I've followed the instructions for installing and using Clonezilla, unpacking the .zip file onto my USB "E:" drive running the \utils\win64\syslinux64 -d \syslinux -sfmar E: command, verifying that this copies ldlinux.c32 and ldlinux.sys onto E:\syslinux, then restarting my computer (a Windows 7 laptop), and interrupting the startup to specify the boot device. At that point, I get a DOS-style menu with entries * ATAPI CD0:
* ATA HDD0:
* USB HDD:
* PCI LAN:
I select the USB HDD: entry and hit <enter>, but all that happens is that the selection jumps back to the first entry and then nothing happens. Fortunately, when I select ATA HDD0: (or reboot with interrupting) Windows 7 boots up OK, but unfortunately I'm no closer to backing up my hard drive onto the USB drive.</enter>
What do I need to do different?
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I would start over and make a new Clonezilla Live USB flash drive using Rufus on your Microsoft Windows 7 PC and also use the latest Clonezilla Live iso file.
Rufus usually always makes a bootable USB flash drive!
Chuck, I downloaded Rufus and fired it up, and I have the Rufus 3.10.1647 window open. I see under BOOT SELECTION that it's asking for file (e.g., ubuntu...iso). I don't know what file it's looking for, nor where to get it. I did download CloneZilla itself, but that's a .zip file that I extracted to my USB drive (the volume I want to make bootable), but I don't know if that's relevant? Can you explain further?
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I prefer to use the latest Clonezilla Live ISO files which are the Ubuntu based Alternative Testing versions. https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
Download the latest Alternative Testing Clonezilla Live ISO file. Be sure to click on the ZIP drop down menu and select ISO on the Clonezilla Live Downloads page.
Open Rufus and click on the SELECT button in the top right corner and open the ISO file.
Insert your USB flash drive. Wait unitl it locates your USB flash drive.
Leave the Rufus defaults as they are and click on the START button.
Good to Go.
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Rufus now is working for me, producing a bootable USB drive. It turns out that I had to make one modification to get the drive to boot: I had to change the image mode from ISO to DD. Once I did that, I was able to boot up from the USB drive (after changing the boot order to go to the USB drive first). And then... CloneZilla came up! I started following the instructions there and got to the final (I think...) "are you sure you want to continue (y/n)" BUT then the actual imaging operation failed with an error that the target directory /home/partimag/ was not writable.
When I went into the command line prompt and did ls -al /home/ I saw that the permissions for partimag were root root r-xr-xr-x; indeed not writable, although I noticed another directory /home/user that was (user) writable. I thought maybe I could change the permissions on /home/partimag/ (which would have to be chmod ugo+w) but since my command line session was logged in as user (not root) I couldn't even do the chmod.
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You are off to a good start. But it sounds like you are trying to save the image on the same USB drive that you booted with Clonezilla Live. This is possible but not recommended. The best option is to use a small USB boot drive with Clonezilla Live installed (which you have just created) and then use another USB drive to hold the saved image(s).
Chuck, I managed to use Rufus to create a bootable volume containing CloneZilla on an old 16GB memory stick. That booted fine, and once it did, I started CloneZilla; I pulled out the 16GB stick just to make sure I didn't try to write on it. CloneZilla proceeded until the point where I was asked to select the device to mount /home/partimag, I was given three choices:
sda1: The 512GB HDD that I'm trying to make an image of.
sdc1: Funny name like ...128MB_MS_...
sdc2: The new 4TB USB drive
I chose sdc2 figuring that's where I want the image of sda1 to be stored. I hit <enter>, but then got an ominous message Looks like /home/partimag is not mounted normally. It then asked if I wanted to try forcing the mount, telling me "it could be dangerous", but I tried it, alas, still to no avail. </enter>
I have fumblingly reformatted the 4TB drive a number of times, finally ending up with an E: drive that looks like one big partition. Have I screwed this up?
Thanks!
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Here are some highlights of typical MENUs to select to save a disk image:
PC BOOT MENU > Boot to your USB 16 GB Clonezilla Live drive (usually F10 or F12 key)
do not insert your USB 4 TB external drive yet
MENU > Other modes of Clonezilla Live
MENU > Clonezilla Live (Default settings KMS) or as a last resort (Failsafe Mode)
...
