Hard Drive Migration w/Boot Partition

I am currently running an Arch media box/server from which I am planning to move all home server functionality onto a new piece of hardware. It currently has two hard drives setup in it (/dev/sda & /dev/sdb) which are setup with lvm. I am planning to move the bigger of the two hard drives (/dev/sdb) into the new server box. Since I'm using lvm, and the install is currently small enough to fit entirely on /dev/sda, this is mostly non-problematic. However, the caveat is that my boot partition is installed on /dev/sdb on a regular ext2 partition whith the bootloader installed to the MBR of /dev/sdb. Does anyone know of a good way I could setup /dev/sda for booting the system?
Also, if anyone knows of a way to setup /boot on an lvm partition so I could avoid this problem again in the future, that would be welcome additional information
Thank you in advance for any replies!

No. Not "directly", no.
If you have a separate /boot partition, only the bootloader's config file and /etc/fstab will have to be adjusted.
But if you don't have a separate /boot partition you will need to reinstall the bootloader -- which is really not that difficult. Each bootloader has their own wiki page.
For example:
Syslinux:
$ sudo extlinux --install /boot/syslinux
$ sudo dd bs=440 conv=notrunc count=1 if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdb
GRUB Legacy:
$ sudo grub-install /dev/sdb
GRUB 2 (I have only tested this from a chroot, and using a "live" Linux distribution):
# grub-install --directory=/usr/lib/grub/i386-pc --target=i386-pc --boot-directory=/boot --recheck --debug /dev/sdb
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

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[SOLVED] Upgrade hard drive: Grub error 22: Partition not found

I'm trying to move to a different hard drive. I booted a live cd, created the partitions, formatted, and used "cp -a" to copy all the files over. I also updated the fstab on the new drive, and now I would expect everything to work. However, I can't get past grub.
When I boot up, I get "grub error 22: partition not found".
Here is my setup ("Arch Linux - SSD" is the entry not working):
menu.lst:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda7 ro vga=775
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux - SSD
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb3 ro vga=775
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda7 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
cat /boot/grub/device.map
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
(hd2) /dev/sdc
fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdb: 115.0 GB, 115033153536 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 13985 cylinders, total 224674128 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000d1ddc
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 8194047 4096000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb2 8194048 161794047 76800000 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 161794048 224673791 31439872 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x152104b0
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 771975167 385986560 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 771987510 976768064 102390277+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 968350068 976768064 4208998+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 813933288 968350004 77208358+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 771987573 813933224 20972826 83 Linux
Another note, is that grub-install takes a very long time to run after I update the menu.lst (5+ minutes), but the update does work without errors, and the new items do appear.
Any help would be appreciated, I'm wondering if I've just been looking at it too long...
Last edited by zhobbs (2011-05-11 19:40:04)

I solved this by using the uuid instead of the root:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux - SSD
uuid 128a4425-c9ae-433f-b604-5488d55a14b3
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb3 ro vga=775
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
Also, I got "grub-install" to run much faster by removing the fd0 from the device map.

My internal hard drive no longer boots. Boots just fine in external usb enclosure.

My internal hard drive no longer boots when inside my laptop. The drive boots just fine in external usb enclosure. It is also fully recognized when internal (as seen in single user mode, recovery mode or while booting from another drive).
I have tried:
with disk utilities
•fixing permissions
•repairing disk
in single user mode
•fsck -fy
zapping the pram
removing ram and zapping the pram
Any suggestions or diagnostics would be appreciated.

Can't believe I spent days reformating my hard drive, restoring it, getting another hard drive... and it was all a cable that failed. I wonder what can make an internal cable like that fail (seems like the least likely part of all to fail).
Thanks PlotinusVeritas
Thanks to ifixit:
bit.ly/1q0EnOx
If you can't fix it, you don't own it!

X102e - Hard drive does not boot into Windows

Hi, I was trying to reinstall Windows on my X120e.
I tried clean install with Windows 7 Professional, but the hard drive does not boot into the Windows once it has done the first phase of the install(you know, the copying part)
After the restart done by Windows, it goes as far as "Starting Windows" but does not actually boot into the Windows.
When I try to install Windows with another HDD, the device works well, but I can't swap the HDD because it is not 7.5mm think HDD.
Is there any possibility the HDD will work trough any software-level process? The HDD works fine as external HDD when tested with external HDD adapter, and installs well. only problem is that it fails to boot
Kim
W540( ), Helix(Sold), Tablet 2(Sold) Tablet 2( ), X120e(Sold), X201 Tablet, X41 Tablet(Sold), X41, X32*4, 701C*4

