jeremy jozwik wrote at 2010-03-18 22:52 -0500:
> i am considering installing a larger drive.

> debian linux lenny running on a lenovo thinkpad x61 tablet. hard disk
> currently in system is a 80gig slow lil 5400rpm sata. looking to
> upgrade to a 7200 160 or 250 drive

> what i am hoping for however is to more or less mirror the current
> drive / instillation over to the larger drive that will be installed.
> i would rather not have to re-install debian and all its
> configurations to the larger drive.

Here's how I would do it, with micro-examples:
- BE CAREFUL, you could easily destroy your data
- Plan your partition sizes, etcetera
- Connect both drives to a system, any system
- Run Linux (LiveCD or whatever)
- Mount the old drive's partitions (mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/old_sda1)
- Check the contents, so you know you've mounted the correct devices
- Build the partition table on the new drive (fstab /dev/sdb1)
- Format the partitions (mkfs.ext3 -L label /dev/sdb1)
- Mount the new partitions (mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/new_sdb1)
- Copy the stuff over (cp -a /mnt/old_sda1/* /mnt/new_sdb1/)
- Unmount everything (umount /dev/sda1)

Then I think you would have to run "grub-install /dev/sdb"; I'm not sure about 
that...  You may have to chroot into the new system?

> ok, does it help if i have another machine where i can mount both the
> old laptop drive and the newer laptop drive and then do a copy
> everything from old to new and still retain a working machine?

You need a separate Linux, ideally.  So you can use a different computer with 
Linux available or boot from LiveCD on your ThinkPad (I suppose your X61 has no 
CD drive).

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