What's an easy way to replace a drive?

[Anthony Atkielski]

Gary Smithe writes:

> May not be the best answer, but if the drive's data is still intact
> (i.e. readable) and the replacement will be identical, maybe try DD or
> similar from a bootable "rescue" cd, like freesbie?  If not that, then
> you may be able to copy the data between the 2 drives using same said
> bootable CD after creating the partitions.

Is it possible to dd the entire contents of one drive into a single file
on another drive (assuming the latter drive is big enough)?  If so, I
could save time by just copying the drive wholesale to a huge file on
another drive, replacing it, then copying everything back.  Not sure if
"whole drive" would include content outside the FS, though (?).

-- 
Anthony