[lug] Cloning / Replacing Hard disks

[Maxwell Spangler]

You can try this:

http://www.mondorescue.org/


On Thu, 2011-05-19 at 18:03 -0400, Gordon Golding wrote:
> I'm helping out with a couple of situations with what looks like
> failing drives.  I'm familiar with FC; one of these machines is
> Debian, the other is Ubuntu.
> 
> 
> 1)  One is Debian, I was sent this message about it:
> 
> 
> “The hard drive on our linux box is indicating that it will fail soon,
> and that we should backup and restore it. The test it is failing is
> S.M.A.R.T., the exact failure is "status bad backup and restore." The
> failure may be weeks or  months away, and it hasn't actually failed
> yet. S.M.A.R.T. apparently is just informing us that we should really
> think about replacing the drive.”
> 
> I imagine there are some "false positives" with smart, but I take it
> that the drive should be replaced soon.
> Anything to check?
> 
> 2)  Rebuilding the system from scratch is a lot of work.  Whats the
> easiest way to clone the hard drive?
> 
> 3)  Second is Ubuntu 9.04 - " that was making some bad noises
> recently. "
> What's the easiest way/tool for getting a good idea if the drive in on
> the way out?
> 
> 4)  If I decide to clone the Ubuntu drive, I notice that the Ubuntu
> instructions for the Ubuntu install CD's live distro mode mentions
> using gddrescue.  AND the gddrescue instructions don't include the
> cfdisk -z /dev/sdb step.
> So I suppose I should make life easier and use gddrescue.
> 
> 5)  I see that Debian has gddrescue, but I don't see instructions for
> using it - Ubuntu has lots of people posting detailed instructions.
> 
> Any guidance, opinions are appreciated.
> 
> 
> Gordon Golding
> 
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-- 
Maxwell Spangler
========================================================================
        Linux System Administration / Computing Services
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