Important Things To Know When Creating An Image Of Your System.

[bob466]

Yesterday I was going to do a clean install of Mint Cinnamon 21.1 on my Laptop...I thought instead of doing that I'll put the Image of my Desktop on my Laptop as Both have a 500GB SSD...should work...how wrong was I.

On my External HDD I have an image created by both Foxclone and Redorescue of my Desktop...plugged in my External HDD and my Ventoy Flash Drive.
Started with Foxclone but it wouldn't do it got...Failed to find the Drive Backup it was taken from.

So I tried Redorescue which restored the image but when I Re-Booted I got...no bootable media...meaning it also failed to restore the image...what has happened...as this is the first time I've done this.

I did a clean install of Mint Cinnamon 21.1 on my Laptop and created an image with both Foxclone and Redorescue and restored it successfully...it seems you can't restore an image from one computer to another as I have found.

I have a new portable 1TB SSD which I'm now using for my images...I copied the images I have on my portable HDD to my portable SSD...well that wont work either...when I tried to re-image my Desktop SSD...got the same problem...it wont work...it seems you must use the same image form the same portable SSD or HDD it was created to...you learn something every day...I now have to create an image of my Desktop system because if anything should happen I'm screwed...hope this someone.

 

[KGIII]

I just pinged you to another thread.

This is two questions in one day about cloning stuff. It's your time to shine!

 

[bob466]

I just pinged you to another thread.

This is two questions in one day about cloning stuff. It's your time to shine!

I don't clone anymore...haven't for years...I create an image file as shown...

I've found Foxclone and Redorescue work very well and have a verify tool.

 

[KGIII]

I've found Foxclone and Redorescue work very well and have a verify tool.

Ah, I'd thought you were cloning with Foxclone. My bad. I figured this was right up your alley.

 

[Deleted member 108694]

I remaster my ISO instead of backing up my system

 

[bob466]

Ah, I'd thought you were cloning with Foxclone. My bad. I figured this was right up your alley.

I use to clone one HDD to another years ago...the problem with that is you have two identical HDDs...if you do something stupid you drop the other in to the Drive bay. You then need another HDD to clone the first one to it...you at any time have one HDD doing nothing...sounds crazy.

With an image that takes up a small space on an External HDD/SSD it can be put back on the same Drive or a new Drive should it fail with nothing lost...simple.

 

[bob466]

This is what creating an image and restoring it with Foxclone looks like...

 

[bob466]

The other day I had a problem trying to put an image of my Towers Mint Cinnamon 21.1 on to my Laptop both 500GB SSDs...Foxclone said... Failed to find the Drive Backup it was taken from...how do I fix this problem.

I have now found this can't be done as the image can only be put back on the computer's SSD/HDD that it came from...so what is the answer ?

I create an image my Tower's Mint Cinnamon 21.1 and store it on my Portable 1TB SSD with either Foxclone or Redorescue and do the same with Mint Cinnamon 21.1 on my Laptop (clean install).

Should I do something stupid and Mint wont Boot...I can put the image back working with nothing lost...the same thing with my Laptop.

What happens if the SSD fails in my Tower...I put in a new SSD of the same size and put back the image created from it...the same for the Laptop...how do I know this works...in my Tower I have two SSDs...one being my main SSD...the other my spare SSD. They both have Mint Cinnamon 21.1 one them of cause my main SSD in connected to the motherboard.

I disconnected my main SSD and connected my spare SSD which was new at the time...so had nothing on it and put the image of my main SSD on it...hope this helps someone.

 

[visionhelp]

I am not sure I do understand all correctly, some details.

I do use an older version of Acronis True Image, which I could receive for some Euro - 5 or so, from an on friendly terms with computer-repair shop -, but until now only for XP, but together with a second partition with.
The size the XP installation lasts a time of about 9 minutes, to copy into a file or to clone, or to extract to an other drive.
The size - the two partitions - at extracting back is possible to change. so no matter what size the target drive is.
Whether it will work for Linux, I still do not know.
But and buying new it will not be under 70 Euro, or about so.

