Getting new hardware - can I just move the disk?

[Liam Proven]

On Sun, 10 Oct 2021 at 18:07, Bo Berglund <bo.berglund at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A question regarding the bootable USB:
> I have made it from the ISO using balenaEtcher, but in order for it to boot the
> new machine I have to enter the BIOS and tell it to boot from removable media,
> right?
> This turned out to be a hard point to do, unlike on all other PC:s I have dealt
> with over many years...

It is hard for me to say since I do not know what the new machine is
-- I don't think you have told us -- and even if I did, the methods
are different for different makes/models and I don't know every PC
ever made!

>From this:

> I could start GParted and I see the drive being split into the following 4
> parts:
>
> /dev/nvme0n1p1  EFI system partition  fat32 260MB
> /dev/nvme0n1p2  Microsoft reserved  unknown 16MB
> /dev/nvme0n1p3  Basic data  ntfs Windows    475GB
> /dev/nvme0n1p4  Basic data  ntfs WinRE_DRV  1000MB

... So now I know more info from what you have posted here than you
told us previously. New info:
• the machine already has some or all of Windows (Win10?) on it
• it has an NVMe drive SSD, not SATA
• it's a UEFI machine, not BIOS.

So I refer back to my earlier message: try it with FreeDOS. Check and verify:
[1]  if it is able to boot from a legacy BIOS type USB disk
[2] if it will boot from a BIOS-type MBR hard disk

Do this _before_ you try to copy Ubuntu onto it.

Beware! If you reformat the disk as MBR and it _can't_ boot from it
then you will need to reinstall Windows onto it to recreate the UEFI
system partition and UEFI boot structures.

> Do I select the partitions one by one and hit the delete button?
> And where does the MBR come from?

You need to explore GParted more and learn your way around it before
you try to use it in anger. I suggest trying it in a VM. Practice
making, resizing, moving, and deleting partitions. Practice making a
new boot sector and learn about the difference between MBR and GUID
disks. Spend some time reading Wikipedia. Make notes for yourself.

This stuff is *complicated* and you *need* to know it *before you
start*. If you do not, you *will* have problems.

I do not like UEFI and try to avoid it. My computers at home these
days are mostly old Thinkpads. With them, if the hard disk is MBR,
they start in BIOS mode and you can use BIOS-type commands.

If the disk is partitioned in GPT, then they boot in UEFI mode and
everything is different.

I do not know if your computer is the same. So *you* need to learn
this stuff, because we can't advise you. We don't know what computer
you have and how it works.

I wish I could give you simple answers but I can't.

I have not used NVMe drives myself but I have done some Googling and
the answers are contradictory. There are at least 2 possibilities:

* You cannot boot from an NVMe disk in BIOS mode
* You might be able to but only if the manufacturer put some kind of
driver in the NVMe drive's firmware

> Then how does one "copy" a partition in GParted?
> Is this howto accurate?
> https://www.diskpart.com/clone/clone-partition-gparted-7201.html

Yes.

> If I succeed with the procedure outlined above it will hopefully result in a
> running 18.04 server system clone with all of my tweaks and installs done over
> the almost 3 years since the upgrade from 16.04 still there.

Now that I know that:
• Old PC is BIOS-only and the disk is MBR
• New PC is UEFI and has an NVMe drive

I am not totally confident that if you just copy the partition, it
will boot. :-(

You might need to do something like:

[1] (re-)install Windows to create the UEFI boot structures
[2] install Ubuntu alongside in a UEFI config, in a GPT partition, to
create a new Ubuntu boot loader shim in the ESP
[3] *then* copy your old system's partition onto the new disk instead
of the existing Ubuntu partition
[4] reinstall your bootloader so your old copy can boot

Yes it is a mess. Yes it is complicated.

UEFI is very complicated and for complex legal reasons it is hard for
FOSS companies to support.

I am old, cynical, embittered and a little paranoid. I think Microsoft
did this stuff intentionally to make it harder to run FOSS OSes on new
PCs, as a strike against their Linux competition.

I have been widely mocked and derided for this, but nobody can falsify
it. Microsoft is a really very nasty company with 4 decades of playing
dirty and breaking the law to grow and protect its monopoly.

We have a saying in English: "the leopard cannot change its spots". If
something is part of you, you can't alter it. 1970s-1990s Microsoft
was a dirty, corrupt, lying, cheating, stealing sort of company.

21st century Microsoft wants us to believe that it's changed and now
it's nice, friendly, helpful, cooperative, and open. It says
"MICROSOFT <3 Linux" and it owns Github and it's published Windows
Calculator and MS-DOS 1 and 2 as FOSS to "show it means it".

I think it's just marketing and it's BS.

Many disagree with me.

But until they can *show* me I'm wrong, I think they're naïve, gullible kids.

> When that is done the next step is to do the release-upgrade to get to 20.04,
> right?

Given all the complexities involved here, I think, in context, I would
make 2-3 backups and upgrade the old server _first_, so at least
you're working with a modern OS.

> And as safeguard I have a full backup on the old drive...
>
> Not yet done anything apart from looking at the system.

-- 
Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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