Betty, Please use the rsync command as Ed stated. rsync (with the -a option in particular) takes care of some "gotchas" that the cp command can sometimes produce if you don't remember how to use it just right. betty wrote: > i'm sure i know less than you, the advice was to use dd. is one better > than the other?? i'm willing to use whatever will work to copy my home > dir to the new computer so that all my settings are the same. > > what would be the command for cp? > thx > betty i > > Eric Cope wrote: >> please excuse my ignorance, why would cp -r not work? >> Eric >> >> On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 9:33 PM, betty > > wrote: >> >> I installed the new drive into the new computer. I'm going to transfer >> the home directory to a usb drive and then to the new computer. >> This is the command i tried and the result i got. >> >> stormy@stormy-desktop:~$ sudo dd if=/home/stormy of=/dev/sdc1 >> bs=1024k >> [sudo] password for stormy: >> dd: reading `/home/stormy': Is a directory >> 0+0 records in >> 0+0 records out >> 0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.000942499 s, 0.0 kB/s >> stormy@stormy-desktop:~$ >> >> What is wrong there? i am such an idiot on command line stuff. aghhh. >> Thanks. >> betty i. >> >> Joseph Sinclair wrote: >> > First, I'd definitely recommend going with a new SATA drive on >> the new machine. You'll find everything just works better and the >> added reliability of a newer drive makes for a lot less stress >> (although regular and frequent backups are definitely the best >> peace-of-mind tool). >> > >> > For the data transfer there are 3 simple options: >> > 1) If you have, or can borrow, a large enough USB drive (flash >> or HDD), I'd copy everything (I prefer rsync, but dd is a good >> choice too) to the USB drive, then copy from that to the new computer. >> > 2) Temporarily install the old drive in the new machine on the >> ATA (CDROM) interface (if the new machine has an old-style ATA >> interface for the CD drives), and copy the data from one drive to >> the other (definitely use rsync here). >> > 3) Connect the two machines to an ethernet router/hub and use >> rsync to transfer the files over the ethernet connection. >> > >> > However you end up doing the transfer, I'd definitely recommend >> retaining a separate backup of all of your personal data >> (pictures, documents, music, videos, etc...) as part of the >> process, if at all possible. >> > >> -- >> betty i. >> www.webcanine.com >> information for people >> who care for dogs. >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Eric Cope >> http://cope-et-al.com > > -- -Eric 'shubes' --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss