I have a 90 GB partition with Windows on it. I would like to use Clonezilla to save an image of this partition to an external USB drive (formatted as ntfs), and then restore the image to a 180 GB partition on another hard drive (that I put in the same computer the original Windows partition was on). I tried this once with the default compression. It took a couple hours to save, but when I went to restore it I got an error message that suggested the image might be corrupt. I tried saving the image again, this time using no compression and the MD5 checksum to verify the image. Upon restoring, the verification went fine but then I got "Failed to restore partition image file", and something about the image possibly being corrupt (but from the verification I know it's not). Any ideas what's going wrong?
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Oh, I forgot to mention it took a really long time to save the image the second time (19 hours or so). I don't know if that had to do with the checksum, or if something went wrong that made it take so long.
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19 hours... This is abnormal unless your USB is 1.x, not 2.0.
For USB 2.0, with a normal modern PC, with -z1 option, usually clonezilla can save at rate about 500 MB/min, so if your used blocks is 90 GB, it should take about 180 mins.
Maybe something went wrong with your hardware ? Try to run memtest to test your RAM, or save the image to network device instead of your USB device.
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It's USB 2.0. The rate started at about 1000 MB/min, but steadily dropped throughout the process; even several hours into it the rate kept dropping. It was very strange, but the checksum claimed the image was fine. However, the first image I made took the normal amount of time (2 or 3 hours), and gives me the exact same error when attempting to restore the image: right after the "Finished unicasting" line, it gives this vague message about failing to restore the image. Any way to get more specific info about what went wrong?
The usb device was giving me trouble originally with Clonezilla not being able to recognize it, but repartitioning it with gparted fixed that problem. In any case, I've seen no indication from any other program (reading and writing to the hdd) that there's something wrong with it hardware-wise. I will try the memtest when I get a chance, but I haven't experienced any problems with my ram. Although I don't have a network device to save the image to, I could try saving it to a different USB HDD if we can't figure this out in the next couple weeks (I'm away from my other external hard drive at the moment, but I'll have it with me again in a few weeks).
Is there anything with the way I've partitioned the HDD that I'm trying to restore the image to, or the parameters I'm giving to clonezilla (mostly stuck with the default ones) that could cause such an error to occur?
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Another possibility is the source filesystem you saved is corrupt. You can try to use something like fsck.ext3 (for ext3) or ntfsfix (for NTFS) to fix that or check that before you save it.
BTW, for NTFS, it's better to use "chkdsk /f" on your windows to check the integrity.
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Memtest completed successfully with no errors, so I think chkdsk is my next step. I'll let you know if that fixes the problem. Thanks for your help so far.
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I did chkdsk /f and it corrected some errors. Then I defragged and ran chkdsk again to verify that there were no longer any errors. Made a new image this time, leaving default values where applicable (I had changed the one about splitting the image into 2000 MB pieces, which I think is what caused the imaging to take so long previously). Unfortunately, I still get the same error message. Could it have something to do with the fact that the hard drive I'm restoring it to is not the same one I made the image from, and the partition I'm restoring it to does not have the same name as the original?
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As suggested, I tried the device-device clone (using my usb as an intermediary since I have no way to directly connect the two laptop drives). Success! After adding an entry manually to grub, and a small edit to Windows' boot.ini file, I was able to boot the Windows partition as normal. When I get the chance, I'll run through the save and restore image steps again to write down the options I chose before so you can see if anything stands out as incorrect.
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For saving, I did: local_dev, save parts, then selected my ntfs partition I wanted to save, -q for priority, then -c, then -z0 for compression, left "size to split partition image file into volume files" at 2000, selected -p. This gave the final command: /opt/drbl/sibin-sr -q -c -z0 -i 2000 -p true save parts "2009-01009-19-img" "sda2".
For restoring, I selected local_dev, restoreparts, selected the image file on the usb device, selected -g auto and -c, -k, -p. Final command was /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-sr -g auto -c -k -p true restoreparts "whatevertheimagenamewas" "sda2".
Since the device-device thing worked, I no longer have a free partition to test this on anymore, but I'd be interested in hearing if I did something wrong in the options I chose for future reference for myself and anyone else who encounters a similar problem. If there's any more information I could provide that would be of help, just let me know.
