So, I had to shutdown my mini pc home server (on NIXOS) so that it could be used for something else. Most of my data is in a pair of external hdds in a RAID configuration. However the Postgres database was in the boot drive. I still have it, but it refuses to boot anywhere else (tried some old spare laptops). How can I recover it?
The database store is in /var/lib/postgres. You can just connect that disk somewhere else and start the database using the same (important!) major release of Postgres. I think the major version number is in the folder name. Then do whatever from there.
Plug it into a machine, mount the drive, then copy the data off of it. You can get an external USB drive adapter for cheap if needed.
Boot live media, mount the drive, copy it off.