Thank you for reply.
This is not exactly the issue. I was talking about the HDD originally installed in the PC.
The PC successfully recognizes the external disk I used to install the Windows, but the problem was that I did not boot into the "First boot" screen, which basically works on the already installed data.
As of now I have installed an SSD and is working fine. strange part is that HDD works just fine when I use it as an external HDD via adapter. Strange huh?
Kim
W540( ), Helix(Sold), Tablet 2(Sold) Tablet 2( ), X120e(Sold), X201 Tablet, X41 Tablet(Sold), X41, X32*4, 701C*4

TS1367 my laptop will not boot up from the storage hard drive but if i remove it from the laptop and connect it as portable hard drive my laptop boot up normal?

my laptop will not boot up from the storage hard drive but if i remove it from the laptop and connect it as portable hard drive my laptop boot up normal?

Do you have a compatible OSX installed on this 'storage' HDD? If not, it will not boot your MBP.
Ciao.

I've just bought a new iMac with 2 TB hard drive. Can I partition the startup drive?

I've just bought a new iMac with 2 TB hard drive. Can I partition the startup drive?

Glenfern wrote:
The reason I'm considering partitioning is - I'm going to transfer about 50 GB of family photos & music to the iMac. Over time the photos & music library is going to grow. My idea was to point the iphoto & itunes library to the new partition so that the application programs (that will will reside in partition 1), will not get congested with photos & music over time & degrade performance. Also, I dabble a little bit with the music editing program LOGIC & Sound Track Pro, which creates lots of little music files in the process.
In your case I would strongly recommend against partitioning, as dwb mentions a drive loaded with data on an
O SX system doesn't equate to performance loss. However partitioning does. If you were going to tell me you were partitioning to load different OS's on the computer then you would have a good reason to think about partitioning. My suggestion is do not partition.
What I would also recommend is getting some high quality high speed external HD's to store your photo and music libraries on. This helps keept the 2GB drive available while maintaining performance. I have 3 external HD's attached to my iMac, two are backup drives (1 Time Machine & 1 Bootable Clone) the third drive is for storing my my music, photo & movie libraries on. If you go this route the 3 drives I'd recommend are:
http://g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10330
Personally I use the Lacie's however OWC or G-Tech would also be welcome on my desk.
Again if you want to take this path Apple has instructions for how to move the libraries to EHDs, if you want those links let me know.

MAC PRO HARD DRIVE won't boot

HARD DRIVE won't boot past APPLE ICON, grey spinning wheel on grey screen. Tried using install discs, no go past the icon.
Replace small battery inside? replace chips? Logic board replace as last resort. Can't take it away from work at this point to an apple tech.
Had just installed updates to snow leopard and was successful...but went to restart it...and this crap happened.
Thanks for any help.
MT1111
< Edited by Host >

I'll try that tomorrow. Thinking it could also be:
1) The PRAMM battery. found info on that they can wear out close to 5 years. This MAC PRO is close to that now. And I use a lot of power on it.
2) MAC PRO is plugged into a SURGE PROTECTOR, instead of right into the wall outlet.
3) Been doing a lot of FORCE QUITS and HARD BOOT -- unplugging it directly when it wouldn't shut down soon enough -- lately this past year.
I just assumed that this MAC PRO with the XEON QUAD CORE etc., was a heavy duty enough NLE,
that i wouldn't have these problems. It's not fully loaded with all the chips it can carry...and I don't have near enough external terabyte hard drives for storing video and audio files to edit. I've been storing wayyy too much
on the internal hard dives and just have to stop that.
I noticed these past few days that much of the LETTERING for hard drive icons and folders' titles
were starting to look in OVERLAPPING of the lettering. That was my first hint that something was up.

Hi, never used support before - here goes! My Mac G4 MDD no longer shows the start up hard drive icon. The one with all my files on! It shows the other 3 hard drive icons and boots up OK. Has my start up hard drive failed? Can it be fixed? Thanks.

Hi, never used support before - here goes!
My Mac G4 MDD no longer shows the start up hard drive icon. The one with all my files on!
It shows the other 3 hard drive icons and boots up OK.
Has my start up hard drive failed? Can it be fixed?
Thanks.
Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.2)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.5.7f1

Doesn't sound like any hard drive failure to me - more a Finder preference.
Finder -> Preferences -> General -> Show these items on the desktop -> Hard disks
The startup disk is sometimes treated differently from other disks (such as external and network disks) and I'm guessing this is a simple preference setting, although I might be wrong.