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Okay, I have exactly the same problem as polloxer...
Using the Clonezilla Live CD 1.2.1-23 I saved two partions. In both cases the source partition was at an internal SATA disk (450 GB) and the backup disk was an external USB 2.0 HDD (250 GB).
The first partion was a Windows Vista installation on a 50 GB NTFS partition (primary, active), backuped twice:
* highest compresion, MD5 + SHA 1
* no compression, MD5
The second partition was a 10 GB FAT32 data partition (primary), backuped with no compression and MD5 checksum.
I tried to restore the Vista image to the same internal HDD, but on non-active, primary partition with 65 GB.
The data image I tried to restore to a 15 GB partition (primary) on the same HDD.
All restore settings (exept the MD5 image check) and all not mentioned backup settings were set to default, i.e. just pressed enter without changing anything.
Both images (i.e. all three images) did not work so far:
"Failed to restore partition image file /home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda2* to /dev/sda2! Maybe this image is corrupt! Press "Enter" to continue..."
I tried to change the BIOS settings for the SATA controller from AHCI to ATA mode - but that did not help.
I really would like to restore these images - any ideas?
And by the way: is there maybe another way to access the data in the images..?
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I just recognized, that the image it did not found (/home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda2) was not the image I selected to restore, because I selected the image /home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda2 (3 instead of 2 at the end).
So I changed my partition table so that the partition where I want to restore my image is now sda3 and not longer sda2. And - believe it or not - now it works....
It seems like if the current Clonezilla version only restore images to the same partition where it was backuped from..?
(At least if you use the GUI - I'm to tired and pissed now to try the manual way...)
I will now wait until the restore is completed (~25 min), then delete the small dummy partition sda2 and move the current sda3 to the start sector of the former sda2, fix the mbr and hope it works...
(For all of you with the same problem: a comfortable way to make these partition-moving-fun is the UBCD...I will use this.)
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Sorry, bad spelling mistake that destroys the sence, wrote a 2 instead of 3...the first paragraph has to be like the following:
I just recognized, that the image it did not found (/home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda2) was not the image I selected to restore, because I selected the image /home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda3 (3 instead of 2 at the end).
[...]
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"It seems like if the current Clonezilla version only restore images to the same partition where it was backuped from", yes. For restore-parts, that's the way it is unless you prepare a partition table on the target disk first.
In the future release, this will be improved so that a bare new disk without partition table can be restored in restore-parts.
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"[...]unless you prepare a partition table on the target disk first."
Okay, thanks for this information - now I now. :-)
Anyway, it's a little strange that a partition with the same size in a prepared partition table is not enough to restore the image. Even the number of the partition has to be the same, i.e. if it was the 3rd partion before it will not work with the second partition now, or if the data was in a logical volume in a extended partition you can not restore it to primary partition...
Or in other words: just to prepare a partition table with a partition (that is big enough) might NOT be enough...
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A 40 MB SATA drive FAT32 with Windows 2000 on it shall be moved to a 120 MB SATA drive. When restoring the image file to the new drive Clonezilla says, that the image file is corrupt. I tried several _drives_ to store the image, so the image drive cannot be corrupt. Memtest was ok.
My problem is, that my computer has only 1 SATA port, so I cannot use drive to drive cloning.
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To see the clonezilla live version, you can check the file /Clonezilla-Live-Version which comes with Clonezilla live. If you want to check the version of "clonezilla" pacakge, you can run:
dpkg -l clonezilla
after you enter the command line prompt in Clonezilla live.
For the version in Parted Magic, I have no idea how to tell the version number of Clonezilla, maybe you can check the changelog or ask in the forum of Parted Magic.
As for your problem, could you please try Clonezilla live 1.2.3-7 in the testing branch?
Steven.
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I have a 90 GB partition with Windows on it. I would like to use Clonezilla to save an image of this partition to an external USB drive (formatted as ntfs), and then restore the image to a 180 GB partition on another hard drive (that I put in the same computer the original Windows partition was on). I tried this once with the default compression. It took a couple hours to save, but when I went to restore it I got an error message that suggested the image might be corrupt. I tried saving the image again, this time using no compression and the MD5 checksum to verify the image. Upon restoring, the verification went fine but then I got "Failed to restore partition image file", and something about the image possibly being corrupt (but from the verification I know it's not). Any ideas what's going wrong?
