Retrieving Information After Cold-installing

After completing the cold-install, you can retrieve the information you had previously saved onto another system. Here are some tips:

Create a new root directory

Consider creating a root home directory that is not /. This keeps the user root dot files out of the / directory. Make sure it is on the root volume by calling it something like /homeroot. This is especially important if you are using LVM and /home is a separate volume.

Recover files

Recover all the customized and personal files that you saved previously by merging them manually. For example, do not overwrite /etc/passwd with your old version. Instead, either paste in entries from your old files or merge the old information into the new files.

Restore /home

If you had a local home directory, you can restore it as follows:

Restore other files

Carefully use the same techniques to restore other files and directories, such as /usr, /local and /opt. For help in importing entire volume groups, see either the Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators or the Managing Superdome Complexes.

The commands above will not write over newer files, so your new operating system and any files you update are well protected.