HDD change out

[GerardV]

I am thinking of changing the HDD in my iMac to a 512 Gb SSD. I am not using OSX all that much, just using Kubuntu with the odd Winxp session in a VM. My question is, do i still have to re-install OSX in able to run the mac or can i just install Kubuntu on the new drive without OSX.
And what would be the best way to back up my present Kubuntu install, or shall i do a fresh install and just back up my /home folder. I don't have a separate /home partition at the moment but would like to get one on my new drive.

[SteveRiley]

Here's how I'd do it.

1. Put the new drive in the iMac and the old drive in an external USB enclosure.

2. Boot the iMac with a Gparted Live USB stick.

3. Open a command prompt.

4. Run the following:

sudo lshw -class disk

Make a note of the logical names for the internal drive and the drive in the external enclosure. Don't mistake the drive in the external enclosure for the bootable USB stick!

5. Assuming that the internal drive is /dev/sda and the external drive is /dev/sdb, run the following:

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda bs=16M

6. Go have a glass of wine and read a magazine until it's done

7. Reboot and enjoy


Now the details...

* How large is the existing drive? If it's smaller than the 512 GB drive you plan to buy, then the procedure I've described will leave some unused space at the end of the new drive. You can use Gparted on the live USB stick to extend the last partition on the drive into the unused space, or you could create your new /home partition here.

* If the existing drive is larger than the new 512 GB drive, don't immediately set out to follow my procedure. Instead, come back here and tell us more about your current partition layout.

* Do not have that glass of wine before you run the dd command. It's nicknamed "data destroyer" for a reason. It never nags you with "Are you sure? Are you really really sure?" prompts because it assumes the user isn't an idiot (or sloshed).

* Speaking of dd, the if parameter specifies the input and of specifies the output. In the example above, I'm assuming that your computer has only one internal drive, which will be known as /dev/sda. The internal drive is the output -- it's where you want to write data. /dev/sdb is the input, which is the old drive mounted in the external USB enclosure.

[GerardV]

Steve, here is my current layout:

Device: fs: label: size:

/dev/sda1 fat32 EFI 200 mb
/dev/sda2 HFS+ MacOs 646 Gb
/dev/sda3 linux swap 2 Gb
/dev/sda4 ext 4 9.44 Gb
/dev/sda6 ext 4 273 Gb

135 Mb un-allocated

My original intention was to put the / dir on sda4 and the / home on sda6. (I do'nt know what happened to sda5), but somehow the whole lot ended up on sda6 so sda4 is still empty. I would still like to get a separate /home partition on the new drive.
As you can see, the old drive is lot bigger than the new one so i wonder if i can still use the dd command. As i mentioned before, i do'nt use OSX much anymore, i only got the mac to use Logic Studio, the best DAW imho, but that interest has waned somewhat.(probably due to a lack of talent). So i would consider putting OSX back only if it is absolute nessesary to run the mac. Unfortunatly, you cannot boot a mac from a USB stick, but a cd works just fine. I have been using ReFind to boot Kubuntu so i wonder where that would fit in without OSX as that is where it is installed.

[SteveRiley]

If you don't want the MacOS anymore, then forget about what I wrote earlier. Install the new SSD, boot from a Kubuntu live image, and perform a regular install. During the partitioning phase, you can create a separate /home partition.

Note that the Quantal ISO is larger than a CD. You'll need to burn it to a DVD.

[james147]

Note that the Quantal ISO is larger than a CD. You'll need to burn it to a DVD.

Or a usb stick

[SteveRiley]

Or a usb stick

GerardV said Macs won't boot from USB sticks.

[james147]

GerardV said Macs won't boot from USB sticks.

Missed that bit :S strange, I thought macs where meant to be more advanced then pcs...

[oshunluvr]

Aside: Grub can boot from a USB stick, therefore a Mac can...

[SteveRiley]

Well, and perhaps not all is lost.

Google threw up 526 million hits for "boot mac from usb", including a Ubuntu documentation page that just might exactly what GerardV needs. I am Mac-ignorant, though, so I can't vouch for the sanity of any of that.

[GerardV]

Well i took the plunge, backed up OSX and my /home folder, re-started the mac with a Gparted cd , and wiped the hdd including the EFI partition. Re-created a msdos partition table and created 3 separate partitions. One for / , one for /home and a swap partition. Downloaded and installed the Kubuntu 12.10 Mac image on DVD, and i am writing this from a succesfull install. All i have to do now is change out the drives when my new one arrives and install it again. Not a job for the faint hearted by the looks of it but we'll see.
Oshunluvr, i came across this from Apple:

Intel-based Macs support starting from an external USB storage device's volume that:

Has been formatted with a GUID partition type
Contains an installation of Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later, or Mac OS X 10.5 or later, which is compatible with (or shipped with) the Mac that the USB device is connected to. Note: You should not use a version of Mac OS X that is earlier ("older") than the version your Mac shipped with.

I remember trying it a couple times before with Kubuntu and openSuse, and it would not even see the stick.

I will let you know how i got on with the new drive.

Thanks all.

[SteveRiley]

Mind doing me a favor? I've been curious about something in Mac's (U)EFI. Would you please reboot with that Gparted Live CD, open a command prompt, and run

sudo efibootmgr -v

You can either save the output to a text file or photograph the screen or whatever you find convenient. I'm interested in seeing what kind of EFI NVRAM variables a Mac uses.

[GerardV]

Steve, the output is: sudo: efibootmgr: command not found

[GerardV]

Finally got my SSD new drive and fitted it. It is not as hard as it looks, a bit fiddly as i had to modify the SSD adapter bracket to suit the mac. Fired it up with Gparted and all is good. I put the old drive, with the fresh install from a couple of days ago, in an external enclosure and followed your suggestion at 5 in post #2, Steve. It all went well and i have a practically new pc again. I fitted a SSD to my laptop when it was only a day old and once you start using them, you just never want to go back to the old platters again. They are fantastic.

Merry Christmas, everyone !

[SteveRiley]

Hey Gerard, I've been away for a bit. I see you're up and running now, that's good. Glad to know that my procedure worked for you.

The only reason I can offer as to why efibootmgr failed is that your Mac must not be booting into full UEFI mode. I know some of the older Macs had a form of EFI that was fairly non-standard.