Cloned HD doesn't boot

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.
Is that normal or should it boot.

I had a similar problem.
How are the SSD and the Spinning Disks formatted?
Is the Boot via UEFI or via MBR?

You have the data backed up? If not back it up.

If so try using Super Grub2 live disk to boot up.
If that works then simply update Grub2 on the SSD.
If it does not work try an straight forward install.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

RobH

2020-10-28 20:09:25 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.
Is that normal or should it boot.

    I had a similar problem.
    How are the SSD and the Spinning Disks formatted?
    Is the Boot via UEFI or via MBR?
    You have the data backed up? If not back it up.
    If so try using Super Grub2 live disk to boot up.
    If that works then simply update Grub2 on the SSD.
    If it does not work try an straight forward install.
    bliss

Both disks were formatted ext4, boots by MBR or legacy

Jonathan N. Little

2020-10-28 20:02:29 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.
Is that normal or should it boot.

I normally find all I have to do is reinstall grub on the clone.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

RobH

2020-10-28 20:08:13 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.
Is that normal or should it boot.

I normally find all I have to do is reinstall grub on the clone.

Ok, how do I do that as it is already installed from what I can see.

Jonathan N. Little

2020-10-29 03:16:30 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.
Is that normal or should it boot.

I normally find all I have to do is reinstall grub on the clone.

Ok, how do I do that as it is already installed from what I can see.

Boot from live session:

<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing>

Yes, it will look like it is installed but will not boot, so I routinely
use the live session to reinstall it and the clone will always boot.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

Grant Taylor

2020-10-28 20:20:41 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?

If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.

If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.

What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

RobH

2020-10-28 20:22:43 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?
If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.
If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.
What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

I cloned the entire drive using this:

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

gerrit

2020-10-28 20:37:53 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?
If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.
If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.
What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need

if=/dev/sda

RobH

2020-10-28 20:48:36 UTC

Post by gerrit

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?
If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.
If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.
What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need
if=/dev/sda

Ok, but the disk is sda1 according to sudo blkid

I've just redone it and on completion it says :
1221069+1 records in
1221070+0 records out
80024043520 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1714, 37 s, 46.7Mb/s

gerrit

2020-10-28 22:50:04 UTC

Post by gerrit
thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need
if=/dev/sda

Ok, but the disk is sda1 according to sudo blkid

blkid is talking about the partion not the disk

Post by RobH
1221069+1 records in
1221070+0 records out
80024043520 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1714, 37 s, 46.7Mb/s

did you redo it with /dev/sda , and does it work now ?

RobH

2020-10-29 15:11:28 UTC

Post by gerrit

Post by gerrit
thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need
if=/dev/sda

Ok, but the disk is sda1 according to sudo blkid

blkid is talking about the partion not the disk

Post by RobH
1221069+1 records in
1221070+0 records out
80024043520 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1714, 37 s, 46.7Mb/s

did you redo it with /dev/sda , and does it work now ?

I did and no it still doesn't work.
It only gets as far as the purple ubuntu screen and that's it

Paul

2020-10-29 10:32:59 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?
If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.
If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.
What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need
if=/dev/sda

Ok, but the disk is sda1 according to sudo blkid
1221069+1 records in
1221070+0 records out
80024043520 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1714, 37 s, 46.7Mb/s

Now that's just too funny for words.

You're telling us an 80GB drive copied in 37 seconds ??? Um, Nooo.

Install package gddrescue and use executable "ddrescue"
to do the dd transfer instead. Create a logfile so you
can see which sector(s) didn't get transferred.

sudo apt install gddrescue

sudo ddrescue -n /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log # First pass...

gedit rescued.log # examine to see errors
# if you are curious

sudo ddrescue -r 1 /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log # Second pass tries to
# fix the errored bits,
# It reads "rescued.log".

You can use "man ddrescue" to see what
other arguments it accepts. It claims the default
cluster size transferred is 64K (128 sectors).

