[PLUG] Hot swapping physical /home partitions - Possible? Practical alternative?

[Richard Owlett]

On 04/27/2019 01:49 PM, Michael Christopher Robinson wrote:
> On Sat, 2019-04-27 at 13:08 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> Yes, my question is as strange as the subject line ;o>
>>
>> The hard drive on my old desktop is dying.
>> I've copied the /home partition to a flash drive.
>> I've a laptop with 3 separate configurations of Debian installed.
>> Each is optimized for different goals.
>> The fstab file of each references the same physical partition as
>> /home.
>>
>> Ideally I want the most recent install to be able to "hot swap"
>> between
>> the the two "home partitions".
>>
>> Alternatively would it be possible to chose between 2 different
>> fstab
>> files at boot time?
>>
>> Is there a sane alternative?
>>
>> TIA
>>
> So it's a desktop computer that your hard drive is dying on
> and you have your laptop accessing your Desktop for it's home
> partition?  

Desktop dying from old age. Started using it when laptop went into shop 
for repairs. Circumstances just encouraging me to switch one set of uses 
back to laptop. All my machines have multiple Debian installs. 
Configuration experiments are a hobby.


> Can you replace the dying hard drive on your desktop
> computer?

Yes.

>  How old is your desktop system?

~10+ years.

> If it's modern enough
> to support at least SATA I, you should be able to buy a new hard
> drive.  Anything pre SATA you are looking at a rebuilt PATA drive
> or maybe a rebuilt SCSI drive or FIREWIRE drive depending on what
> you have.  Your most robust option may be to build a new computer,
> unless the hard drive is easily replaced.

It was custom built by a local outfit whose primary business 
hardware/software support for businesses. It's younger than it's age.

> 
> If the hard drive is easily replaced, make sure you have clonezilla
> handy.  If not easily replaced, look into a new desktop system.
> Honestly, I'd go to freegeek for help.

<chuckle> It's been said that I'm "out beyond Escatada(sp?) even".
Try SW Missouri!

> 
> If a hard drive is dying, you need to get it repaired or replaced.

Replaced with larger drive(s)

> ... I don't understand why you
> would even want to mount a dying hard drive on /home on a running Linux
> system.  You want to take a dying hard out of service before it takes
> itself out of service for you.

That's part of the reason that there's an image on an external 1TB drive.

> 
> ...   In short, a full hardware
> description of your desktop is needed to give you sane good advice.

I've years of experience. Just don't follow my own advice at times.


Thanks all.