Use Clonezilla to mirror and clone the hard disk

Use Clonezilla to mirror and clone the hard disk

Clonezilla is a partition and disk clone program for Linux, Free-Net-OpenBSD, Mac OS X, Windows, and Minix. It supports all major file systems, including EXT, NTFS, FAT, XFS, JFS, Btrfs, LVM2, and VMWare's enterprise cluster file systems VMFS3 and VMFS5. Clonezilla supports 32-bit and 64-bit systems, the old BIOS and uefi bios, and MBR and GPT partition tables. It is a good tool for completely backing up the Windows system and all the application software installed on it, and I like to use it to back up the Linux test system, so that I can recover them quickly after doing crazy experiments on them.

Clonezilla can also use the dd command to back up unsupported file systems. This command can copy blocks instead of files, so you don't have to worry about the file system. To put it simply, Clonezilla can copy anything. (Quick description of blocks: the disk sector is the smallest addressable storage unit on the disk, and the block is a logical data structure composed of one or more sectors .)

Clonezilla has two versions: Clonezilla Live and Clonezilla Server Edition (SE ). Clonezilla Live is first-class for cloning a single computer to a local storage device or network sharing. Clonezilla SE is suitable for larger deployment and is used to quickly clone PCs in the entire network at one time. Clonezilla SE is a magic software that we will discuss in the future. Today, we will create a Clonezilla Live USB storage stick, clone a system, and restore it.

Clonezilla and Tuxboot

When you access the download page, you will see stable and optional stable releases. There are also test versions. If you are interested in improving Clonezilla, we recommend that you use this version. The stable version is based on Debian and does not contain any non-free software. The optional stable version is based on Ubuntu. It includes some non-free firmware and supports UEFI safe start.

After you download Clonezilla, install Tuxboot to copy Clonezilla to the USB storage stick. Tuxboot is a modified version of Unetbootin, which supports Clonezilla. You cannot use Unetbootin because it cannot work together. Installing Tuxboot is a headache. However, Ubuntu users can easily install it through the personal package archive package (PPA:

1. $ Sudo apt-add-repository ppa: thomas. tsai/ubuntu-tuxboot
2. $ Sudo apt-get update
3. $ Sudo apt-get install tuxboot

Compile and install the plugin file.

Figure 1: Create a partition for Clonezilla on a USB stick

After installing Tuxboot, you can use it to create your exquisite Clonezilla USB storage stick that can be started directly. First, create a FAT 32 partition with a minimum of MB. Figure 1 () shows that GParted is used for partitioning. I like to use tags like "Clonezilla", which will let me know what it is. This example shows how to format A 2 GB storage stick into a single partition.

Then, start Tuxboot (figure 2 ). Select "Pre-downloaded" and click the button with ellipsis to select the Clonezilla file. It will automatically find your USB storage stick, and you need to select the Partition Number to make sure it finds the correct one. In my example, It is/dev/sdd1. Click OK, and then click exit after it is complete. It will ask you if you want to restart. Don't worry, you don't need to restart now. Now you have an exquisite portable Clonezilla USB storage stick, and you can use it anytime, anywhere.

Figure 2: Start Tuxboot Create a disk image

Start the Clonezilla USB storage stick on the computer you want to back up. The first thing that comes to your eye is the conventional boot menu. Start to the default entry. You will be asked what language and keyboard to use, and when you arrive at the start Clonezilla menu, please choose to start Clonezilla. In the next menu, select a device image and go to the next screen.

This screen is a bit confusing and contains some local information.Dev, sshServer, sambaServer and nfsServer. Here is where you choose to copy the backup image. The target partition or drive must be as large as the volume you want to copy, or even larger. If you select localDev, then you need a large enough local partition to store your image. Attaching a USB hard drive is a good, fast, and simple option. If you select any server option, you need to be able to connect to the server, provide an IP address, and log on to it. I will use a local partition, which means to select localDev.

When you select local_dev, Clonezilla scans all local storage volumes, including hard disks and USB storage devices. Then, it lists all partitions. Select the partition where you want to store the image, and then it will ask you which directory to use and list the directories. Select the desired directory and go to the next screen. It displays all the mounted and used/available space. Press enter to go to the next screen. Select beginner or expert mode. I chose the beginner mode.

On the next screen, you can choose whether to create an image for the entire hard disk or a partition image. You can select a single partition to create a partition image. I want to select a partition.

On the next screen, it will ask you the name of the new image. After accepting the default name or entering your own name, go to the next screen. Clonezilla scans all your partitions and creates a check list from which you can select the one you want to copy. After the selection, the next screen will show you whether to perform a file system check and repair. I did not have the patience, So I skipped it.

On the next screen, you will be asked if you want Clonezilla to check your new image to make sure it is recoverable. Select "yes". Make sure you are safe. Next, it will give you a command line prompt. If you want to use command line instead of GUI, you must press enter again. You need to confirm again, and enter y to confirm making the copy.

When Clonezilla creates a new image, you can enjoy this friendly red, white, and blue progress screen (Figure 3 ).

Figure 3: waiting to create a new image

After all, press enter and choose restart. Remember to unplug your Clonezilla USB storage stick. Start the computer normally, and then check your newly created Clonezilla image. You should see something like the following:

1. $ Ls-l/2014-08-07-11-img/
2. Total 1241448
3. -Rw-r -- 1 root 1223Aug704: 22 blkdev. list
4. -Rw-r -- 1 root 636Aug704: 22 blkid. list
5. -Rw-r -- 1 root 3658Aug704: 24 clonezilla-img
6. -Rw-r -- 1 root 12379Aug704: 24Info-dmi.txt
7. -Rw-r -- 1 root 22685Aug704: 24info-lsh1_txt
8. -Rw-r -- 1 root 3652Aug704: 24Info-lspci.txt
9. -Rw-r -- 1 root 171Aug704: 24Info-packages.txt
10. -Rw-r -- 1 root 86Aug704: 24info-saved-by-0000.txt
11. -Rw-r -- 1 root 5Aug704: 24 parts
12. -Rw ------- 1 root Certificate 0096769aug704: 24 sda6.ext4-ptcl-img.gz. aa
13. -Rw-r -- 1 root 37Aug704: 22 sda-chs.sf
14. -Rw-r -- 1 root limit 8064aug704: 22 sda-hidden-data-after-mbr
15. -Rw-r -- 1 root 512Aug704: 22 sda-mbr
16. -Rw-r -- 1 root 750Aug704: 22 sda-pt.parted
17. -Rw-r -- 1 root 625Aug704: 22 sda-pt.parted.compact
18. -Rw-r -- 1 root 514Aug704: 22 sda-pt.sf

Restore A Clonezilla Image

Recovering an image is similar to creating an image. Start again with Clonezilla. After the same initialization steps, select devImage, and then in the localDev screen, select the location of the image you want to restore, either on the local device or on the network share. Then proceed to the following operations to ensure that your image recovery is correct and you have selected the correct location.

You can get more magic power of Clonezilla on the Clonezilla Live document page. For details about Clonezilla Live, click here

For details about Clonezilla, click here
Clonezilla: click here

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