Clonezilla 1.2.3-27 / partition backup Procedure
This is a fundamental, NECESSARY and IMPORTANT skill for *basic* PC maintenance, security and backup, suitable for noobs for imaging partitions.
This method is as simple as it gets- just step by step point-click wizard style using only FOSS tools.
This assumes your OS was installed on one partition (/) including /home and all the other system
directories like /var, /tmp, /bin, etc.
This method further assumes you did not use LVM and used standard filesystems like ext3/4 and other common Linux filesystems, though I haven't tried this method with anything other than ext3/4.
This is why I recommend using only 3 partitions on your OS hard disk:
/ ("root", the OS partition <30GB, includes /home) (C: in Windows)
swap (1-2x installed RAM) (usually just a file on the C: drive in Windows)
the rest for data/backup image storage. (D:, E:, etc partitions or drives on Windows)
To image your / ("root" OS) partition effectively, you need to be sure the size of your /home directory is minimised.
/home is equivalent to the "C:\\Documents and Settings" directory (folder) in Windows
(XP at least- I don't know what directory structure is used in Vista/W7)
Backup (copy) files in /home to another partition or burn to DVD and erase from /home to minimise the size of the backup image. Only takes a few minutes to make an image assuming your OS (/) partition is kept less than 8GB (not counting /home contents), very easy to do.
WARNING- DO NOT erase/delete /home or any user accounts there! Backup and remove only data files- .docs, mpgs, avi's, .ppt's, .pdf's, .odt's, etc.
/home and the user accounts there contain most config/settings for apps and user settings, often in hidden files and directories.
8GB is MORE than enough for the OS, drivers and most apps most people need most of the time, as of 2010, not counting work files, settings and/or temporary storage in your /home directory.
Images of complete HTPC loads with Myth, XBMC, and a large amount of additional FOSS & commercial apps, games, Wine and Windows apps & games, will fit on one or two blank DVD's - about 50 cents for 2 quality Verbatim DVD+R blanks at OfficeMax every other month or so, or Microcenter.com. OfficeMax will price match microcenter if you have one locally.
If anything borks your OS load or / partition (like an OS or app update, driver install, kernel update, config file corruption, hard drive failure, etc) , it literally takes less than 5 minutes to restore if you adhere to these simple partition guidelines.
For routine safety images you might make before applying a kernel update, Automatic Update, or driver compile/install, making the image on the data partition on the same hard disk the OS / partition is on is fine.
To protect against hard disk physical failure, you need to write the image to DVD or another physical hard disk, like a USB or eSATA drive. You don't have to create the image on the external drive, just copy it there later.
Images written by Clonezilla are compressed tarballs (.tar.gz) files, with a bunch of metadata text files stored with it describing the partition structure for rebuild purposes. All the files are written to a standard directory/folder whose name you specify during the backup wizard in Clonezilla described below.
Nothing proprietary, obfuscated or secret about the file formats/images written by Clonezilla, unlike the commercial Ghost and Acronis imaging tools. Easy to extract or recover individual files from the Clonezilla .tar.gz's if you need them without restoring the image.
Download clonezilla-live-1.2.3-27.zip at:
http://clonezilla.org/download/sourc...-zip-files.php
Extract the .iso from the .zip (right click on the downloaded file-> Extract here)
Burn the .iso with Brasero at no greater than 8x or the lowest speed your burner/media can burn at, which might be 10x or 12x:
Application menu -> Sound & Video -> Brasero Disc Burner
Burn Image -> Select an Image to Write -> (naviagte to the clonezilla .so file you extracted earlier and select it)
Select a Disc to Write to -> (use pulldown and select the DVD/CD burner you will burn the disc in, insert a blank CD-R or -RW)
Properties -> Burning Speed -> (select no greater than 8-12x if possible, 16x absolute max) -> (uncheck "Leave the disc open...") -> OK
Burn
Reboot with Clonezilla CD-ROM you just burned in your CD/DVD drive.
Be sure to plug in your USB hard disk if you plan to backup/restore to a USB drive.
Be sure your BIOs is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive- varies by motherboard/BIOs vendor.
Hit Enter at the boot menu on the Clonezilla CD.
Default Settings, VGA 1024 x 768
Enter
"Which language do you prefer:" English->Enter
Don't Touch Keymap->Enter
Start_Clonezilla->Enter
device-image work with disks or partitions using images->Enter
local_dev Use local device ->Enter -> Enter
Mount /home/partimag
(this is the drive or partition you want to read/write the backup image from)
(use arrow keys up/down to select the drive/partition you want to write image to)
Enter
(next step selects the directory on the target drive you want to write the image to)
/top_directory -> Enter ->Enter
Beginner mode ->Enter
Select save_parts (save partition)
"Input a name for saved image"
-> (press backspace key to erase existing default name)
-> (type name for image, which will be written as files in a folder with this name.)
->Enter
I like to use descriptive names like "u904_myth_xb_oo32_100322", so when you see this image later, you'll know the OS & version and any extras you added like MythTV, XBMC and OpenOffice 3.2 in this example, as well as the creation date, which tells you the OS probably has all updates/patches through that date. Since I follow a standard OS install procedure on all my machines, described in the Ubuntu 9.04 media PC Setup procedure
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1236363
I know all the other "basics" are there- codecs, media players, apps, etc.
"Choose the source partition(s)"
-> (use up/down arrow keys and space to select the OS partition)
-> Enter
-> Enter
-> y
-> Enter
"Calculating bitmap"
(OS partition is backed up to the target you specified)
-> Enter
(1) Reboot
(2) Poweroff
(3) Start Over
(Select what you want to do, Enter)
To Restore the partition you just made, just select restore_parts and the correct target partition in the same procedure where appropriate.
