# switch to su
sudo su

lsblk

fdisk /dev/sda
# show partitions on drive by pressing p
# delete old partitions by pressing d (attention! data loss!)
# write changes to partition table by pressing w

fdisk /dev/sda
# create new partition by pressing n
# type primary p
# partition number 1
# default first and last sector (use whole disk)

#format drive as ext4
mke2fs -t ext4 -L rootfs /dev/sda1

#copy root fs from sd card to the harddrive
sudo mkdir /tmp/sata
mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/sata
rsync -arx --progress / /tmp/sata

# edit boot.cmd
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot
nano /boot/boot/boot.cmd
# change first line from root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 to root=/dev/sda1
setenv bootargs "console=tty1 root=/dev/sda1 rootwait rootfstype=ext4 cgroup-enable=memory swapaccount=1 sunxi_ve_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_g2d_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_no_mali_mem_reserve sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=16 hdmi.audio=EDID:0 disp.screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60 panic=10 consoleblank=0 enforcing=0 loglevel=1"
# save and close file
# recompile boot.cmd to boot.scr
mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot/boot.scr

# edit fstab to mount drive on boot
nano /tmp/sata/etc/fstab
# set line with /dev/mmcblk0p1 to
/dev/sda1	/           ext4    defaults,noatime,nodiratime,data=writeback,commit=600,errors=remount-rw        0       0
# sync changes on harddrive to sd card
sync
# or edit the fstab file on the sd card as well: nano /etc/fstab

# reboot system
reboot