The new and definite CloneZilla tutorial

Hello,

Here's something totally useful: a long, thorough tutorial on how to use the cross-platform and free CloneZilla imaging software to backup and restore disks and partitions, including advanced options, with Windows and Linux examples - Windows 7 and Fedora 15, if you're asking. In a way, it's a new, polished version of my old imaging tutorial, only pimped up to a whole new level with a handful of super-relevant real-life cases. Enjoy.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/clonezilla.html


Regards,
Mrk

 

Nice! Thanks...will check it out.

 

Thanks, checking it out too.

 

I use Clonezilla and find it to be easy and straight forward. I'll look at the tutorial later.

 

Clonzilla is nice but I fail to understand why linux people hate a GUI. I can do the same thing with much ease and in less time with a software that is also fee but has a nice GUI- I use Macrium Reflect free for that.

 

exactly

a GUI option should be standard, especially in this day and age

 

Mrk,

a very nice tutorial as usual

However, I missed one aspect: As far as I know Clonezilla is unable to take care of proper alignment for SSDs during a restore operation (contrary to Terabyte Image for DOS/Windows/Linux - see here). In a guide I found somewhere (unfortunately I forgot to note the web address) it was recommended to use the disk management tools of newer OSs like Windows 7 or Ubuntu 11.04 (which are SSD aware) or to use GParted with its default setting of MiB alignment in order to partition the target drive (if necessary).

Then, one should use Clonezilla with the following options shown here:

• expert mode
• -r option to resize the filesystem to fit partition size of target partition
• -k option: Do NOT create partition table on boot sector on target machine (in order to keep the alignment)

I must admit that I haven't done this in practice. But as proper alignment is always mentioned as critical for SSDs this should not be overlooked.

 

I'll have to grab me an ssd an test ... Thanks for that.
Mrk

 

Your test results will be interesting. In order to test it you can execute

sudo fdisk -luc /dev/sdx

You'll see that, e.g., Ubuntu 11.04 takes care that the first partition starts at sector 2048 and other partitions at sectors that are divisible by 2048. The exciting question is if this is also the case after a Clonezilla restore. I'm not quite sure if this is only relevant if you restore a whole disk with Clonezilla or also if you restore a single partition (with or without using the -r and -k options).

 

Mrk - btw: An SSD is actually not needed in order to test it. Ubuntu 11.04 follows the 2048 rule regardless if it's an SSD or not (they probably introduced it as it's the optimal alignment for SSDs while it doesn't hurt for other disks). So the only question is if Cloneziila changes that after restoring a complete disk or a single partition. (I would test it myself but I haven't a computer left for testing purposes ... )

 

OK, I have a test box with dual-boot, I'll see what I can do there. However, I did use clonezilla on it to backup and restore, with -k option, but not -r, as there was nothing to resize, and it worked fine. However, I made the partitions manually using gparted. I'll check what I did, fiddle some more and report back.

Cheers,
Mrk

 

Nice tutorial, I prefer Paragon for my imaging needs though.

 

Apart from the official tutorials on http://clonezilla.org/general-live-use.php and http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live-doc.php I just stumbled upon this one:

http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/doc.html

I haven't read through all pages but there are, e.g., some nice explanations of several Clonezilla options. Worth a look.

 

Didi you check the alignment with sudo fdisk -luc ?

 

Not yet, didn't have time. Over the weekend.
Mrk

 

Just tested. The alignment is unchanged.
I used the same target partition table though.
I guess this might be relevant for disk cloning.
Will have to test some more.

Cheers,
Mrk

 

Thanks! This means you used the -k option, doesn't it?

 

I just had the opportunity to test it myself as I had to restore my root partition. I chose expert mode and selected the -k option but left all other default options unchanged.

Result: The restored partition starts at sector 2048 -> alignment unchanged. This confirms your findings.

I still don't know if the -k option is really necessary but I think it's wise to use it in such situations.

 

Thanks for the great tutorial Mrk,

I have issues restoring grub with I4L while restoring Linux Mint 10 but Clonezilla restored it perfectly.

Make note of your partitions when you restore because things go bad when your partition in the backup image does not line up with your current setup. Other than that it works perfectly!!