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I want to move my system drive to a larger drive and change partition sizes when I do so. Is there some special utilities I can use or should I just partition the drive and use something like dd to copy each partion as I go?
I wouldn't use dd to transfer to a larger partition. It will transfer the data but linux will continue to see the new partition as the same size as the old partition. The extra space will not be accessible from within linux. See my post here on how to use tar and a live cd to make the transfer to a new hard drive. It's a well known tar trick:
I would partition the new drive, re-install the operating system(s) and copy the data in the normal fashion. First, of course, backup any critical data.
Of academic interest only:
I don't understand why you cannot clone to a new drive and then create more partitions. You would have to of course clone ALL of the drive, so you would have the partition tables. When fdisk gives you the parameters for a drive, it does not get the drive total size from any partition table. What then stops you from later adding more partitions?
I would partition the new drive, re-install the operating system(s) and copy the data in the normal fashion. First, of course, backup any critical data.
I'm kinda hoping to be not have to reinstall the OS. Guess I can't just copy it from one partition to the next?
You cannot copy the whole OS by just copying files. You also have to copy the partition information.
The cloning option has been discussed here, but you may want to search more at LQ. (This has come up before)
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