Re: [tlug] Re: File system backup / moving partitions

["SN_Diamond" <Norman.Diamond@example.com>]

"Jake Morrison" <jake_morrison@example.com> answered
scott in sendai <linuxdorkjp@example.com>:

> Unix (and Linux) is designed to do this.

Agreed.

> You basically just have to change /etc/fstab to point the mount
> points to the right partitions and tell your boot manager
> which partition to boot.

And make a rescue boot floppy.

And make a backup of the MBR, and copy the backup to a file on your C:
drive.
For example:
  dd if=/dev/hda of=bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
  cp bootsect.lnx /windows/c/bootsect.lnx

Ordinarily an install of Windows 2000 will overwrite the MBR so that Windows
2000's own boot manager will be invoked.  This isn't so bad, but you'll
still have to recover from it one way or another.  If you stick with the
Windows 2000 boot manager then add a line to C:\BOOT.INI to load
C:\BOOTSECT.LNX as a possibility.  Otherwise boot the rescue floppy and
restore the MBR from the backup.

> Watch out with NT, though. I think that Win2K will want to
> have its root within the first 8GB (or something like that)

That depends on the BIOS.  LILO also depends on the BIOS in this manner.  If
the BIOS can't boot anything past 8GB then both the C: partition and the
/boot partition have to be fully within the first 8GB.

Windows NT had additional problems at the 8GB point but there was a
downloadable patch to fix them.