Oh, I forgot to mention it took a really long time to save the image the second time (19 hours or so). I don't know if that had to do with the checksum, or if something went wrong that made it take so long.
19 hours... This is abnormal unless your USB is 1.x, not 2.0.
For USB 2.0, with a normal modern PC, with -z1 option, usually clonezilla can save at rate about 500 MB/min, so if your used blocks is 90 GB, it should take about 180 mins.
Maybe something went wrong with your hardware ? Try to run memtest to test your RAM, or save the image to network device instead of your USB device.
It's USB 2.0. The rate started at about 1000 MB/min, but steadily dropped throughout the process; even several hours into it the rate kept dropping. It was very strange, but the checksum claimed the image was fine. However, the first image I made took the normal amount of time (2 or 3 hours), and gives me the exact same error when attempting to restore the image: right after the "Finished unicasting" line, it gives this vague message about failing to restore the image. Any way to get more specific info about what went wrong?
The usb device was giving me trouble originally with Clonezilla not being able to recognize it, but repartitioning it with gparted fixed that problem. In any case, I've seen no indication from any other program (reading and writing to the hdd) that there's something wrong with it hardware-wise. I will try the memtest when I get a chance, but I haven't experienced any problems with my ram. Although I don't have a network device to save the image to, I could try saving it to a different USB HDD if we can't figure this out in the next couple weeks (I'm away from my other external hard drive at the moment, but I'll have it with me again in a few weeks).
Is there anything with the way I've partitioned the HDD that I'm trying to restore the image to, or the parameters I'm giving to clonezilla (mostly stuck with the default ones) that could cause such an error to occur?
Another possibility is the source filesystem you saved is corrupt. You can try to use something like fsck.ext3 (for ext3) or ntfsfix (for NTFS) to fix that or check that before you save it.
BTW, for NTFS, it's better to use "chkdsk /f" on your windows to check the integrity.
Memtest completed successfully with no errors, so I think chkdsk is my next step. I'll let you know if that fixes the problem. Thanks for your help so far.
I did chkdsk /f and it corrected some errors. Then I defragged and ran chkdsk again to verify that there were no longer any errors. Made a new image this time, leaving default values where applicable (I had changed the one about splitting the image into 2000 MB pieces, which I think is what caused the imaging to take so long previously). Unfortunately, I still get the same error message. Could it have something to do with the fact that the hard drive I'm restoring it to is not the same one I made the image from, and the partition I'm restoring it to does not have the same name as the original?
"the hard drive I'm restoring it to is not the same one I made the image from", no. We have done such a clone for many times and they all work here.
"the partition I'm restoring it to does not have the same name as the original", no, Clonezilla does not care about the partition name.
I do not where went wrong there. Maybe you can show every steps (i.e. the options you choose) you have done so it's easier for us to see why.
BTW, did you try device-device clone ?
As suggested, I tried the device-device clone (using my usb as an intermediary since I have no way to directly connect the two laptop drives). Success! After adding an entry manually to grub, and a small edit to Windows' boot.ini file, I was able to boot the Windows partition as normal. When I get the chance, I'll run through the save and restore image steps again to write down the options I chose before so you can see if anything stands out as incorrect.
Polloxer,
Thanks. Please keep us posted.
Steven.
For saving, I did: local_dev, save parts, then selected my ntfs partition I wanted to save, -q for priority, then -c, then -z0 for compression, left "size to split partition image file into volume files" at 2000, selected -p. This gave the final command: /opt/drbl/sibin-sr -q -c -z0 -i 2000 -p true save parts "2009-01009-19-img" "sda2".
For restoring, I selected local_dev, restoreparts, selected the image file on the usb device, selected -g auto and -c, -k, -p. Final command was /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-sr -g auto -c -k -p true restoreparts "whatevertheimagenamewas" "sda2".
Since the device-device thing worked, I no longer have a free partition to test this on anymore, but I'd be interested in hearing if I did something wrong in the options I chose for future reference for myself and anyone else who encounters a similar problem. If there's any more information I could provide that would be of help, just let me know.
Okay, I have exactly the same problem as polloxer...
