upgrade

[hesseh]

I have installed 8.3.1 on a 2.5 160g hd. I want to change and upgrade to an SSD without loosing data on my volume. Is this done the same way as simply upgrading and re-installing except here on a new drive?

 

[JaimieV]

Yes, use the config save and restore facility just as you would if it was installed on a USB stick.

Or clone the HDD over to the SSD directly, which ought to work out fine (maybe depends on your cloning tool understanding UFS, but only if you've increased the size of the partitions from the basic 1gig each).

 

[cyberjock]

Cloning doesn't work well. It's in the FAQ. Believe me, i've tried my hardest, and its just "one of those things" that doesn't work. It was one of my first threads in this forum, and everyone agrees that it "should" work, but it doesn't. Doesn't matter how you clone it, nothing seems to work quite right.

Do the config backup and restore, it actually works.

 

[jgreco]

dd is theoretically sufficient for the task, but is sufficiently dangerous for beginners that you should think of it as "destroys disk"...

 

[JaimieV]

dd is what I was thinking of... but I use USB thumbs anyway, so not something I'll ever have to worry about!

Hesseh, I'm assuming you have very good reason (like your machine won't boot off USB) for using an HDD/SSD. Otherwise, best not to - there's no advantage, and all this pain as a disadvantage.

 

[cyberjock]

I tried a dd before. I mentioned it in my thread, but it still wouldn't work.

http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?6955-Backing-up-thumbdrive-not-working

That's the thread...

 

[hesseh]

thanks for all the help: i am new to FreeNas...I am migrating all my data from a couple of Buffalo Linkstations. I just want the most stable and secure system possible...SSD seems to fit that need but I would consider thumbdrives if I could be convinced that this would be at least as good. Right now I am considering the config bkup and restore method...that seems to make sense to me...

 

[cyberjock]

thanks for all the help: i am new to FreeNas...I am migrating all my data from a couple of Buffalo Linkstations. I just want the most stable and secure system possible...SSD seems to fit that need but I would consider thumbdrives if I could be convinced that this would be at least as good. Right now I am considering the config bkup and restore method...that seems to make sense to me...

So what would convince you? How about its designed to run from USB by default? I'd expect that any company making bad recommendations about something as simple as a boot device wouldn't be in business for long...

 

[hesseh]

So what would convince you? How about its designed to run from USB by default? I'd expect that any company making bad recommendations about something as simple as a boot device wouldn't be in business for long...

I am going to see how it works: simply that I am not familiar with this: it is just my inexperience and a good demonstration would easily convince me...I guess I plug in the USB drive and boot off the installation cd and install on the usb drive instead of the ssd/hdd.

edit: I've been reading the instruction on how to install the image on the usb drive: this seems to be the way to go...thanks for your help