I am preparing myself for new installation of SUSE 9.0 over an existing SuSE 8.1 system. I have only one 20Gb HD which is divided into hda1 (/boot), swap and hda3 (with all the rest). My /dev/hda3 has about 19Gb total, currently used only 55%, so I have about 9Gb free. It is reiserfs file system. I wander if I can use part of the free space on my disk for backing up my data temporarily, during the installation. I mean, if I could resize (shrink) my /dev/hda3, then create new partition on the free space. I could copy my data to this partition, and proceed with new installation, formatting all but this new partition. Later I can copy the needed data and try to reintegrate the temp backup partition into the new system... Is this possible? If yes, is there anybody willing to share step-by-step instructions. I already studied man pages for reiserfsck, mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, cfdisk, sfdisk, parted etc similar programs. It seems like possible to me, but I don't feel self-confident enough to proceed before someone shows me the clear path to follow. TIA R.Soskic
On Monday 05 January 2004 8:49 am, Radule Soskic wrote:
I wander if I can use part of the free space on my disk for backing up my data temporarily, during the installation.
My general advice would be to operate using the rescue system on the distribution CD. That will enable you at least to create partitions and to copy partitions using either "cp -a" or concatenated "tar"s, without relying on the installed system for any help. Paul Abrahams
I am preparing myself for new installation of SUSE 9.0 over an existing SuSE 8.1 system.
I have only one 20Gb HD which is divided into hda1 (/boot), swap and hda3 (with all the rest).
My /dev/hda3 has about 19Gb total, currently used only 55%, so I have about 9Gb free. It is reiserfs file system. [snip] I mean, if I could resize (shrink) my /dev/hda3, then create new partition on the free space. I could copy my data to this partition, and proceed with new installation, formatting all but this new partition. Later I can copy the needed data and try to reintegrate the temp backup partition into the new system...
Is this possible? If yes, is there anybody willing to share step-by-step instructions. Oh it is most definitely possible, to my knowedge. You unfortunately
Radule Soskic wrote: though have to use on the commercially avail partition managers (see Acronis.com) to resize your paririon without losing data. To my knowledge using the rescue system vakes you lose data ie it formats the partition.
I already studied man pages for reiserfsck, mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, cfdisk, sfdisk, parted etc similar programs. It seems like possible to me, but I don't feel self-confident enough to proceed before someone shows me the clear path to follow. I have used Partition Magic before and it is really a semi-no-brainer especially since it has a GUI. I would assume that the Acronis product is similar, although to date I have not used it.
-- ======================================================================== Hylton Conacher - Licenced ex-Windows user (apart from Quicken) Registered Linux user # 229959 at http://counter.li.org Using SuSE 9.0 with KDE 3.1 ========================================================================
Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC) wrote:
Radule Soskic wrote:
I am preparing myself for new installation of SUSE 9.0 over an existing SuSE 8.1 system.
I have only one 20Gb HD which is divided into hda1 (/boot), swap and hda3 (with all the rest).
My /dev/hda3 has about 19Gb total, currently used only 55%, so I have about 9Gb free. It is reiserfs file system. [snip] I mean, if I could resize (shrink) my /dev/hda3, then create new partition on the free space. I could copy my data to this partition, and proceed with new installation, formatting all but this new partition. Later I can copy the needed data and try to reintegrate the temp backup partition into the new system...
Is this possible? If yes, is there anybody willing to share step-by-step instructions.
Oh it is most definitely possible, to my knowedge. You unfortunately though have to use on the commercially avail partition managers (see Acronis.com) to resize your paririon without losing data.
To my knowledge using the rescue system vakes you lose data ie it formats the partition.
I already studied man pages for reiserfsck, mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, cfdisk, sfdisk, parted etc similar programs. It seems like possible to me, but I don't feel self-confident enough to proceed before someone shows me the clear path to follow.
I have used Partition Magic before and it is really a semi-no-brainer especially since it has a GUI. I would assume that the Acronis product is similar, although to date I have not used it.
rsync -avubpoDrz --exclude-from=/FROMFILE / /XXX ####rsync the lot except for the directories mentioned in /FROMFILE from / to /XXX. /FROMFILE can contain 2 lines /proc /XXX /XXX is where you've mounted the new partition you want to rsync to. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce .... Hamradio G3VBV and keen Flyer Linux Only Shop.
While reading carefully your answers/advices I experimented a little with these: rescue system CD, live eval CD 9.0 and Knoppix CD. I tried each of them, but escaped back before the final step. Comparing the three, I would definitely like to use live eval, since it provides with the Yast Partitioner GUI. This makes me feel pretty confident that I know what I'm doing. But, there is a problem with the default behavior of the live eval CD. Namely, since it finds that there is some free space on my HDD, it installs some files on my /dev/hda. Then later, during the operation, the partition which I want to resize is busy and not able to get unmounted. Now, my next question is about live eval CD: ---> How to change the default behavior and make it NOT to copy any files to my hard disk??? I presume it is possible, because on the CD, in the file /boot/loader/isolinux.cfg I found a string that looks like some boot options: append initrd=initrd max_scsi_luns=1 nopcmcia=1 splash=silent live=autopart,autoswap showopts (line may wrap) I hope that "live=autopart, autoswap" part could be overridden (by user input on boot options line) to something that means "do not make partition nor swap files on disk"... Unfortunately, I could not find any documentation on these parameters, neither on CD itself, nor on SuSE site, Google, nowhere. F1 doesn't help either. Anybody? Or should I start another thread on live eval boot parameters? TIA & Best Regards Radule Soskic
participants (5)
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cikasole -
Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC) -
Paul W. Abrahams -
Radule Soskic
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Sid Boyce