How do I copy an existing hard disc to a new one so I can boot off the new disc?

Posted by Brian Hooper on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Brian Hooper
Published on 2011-06-06T07:35:47Z Indexed on 2012/06/04 22:47 UTC
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hard-drive

I currently have a failing hard drive which is the only hard drive in the machine. I have just bought a new hard drive to replace it, and my plan is to copy the contents of the old drive onto the new one, and then replace the old drive in the machine with the new one.

I presumably can't just copy the whole directory structure (or can I)? What do I need to do to manage this, assuming it is possible? Is there a utility to do this for me? (The old drive is hopefully good for a few more hours.)

(I hope by this means to keep all the software and configuration files as they are, to avoid having to re-install everything. Can that be done?)

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