Satellite C660 - My Hard Drive failis to boot up

My Laptop is a saterlite c660-c66od Running windows Server 2008 32BIT with 3gb ram and it started going slow and then the whole system crashed i rebooted it and then it would not load up saying my hard driver failed to boot i then booted it up in linux Ubuntu on a live disk and was able to acsess my Files then i rebooted thinking the hard drive would boot and it still failed. i have tried booting it up again in linux but it wont work
I have Lodes of confidential Documents that are not stored anywhere else and i really need to gain acsess to it is there a way i can recover or fix my HDD or am i going to lose so much data my company is going to crash amd burn

Hi
In most cases the data is lost if the HDD is faulty and you did not create any backups.
But I found also nice offer from Toshiba here:
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/services/home
Here choose Data Recovery.
You can purchase different Data Recovery Service for Hard Disk Drives. Such services is good for the future. Now you could ask Toshiba hotline for other date recovery services but of course you will have to pay for such data recovery.

Can I partition my external hard drive so that one partition is for Time Machine and the other is to install Windows with Boot Camp?

I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive that I currently use just for Time Machine backups. Is it possible for me to go into Disk Utility and create a new partition on the drive so that I may install Windows 7 via Boot Camp? Or since I am already using it for Time Machine do I have to keep it only for Time Machine?

You must install Boot Camp in your internal drive because Windows can't be installed in an external disk and Boot Camp can't do that

Is it possible to use an external hard drive as the windows partition with boot camp?

I am looking to get a Macbook Pro adn was researchin the different software advantages over PC and found a program called oot Camp that allows you to run Windows on your Mac. I thought that this was interesting as it was sort of the best of both worlds. I wanted to know from people who have used this before: How well does it work? Does it slow down the computer at any noticable rate? Etc.
The last question that Ive been trying to find an answer to, but have no conclusive results, is wether you are able to select the partition as an external hard drive or not. Also how it affects your ability to use an external drive as well. Answers are much apreciated, thank you.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Boot Camp is an application that emulates a BIOS so you can install Windows on a second volume on your hard drive. It can't be installed on an external disk because Windows can't be installed on an external hard drive. It works well if you need performance

Is it possible to install windows 7 on a partitioned external hard drive and then boot from windows from time to time?

I have some applications that are windows only. I want to install windows 7 on my external hard drive and boot to it when I need to use my windows applications. Is this possible with a mac and, if so, how can I do that? I have a 64-bit Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion.

VirtualBox is free.
Besides the websites for the different products, I don't know of any.
https://www.virtualbox.org
http://www.vmware.com
http://www.parallels.com

Partitioned Hard Drive for Dual Boot

I have already loaded Lion. Can I partition my hard drive and reinstall Snow Leopard on one partition? I have a few programs I'd like to still be able to run that don't run on Lion

I'm guessing that your disk has never been partitioned, in which case: Your disk has a single partition, occupying the whole drive. You need to use Disk Utility to create a second partition (probably including shrinking the size of the partition you have in order to create the space), into which you can then install Snow Leopard from the original DVD.

Upgrading MacBook Pro Hard Drive - cannot get Bootcamp partition to work

Hello,
The other day, I decided to replace my 320 GB hard drive with a 1 TB hard drive/SSD hybrid. I did a little bit of research about cloning the drive before that, and it seemed pretty straight forward to clone the OS X partition, but I wasn't really sure about cloning my Windows partition. Originally, my 320 GB hard drive had 2 partitions: 220 GB for OS X Mavericks, and 100 GB for Windows 8.1.
I bought the new drive with an external enclosure and plugged it in. The first thing I did was open Disk Utility and partitioned the new hard drive (750 GB HFS+, 250 GB NTFS). I figured I would need to partition it first and clone each partition separately. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the OS X partition, and it worked with no problem (I immediately could restart my computer and boot with the partition on the new drive, while it was still plugged in by USB).
Next, I tried using CCC to clone the Windows partition the same way (I realize now that CCC cannot do this). 7 hours later, the cloning was complete, but there was an error that a couple files couldn't be copied. I tried copying them manually but it didn't work. I wasn't sure if the Windows partition would work, so to find out, I switched the hard drives and put the old 320 GB one in the external enclosure. I booted my computer and it booted the new OS X partition with no problem. It also mounted the Windows partition that I cloned with CCC, and I can access all of the files in it. However, when I restarted and held down "option", it would not let me boot the Windows partition.
After some googling, I realized CCC is not able to clone a bootcamp partition and make it bootable, so I opened disk utility and deleted the Windows partition (using the minus button), then recreated it (using the plus button). I downloaded Winclone (paid $30), which supposedly can clone a bootcamp partition. I opened Winclone and it seemed pretty simple: you just choose the source partition on the left, and the target on the right. I plugged in the USB enclosure with my old hard drive, and in the Winclone menu the original Windows partition popped up. I chose that as my source, and chose to copy it to the new NTFS partition on the new drive that I created. I left it on overnight, and when I woke up it said it was completed.
I now had two drives mounted: my NTFS partition that I created, and a new one that said "EFI". I have no idea what EFI is. My NTFS partition looks like it has all of the files from my original Windows partition on it; however, when I restart it does not allow me to boot with it, although I now have the option to boot EFI. When I select EFI, I am given the Windows 8.1 start up screen (with the blue Windows logo), but then an error message pops up saying something like there is an issue and it needs to restart (it restarted before I could read the whole thing).
When I boot in OS X, I only have the NTFS partition (with all my Windows files) mounted, and no EFI. When I restart, I can still boot EFI, but I always get the same message and then it restarts.
Is there any way I can fix my Windows partition so that it works the same way it did on my old drive? What is EFI? Can I delete it? How can I make the NTFS partition, which seems to have all of my files, bootable? I only want 2 partitions: one for OS X, and one for Windows. Also, can I do all of this without having to reinstall either of the operating systems?
Thanks

