Hard Drive Upgrade to SSD

[Hondo]

I'd like to upgrade my boot drive to a 64gb SSD drive, putting the normal / partition there and the other installation partitions on a standard 320 gb hard drive.

So here's my question-

If I create a MyLiveCD backup, can I reinstall to the disks with custom partitioning/hard drive selection at that time?

Or would I first need to create the standard partitions on the drives before the re installation?

I know that I could start with a new installation, but I'd really like to keep things the way they are - just moved to new hardware.

Thanks -

[AS]

I'd like to upgrade my boot drive to a 64gb SSD drive, putting the normal / partition there and the other installation partitions on a standard 320 gb hard drive.

So here's my question-

If I create a MyLiveCD backup, can I reinstall to the disks with custom partitioning/hard drive selection at that time?

Yes!

Or would I first need to create the standard partitions on the drives before the re installation?

I know that I could start with a new installation, but I'd really like to keep things the way they are - just moved to new hardware.

Thanks -

If you are going to reuse the same hard disk, you could keep your /home partition, simply do not format /home at installation.
That said, a full backup is always suggested, just in case .... 

AS

[Hondo]

That was quick!

Other than the speed upgrade, my main reason to move the root partition & swap to the SSD & Home to the 320 gb HD is because I incorrectly sized the partitions on the one disc, with the Home partition being only 78 gb & the root on the remaining space.

My plan is to install the root partition & swap to the SSD & the Home partition to the 320gb as a storage drive.

So, if I use MyLiveCD to install to wiped drives, I can create the partitions during re installation?

Just trying to be clear -

[AS]

& the Home partition to the 320gb as a storage drive

You may already plan to do so, but personally I wouldn't use all the 320GB drive for Home  - I'd partition it and use xGB for Home and use the other partition(s) to backup the data from Home (and from root if desired)

There are good backup tools/apps provided in the repo - my preferred one is luckyBackup

+1,
some spare partition may be useful some time, consider also that you can add other partition to your system very easily, i.e. you could have a /movie partition and add it later as /home/<user>/movie ...

Also, consider that mylivecd allow for a maximum compressed size of 4 GB, equivalent to approx. 10 or 11 GB uncompressed, you will need to backup separately the others data.

[Hondo]

Ok, thanks very much!

I'll back up everything, make a live CD & give it a go when my SSD arrives -

[Hondo]

Ok, one final request for opinions-

The SSD I bought is 60gb. I will use the 320 GB SATA drive as a storage drive.

If you were to set the root, Home & swap partitions, what size & location would you set them?

My plan was to set -

SSD - Swap - 1gb (my rig has 8 gb of memory, using the latest PAE kernel)
        - Root - 30 gb
         - /Home - remainder od SSD

320 Gb SATA - /Backup partition - 100 gb
                     - /Storage Partition - remainder of the drive.

Thanks -

[AS]

Ok, one final request for opinions-

The SSD I bought is 60gb. I will use the 320 GB SATA drive as a storage drive.

If you were to set the root, Home & swap partitions, what size & location would you set them?

My plan was to set -

SSD - Swap - 1gb (my rig has 8 gb of memory, using the latest PAE kernel)
        - Root - 30 gb
         - /Home - remainder od SSD

320 Gb SATA - /Backup partition - 100 gb
                     - /Storage Partition - remainder of the drive.

Thanks -

Swap can have basically two use: memory extension, once your system will have filled the 8 GB of RAM, the kernel will move part of the RAM to swap, beware that this will slow down considerably your system, but with 8 GB this unlikely to happen.

The second use is for hibernation, where all your RAM + some additional info will be saved to swap, implicitly a swap size greater than the installed RAM is required in this case, 8+ GB.

About the 320 GB disk, I would go for three 100 GB partition, you will be able to decide (or change) later about the use of each partitions, i.e. you will be able to use 100 + 100 GB for backup, but that's me. 

AS

[Hondo]

So I will need an 8gb swap partition only if I plan on hibernating the computer,, right?

The reason that I ask is that I never do that with my desktop rig.

If I have to I will set it up this way-

SSD - 8gb = Swap
        - remainer of SSD = /

320 GB HD - 100 gb = /Home
                  - 100 gb = /Backup
                  - remainder = /Storage

[AS]

So I will need an 8gb swap partition only if I plan on hibernating the computer,, right?

Yes, exact.

The reason that I ask is that I never do that with my desktop rig.

If I have to I will set it up this way-

SSD - 8gb = Swap
        - remainer of SSD = /

320 GB HD - 100 gb = /Home
                  - 100 gb = /Backup
                  - remainder = /Storage

I'm running PCLinuxOS, using 4GB RAM and no swap at all, and actually found very difficult to use all 4 GB or RAM.
The only exception could be when running VirtualBox guest OSes... still I'm running fine with 1 GB for each of 2 guests and the remaining 2 GB for the host system.

AS

[Hondo]

ok, thanks- I'll use a small swap.

[Hondo]

Here's what I did-

1st, I had to set the BIOS in the mobo to IDE native- the MyLiveCD, reg livecd or Gparted LiveCD would not boot in ACHI mode, only IDE Native.

Then I installed from MyLiveCD without any problems. Well, I did have to open a Terminal and type in draklive-install to get the process underway.

On my 1st reboot, everything was fine, but the SSD wasn't as fast as I thought it would be.

SO I went back into the BIOS and changed the SATA controller from Native IDE to ACHI.

It was a huge improvement!

For those that might be wondering, here's how I setup the partitions-

Corsair Force 3 64gb SSD-

- 48gb - root /
- 8gb - swap

Western Digital 320gb hard drive-

- 97gb /home
- 117gb /storage
- 83gb /backup

Thanks for the help!

[wedgetail]

AS

I am just trawling SSD items in Forum.

I run 4 GB swap and 4 GB RAM but I don't think I have ever seen swap in use. 

You no swap, what would happen if you need this?  A catastrophe or can one just wait till the dust settles and the system gets on with the job. 

Have been tempted to "forget" swap but not all my forgets turn out for the best. Perhaps this would be a good "forget" without sleeping surprises 

[AS]

AS

I am just trawling SSD items in Forum.

I run 4 GB swap and 4 GB RAM but I don't think I have ever seen swap in use. 

You no swap, what would happen if you need this?  A catastrophe or can one just wait till the dust settles and the system gets on with the job. 

4 GB RAM: 1 GB is reserved for kernel and drivers and hardware, the remaining 3 GB are for applications. Which apps are using more memory on my system ? Firefox ~ %250 MB (30 Tabs), VirtualBox ... usually 1 GB depending on guests ... I can easily run two guests at the same time ... I still have approx 1 GB free .. when all exhausted the last application started will fail. See it this way: "I, and not the OS, am controlling the mem usage" 

Have been tempted to "forget" swap but not all my forgets turn out for the best. Perhaps this would be a good "forget" without sleeping surprises 

I see it as: using swap on a rotational disk is like running the OS on a Pentium II, SSD are faster, so, will be like running on Pentium III 

[wedgetail]

AS

Thanks, crashing application that is ok.  I think I might have a look at what my biggest CAD program does memory wise but since the drawings I use are very small compared to real CAD users I don't think taht will be a problem at all.  Never taken any notice since running 4 GB.   

[AS]

AS

Thanks, crashing application that is ok.  I think I might have a look at what my biggest CAD program does memory wise but since the drawings I use are very small compared to real CAD users I don't think taht will be a problem at all.  Never taken any notice since running 4 GB.   

start your CAD, load some file, do something, check using free, top, ... it will not be "accurate" but you will get the idea.