Moving Linux Mint Cinnamon to internal hard drive

Kemoinfla

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I have been experi-MINT-ing with linux to learn more about it, and to get the system (on a laptop) to the point that it has all the capabilities that I need to have for it to be my main system for everyday use. The linux environment is currently loaded on a 1-TB USB drive. I have now used the USB drive to boot up on my desktop PC, and am very satisfied. Especially having a much larger monitor, quad-4 processor speed with twice the ram, etc. Now, I want to "clone" the USB drive to a new 1-TB internal hard drive. I am thinking that accomplishing this would fairly simple and straight-forward using only 2 or 3 commands in terminal mode. I am envisioning installing the new drive in the PC, booting from the USB drive, initializing the new hard drive, then "cloning" the USB drive to the new drive, re-booting from the new drive and enjoying the peace and harmony that will exist throughout my office.

There are a number of reasons I want to do this, but those reasons are many and would bore the average reader. Am I on the right track here? Any help would be, as usual, greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Kemo
 


G'day Kemo :)

First up, it looks as though I "left you hanging" here - https://www.linux.org/threads/linux-on-usb-disk-drive.19720/ ... and you moved on successfully? If so, you have my humblest and sincere apologies :oops:

Do you know if the new drive has a similar configuration to the USB drive, which was "msdos" rather than "gpt"?

Is the desktop running Windows, if so, which version, and do you know if it is UEFI or BIOS?

With the latter, you can establish from running msinfo32 at the Run command option (this under Windows) and in the System Summarty at BIOS mode it will have UEFI or Legacy.

In terms of cloning options, there is Steven Shiau's Clonezilla - https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php which is a lot more user-friendly than it used to be, you would use Partition to Partiton cloning, I can explain further if need be.

Or there is Tony George's Timeshift, which if you are running Linux Mint 18 or 19 is already installed. See my Tute here - https://www.linux.org/threads/timeshift-similar-solutions-safeguard-recover-your-linux.15241/

You could also use Tony's product Aptik - see here - https://www.linux.org/threads/aptik-have-settings-will-travel.4529/#post-55047

... and simply perform a fresh install of your Mintie and then restore the settings to it.

Chew over the options and ask any questions. I won't leave you in the Lurch this time (or any other member of The Addams Family) :p

Wiz
 
Wiz, my man, you did not "leave me hanging", and you certainly do not need to apologize to me. You give me suggestions and I go with them, which is better so I LEARN from what I try to do. I decided to just load the new internal drive from scratch, and now have everything up and running, and still have the USB drive version that I can use for other projects. The only thing I haven't been able to do is export the contacts/address book from the Thunderbird on the USB drive and import them into the Thunderbird on the internal hard drive. Nothing seems to work. It's something I can live with. As always, thanks for your help.

Kemo
 
Kemo, you are very kind :)

Define

Nothing seems to work

What have you tried so far?

In particular, take a look at this screenshot.

It is taken from my File Manager in a Linux Mint, of my Zorin OS 12.4 which has Thunderbird installed on it.

ohh7dEj.png


SCREENSHOT 1 - WIZ'S THUNDERBIRD PROFILE

You can see that I am in Zorin’s Home folder, where Thunderbird has a presence as .thunderbird.

To see this, you have to either Ctrl-h for a one-time view, or else tweak your Preferences and settings, or View options to show hidden files and folders.

.mozilla is for Firefox, .thunderbird for … you can guess.

From the moment you first launch Thunderbird, you have a Default Profile. This folder can be copied and migrated to a new computer.

On the target computer, if you have launched Thunderbird once, you will already have a new Profile with a new name.

You can either delete that Profile folder and replace with the new, or have them alongside each other (I don’t recommend).

The screenshot also shows a file profiles.ini .

My contents show as

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=744mwexv.default
Default=1

If you choose to have the Default folders together, you will need to write the alternative profile into this file.

If you choose to have just the old default from the old Thunderbird, you can either delete any profiles.ini that has been created on the target or replace that file with the file from the source.

The benefit of the above method is that it transfers all your settings as well as your Mail, from the source computer.

Do you have your Mail (boxes) covered?

If it is just the address book/s you want, open your Thunderbird on the old, open Address Book and you might have All Address Books with under that Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses. Perhaps more.

Click each and choose Tools – Export. Choose either CSV or LDIF, they are easiest types to save as. Save them to a USB stick and then at the target end open Address Book and Tools – Import.

That’s the best I can offer.

Cheers

Wizard
 
Well, Wiz, I think I understand pretty well your instructions on moving my contacts/address book from one disk to another. However, I have now a different dilemma that is stopping me in my tracks. Something I find truly unusual. Here's what I am seeing: when booting from the external USB drive, when I select the "FILES" icon it immediately pops up my KEMO folder, which shows a lot of files and folders, including .firefox and .thunderbird.

But when I boot from the new internal hard drive and click on FILES, I get a whole set of folders, NONE of which are KEMO. I can select HOME, and then KEMO, but I only get folders which are not preceded by a ".". any search through the folders shown on any screen in the FILES I click on lead me to folders and files I can see on the external drive. As I said, "very unusual" to me. I am running all the same apps on both drives and all seem to work the same way on both drives.

If you remember, I was originally looking for a way to clone the USB drive to produce the new internal drive. The apps I looked at seemed very archaic to me, and coming from years in a Winders environment, there are still many Linux commands, file structures. terms, etc., that are still like an aborigine trying to learn ancient Aztec. What do you make of it?

Other stuff I thought of: I did use the same CD to load the Linux Mint onto the disks; I did not necessarily add apps in the same sequence on both disks; I have applied updates religiously on each disk.

Kemo
 
Does this help?

ARGF4mZ.png


and after result is


8kQ30Py.png


This from my Tara Cinnamon, don't expect all to match yours.

On my 2nd coffee going back for more, and chuckling over Aborigines and Aztecs

Wizard
 
I should have looked for that. Works like a charm. I'll give the contacts/address book copy from USB to Internal drive another shot. Will let you know. Thanks.

Kemo
 
OK. Contacts are moved. Had not updated email on USB drive for almost 3 weeks, so I had to replace the Mail folder. Fortunately, I had copied it before making the changes. Thanks again.

Kemo
 
Always welcome, Mate :)

Wiz
 

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