Transfer settings from one Ubuntu to another

[Trippmeister]

I have 2 installations of Ubuntu on my computer, on separate physical hard drives. The first one which I'm currently using is 8.04 on an 80GB hard drive. The new one is 8.04.1 on a 500GB hard drive. I'd like to use the new one since that hard drive is much faster, but I don't want to lose all my settings.

So my question is how do I transfer all the settings, documents, installed programs, etc. from one Ubuntu to another? Do I need to upgrade the original to 8.04.1 first?

[kspncr]

I'm not sure if you need to upgrade the original to 8.04.1 (it would probably be good to do anyway) but I believe you can transfer all your settings by copying your home folder from one to the other.

[linux_tech]

There is a migration-assistant, but I don't think it will help for your scenerio.

Clonezilla may be the easiest way. Download a liveCD called "Clonezilla"
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Clonezilla-LiveCD-23119.shtml

I think there should be an easier way to transfer all preferences and data from one ubuntu to another. It would be a great improvement idea to add to the Ubuntu wish list for a future release.

[Trippmeister]

Supposing I upgraded the old copy to 8.04.1 and then copied the contents of every folder in the filesystem. What would happen then?

[unca.paka]

I imagine it would break your system, unless both installs have exactly the same setup(same hardware, drivers, apps, paths, etc).