First time cloner help, Windows 8.1, Ubuntu, Debian, Kali, Clonezilla partitions
A partition and disk imaging/cloning program
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steven_shiau
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Hi
I have my clean UEFI windows 8.1 install on my HDD now just as i want
it, drivers, Intel rapid Storage and Start Technology and Expresscache
configured for the 24GB SSD, essential programs etc, the install is
25GB on a 50GB sda5.
I initially created sda1 30gb to backup to because I thought
Clonezilla would be able to back up a larger partition to a smaller
partition once the space used was less than the size of the backup
partition - this I now understand is only possible if I shrink the
partition but Disk Management will only allow me shrink it to ~35gb
and GParted will not let me shrink it at all.
I have used the default Clonezilla settings to backup the windows
partition to 2gb image blocks first on 50GB sda6 next to the sda5
(Windows) and now on sda7 75GB at the end of the drive. Should i
backup again selecting the other three windows 8.1 partitions created
during install, recovery, mbr, etc?
Are the default settings enough to complete replicate my install to an
otherwise blank disk?
Once backed up, if I delete the sda1-sda6 partitions how do I
completely recover Windows 8.1 (including the other partitions it
creates at install) from my Clonezilla backup to sda1-sda4, and would
doing so affect Windows 8.1 in anyway, considering it was initially
installed on sda5 - should I instead wipe the drive, install windows
8.1 again (where it should be) and then backup?
I plan to install Ubuntu, Debian, Kali, and Clonezilla partitions but
I need to just get Windows 8.1 installed where it should be and backed
up first so I never have to do it again. For partition for the future
installs, could /home backups for Ubuntu and Debian fit side by side
on the extra space on the 75GB partition I am backing Windows 8.1 up
to?
Thanks
It's not easy to hack that unless you are very familiar with the whole mechanism of Clonezilla.
I suggest you take a whole disk image. It will completely save all the data, partition table, etc.
Steven.
Last edit: Steven Shiau 2014-04-08
Thanks for the reply.
To be clear, what I want to do is backup my UEFI Windows 8.1 partition that I can use to restore it on a disk that will also have several linux root and home partitions and a media data partition (accessible by all OS so probably NTFS). I want to be able to restore just Windows 8.1, without affecting the other partitons or the partition table and boot loader etc. For this reason it would seem to me making a complete image of the drive would not be the way to go because it would also restore all the Linux partitons (once they are installed).
If I am correct please advise if there are any options in Clonezilla expert mode for partition to partition backup I need to select, and also that I only need to backup the Windows partition rather than the Windows partiton and the 3 other partitions UEFI installs create, boot, recovery, and something else?
I tried restoring the backup I made to the drive after I formatted it and installed Windows 8 (without drivers, my software, upgrading to Windows 8.1 etc) by changing sda2 to sda1 and sda3 to sda3 in the backup and then trying to let my Windows install media repair it but it did not work.
I am now on day 2 of a completely fresh install, Windows 8 has been upgraded to 8.1 and I have run disk cleanup to remove the old Windows 8 install but I still have to install drivers and software etc. When this is all done I should be able to backup Windows 8.1 in such a way that I can restore it to the drive as is, and also later even when other OS are installed? This is why I think I should leave out the other three Windows partitions that were created during install.
I redirected the output of sudo parted -l to a file and moved it around but I was never able to access it off the USB key to copy and paste here - so please see the attached picture. The first three small partitions are the ones Windows creates during UEFI Windows 8.1 install, MBR, recovery, and something else essential. The fourth partition is the actual Windows install partition. The fifth small partition is new to me, but since I just upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1, and my 100GB Windows partition is that much smaller it must have to do with the upgrade and I hope once all updates are install Windows will merge this into the main partition.
I have ordered a 128GB USB flash drive to store backups on but it will take awhile to reach me and if I can avoid buying another 500GB USB drive to backup what Clonezilla will output to 16GB I would like to.
"if there are any options in Clonezilla expert mode for partition to partition backup I need to select, and also that I only need to backup the Windows partition rather than the Windows partiton and the 3 other partitions UEFI installs create, boot, recovery, and something else?" -> There are saveparts and restoreparts options which you can use. However, you have to be familiar with which partitions are used for your OS. Besides, uEFI is more complicated than MBR, therefore you also need knowledge about that.
Steven.