This was the first time I ever cloned and I was successful. I never counted on that happening. I thought this would take 8 times: Gparted is the sh**.
Ingredients:
*your hdd with solus on it. *your hdd with backup distro on it *clone target ssd, formatted GPT and left unallocated *live USB (solus budgie always works for me but Backup Distro should have an ISO on there, too, for the last step: chrooting).
Step one.
Unplug backup distro. Leave Solus in the mobo.
plug destination ssd into mobo.
boot computer into live iso.
Open Gpartedand note how big the /dev/sda1 (boot) is and /dev/sda2 (ext4) is. Click on /dev/sda1. Under menu select COPY. Toggle to destination drive in Gparted upper left. Create 1 GB partition just like solus hdd has. Click on new partition to highlight it. In Gparted menu select PASTE. then adjust boot flags.
I did not think it would be that easy.
***NOTE: before cloning I had to shrink hdd Solus and shrink hdd backup distro to match the space on the ssd. Do this before you clone.
In Solus Live toggle back to Solus HDD drive. Click on the ext4. Hit copy. Toggle to destination ssd. Create xxxGB partition. paste.
**PRO-TIP: make the partitions as you go with the copy/paste.
in my weird way: copy partition. toggle to other drive. create partition. the paste.
Solus is done. Shut down computer. Yank Solus from mobo. Insert backup distro HDD back in the mobo. Leave destination ssd plugged in. Boot usb ventoy into solus budgie---it''s only gparted, I liked the continuity.
Repeat cut and paste method. for backup distro's bootloader and ext4.
Note: backup distro has systemd bootloader like Solus. I did not try this with grub.
Shutdown computer. Unplug backup distro hdd. Unplug usb stick. Power computer back on.
F12.
See lovely bios menu: Solus Bootloader is on it, and backup distro bootloader is there, too.
Try one! See it want to boot and fail. Reboot, F12, and choose backup distro. Watch it want to boot and fail. Backup Distro plymouth screen gave my clue: hung up on uuid of backup distro boot drive.
My whole Linux life has been lived to avoid this moment: the dreaded uuid switch. I heard it was nightmarish and doomed to fail.
But good god man it was easy.
Keep in mind everything up til now took me about 4-5 hours because me: not the sharpest tool in shed I need to do it Sesame Street style, nice and slow. And by 4-5 hours I mean 4-5 hours over 2-3 days when i had time.
This took me 2 hours: the final touches but it was easy.
The only things plugged into the mobo are are new destination ssd and your Ventoy.
Open ISO Solus image. Open default Firefox. Surf for Solus boot rescue page and carefully follow solus directions to chrootinto system.
Success. You have both drives mounted, you are inside the ssd solus install.
sudo blkid: copy, as in cut and paste, the uuid # for boot drive. while in terminal type sudo gedit /etc/fstab.
[or nano but nano is my thorn].
NOTE: fstab uuid will be different than blkid uuid. THIS IS KEY: blkid uuid belongs in fstab. manually change the number in gedit.not the other way around.
reboot. check to see if you were successful. I did not. I went right into backup distro live OS to do the same thing:
open stock firefox, find backup distro chroot page, mount drives, arch-chroot, then the switcheroo.
I had cold lager at this point. I figured I did my research. I took notes. I was methodical and attentive. That meant I had a 90% chance for failure, based on my track record, and this was all just a wasted day.
But the switcheroo worked. I have ALWAYS F-Keyed the bios menu since I dont have the smarts for a true dual boot where you power on and voila.
Solus booted right up. Backup distro booted right up. Everything is fine.
No to clonezilla and all the tools I ever read about. Gparted was money the first time.
Note to @BuzzPCSOS and @Axios -- remember that HDSentinel picture I took of a HDD with 10% health and and an astounding 241 bad sectors? that was backup distro. the tech I bought the refurb (that I refurb'd more..) from laughed in my face when I asked if it was salvageable...gparted cloned it fine.
backup distro (endeavour) runs perfectly and so does its apps etc. I was led to believe it was doomed--go figure
edit/longer it is the more typos. correlation😉?
