Re: Transfering linux system to a new hard drive

["James R. Van Zandt" <jrv@vanzandt.mv.com>]

I've read several good suggestions.  I would rank them this way:

1) Temporarily install your new drive in some other machine, connect
   it to your network, partition and format it, and copy your
   partitions over the network.  The second machine would not have to
   be running Linux - you could use a speakup rescue disk, provided it
   could access the network.  (It would not matter if it was an older
   version.)  This way, you could move all the data without having to
   power your existing box down.

2) Temporarily connect another machine to your network and copy the
   partitions into free space there.  Replace the drive, do a minimal
   install, and copy back.  You would not have to open up the second
   machine (and it could be a notebook).  However, you would have to
   do the minimal install and copy the data twice.

3) Power down, install the new drive as hdb in addition to the old
   one, reboot to Linux, partition and format the new drive, copy,
   then power down and remove the old drive.  For the middle step, you
   could remove the old drive while leaving it connected
   electrically.  In fact, that would let you give it a twist at
   power-up to help it spin up.

Best of luck!

	- Jim Van Zandt