Clonezilla, it sounds wonderful, but dont try it with NTFS

[millusions]

hi,

finally, after month, no, years of waiting i found the need to clone a hard disk. so tried clonezilla..
tried it on lubuntu (the usb on keyring, kubuntu (this install, used to be in the Sony Vaio) and suse 13.1 (ahh, the lizards are so cool, literally), all with same result. craps out with 'partclone.ntfs: invalid option -- 'z'

trying to dump a 120gb SSD onto a 125GB NTFS partition on a 500GB disk btw.

i take it clonezilla doesnt like ntfs partitions i had to settle for gparted and midnight commander copy , how unexciting!

bash output: (maybe im doing something stupid yet again):

PS. Next time you can run this command directly:
/usr/sbin/ocs-onthefly -g auto -e1 auto -e2 -r -j2 -f sdd -t sdc
This command is also saved as this file name for later use if necessary: /tmp/ocs-onthefly-2014-12-18-15-37
************************************************** ***.
Press "Enter" to continue...
************************************************** ***.
///WARNING/// filesystem.squashfs not found! No idea where is LIVE MEDIA!!! Assume this is running in DRBL client.
************************************************** ***.
************************************************** ***.
The first partition of disk /dev/sdd starts at 2048.
Saving the hidden data between MBR (1st sector, i.e. 512 bytes) and 1st partition, which might be useful for some recovery tool, by:
dd if=/dev/sdd of=/tmp/ocs_onthefly_local.XYFIY5/src-hidden-data.img skip=1 bs=512 count=2047
2047+0 records in
2047+0 records out
1048064 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.0127265 s, 82.4 MB/s
************************************************** ***.
Collecting partition /dev/sdd1 info...
Non-grub boot loader found on /tmp/ocs_onthefly_local.XYFIY5/sdc-mbr...
The CHS value of hard drive from EDD will be used for sfdisk.
Kernel EDD (sysfs interface to BIOS EDD (Enhanced Disk Device) information) not supported!
You can try to enable it if it's builtin by putting edd=on as boot parameter.
No CHS value was found from EDD info for disk /dev/sdc.
Searching for data partition(s)...
Excluding busy partition or disk...
Unmounted partitions (including extended or swap): sdc1
Collecting info.. done!
Getting /dev/sdc1 info...
WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
WARNING! THE EXISTING DATA IN THIS HARDDISK/PARTITION(S) WILL BE OVERWRITTEN! ALL EXISTING DATA WILL BE LOST: sdc
************************************************** ***.
Machine: MS-7640
sdc (500GB_SAMSUNG_HD501LJ__SAMSUNG_HD501LJ_S0MUJDWQ80 9288)
sdc1 (465.8G_ntfs_Sung(In_SAMSUNG_HD501LJ_)_SAMSUNG_HD5 01LJ_S0MUJDWQ809288)
************************************************** ***.
Are you sure you want to continue? ? (y/n) y
OK, let's do it!!
************************************************** ***.
Will create the partition on the target machine...
Let me ask you again.
************************************************** ***.
Machine: MS-7640
sdc (500GB_SAMSUNG_HD501LJ__SAMSUNG_HD501LJ_S0MUJDWQ80 9288)
sdc1 (465.8G_ntfs_Sung(In_SAMSUNG_HD501LJ_)_SAMSUNG_HD5 01LJ_S0MUJDWQ809288)
************************************************** ***.
WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
WARNING! THE EXISTING DATA IN THIS HARDDISK/PARTITION(S) WILL BE OVERWRITTEN! ALL EXISTING DATA WILL BE LOST: sdc
Are you sure you want to continue? ? (y/n) y
OK, let's do it!!
Trying to clean the MBR and GPT partition table on the destination disk first: /dev/sdc
Creating MBR type's partition table...
No partition table exists in target disk /dev/sdc, try to initialize one so that we can get the disk size by parted... Running: parted -s /dev/sdc mklabel msdos
done!
sfdisk --force /dev/sdc < /tmp/ocs_onthefly_local.XYFIY5/tgt-pt.sf
Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ...
OK
Warning: partition 1 does not end at a cylinder boundary

Disk /dev/sdc: 60800 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Old situation:
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sdc2 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sdc3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sdc4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
New situation:
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System
/dev/sdc1 2048 250068991 250066944 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc2 0 - 0 0 Empty
/dev/sdc3 0 - 0 0 Empty
/dev/sdc4 0 - 0 0 Empty
Warning: no primary partition is marked bootable (active)
This does not matter for LILO, but the DOS MBR will not boot this disk.
Successfully wrote the new partition table

Re-reading the partition table ...
If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1)
to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1
(See fdisk(8).)

