Clonezilla creates all of benefits because it's cloned images take up the least amount of space, I noticed that it only allocates it's cloned images to the size of the data on the disk that it clones and not to the size of the disk entirely including the unused space. I used Rufus and Win32diskimager and both of these programs do the opposite of Clonezilla, because they allocate the clone image to the size of the disk entirely including the unused space, is there a technical term for these types of clones, so that I can search the term for alternative cloning programs that clone the way that Clonezilla clones? Any help will be greatly appreciated!
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The best technical term for Clonezilla's default behavior "filesystem-aware imaging": so a 500GB hard drive with 30GB of used space creates an image that is approximately 30GB. It's called "filesystem-aware" because the imaging tool is able to understand what the data in the filesystem means, and is able to only copy "used blocks" and leave free space alone.
This is in contrast to "sector-by-sector" imaging like Rufus, Win32DiskImager and 'dd' where a 500GB hard drive with 30GB of used space creates an image that is approximately 500GB in size.
In general, AlternativeTo is a great website for software alternatives.
All that said, if you like Clonezilla but want an easier to user interface, checkout my free and open-source program Rescuezilla. It's the Clonezilla graphical user interface that you may have been looking for.
Rescuezilla is an easy-to-use disk imaging application that's fully compatible with Clonezilla backup images. Here are some screenshots:
Rescuezilla does not yet have every feature that Clonezilla has, but just being an extremely easy-to-use graphical application that's compatible with Clonezilla images has still been very useful to a lot of people!
Side note: Users reading may be interested in the existing forum topic where I have already raised the possibility of merging the Clonezilla and Rescuezilla project in the longer-term, and received a response from the always excellent Clonezilla author, Steven Shiau.
Thank you for your excellent and prompt feedback, those are the terms I was looking for, it is very helpful! I am actually looking for a Windows OS only cloning/restoring program.
I read from this link; ( https://rescuezilla.com/download ) that rescuezilla is not compatible with Windows OS. Do you know Windows OS clone/restore programs that use "filesystem-aware" imaging? Those would be gold! I went to https://alternativeto.net/software/clonezilla/ but that has some programs that I know are "sector-by-sector" imaging, so do they have a list filter for "filesystem-aware" imaging programs?
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
You're right: Rescuezilla runs from a Linux live USB stick environment like Clonezilla, but it can safely backup/restore/clone Windows drives without any issues.
If you're after a tool that runs from Windows, what you're probably after are the commercial tools "Macrium Reflect" or "Acronis True Image". You can read reviews on that AlternativeTo link above.
I don't know anyway to filter AlternativeTo by "filesystem-aware" and "sector-by-sector". Maybe there's a tag somewhere that will do it.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Clonezilla creates all of benefits because it's cloned images take up the least amount of space, I noticed that it only allocates it's cloned images to the size of the data on the disk that it clones and not to the size of the disk entirely including the unused space. I used Rufus and Win32diskimager and both of these programs do the opposite of Clonezilla, because they allocate the clone image to the size of the disk entirely including the unused space, is there a technical term for these types of clones, so that I can search the term for alternative cloning programs that clone the way that Clonezilla clones? Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Hi Nicholas,
The best technical term for Clonezilla's default behavior "filesystem-aware imaging": so a 500GB hard drive with 30GB of used space creates an image that is approximately 30GB. It's called "filesystem-aware" because the imaging tool is able to understand what the data in the filesystem means, and is able to only copy "used blocks" and leave free space alone.
This is in contrast to "sector-by-sector" imaging like Rufus, Win32DiskImager and 'dd' where a 500GB hard drive with 30GB of used space creates an image that is approximately 500GB in size.
In general, AlternativeTo is a great website for software alternatives.
All that said, if you like Clonezilla but want an easier to user interface, checkout my free and open-source program Rescuezilla. It's the Clonezilla graphical user interface that you may have been looking for.
Rescuezilla is an easy-to-use disk imaging application that's fully compatible with Clonezilla backup images. Here are some screenshots:
Rescuezilla does not yet have every feature that Clonezilla has, but just being an extremely easy-to-use graphical application that's compatible with Clonezilla images has still been very useful to a lot of people!
Side note: Users reading may be interested in the existing forum topic where I have already raised the possibility of merging the Clonezilla and Rescuezilla project in the longer-term, and received a response from the always excellent Clonezilla author, Steven Shiau.
GitHub: Rescuezilla
Last edit: Rescuezilla 2021-10-04
Greetings Rescuezilla,
Thank you for your excellent and prompt feedback, those are the terms I was looking for, it is very helpful! I am actually looking for a Windows OS only cloning/restoring program.
I read from this link; ( https://rescuezilla.com/download ) that rescuezilla is not compatible with Windows OS. Do you know Windows OS clone/restore programs that use "filesystem-aware" imaging? Those would be gold! I went to https://alternativeto.net/software/clonezilla/ but that has some programs that I know are "sector-by-sector" imaging, so do they have a list filter for "filesystem-aware" imaging programs?
You're right: Rescuezilla runs from a Linux live USB stick environment like Clonezilla, but it can safely backup/restore/clone Windows drives without any issues.
If you're after a tool that runs from Windows, what you're probably after are the commercial tools "Macrium Reflect" or "Acronis True Image". You can read reviews on that AlternativeTo link above.
I don't know anyway to filter AlternativeTo by "filesystem-aware" and "sector-by-sector". Maybe there's a tag somewhere that will do it.
Thanks Rescuezilla!
Yes I am looking for a tool that runs from Windows OS. I will research more on the AlternativeTo link!