[TriLUG] upgrading to a bigger HD

[Christopher L Merrill]

Ed Hill wrote:
> Yes!  I've used dd and netcat to backup partitions and a neat little
> tutorial is available at:
> 
>   http://www.rajeevnet.com/hacks_hints/os_clone/os_cloning.html

Thanks for that link (and thanks to all the others, too).

I'm burning a Knoppix disk and will try to use dd to copy the
drive as instructed in the tutorial.

A few more questions...
If I scanned the tutorial correctly, this will create an exact copy
of my original HDD onto my new one...including identical partition
sizes. It will handle the MBR, too, right?
   dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb

So if the new HDD is bigger and I want to increase my partition
sizes, I'll need to resize the partitions before or after.  I don't
think my old copy of PQMagic will work on this drive.
The tutorial demostrates copying one partition at a time and says:

  "Note: Both drives are partitioned exactly same. If you have different
   brand harddrives, make sure each partition on  second drive must be equal
   to or greater than first drive partitions. Also make sure File system ID
   should match for second drive also"

What it does _not_ tell me is: If I make the new partitions significantly
larger and then copy in a smaller partition, will the extra space be
useable by the filesystem?  Or is that space lost?

TIA,
C


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