I couldn't find an answer to this by searching even though I'm pretty sure it's been answered before. Maybe I need lessons in searching...

I have a failing 80GB hard drive. It has my main Linux partition (reiserfs), my /extra partition (reiserfs), my Windows partition (fat32) and my Linux swap. I ordered a new 80 GB hard drive (NOT a Maxtor this time) and now I need to copy the entire drive over to the new drive.

Is there any way to do this all at once, preserving all the partitions, MBR, data, etc? I can get to a copy of Norton Ghost, but I don't think that supports reiserfs. Maybe I'll choose Ext3 next time in light of that, but for now, does anyone know how to solve my problem?

I've used dd before to write floppies, will that work with whole hard drives also? Any potential to need to reinstall anything when trying this?

In case it helps, I have a second hard drive with plenty of free space to hold this entire drive if I need to copy in two stages.

Thanks,
Phathead

Download the partimage SysResc CD iso here:

http://www.partimage.org/

The cd has many useful tools on it including partimage, a free linux partition imaging program and qtparted, a free PM clone that can handle all common linux filesystems. After burning the iso to a cd-r, just boot off it and type partimage when you eventually get to the command prompt to launch the program. Here's some info on using partimage:

http://www.desktop-linux.net/backups.htm

Partimage is also available on knoppix, i.e. you can boot up a knoppix cd, open a console and run partimage from within knoppix.

go to www.driverguide.com and login. userid, "drivers" psswrd, "all". Search for "Maxblast". Download the file and write your floppy. You will have to set you Maxtor Harddrive as "master", and your other one as "slave". Now boot off the floppy, and there is an option somewhere in that program to copy entire hard drive. I have used it before, and it works sweet. By the way, you will need access to a dos or windows computer to write the floppy.
Noah