That sounds like it/7
now when i do /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt the welcome to bitcoin core window shows up
i did cancel it and did not select a drive (standard or my choice).
now i copy .bitcoin and bitcoin folder from old 500GB to ( this take 4 hours for 369GB at about 20MB/sec)
/home/myusername/
then i do
/usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt and select the .bitcoin folder as data folder
then /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt and hopefully all is good now. we will see.
Yes, theoretically, that should all work out...
Once you have all the .bitcoin folder copied over... when you start bitcoin-qt and select .bitcoin as the location for your datadir, it should find the blocks, start up and continue syncing without needing to redownload everything
Let us know if you run into any more issues... as mocacinno said, someone should be around to help out