500GB HDD + 1TB SSD + 500gb HDD migration, dual booted Windows 7 and Ubuntu. limited backup options

Question

I took the disk drive out of my Lenovo T430 and replaced it with a 1Tb SSD. I'd like to migrate my Windows 7/Ubuntu installation from the 500Gb HDD to the SSD and use the HDD for storage.

Relevant details:

1. I have a 1TB external drive that I'm currently using to run my Apache server (in Ubuntu). If there is a way to resize the partition to 500Gb, I could use it to backup my laptop's HDD while I transfer to the SSD.

2. Here are the results of fdisk -l:

   Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
   255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
   Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
   Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
   I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
   Disk identifier: 0x0141a52b
   
   Device     Boot         Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/sda1     *          2048     3074047     1536000    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
   /dev/sda2             3074048   837507071   417216512    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
   /dev/sda3           939907072   976771071    18432000    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
   /dev/sda4           837509118   939907071    51198977    5  Extended
   Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary.
   /dev/sda5           837509120   932136959    47313920   83  Linux
   /dev/sda6           932139008   939907071     3884032   82  Linux swap / Solaris
   
   
   Disk /dev/sdb: 960.2 GB, 960197124096 bytes
   255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 116737 cylinders, total 1875385008 sectors
   Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
   Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   Disk identifier: 0x000d16a4
   
      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/sdb1              63   937502047   468750992+  83  Linux
   /dev/sdb2       937502048  1875385007   468941480    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
   

   I already split the SSD into a 500gb partition for Windows and a 500GB partition for Ubuntu, but this is easy to change or redo if I need to.

3. I also have a 32GB flash drive that I can maybe use as a recovery disk? All the other questions I've read on this topic had to use some kind of Windows recovery disk, but since my laptop came with Windows 7 preinstalled, I'm not sure where to get this.

Answer 1

Since you have both disks connected at once, I'd recommend using dd to clone your old 500 GB HDD to the SSD. This will copy the partition table as well, so your new drive will appear to be 500 GB afterward. Once cloned, you can expand/modify the partitions as you desire to make full use of the new drive (would need more information to be more specific).

Although it shouldn't be required, it is of course good practice to make a backup before performing operations. In addition, the standard dd disclaimer applies: incorrect usage can and likely will destroy data.

In your case, the appropriate command would be

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

This copies data byte by byte from /dev/sda to /dev/sdb, cloning the entire drive, including bootloader and MBR or GPT partition table. Data on the output drive will be overwritten without warning or confirmation. Defaults for dd's other options should suffice, but see the man page for more.

I've personally done this a number of times to copy old hard drives to new; the step with the most potential for data loss is modifying the partitions once they've been copied to your new drive, but assuming you don't format your old drive immediately, you can just copy damaged data a second time. Also note that you can copy data between partitions with dd as well, using /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1 (for example) as input and output files. This requires manually creating the partitions on the new drive to copy data to, using GParted or your favorite partition manager.