Move HDD to new smaller SSD

Story:
My hdd is 1tb but i bought a 256gb ssd. I partitioned it accordingly:
140gb windows
50gb ubuntu
50gb fedora
1gb linux boot
250mb efi system

I want to move operating system files to ssd to make my development env faster, and my documents to hdd.

Move Windows 10 onto new SSD:
this is better than cloning, so as to prevent alignment problems, time-consuming backup operations, and time consuming uninstallation of apps since you are moving into a smaller ssd.
- operating system, applications

hdd:
- documents, pictures, videos, music, etc

step 1: download windows 10 media creator from ms website
step 2: create win 10 install image by dvd or usb or hdd
	this will copy to iso, your digital license, etc, but not your drivers if you are installing from a win 10 branded laptop
setp 3: install from the media you created, specifying the new SSD partition created for windows


Moving Ubuntu onto new SSD:
- operating system, /boot i.e. initrd.img, vmlinuz
- /bin, lib, usr, var, etc
- applications that i use i.e. firefox, vbox, images

hdd:
- swap
- documents, images, encrypted folders

rsync - fast method of file transfering with folder structure, ownerships and permissions. it will also continue where you left, had your transfer been interrupted.
options: -a archive
	 -P -partial (continue where left off) and -progress (show progress)

step 0: login as root

step 1: mount ssd, format to ext4
find the ssd device name
dmesg | grep sd[a-z]

check if ATA trim is enabled in the ssd

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdc | grep TRIM
*    Data Set Management TRIM supported (limit 16 blocks)
*    Deterministic read ZEROs after TRIM

format the ssd, use ext4
sudo gparted /dev/sdX

mount the ssd
sudo mkdir /mnt/ssd
sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/ssd

step 2: use rsync to copy files to the ssd
sudo rsync --exclude="mnt" --exclude="lost+found" --exclude="sys" --exclude="proc" --exclude="cdrom" --exclude="media" -aP / /mnt/ssd/

-or- to ignore the home folder:
sudo rsync --exclude="home" --exclude="mnt" --exclude="lost+found" --exclude="sys" --exclude="proc" --exclude="cdrom" --exclude="media" -aP / /mnt/ssd/

-and- if you just want to exclude specific folders in the home directory, type this after the command above:
sudo rsync --exclude="Pictures" --exclude="Downloads" --exclude="Documents" --exclude=".PlayOnLinux" --exclude=".wine" --exclude="Virtual*" -aP /home/user/ /mnt/ssd/home/user

mkdir /mnt/ssd/{mnt,proc,sys}

change the /mnt/ssd/etc/fstab to set uuid to the ssd partition
find the uuid of the partition of ssd:
sudo blkid /dev/sdX1
sudo blkid /dev/sdX2

fstab should look like this (you should see the "discard" option, means TRIM is enabled):
    # file system       mount point type    options                     dump    pass
proc                /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid             0       0
UUID=5d8[...]abe    /               ext4    discard,noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro    0       1
UUID=a01[...]4cc    none            swap    sw

sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/ssd/dev
sudo mount -o bind /sys /mnt/ssd/sys
sudo mount -t proc /proc /mnt/ssd/proc
sudo cp /proc/mounts /mnt/ssd/etc/mtab
sudo chroot /mnt/ssd/ /bin/bash
mount /dev/sda2		# My new EFI system in SSD

step 4: reinstall grub
grub-install /dev/sdc
grub-install --recheck /dev/sdc		# only in case of errors in the step before

# on Fedora, do this instead of grub-install
dnf install grub2-efi shim
-or-
dnf reinstall grub2-efi shim

update-grub				# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg on Fedora with EFI
					# else, grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

reboot


Moving Fedora to SSD

see the layout
lsblk
fdisk -l

Copied from: https://forum.level1techs.com/t/migrating-fedora-to-an-ssd/116502/11

I'm going to start with a disclaimer. I haven't used LVM for some time so I write this to my best recollection. It is your data, and your computer. Do research, validate the steps. I offer no guarantees, this is provided "as-is".

