Best way to change attached storage device

[jorgsmash]

I'm wondering what is the best way to change out the storage device attached to my router that has the JFFS partition with all of the scripts in it. I need to swap it out but I don't know what all will break if I do. Can someone provide guidance on swapping storage devices so that the scripts and settings will remain in tact?

Thanks.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The JFFS partition is part of the router's internal flash memory, it's not external storage. A USB drive would be external storage.

 

[jorgsmash]

Interesting. I set this up a couple years ago and could have sworn I needed to plug in the USB device for the purpose of running certain scripts I had downloaded through AMTM via SSH into the router. I guess I'll just go unplug it and see if something stops working. Thanks for the knowledge!

 

[ColinTaylor]

... and could have sworn I needed to plug in the USB device for the purpose of running certain scripts ...

Many scripts require the use of an external USB drive in addition to using the router's JFFS partition. The point I'm trying to make is JFFS is not the same as USB.

 

[jorgsmash]

Many scripts require the use of an external USB drive in addition to using the router's JFFS partition. The point I'm trying to make is JFFS is not the same as USB.

There's an EXT3 partition on the drive that looks to have about 3GB of data on it. I can't browse the partition in windows. I think that was being used by the router but I have no idea. Ok so that's what I'm trying to figure out, is what scripts were relying on that external USB device and how can I swap it out?

Thanks

 

[ColinTaylor]

To replace the USB drive with another one the simplest way would be to attach both the old and new drives to a Linux PC and copy the contents of the old drive to the new one. Obviously the new drive needs to be formatted correctly beforehand. If you don't have a Linux PC you could boot a Linux Live image or just use the router to copy the files.

 

[jorgsmash]

I do have a linux PC. Format as EXT3 and copy the files with the 'cp' command, or use something like DD?

 

[ColinTaylor]

I do have a linux PC. Format as EXT3 and copy the files with the 'cp' command, or use something like DD?

Don't use dd, use cp -a. E.g.

cp -a /tmp/mnt/old_drive/* /tmp/mnt/new_drive

Personally I would use ext4 in preference of ext3.

 

[jorgsmash]

I'll give that a shot. I also may be able to use Easeus Partition manager on windows to copy the partition. On Linux, do I need to use the - r flag for recursive to copy directories?

 

[ColinTaylor]

On Linux, do I need to use the - r flag for recursive to copy directories?

No. -a does that.

cp(1) - Linux manual page

 

[jorgsmash]

No. -a does that.

cp(1) - Linux manual page

So I haven't copied everything over yet, but I did unplug the HDD yesterday afternoon and plug it into my Windows computer to see what was on it. I left it unplugged, and everything on my home network seemed to work fine. Then this morning, wifi wasn't working. I think my router may have rebooted overnight as I have it on a reboot schedule. I'm curious why my network would become unusable if the hdd is unplugged. Could it be related to skynet? Or where can I see all scripts that are reliant on the hdd? Here's a screenshot of what's on the HDD that the router is using.