Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Axel Newsgroups: alt.os.linux.mint Subject: Re: Making a hard drive image Date: Mon, 4 May 2026 11:51:54 +1000 Lines: 58 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net H0R0WKPSTdJqx7OBhrcTVQnEwAUl0JHKKa3ZH68dC/4O3H72M2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:/3b4l4VWSzwpZX6Vm4ze0oEbqCk= sha256:KjgCi89RWF2kQ4+FPf0Mmy4pYp+9uAtw27TGnxB+IFs= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:128.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/128.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.23 In-Reply-To: Xref: csiph.com alt.os.linux.mint:47352 Gordon wrote: > On 2026-05-03, 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. > To be correct the image needs to be written to the same size or larger > disk/partition, and yes down to the byte. Ok > >> 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 somewhat frustrating the the copy > partition/disk needs to be larger(or the exact size) than the backup. > I will use Rescuezilla in future >> 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. yes, good idea > > 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. > Ok -- Linux Mint 22.3