Can I move my hdd to another machine?

[Thrrrppp]

Hi
I have suse9 installed on a pentiumII-333 but tried the hdd in another machine just for a 'laugh' - but it doesn't boot.
I didn't really expect it to, but does anyone know if you can swap drives and make linux run or is this stupid idea?

Instead of a new install I'm trying to preserve my existing configurations of Samba, Apache etc..
Please tell me if I am being an idiot

Thanks

[athlon_crazy]

it's possible if you do it proper way. since I did once on sles10.

- Make a backup for all configuration for apache, samba & etc
- Then, I will turn off all services
- Transfer the hdd,
- Boot new system with SLES DVD
- Choose installation --> other option --> repair

This will repair the filesystem & all dependencies of your new system including your bootloader.

But, to be honest I would prefer you to do fresh sles10 installation then import all your backup configuration file to a new system. Some more, all configuration files for samba, apache, bind & etc are not so big to backup into your thumbdrive. Even for your big data in /srv/www & /var/lib/mysql or samba home directory, you still have choice to use rsync to transfer everything for you.

Just my 2 cents

[i92guboj]

Hi
I have suse9 installed on a pentiumII-333 but tried the hdd in another machine just for a 'laugh' - but it doesn't boot.
I didn't really expect it to, but does anyone know if you can swap drives and make linux run or is this stupid idea?

Instead of a new install I'm trying to preserve my existing configurations of Samba, Apache etc..
Please tell me if I am being an idiot

Thanks

The naming of the drives can change. So, you will need to edit your grub.conf or lilo.conf files to match the new layout. We can't tell you anything more without knowing more info.

Does the boot menu still appear?

[ryptyde]

Hi
I have suse9 installed on a pentiumII-333 but tried the hdd in another machine just for a 'laugh' - but it doesn't boot.
I didn't really expect it to, but does anyone know if you can swap drives and make linux run or is this stupid idea?

Instead of a new install I'm trying to preserve my existing configurations of Samba, Apache etc..
Please tell me if I am being an idiot

Thanks

I can say that I have taken the hdd from a pIII box and installed it to a p4 while running Fedora Core 6. To my surprise it booted to the login and desktop. I guess that different systems will give varied results but you never know unless you try. One thing to consider when trying such a move is to not have any extra devices attached including hdd's.

[Thrrrppp]

thanks for all your replies, your effort is appreciated

the error I get is:

INIT: version 2.82 booting
INIT: Entering run level: 5 <------ (says runlevel 3 if in failsafe)
INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "4" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "5" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "6" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel
(--flashing cursor--)

Someone else on a centos site mentioned a similar question, but their server had failed (not the hdd though) and they wanted to move the drive to a new machine - what I am doing isn't quite that serious though
The 'destination' pc has a very similar setup - 1 cpu (amd 500mhz) 256 ram, one dvd drive, 1 hdd ,net cards are different)

Anyway I'll read up on 'INIT'...
Thanks

[bigtomrodney]

Yeah it's not a cut and dry answer, it depends on the system. I've done it before and it was fine, other times dead. The main fault I've found it drivers for hard drive controllers. Without them in the initrd you will fail to boot. So moving from say an intel board to an nvidia board will prevent booting of the kernel. You can repair it manually with a livecd if you know how though I would recommend checking your loaded modules to make sure you aren't loading unnecessary modules at every boot.

[Roxoff]

Yeah it's not a cut and dry answer, it depends on the system. I've done it before and it was fine, other times dead. The main fault I've found it drivers for hard drive controllers. Without them in the initrd you will fail to boot. So moving from say an intel board to an nvidia board will prevent booting of the kernel. You can repair it manually with a livecd if you know how though I would recommend checking your loaded modules to make sure you aren't loading unnecessary modules at every boot.

If you get a situation where you're unable to boot 'cos of this, then a re-install is probably the best way out.

Having said that, I've changed the mainboard on systems several times and I've yet to see any Linux install miss a heartbeat. This isn't quite the same as moving the hard disk to another computer as the video card and other on-board equipment is still the same, but it's pretty close. Linux has always astonished me when I've done this. Similar changes to Window 2000 or XP would cause untold grief.