copy full system from old disk to a new one

[doug]

On 02/16/2013 06:53 PM, Martín Marqués wrote:
> How can I pass my whole system from an old SATA disk (which is giving
> me some trouble) to a new disk. I have 4 partitions, all of which I
> have only passed /home using cp -.a
>
> I'm a bit concerned about the root file system, how to change grub,
> and if I'll have trouble with non-regular files from /var.
>
> TIA!
>
There is a Linux program called Clonezilla which is supposed to be able 
to clone disks.  I have not used it, but I have used
a program called HDClone, from Miray. There are several versions of HD 
Clone: one is free, one costs some money, and
others cost even more. The difference appears to be the speed of 
copying. I originally used the freebie, and it took about
7 hours to clone a 160G disk. Later, I bought the first paid  one, and 
it took about 3 hours to do something similar. It will
clone to another disk in the machine, or to an external usb drive, 
rotating or solid state. You download the software and
burn to a CD and then run the bootable CD on one of the computers that 
you want to clone from or to. I did a "double
clone": from laptop to external drive, to drive on second computer. Look 
here:

http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html

(Unlike many Linuxers, I am not averse to buying something that will do 
a good job with a minimum of fuss for a reasonable
price; I have also bought an office suite which I think is better than LO.)

--doug



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Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A. M. Greeley