Finally got round to it. I have managed to increase the size of my hard drive without losing any data. This was accomplished by using Clonezilla and a newer 160Gb hard drive to replace my old 40Gb hard drive (remember those). The way my system is set up is that the operating system (Linux Mint 12) sits on a nice little 40 Gb hard drive while all my files are located on a second 500 Gb hard drive.
The Plan
1. Change hard drives over to the bigger 160 Gb drive.
2. Do not lose any settings or programs (All my files are on the second hard drive and are safe)
3. Repartition the new drive to take into account the bigger size.
What happened?
1. I connected up the new 160 Gb hard drive while leaving the old one in place (it will be removed later).
2. The best tool I have come across to take an image is Clonezilla so I decided to use it. The existing Linux Mint 12 image on the 40 Gb hard drive was caught and saved on the 500 Gb drive (10 mins to image a 40Gb hard drive). You can use this tutorial on how to use Clonezilla to take a system image.
3. I booted the system with the Clonzilla Live CD and restored the Linux Mint 12 image onto the new 160 Gb hard drive. I then restarted the system and voila everything is there. All my programs and settings have been copied across to the new hard drive.
4. All that is left to do is use a Linux Mint Live CD to boot the system and use GParted to repartition the new drive taking into account the extra space. Now I had to delete the swap partition (remember the size) resize the system file partition and then recreate the swap partition again.
5. I now have my Linux Mint 12 operating system , with all my programs and settings, running on the new 160 Gb hard drive. Lovely!!
About the Author
Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.
For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.