This was done by "sfdisk --force /dev/sdc < /tmp/ocs_onthefly_local.XYFIY5/tgt-pt.sf"
Informing the OS that partition table has changed...
Checking the integrity of partition table in the disk /dev/sdc...
done!
************************************************** ***.
The first partition of disk /dev/sdc starts at 2048.
Restoring the hidden data between MBR (1st sector, i.e. 512 bytes) and 1st partition, which might be useful for some recovery tool, by:
dd if=/tmp/ocs_onthefly_local.XYFIY5/tgt-hidden-data.img of=/dev/sdc seek=1 bs=512 count=2047
2047+0 records in
2047+0 records out
1048064 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.0124581 s, 84.1 MB/s
************************************************** ***.
************************************************** ***.
Do you want to clone the boot loader (executable code area, the first 446 bytes) to: sdc ?
[Y/n] n
OK, Skip cloning boot loader.
************************************************** ***.
Now we will start to clone data to the target machine...
Are you sure you want to continue? ? (y/n) y
OK, let's do it!!
************************************************** ***.
Searching for data partition(s) in source disk: sdd ...
Excluding busy partition or disk...
Unmounted partitions (including extended or swap): sdd1
Collecting info.. done!
************************************************** ***.
Source partition file system is ntfs...
Cloning the /dev/sdd1 to /dev/sdc1...
Clean filesystem header in device /dev/sdc1...
************************************************** ***.
Using partclone to clone...
Run partclone: partclone.ntfs -z 10485760 -N -L /var/log/partclone.log -b -s /dev/sdd1 -O /dev/sdc1
partclone.ntfs: invalid option -- 'z'
partclone.ntfs v0.2.51 http://partclone.org
Usage: partclone.ntfs [OPTIONS]
Efficiently clone to a image, device or standard output.

-o, --output FILE Output FILE
-O --overwrite FILE Output FILE, overwriting if exists
-W --restore_raw_file create special raw file for loop device
-s, --source FILE Source FILE
-L, --logfile FILE Log FILE
-c, --clone Save to the special image format
-r, --restore Restore from the special image format
-b, --dev-to-dev Local device to device copy mode
-D, --domain Create ddrescue domain log from source device
--offset_domain=X Add offset X (bytes) to domain log values
-R, --rescue Continue after disk read errors
-dX, --debug=X Set the debug level to X = [0|1|2]
-C, --no_check Don't check device size and free space
-N, --ncurses Using Ncurses User Interface
-I, --ignore_fschk Ignore filesystem check
-i, --ignore_crc Ignore crc check error
-F, --force Force progress
-f, --UI-fresh Fresh times of progress
-m, --max_block_cache The used block will be cache until max number
-q, --quiet Disable progress message
-B, --no_block_detail Show progress message without block detail
-v, --version Display partclone version
-h, --help Display this help

[kernelbasher]

I prefer using dd

[Snowhog]

i take it clonezilla doesnt like ntfs partitions

Not so.

What is Clonezilla?

Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program similar to True Image® or Norton Ghost®. It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery. Two types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla SE is for massive deployment, it can clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously. Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the harddisk. This increases the clone efficiency. With some high-end hardware in a 42-node cluster, a multicast restoring at rate 8 GB/min was reported.

Features:

• Free (GPL) Software.
• Filesystem supported: (1) ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, btrfs of GNU/Linux, (2) FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS of MS Windows, (3) HFS+ of Mac OS, (4) UFS of FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, (5) minix of Minix, and (6) VMFS3 and VMFS5 of VMWare ESX. Therefore you can clone GNU/Linux, MS windows, Intel-based Mac OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Minix and VMWare ESX, no matter it's 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86-64) OS. For these file systems, only used blocks in partition are saved and restored. For unsupported file system, sector-to-sector copy is done by dd in Clonezilla.

What version of Clonzilla did you use?

[millusions]

basher, you are right. never occurred to me to use dd, thanks for the tip!

Snow. yes. it sounds marvellous on paper, i used the version in repos for trusty, Suse version coincidentally (suprisingly) was the same. I did not fiddly with it for too long, just woke up and on a Macbook at the moment, systems are shut down.
a quick google revealed 'invalid -z' option error is a version bug.

i didnt use live media bacuse my USB lubuntu is made for such things, even has Bitdefender virus scanner etc..
so yea, well aware of the things you quoted,
but in practice its a fail.

[vsreeser]

I've used clonezilla on NTFS systems for years. Never had a problem. Stored the images on NTFS, ext3, and ext4 partitions.

[millusions]

it's a version thing i imagine.

google: partclone.ntfs: invalid option -- 'z'

About 119,000 results (0.61 seconds)

[kernelbasher]

Don't forget too
If the HDD is failing or dodgy in some way. Use ddrescue with ionice

Eg:

ionice -c3 ddrescue /dev/sda /path/to/somename.iso

[vinnywright]

Don't forget too
If the HDD is failing or dodgy in some way. Use ddrescue with ionice

Eg:

ionice -c3 ddrescue /dev/sda /path/to/somename.iso

??<cant find a ddrescue in apt search ,,,,, a gddrescu yes .

VINNY

PS: O I see now ............(from "apt show gddrescue)

Please note that this is the GNU ddrescue version providing the
ddrescue executable. The package is named gddrescue because the
ddrescue version of Kurt Garloff used to have the ddrescue
package name already.

[Snowhog]

Ddrescue - GNU Project - Data Recovery Tool

[woodsmoke]

Tup