Haiku System Migration from HD to new HD

I am upgrading my hard drives and would like ‘to migrate’ Haiku from one disk to another. I did a search through forum but my word selections did not return anything–maybe other folks use different terminology for ‘system restore from system backups’.

Anyway, I usually accomplished this in BeOS /Zeta by creating ‘zipped’ files of the /beos, /home, and other data directories (with certain attributes set). I remember using Beezer to create the archived system files for this. I cannot use Beezer this time since it is not a 64-bit app yet…no problem, I will the command line tools instead.

I always performed the actual system restoration via the command line via a terminal using a system Zeta DVD (booted into Desktop mode). In my case today, I would use the Haiku Beta DVD to achieve the same thing.

I no longer have my scripts, but I think a re-create them with some trial-and-error tests.

But I was wondering if there is an easier way to do it now.
How do you folks do this activity now?

Thanks in advance!!

Hello. You still can use the Tracker addon ZipOMatic: right click over the folder that you want to compress and look for it in the addons context menu.

Why not just use Installer? It should copy most of your data files and settings.

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@waddlesplash

Is there documentation? I did not see anything at https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/installing.

What would the steps be like to transfer the system, home, and all of the oher data directories?

When in doubt, read the manual! https://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/applications/installer.html

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Man I must be tired! Totally missed the “It can be a currently installed Haiku…”

That makes it easy to physically move a current Haiku installation from one disk to another.

The installer it is…

Thanks!!

Or you place the new on beside the old one and copy manually too.

if i were going to transfer an installed system from one drive to another i would simply copy the partition in its entirety from a livecd/usb environment with something like the command dd and resize it accordingly after . or perhaps clonezilla

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think resizing a BFS partition is currently not easily pissible.

That’s pretty cool. Didn’t know about this, would have saved me some trouble on a recent reinstall with larger partition :slight_smile:

Bfs can not be resized.

To store your Settings and other things, you can take a look at my backup tool ‘lbackup’.

Http://Software.besly.de

If you running several haiku systems on your computer, i give you a tip, create a partition for your user files (Settings, Downloads, expanded files…).

Example: copy your Vision settings folder on this partition and remove the settings folder on the system. Then create a link from you partition settings folder of Vision to the system. So you use one settings folder for all systems on the computer.

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There are patches pending on Gerrit to add resizing, but they aren’t fully complete or merged, no.

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UPDATE:

I tried to clone Haiku off one small hard drive unto a new 2TB split into two 1Tb partitions. The first three attempts were “in situ” from the original local drive using the Installer locally to clone the Haiku install into the first partition of the new hard drive.

Haiku%20Restore%201

It “cloned” about 99% before failing during somewhere in the system files.

I tried to find the offending file, but it could be one of two causing the issue:

Haiku%20Clone%20Failure%202

The last two attempts failed from the DVD “Use Desktop” option and failed exactly for the same reason and at the same place.

So, I finally gave up and performed a clean install, re-installed all the software, set-up my environments again, and transferred my personal data.

It would be nice if the cloning feature of the installer worked for all possible situations, which is okay for now since there are not many folks who would do this. I imagine the “cloning” feature of the Installer would probably work on a clean “stock” install.

I will request that the installer have new features to be included for “cloning” options to facilitate different options for most cloning scenarios.

Thanks everything for the info!!

Yep, Installer cannot copy socket files https://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/15019.

i think it can be resized, just the tool for it does not exist yet

BFS driver doesn’t support resizing yet. There are patches to implement this https://review.haiku-os.org/q/status:open+bfs

@Diver

Thanks…I had not the time to look for a possible bug yet. That’s good to know it has been addressed.

Also, good to know that BFS resizing is coming!! That would be nice…

Have a great week!!