flags: \n\nNumber Start End Size File system Name Flags\n 1 1049kB 538MB 537MB fat32 fat32 boot, esp\n 2 538MB 1612MB 1074MB ext4 ext4\n 3 1612MB 21.5GB 19.9GB ext4\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCopy Data from Old Disk to New Disk<\/h3>\n\n\n\nMount Old and New Disks<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
To copy data from the old disk to the new disk, you have to first mount both devices and respective partitions. So, create the mount directories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mkdir -p \/mnt\/{vda,vdb}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nMount the old disk onto \/mnt\/vda<\/code><\/strong> and new disk on \/mnt\/vdb<\/code><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMounting old disk;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mount \/dev\/ubuntu-vg\/ubuntu-lv \/mnt\/vda\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nMount the boot partition;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mount \/dev\/vda2 \/mnt\/vda\/boot\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nMount EFI partition;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mount \/dev\/vda1 \/mnt\/vda\/boot\/efi\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nMount the new disk;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mount \/dev\/ubuntu-vg-01\/ubuntu-vg-01 \/mnt\/vdb\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreate boot directory on the new disk;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mkdir \/mnt\/vdb\/boot<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nMount the new disk boot and EFI partition;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mount \/dev\/vdb2 \/mnt\/vdb\/boot\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCreate EFI directory and mount EFI partition;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mkdir \/mnt\/vdb\/boot\/efi<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nmount \/dev\/vdb1 \/mnt\/vdb\/boot\/efi<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nConfirm the mounting;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
df -hT | grep -E \"vda|vdb\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n\/dev\/mapper\/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv ext4 105G 6.8G 94G 7% \/mnt\/vda\n\/dev\/vda2 ext4 2.0G 130M 1.7G 8% \/mnt\/vda\/boot\n\/dev\/vda1 vfat 1.1G 6.1M 1.1G 1% \/mnt\/vda\/boot\/efi\n\/dev\/mapper\/ubuntu--vg--01-ubuntu--vg--01 ext4 19G 32K 18G 1% \/mnt\/vdb\n\/dev\/vdb2 ext4 974M 28K 907M 1% \/mnt\/vdb\/boot\n\/dev\/vdb1 vfat 511M 4.0K 511M 1% \/mnt\/vdb\/boot\/efi\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCopy Data from Old Disk to New Disk<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Now that the partitions are created and mounted, copy the data from the old disk to new disk. To ensure that proper permissions<\/strong> and ownership<\/strong> are retained, use rsync<\/code><\/strong> command.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou can exclude unnecessary directories such as \/tmp, \/proc, \/dev, \/sys, e.tc<\/p>\n\n\n\n
rsync -avhP --exclude={\"\/dev\/*\",\"\/proc\/*\",\"\/sys\/*\",\"\/tmp\/*\",\"\/run\/*\",\"\/mnt\/*\",\"\/media\/*\",\"\/lost+found\"} \/mnt\/vda\/ \/mnt\/vdb\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThe rsync options, -avhP<\/code> used are explained below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n-a<\/code>: Stands for \"archive\" and is used to preserve the file attributes and permissions during the synchronization. It's a shorthand for several other flags like -rlptgoD<\/code>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n-v<\/code>: Stands for \"verbose\" and makes rsync<\/code> display detailed information about the files being copied, which can be helpful for tracking progress.<\/li>\n\n\n\n-h<\/code>: Stands for \"human-readable\" and makes the output more easily understandable for humans by using units like \"K\" (kilobytes), \"M\" (megabytes), etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n-P<\/code>: Combines two options:\n\n--progress<\/code>: Displays progress information during the transfer, including the percentage of completion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n--partial<\/code>: Allows resuming partially transferred files.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nOnce the data copying is done, you can confirm the sizes;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
du -hd1 \/mnt\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSample output;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7.1G\t\/mnt\/vdb\n6.9G\t\/mnt\/vda\n14G\t\/mnt\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nAlso try to verify permissions and ownerships;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ls -alh \/mnt\/vda\/home\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ntotal 12K\ndrwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Sep 19 19:45 .\ndrwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4.0K Sep 19 19:52 ..\ndrwxr-x--- 4 1000 1000 4.0K Sep 19 19:59 kifarunix<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nls -alh \/mnt\/vdb\/home\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ntotal 12K\ndrwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Sep 19 19:45 .\ndrwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4.0K Sep 19 19:52 ..\ndrwxr-x--- 4 1000 1000 4.0K Sep 19 19:59 kifarunix<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nAll seems good!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Install GRUB Bootloader<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Now, it is time to install the GRUB bootloader on to the new disk. Proceed as follows;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mount --bind \/dev \/mnt\/vdb\/dev<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nmount --bind \/dev\/pts \/mnt\/vdb\/dev\/pts<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nmount --bind \/proc \/mnt\/vdb\/proc<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nmount --bind \/sys \/mnt\/vdb\/sys<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nIf your system was on UEFI, then ensure that you mount the \/sys<\/code><\/strong> with --rbind<\/code><\/strong> option. This enables grub-install<\/code><\/strong> command to manipulate the EFI variables.<\/p>\n\n\n\nmount --rbind \/sys \/mnt\/vdb\/sys<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nChroot into your system disk and install bootloader:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
chroot \/mnt\/vdb\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nRun the command below to install GRUB on the specified device's boot sector or EFI System Partition (ESP) if it's an EFI system;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
grub-install \/dev\/vdb<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nIf using GRUB 2, then update the command above accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sample output;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.\nInstallation finished. No error reported.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nIf you get the warnings below;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
grub-install: warning: EFI variables cannot be set on this system.\ngrub-install: warning: You will have to complete the GRUB setup manually.<\/strong><\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nEnsure \/sys<\/strong> is mounted with --rbind<\/strong> option.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVerify GRUB installation;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
grub-install --recheck \/dev\/vdb<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nNext, run the command below to generate the GRUB configuration file, grub.cfg<\/code><\/strong>. This configuration file contains information about the installed operating systems and their boot options.<\/p>\n\n\n\nupdate-grub<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSample output;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sourcing file `\/etc\/default\/grub'\nSourcing file `\/etc\/default\/grub.d\/init-select.cfg'\nGenerating grub configuration file ...\nFound linux image: \/boot\/vmlinuz-5.15.0-84-generic\nFound initrd image: \/boot\/initrd.img-5.15.0-84-generic\nWarning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable partitions.\nSystems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration.\nCheck GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry.\nAdding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...\ndone\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nUpdate the Filesystem Table (FSTAB)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
FSTAB (\/etc\/fstab<\/strong>) defines how storage devices and partitions are mounted into the file system hierarchy at system boot.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFirst, let's get the old system fstab configurations (note that we are still within chroot!);<\/p>\n\n\n\n
grep -vE \"^$|^#\" etc\/fstab<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n