According to http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=534111 I need to rearrange the order of the partitions on my disk.

How may I take an empty 300GB USB disk and precisely recreate the partitions on my USB except in an different order?

I had been using dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb and while that is precise, it does not change the order.

I want to put the boot partition first!

I guess I could use qtparted and write down the precise sizes of the partitions.

Can I use

cp /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb1

where sdb1 does not exist yet and it creates sdb1 precisely the correct size and then

cp /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb2

where sdb2 does not exist either and it is creatd to be precisely the correct size and is appended precisely behind sdb1?

I don't think the cp command does this, but is there a command that does? After all, cp /dev/sda /dev/sdb is very effective at creating partitions -- just not in the order I want.

Siegfried

cp does not copy partitions, nor does it copy disks
cp does not create partitions

In short, cp is not in any way relevant to what you are trying to do.

I have to believe that it will be easier to re-install on your new drive, but--in principle--you can do what you want with dd (and possibly with some partition manager)

FIRST--NO MATTER WHAT METHOD YOU CHOOSE---MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS BACKED UP

One way to use dd is to image each partition into a file. Then you can use that image to put the partition wherever you want on the new disk.
Give us your total configuration, including all available drives, and we can provide some more detailed instructions.

But again--reinstalling may be MUCH easier.

Have you tried using a GParted boot disc to rearrange/resize your partitions? It's a beautiful thing.

Just use [c]fdisk to create the partitions you want.
Mount 'em and copy 'em with "cp -a /mnt/source/* /mnt/dest" (play with the syntax to get what you want - I think that'll work).
No need for backups as your source is always still there if you need to re-do it.

Easy.
(er, the above presumes only *nix (or fat) partitions are involved. NTFS can't be moved this way if you need to boot it)