Clonezilla

Posted on by scottsekinger0

According to the Clonezilla’s website “Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program similar to True Image® or Norton Ghost®. It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery. Three types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live, Clonezilla lite server, and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla lite server or SE is for massive deployment, it can clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously. Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the hard disk. This increases the clone efficiency. With some high-end hardware in a 42-node cluster, a multicast restoring at rate 8 GB/min was reported.”

Listen to NotbookLM’s chat about Clonezilla.at https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/03e3376a-61fc-4f37-aa7e-5f67db44d17e/audio.

Creating a Clonezilla boot USB drive is relatively straightforward. Here’s how you can do it:

Clonezilla Requirements:

Before you use need to make sure you have the following.

  1. A USB drive (at least 1 GB in size)
  2. A computer running Windows, Linux, or macOS to create the bootable USB drive
  3. Clonezilla ISO file: You can download it from the official website: Clonezilla Download

Steps to Create the Clonezilla Boot USB Drive:

To create your own Clonezilla use one of the following methods which applies to your OS of choice I would suggest using Rufus to create a bootable USB do the following.:

  1. Download Clonezilla ISO:
    • Go to the Clonezilla website and download the appropriate ISO file for your system: Clonezilla Download. Be careful what you click on, because since it ad supported you will be influenced to download extra software.
  2. Download Rufus:
    • Go to Rufus official website and download the latest version of the tool. Be careful what you click on, because since it ad supported you will be influenced to download extra software.
  3. Insert your USB Drive:
    • Insert the USB stick into the computer and ensure no important data is on it (as it will be erased during the process).
  4. Open Rufus:
    • Launch Rufus and select the USB drive in the “Device” section.
  5. Select the Clonezilla ISO:
    • Under “Boot selection,” select “Disk or ISO image (Please select)” and click the “SELECT” button.
    • Choose the Clonezilla ISO file you downloaded earlier.
  6. Set Partition Scheme:
    • Set the Partition scheme to MBR for BIOS or UEFI compatibility (recommended).
    • Set the File system to FAT32.
  7. Start the Process:
    • Click “START” to begin the process. Rufus may prompt you about downloading additional files (like Syslinux). Allow it to proceed.
  8. Wait for Rufus to finish:
    • Once done, your USB drive will be a bootable Clonezilla drive.

Booting Clonezilla:

Boot into BIOS and make sure storage device controller is set to AHCI/NVME. The reason for this is that Clonezilla does not support RAID. Check out my article PC Boot Menu Keys to find out the boot menu key for a wide variety of models.

To boot to your copy of Clonezilla do the following:

  1. Insert the USB drive into the computer where you want to use Clonezilla.
  2. Check out my article PC Boot Menu Keys to find out the boot menu key for a wide variety of models.
  3. Select the USB drive from the boot options list.
  4. Clonezilla should load, and you can begin using it to clone or backup your OS to a backup file.

Steps to Create an Image Using Clonezilla:

1. Boot from Clonezilla

  1. Insert the Clonezilla boot USB or CD into the computer you want to use for the imaging process.
  2. Restart the computer and boot from the Clonezilla USB/CD (you may need to access the boot menu or BIOS to set the boot order to USB or CD).
  3. Clonezilla will load, and you’ll see the Clonezilla Live interface.

2. Select Language and Keyboard Layout

  1. When Clonezilla loads, select the language you prefer (e.g., English).
  2. Select your keyboard layout (usually “Don’t touch keymap” if you don’t need a specific layout).

3. Start Clonezilla in Device-Image Mode

  1. Choose “Start Clonezilla” from the main menu.
  2. Then, select “device-image” to create a disk image. This mode allows you to create an image of a disk partition or the entire disk.

4. Select the Target Destination

  1. Clonezilla will now ask where to store the image. Choose one of the following options:
    • Local device (e.g., external hard drive or USB drive).
    • Network share (SSH, NFS, Samba, or FTP) if you’re saving the image over the network.
    For example, if you’re using a local device, select “local_dev” (Local device). Make sure your destination drive is plugged in and recognized by Clonezilla.
  2. Clonezilla will prompt you to mount the target device (i.e., the drive where the image will be stored). Follow the prompts to select the correct drive and partition where the image will be saved.

5. Choose the Source Drive

  1. Now, select the source drive (the drive you want to make an image of).
    • Clonezilla will list all the available disks and partitions. Select the disk or partition that you want to image.
    • If you want to image the entire disk, choose the entire disk (e.g., /dev/sda), not just a partition.

6. Choose the Image Mode

  1. Choose the image creation mode:
    • Beginner mode: This is the easiest option and automatically selects the default options for imaging.
    • Expert mode: For advanced users who want more control over the options.
    For most users, Beginner mode is recommended.
  2. Clonezilla will then ask if you want to “saveparts” or “savedisk”. Choose “savedisk” to create an image of the entire disk (if that’s what you’re aiming for).

7. Set Image Name and Compression (Optional)

  1. Clonezilla will ask you for a name for the disk image. Enter a meaningful name (e.g., “backup_disk1”).
  2. Optionally, you can set the compression type. Higher compression saves more space but might take longer. Common options include:
    • gzip (default): Fast and efficient.
    • bzip2: Better compression but slower.
    • none: No compression, fast but uses more space.

8. Begin the Imaging Process

  1. Confirm your selections. Clonezilla will show you a summary of the actions you’re about to take (what disk is being imaged and where the image will be saved).
  2. If everything looks good, confirm and Clonezilla will begin creating the disk image.

9. Monitor the Imaging Progress

  • Clonezilla will start the imaging process. It will show you the progress as it copies the data from the source disk to the image file on your target device.
  • The process might take some time depending on the size of the source drive and the speed of the devices involved.

10. Complete the Process

  • Once the imaging process is complete, Clonezilla will prompt you with options for what to do next:
    • Power off the computer.
    • Reboot the system.
    • Exit Clonezilla and return to the main menu.
  • Eject your target storage (USB drive, external hard drive, or network share) safely.

11. Verify the Image

  • After you’ve finished, it’s a good idea to verify that the image has been created successfully by checking the storage device. You should see an image file with the name you gave it.

Restoring the Image (When Needed):

Do the following if you need to restore the image at a later time.

  1. Boot Clonezilla again from your bootable USB or CD/DVD.
  2. Select “device-image” mode.
  3. Choose the source device (where the image is stored).
  4. Choose “restoredisk” to restore the entire disk or “restoreparts” for partition-level restoration.
  5. Follow the prompts to restore the image to your target drive.

That’s it! You’ve successfully created an image of your drive using Clonezilla.

Check out Clonezilla: disk cloning, but it’s easier than dd for a demonstration on Clonezilla.

I hope you find this article useful in using clonezilla.

Related Posts