Backup router, new hard drive.

[Jerry McAllister]

> 
> How do I copy the  whole harddrive to a larger drive than the one  being 
> copied?
> This is an router that cant go down  for more than a few minutes.  I
> want to replace whole system to the  new  harddirve old one has noisy
> bearings. I have no backup at all.

First, find a way to make a backup!!!!!!!!!
Over the local net to another machine if necessary.

Is the larger hard drive already on the machine?   Can it be put
there with the old one still left where it is?   Is the whole disk
used for FreeBSD?   If the larger drive can be put on the machine
and the old one is running only FreeBSD, then just 

 - use disklabel(8) to see what partitions are being used on the old disk.
     disklabel -r da0
   write the output down or pipe that to a file or to a printer so you 
   can easily refer to it later.
 - physically install the larger drive if it is not already there.
   Lets say the old disk is da0 and the larger one becomes da1.
 - use fdisk(8) to create one large slice with boot manager that uses 
   the whole larger disk 
     fdisk -BI -v -b /boot/mbr da1
 - use disklabel to partition the slice and write a boot record
     disklabel -w -B -b /boot/boot1 -s /boot/boot2 da1s1 auto
 - use disklabel to edit the partition sizes and rewrite the label
     disklabel -r -e da1s1
   refer to the output you saved above to create appropriate partition
   sizes.  Since the disk is bigger, you are free to adjust sizes as
   long as they are both bigger than the old ones and all add up to 
   total space in the slice (or less).  If there is one last large 
   partition, the new disklabel lets you use '*' for its size and it
   will just use up all the remaining slice.
     example partitions on a nominal 18GB DRIVE: 
      #      size   offset    fstype  
      a:  2514944        0    4.2BSD  #    To mount as /
      b:  4618240  2514944      swap  #    Used for swap
      c: 35551782        0    unused  #    defines whole slice
      e:  2514944  7133184    4.2BSD  #    To mount on /tmp
      f: 25903654  9648128    4.2BSD  #    To mount on /home
   You will need to create the appropriate partitions for your situation.

 - newfs each new partition (except the one for swap - leave that alone)
     newfs /dev/rda1s1a
     newfs /dev/rda1s1e
     newfs /dev/rda1s1f
   These newfs commands just take the defaults for block and fragment 
   size, etc which are probably good for this.
 - create mount points for the new partitions/filesystems
   mkdir /newroot
   mkdir /newtmp               (Shouldn't really need one for /newtmp)
   mkdir /newhome
 - you might want to make entries for the new partitions in /etc/fstab 
   to make writing dump/restore and maybe fsck commands less tedious.
     vi /etc/fstab
     add lines using the new device types just created and appropriate mount
     points otherwise like one of the other regular UFS lines.
     /dev/da1s1a    /newroot  ufs   rw   2  2
     /dev/da1s1e    /newtmp   ufs   rw   2  2
     /dev/da1s1f    /newhome  ufs   rw   2  2
 - you might want to fsck the new partitions just in case, but it isn't
   really necessary unless newfs is hosed.
     fsck -f -y /newroot
     fsck -fy /newtmp
     fsck -fy /newhome
 - now mount the new filesystems (don't bother with /newtmp)
   mount /newroot
   mount /newhome
 - use dumpt(8)/restore() to copy everything.    Note that if you have
   tables and/logs being constantly updated, the only way to make true
   copies is to take the system down and go to single user.   This will
   only copy files as they are at the instant of copying.
   The actual dump/restores that you do will depend on the actual partitions/
   filesystems your old disk has, so adjust accordingly.
     cd /newroot
     dump -0af - / | restore -xf -
     cd /newhome
     dump -0af - /home | restore -xf -

Now you should be able to shut the machine down, pull the old disk,
put the larger disk in the slot where the old disk was and reboot.
You can also probably put the old disk in to the slot where the larger
disk had been during the copying and it should mount OK - now as da1.

Have fun.   
It is actually easier than the narrative would make is seem.
That is, if you can plug and switch the drives as described.

////jerry

> 
> Dan
> 
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