is there a way to copy files from an old server to a new one with all the extensions and permissions?

From a command line? Refer to the manual page for the CP command in a console, type 'man cp'. The option you likely want specifically is '-p for preserve attributes'.

thanks for the reply, but I need to copy to a new server that means I need to tar or bzip it first

oh OK, check out the TAR help page: 'man tar' or as suggested in the TAR documentation, run 'info' and go to the tar help page for full details.

Use one of these to create a compressed tar ball file:

tar cvzf /tmp/mytarfile.tar.z /pathToDir/OrFilesIwant can be a /listOfFilesOrDirs

To check to see if the fiel created ok:

tar tvzf /tmp/mytarfile.tar.z

or to get every file in the current directory and every sub dir without the absolute path use:

tar cvzf /tmp/file.tar.z .

ftp the tar file to the new server and use this to extract them:

tar xvzf /tmp/mytarfile.tar.z

If you used the absolute path to reference the files in the tar backup make sure you are in / when you extractthe files.

tar flags:
c to create
x to extract
t to tell me what is in the file
v verbose (show me what you are doing)
z compress with gzip
f I will tel you next which file to write to.

You can use tar over ssh.

tar cvf - /dir |ssh host tar xvf - -C /newdir

rsync is the best option from my point of view.
1. Install/Configure rsync server on new server.
2. Run following command from old server to sync data.
rsync -rauv $DATADIR"/" NewServer::data/

That worked, thanks a lot!