Simple? Hardware upgrade.

[Mike Tancsa]

At 09:34 AM 1/14/2009, Jorge Biquez wrote:
>Hello all.
>
>I have a 4.11 Stable version that has been working without problems 
>in the last years. We do not need nothing else for the moment but we 
>are looking to have more speed. It has been running under a double 
>Pentium III processor with 512MB of ram and it has a disk of 40GB.
>
>I was wondering of it is possible to do 2 things.
>
>a) Only put the disk in a new machine at least a double core with 
>2GB of RAM. My guess is that could boot with a few problems on 
>hardware.... what do you think?
>
>b) If is possible to "clone" the same installation to a new faster 
>disk (like a sata 250GB). I know I can install a /.x version and for 
>sure will work but here the idea is to have things running as usual 
>without problems. This installation is very stable and secure and 
>has been with us for years.... we would like to keep it working for 
>more years.... :=)
>
>on b). Is there a simple way to do it?


Copying the disk is easy enough. However, 4.11 is VERY old and doesnt 
necessarily support the latest in hardware or even recent 
hardware.  e.g. it might not recognize the SATA controller, or might 
not work well with it.  Cloning the disk is easy.  dump | restore 
will work well. Google for the terms  "copy disk dump restore 
freebsd" and you will find lots of HOWTO docs

What I suggest is if you really cant start fresh with 7.1R, install a 
fresh copy of 4.11 onto the new hardware and make sure it works. Then 
try duplicating the disk via dump and restore.

         ---Mike