Moving /home data from old system to new Linux system

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: May 1, 2006]

Recently my friend brought a new Laptop. He installed Red Hat Linux workstation 4.0. However, after installation he realized that he lost all his Mozilla thunderbird emails and Firefox bookmarks, chat client logs and other files.

I told him just copy all old files from /home/you to new system /home/you directory. He was trying some age-old tutorial from net, which explains how to copy files using tar and restore it back to new system. During this procedure, he was messing up with file system permission.

Finally, with frustration he brought both laptops to my place. I demonstrate both of following methods that can copy files in jiffy.

Copy all files and directories using scp
I quickly assigne both of his laptop new IP address and using scp I copied all files:

$ scp –r /home/you/. you@new-system:/home/you

$ scp –r /home/you/. you@192.168.1.100:/home/you

Now everything is copied to new system (IP 192.168.1.100). And he got all his emails, bookmarks and files.

Appending a dot (.) symbol (current directory) is very important when you specify /home/you/ as a source path. If you skip dot in path it will only copy only normal files and scp will skip all hidden files.

Copy all files and directories using graphical method

Login to old system
Open two instants of Konqueror browser (i.e. open it two times)
Go to first window and type in Location bar /home/yourname
By default Konqueror will not display hidden files/directories. To see hidden files or folders use the Menubar View > Show Hidden Files option.
Now select all files copy them (CTRL + C or Menubar Edit > Copy option)
Now go to second Konqueror window and type in Location bar and type command: fish://you@newsystem
You are using Konqueror with ssh to manage files on a Remote system called newsystem. You can use IP address instead of hostname.
It will prompt for ssh password. Once logged in you can paste the files and folder
Now just past all files and folder

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Discussion on This Article:

Anonymous Says: May 2nd, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Actually isn’t correct this: fish:you@newsystem

Type fish://you@newsystem instead :-}
LinuxTitli Says: May 3rd, 2006 at 12:26 am
Thanks for the heads up