Paul

RobH

2020-10-29 11:30:33 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?
If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.
If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.
What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need
if=/dev/sda

Ok, but the disk is sda1 according to sudo blkid
1221069+1 records in
1221070+0 records out
80024043520 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1714, 37 s, 46.7Mb/s

Now that's just too funny for words.
You're telling us an 80GB drive copied in 37 seconds ??? Um, Nooo.
Install package gddrescue and use executable "ddrescue"
to do the dd transfer instead. Create a logfile so you
can see which sector(s) didn't get transferred.
   sudo apt install gddrescue
   sudo ddrescue -n /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log    # First pass...
   gedit rescued.log                                 # examine to see
errors
                                                     # if you are curious
   sudo ddrescue -r 1 /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log # Second pass
tries to
                                                     # fix the errored
bits,
                                                     # It reads
"rescued.log".
You can use "man ddrescue" to see what
other arguments it accepts. It claims the default
cluster size transferred is 64K (128 sectors).
   Paul

No it took 1714.37 seconds. The comma was a typo.

RobH

2020-10-29 16:02:52 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?
If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.
If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.
What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need
if=/dev/sda

Ok, but the disk is sda1 according to sudo blkid
1221069+1 records in
1221070+0 records out
80024043520 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1714, 37 s, 46.7Mb/s

Now that's just too funny for words.
You're telling us an 80GB drive copied in 37 seconds ??? Um, Nooo.
Install package gddrescue and use executable "ddrescue"
to do the dd transfer instead. Create a logfile so you
can see which sector(s) didn't get transferred.
   sudo apt install gddrescue
   sudo ddrescue -n /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log    # First pass...
   gedit rescued.log                                 # examine to see
errors
                                                     # if you are curious
   sudo ddrescue -r 1 /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log # Second pass
tries to
                                                     # fix the errored
bits,
                                                     # It reads
"rescued.log".
You can use "man ddrescue" to see what
other arguments it accepts. It claims the default
cluster size transferred is 64K (128 sectors).
   Paul

I started again from scratch:

***@rob-nuc:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=64k conv=noerror,sync
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out
80026402816 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1723.91 s, 46.4 MB/s

Then:

***@rob-nuc:~$ sudo ddrescue -n /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log
ddrescue: Output file exists and is not a regular file.
ddrescue: Use '--force' if you really want to overwrite it, but be
aware that all existing data in the output file will be lost.
Try 'ddrescue --help' for more information.
***@rob-nuc:~$ gedit rescued.log
***@rob-nuc:~$ sudo ddrescue --force /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log
GNU ddrescue 1.22
ipos: 80026 MB, non-trimmed: 0 B, current rate: 7364 kB/s
opos: 80026 MB, non-scraped: 0 B, average rate: 42544 kB/s
non-tried: 0 B, bad-sector: 0 B, error rate: 0 B/s
rescued: 80026 MB, bad areas: 0, run time: 31m 20s
pct rescued: 100.00%, read errors: 0, remaining time: n/a
time since last successful read: n/a
Finished

Installed the ssd and waited for it to boot up. It only got as far as
the Ubuntu menu screen, and after I pressed enter on UBUNTU, it stalled.

Anyways I have solved it now by reinstalling Grub from a live session,
and it boots up just fine.

Thanks anyway

Paul

2020-10-30 03:45:45 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?
If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.
If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.
What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need
if=/dev/sda

Ok, but the disk is sda1 according to sudo blkid
1221069+1 records in
1221070+0 records out
80024043520 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1714, 37 s, 46.7Mb/s

Now that's just too funny for words.
You're telling us an 80GB drive copied in 37 seconds ??? Um, Nooo.
Install package gddrescue and use executable "ddrescue"
to do the dd transfer instead. Create a logfile so you
can see which sector(s) didn't get transferred.
sudo apt install gddrescue
sudo ddrescue -n /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log # First pass...
gedit rescued.log # examine to see errors
# if you are curious
sudo ddrescue -r 1 /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log # Second pass tries to
# fix the errored bits,
# It reads "rescued.log".
You can use "man ddrescue" to see what
other arguments it accepts. It claims the default
cluster size transferred is 64K (128 sectors).
Paul

