Translations:Btrfs/23/en

Move a volume (to another disk)

There are a lot of ways you can move a "normal" filesystem from one disk to another. But there are dangers with moving btrfs volumes that do not exist with other filesystems! DonĀ“t ever move a btrfs volume with a tool that does not say it is 100% btrfs-proof. When at any time there are 2 partitions in one computer that have the same filesystem UUID, one ore both filesystems may be destroyed. Under the topic tips you will find an easy way to do move a volume without any danger

Do NOT
  • make a block-level copy of a Btrfs filesystem to another block device
  • use LVM snapshots, or any other kind of block level snapshots
  • turn a copy of a filesystem that is stored in a file into a block device with the loopback driver
  • try to mount either the original or the copy while both are visible to the same kernel
See why at Block-level copies of devices@btrfs.wiki.kernel.org
Tip: move a volume
There is an easy and secure way to move a volume to another disk/device. If you use Btrfs itself to move the volume, there will be no danger. You even can do this while the volume is in use. See how to in "tips"