[Discuss] Multiple HDD setup in Linux

[Brian Burger]

Last time I had to deal with multiple drives in one machine was
several years ago when I still ran XP; I've managed nicely with just
one partitioned harddrive in Linux until recently.

As a result, I haven't a damn clue where to even start setting up  a
multi-drive system in *nix... my old Windows habits come forward and I
find myself thinking of D & E drives again...

Here's the setup:
Ubuntu 8.04
1 120GB HDD (a few years old, still solid, but stuffed to the brim with files)
1 500GB HDD (new, not installed yet)
ext3 across the board for formatting

Currently I've got / as sda1, /home as sda2, no swap, no boot.

I'd like to use the 500GB as the main drive, with /boot, /, /swap &
the first part of /home on there, then use the entire 120GB as an
extension of /home - ideally, set up so it's all seamless from the
desktop end. I'm pretty sure I can set this up in LVM, but I'd
appreciate pointers or links to current, usable tutorials & resources
before I dive in!

For bonus points, I'd like to install & partition the 500GB, leaving
my data intact on the 120, then later copy my /home over to the new
500GB, then extend /home across into the entirety of the 120GB.

I think 'dd' can handle the file movement side of this while keeping
the permissions & such intact, and LVM looks flexible enough to handle
the multi-stage re-deploying of partitions I'm thinking of above, but
anyone with actual experience doing this sort of thing, please advise!

(I'm going to fill a couple of DVDs with backups of stuff I really
can't afford to loose, but hopefully the whole operation will go
smoothly and I'll be able to destroy the backup DVDs unused...)

I'll probably do a clean install of Ubuntu into the new partitions;
there's a number of issues I"m having with my much-upgraded Ubuntu
install that'll hopefully just go away with a clean install and lots
more space to use...

Thanks,

Brian