Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one.

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From	"Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one.
Date	Mon, 09 May 2022 21:20:01 +0200
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On Mon, May 09, 2022 at 11:54:16AM -0700, David Christensen wrote:
> On 5/8/22 18:54, paulf@quillandmouse.com wrote:
> > Folks:
> > 
> > Situation: I have a 500G boot drive (root, swap, home) I'd like to copy
> > to a new 250G drive which must then also be bootable (yes, there's
> > enough room). This are EFI drives. I can use "dd", but I don't know
> > the proper parameters, and as I understand it, copying a 500G to a 250G
> > drive is Bad(tm). I could use "rsync", but I don't think the second
> > 250G drive will boot just because I copied the files over to it. I
> > suspect I would have an additional step needed to make the drive
> > bootable.
> > 
> > Can someone outline the proper procedure here?
> 
> 
> Resizing and moving a Debian instance from a 500 GB drive to a 250 GB drive
> requires a lot of expertise.
> 
> 
> I would take the KISS approach -- backup the system configuration files and
> data, remove the 500 GB drive, install the 250 GB drive, do a fresh install
> onto the 250 GB drive, and reconfigure/ restore.
> 
> 
> David
>

I also agree: then all you have to do is copy across data you wish to retain.

Alternatively, you can plug in the new drive and do a minimal install on it.
Use 

dpkg --get-selections > somefilename 

to get a list of packages installed on one system and write it into somefile.

dpkg --set-selections < somefilename

will write that list for Debian's most basic package manager.

apt update ; apt dist-upgrade

 will then use that information to isntall the same package list onto the
second machine as exists on the first machine - but that's complex.

With every good wish, as ever,

Andy Cater

Thread

Copying one drive to a smaller one. <paulf@quillandmouse.com> - 2022-05-09 04:00 +0200
  Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2022-05-09 04:40 +0200
  Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2022-05-09 21:00 +0200
    Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2022-05-09 21:20 +0200
      Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. Tixy <tixy@yxit.co.uk> - 2022-05-09 22:10 +0200
      Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2022-05-09 23:00 +0200
    Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. <paulf@quillandmouse.com> - 2022-05-09 23:10 +0200
      Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> - 2022-05-10 00:10 +0200
        Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2022-05-10 04:40 +0200
    Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. "stepore@gmail.com" <stepore@gmail.com> - 2022-05-10 07:10 +0200
    Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. <paulf@quillandmouse.com> - 2022-05-10 14:40 +0200
      Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> - 2022-05-10 18:30 +0200
      Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> - 2022-05-10 21:20 +0200
      Re: Copying one drive to a smaller one. <paulf@quillandmouse.com> - 2022-05-10 21:30 +0200

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