Re: [PLUG] copying a complete system to new HD

[Bill Jonas <bj@netaxs.com>]

On Tue, 4 Jul 2000, Jason wrote:

>I want to move an entire system (on a single partition) to another
>hard drive with as little hassle as possible. I could use cp -rpd for
>most of it but how do I deal with the contents of /dev? Do I really
>need to actually install a system on the new drive?

GNU cp is a wonderful thing.

First, mount the new disk under, say, /mnt.  Then you'll need to make
directories such as /mnt/mnt and /mnt/proc, and any others that you
won't be copying for whatever reason.  Then, all you have to do, for
each directory other than the ones you already made on the new disk
(don't copy /proc, and obviously, don't copy /mnt), is:

# cp -a /dirname /mnt/dirname

The -a option indicates 'archive', and is equivalent to some other
combination of options (check the man page for details).  And it handles
device files and symbolic links just fine (although you'll probably wind
up with two actual copies on disk of any hard links).  You'll probably
also want to 'umask 000' before you start, but I could be wrong on this.

HTH,
Bill
-- 
>Ever heard of .cshrc?             | "Linux means never having to delete
That's a city in Bosnia. Right?    |  your love mail." -- Don Marti
(Discussion in comp.os.linux.misc  |  http://www.billjonas.com/
on the intuitiveness of commands.) |  http://www.harrybrowne.org/


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