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I have an older hp-540 laptop and bought a new dell-inspiration-14r. Now I want to create a complete image of my older into the new one.Is this possible? if possible than how? I have ubuntu 12.04 in older and windows 8 in new laptop. I have an ethernet cable also.

Tamim Addari
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To create an exact copy you can use Clonezilla. This will copy everything including partitions and MBR from your old laptop harddrive to your new (including overwriting Windows). You may have to resize partitions manually though if your new drive is bigger.

An alternative and probably faster way, which will also preserve Windows if you want to, would be simply to install a new clean Ubuntu install on the new laptop alongside Windows (How do I set up a dual boot Windows and Ubuntu?), copy all your old files over, and, if you want, re-install the old packages on your new system.

For example, on your old laptop, gzip your home directory (eg /home/tamim):

cd /home/tamim

tar cvpzf oldhome.tgz ./

Transfer this to your new laptop using your favourite removable medium and inflate it using:

tar xvpfz oldhome.tgz -C /home/tamim

To keep hold of your old packages/programs, on your old machine run sudo dpkg --get-selections > oldpackages.txt. Move this file to your new machine and run sudo dpkg --set-selections < oldpackages.txt and then sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade.

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Marcus
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  • Cant I directly install the apps using ethernet crossover cable? – Tamim Addari Apr 28 '13 at 14:46
  • What do you mean exactly? I can't think of a faster that using the three commands I listed to duplicate the installed apps. Or do you mean to transfer the old Ubuntu apps to the new Windows 8? – Marcus Apr 28 '13 at 15:12
  • This should bring all my installed applications? – Tamim Addari Apr 28 '13 at 15:36
  • sudo dpkg --get-selections > oldpackages.txt produces a text file called oldpackages.txt which lists all the packages (ie applications) you have installed on Ubuntu at the moment (try it and then open the text file to see). The next command, when run on the new Ubuntu install, tells it it needs to install those packages at the next update. The third command carries out that update. These commands obviously will not work to transfer old Ubuntu apps to your new Windows install, if that's what you mean. – Marcus Apr 28 '13 at 15:49