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Re: Making a hard drive image

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On Sun, 5/3/2026 8:45 PM, Gordon wrote:
> On 2026-05-03, Axel <none@not.here> wrote:
>>
>> I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I 
>> found that the image can only be written back to the original drive, 
>> which pretty much negates it's usefulness.
> 
> To be correct the image neds to be written to the same size or larger
> disk/partition, and yes down to the byte. 
> 
> 
>> I want an image of the NVME 
>> drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive.
> 
> If you accept the size limitation then you will get a working drive after
> the copy is done.
> 
> Bork your HD and you can install the backup image and be away right from the
> reboot after the copy.
> 
> You need to understand the tool(s). It is some what frustrating the the copy
> partition/disk needs to be larger(or the exact size) than the backup.
> 
> 
>> I tried the Disks 
>> app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and since the image 
>> created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to a drive larger than 
>> 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the NVME drive is actually a 
>> fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone it to a 500Gb drive I get a 
>> message that the receptor drive is too small. I was told I can reduce 
>> the partition on the NVME drive to make a smaller image, but I'm afraid 
>> to do that in case I lose data.
> 
> Well, have about you do an image backup of the disk before you try reducing
> the NVMe partition? then if you lose data all you need to do is to restore
> the NVMe partition from the backup and try again.
> 
> Just keep in mind that a partion is not the whole disk in some cases. 
> 
>> I will try Rescuezilla, but if that 
>> doesn't compress the image there's no gain from that. Does anyone have 
>> any better suggestions for what I can do? thanks to all. :)
>>
> Clonezilla, and others use partclone as the engine.
> 
> Regarding compression. Clonezilla does not copy the unused space on the
> orginal, it then compresses the copied parts. The issue is that clonezilla
> *demands* that it needs a space as large as the orginal to copy it back to. 
> 

Clonezilla actually has an option to support restore to a smaller partition.
In one thread, someone claimed to have got that to work, but they did
not elaborate, which is a bit suspicious. I don't know what these switches
do right off hand. The Clonezilla mechanism of summarizing the command it
is about to launch, is a great way to capture stuff like this, if the operator
has an opportunity to do so. This is the reference to some part of this.

      "Why does not Clonezilla respect the -icds setting and does not run
       Partclone with the -C switch?
      "

But if something is that twitchy, it's going to take a bit of test to be
"comfortable" with using it.

*******

And this is cool. This describes part of what Image Explorer on RescueZilla
is (attempting) to do. (Image Explorer is an icon on the main control panel)

https://blog.hiebl.cc/qa/create-mount-restore-partclone-images/

   "Requirements

    partclone (pacman): for backup and restore
    partclone-utils (AUR): for mounting the image for reading files
   "

   "Mounting a partclone Image

    The imagemount binary in the partclone-utils uses the network block devices API to
    provide access to the backups through a standard filesystem interface. This is done
    transparently, no further nbd utilities are required.

    First we load the network block devices driver to create the devices
    /dev/nbd0, /dev/nbd1, …, which imagemount needs in order to mount the backup.

    sudo modprobe nbd

    Next, mount the actual image.

    sudo imagemount\
    -v 3\                 # verbosity level 3
    -d /dev/nbd0\         # use the first network block device
    -f ./rootfs.pcl\      # our backup image
    -t ext4\              # our image contains a ext4 filesystem
    -m /media/imagemount\ # mount it here
    -D\                   # do not daemonize, keep in foreground
    -r                    # mount read only (write does not work anyways)

    Now the filesystem contained in the backup should be accessible at the specified
    mountpoint as long as the imagemount process is active. To unmount the filesystem,
    simply terminate the [imagemount] process.
   "

   Paul

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Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-03 14:00 +1000
  Re: Making a hard drive image Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-03 06:19 +0000
    Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-03 20:20 +1000
      Re: Making a hard drive image George <George@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-03 14:54 +0100
        Re: Making a hard drive image Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> - 2026-05-03 09:44 -0700
          Re: Making a hard drive image Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-05-03 16:56 -0400
  Re: Making a hard drive image german newsgroups <usualsuspectrider@gmail.com> - 2026-05-03 11:00 +0200
    Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-03 20:21 +1000
      Re: Making a hard drive image Edmund <nomail@hotmail.com> - 2026-05-03 16:18 +0200
        Re: Making a hard drive image german newsgroups <usualsuspectrider@gmail.com> - 2026-05-04 10:07 +0200
        Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-04 18:30 +1000
          Re: Making a hard drive image german newsgroups <usualsuspectrider@gmail.com> - 2026-05-04 17:51 +0200
      Re: Making a hard drive image german newsgroups <usualsuspectrider@gmail.com> - 2026-05-04 10:06 +0200
  Re: Making a hard drive image Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> - 2026-05-03 10:12 -0700
    Re: Making a hard drive image Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> - 2026-05-03 10:32 -0700
      Re: Making a hard drive image Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> - 2026-05-03 10:40 -0700
    Re: Making a hard drive image CtrlAltDel <Altie@BHam.com> - 2026-05-04 06:55 +0000
  Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-04 09:59 +1000
    Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-04 10:06 +1000
      Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-04 11:37 +1000
        Re: Making a hard drive image Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-05-04 00:04 -0400
          Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-04 18:26 +1000
          Re: Making a hard drive image Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-04 08:33 +0000
        Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-04 18:06 +1000
          Re: Making a hard drive image Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-05-04 05:18 -0400
          Re: Making a hard drive image Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-05-05 18:52 -0400
            Re: Making a hard drive image Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-06 02:55 +0000
              Re: Making a hard drive image Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-05-06 01:37 -0400
                Re: Making a hard drive image Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-06 06:48 +0000
    Re: Making a hard drive image Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-05-03 20:19 -0400
      Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-04 11:48 +1000
  Re: Making a hard drive image Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> - 2026-05-04 00:45 +0000
    Re: Making a hard drive image Axel <none@not.here> - 2026-05-04 11:51 +1000
    Re: Making a hard drive image Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-05-04 00:23 -0400

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