duplicate a drive

[RW]

On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:07:34 +0100
Matthew Seaman <m.seaman at infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote:

> RW wrote:
> > On Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:19:23 -0600 (MDT)
> > Warren Block <wblock at wonkity.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/disks.html#NEW-HUGE-DISK
> >>
> > 
> > "The best way is to reinstall the OS on the new disk, then move the
> > user data over. This is highly recommended if you have been
> > tracking -STABLE for more than one release, or have updated a
> > release instead of installing a new one."
> > 
> > 
> > "Highly recommended" seems a very strange thing for the FAQ to be
> > saying. It's implying that FreeBSD base-system upgrades are a
> > bit flaky. It even goes on "Should you decide not to do a fresh
> > install", as if to say "you have been warned".
> > 
> > Unless my experience is abnormal, we seem to be publishing our own
> > FUD.
> 
> When does a valid assessment of the difficulty of a certain course of 
> action turn into an unjustified attempt to spread Fear, Uncertainty
> and Doubt?   This is not FUD because it is absolutely true.  You will
> get better results by making a new install on your new hard drive and 
> merging over your data.  ... install 7.x into a disk layout originally
> designed for 4.x you ... change from UFS1 to UFS2 ... across major
> version numbers

I don't think anyone would dispute that a new disk is a good
opportunity to avoid a major release upgrade, or to fix problems on a
very old installation. What it says is: "highly recommended if you ...
have updated a release". 

If you have a system that's been across a few minor releases
and is working well, I would think the risks of screwing it up on a
reinstall greatly outweigh any benefits - particularly if it involves
reinstalling a lot of ports.