This is a fundamental, NECESSARY and IMPORTANT skill for *basic* PC maintenance, security and backup, suitable for noobs for imaging partitions.
This method is as simple as it gets- just step by step point-click wizard style using only FOSS tools.
This assumes your OS was installed on one partition (/) including /home and all the other system
directories like /var, /tmp, /bin, etc.
This method further assumes you did not use LVM and used standard filesystems like ext3/4 and other common Linux filesystems, though I haven't tried this method with anything other than ext3/4.
This is why I recommend using only 3 partitions on your OS hard disk:
/ ("root", the OS partition <30GB, includes /home) (C: in Windows)
swap (1-2x installed RAM) (usually just a file on the C: drive in Windows)
the rest for data/backup image storage. (D:, E:, etc partitions or drives on Windows)
To image your / ("root" OS) partition effectively, you need to be sure the size of your /home directory is minimised.
/home is equivalent to the "C:\\Documents and Settings" directory (folder) in Windows
(XP at least- I don't know what directory structure is used in Vista/W7)
Backup (copy) files in /home to another partition or burn to DVD and erase from /home to minimise the size of the backup image. Only takes a few minutes to make an image assuming your OS (/) partition is kept less than 8GB (not counting /home contents), very easy to do.
WARNING- DO NOT erase/delete /home or any user accounts there! Backup and remove only data files- .docs, mpgs, avi's, .ppt's, .pdf's, .odt's, etc.
/home and the user accounts there contain most config/settings for apps and user settings, often in hidden files and directories.
8GB is MORE than enough for the OS, drivers and most apps most people need most of the time, as of 2010, not counting work files, settings and/or temporary storage in your /home directory.
Images of complete HTPC loads with Myth, XBMC, and a large amount of additional FOSS & commercial apps, games, Wine and Windows apps & games, will fit on one or two blank DVD's - about 50 cents for 2 quality Verbatim DVD+R blanks at OfficeMax every other month or so, or Microcenter.com. OfficeMax will price match microcenter if you have one locally.
If anything borks your OS load or / partition (like an OS or app update, driver install, kernel update, config file corruption, hard drive failure, etc) , it literally takes less than 5 minutes to restore if you adhere to these simple partition guidelines.
For routine safety images you might make before applying a kernel update, Automatic Update, or driver compile/install, making the image on the data partition on the same hard disk the OS / partition is on is fine.
To protect against hard disk physical failure, you need to write the image to DVD or another physical hard disk, like a USB or eSATA drive. You don't have to create the image on the external drive, just copy it there later.
Images written by Clonezilla are compressed tarballs (.tar.gz) files, with a bunch of metadata text files stored with it describing the partition structure for rebuild purposes. All the files are written to a standard directory/folder whose name you specify during the backup wizard in Clonezilla described below.
Nothing proprietary, obfuscated or secret about the file formats/images written by Clonezilla, unlike the commercial Ghost and Acronis imaging tools. Easy to extract or recover individual files from the Clonezilla .tar.gz's if you need them without restoring the image.
Download clonezilla-live-1.2.3-27.zip at:
http://clonezilla.org/download/sourc...-zip-files.php
Extract the .iso from the .zip (right click on the downloaded file-> Extract here)
Burn the .iso with Brasero at no greater than 8x or the lowest speed your burner/media can burn at, which might be 10x or 12x:
Application menu -> Sound & Video -> Brasero Disc Burner
Burn Image -> Select an Image to Write -> (naviagte to the clonezilla .so file you extracted earlier and select it)
Select a Disc to Write to -> (use pulldown and select the DVD/CD burner you will burn the disc in, insert a blank CD-R or -RW)
Properties -> Burning Speed -> (select no greater than 8-12x if possible, 16x absolute max) -> (uncheck "Leave the disc open...") -> OK
Burn
Reboot with Clonezilla CD-ROM you just burned in your CD/DVD drive.
Be sure to plug in your USB hard disk if you plan to backup/restore to a USB drive.
Be sure your BIOs is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive- varies by motherboard/BIOs vendor.
Hit Enter at the boot menu on the Clonezilla CD.
Default Settings, VGA 1024 x 768
Enter
"Which language do you prefer:" English->Enter
Don't Touch Keymap->Enter
Start_Clonezilla->Enter
device-image work with disks or partitions using images->Enter
local_dev Use local device ->Enter -> Enter
Mount /home/partimag
(this is the drive or partition you want to read/write the backup image from)
(use arrow keys up/down to select the drive/partition you want to write image to)
Enter
(next step selects the directory on the target drive you want to write the image to)
/top_directory -> Enter ->Enter
Beginner mode ->Enter
Select save_parts (save partition)
"Input a name for saved image"
-> (press backspace key to erase existing default name)
-> (type name for image, which will be written as files in a folder with this name.)
->Enter
I like to use descriptive names like "u904_myth_xb_oo32_100322", so when you see this image later, you'll know the OS & version and any extras you added like MythTV, XBMC and OpenOffice 3.2 in this example, as well as the creation date, which tells you the OS probably has all updates/patches through that date. Since I follow a standard OS install procedure on all my machines, described in the Ubuntu 9.04 media PC Setup procedure
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1236363
I know all the other "basics" are there- codecs, media players, apps, etc.
"Choose the source partition(s)"
-> (use up/down arrow keys and space to select the OS partition)
-> Enter
-> Enter
-> y
-> Enter
"Calculating bitmap"
(OS partition is backed up to the target you specified)
-> Enter
(1) Reboot
(2) Poweroff
(3) Start Over
(Select what you want to do, Enter)
To Restore the partition you just made, just select restore_parts and the correct target partition in the same procedure where appropriate.
