Installation problems with SSD

I've been running LinuxCNC 2.8 on wheezy with RTAI kernel for several years now. I'm running into problems trying to upgrade to an SSD with more capacity and a separate /home partition.

I downloaded the latest Master .iso and loaded it onto a USB stick. Then I found that legacy boot doesn't work on my system. (Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-Z77-UD5H). Don't remember how I did it before, but I probably used a CD-ROM drive. That's long gone, and I don't even have a CD burner to write an iso to CD-ROM.

Then I tried installing the LinuxCNC .iso from a hard drive. I tried various HD-media Debian installers, but they would not accept the LinuxCNC .iso. Apparently the kernel in the installer must be the same version as the kernel in the .iso. Anybody know how where to get a vmlinuz with right RTAI kernel?

Not sure where to go from here. I've spent a lot of time going down dead ends, and don't want to go down another. The only two choices I can see right now are HW changes (CD-burner or new motherboard), or a switch to Debian 9 or 10 with a preempt kernel.

Anybody have any other suggestions before I start down one of those paths?

Thanks,
Tom

I did it with clonezilla
But here are a choice of tools described.
www.ubuntupit.com/top-15-best-disk-cloning-software-for-linux/

Mike

You can give these a try:
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...ick-and-easy-install
For Debian 10, and
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...nd-easy-installation
For Mint 19.x
If you do need RTAI, i did successfully install it on Mint 19.2 with the packages downloaded from here:
www.linuxcnc.org/temp
As mike mentioned, clonezilla is a nice way to copy HDD's.

Just beware that UEFI booting with a RTAI kernel will only detect a single core. So effectively a 2/4/6 core CPU will end as a single core system.

clonezilla looks like it will do the job!

Thanks,Tom

tommylight wrote: You can give these a try:
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...ick-and-easy-install
For Debian 10, and
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...nd-easy-installation
For Mint 19.x
If you do need RTAI, i did successfully install it on Mint 19.2 with the packages downloaded from here:
www.linuxcnc.org/temp
As mike mentioned, clonezilla is a nice way to copy HDD's.

I'll probably go with clonezilla, but wheezy's getting kind of old, so let me double check: RT-preempt has low enough latency to work with Mesa boards, correct? RTAI is only needed for direct motor control?

Tom