A free program that makes images of linux OS from a boot cd or usb ?

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by zorro zorrito, Apr 18, 2021.

  1. zorro zorrito

    zorro zorrito Registered Member

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    Hi all, do you know a free program that makes images of linux from a boot cd or usb? I need an easy one, not complex, just to have un image twice a year. Thanks. So great to be back here. One diferent from g4l, clonezilla or APart. Thanks.
     
  2. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Why different?
     
  3. zorro zorrito

    zorro zorrito Registered Member

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    Because I use them, and I want to know if there is something diferent to make an image from linux. I have seen there are many programs that do it for windows, but for linux I don´t know.
     
  4. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    TeraByte Unlimited's Image for Linux. It's not free but you get what you pay for.
     
  5. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    There are Rescuezilla and Redo Rescue.
    Although I have no experience with those two, I use Clonezilla only.
    I didn't know G4L, nor APart. Is that Apart GTK?
     
  6. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Macrium Reflect also images Linux Systems off-line.
     
  7. Spartan

    Spartan Registered Member

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    I am buying a Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition soon which comes with Ubuntu 20.

    When I first turn it on, can I simply insert my Macrium Reflect Rescue Disk and create a factory image of the whole OS before anything was touched? Does Reflect support the Linux File system?
     
  8. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    If you can BOOT from the Rescue Media of Reflect, it should work fine (ext2, 3, 4). I use Reflect to image all my "test" Linux Systems... and under v8, all my UFD-based LIVE Linux Systems.

    PS- I've not used it to date on any UEFI Systems (all Legacy-MBR so far) but I s'pect you'll have no problem.
     
  9. Mr.X

    Mr.X Registered Member

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    Oh come on... :D
     
  10. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Well, for me the "acid test" would be the imaging of a Chromebook Recovery Media which is hugely multi-partitioned, UEFI-GPT formatted, some EXT formatted code partitions and <Blank> space in the middle of the whole thing. Just did this and you can see the Reflect LOG HERE on my Google Drive (It's an HTML file... download it to view it in your Web browser)...
     
  11. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    ...and here's a PICTURE (also on my Google Drive) of the Chromebook Recovery Media from within Reflect (to give you an idea of the complexity)...
     
  12. zorro zorrito

    zorro zorrito Registered Member

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    That one is very good, I know it since about 18 years ago.
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2021
  13. zorro zorrito

    zorro zorrito Registered Member

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    Last edited: Apr 19, 2021
  14. zorro zorrito

    zorro zorrito Registered Member

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    Thanks, I didn't know that, I'M GOING TO TRY IT.
     
  15. zorro zorrito

    zorro zorrito Registered Member

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    Hi Stupendous Man, y have a question ¿how much do Rescuezilla and Redo Rescue compress? I am interested, ¿could you tell me your experience with them please?.
     
  16. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    I'm very sorry. As I mentioned, I have no experience with Rescuezilla or Redo Rescue, I use Clonezilla only.
    Looking at Rescuezilla's and Redo Rescue's documentation, I see that Rescuezilla uses compression formats gzip and xz (and uncompressed) (see screenshot 9), but no numbers about compression are mentioned. In Redo Rescue's documentation I found no information about compression.
     
  17. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    He is speaking the truth. Terabyte Image for Linux is one of the only two disk imaging software pieces (the other being CloneZilla) that correctly recognizes the used space of my Ubuntu OS disk and that could back it up properly. Both Acronis and Macrium reported vastly difference in terms of used space on OS drive from the amount that Ubuntu itself reported. The backup also produced huge image file for both of them.
    I purchased Image for Windows which also includes a license for Image for Linux. It's the only disk imaging software that I paid for :)
     
  18. Mr.X

    Mr.X Registered Member

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    I agree, fully. You're correct.
    I'm just an idiot
    :D
     
  19. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    According to history, Macrium REFLECT has been doing "Intelligent Sector Copying" (used sectors) of EXT formatted partitions since v4. The EXT superblock and groups are read, and only used clusters are backed up if "Intelligent sector copy" is selected. Back then, their Recovery Media was LINUX-based (like IFL)... that's why it was easy for them. When they moved to WinPE Recovery Media for v6, they implemented the same capability so that it would remain completely compatible as the product moved forward.
     
  20. Joxx

    Joxx Registered Member

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    MX snapshot tool. It can be used as a recovery image or to install on a second computer. It's part of the OS and runs from the OS. The downside is that it only works (as far as I know) with MX-Linux.
     
  21. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Oh come on... :D
     
  22. zorro zorrito

    zorro zorrito Registered Member

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    1.- I installed MXLinux in one PC
    2.-I installed timeshift and Apart-GTK in the MXLinux OS.
    3.-I snapshot that install and made a bootable usb.
    I have not proved this bootable usb with a snapshot of MXLinux to see if timeshift works, Apart-GTK works.
     
  23. Alec

    Alec Registered Member

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    Dumb question... can't you just use dd?

    sudo dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/path/image.iso
     
  24. zorro zorrito

    zorro zorrito Registered Member

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    Hi, because it doesn't compress the image.
     
  25. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    If you just want to recover system to previous state you may use mkfs to format filesystem then unarchive files from archive file. mkfs would probably need some additional options so it would create filesystem with the same uuid etc. It should be enough for GPT/UEFI system.
    For old BIOS computers it may be not enough for boot partitions and MBR record, but these partitions are very small so dd without compression is probably still an option and regular archive tools for rest of mass storage device.
     
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