[SOLVED]How to copy the whole system to another computer?

lansizhong · 2013-10-22 06:18:17

Dear all,
Now I am running Arch in my laptop with 250G HDD and years of cumstomization. And I am going to copy the whole system to anther computer with 128 SSD. I am wondering which approach as follows is better:
1. Install new base Arch on the new computer, install the same packages in the laptop, and then copy all the files in the dir such as /etc and /home/user to the new computer.
2. Ghost the HDD and copy it to SSD.
I am afraid that approach 1 is too much work to do, and approach 2 won't work because the hardware configuration of new computer is a lot different from the laptop's.
Any common routine for that issue? Or is there any Wiki pages?
Thank you.

Last edited by lansizhong (2013-11-06 07:48:49)

wwn · 2013-10-22 06:24:15

If the 2nd computer not the same type like the 1st one I would not blind copy anything and perform a fresh installation. Later you can copy /home and try to use some ols stuff from /etc, but look inside before.

karol · 2013-10-22 06:25:30

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fu … p_with_tar
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fu … with_rsync

lansizhong · 2013-10-22 06:42:52

Thanks @wwn @karol
Now at least I learnt how to full-system-ly backup the system to a bootable disk.

karol · 2013-10-23 13:55:05

lansizhong wrote:

Thanks @wwn @karol
Now at least I learnt how to full-system-ly backup the system to a bootable disk.

Does it mean you've solved your problem?

If so, please remember to mark the thread as solved https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130309

clfarron4 · 2013-10-23 21:09:30

I tend to keep a local backup of my /var/cache/pacman/pkg folder, so that when I do a nuke and fresh install, I don't have to download all the packages again. I usually have the time to rebuild home, so I just to it by hand.

That said, I think @karol's suggestion is much more efficient.

Last edited by clfarron4 (2013-10-23 21:09:56)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-10-22 06:18:17

[SOLVED]How to copy the whole system to another computer?

#2 2013-10-22 06:24:15

Re: [SOLVED]How to copy the whole system to another computer?

#3 2013-10-22 06:25:30

Re: [SOLVED]How to copy the whole system to another computer?

#4 2013-10-22 06:42:52

Re: [SOLVED]How to copy the whole system to another computer?

#5 2013-10-23 13:55:05

Re: [SOLVED]How to copy the whole system to another computer?

#6 2013-10-23 21:09:30

Re: [SOLVED]How to copy the whole system to another computer?

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