MENU > device-image work with disks or partitions using images
MENU > local_dev (USB drive)
insert your USB 4 TB external drive now press ENTER
wait up to several minutes until it is found and take a note the drive label and then press Crtl-C
select your USB 4 TB external drive (to be mounted as /home/partimag)
tab to DONE and press ENTER
MENU > Beginner
MENU > Savedisk
...
MENU > Shutdown
Read the Docs. Practice makes perfect. Keep trying. You are almost done!
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Strongly suggest you create a directory in that 4TB disk.
Choose this directory as the place to save your image.
Ideally you formatted that disk as GPT and either a ext4 or ntfs file system (not fat32).
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Progress, but not all there yet: I reformatted the 4TB drive several times, the last using diskmgr, and it appears to have used some extended format because the drive was partitioned into one partition for the entire 4TB.
With that, I have actually been able to successfully mount /home/partimag on the 4TB drive, and then proceed to write the image of my C: drive to the 4TB drive. However, when I ran the post-write check, and in a separate stand-alone check, the check encountered a CRC error at block_id=1488834. I then repeated the same process, and got the same result (although the CRC error was in a different block.
This is a fresh new 4TB drive (Western Digital Elements); could it be defective? Is there some drive stress test that could be run on it?
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Clonezilla is quite a good stress test!
Are you able to look at your SMART stats for the drive?
Are there any reallocated sectors or bad blocks indicated?
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I always run Windows disk check and then reboot Windows at least twice and then shutdown before I make a new image.
You can also check the hardware health of your Windows 7 drive and your USB external drive by using a USB drive loaded with Ubuntu Live and run a Short S.M.A.R.T. test from the Disks application.
Chuck, I followed the instructions in "check-your-hard-disk...": the program reported no problems on the Windows 7 drive, nor on the USB external drive (the latter ran VERY fast, I guess because it has only the two largish broken image files). I guess I'll just try, try again.
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That is good news that the file systems (software) are in good shape on both drives. Next I would run the Disks application Short S.M.A.R.T. test from a live Linux USB drive if you want to check the (hardware) health of your drives. Then if everything is still good you can create another image with Clonezilla Live.
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I've followed the instructions for installing and using Clonezilla, unpacking the .zip file onto my USB "E:" drive running the
\utils\win64\syslinux64 -d \syslinux -sfmar E:command, verifying that this copiesldlinux.c32andldlinux.sysontoE:\syslinux, then restarting my computer (a Windows 7 laptop), and interrupting the startup to specify the boot device. At that point, I get a DOS-style menu with entries* ATAPI CD0: * ATA HDD0: * USB HDD: * PCI LAN:I select the
USB HDD:entry and hit <enter>, but all that happens is that the selection jumps back to the first entry and then nothing happens. Fortunately, when I select ATA HDD0: (or reboot with interrupting) Windows 7 boots up OK, but unfortunately I'm no closer to backing up my hard drive onto the USB drive.</enter>What do I need to do different?
Hi Mark
I would start over and make a new Clonezilla Live USB flash drive using Rufus on your Microsoft Windows 7 PC and also use the latest Clonezilla Live iso file.
Rufus usually always makes a bootable USB flash drive!
https://clonezilla.org/liveusb.php
https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
https://rufus.ie/
Chuck, I downloaded Rufus and fired it up, and I have the Rufus 3.10.1647 window open. I see under
BOOT SELECTIONthat it's asking for file (e.g., ubuntu...iso). I don't know what file it's looking for, nor where to get it. I did download CloneZilla itself, but that's a.zipfile that I extracted to my USB drive (the volume I want to make bootable), but I don't know if that's relevant? Can you explain further?Hi Mark
WARNING
All data on your USB flash drive will be erased when you use Rufus to install Clonezilla Live so be sure to back up anything you want to keep!
