How can I replace existing hard disk?

Issues related to hardware problems
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johnwmcc
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Joined: 2019/03/18 01:43:35

How can I replace existing hard disk?

Post by johnwmcc » 2019/11/08 22:25:22

I currently run CentOS as a VMware virtual machine on ESXi v6.5. I don't think I can upgrade to a later version of EXSi - theDell T110 server hardware is too old, but still seems reliable.

It's all running on a 1GB hard drive, using almost 850GB for data - music, videos, and photos - using Plex Media Server running under CentOS.

I have a new 4GB Western Digital Red hard drive, and also an SSD - 120GB, small by modern standards.

Where might I find straightforward instructions to replace the 1GB hard drive by a combination of the SSD for a boot and system drive, and also move the data to the new 4GB hard drive?

Can I do it without having to recreate the system from scratch?

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TrevorH
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Re: How can I replace existing hard disk?

Post by TrevorH » 2019/11/09 01:45:57

Do you want to change the hardware so that it runs CentOS 7 directly on the bare metal? Or continue to use VMWare? If the latter then you need to be asking these questions in a VMWare venue as it's that that controls and uses the hardware. Your CentOS guest just sees what VMWare emulates for it so everything about the hardware that CentOS sees is changed from VMWare.

OTOH, if you want to install CentOS directly on the bare metal then you can almost certainly do that too. How you then gain access to the current VMWare guest's data is another question - for example, I have no idea what filesystem VMWare stores its gurst image files on and whether you can read that filesystem directly in CentOS.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

johnwmcc
Posts: 15
Joined: 2019/03/18 01:43:35

Re: How can I replace existing hard disk?

Post by johnwmcc » 2019/11/09 01:56:36

Thank you. I think I'd want to keep the VMware host running, since I may want to add another virtual machine in future.

But I think you are right, I should be asking this question in a VMware forum.

I'll do that tomorrow (well, later today, but it's 2am here!).

Maybe I should copy the media data to another hdd, then set up a wholly new ESXi host and Centos server on the ssd, then copy the data back onto the 4TB disk.

I'll think through how that might go.

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