More specifically, I'm trying to clone a Weibu laptop that uses a Snapdragon 835 SoC + Win10 1909 64bit.
The laptop has a minimalistic BIOS that can boot from a USB Pendrive if necessary.
I have never seen a software that could clone a Windows on ARM device.
However... it must exist, because I can't imagine big manufacturers installing operating systems in these machines one-by-one.
Last edit: adfc 2020-02-14
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Basically the answer is no. We do not officially release ARM-based Clonezilla live, so there is no way for you to do that.
However, if you are able to create your own ARM-based Clonezilla live, yes, maybe it works. The required packages are all in the Debian repository, so it's possible you can create your own version.
Steven
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A simplistic solution would be boot from a Debian ARM64 USB key and use the dd command (with gzip) to write out a full disk image as one large file. It wouldn't be optimal - but it would be restorable.
You need to know some basic Linux stuff about that dd command - a little knowledge can be dangerous!
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
We have created a testing ARM64 release here: http://stevenshiau.org/clonezilla-live/arm/2.6.6-3/
Basically if your uboot supports uEFI boot, or your machine supports uEFI booting, you can unzip the clonezilla live zip file to a USB flash drive, which has a VFAT partition, then boot it.
We have tested that in a Banana Pi, and Mikey Chang also put the result on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea7_cYtNYsk
Let us know the results if you test it.
Steven
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The Weibu laptop is not working very well now, so I managed to get another sample:
A brand new Lenovo YOGA C630 equipped with a Snapdragon 850.
@Jeremy Boden
I agree.
"dd" could capture the entire disk as an image.
But for some reason, I am unable to boot from Debian ARM64 on both laptops (Weibu and Lenovo).
The only thing I get is a blank screen. The system doesn't freeze though... for example, Lenovo responds to CAPS-Lock and CTRL+ALT+DELETE key combinations.
But it won't boot into Debian ARM64, or the CZ Live ARM64, that Steven shared.
@Steven Shiau
I am very thankfull for the ISO and for the YT video. Really helpfull!
So... here is what I did:
1-Using "dd", burned Debian ARM64 ISO into a 16GB Kingston DataTraveler G4 Pendrive.
2-Tried to boot from that Pendrive in Weibu and Lenovo without success. Only got a blank screen on both machines.
At this point, Weibu started to behave erratically, so all future tests will only be performed on the Lenovo sample.
3-Using Tuxboot in a different Win10 machine, I applied CZ Live ARM64 ISO into the 16GB Kingston DataTraveler G4 Pendrive.
It gave me an error at the end (applying the Syslinux bootloader I think), but after clicking OK, the pendrive seems to have all the necessary contents.
Syslinux shouldn't be needed since this is a UEFI laptop... But please see the video below, and kindly confirm.
4-Tried to boot from that Pendrive in Lenovo without success. Got a blank screen once again.
OBS:
I can't even see if the Pendrive is being accessed after POST, since it doesn't have an LED; But I am able to select it in the Boot Menu though.
The boot mechanism for ARM64 machine really depends... Some firmware, or U-boot works for uEFI mechanism. If so, the grub EFI files on the Clonezilla live arm64 zip should work.
You can just create a 500 MB FAT32 partition on your USB stick, then mount it like;
pmount /dev/sdg1 /media/disk
unzip clonezilla-live-2.6.6-3-arm64.zip -d /media/disk
pumount /dev/sdg1
Then use the USB stick to boot that.
I can successfully booted the USB stick on Rockpro64 SMC, just need to write the correct and the latest firmware on the SPI flash first.
However, I did not try it on any ARM64 laptop yet... ARM64 is too diverse, and it also heavily depends on the firmware.. Really annoying though.
Steven
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Hello.
Can CZ clone a Windows on ARM device?
More specifically, I'm trying to clone a Weibu laptop that uses a Snapdragon 835 SoC + Win10 1909 64bit.
The laptop has a minimalistic BIOS that can boot from a USB Pendrive if necessary.
I have never seen a software that could clone a Windows on ARM device.
