[ubuntu-uk] transfer data from HDD to HDD

[Bruno Girin]

On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 18:09 +0100, Alan Lord (News) wrote:
> On 28/05/10 17:18, Norman Silverstone wrote:
> > My rather ancient desktop PC has stopped working due, I think, to a
> > faulty MBoard and I am now using a laptop running 10.04. I would like to
> > be able to transfer a variety of files such as Firefox Bookmarks and
> > email addresses in Evolution from the old HDD to the new computer. The
> > HDD has been removed from the PC and I have an attachment which connects
> > the old HDD via a USB cable to the laptop and I would welcome advice on
> > the best way to proceed. Thanks in advance,
> >
> > Norman
> >
> >
> 
> Mount the old drive to a temporary location, e.g. /mnt/old_drive
> 
> then you can copy files across to your hearts content.
> 
> cp -a is a good command to use :-)
> 
> You might need to chnage file ownership after copying if you use this 
> command but it will retain all the other settings associated with the 
> source file hierarchy.
> 
> to mount your drive first make a directory, e.g.
> 
> sudo mkdir /mnt/old_drive
> 
> then mount it
> 
> sudo mount /dev/sdXX /mnt/old_drive
> 
> then you can browse it with the nautilus file manager or use command 
> line tools such as cd, cp, mv and tar etc...

If you connect it through a USB cable, Ubuntu should even mount it
automatically for you as an external disk and you should be able to just
copy the content from the old drive to the laptop with Nautilus. I just
did that with the old drive from a defunct laptop.

Bruno