Using the Clonezilla Live CD 1.2.1-23 I saved two partions. In both cases the source partition was at an internal SATA disk (450 GB) and the backup disk was an external USB 2.0 HDD (250 GB).
The first partion was a Windows Vista installation on a 50 GB NTFS partition (primary, active), backuped twice:
* highest compresion, MD5 + SHA 1
* no compression, MD5
The second partition was a 10 GB FAT32 data partition (primary), backuped with no compression and MD5 checksum.
I tried to restore the Vista image to the same internal HDD, but on non-active, primary partition with 65 GB.
The data image I tried to restore to a 15 GB partition (primary) on the same HDD.
All restore settings (exept the MD5 image check) and all not mentioned backup settings were set to default, i.e. just pressed enter without changing anything.
Both images (i.e. all three images) did not work so far:
"Failed to restore partition image file /home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda2* to /dev/sda2! Maybe this image is corrupt! Press "Enter" to continue..."
I tried to change the BIOS settings for the SATA controller from AHCI to ATA mode - but that did not help.
I really would like to restore these images - any ideas?
And by the way: is there maybe another way to access the data in the images..?
What I forgot to mention:
the external drive with the images is formated as NTFS.
I just recognized, that the image it did not found (/home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda2) was not the image I selected to restore, because I selected the image /home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda2 (3 instead of 2 at the end).
So I changed my partition table so that the partition where I want to restore my image is now sda3 and not longer sda2. And - believe it or not - now it works....
It seems like if the current Clonezilla version only restore images to the same partition where it was backuped from..?
(At least if you use the GUI - I'm to tired and pissed now to try the manual way...)
I will now wait until the restore is completed (~25 min), then delete the small dummy partition sda2 and move the current sda3 to the start sector of the former sda2, fix the mbr and hope it works...
(For all of you with the same problem: a comfortable way to make these partition-moving-fun is the UBCD...I will use this.)
Sorry, bad spelling mistake that destroys the sence, wrote a 2 instead of 3...the first paragraph has to be like the following:
I just recognized, that the image it did not found (/home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda2) was not the image I selected to restore, because I selected the image /home/partimag/2009-01-14-17-XPS-Vista/sda3 (3 instead of 2 at the end).
[...]
"It seems like if the current Clonezilla version only restore images to the same partition where it was backuped from", yes. For restore-parts, that's the way it is unless you prepare a partition table on the target disk first.
In the future release, this will be improved so that a bare new disk without partition table can be restored in restore-parts.
"[...]unless you prepare a partition table on the target disk first."
Okay, thanks for this information - now I now. :-)
Anyway, it's a little strange that a partition with the same size in a prepared partition table is not enough to restore the image. Even the number of the partition has to be the same, i.e. if it was the 3rd partion before it will not work with the second partition now, or if the data was in a logical volume in a extended partition you can not restore it to primary partition...
Or in other words: just to prepare a partition table with a partition (that is big enough) might NOT be enough...
aves83,
Yes, that's true.
Will try to improve that in the future release.
Please keep pushing us. :)
Steven.
Oh, I think that's what my problem was then. The number of the partition was different.
I have exact the same problem.
A 40 MB SATA drive FAT32 with Windows 2000 on it shall be moved to a 120 MB SATA drive. When restoring the image file to the new drive Clonezilla says, that the image file is corrupt. I tried several _drives_ to store the image, so the image drive cannot be corrupt. Memtest was ok.
My problem is, that my computer has only 1 SATA port, so I cannot use drive to drive cloning.
schneibva,
Which version of Clonezilla live are you using?
Steven.
I use the version, which comes with Parted Magic 4.5 (the pmagic homepage says it would be Clonezilla 2.3.3-74 http://partedmagic.com/change-log/139-parted-magic-50-not-released-yet.html). BTW: It would be fine, if Clonezilla shows the version no.
To see the clonezilla live version, you can check the file /Clonezilla-Live-Version which comes with Clonezilla live. If you want to check the version of "clonezilla" pacakge, you can run:
dpkg -l clonezilla
after you enter the command line prompt in Clonezilla live.
For the version in Parted Magic, I have no idea how to tell the version number of Clonezilla, maybe you can check the changelog or ask in the forum of Parted Magic.
As for your problem, could you please try Clonezilla live 1.2.3-7 in the testing branch?
Steven.