Moving data from retiring (MATE) drive to newly installed Cinnamon

[sampoodle]

I have an aging HHD running MATE on an old HP desktop.
I plan on replacing it with a new SSD, fitted with a fresh Cinnamon install.

With both drive powered in the case, I was thinking of setting boot to the new drive and transferring the old inactive drive /home data individually by hand (like "Music" > "Music") onto the new drive.

Could I encounter any trouble doing that?

When transfer is done, the old drive will be removed and mothballed, as a frozen drawer back up, I guess.

[SMG]

With both drive powered in the case, I was thinking of setting boot to the new drive and transferring the old inactive drive /home data individually by hand (like "Music" > "Music") onto the new drive.

Could I encounter any trouble doing that?

If your new drive boots into Linux Mint Cinnamon, anything you move from the old drive to the new drive would just be a file transfer as if you attached a usb to your computer or your cellphone to your computer to transfer files from them to your new drive.

I presume both are going to be the same file format so I would not see any reason for there to be an issue.

What type of issue did you think there might be?

[AndyMH]

Just remember to 'show hidden files' in your file manager and copy all those as well.

[sampoodle]

What type of issue did you think there might be?

I dunno, like two /home directories facing each other, maybe?

But, overall, yes, what I was expecting is operate a normal file transfer, like an external source.

[SMG]

I dunno, like two /home directories facing each other, maybe?

When you install the new version of Linux Mint, it will associate its one home directory with that install and every time you boot Linux Mint only that one home directory will be mounted as a home directory.

Any other drives with operating systems on them are not used as part of the live system. The live system will see your old version of Mint as a drive with files on it. That means the home directory on your old version will not be seen as something to be used by the new version of Linux Mint.

[SMG]

Moderator note: Bingo0600's post and discussion of what they did can now be found here Moving data from retiring LM19.3 MATE drive to newly installed LM21.1 MATE.