Friday, January 30, 2009

Swapping drives in Ubuntu Not A Problem

I recently got my hands on a decent computer to upgrade an "old beast" that I had Ubuntu installed on. The hardware between the "old beast" and my "decent computer" were a little different. Both were Dells, but they had different video cards. The processors, were of the same type, both Intel. However, the hard drive on the "old beast" was much larger than the one that came with the decent machine.

I was in a lazy mood, and did not want to back up all of the data I had on the "old beast." I decided to try the quick and dirty route of taking the hard drive out of the "old beast" and installing it on the newer "decent" machine.

Totally different video cards, and when the newer machine booted, it came up using the vesa driver. I then added the new driver using the Add/Remove tool, and viola! My new machine is up and running with the "old beast's" hard drive.

Ubuntu never ceases to amaze me in its portability!

1 comment:

King Beetle said...

Two years ago I installed Ubuntu for the first time on one of my computers, an old 450MHz Pentium II. I used the system daily for a year before moving on to a faster system, at which point the old system became a backup system for occasions when one of my primary systems would fail. About two months ago, the motherboard finally failed, and like you, I surgically implanted the hard drive into a newer (slightly) 550MHz system.

My experience was much like yours, the surgery was a complete success! The new system booted from the transplanted hard drive with no problems at all and I was able to go on using the system.

Gotta love Linux for it's portability and flexibility!

Adventures in Linux