Copying to a new hdd

[micah1104]

I have an old laptop that is coming to its final days, I might be getting a new one, is there a way I would be able to transfer all of my files and/or programs to the new hard drive? or would I have to install fedora again and all of my programs and just copy all my files over by a usb device?

TIA

Micah

[Rubberman]

Data generally isn't a problem. However, if you get a new 64-bit laptop, you might want to run 64-bit linux, in which case you will need to do a fresh install of the OS and reinstall your applications, in 64-bit mode if available, 32-bit if not. Those you downloaded the source and built from scratch you should be able to rebuild for your new system.

Major updates always cause some pain and suffering. However, overall you are likely to be a lot happier with the current crop of Linux distributions as they support a lot more hardware such as WiFi, bluetooth, mobile broadband devices, etc. out-of-the-box without needing to install special drivers and applying painful configuration steps. With Ubuntu 9.04 on my various laptops (3 from 2 different manufacturers), I didn't have to do anything to get any of my wireless or webcam cruft working flawlessly.

[micah1104]

Ok, I think my dad has a external hdd, now that I think of it, the laptop I want is a 64 bit, so yes I am going to do a clean install, I will note down every program I installed that I actually use, and install those on my new one, and the ones that I compiled myself, I will build into rpm's so that it will keep track of that...

Number 1: 10 common mistakes to avoid when you're installing Linux software | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

[gnuuser]

remember back up the data first even if you don't think you have files you want blank cds are cheap and its better than trying to kick your own butt for not backing things up

[Rubberman]

Two things to remember:

1. Disc space, the final frontier.
2. Backup early, backup often.

Disc space is pretty cheap these days, 1.5TB discs are well under $0.10USD per GB. I use one that size to keep my boot drive images. A compressed copy of my 320GB boot drive is about 50GB, so I can keep a lot of images on that device. Which reminds me that I need to do a backup this weekend...

[micah1104]

Ok, if I can get my computer to turn on and stay on, I have around 100-200 MB of data left to back up

[oz]

Ok, if I can get my computer to turn on and stay on, I have around 100-200 MB of data left to back up

Unless your system is a very lightweight one, that probably won't be enough space to do any kind of system imaging, but it might be enough for backing up a few individual files. I keep my own system trimmed down pretty low and even it takes almost a full GB for a single system image.

Backing up to an external hard drive or to CD or DVD disks would probably be a better route to take.

Good look with your backup plan, either way.


Edit: oops, sorry... just reread your post and it appears that I misunderstood it on the first reading. Pay no attention to my rambling above...