Transfer contents of data only HDD to new SSD

[chris36]

I want to transfer the contents of my hdd to a new larger ssd. The hdd contains data only as the OS is installed on a second ssd on which MATE 20.04 lts is installed. Can I partition the new ssd to ext4 and just copy and paste the data over or is there a more refined way of doing this?. I am quite happy to leave the home folder where it is for the moment

[wally333]

Format the ssd and mount it along with the hdd

Then I'd use rsync:

rsync -axAXH /mountPoint/hdd /mountPoint/ssd

When its done un-mount both. Remove the hdd and then mount the ssd where you want it to live.

[chris36]

Thanks for the suggestion, to enable me to learn more about the process can you give a quick explanation of what the - axAXH relates to.

[chris36]

Tried your suggestion and got the following
rsync -axAXH /dev/sdb/hdd /dev/sdc/ssd
rsync: change_dir "/dev/sdb" failed: Not a directory (20)
rsync: ERROR: cannot stat destination "/dev/sdc/ssd": Not a directory (20)
rsync error: errors selecting input/output files, dirs (code 3) at main.c(660) [Receiver=3.1.3]

[chris36]

Tried your suggestion and got the following,

rsync -axAXH /dev/sdb/hdd /dev/sdc/ssd
rsync: change_dir "/dev/sdb" failed: Not a directory (20)
rsync: ERROR: cannot stat destination "/dev/sdc/ssd": Not a directory (20)
rsync error: errors selecting input/output files, dirs (code 3) at main.c(660) [Receiver=3.1.3]

Any thoughts gratefully recieved

[alpinejohn]

Hello chris36

I would use Grsync (a GUI frontend for rsync). You may find this post with a link to a good video tutorial helpful:

Grsync questions

Hallo fixit7 You may find this video useful: If you run into a UID-problem grsync can be a useful tool, as you can choose to “switch-off” preserving permissions. Deja-dup, the backup software included in Ubuntu-Mate make “compressed”, “incremental” backups - you need a copy of deja-dup to access the backup again. With grsync you can make an uncompressed backup that you can access from any attached Linux computer. My personal backup strategy uses both.

Hope this helps you.

[chris36]

Thanks for the reply, I went for dd in the end although it took a few hours it passed off without any problems.

[wally333]

You need to use file system mount points (directory names) in rsync not the device files. That is why it can be smart and not recopy things than haven't changed.