Is there an easy way to copy a filesystem in Linux? I currently have one ext2 filesystem with / on it. I want Linux on a different hdd. Can I copy the whole partition to the new disk? how?

Also, is it possible to resize an ext2 partition? Even if only to make it smaller, I would value this alot.

Yes it is possible.

You can use GNU parted shrink or grow a partition then you will need to run resize2fs to shrink the fs.

GNU parted will also copy partitions, but I'd prefer to mount the new partition and issue a command such as:
This will copy everything recursivly from / to the /mnt mount point.

Thank you. To shrink the fs, you would need to run resize2fs first then parted shrink, correct? To grow you would need to run them in the opposite order, correct?

Will that copy command keep special files such as /dev/* intact? Also, will it keep ownership and permissions intact?

What is the cpio command and how does it differ from cp ?

Thanks

My last post was a bit misleading, you are correct, resize before shrinking with parted.

From the resize2fs man page:
The cpio program is for creating and extracting from archives. It will preserve ownership, permissions and dates.

Thank you very much! I cannot wait to try this out!

This is one of many steps I am learning to do in order to make my linux box do as I wish. By the time I'm done with it, perhaps I'll know how to use linux a little hahahaha. Thanks!!

I realize this thread is really old but it's come close enough to answering a question I have.
Is there's actually an advantage to creating a new partition and then using find-cpio instead of just using parted to copy it? ...or is it strictly a preference because parted is unfriendly and maybe even a little scary? How many ways are there of creating a copy of a partition?

The reason cpio is preferred to parted has nothing to do with parted being scary or hard to use. I believe that when you copy a partition with parted, the copy will neccesarily be the same size as the original. If you are copying a small partition to a big drive and you want to use more space for the copy of the partition, you'd have to copy it, then resize it. This is tedious. cpio is preferred because it will just copy the files to a ready made partition that can be any size you wish so long as it is big enough to hold the data.

I'm updating this for searchers' reference.
The correct syntax, at least today, is