[SunRescue] Moving things onto a new harddrive

[User Bobkeys BSD Bob the old greybeard BSD freak]

> I'd like to take things off a problematic disk at target 1 and move
> this to a new disk at target 0.  I've reinstalled NetBSD on to a 4 gig
> internal drive in my LX.  How do I get the thing to let me move the
> /etc /usr and so forth from the old drive to the new drive when I
> can't mount the old drive anymore at this point (/etc/fstab is coming
> up read only).

With the new system up, but the old drive unmounted, fsck each of the
file system on the old drive..... and pray a little.

Then, sequentially mount the old file systems on mount and carefully take
off (tar, dump, howsumever), only the files that you need.  Be careful
not to mix old busted files over new files.  The important thing will
be to fsck it before mounting.

When done, carefully check your new fstab file to make sure it is pointing
to the correct new file systems.... (e.g., sd0x file systems).

Old usr should not be just done over the new usr, but tarred off only
what you need to carry over.  Same for etc files, but I would be very
careful that you don't mess up any needed scripts by overwriting from
stuff in the old etc.  Take it slowly and with some forethought.

Typically you might tar off /usr/local and /usr/pkg and maybe the
/usr/pkgsrc/distfiles trees.  Tar off an etc, but before you do that
from the old machine, mv the old etc to etcold or somesuch before
tarring it off, and then when it untars you will have two etc dirs,
one the new one (etc) and one the old one (etcold).  Then carefully
hand patch in the needed old files into the new etc tree.  Typically
only one or two files are needed, but sometimes as many as a half
dozen config files might be needed.... rarely more than that.

If you are reasonably careful, it should work fine.

Good Luck

Bob