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Re: Making a hard drive image

From Axel <none@not.here>
Newsgroups alt.os.linux.mint
Subject Re: Making a hard drive image
Date 2026-05-04 11:48 +1000
Message-ID <n5qc6jFcc4aU2@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References <n5nvjdFs3gU1@mid.individual.net> <n5q5rnFbcjaU1@mid.individual.net> <10t8on2$39vru$1@dont-email.me>

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Paul wrote:
> On Sun, 5/3/2026 7:59 PM, Axel wrote:
>> Axel 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. I want an image of the NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. 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. 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. :)
>>>
>> thanks for all replies, I will investigate them. for now, this is what I have done. successfully created an image of the NVME using rescuezilla. successfully wrote that to a 500Gb SSD, but it won't boot. Disks shows there are no files in the main partition: https://auslink.info/linux/copy.png
>> this is the nvme i copied from: https://auslink.info/linux/nvme.png
>> ???
>>
>      Directory:  2026-05-03-1942-img-rescuezilla    # This is a backup of a 200GB LLM223 UEFI/GPT install
>                                                     # sda1 = ESP, sda2 = main ext4, sda3 = swap
>
> Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
> ----                 -------------         ------ ----
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            233 blkdev.list
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            632 blkid.list
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:45 PM          51220 clonezilla-img
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            198 dev-fs.list
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM              4 disk
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM           1894 Info-dmi.txt
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:45 PM            235 Info-img-id.txt
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM          14682 Info-lshw.txt
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM           1288 Info-lspci.txt
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            912 Info-OS-prober.txt
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            182 Info-packages.txt
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            868 Info-smart.txt
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM             11 parts
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM             37 sda-chs.sf
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM          17408 sda-gpt-1st
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM          16384 sda-gpt-2nd
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM          17920 sda-gpt.gdisk
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            676 sda-gpt.sgdisk
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            512 sda-mbr
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            392 sda-pt.parted
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            351 sda-pt.parted.compact
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM            549 sda-pt.sf
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:43 PM        7118216 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.uncomp.aa
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:44 PM     4000000000 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.aa
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:44 PM     4000000000 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.ab
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:44 PM      762122082 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.ac
> -a----   Sun, 5, 3, 2026   3:45 PM             53 swappt-sda3.info
>
> The swap info file says:
>
> UUID="d87e9ab3-7db2-4bfd-87ae-016f1a3fd208"
> LABEL=""
>
> so no space is used backing up swap.
>
> Does your backup resemble that ? The sda2.ext4-ptcl files are PartClone files so
> only the used portion of the partition is stored in there. I specifically turned
> off compression, as I was expecting to be able to use Image Explorer.
>
> *******
>
> For any data-full partitions, you can use the fsarchiver program to back
> up the partitions. If RescueZilla seems incapable of populating your main
> partition properly, you can overwrite your main partition with an fsarchiver run.
>
> I was hoping to build my own backup solution, if I could find a "skeletal" backup function
> for the non-partition parts. The sda-mbr file, the sda-gpt-1st and sda-gpt-2nd files, are
> items to be restored via "dd". Booting is via sda1.vfat-ptcl (which is the ESP partition).
> Those would all be examples of skeletal bits. Macrium would have backed up my SWAP
> as a 2GB "dd" file, whereas RescueZilla just creates a new SWAP using the appropriate
> GPT GUID-type for the job. And maybe a mkswap for the filesystem part.
>
> If the main partition part does not work, you can attempt to use fsarchiver in its
> place (to fill the partition manually after RescueZilla is "finished").
>
> At this point, it's all experiments. The RescueZilla really should have worked.

it did. I was copying the LM disk from a machine with UEFI bios, and 
trying to use the copy in a PC with legacy bios. so booting was the 
problem. (see my latest post)

>
>     Paul


-- 
Linux Mint 22.3

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Thread

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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