For Linux for this I did often read about the command-line command ´dd´. But this to me is to un-overiewable because of the - for me - un-overviewable drive-names of Linux.

Found this contribution here while searching for Ventoy, which I fast could read, what it all can do, in the main for instaling more than one OS on one drive.
Because it is possible to create an iso-file of an installed OS, with Ventoy it could be also easy to extract it to an other drive by this way with Ventoy.
Just an idea, please.
But perhaps for booting could be missing still something important, as Status: Active, without de-activating the current (Active) system-drive. Sorry, I do not know.

 

[bob466]

Hi visionhelp,

I sometimes get confused myself but I do work it out most times.

I tried Acronis once a few years ago with Linux Mint...took a very long time and created a very large image...not good. I did use macrium rescue media for mint for a few years till Foxclone came out...I also use Redorescue too.

Recently I tried to put a Foxclone image from my Tower on my Laptop but it wouldn't work because I should have used the Clone feature to Clone the image to the Laptops SSD as it says in the instructions...stupid me.

Foxclone V51
25 October 2023 Page 20 of 63
Restore
Restore will only restore to the drive the backup was taken from. If you want
to restore a full backup to a different drive use Clone file to drive. Note –
backups taken using earlier versions may incorrectly identify the drive to
restore if there are two identical drives in the system, see version history.

Foxclone instructions...https://foxclone.org/uguide.html
Get it here...https://foxclone.org/
You can also Clone one Drive to another as I did last week...I cloned my main 500GB SSD to a spare 500GB SSD. The main SSD had 176GB of used space...it took 1 hour and Booted up just fine.

Both Foxclone and Redorescue are easy to use...just plug in an External HDD or portable SSD...create a Folder name it...plug it your Flash Drive with Foxclone and boot to it and follow the instructions...easy.

Ventoy is good because you can have many ISOs on it and use the free space to put Folders etc...I recommend Foxclone because it's never let me down...hope this helps.

 

[KGIII]

I used to use Acronis True Image back in the day. It was during my Windows period. I enjoyed it as it not only let me make disk images (by the .iso you could make) and ran resident. It took a while to make the original backup but it made incremental backups after that. This did consume some RAM, CPU, and disk I/O when it was making the incremental backups, but I had enough RAM at the time for it to not be a problem. It was also good at only including new and changed files in the incremental backups.

 

[visionhelp]

Hi, bob466. Thanks the try.

I tried Acronis once a few years ago with Linux Mint...took a very long time and created a very large image...not good. I did use macrium rescue media for mint for a few years till Foxclone came out...I also use Redorescue too.

I do make one copy into file(s), one copy as already clone to drive.
About 16 GB, two partitions. Lasts 9 minutes, creating, cloning, back writing from file(s).
(FAT 32). This I could experience that it works well. Reliable.
I still did not try with Linux-partitions.
But Linux, with just some settings changed, a few tools additonal installed, there I do not need a whole backup. (Not now.)
I do it for XP, which lastet years, to have all necessary installed, which I will never do again !

should have used the Clone feature

What did You do instead, please ?
Because of being some little familiar with Acronis True Image and needing it in the main for XP, I currently do not have to do to work out new tools. (But will keep it in mind.)

Currently I am working at a multi-boot stick, for win10, Linux Mint Mate, Ventoy.
(And the isos with on this drive (the stick).)
In this connection - with knowing, that an iso of an installed system is easy to create, but despite not still have done this - I just got the idea, whether with Ventoy this could be easily copied to any drive.
But not sure.
Ventoy to have to figure out is my next challenge now first. OK ? Sorry.
I´m thankful founded it here in this forum.

 

[visionhelp]

This did consume some RAM, CPU, and disk I/O

The about 9 minutes it takes for me to do a backup, it do not other works than them.

incremental backups

I do not at all. 9 minutes for full backup to me is very OK.
By saving downloads to an external archive-drive, and saving new favourites in browser with to an archive, I do not have to make this backup to often.

