Is this safe? Copying a complete install from one HD to another

[Jim Stapleton]

I have a 6.2 machine I just upgraded to 7.0. I did a fresh install on
the second HD. I'm almost to the point where I'm sure the install is
at least as functional as the previous install (i.e. I didn't break
anything). The second HD has always seemed a bit chintzy to me (and
you can hear the drive heads when it is active), so I'd just as soon
get the 7.0 OS off of there, and onto the main drive. I also prefer to
use the main HD, because it's partitioned nicer. I heard you can tar
data from an old drive to a new one, and have it work properly,
provided the MBR is set up to boot that partition, is this correct?

Planned method:
use sysinstall to reformat the old /, /usr, /var and /tmp

mount the old /, /usr, /var, and as /old, /old/usr, /old/var respectively.
(in /old)
$ tar -cf - -exclude /old -exclude /tmp / | tar -xf -

edit /old/etc/fstab appropriately
reboot.


Should this work?

Thanks,
-Jim Stapleton