1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out
80026402816 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1723.91 s, 46.4 MB/s
ddrescue: Output file exists and is not a regular file.
ddrescue: Use '--force' if you really want to overwrite it, but be
aware that all existing data in the output file will be lost.
Try 'ddrescue --help' for more information.
GNU ddrescue 1.22
ipos: 80026 MB, non-trimmed: 0 B, current rate: 7364 kB/s
opos: 80026 MB, non-scraped: 0 B, average rate: 42544 kB/s
non-tried: 0 B, bad-sector: 0 B, error rate: 0 B/s
rescued: 80026 MB, bad areas: 0, run time: 31m 20s
pct rescued: 100.00%, read errors: 0, remaining time: n/a
time since last successful read: n/a
Finished
Installed the ssd and waited for it to boot up. It only got as far as
the Ubuntu menu screen, and after I pressed enter on UBUNTU, it stalled.
Anyways I have solved it now by reinstalling Grub from a live session,
and it boots up just fine.
Thanks anyway

Was the original 80GB hard drive actually bootable
before this cloning operation ? Or was the GRUB
already damaged ?

If there's a problem here, I want to understand why
it failed. Why "dd" is not enough.

Paul

Anssi Saari

2020-10-30 08:35:56 UTC

Post by Paul
Was the original 80GB hard drive actually bootable
before this cloning operation ? Or was the GRUB
already damaged ?
If there's a problem here, I want to understand why
it failed. Why "dd" is not enough.

Same here. I rarely clone boot or other drives but recently I cloned my
main OS drive from SATA SSD to NVMe and there was no issue with booting
from the new drive. Or for sure there were some issues to fix but I had
made sure my main OS (Debian) referred to everything by UUID so at least
that booted without issue. The other two (Arch and Windows 10) needed
some fiddling.

BIOS boot and FAT MBR.

RobH

2020-11-01 12:52:15 UTC

Post by RobH
I've just cloned an existing spinning 80Gb disk to a 120Gb SSD using dd.

Did you clone the entire drive or just the partition(s)?
If you cloned the entire drive, then the MBR, including the partition
table was copied. Though I question if it's correct for the new drive.
If you cloned just the partition, you might have missed things,
including a boot loader.
What command(s) did you run?

Post by RobH
When it finished I swapped them over but the ssd doesn't boot up.

I'm not that surprised.

Post by RobH
Is that normal or should it boot.

It depends.

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

thats not good you copied the first partion not the whole disk, you need
if=/dev/sda

Ok, but the disk is sda1 according to sudo blkid
1221069+1 records in
1221070+0 records out
80024043520 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1714, 37 s, 46.7Mb/s

Now that's just too funny for words.
You're telling us an 80GB drive copied in 37 seconds ??? Um, Nooo.
Install package gddrescue and use executable "ddrescue"
to do the dd transfer instead. Create a logfile so you
can see which sector(s) didn't get transferred.
    sudo apt install gddrescue
    sudo ddrescue -n /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log    # First pass...
    gedit rescued.log                                 # examine to
see errors
                                                      # if you are
curious
    sudo ddrescue -r 1 /dev/sda /dev/sdc rescued.log # Second pass
tries to
                                                      # fix the
errored bits,
                                                      # It reads
"rescued.log".
You can use "man ddrescue" to see what
other arguments it accepts. It claims the default
cluster size transferred is 64K (128 sectors).
    Paul

1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out
80026402816 bytes (80 GB, 75 GiB) copied, 1723.91 s, 46.4 MB/s
ddrescue: Output file exists and is not a regular file.
ddrescue: Use '--force' if you really want to overwrite it, but be
          aware that all existing data in the output file will be lost.
Try 'ddrescue --help' for more information.
GNU ddrescue 1.22
     ipos:   80026 MB, non-trimmed:    0 B, current rate:   7364 kB/s
     opos:   80026 MB, non-scraped:    0 B, average rate: 42544 kB/s
non-tried:        0 B, bad-sector:    0 B,    error rate:       0 B/s
rescued:   80026 MB,   bad areas:    0,        run time:     31m 20s
pct rescued: 100.00%, read errors:    0, remaining time:         n/a
                          time since last successful read:         n/a
Finished
Installed the ssd and waited for it to boot up. It only got as far as
the Ubuntu menu screen, and after I pressed enter on UBUNTU, it stalled.
Anyways I have solved it now by reinstalling Grub from a live session,
and it boots up just fine.
Thanks anyway

Was the original 80GB hard drive actually bootable
before this cloning operation ? Or was the GRUB
already damaged ?
If there's a problem here, I want to understand why
it failed. Why "dd" is not enough.
Paul

Yes the 80Gb HD was bootable as it was in use.
I don't know if grub was damaged or not, although I *think* not as it
rebooted ok a few days ago after an update.

