Linux HDD from master to slave... how to boot the Linux pa..

On 17 Nov 2004 04:58:18 -0800, Paolo <bibinix.RemoveThis@gmx.net> wrote:
> Hi guys here I am again...
> I had this computer configuration:
>
> hdd_old: conf. as Master with 2 OS Win Me and Suse Linux ( in hda6
> booted from a floppy with GRUB)
>
> hdd_new: conf. as Slave used for data storage.
>
>
> Now for many different reasons, difficult to explain (also difficult
> to understand to me) I had to change in this:
>
>
> hdd_new: conf. as Master with Win Me.
>
> hdd_old: conf. as Slave with on it Suse Linux (maybe hdb6...).
>
> The Linux boot diskette can't boot (of course...)the Linux partition.
> so how can I recover it?!

One problem when you move a drive is that /etc/fstab tries to mount the
wrong partitions. You will need to use a Linux rescue system to change
that. There is a rescue system on SuSE install CD/DVD if you back out of
the install.

From Linux rescue system, mount the Linux partition containing /etc as
read/write, change entries in that etc/fstab that reference hda to hdb
(and remove or change any that previously pointed to hdb), then boot the
rescue system, but tell it to mount /dev/hdb6 (if that is your root
partition) as root. Check docs for your boot loader, but I think using
root=/dev/hdb6 as an extra parameter for GRUB or LILO.

Then you need to figure out where you want to put your boot loader. It
helps to have a small partition on hda for the boot loader, instead of
putting it in the MBR, so you do not have to worry about Windows stepping
on it when reinstalling Windows.

I had to do something similar when the Win98 drive a PC died (no great
loss) and I had to move Linux hdb down to hda. The only trouble I had is
that LILO kept looking for the kernel on the rescue CD instead of in
/boot, and I forget how I resolved that. I may have had to copy vmlinuz
to a floppy, used rdev to tell it which partition was root, then could run
lilo after booting to get it to use the kernel in /boot