Re: Moving DB data disk to a different machine

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 1:09 PM, Eliot, Christopher
<christopher(dot)eliot(at)nagrastar(dot)com> wrote:
> I have a database that I use for testing. The contents are not particularly
> critical; if I were to lose that data, it would be an annoyance but not a
> disaster. Thus I do not back up the DB.
>
> My server machine (actually my windows workstation) became very ill, so the
> IT folks gave me a new workstation, but installed the disk drive from the
> old workstation in the new one as a secondary drive.
>
> After installing PostgreSQL 8.2 (what we had been using) on this new
> workstation, I tried simply copying the 'Program Files\Postgresql\8.2\data'
> directory over from the old disk to the new, but the result is that when I
> try to bring up the PostgreSQL server, it takes a long time, and then goes
> down.

You need to empty out the postgresql data directory, then copy
everything in from the other disk. What errors are you getting? It's
possible you're not using a compatible version.

The major version numbers need to match (i.e. 8.2.4 to 8.2.7 is fine,
8.1.13 to 8.2.7 is not) and they need to be compiled the same way.
I.e. if you had integer timestamps in one you need it in the other.