Ubuntu :: Hard Links In Tar.gz When Both Link And Target Are In The Archive?

I am copying my home folder from my old computer (Ubuntu 9.10) to my new one (Ubuntu 10.04)

I thought that I would make a tar archive of my home directory (~60GB), then copy it across the network and untar it in my new home folder.

The problem is that I have several hard links (30 at most). When I try and untar the tar in my new computer it runs into errors with the hard links.

I think the problem is that it has unzipped the hard link before it's target and detected an error.

One solution is to add --hard-dereference to the tar command , this will create a separate copy of each hard link. but I would really like an exact copy of my home folder on my new computer.

Does anyone have any ideas? Either copying my home directory, or how to make tar handle hard links sensibly?