MkIII_Supra,
I never need to do cloning with Linux partitions myself.
The mod here has taught me using
tar. Here is what I would go about getting a 120Gb /home into a 500Gb disk
(1) Boot up the existing Linux
(2) I am assuming the 500Gb disk starts as a raw disk and has a name , say sde. I would use cfdisk (or fdisk if you are using a Red Hat) to create a partition sde1 for the whole disk or a size of my choice. It should automatically Type 83 native for Linux. A reboot is unnecessary but doing one is a good practice if you can afford the time.
(3) I would then format the sde1 to the filing system of my choice and then manually mount it by terminal command in root
Code:
mkdir /mnt/sde1
mount /dev/sde1 /mnt/sde1
(4) The tar instruction I learned from the mod is
Code:
cd /home
tar cf - . | ( cd /mnt/sde1; tar xf -)
The tar command will copy the entire content of the current partition (that I have changed directory to), inculding all settings of ownership to /mnt/sde1.
(5) I would now check the content of /mnt/sde1 and satisfy myself everything is there. Then I would edit /etc/fstab to mount the /home to sde1
On a reboot I should have my home in the 500Gb disk environment. After a short period of usage and convinced the /home is working perfectly I shall use the 120Gb disk for another purpose.
The cloning procedure of Post #1 can be used too but you have to resize the partition after the cloning operation. It has the following disadvantges
(a) You clone every bit of the the entire 120Gb including unused and empty spaces.
Tar only moves files and empty spaces are left behind so it is much faster.
(b) You have to resize the partition from 120Gb to 500Gb.
Tar transfer the files from 120Gb to 500Gb naturally.
The cloning is only necessary if the OS has a protection mechanism or a rigid arrangement for retrieving its system files. Linux partitions do not fall into that category and so the normal Linux commands are good enough to move Linux systems from partition to partition and from hard disk to hard disk.
I include Linux in my title mainly because I clone disks with many operating systems inside.
Personally I rarely resize a partition for Linux. I enjoy the teaching by the mod and it gives a kick every time I use it. To me that is what Linux is all about ---> a rich set of Command Line Interface (CLI) that is superior to other OSs.
I use tar, exactly the same instructions as above except cd to /mnt/sdax instead to /home, to move the entire Linux which I always installed in a single partition. When needed I mount an additional data partition.