Ok, this aside: this is what I think is important for you:

    you are using "classic" pc bios MBR booting
    you have /boot on /dev/sda1, this holds the files needed for your computer to boot linux
    you are using LVM for the root filesystem and /home, with /dev/sda2 as the partition LVM uses to store the data

Migration is technically not that difficult, but you need to understand what you are doing (MBR booting is not very forgiving) and it does require the terminal and root rights. Said this: you don't need to touch your HDD until the actual LVM migration starts, so that will be a nice fallback scenario until then.

I forgot to ask if you have swap on your computer. If you have it has to a an LVM volume as well, so these steps will still work. You can check this using "cat /proc/swaps".

Step 1: boot your system from SSD

    connect the SSD to your computer, and boot it
    determine the SSD device name (e.g. /dev/sdh, replace with the actual name where needed)

Step 2: copy /boot from HDD to SSD using gparted

    open gparted
    select /dev/sda
    umount /boot (/dev/sda1)
    copy sda1 to sdh
    give sdh1 a new UUID
    give sdh1 a new filesystem label
    set the boot flag for sdh1

Step 3: prepare fstab and remount /boot

    check "ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid" and "ls -l /dev/disk/by-label" for the UUID and Label of sdh1
    open /etc/fstab for editing: you will need to change the relevant entry for /boot: either UUID=yournewuuidseenabovefor sdh1 or LABEL=thelabelyougavetosdh1
    when done, run "mount -a" followed by "mount"
    if this succeeded, you will see /dev/sdh1 is now mounted on /boot, sda1 should not be mounted at all

Step 4: prepare grub and reboot from SSD

    run "update-grub" to make new configuration files in /boot that take into account your new configuration
    run "grub-install /dev/sdh", which will make the SSD bootable
    power off the pc, and swap HDD and SSD
    reboot the computer
    if all went well, the computer now boots from SSD, and it will have /boot on SSD
    if it does not work, you can reseat the HDD

BEWARE: when you reboot, DEVICE NAMES CHANGE. sda is now the SSD !!! Determine the new device name for the HDD before continuing.

Your HDD is 500GB, your SSD is smaller. But that's not a big deal, since you are only using 14G on fedora-root, and 2,2GB on fedora-home. You can shrink fedora-root, but it's not a must. You must however, shrink fedora-home. I only have experience doing this in 2 steps. First you shrink the filesystem itself, then the volume that holds it. I usually keep the volume slightly bigger, and grow the filesystem when I'm done to fill it completely.

Step 5: shrink filesystems to fit onto the new SSD

    use "resize2fs" to shrink fedora-home (for example to 8GB)
    use "lvresize" to shrink fedora-home (BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WHEN DOING THIS, MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE SYNTAX)

If you choose to do so, you can shrink fedora-root repeating this step.

Step 6: Prepare the SSD for LVM

    run "vgdisplay" to see how much data is in use on your volume group
    open gparted
    create a new LVM partition on the SSD to add to your LVM group. It has to be large enough to hold all data as shown by vgdisplay. You can use all available space as well, or you just set it to something else (e.g. 128GB) for now, as you don't need the full SSD space at this moment

Step 7: Add the SSD to the volume group and migrate the data to it

    see http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/removeadisk.html, section 13.5.2
    you'll need to run pvcreate and vgextend using the new SSD partition
    the pvmove command's first argument is the HDD partition, the second the SSD. Use "pvdisplay" to verify.

Step 8: Verify and remove the HDD

    run "vgdisplay": it should have the size of the new SSD partition
    run "pvdisplay": it should only show the SSD partition
    run "mount": there should be no active mounts using partitions on the HDD
    Power off the machine. Remove HDD. Reboot.

Step 9 (optional): finalize LVM

    if you want, you can give fedora-home a final size using lvresize BUT DON'T SHRINK IT UNLESS YOU RUN RESIZE2FS FIRST
    run "resize2fs" and make it occupy all available space in the volume

So if all went well you now have a system running 100% on SSD. And neglecting a few reboots, you migrated everything online. That's the beauty of Linux.