transferring linux system to another hard drive

[Adam Myrow]

I tried that once, and dd bombed saying that the maximum file size of 2GB 
had been reached.  Of course, I was copying to a file first, because I 
didn't trust writing directly to another partition like that.  Does that 
get around the 2GB limit?  Also, doesn't writing the image of a disk on 
another make the second drive think it's the same size as the first?

I've copied manually, an entire Linux filesystem several times as I 
experimented, and it can be done with a bit of effort.  Also, parted runs 
under Linux and can copy DOS or Windows partitions across from one drive to 
another and set the size on the new drive correctly.