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Having a nightmare of a time trying to recover my files

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Duran
2020-12-15
2020-12-17
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-15

    So long story short, I upgraded my PC and didn't think to back up my files in a way I was familiar with. I started experimenting with making disk back ups with clonezilla right before I upgraded my pc, and now after some boneheaded choices my only copies of extremely critical files are locked away on a clonezilla img.

    I've been trying to restore the img to one of my extra hard drives, but I've been met with errors at every turn. Currently the img file is on my 2 TB external HD, and I am trying to restore it onto a 1 TB HD. The img file itself is only 298 GB, so there should be plenty of space. For some reason though, clonezilla is giving me messages about the partition being to small.

     
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-15

    The original drive I backed up to make the image was only 500 GB. The image file is was sitting in the 2 TB HD while I was attempting to restore it to a 1 TB HD.

    I also tried coping the back up image onto the 1 TB HD and restoring to the 2 TB HD, but it still gave me a message about the partition being to small.

     
  • Steven Shiau

    Steven Shiau - 2020-12-15

    "The original drive I backed up to make the image was only 500 GB. " -> It's confusing to me.
    Please show the image content, by running:
    1. ls -alFh /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/
    2. cat /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/sda-pt.parted.compact

    Steven

     
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-15

    I don't understand what you mean.

     
  • Steven Shiau

    Steven Shiau - 2020-12-15

    I meant I need more info. So when you encounter the error messages you have posted, enter command line prompt, then run:
    0. sudo -i
    1. ls -alFh /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/
    2. cat /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/sda-pt.parted.compact
    Please post the results of 1 and 2.

    Steven

     
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-15

    Sorry, I am very much a novice at this and want to make sure I understand you correctly. When I get the error message in the first picture I posted where it says press enter to countunie, you want me to type in sudo -i, press enter, than type in ls -alFh /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/, press enter, than type in cat /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/sda-pt.parted.compact and press enter?

     
  • Steven Shiau

    Steven Shiau - 2020-12-15

    " When I get the error message in the first picture I posted where it says press enter to countunie, you want me to type in sudo -i, press enter, than type in ls -alFh /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/, press enter, than type in cat /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/sda-pt.parted.compact and press enter?" -> Basically yes, you have to choose to enter command line prompt then follow to run those commands I mentioned.
    It's recommended to find someone who is familiar with command line on GNU/Linux to help you.
    BTW, from the two photos you have posted, it seems you have restored the image? Or?

    Steven

     

    Last edit: Steven Shiau 2020-12-16
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-15

    How do I choose to enter command line prompt from the error message in the original post?

    I was not able to restore the image, I got the same errors about the partition being to small.

     
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-15

    I tried entering in the commands you asked me to enter into the command prompt after clonezilla got the errors about the size being to small. I'm unsure if I did it right, but this is the result.

     
    • Robert J Townley

      Press spacebar:
      after the ls
      before the /

       

      Last edit: Steven Shiau 2020-12-16
      • Duran

        Duran - 2020-12-15

        So I should type this?
        "ls-alFh /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/"

         
        • Robert J Townley

          On Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 7:46 AM Duran someguy282@users.sourceforge.net
          wrote:

          So I should type this?
          "ls-alFh /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/"

          You need a space after ls and before -alFh and before the
          /home/partimag/2020-....

          "ls -alFh /home/partimag/2020-11-16-20-img/"

          ls is a basic Linux command to list files in a folder. You may just want
          to google how to list files and folders in Linux bash shell.

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ls#Sample_usage

          Goto google.com and type ls, press enter. After that, you might want to
          google pushd and popd.

           

          Last edit: Steven Shiau 2020-12-16
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-15

    I think I managed to input the commends Steven asked me to put in. These is what I was able to get a picture of.

     
  • Steven Shiau

    Steven Shiau - 2020-12-16

    I think you choose the wrong mode. In your case, you have "imaged" the original disk (480 GB), i.e., saved the source disk as an image. Now you want to "restore" the image to the 1 TB disk. From these two photos, definitely you can restore the image saved from source disk 480 GB to 1 TB destination disk. I believe you choose the "clone" mode so that why it failed.
    As I mentioned, make a copy for the image you have saved first, just in case.
    Then follow this to restore the image to your 1 TB disk:
    https://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/02_Restore_disk_image

    DO NOT choose "disk to disk" cloning.

    Steven

     
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-16

    As far as I can tell, I am doing all the steps in the guide and it is still giving me the same error. I never choose disk to disk, I always choose device-image and did restore. Any other suggestions for things to try?

     
  • Steven Shiau

    Steven Shiau - 2020-12-16

    That's weird... So how about you take photos for every step, from the very beginning to the error you get. Then post them.

    Steven

     
  • Duran

    Duran - 2020-12-17

    I tried some stuff on a whim and it worked. Instead of trying to restore the whole disk, I tried restoring the partition on the image. There was two partitions for some reason in the image, and restoring the second one gave me back my files.

     
  • Steven Shiau

    Steven Shiau - 2020-12-17

    OK, good. So at least you have solved your issue.

    Steven

     

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