copying disk to disk with dd & adding another OS

[eLiu]

Hi all,
I just bought a larger HD (500gb); my current drive is 160gb. The 160gb drive is running linux; it has 1 primary & 1 extended-dos partition.

Can I:
1) use dd to copy the 160gb disk onto the 500gb disk. like dd bs=100M if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb. I'll do it from a live-cd so no disks are mounted.
2) resize (grow) the extended-dos partition (linux needs more space)
3) add another primary partition at the end of the disk
4) install win7 on this new partition
5) rerun grub's configuration tool thingy so I can boot linux & win7, since I assume win7 will overwrite the mbr.

Will this go smoothly?

-Eric

 

[joetekubi]

Ok, couple of things.
I don't think you need to clone your entire disk with dd - you can copy old partition (small) to new partition (big). (I think).
I would tend to use CloneZilla or PartImage Live CDs to do this. If you have a boot problem with the new disk, use Super Grub Disk to repair the MBR and grub.

 

[eLiu]

Ok, couple of things.
I don't think you need to clone your entire disk with dd - you can copy old partition (small) to new partition (big). (I think).
I would tend to use CloneZilla or PartImage Live CDs to do this. If you have a boot problem with the new disk, use Super Grub Disk to repair the MBR and grub.

The 160gb disk is like 99% full... hence the upgrade 🙂

I'm hoping that after I install windows, grub can fix itself by typing in some simple cmds to the grub prompt (cmds that I forget, but I'm sure google will know). This worked w/XP anyway...