easiest way to replace hard drive?

[Konstantin Svist]

On 10/08/2009 09:48 AM, Dr. Michael J. Chudobiak wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Is there an easy way to transfer a system from one drive (holding 
> boot, swap, lvm partitions, in the default F11 layout) to a different 
> hard drive, if the new drive is smaller?
>
> If the new drive is larger, dd could be used in a fairly 
> straightforward way.
>
> However, I want to try replacing a 160 GB hard drive with an Intel 80 
> GB solid-state drive, just for fun...
>
> I suspect a re-install might be easier.
>
> - Mike
>

gparted (or qtparted) will do what you want. I don't remember if it can 
resize the partitions as you copy them, but in the worst case you can 
resize first then copy.

or you can use cp -a to copy over all necessary files and run 
grub-install to restore the grub boot loader if it's installed in MBR 
(default)