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Restoring partition Image

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conky53
2012-03-03
2013-04-05
  • conky53

    conky53 - 2012-03-03

    Hi I've created partition image with clonezilla but when I try to restore it to the raw (unpartitioned) hard drive it looks like clonzilla doesn't detect the drive. Is it normal? Should i first create some empty partition on my hard drive and then restore the partition image to this new empty partition?

    And a second question
    When clonezilla creates an image of the whole drive, does it clone exactly WHOLE drive (sector by sector) or just data only.

     
  • conky53

    conky53 - 2012-03-03

    sorry for double post but I can't see edit option.
    My goal is to restore a small partition to the same place where it was (to the exact same place). Whole hard drive is rather big so it would take hours to clone it (and it's completely empty by the way).  And this particular partition is tiny so it seems more economic to make only partition image instead of creating image of whole empty drive.
    The problem is that I need to restore the partition exactly where it was … is it achievable without whole drive image? (I assume that when clonezilla restores hard drive image, it puts everything exactly where it was, sector by sector -am I right?)

     
  • Jean-Francois Nifenecker

    Hi Conky,

    Clonezilla handles partition and disk cloning differrently.

    Disk clone will create an identical source *disk* on any target *disk* which size is at least equal to the source one. IOW, cloning to a non-partitioned disk is possible.
    BTW, there's an option (ie, -k1) so that the source disk partitions are expanded proportionally when cloning to a larger device.

    OTOH, the *partition* scheme will clone just that: partitions. Here, a partition table *must* exist on the target in order to clone.

    Now, for your situation: first, using some dedicated tool (PartedMagic live CD is awesome), you'll have to partition the target disk to fit your needs. The partition table will have to hold a partition with the same specs as the one you're wanting to clone. This task is rather fast, so don't hesitate!

    But, I'm just wondering  why you want to *clone* the source disk restore partition *alone* somewhere. I'd go the *backup* route and store the partition *image* to some storage (disk, usb thumb drive, network share, pick your own), so that I can restore it anytime in the future on any disk, would the current disk fail.
    Of course, this all depends upon you needs that I just ignore :)

    Now to your last question: Clonezilla only saves/clones data from used sectors. This means that, combined with compressed backup, the size of the resultant backup is *much* smaller than what it is on the source drive. At restore time, yes, the data goes back straight where it was on the source disk. BTW, the -k1 option allows to restore on larger disks proportionaly. In your very situation, you could try to image the source disk to some storage then restore it to the target. Then you could test if the manufacturer restore tool that resides in the restore partition works ok.

    HTH,

    Jean-Francois Nifenecker, Bordeaux

     
  • conky53

    conky53 - 2012-03-03

    Thank you very much for comprehensive reply.

    Now to your last question: Clonezilla only saves/clones data from used sectors.

    hmm thats not good I was hoping it saves every sector as it is…. do you know some other software which can do that (I mean creating/restoring an EXACT image of the hard drive, sector by sector, no matter if particular sector is used or empty) ?
    I've tried "CloneDisk" from Hiren's boot Cd - it seems to works well (at least on my test pendrives) but it is rather "niche" comparing to clonezilla, I'm afraid a little bit to entrust it completly.

     
  • Jean-Francois Nifenecker

    Just like its commercial (and less powerful ;) counterparts (Norton Ghost, Acronis), Clonezilla is not aimed at creating exact images/clones. These tools are meant to clone the sectors the filesystems declare as actually used. Cloning/imaging a whole disk is the area of forensic tools (or, more simply, the dd command on Linux boxes).

    If you need to go that route, have a look at a dedicated forensic live CD like Deft (http://www.deftlinux.net/) which comes with a tool named Guymager that is meant for that. Then the cloning time will be *much* longer than with Clonezilla ;-)

    HTH,

    Jean-Francois Nifenecker, Bordeaux

     
  • conky53

    conky53 - 2012-03-04

    Thanks again for kind anwser. I would definitely check it out.

     

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