Grant Taylor

2020-10-28 21:17:28 UTC

Post by RobH
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

sda1 is a partition.

sdc is a drive.

So you cloned a partition's contents to a raw drive.

I would expect this to not boot.

Either clone the entire drive (sda) or create new partitions on the
target drive (sdc1) and install a boot loader to the MBR of the new drive.

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

RobH

2020-10-28 22:59:29 UTC

Post by RobH
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync

sda1 is a partition.
sdc is a drive.
So you cloned a partition's contents to a raw drive.
I would expect this to not boot.
Either clone the entire drive (sda) or create new partitions on the
target drive (sdc1) and install a boot loader to the MBR of the new drive.

Ok, I've just cloned the said drive again but this time used sda.
When finished it produced this:
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out

Grant Taylor

2020-10-29 00:46:36 UTC

Post by RobH
Ok, I've just cloned the said drive again but this time used sda.

Okay.

Post by RobH
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out

If the target disk is bigger than the source disk, I would have expected
the numbers to have been the same.

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

Anton Ertl

2020-10-29 08:45:57 UTC

Post by RobH
Ok, I've just cloned the said drive again but this time used sda.

Okay.

Post by RobH
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out

If the target disk is bigger than the source disk, I would have expected
the numbers to have been the same.

Looks ok to me. The source size was not dividable by 64KB, and dd
wrote the incomplete last input block as complete output block.
Should work.

The copied size is 80GB, which fits with the size he gave for the
source drive.

- anton

--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
***@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html

RobH

2020-10-29 09:21:46 UTC

Post by Anton Ertl

Post by RobH
Ok, I've just cloned the said drive again but this time used sda.

Okay.

Post by RobH
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out

If the target disk is bigger than the source disk, I would have expected
the numbers to have been the same.

Looks ok to me. The source size was not dividable by 64KB, and dd
wrote the incomplete last input block as complete output block.
Should work.
The copied size is 80GB, which fits with the size he gave for the
source drive.
- anton

I installed the new ssd after copying all the said files, but it still
won't boot, aaargh!

I tried deja-vu backup and restore to backup the spinning disk and it
did the job very quickly, quicker than I expected.

Paul

2020-10-29 10:41:30 UTC

Post by Anton Ertl

Post by RobH
Ok, I've just cloned the said drive again but this time used sda.

Okay.

Post by RobH
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out

If the target disk is bigger than the source disk, I would have expected
the numbers to have been the same.

Looks ok to me. The source size was not dividable by 64KB, and dd
wrote the incomplete last input block as complete output block.
Should work.
The copied size is 80GB, which fits with the size he gave for the
source drive.
- anton

I installed the new ssd after copying all the said files, but it still
won't boot, aaargh!
I tried deja-vu backup and restore to backup the spinning disk and it
did the job very quickly, quicker than I expected.

Your "dd" full disk run, did not run to completion.

A crusty old 80GB drive should take an hour to copy,
not one minute to copy. Always use your calibrated
eyeball on these things. An 80GB rotating drive
does not copy in the blink of an eye. It takes
a three course meal time to even get close to
transferring it.

Any tool which selectively copies content, of course
it's going to complete faster. Copies MBR, boot track,
only copies files in partitions and so on. I would
be curious though, how deja-vu managed to "step over"
the bad spot in the disk, where ever that bad spot
is located.

Paul

Jonathan N. Little

2020-10-29 14:03:55 UTC

Post by Paul

Post by RobH
Ok, I've just cloned the said drive again but this time used sda.

Okay.

Post by RobH
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out

If the target disk is bigger than the source disk, I would have expected
the numbers to have been the same.

Looks ok to me. The source size was not dividable by 64KB, and dd
wrote the incomplete last input block as complete output block.
Should work.
The copied size is 80GB, which fits with the size he gave for the
source drive.
- anton

I installed the new ssd after copying all the said files, but it still
won't boot, aaargh!
I tried deja-vu backup and restore to backup the spinning disk and it
did the job very quickly, quicker than I expected.

