Ubuntu alternative to windows Acronis True-Image

Support & Help Requests
1

For a Windows machine, Acronis True-Image boots from a CD or USB then allows me to backup the entire drive to an attached drive (1TB) through my USB port as a “file”. The OS is not running, it backs up everything… BTW, looks like it is running Linux to do this. Last I have at least 3 copies of four Windows machines on my 1TB drive; it is not doing images.

I can then take a blank drive (same size or larger) and restore that backup from that attached drive(1TB) through my USB port. Then install that drive in my computer and it will have restored everything, so it will boot and run. Nothing else required.

In Ubuntu Mate 16.04 it can not do that. I know, I tried and interfaced with Acronis support for over two weeks.

Is there such a program that runs under Ubuntu Mate 16.04?

Thanks, Fred

2

Maybe Clonezilla? I haven’t used it personally but I know it takes full disk images.

3

Don't want a full disk image, that is wasting space. I have a 250GB drive, that is only using 75GB. So I could only get 4 images at most on my 1TB drive.

I am trying to decipher the Clonezilla documentation, it drives you round and round in circles. I have used Clonzilla to clone a drive and it sounds like it might do what I want, but so far I am not convinced.

Thanks, Fred

4

Being so gun shy, these directions look wrong. It never references the USB drive I am installing Tuxboot onto. What am I missing? Is it somehow automatic?

Selection_002.jpg1184×647 120 KB

5

Clonezilla compresses images, so there is no wasted space.

For ex. my images are 5 Gb for a system that uses 30 Gb of space.

If you need help, I can help. I use Clonezilla all the time.

6

I would welcome that very much, for although I have been using Mate 16.04 for two years now I am totally uncomfortable with how many things happen.

Do you use USB port in the manner I described?
Boot from a USB stick, backup to a hard-drive connected to the USB port via a USB cable.

Have you done a retore in the manner I described?
Same as above except restore to a blank drive.

Did you use Tuxboot to create a USB boot device or did you create a CD?

Last did you see my post #4? The instructions do not look right to my untrained eye.

Thank you so much, Fred

7

Hi Fred,

I have used Clonzilla a couple of times, the best thing to do is to use the beginners settings, it works for me if you want a 1 to1 copy of your drive!. :smiley:

8

First thing is to put Clonezilla on a CD or pen drive. (Pen drive installation runs faster.)

Here is tutorial on how to create an image.

https://www.geekyprojects.com/cloning/how-to-use-clonezilla-tutorial/

Do you have a 2nd drive that you can save image to?

9

Yep, I agree with that. The first time I didn’t use “beginners settings” and it went off into the weeds. The next two times I did and it worked perfectly.

1 Like
10

@fixit7
I will checkout the tutorial and report back. Using the Clonezilla website confused me.

Yes, I have a 1TB USB WD backup drive dedicated to just backups.

I am confused over your use of the word “image”. To me that means an exact copy, sector by sector, whether it has relavent data or not. Am I using the term wrong?

11

A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc or USB flash drive. A disk image is usually made by creating a sector-by-sector copy of the source medium, thereby perfectly replicating the structure and contents of a storage device independent of the file system. Depending on the disk image format, a disk image may span one or more computer files.

The file format may be an open standard, such as the ISO image format for optical disc images, or a disk image may be unique to a particular software application.

The size can be huge because it contains the contents of an entire disk. To reduce storage requirements, if an imaging utility is filesystem-aware it can omit copying unused space, and it can compress the used space.