Clonezilla for Dummies?

[robert99999]

I've read that Clonezilla is the easiest application for cloning a hard drive. So, I went to their website, and tried to download it. I was met with a barrage of technobabble questions that I was required to answer in order to get the correct version of the software. I couldn't answer them, because I don't have a Phd in hardware and software design. Apparently, there are a thousand different versions of Clonezilla available, and the one that's appropriate for my computer can only be determined if I know every part number of every chip on my computer's mother board.

Example: menu choice of computer processors: AMD64, i686-pae, or i686. I'm pretty sure that it's not an AMD64 because my computer has an "Intel Inside" sticker. And I do know that it's 64-bit. But that's the limit of what I know about the processor.

Surely, there's got to be an easier way to clone a hard drive than having to wade through all of this mess of stupid questions.

[tea for one]

I would think that this iso is a good choice:-

https://osdn.net/frs/redir.php?m=ymu...oovy-amd64.iso

If you haven't used Clonezilla before, please read the guides carefully

https://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php

[dbergst]

If your computer is a 64-bit Intel, that qualifies as an AMD64 class machine.

[robert99999]

Thanks for the replies.

Maybe I should take a step back and explain what I'm trying to do. I want to replace my internal HD with an SSD. So, I just need to copy the internal HD to the new SSD. I have the new SSD temporarily installed in an external drive box with USB interface.

From what I read on this forum, Clonezilla was recommended as being safer to use than dd. However, after reading some of the instructions on the Clonezilla site, I see a lot of warnings about how it can easily overwrite the wrong disk if everything isn't done exactly right. Given the rather disorganized nature of that site and its confusing instructions, I don't think I can trust Clonezilla now. Maybe I should just use dd and take my chances. Is it really any more dangerous than Clonezilla? After all, any disk copy program can overwrite the wrong disk if used incorrectly.

If I do decide to use Clonezilla, with the iso file that tea for one mentioned, do I just install it on a USB stick with Etcher, and it's ready to run?

[rbmorse]

IF...IF the new SSD is smaller capacity than the original HD, don't use Clonezilla to attempt the transfer. It can do that, but the process is considered an "advanced operation" and probably not the best course of action for someone who is not comfortable with even the basic installation of Clonezilla.

take a look at "Rescuezilla" It's a Clonezilla alternative that's fully GUI and I find it a lot easier to work with. For info:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/rescuezilla/

There's a link to the github page there for the actual download.

[C.S.Cameron]

Clonezilla is too hard for me,
I use Gnome-Disks which comes with Ubuntu to create image files.
Open Disks, select the drive to clone, click Drive Options icon and follow the instructions.
No need for special software when restoring the image.
In Ubuntu use mkusb, Disks, Etcher, MultiBootUSB or dd, etc. to flash the .img file to disk.
In Windows use Rufus, Etcher, Win32DiskImager, MultiBootUSB, etc. to flash the .img file to disk.

For more information see: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1300...r-distribution

[robert99999]

The new SSD is 125GB. The existing internal HD is 85GB, which probably gives you some idea of how old this computer is (2007 HP Compaq notebook). Anyway, the new drive is bigger than the old one. So, I don't have to worry about that problem.

As I type this, I'm downloading Rescuezilla. I also had a look at the Gnome disk utility. I'm a bit confused (I'm easily confused). From what is see in both the Gnome disk utility and on the Rescuezilla webpage, regardless of which software I use, cloning the internal drive appears to be a two step process:
1. Create an iso image file of the disk to be copied.
2. Restore the image file to the new disk.
If that's the case, then where do I store the iso image file? It will be bigger than any spare media that I have, unless I burn it to a DVD. I don't think I've burned a DVD in the last 10 years.

Thanks for your patience.

[C.S.Cameron]

If you want to clone a disk to a larger disk directly, dd is the way to go.

The basic code is:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

Where sda is the disk you want to clone and sdb is the target disk.

Run dd from a Live Ubuntu USB or DVD, not from the disk you are trying to copy.

Do some research before using dd, a single typo can wipe out your operating system.

It is sometimes refereed to as Disk Destroyer.

[robert99999]

I just tried dd using the dd command line from the previous post. It copied all of the files, but the target disk is not bootable. When I use the Gnome disk utility to compare it to the existing HD, I see that the old HD has these partitions listed:
Filesystem Partition 1 537MB FAT
Filesystem Partition 2 538MB FAT
Filesystem Partition 3 79GB
Filesystem Partition 5 79GB Ext4

The new SSD just shows this:
Filesystem 120GB

So, apparently I need to do more than just use the above dd command.

[sudodus]

I use Clonezilla, but if I understand correctly, you want a simple cloning tool. Like C.S.Cameron I would recommend Disks alias gnome-disks, which is safer than using dd as the first choice. But it is possible with dd too. It will do the job, when you tell it what to do correctly.

But there are other obstacles too.

- The target drive's size should be smaller than that of the original drive. This is a problem for you.

- The physical sector size on the target drive, the SSD, should be the same as on the the original drive, the HDD.

- If the drive sizes are different, and the partition table is GPT, you must also repair the backup partition table at the end of the drive. (This is not necessary with the old MSDOS partition table.)

This link can help you check the physical sector sizes and/or repair the backup partition table.