Hi all,

I currently have a Linux install from an old 256GB SATA SSD that I inherited. It was originally used as a swap drive in another person’s RAID server for about 7 years, then it was given to me, where I put my own Linux install that I have been running for about 5 years.

About a year ago, I acquired a new computer that has an NVMe SSD. It originally ran windows, but I dropped in my SSD with my Linux install, installed grub on the NVMe SSD, and booted to the old SSD.

I am mildly concerned about with this SSD being so old, it could crap out on me eventually. I remember that being a topic of discussion when SSDs first hit the market (i.e. when the one that I am using was made). So I was thinking of wiping the 1TB NVMe SSD that is currently unused in this computer and migrating my install to it. Now, I know I could copy my whole disk with dd, then expand the partition to make use of the space. But I was wondering if I could change the filesystem to something that had snapshots (such as btrfs).

Is it possible to do this, or to change filesystems do I need to create a new Linux install and copy all the files over that I want to keep?

  • socphoenix@midwest.social
    0·
    1 year ago

    The amount of changes you’d need to make to get Linux to boot on a different partition format and drive would be a lot of work. It would be much faster to install a new copy of Linux to the nvme drive and copy the files from the ssd post install before decommissioning the old drive.

    • exi@feddit.de
      01·
      1 year ago

      I disagree, you usually just need to get /boot and your EFI things right on the new disk, rsync stuff over and fix any references to old disks in /etc/fstab and maybe your grub config and you are done. I have done this migration>10 times over the years onto different filesystems, partition Layout and raid configurations and it’s never been particularly hard.

      • socphoenix@midwest.social
        0·
        1 year ago

        That’s true if everything is supported on the current kernel. I might just be very out of touch/date here but is btrfs built in to the kernel? I was thinking he’d need to have a different kernel/loaded modules on it

        • exi@feddit.de
          01·
          1 year ago

          Btrfs is in the mainline kernel since 2.6.29, that’s 14 years ago my friend 😃

          It’s included in every major distro for a long long time.