Mark Fletcher put forth on 4/18/2011 9:52 AM:

> The only issue is that I don't have enough spare power connectors on my
> PC's power supply to attach both the new and the old disks at the same
> time.

> What I want to know is how can I remove the current drive from the
> filesystem so I can remove it physically without sending the machine
> into a tailspin? I have only ever set up the mapping of disk partitions
> to mount points at installation time, never afterwards, and so am not
> sure what to do.

It won't go into a tailspin unless you have programs in /opt that you've
configured your system to run automatically, such as daemons. If you
haven't, you'll simply get a mount error at startup, which is harmless.

> I am thinking the procedure will be something along the lines of:
>
> 1) modify my computer's mount settings such that /opt is part of the
> root filesystem instead of a separate mount point

You don't want to do this.

> (HOW? manual edit
> of /etc/fstab or something more sophisticated?) This will cause me to
> lose access to everything on the old disk which is OK because it's all
> backed up and there is nothing there that's critical to the running of
> the machine.

If you plan on mounting the new replacement disk in /opt, then I
wouldn't touch the settings in fstab until after you get the new disk
in, partitioned and formatted. After that, make the necessary changes
in fstab (such as disk UUID or /dev/sdX change) to mount the new device
at /opt.

> 2) Power down the machine and remove the old disk, attach the new disk.
>
> 3) bring up the machine, partition and format the new disk. (is the tool
> for this fdisk?)

cfdisk is easier (menu driven)

> 4) modify the machine's mount settings to go back to mounting /opt on
> the new disk (HOW?)

If the new disk shows up with the same /dev/sdX you shouldn't have to
change anything in /etc/fstab, unless you're currently mounting by-label
or by-uuid. If it doesn't show up as the previous /dev/sdX then simply
change that to match the new /dev/sdX name.

> 5) restore everything I want in /opt back from the backup.

Just make sure you're using the proper backup/restore procedure so you
get all the appropriate bits set for directories and files, such as
ownership, execute perms, etc.

> Even assuming I'm on the right lines, I don't know how to do steps 1 and
> 4 and am not totally confident about how to do 3, so would appreciate
> any advice.

It would always be helpful if you add relevant information to your post,
such as a copy of your current /etc/fstab. That would allow us to
better answer your questions, telling you exactly what to modify, etc.

--
Stan


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On Mon, 2011-04-18 at 11:32 -0400, Dan Ritter wrote:

> You had it pretty much correct; don't worry. Double-check your
> backups are good before beginning.

Thanks a lot, Dan!

Mark


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