Hi John, > I've bought a SSD to replace the sole HDD in an old laptop (Thinkpad > T410) and I intend to use dd to copy the disk. Does that seem > sensible?
I think it should work. This Arch Linux wiki page may be useful as much isn't specific to Arch Linux. It includes using dd(1). https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Disk_cloning Note, partitions tend to have unique random IDs at the start of them these days and the copy means they are no longer unique because two are present at once. This shouldn't matter much if soon after the copy the machine is shutdown and one of the drives removed. > In particular: > Will the SSD be bootable immediately or is some configuration > change needed? All the disk being copied means the partition table and instructions for booting at the start of the disk will be copied too. Unless your laptop's BIOS needs some change to boot from an SSD, booting once the HHD is removed and the SSD remains should ‘just work’. > The SSD is bigger that the HDD - what will the unused portion look > like Disk which isn't allocated to a partition. > and can I use gparted to expand the single partition or create a > second one? Yes. Others who have done disk cloning more recently may have up to date advice. -- Cheers, Ralph. -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2023-11-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
