#357 HP 255 G7 Model RTL8821CE | i cant restore image - disk too small

[Anton Shevtsov]

Hi,

I have few laptops - HP 255 G7 Model: RTL8821CE
One nmve device 256gb, uefi. I installed linux there, download last clonzilla-stable (ubuntu-based) and make full backup.
I was planning to restore this image to other laptops. But when restoring, I get the error - disk is to small /dev/nvme0n1

I created a virtual machine with similar parameters - nmve controller, uefi, but disk i make about 300gb (original hardware 256), try restored and again get error disk too small..

I tried advanced mode, different parameters.. but... disk to small..

Try make backup again , and restore again. But..

I have been using your software for many years, it has never happened before.

[Steven Shiau]

Please:
1. Take some photos about the error messages on the screen then post. E.g.,
https://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/02_Restore_disk_image/images/restore_to_smaller_disk_error.png

1. Run these commands:
   cat /proc/partitions
   cat /home/partimag/YOUR_IMG/nvme0n1-pt.parted
   cat /home/partimag/YOUR_IMG/nvme0n1-pt.sf
   Please post the above results, too.
   Thanks.

Steven

[Anton Shevtsov]

cat nvme0n1-pt.sf

label: gpt
label-id: BE673051-FBEB-AB4F-BBCA-CDC8F5F13B92
device: /dev/nvme0n1
unit: sectors
first-lba: 32
last-lba: 500118160
table-length: 120
sector-size: 512

/dev/nvme0n1p1 : start=        2048, size=     1046528, type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, uuid=BB51D1B4-D1EE-0746-84F6-9CF46AFCF4EC
/dev/nvme0n1p2 : start=     1048576, size=       16384, type=21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649, uuid=CBEB1CC7-5E21-D448-81C3-583E3C3E8C03
/dev/nvme0n1p3 : start=     1064960, size=    20971520, type=EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7, uuid=7230DF5D-F7C6-7047-95B6-43DF5B30C959
/dev/nvme0n1p4 : start=    22036480, size=   478081024, type=EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7, uuid=FC1721FC-B379-B64B-B8DB-F79FE49560C3

cat nvme0n1-pt.sf

label: gpt
label-id: BE673051-FBEB-AB4F-BBCA-CDC8F5F13B92
device: /dev/nvme0n1
unit: sectors
first-lba: 32
last-lba: 500118160
table-length: 120
sector-size: 512

/dev/nvme0n1p1 : start=        2048, size=     1046528, type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, uuid=BB51D1B4-D1EE-0746-84F6-9CF46AFCF4EC
/dev/nvme0n1p2 : start=     1048576, size=       16384, type=21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649, uuid=CBEB1CC7-5E21-D448-81C3-583E3C3E8C03
/dev/nvme0n1p3 : start=     1064960, size=    20971520, type=EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7, uuid=7230DF5D-F7C6-7047-95B6-43DF5B30C959
/dev/nvme0n1p4 : start=    22036480, size=   478081024, type=EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7, uuid=FC1721FC-B379-B64B-B8DB-F79FE49560C3

cat parts

nvme0n1p1 nvme0n1p2 nvme0n1p4

nvme0n1   nvme0n1     238.5G disk                                                         KBG30ZMV256G KIOXIA
nvme0n1p1 |-nvme0n1p1   511M part vfat                                                    
nvme0n1p2 |-nvme0n1p2     8M part                                                         
nvme0n1p3 |-nvme0n1p3    10G part swap                                                    
nvme0n1p4 `-nvme0n1p4   228G part ext4

[Steven Shiau]

The issue is on sfdisk because it failed to write the partition table. This is due a bug in sfdisk:
https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues/949
Which version of Clonezilla live did you use? This issue has been fixed for a long time IIRC.
Anyway, now you can modify nvme0n1-pt.sf, remove or comment this line:
sector-size: 512

Then restore it again.

Steven

[Anton Shevtsov]

1. i use clonezilla-live-20210127-groovy-amd64.iso
2. I removed the 'sector-size', but the error still remains

[Steven Shiau]

This is weird...
The error about sfdisk creating partition table shown in en2_photo_2021-03-10_20-14-14.jpg is different from that of sf_VirtualBox_test255_14_03_2021_11_09_01.png.
BTW, I can not reproduce this issue using clonezilla-live-20210127-groovy-amd64.
Anyway, now idea how to fix it since it's not reproduce here.
Maybe you can give testing Clonezilla live 2.7.2-9 a try?
https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php

BTW, when you see the error shown in small_VirtualBox_test255_14_03_2021_11_08_22.png, please run these 3 commands again then the results:
cat /proc/partitions
cat /home/partimag/YOUR_IMG/nvme0n1-pt.parted
cat /home/partimag/YOUR_IMG/nvme0n1-pt.sf
and you can try to manually run:
sfdisk /dev/nvme0n1 < /home/partimag/YOUR_IMG/nvme0n1-pt.sf
to see its error messages. Please also take photo about the error messages on the screen then post it.

Steven

[Anton Shevtsov]

i run commands

[Steven Shiau]

Forgot to mention, please also run:
sudo parted -s /dev/nvme0n1 print
then post the results.

Steven

[Anton Shevtsov]

Clonezilla live 2.7.2-9 test video.
https://youtu.be/5Ij5b4tkCQI

[Anton Shevtsov]

parted -s /dev/nvme0n1 print

[Steven Shiau]

No idea actually. The issue now is not the disk size, and it's "first lba specified by script is out of range". I still can not figure it out.
I would suggest you manually create the partition table for the destination disk by fdisk or gdisk, according to the nvme0n1-pt.parted. Then try to restore the image in expert mode, and choose "-k" to use the existing partition table on the destination disk, i.e., skip creating partition table again.

Steven

[Anton Shevtsov]

i created manually and proccess successfully started!

[Steven Shiau]

Good to know that. Thanks for your feedback.

Steven