However... it must exist, because I can't imagine big manufacturers installing operating systems in these machines one-by-one.
Last edit: adfc 2020-02-14
Basically the answer is no. We do not officially release ARM-based Clonezilla live, so there is no way for you to do that.
However, if you are able to create your own ARM-based Clonezilla live, yes, maybe it works. The required packages are all in the Debian repository, so it's possible you can create your own version.
Steven
Hello Steven,
Could you please point me in the right direction, by providing some weblinks?
I would like to know more.
Thanks.
So do you know if it's working with Debian ARM64 architecture?
Steven
A simplistic solution would be boot from a Debian ARM64 USB key and use the dd command (with gzip) to write out a full disk image as one large file. It wouldn't be optimal - but it would be restorable.
You need to know some basic Linux stuff about that dd command - a little knowledge can be dangerous!
We have created a testing ARM64 release here:
http://stevenshiau.org/clonezilla-live/arm/2.6.6-3/
Basically if your uboot supports uEFI boot, or your machine supports uEFI booting, you can unzip the clonezilla live zip file to a USB flash drive, which has a VFAT partition, then boot it.
We have tested that in a Banana Pi, and Mikey Chang also put the result on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea7_cYtNYsk
Let us know the results if you test it.
Steven
Hello.
Sorry for the late reply.
The Weibu laptop is not working very well now, so I managed to get another sample:
A brand new Lenovo YOGA C630 equipped with a Snapdragon 850.
@Jeremy Boden
I agree.
"dd" could capture the entire disk as an image.
But for some reason, I am unable to boot from Debian ARM64 on both laptops (Weibu and Lenovo).
The only thing I get is a blank screen. The system doesn't freeze though... for example, Lenovo responds to CAPS-Lock and CTRL+ALT+DELETE key combinations.
But it won't boot into Debian ARM64, or the CZ Live ARM64, that Steven shared.
@Steven Shiau
I am very thankfull for the ISO and for the YT video. Really helpfull!
So... here is what I did:
1-Using "dd", burned Debian ARM64 ISO into a 16GB Kingston DataTraveler G4 Pendrive.
2-Tried to boot from that Pendrive in Weibu and Lenovo without success. Only got a blank screen on both machines.
At this point, Weibu started to behave erratically, so all future tests will only be performed on the Lenovo sample.
3-Using Tuxboot in a different Win10 machine, I applied CZ Live ARM64 ISO into the 16GB Kingston DataTraveler G4 Pendrive.
It gave me an error at the end (applying the Syslinux bootloader I think), but after clicking OK, the pendrive seems to have all the necessary contents.
Syslinux shouldn't be needed since this is a UEFI laptop... But please see the video below, and kindly confirm.
4-Tried to boot from that Pendrive in Lenovo without success. Got a blank screen once again.
OBS:
I can't even see if the Pendrive is being accessed after POST, since it doesn't have an LED; But I am able to select it in the Boot Menu though.
CZ creation via TuxBoot, shows an error at the end of the process.
This shouldn't be an issue, but please confirm Steven:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4MJ8Zk8x9E
Boot process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bBE4XobDK0
At the end of the video, the screen will be permanently blank. I waited 5 minutes and nothing.
Can somone think of a config/boot parameter, that could fix this video issue during the boot process?
Thank you all for your help.
""
Last edit: Agostinho Carvalho 2020-03-23
The boot mechanism for ARM64 machine really depends... Some firmware, or U-boot works for uEFI mechanism. If so, the grub EFI files on the Clonezilla live arm64 zip should work.
You can just create a 500 MB FAT32 partition on your USB stick, then mount it like;
pmount /dev/sdg1 /media/disk
unzip clonezilla-live-2.6.6-3-arm64.zip -d /media/disk
pumount /dev/sdg1
Then use the USB stick to boot that.
I can successfully booted the USB stick on Rockpro64 SMC, just need to write the correct and the latest firmware on the SPI flash first.
However, I did not try it on any ARM64 laptop yet... ARM64 is too diverse, and it also heavily depends on the firmware.. Really annoying though.
Steven