Linux clone Methods

Article Title: Three cloning methods for Linux. Linux is a technology channel of the IT lab in China. Includes basic categories such as desktop applications, Linux system management, kernel research, embedded systems, and open source.

Creating an image copy for your system disk is a good way to create a backup. Because portable USB flash drives are always cheaper, you can maintain several copies for reuse. If your primary disk crashes, you can recover it in a few minutes and continue running. So the rest is to create an image copy operation. There are many ways to complete this task. Here we will introduce several methods so that you can learn.

The biggest problem with Copying System Disk Images is that you must start from another device to get a real copy. The first method is Live CD and USB flash drive. You are likely to save a copy of your favorite release installation disk, which is the most obvious choice. Here we will use the Ubuntu 10.4 release on the USB flash drive. The second option is to use a release version such as Clonezilla for disk replication. This may be the easiest way to do this, especially when you are not used to using command lines.

　　Option 1: Enable the Ubuntu USB flash drive.

If you have already run a Ubuntu instance, creating a boot USB flash drive is just a piece of cake. However, it is not very difficult to create one if not. All you really need is the ISO file of this release. If you don't even have this, you can download it from the Ubuntu site. There is an option on this download page to show you how to create a boot USB flash drive under Mac OS X, Ubuntu, and Windows.

Once created, you can start it directly with this USB flash drive. You may need to change your BIOS settings so that it can be started from a USB device. Many newer systems (such as Dell machines) have an option to display the Startup Menu by pressing the F12 key during power-on startup. Once the system is started, you can create your image backup. You may want to run the Disk Utility under the System/Administration list. This gives you the opportunity to see all the disks connected to the system and their organizational structures.

Disk Utility provides many tools, including mounting/detaching and formatting a volume. If you want to reuse an old Windows disk, it is a good way to start from here and format the drive. GParted 0.5.1 is included in the standard Ubuntu 10.4 basic boot disk, which includes an option for copying partitions. Instructions for completing this task can be found at the GParted site or on the Ubuntu Forum. You can also use GParted Live CD if you want it.

If you choose to back up the system to an external USB drive, you have to be prepared. In this case, the estimated time is about four hours. Using hard drive box adapters such as Thermaltake BlackX ST0005U is a good choice. It has an eSATA connector that greatly accelerates data transmission and processing. If you are frustrated with someone who is often tossing or tasting new systems, this is a necessity.

GParted

Disk Utility

　　Select 2: Clonezilla

Clonezilla is a Linux release dedicated to cloning disk drives. It can operate on any file system type you can imagine. Clonezilla has two versions: Live and SE. The Live version has almost the same usage as the Live USB flash drive of Ubuntu. You can start your computer with a Live USB flash drive and then perform various copy operations on any disk connected to your computer. Clonezilla provides a variety of tools that are organized in a simple menu system to provide operation help and guidance. The default partition copy tool is Partclone. Clonezilla's SE version (server version) means it can be used to clone disks on the network.

The latest version of Clonezilla is 1.2.5.17 Based On Debian or Ubuntu. Now you can download the AMD64 version, support all 64-bit applications, and mirror larger partitions. All applications are updated to the latest version, and the kernel is 2.6.32-12. The most difficult part of using Clonezilla for Hard Disk Images is to find out which is the primary drive and which is used for copying. Clonezilla is very careful when copying the Master Boot Record (MBR). When using Ubuntu Live CD to do the same job, you need to use some command line magic.

　　Select 3: dd

If you are a command line controller, you can use the dd command to complete these tasks. The command for mirroring a drive using dd is similar to this:

# Dd if =/dev/sda of =/dev/sdb

Assume that/dev/sda is the drive you want to copy and/dev/sdb is the target drive. You will find that the speed of this method is the same as the GParted method mentioned in option 1. It doesn't matter which method you choose. The important thing is that you have performed some type of system backup. Computer errors may occur from time to time, and backup is now the least cost you can afford. Now let's put your sorrow aside and back up your system. Let's continue. We're waiting for you.

Clonezilla

Clonezilla Startup Menu