[ale] HELP! Mint machine is booting from the wrong hard drive

[Jim Kinney]

You want a data clone but not a clone of the hard drive meta data - UUID in
particular. Change the backup drive UUID (for each partition) and change
the backup method to only capture files - rsync is a good choice. Lastly,
check the backed-up fstab file and make sure the UUIDs there point to the
backup drive. Be sure to exclude that file from being overwritten later


On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 1:07 AM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:

>
>
> see below
>
> Phil Turmel <philip at turmel.org> wrote:
>
> >On 07/02/2013 11:15 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> One of my machines is running Mint 13 (based on Ubuntu 12.04).  The
> >> machine has two hard drives, a 320 GB hard drive on /dev/sda and a
> >500
> >> GB hard drive on /dev/sdb.  The 500 GB drive is for backup purposes
> >> only.  Tonight, I made an exact clone (as far as I know) of the 320
> >GB
> >> hdd over to the 500 GB hdd with clonezilla.  The 500 GB hdd is still
> >> attached.
> >
> >The problem is that you made an *exact* clone.  Modern distros use the
> >UUID or LABEL embedded in a filesystem to find the necessary partitions
> >during boot (to avoid issues with hot-pluggable drives).  If you clone
> >partitions, both will have that metadata, and your boot process becomes
> >random.
> >
> >> My bios is set to boot from the 320 GB drive (/dev/sda).  Once I
> >boot,
> >> the grub menu asks if I want to boot Mint on /dev/sda2, which is
> >> correct.  I select that, but, when the system comes up, I find that
> >the
> >> 500 GB hdd (/dev/sdB2) is the one that's mounted, and that's not what
> >I
> >> want.
> >>
> >> Can someone tell me why this is happening and how to prevent it
> >without
> >> physically unplugging the drive?
> >
> >Change the label and uuid on the partition(s) on one of the drives,
> >then
> >change /etc/fstab within that one to point to its own label/uuid.  The
> >utilities needed vary with filesystem type, but it would be "tune2fs"
> >for anything in the "ext" family.
> >
> >Use a rescue CD or thumb drive so you have total control over temporary
> >mounts.  Check your work with "blkid".
> >
> >Phil
> >
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> Thanks for the info.  I understand what you're saying.  I have a few more
> questions.
>
> * Would I not want an exact clone if I had to put the backup drive into
> service?
>
> * Do you know if Windows is susceptible to this problem?  I've had a clone
> drive connected to Windows in the past and haven't noticed a problem.  To
> be honest, I don't know if I booted that way, but I was wondering if that's
> a problem in that environment.
>
> * I'd rather not have to tweak every backup that I make.  Is there some
> way to automate the changes?  Or, perhaps I should just put a switch on the
> sata power cable and switch the drive off when I don't want to be accessing
> the backup drive.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
> quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
*
*Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
*
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