easiest way to replace hard drive?

[Daniel B. Thurman]

On 10/08/2009 10:31 AM, Konstantin Svist wrote:
> 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)
>
There is a potential problem when using partition resizing - it can mess
up the partition tables and render the drive unbootable - need to be
careful here, as it "bit me in the a.."!

FWIW,
Dan