Hard disk transfer

mdl313 · n00b Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 63 Location: New York

Hello,
I'm about to replace the PATA hard drive in my Gentoo-based system with a larger SATA drive; I'm planning to follow the "Hard Disk Upgrade Mini How-To" at http://howtos.linux.com/howtos/Hard-Disk-Upgrade/index.shtml. This recommends using cp to copy the old disk to the new one. Question: Would there be any advantages to using rsync instead of cp? Disadvantages?
Thanks,
Mark

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

??? I think you have got the wrong idea here. rsync is nothing to do with unix's copy (cp) command. rsync syncs the programs avaliable to you through portage to the very latest ones so you get the updated ones if you "emerge" them
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boniek · Guru Joined: 26 Mar 2005 Posts: 373

i would use cp for the sake of simplicity and efficiency - just remember to copy with preserving access rights
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lbrtuk · l33t Joined: 08 May 2003 Posts: 910

rsync is a general purpose app for syncing two directories. If there are only minor differences between the files at the source and destination, rsync will only copy the changes. It works over networks too. This is why gentoo uses it - to sync your local portage tree with the gentoo one. Typical uses for rsyncing are: syncing your mp3 player with your mp3 collection, running a backup server, downloading small updates to large software repositories etc. cokehabit, I suggest you read man rsync.

If there aren't any existing files on the disk you're copying to there's no point in using rsync, because it would just end up copying everything anyway.

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

you are right, 5 years and i've never known that... /me gets back to being a n00b
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Kevin72594 · Guru Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 307

rsync would probably be better imo because you can see progress, which I don't think is implemented in cp yet, and you can resume if you use the correct command. just my 2 cents!!

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

having read it again I still think you'd be better off using cp.
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mdl313 · n00b Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 63 Location: New York

Thanks all for responses. I have some limited experience with rsync, as I use it in a script to backup my hard drive to a second drive. The reason I considered using it for the disk clone, in addition to those in Kevin72594's post, is the ease of excluding unwanted directories/files from being copied with rsync syntax, whereas the command using cp in the how-to I referenced was as clear as mud to me. Maybe I misunderstand cp syntax.