Your "dd" full disk run, did not run to completion.
A crusty old 80GB drive should take an hour to copy,
not one minute to copy. Always use your calibrated
eyeball on these things. An 80GB rotating drive
does not copy in the blink of an eye. It takes
a three course meal time to even get close to
transferring it.
Any tool which selectively copies content, of course
it's going to complete faster. Copies MBR, boot track,
only copies files in partitions and so on. I would
be curious though, how deja-vu managed to "step over"
the bad spot in the disk, where ever that bad spot
is located.

I still say, boot a live session, mount the problematic drive, reinstall
grub, reboot and done. It will fix this.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

RobH

2020-10-29 15:29:49 UTC

Post by Paul

Post by RobH
Ok, I've just cloned the said drive again but this time used sda.

Okay.

Post by RobH
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out

If the target disk is bigger than the source disk, I would have expected
the numbers to have been the same.

Looks ok to me. The source size was not dividable by 64KB, and dd
wrote the incomplete last input block as complete output block.
Should work.
The copied size is 80GB, which fits with the size he gave for the
source drive.
- anton

I installed the new ssd after copying all the said files, but it still
won't boot, aaargh!
I tried deja-vu backup and restore to backup the spinning disk and it
did the job very quickly, quicker than I expected.

Your "dd" full disk run, did not run to completion.
A crusty old 80GB drive should take an hour to copy,
not one minute to copy. Always use your calibrated
eyeball on these things. An 80GB rotating drive
does not copy in the blink of an eye. It takes
a three course meal time to even get close to
transferring it.
Any tool which selectively copies content, of course
it's going to complete faster. Copies MBR, boot track,
only copies files in partitions and so on. I would
be curious though, how deja-vu managed to "step over"
the bad spot in the disk, where ever that bad spot
is located.

I still say, boot a live session, mount the problematic drive, reinstall
grub, reboot and done. It will fix this.

Why did I not listen to you before????
I booted a live session, mounted the ssd disk then installed grub as per
the link you gave before.
I rebooted and all is well.

Thanks

Johnny

2020-10-29 15:34:05 UTC

On Thu, 29 Oct 2020 15:29:49 +0000

Post by Paul

Post by RobH
Ok, I've just cloned the said drive again but this time used sda.

Okay.

Post by RobH
1221105+1 records in
1221106+0 records out

If the target disk is bigger than the source disk, I would have expected
the numbers to have been the same.

Looks ok to me. The source size was not dividable by 64KB, and
dd wrote the incomplete last input block as complete output
block. Should work.
The copied size is 80GB, which fits with the size he gave for the
source drive.
- anton

I installed the new ssd after copying all the said files, but it
still won't boot, aaargh!
I tried deja-vu backup and restore to backup the spinning disk
and it did the job very quickly, quicker than I expected.

Your "dd" full disk run, did not run to completion.
A crusty old 80GB drive should take an hour to copy,
not one minute to copy. Always use your calibrated
eyeball on these things. An 80GB rotating drive
does not copy in the blink of an eye. It takes
a three course meal time to even get close to
transferring it.
Any tool which selectively copies content, of course
it's going to complete faster. Copies MBR, boot track,
only copies files in partitions and so on. I would
be curious though, how deja-vu managed to "step over"
the bad spot in the disk, where ever that bad spot
is located.

I still say, boot a live session, mount the problematic drive,
reinstall grub, reboot and done. It will fix this.

Why did I not listen to you before????
I booted a live session, mounted the ssd disk then installed grub as
per the link you gave before.
I rebooted and all is well.
Thanks

I found out a long time ago to listen to everything he says.

Jonathan N. Little

2020-10-29 17:08:39 UTC

Post by Jonathan N. Little
I still say, boot a live session, mount the problematic drive, reinstall
grub, reboot and done. It will fix this.

Why did I not listen to you before????

Not sure.

Post by RobH
I booted a live session, mounted the ssd disk then installed grub as
per the link you gave before. I rebooted and all is well.

I have done this so many times that I cannot count. The clone looks like
everything is the same but does not boot. I now just routinely do it.
BTW this also works if you don't use cloning software, but just gparted
in a live session to "clone" by coping partitions allowing to resize for
different size drives. While still in live session, mount drive and
install grub and you are good to go.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

RobH

2020-10-29 17:45:40 UTC