Progress, but not quite there:
Rufus now is working for me, producing a bootable USB drive. It turns out that I had to make one modification to get the drive to boot: I had to change the image mode from
ISOtoDD. Once I did that, I was able to boot up from the USB drive (after changing the boot order to go to the USB drive first). And then... CloneZilla came up! I started following the instructions there and got to the final (I think...) "are you sure you want to continue (y/n)" BUT then the actual imaging operation failed with an error that the target directory/home/partimag/was not writable.When I went into the command line prompt and did
ls -al /home/I saw that the permissions forpartimagwereroot root r-xr-xr-x; indeed not writable, although I noticed another directory/home/userthat was (user) writable. I thought maybe I could change the permissions on/home/partimag/(which would have to bechmod ugo+w) but since my command line session was logged in asuser(notroot) I couldn't even do thechmod.Hi Mark
You are off to a good start. But it sounds like you are trying to save the image on the same USB drive that you booted with Clonezilla Live. This is possible but not recommended. The best option is to use a small USB boot drive with Clonezilla Live installed (which you have just created) and then use another USB drive to hold the saved image(s).
https://drbl.org/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/131_no_modification_to_restored_OS.faq#131_no_modification_to_restored_OS.faq
https://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live-doc.php
Chuck, I managed to use Rufus to create a bootable volume containing CloneZilla on an old 16GB memory stick. That booted fine, and once it did, I started CloneZilla; I pulled out the 16GB stick just to make sure I didn't try to write on it. CloneZilla proceeded until the point where I was asked to select the device to mount
/home/partimag, I was given three choices:...128MB_MS_...I chose
sdc2figuring that's where I want the image ofsda1to be stored. I hit <enter>, but then got an ominous messageLooks like /home/partimag is not mounted normally. It then asked if I wanted to try forcing the mount, telling me "it could be dangerous", but I tried it, alas, still to no avail. </enter>I have fumblingly reformatted the 4TB drive a number of times, finally ending up with an
E:drive that looks like one big partition. Have I screwed this up?Thanks!
Hi Mark
Here are some highlights of typical MENUs to select to save a disk image:
PC BOOT MENU > Boot to your USB 16 GB Clonezilla Live drive (usually F10 or F12 key)
do not insert your USB 4 TB external drive yet
MENU > Other modes of Clonezilla Live
MENU > Clonezilla Live (Default settings KMS) or as a last resort (Failsafe Mode)
...
MENU > device-image work with disks or partitions using images
MENU > local_dev (USB drive)
insert your USB 4 TB external drive now press ENTER
wait up to several minutes until it is found and take a note the drive label and then press Crtl-C
select your USB 4 TB external drive (to be mounted as /home/partimag)
tab to DONE and press ENTER
MENU > Beginner
MENU > Savedisk
...
MENU > Shutdown
Read the Docs. Practice makes perfect. Keep trying. You are almost done!
Strongly suggest you create a directory in that 4TB disk.
Choose this directory as the place to save your image.
Ideally you formatted that disk as GPT and either a ext4 or ntfs file system (not fat32).
Hi Mark
I still suggest that you format your external drive exFAT so you can read and write to the drive from Windows, macOS, and Linux.
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20821#exfatwin10
Progress, but not all there yet: I reformatted the 4TB drive several times, the last using
diskmgr, and it appears to have used some extended format because the drive was partitioned into one partition for the entire 4TB.With that, I have actually been able to successfully mount
/home/partimagon the 4TB drive, and then proceed to write the image of myC:drive to the 4TB drive. However, when I ran the post-write check, and in a separate stand-alone check, the check encountered a CRC error atblock_id=1488834. I then repeated the same process, and got the same result (although the CRC error was in a different block.This is a fresh new 4TB drive (Western Digital Elements); could it be defective? Is there some drive stress test that could be run on it?
Clonezilla is quite a good stress test!
Are you able to look at your SMART stats for the drive?
Are there any reallocated sectors or bad blocks indicated?
Hi Mark
Did you check your Windows 7 NTFS file system for errors before you made your image?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2641432/check-your-hard-disk-for-errors-in-windows-7
I always run Windows disk check and then reboot Windows at least twice and then shutdown before I make a new image.
You can also check the hardware health of your Windows 7 drive and your USB external drive by using a USB drive loaded with Ubuntu Live and run a Short S.M.A.R.T. test from the Disks application.
https://www.linux.com/training-tutorials/how-test-solid-state-drive-health-gnome-disks/
Let me know what you find.
Chuck, I followed the instructions in "check-your-hard-disk...": the program reported no problems on the Windows 7 drive, nor on the USB external drive (the latter ran VERY fast, I guess because it has only the two largish broken image files). I guess I'll just try, try again.
Hi Mark
That is good news that the file systems (software) are in good shape on both drives. Next I would run the Disks application Short S.M.A.R.T. test from a live Linux USB drive if you want to check the (hardware) health of your drives. Then if everything is still good you can create another image with Clonezilla Live.