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I'm moving from a 1tb HDD to a 500gb SSD. On the HDD I have a 600gb partition for Windows and a 400gb partition for Ubuntu. On the SSD I have a 150gb partition for Windows, and a 350gb partition for Ubuntu.

Everything on the HDD will fit on the SSD, and I want to get all the files and everything on the new Ubuntu partition to be exact duplicates of the old ones. Theoretically I could copy everything over, remove the HDD, figure out how to make sure GRUB doesn't freak out, and then everything will work fine.

Unfortunately, copying the partition with GParted resulted in GRUB not booting into it properly, presumably because the drive referred to itself as something else. Is there a program I can use that will do this for me?

If not, could someone walk me through the process in simple nooblish?

  • How did you copy? If an image copy you may have duplicated UUID, which is not allowed. Or if just a copy the UUIDs will not match, fstab & grub both need updating. Post this first to make sure you do not have duplicated UUIDs. `sudo blkid -c /dev/null -o list` – oldfred Jun 14 '15 at 23:40

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Try looking at CloneZilla. There is a guide to do just this Here. It runs on a live cd (Or DVD, flash drive, etc.) which is to your advantage because you don't need to be using your hard drive which is what you're cloning.

Or if you just want to fix GRUB:

  1. Boot up the computer off of the 1 TB drive into ubuntu
  2. Log in
  3. Open a terminal
  4. run sudo update-grub
  5. reboot select the entry for the SSD's copy of ubuntu in grub
  6. Boot the SSD's copy of ubuntu
  7. log in
  8. Open a terminal
  9. type sudo update-grub (Déjà vu, right? This is not a typo)
  10. Done!
  11. OPTIONAL! Remove the other copies:
    1. Repeat step 4 without the SSD plugged in
    2. Repeat step 9 without the HDD plugged in)
Grammargeek
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  • @Ben Your welcome! Glad I could help! Instead of using K3B try running `sudo dd if="somefile.iso" of="/dev/(identifier of flash drive)"` the identifier of the flash drive can be found by running `lsblk` so if lsblk showed that my drive's id was "sdf" and I saved the file as "/home/admin/clonezilla.iso" I'd run `sudo dd if="/home/admin/clonezilla.iso of="/dev/sdf" – Grammargeek Jun 14 '15 at 22:54
  • @Ben Try using unetbootin to write it – Grammargeek Jun 15 '15 at 00:12
  • @Ben If you have Windows at your disposal you can always use [Rufus](rufus.akeo.ie) – Grammargeek Jun 15 '15 at 00:14
  • @Ben Any luck with CloneZilla? – Grammargeek Jun 15 '15 at 21:40
  • Sometimes using `dd` doesn't always mark it as bootable Rufus however, _will_ mark it as bootable – Grammargeek Jun 16 '15 at 22:50
  • Haha I meant like a co-worker/mother(thanks Mom for all the times you let me borrow your computer because I broke my computer) that has windows. maybe even a library? I just like Rufus because it's simple but I'll check out doing it on Linux – Grammargeek Jun 17 '15 at 02:15
  • Haha! Success! Check [this](http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu) out! Except instead of the Ubuntu ISO use the clonezilla one – Grammargeek Jun 17 '15 at 02:20
  • @Ben Try using GParted to format it to one single partition and try again. – Grammargeek Jun 17 '15 at 20:34
  • Ok then I was just saying that sometimes my computer doesn't like dd'd drives. @Ben – Grammargeek Jun 18 '15 at 20:05
  • Alright @Ben I'll stop bugging you now :) – Grammargeek Jun 19 '15 at 10:40
  • Ok good luck! @Ben – Grammargeek Jun 19 '15 at 15:34
  • Yes! The gods like the smell of burning optical disks! Our ancestors before us where not as fortunate as they didn't know how to microwave DVDs. Hmmm... If you have any extras try using a different cd (or brand personally I use memorex)of course the startup disk creator is intended for use with flash drives though :) another option would be to do a frugal install and run clonezilla off of ram – Grammargeek Jun 20 '15 at 14:51
  • Basically what I'm saying is that you should try writing clonezilla to the ssd (their website gives details on this) – Grammargeek Jun 20 '15 at 14:53
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    hmm :/ I think perhaps running a fresh Ubuntu install on the ssd then (on hdd) copy all files in / to your ssd remembering to choose merge and not write over any files – Grammargeek Jul 03 '15 at 11:01
  • Personally I think this: do what you did before. Then run the update-grub stuff – Grammargeek Jul 03 '15 at 11:03
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    @Ben on the files that you have a lock on run `sudo chown Ben (INSERTFILEHERE)` – Grammargeek Jul 04 '15 at 14:51
  • Haha yup if I had a key logger 90% of it would be `-R` – Grammargeek Jul 04 '15 at 16:58
  • Uh-oh! Reboot into recovery mode and enable networking then drop to a root shell. Next simply run `chown root /usr/bin/sudo` – Grammargeek Jul 10 '15 at 01:00
  • @Ben uh oh! Try this one: drops to root shell, run `mount -o remount,rw /` then run `chown root /usr/bin/sudo` – Grammargeek Jul 10 '15 at 23:58
  • @Ben Uh-Oh! That's very bad :/ try starting [boot repair disk](http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/) – Grammargeek Jul 11 '15 at 11:57
  • @Ben if none of these fix it you might as well just re-install as you've gone a _little_ outside the lines on this one :) – Grammargeek Jul 11 '15 at 12:01
  • @Ben I only told you to enable networking to remount the disk – Grammargeek Jul 11 '15 at 12:09