Replacing a Hard Disk with a clone fails

Question

I just cloned a disk (A) using dd into the same kind of disk (B):

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

Now, I want to boot the server with new disk (B) instead of old (A). But i getting an error during start:

............................Could not find /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-35000c5004c05c167-part3.
Want me to fall back to /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-35000c5004c05c167-part3? (Y/n) 
y
Waiting for device /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-35000c5004c05c167-part3 to appear:             
..............................not found -- exiting to /bin/sh

I think the problem is that it query the disk using old disk (A) ID (scsi-35000c5004c05c167). Where can i change it to use new disk (B) ID?

I'm using Suse Linux Enterprise 11

More info:

$ ls /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-*           
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-35000c5004bab5733
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-35000c5004bab5733-part1
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-35000c5004bab5733-part2
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-35000c5004bab5733-part3

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 07 '12 at 17:19

4

You need to change your paths in:

/etc/fstab
/boot/grub/menu.lst

answered May 07 '12 at 17:19

MikeyB

39,291
10
105
189

after exiting to /bin/sh there is no /etc/fstab not /boot/grub/menu.lst – Zhen May 07 '12 at 18:20
Boot using a live CD or temporarily change the boot info as BMDan suggests, then make the change. – MikeyB May 07 '12 at 19:11
@Zhen, you almost certainly are going to need to boot the system with a livecd. – Zoredache May 07 '12 at 19:11
i was able to change '/etc/fstab' but there is no '/boot/grub/menu.lst' file – Zhen May 08 '12 at 08:06
@mikeyB what do you change in that line and replace it with what? – Jul 10 '14 at 18:51

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 07 '12 at 17:20

2

you need to find and replace that uuid in your grub configuration, something like /boot/grub/menu.lst in grub.

in grub 2, /boot/grub/grub.cfg is generated when you run update-grub, so you could temporarily modify that file and boot, and then change the grub settings and run update-grub once you have booted into your OS.

another option is to temporarily replace the uuid reference to the actual disk partition, and again fix that later.

answered May 07 '12 at 17:20

johnshen64

5,865
24
17

just to nitpick a little, but what he displayed isn't a UUID. UUIDs are globally unique and follow a certain format. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4122.txt – Zoredache May 07 '12 at 19:13

BMDan · Answer 3 · 2012-05-07T17:55:43.983

In grub's configuration, you'll have a line that reads something like:

kernel /foo root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-35000c5004c05c167-part3

You'll need to change that line. You may also have, as @MikeyB points out, similar entries in /etc/fstab; you'll need to change those, as well.

Alternately, to boot off of the cloned disk, you can do a one-time edit of grub's configuration by hitting any key to enter menu mode, then "e" to edit the startup entry in question, then "e" again to edit the line. Make the changes, then hit enter to "save" (I use the term loosely) the modified line, and press "b" to boot the active entry. Don't forget to then make your changes permanent through the same steps as above!

Replacing a Hard Disk with a clone fails

3 Answers3