lets talk backup softarware - clonezilla !

[foot]

So i want to back up my current active hard drives,

one a 4TB M.2 SSD

the other a 512 MB SSD drive C:\

I want something that creates an image, not a backup of all the folders/files

images avoid a lot of issues so I feel much better about them

clonezilla works via rebooting off a USB key-drive (which contains linux + the program) and so avoids potential issues with files being kept open by other programs

it will also let me backup my drive C:\ which is doubly important as win10 is going end-of-life

I looked at various budget-friendly options and found "clonezilla" which is open source

I worry about proprietary programs since they can:

become orphaned

versioning issues

forced upgrades

possibility of a forced forced conversion to a mandatory subscription model

(unfortunately a gaining momentum recent trend !!)

open source avoids avoids all that

anyone have experience with this?

thanks!

 

[XiaoDeer]

So i want to back up my current active hard drives,

one a 4TB M.2 SSD

the other a 512 MB SSD drive C:\

I want something that creates an image, not a backup of all the folders/files

I've used Clonezilla. It works and it's rock solid. HOWEVER, the user interface suck rocks.

I recommend Rescuezilla which is basically CloneZilla with a decent graphical user interface bolted on the front.

I use it to image both my Linux and Windows systems including my dual boot laptop.

Easy disk cloning and imaging | Rescuezilla (Clonezilla GUI)

Free bare metal restore solution with graphical interface on a live CD. Point-and-click to backup and restore an entire computer. Bare metal disaster recovery restores all programs, documents and settings. GPL open source.

rescuezilla.com

 

[foot]

So i want to back up my current active hard drives,

one a 4TB M.2 SSD

the other a 512 MB SSD drive C:\

I want something that creates an image, not a backup of all the folders/files

I've used Clonezilla. It works and it's rock solid. HOWEVER, the user interface suck rocks.

I recommend Rescuezilla which is basically CloneZilla with a decent graphical user interface bolted on the front.

I use it to image both my Linux and Windows systems including my dual boot laptop.

https://rescuezilla.com/

thanks!

 

[foot]

So i want to back up my current active hard drives,

one a 4TB M.2 SSD

the other a 512 MB SSD drive C:\

I want something that creates an image, not a backup of all the folders/files

I've used Clonezilla. It works and it's rock solid. HOWEVER, the user interface suck rocks.

I recommend Rescuezilla which is basically CloneZilla with a decent graphical user interface bolted on the front.

I use it to image both my Linux and Windows systems including my dual boot laptop.

https://rescuezilla.com/

thanks!

from the link it appears that the backup image can be used as a virtual disk? that would be awesome !!

https://github.com/rescuezilla/rescuezilla/releases/tag/2.6.1

Compatibility

Rescuezilla creates backups that are fully compatible with the industry-standard Clonezilla tool. Rescuezilla works with images created by:

• Clonezilla *
• Rescuezilla
• Every virtual machine image format supported by the qemu-nbd utility. Eg,
  • VirtualBox's VDI
  • VMWare's VMDK
  • Qemu's QCOW2
  • Hyper-V's VHDx
  • raw .dd/.img
  • ...and more!
• Redo Rescue
• Foxclone
• FOG Project (still in-development: only supports Windows MBR/GPT disks due to FOG Project's more advanced image manipulation)
• FSArchiver (restore only, not explore)
• Apart GTK

 

[SC489]

Macrium Reflect is excellent and you can still get the free version https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html

 

[palombian]

I cloned this weekend 2 WIN10 laptops (as backup before installing WIN11) with the free version of MiniTool Partition Wizard (V10) I use since long.

While most operations can be done from the Windows interface, for cloning the OS disk it restarts the PC and executes a script.

It worked but very slowly. After finishing it restarted Windows wich took the initiative to assign a disk letter to hidden partitions on the target drive. I had to reassign those before mounting the disk as bootable.

 

[Eric Carlson]

I want something that creates an image, not a backup of all the folders/files

images avoid a lot of issues so I feel much better about them

What issues? I only do data backups with Free File Sync with versioning enabled. All my files in the backup are easily accessed directly as ordinary files, and I have previous versions and deleted files in the versioning folders.


I can access my backups from any of my other computers without needing any software, and I can always install a fresh OS and APPS (I keep a text log of all the apps I install or update and all computer changes I make) and copy my backed up data back to the computer if needed. Of course I backup the log.

--
- Eric, http://www.invisiblerobot.com/

 

[New Wrycuda]

So i want to back up my current active hard drives…

I want something that creates an image, not a backup of all the folders/files

images avoid a lot of issues so I feel much better about them.

What could possibly be wrong with a proper backup?

For a long time, I’ve been using Windows Robocopy with a custom selection of switches.

The Initial run takes time, but this is reasonably fast if multi-threading is enabled and a good USB SSD is used.

Subsequent runs only add new or changed files to the backup while maintaining the folder structure, and this takes just a few seconds for text files (or minutes for graphics files).

These follow-up runs can be executed as often as desired. I also carry out full backups less frequently as a second line of security. Versioning is not necessary for the way that we work, except that long-term projects have in situ versions stored in the parent folder.