On 12/2/24 08:49, Hans wrote:
Hi folks,
as my old notebook died, I ntend to buy a new notebook.
The old one has got a SSD drive, the new one an NVME.
I want to clone the whole system 1 to 1 to the new NVME.
In my /etc/fstab I am using UUID entries instead of /dev/sdX.
The new one then would have /dev/nvme* as entries (that is clear), but if I am
using only UUID, the question:
Will the UUID change at clone, even when the partitions are not changed in a
bit of size? IMHO the UUID will not change, but I am not quite sure.
When cloning from SSD to SSD this is working, but I have no experience when
cloning from SSD to NVME.
Thanks for a short feedback.
Best
Hans
On 12/2/24 08:59, Hans wrote:
> <snip>
> I mean clone bit by bit. The software I am using is "Clonezilla"
which depends
> on partclone and dd.
>
> <snip>
> No, not rsync. This would be an option, but only if the above method is
> failing (i.e. target drive is smaller than source drive).
On 12/2/24 11:14, Hans wrote:
> Thank you all for your response.
>
> Just to explain: I have only "standard" partitions. One for /boot, /,
/usr,
> /var and /home. Most of them are luks encrypted.
>
> This cloning I did often ovetr the years. My debian is rather old
(means, first
> install years ago, but it was of course upgraded) and during the years, I
> cloned it from mechanical harddrive to SSD, then to a bigger SSD and
so on.
>
> This worked well and without any issues using clonezilla, resizing with
> gparted and resize2fs intelligently.
>
> Although, first it was a change from /dev/hdaX to /dev/sdaX, this was
well and
> easlily done until I changed to UUID. Even with this, the cloning worked
> perfectly without any flaws.
>
> But /dev/hda and /dev /sda are very similar, except of the naming scheme.
>
> But I never used NVME drives before and know (shame on me!) not much
about it.
> If NVME are only super fast SSD's, then it will be easy, but if NVME
are a
> complete alien hardware, then I might come in trouble (Nothing, that
can not
> be fixed!).
>
> So I asked here, maybe someone did the already the same, I intend to
do and
> could give me some clues.
>
> In the next days I get my new notebook and will report of my success.
>
> Maybe it will be helpfull for other people, too.
On 12/2/24 11:20, Hans wrote:
> Yes, I read in other debian threads abnout Labels. What is the
advantage of
> Labels to UUID? I alwaqys thought, labels can be easily changed and
then at
> boot, linux would mount some other partition with the same label.
>
> But it will be rather difficult, to create a partition with the same
UUID (but
> other size and content) of an existent (except of cloning, of course).
>
> Using labels seem to be rather unsecure in my opinion.
I suspect your old laptop uses BIOS firmware, the SSD is SATA and uses
MBR partitioning, and the Debian instance on the old SSD contains
bootloaders for BIOS.
New laptops are going to use UEFI firmware and the NVMe SSD is going to
use GPT partitioning. Some new firmware have a "compatibility" mode
that allows them to boot old-style BIOS/MBR disks; your new laptop may
or may not have this feature. If it does, a USB-SATA adapter cable may
allow you to boot your old laptop SSD on your new laptop (which could
solve any immediate needs that you have).
That said, I think your best option is to remove the SATA SSD from your
old laptop and get a USB-SATA adapter cable. When the new laptop comes
in, use Clonezilla to back up the old laptop SATA SSD and to back up the
new NVMe SSD. Then reset the firmware to factory defaults, boot the
Debian installer, do a secure erase of the NVMe SSD, and do a fresh
install of Debian onto the NVMe SSD. This approach has the best chance
of giving you a Debian installation that is compatible with your new
laptop and that is performant. Once Debian is running on the NVMe SSD,
use the USB-SATA adapter to connect the old SSD and copy over the files
you want (via a GUI file manager, rsync(1), or whatever).
David
