NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Greg Wettstein) (03/13/90)
I have XENIX 2.3.3 running on an ALR 386/220 with 4 megabytes of RAM and
an 80 megabyte hard disk which is partitioned into a 30 megabyte root (/)
filesystem and a 50 megabyte user (/u) filesystem. Sitting next to my
desk is a 330 megabyte ESDI hard drive which is still sitting there because
of indecision on how to transfer the contents of the 80 megabyte drive
to the 330 megabyte drive.
My question is basically: What is the best utility/procedure to use so that
the contents of the 80 megabyte drive can be transfered to the 330 megabyte
drive with a minimum of system disruption?
Before I go on I should probably say that I do have a magnetic tape drive
on the machine (Mountain).
My main concern is not the /u filesystem because I plan on just using tar
to dump that to a couple of tapes. My real concern is the root filesystem
because of problems(rumors) that I have heard regarding the ability of SCO's
tar to handle the /dev directory and other special files.
I know about the backup facility available through the sysadm menus but I
have heard some fairly dark stories about this utility as well. I have
tried to keep the root filesystem relatively virgin but this box is in a
production environment and I would rather not take the time to have to
re-install the system and the collection of updates and patches that makes
everything run as it should.
I would appreciate whatever comments, concerns and questions you would be
willing to direct either to the net or e-mail. Thanks in advance for any
informaion which may be forthcoming.
As always,
Dr. G.W. Wettstein
NU013809@NDSUVM1
`The truest mark of a man's wisdom is his ability to listen to other men
expound their wisdom.'scott@bbxsda.UUCP (Scott Amspoker) (03/14/90)
In article <3714NU013809@NDSUVM1> NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Greg Wettstein) writes: >My question is basically: What is the best utility/procedure to use so that >the contents of the 80 megabyte drive can be transfered to the 330 megabyte >drive with a minimum of system disruption? > >Before I go on I should probably say that I do have a magnetic tape drive >on the machine (Mountain). > >My main concern is not the /u filesystem because I plan on just using tar ^^^ I strongly advise that you use cpio instead of tar. tar will not preserve directory owners and permissions. Also, tar does not handle device files very well (cpio will). -- Scott Amspoker Basis International, Albuquerque, NM (505) 345-5232 unmvax.cs.unm.edu!bbx!bbxsda!scott
kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) (03/18/90)
In article <3714NU013809@NDSUVM1> NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Greg Wettstein) writes: >My question is basically: What is the best utility/procedure to use so that >the contents of the 80 megabyte drive can be transfered to the 330 megabyte >drive with a minimum of system disruption? > I DO wish folks would leave a ! formatted address in their posts <SIGH>.... Anyhow, this is probably of general interest. I can't say what is best for this purpose but the Xenix backup and restore WILL work quite easily to do what you want. Executing the proceedure is a snap; getting all the necessary information and making the necessary preparations is the tough part. It took me about 6 months to assemble all the information and test out the proceedures enough that I was comfortable with it. THEN I replaced my hard disk. Everything went like clock work. The key to the whole thing is making a boot/root floppy with all the necessary programs on it (restore in particular). Procedures for doing this can be had from SCO if you are "supported". Feel free to send me mail or better yet give me a call sometime. All the gory details are probably too much for net posts. -- ======================================================== Ken Abrams uunet!pallas!kabra437 Illinois Bell kabra437@athenanet.com Springfield (voice) 217-753-7965
campbell@Thalatta.COM (Bill Campbell) (04/02/90)
In article <644@bbxsda.UUCP> scott@bbxsda.UUCP (Scott Amspoker) writes: >In article <3714NU013809@NDSUVM1> NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Greg Wettstein) writes: >>My question is basically: What is the best utility/procedure to use so that >>the contents of the 80 megabyte drive can be transfered to the 330 megabyte >>drive with a minimum of system disruption? >> >I strongly advise that you use cpio instead of tar. tar will not preserve >directory owners and permissions. Also, tar does not handle device files >very well (cpio will). > cpio has its own set of problems, particularly if you have large linked files (it makes a copy for each link). I have gotten around this by creating a regular file with cpio containing information on everything that is *NOT A FILE* i.e.: find . \! -type f -print | cpio -ocv > /tmp/devcpio then dumping this as the first file on the tar tape (you may also compress if you like). I then tar the /tmp/devcpio file off by itself and run: cpio -icvmd < /tmp/devcpio (after cd'ing to the correct directory of course). This not only recreates directories properly, but will also create the appropriate device entries if necessary. Tar seems to be somewhat more robust (at least on Xenix systems) than cpio. EXCEPTION*** NCR Tower UNIX implementations of tar have been very buggy in my experience. -- ....microsoft--\ Bill Campbell; Celestial Software ...uw-beaver-----!thebes!camco!bill 6641 East Mercer Way ....fluke------/ Mercer Island, Wa 98040 ....hplsla----/ (206) 232-4164