[lug] Moving / partition to a new disk

[Michael Kahn]

I did this wrong once and it cost me hours to untangle the mess.
I am hoping that by posting first, I'll avoid a repeat.

I wish to transfer an entire / directory structure from
a partition on an old disk drive to a new partition on
a new disk drive.

The first time around, I did a cp -R * and then promptly
erased the old partition. **BIG MISTAKE** as cp -R is
not faithful about owners/groups/symbolic links and all
the other "small stuff" that made the new root partition
useless.

So, what is the magical collection of command switches
that would ensure that the copy into the new partition 
creates a faithful copy of the old partition's file
structure? Since the new partition size will be larger than
the old partition, I am not seeking a sector-by-sector image
type of copy.

Of course, this time around I won't be so quick to erase the 
old partition until I am sure that the copy does the right thing.

Thanks in advance.

Michael Kahn
mkahn at fast-track.com