Changing HDD on server

[troothdotcom]

I will be upgrading my servers HDD from a 2 TB to a 8 TB drive and I have quite a few questions I was hoping you guys could help me with. First I'm running my server on a very old laptop so I can only access one USB drive at a time so I'll have to replace my current HHD completely. I am running Ubuntu server OS and I'm hoping to mount the new drive to the existing mount location of the old HHD so I don't have to change all the Library settings. Second I'd hate to start over with the 2 TB of content I already have. Generating the BIF files and all the other necessary stuff takes forever what's the best way to copy all the necessary information to the new drive so it passes all the same permissions and files to the new drive? 

After writing all that I'm wondering if I'm better off just biting the bullet and starting off with all fresh installs? Thanks in advance.