 

[KGIII]

I do not at all. 9 minutes for full backup to me is very OK.

I enjoyed the process quite a bit. I generally didn't even notice when it was making backups. It'd do so every 15 minutes (or maybe once an hour, I'm not sure as it was long ago), but you could change that schedule. You could also have it scheduled so that it did a nightly backup and all sorts of other options.

What I also enjoyed was that it had networking enabled, even when booted to the CD. You could backup and restore to remote storage. There was no real cloud and online backup at that point, but I could save my backups to a dedicated network share. It also allowed backing up to a second HDD (consumer-level SSDs weren't really a thing at this point).

Today, if I wanted similar features with a running Linux, I'd look at LuckyBackup. I'm not sure how much attention the project gets these days, but the application was still working just fine the last time I used it.

What was even better about it is that it was not only just a front end for rsync, it'd spit out the actual rsync command that it was using. You could then just take that command and set it up as a cron job, essentially doing the same thing the application did but without any real overhead.

 

[bob466]

Forget acronis because Foxclone is so much better...that's speaking from experience.

Please read the Foxclone user guide...this will help you understand the features it has....especialy the verify tool. With Foxclone you can create an image of your system and store in on an external HDD/SSD.

You can Clone one HDD/SSD to another but you will need a cable/tool like this...

Of course another HDD/SSD of the same size to Clone it to. When I create an image...I want to backup everything on the Drive...not a few files...Foxclone does just that. Nothing is easy at first but after a few tries it second nature.

There's nothing worse than your HDD/SSD failing or you do something and the system won't Boot but with Foxclone that's no longer a problem...Redorescue is also good too...hope this helps.

 

[visionhelp]

Today, if I wanted similar features with a running Linux, I'd look at LuckyBackup. I'm not sure how much attention the project gets these days, but the application was still working just fine the last time I used it.

Now here are listed and recommended 3 tools for images (into file(s)), clones, and backing back.
It´s OK to me, if I want to do the work to figure out the main questions for me:
possible to do images to file, to do clones, to do write to an other drive, no matter which drive ?
Possible to change the partition´s sizes, (during) for the write back ?
Possible for ´all´ file-formats, to me FAT32, ReiserFS and ext4 (Knoppix), the file-formats (the partitions) for Linux Mint Mate ? (If at all perhaps once just needed.)
Easy handling ?
(Bootable, Status setted: Aktive ?)
(Not a - to me too un-overviewable - command-line work for this works.)
And but for to make the experience then first, that all works well reliable, the experience of have being at least about 10 times has to be done by everybody oneself.

 

[visionhelp]

Foxclone is so much better

Thanks, sounds good.

especialy the verify tool

Sorry, also in Acronis. (Here the sad, the newest not so cheap. But also could get worse in handling, because of possible changes can happen, with extra efforts again, to work out again.)

will need a cable/tool

This I cannot follow. Two S-ATA drives - for example - are possible on my mainboard. Else the image to file and change the drive and copy (extract) to the then there drive is still possible.

backup everything on the Drive

Sure.

Foxclone

Thanks, I will keep it in mind.

 

[visionhelp]

Found fast that important infos about Foxclone, What is it ? http://www.foxclone.org/downloads/foxcloneV51.pdf#[{"num":36,"gen":0},{"name":"XYZ"},167,774,0]

Question: "The limitation to 64 Bit systems only" I do not understand.
Because of this tool - as CD or stick - has its complete environment in itself to run, it does not run within an OS, Windows, Linux ...
So this only can be meant for the CPU, that it is required a 64 Bit CPU.
Is this correct, please ?
Thanks in advance.

 

[tempaboult]

I have now found this can't be done as the image can only be put back on the computer's SSD/HDD that it came from...so what is the answer ?

 

[visionhelp]

the image can only be put back on the computer's SSD/HDD that it came from

I understand - from foxclone -, that the drive - partition - size may even be smaller as the origin; but, of course it must have enough space for the content - all the files - of the origin partition.