SOLVED - Should I Clone my HDD and is there any difference in Cloning Linux vs. Windows.?

PlutoPup · Post by **PlutoPup** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:25 pm

Let me explain:

I turned off the computer.

The next day I turned on the computer but it would not boot-up. The boot-up process stopped and hung at, "Reached target sound card". I tried the recovery mode. Same results, several times. Several kernels. Searched the web for a similar problem and solution. Nothing. I tried 2 boot-Up repair programs including SuperGrub 2. They failed and they both Hung and never finished running, even after several hours and several attempts.

Wanting to save the files on the hard drive, I pulled the HDD out of the computer to see if I could read the files and save them on another system I have. Almost deleted the file partition with the OS and Swap partition. Then I thought, I didn't give this Linux Forum a chance to see if someone could solve my boot-up problem.

I put the HDD back in the computer, turned it on, after 3 days. Viol'a, it booted-up. My system seemed to have fixed itself. I have Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.2 running with kernel 4.4.0-116 like nothing had happened. But something did happen..!

Well it happened 2 more times. Fsck from a lice dvd doesn't fix the problem. Will Cloning the HDD solve the problem then using that new HDD.?

PlutoPup · Post by **PlutoPup** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:27 pm

I should include that I have Partition Magic which I plan to use.

PlutoPup · Post by **PlutoPup** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 9:27 pm

correction. Using Clonezilla.!

Post by **Pierre** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:19 pm

you will need to use CloneZilla from an externally booted medium,
and then clone that existing HDD, to preferably, another spare HDD.
- if you can't do that, then save the structure of the existing HDD as an file / ISO / archive

Spearmint2 · Post by **Spearmint2** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:34 pm

If the drive is failing, then data is probably already lost. Cloning won't solve that problem. I personally prefer using GParted to copy a partition from one drive to another. Then I work on the problem drive.

sdibaja · Post by **sdibaja** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:44 pm

first make sure your data backup is current.

A clone is always good to have, I prefer Gparted. It has checking and repair tools that may fix your problems.
Copy each partition separately, including your swap partition.

I have no idea what Clonezilla does or what it is capable of.

If you think the drive is failing test it with GSmartControl first.

I am betting you have a Software problem.
That can most rapidly be corrected with a fresh install and copy data from your backups.

best of luck.

catweazel · Post by **catweazel** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 1:49 am

PlutoPup wrote: ⤴Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:25 pm Will Cloning the HDD solve the problem then using that new HDD.?

No, it will not. If there are problems at the data level either the imaging process will fail or, if it succeeds, it will copy any issues that manifest themselves as data problems. That said, taking an image is the best way to ensure the safety of your data.

vansloneker · Post by **vansloneker** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 7:45 am

It could very well be your hard disk has bad sectors. I've had it myself that after a number of tries, the disk would boot up again, allowing for recovery of undamaged files. But the time will come the drive or sectors will give up permanently.

Did your disk make particular sounds while it stalled?

Gparted basically is for creating, deleting and resizing partitions. Clonezilla is a great cloning tool, guiding you through the options and finally executing the DD command. But you have to be careful, make one bad choice and the wrong partition or disk may be overwritten, and your data is gone.

phd21 · Post by **phd21** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 7:24 pm

Hi PlutoPup,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

It would help to know more about your system setup. If you run "inxi -Fxzd" and "lsusb" from the console terminal prompt, highlight the results, copy and paste them back here, that should provide enough information. Need to know exactly what is on the drive and partitions.

This could be a computer hardware issue. Did you have any recent power outages or power surges? Did you recently replace or add any components and or open the case, explain in detail?

With the computer off and unplugged, have you made sure all the internal cables are correctly attached from the motherboard to their devices, make sure the system memory ram modules are well seated (pushed in), make sure any other add-on cards are well seated in their slots, etc... You can also go into the computer's Bios and check the date and time to see if they are current, if not, then you may need to replace the Bios CMOS battery. Then, plug in the power cord and start it up and tell us what happens.

