CentOS - Apr 2008 - dying hd on live legacy system...

We have an old 3.x server whose hd is dying (kernel: hda: dma_timer_expiry:
dma status == 0x61) and accessing certain files just crashes the system with
a reboot.

We have moved as many files to a nfs server as we could so simply.

The system has been heavily modified (all using rpms) from baseline.

What is the most practical method to replace the hard drive?

-Jason Pyeron 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-                                                               -
- Jason Pyeron                      PD Inc. http://www.pdinc.us -
- Principal Consultant              10 West 24th Street #100    -
- +1 (443) 269-1555 x333            Baltimore, Maryland 21218   -
-                                                               -
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 
This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain
privileged, proprietary, or otherwise private information. If you
have received it in error, purge the message from your system and
notify the sender immediately.  Any other use of the email by you
is prohibited.

On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Jason Pyeron <jpyeron at pdinc.us>
wrote:
> We have an old 3.x server whose hd is dying (kernel: hda: dma_timer_expiry:
>  dma status == 0x61) and accessing certain files just crashes the system
with
>  a reboot.
>
>  We have moved as many files to a nfs server as we could so simply.
>
>  The system has been heavily modified (all using rpms) from baseline.
>
>  What is the most practical method to replace the hard drive?
Install another drive (same size or larger), boot from CD in rescue
mode and use the dd utility to copy the old drive image to the new
disk (example: dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb). However, the failing
hardware could make this problematic. Then remove the dying disk and
install the new disk on the cable where the old disk was so that the
new disk is now /dev/hda.

If you are lucky enough to succeed consider mirroring with Linux
software RAID or at least make a full backup.

-- 
Jeff