Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Friday 08 June 2007, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
>   
>> On Freitag, 8. Juni 2007, Aleksey Kunitskiy wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Is it safe to move my linux system by using:
>>> #>cp -rp /mnt/old_part /mnt/new_part
>>> and approriate changes in grub.conf/fstab on new system location ?
>>>       
>> nope.
>>
>> cp -a if you really want to use copy. But doesn't kill that the
>> ctime/mtime making uninstalling things a pain?
>>     
>
> No.
>
> cp -a is equivalent to cp -dpPR
>
> and from the man page:
>
> -p     same as --preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps
>
> What the OP *will* have a problem with a copying /proc, /dev, /sys and 
> other virtual filesystems. When I do this trick, I usually dd or tar or 
> cp -a entire filesystems and then copy / with this trick:
>
> mount -o bind / /some/tmp/dir
> cp -a /some/tmp/dir /some/other/dir
>
> This ensures that only files actually on-disk are copied
>
> alan
>
>
>   


This is something I have done several times.  This is how I do it.  Boot
the Gentoo CD or some other live CD, Knoppix should work.  After you get
booted up, mount the partitions, old and new, then use this command:  cp
-av /path/to/old /path/to/new and sit back and watch it all scroll by. 
It may take a good while depending on how much stuff you have to copy.

I'm not saying that someone else doesn't have a better idea.  I have
seen where people tar the stuff then untar it to the new drive.  To me,
it is a useless step.  What I use has worked for me every time and I
have done it quite a bit.

I hope that helps.

Dale

:-)  :-)  :-)  :-)