Hmm, that's a good question!
I headed over to the twocanoes website (the folks that make Winclone) and their guide mentions something about running Sysprep before you create the Windows image. If you skipped that step, that may be why you're having issues
http://www.twocanoes.com/support/winclone/migrating-a-bootcamp-partition-with-wi nclone/
Step 24 in that guide also mentions copying a Boot file - were you able to/did you do that?
You may have better luck over in the Bootcamp forum, which is here.
~Lyssa

Upgrading MacBook Pro Hard Drive - cannot get Windows partition to work

Hello,
The other day, I decided to replace my 320 GB hard drive with a 1 TB hard drive/SSD hybrid. I did a little bit of research about cloning the drive before that, and it seemed pretty straight forward to clone the OS X partition, but I wasn't really sure about cloning my Windows partition. Originally, my 320 GB hard drive had 2 partitions: 220 GB for OS X Mavericks, and 100 GB for Windows 8.1.
I bought the new drive with an external enclosure and plugged it in. The first thing I did was open Disk Utility and partitioned the new hard drive (750 GB HFS+, 250 GB NTFS). I figured I would need to partition it first and clone each partition separately. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the OS X partition, and it worked with no problem (I immediately could restart my computer and boot with the partition on the new drive, while it was still plugged in by USB).
Next, I tried using CCC to clone the Windows partition the same way (I realize now that CCC cannot do this). 7 hours later, the cloning was complete, but there was an error that a couple files couldn't be copied. I tried copying them manually but it didn't work. I wasn't sure if the Windows partition would work, so to find out, I switched the hard drives and put the old 320 GB one in the external enclosure. I booted my computer and it booted the new OS X partition with no problem. It also mounted the Windows partition that I cloned with CCC, and I can access all of the files in it. However, when I restarted and held down "option", it would not let me boot the Windows partition.
After some googling, I realized CCC is not able to clone a bootcamp partition and make it bootable, so I opened disk utility and deleted the Windows partition (using the minus button), then recreated it (using the plus button). I downloaded Winclone (paid $30), which supposedly can clone a bootcamp partition. I opened Winclone and it seemed pretty simple: you just choose the source partition on the left, and the target on the right. I plugged in the USB enclosure with my old hard drive, and in the Winclone menu the original Windows partition popped up. I chose that as my source, and chose to copy it to the new NTFS partition on the new drive that I created. I left it on overnight, and when I woke up it said it was completed.
I now had two drives mounted: my NTFS partition that I created, and a new one that said "EFI". I have no idea what EFI is. My NTFS partition looks like it has all of the files from my original Windows partition on it; however, when I restart it does not allow me to boot with it, although I now have the option to boot EFI. When I select EFI, I am given the Windows 8.1 start up screen (with the blue Windows logo), but then an error message pops up saying something like there is an issue and it needs to restart (it restarted before I could read the whole thing).
When I boot in OS X, I only have the NTFS partition (with all my Windows files) mounted, and no EFI. When I restart, I can still boot EFI, but I always get the same message and then it restarts.
Is there any way I can fix my Windows partition so that it works the same way it did on my old drive? What is EFI? Should I delete it? How can I make the NTFS partition, which seems to have all of my files, bootable? I only want 2 partitions: one for OS X, and one for Windows. Also, can I do all of this without having to reinstall either of the operating systems?
Thanks

Hmm, that's a good question!
I headed over to the twocanoes website (the folks that make Winclone) and their guide mentions something about running Sysprep before you create the Windows image. If you skipped that step, that may be why you're having issues
http://www.twocanoes.com/support/winclone/migrating-a-bootcamp-partition-with-wi nclone/
Step 24 in that guide also mentions copying a Boot file - were you able to/did you do that?
You may have better luck over in the Bootcamp forum, which is here.
~Lyssa

Hard Drive Migration w/Boot Partition

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