PlutoPup wrote:Should I Clone my HDD and is there any difference in Cloning Linux vs. Windows.?

It could be the disk drive is bad or going bad, and checking it with "smartmontools" and gSmartcontrol is a good idea. Can you boot to other bootable discs or USB sticks without issues? You can also boot to a bootable disc or USB stick of "gParted Live", or the Live installation version of Linux Mint and its partition manager, and run disk and partition tests and look at the details.

Making image backups (cloning) of a drive and or partitions is great smart backup thing to do, but it will not resolve the issues you are having. There are some drive image cloning programs that might not work well for Linux systems if they were specifically designed for MS Windows or Mac. "Clonezilla Live" works very well for all operating systems and can check the file systems too. Making an image backup of an already damaged system may be pointless, but if you have no other backups, then do it anyway. There are "forensic" applications that might be able to help.

Assuming you can boot to a bootable Linux Mint operating system from a DVD or USB Stick, I would try to copy or safecopy as much from the problem drive and its partition as you can to some other good drive or USB stick.

Good luck ...

Hope this helps ...

PlutoPup · Post by **PlutoPup** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 8:37 pm

Great replies. I just got back on-line.

Much to my disappointment, I was unable to get Clonezilla to load. My sytstem would not boot up again. It just booted up. While it was down, I checked the ram with Memtest. Now I am interested in learning to use gParted to try and repair and make a copy of the HDD. But for now I am going to leave it on till tomorrow, to tired now,,

sdibaja · Post by **sdibaja** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:02 pm

Gparted tutorial. dated but still good
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

vansloneker · Post by **vansloneker** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 4:28 am

Very good tutorial indeed.

PlutoPup · Post by **PlutoPup** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 4:29 pm

Just got home from work. Now to watch the Tutorial and Tackle this problem.

Thanks

PlutoPup · Post by **PlutoPup** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 4:54 pm

Question:

I have viper ram installed, 4GB's. Clonezilla failed to load, multiply times 2 different iso downloads.
The Live DVD of Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.2 and 18.1 failed to load.
Thinking my Ram might be buggy, I ran Memtest.
Memtest ran and found no problems.

I am afraid to shut down and try the Live DVD again. what if it doesn't boot-up.?
I know the DVD,s work because I've used them both before.
Any Thoughts.?

vansloneker · Post by **vansloneker** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 3:49 am

At what point does it fail to load?
Is the boot order of your PC set to first boot off the optical drive?
Is there any indication of the optical drive or is it going straight to the internal drive?
In that case you have to either set the bios to boot from the optical drive first, or press at the initial stage of starting the computer the appropriate button to have a menu displayed where you can select your boot medium. The boot menu button differs per brand and model, e.g. on Asus it's often F8, while on HP you have a good chance it's F9. Also escape and F12 are being chosen as the boot menu button. You can look it up in the manual of your computer, or look it up in a search engine "brand and type of my computer boot menu key".

RAM can go bad but it does not happen frequently. Tell tales of bad ram are random crashes. If the ram is really faulty your computer will not boot at all.

phd21 · Post by **phd21** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:09 pm

HI "PlutoPup",

PlutoPup wrote:Question:
I have viper ram installed, 4GB's. Clonezilla failed to load, multiply times 2 different iso downloads.
The Live DVD of Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.2 and 18.1 failed to load.
Thinking my Ram might be buggy, I ran Memtest.
Memtest ran and found no problems.

I am afraid to shut down and try the Live DVD again. what if it doesn't boot-up.?
I know the DVD,s work because I've used them both before.
Any Thoughts.?

You have not answered all questions thoroughly. Are these new memory modules or existing ones, and were they "seated" well? Did you have a recent power outage or power surge? You can try removing all but one memory module, and booting with that and test the boot processes, and then another (one at a time), to try and see if one of them is bad. Always make sure the computer is powered off, unplugged, and that you are static free whenever handling (touching) computer parts especially system memory ram modules or video cards.

It could also be that your DVD/CD drive is not working properly. Like all moving mechanical drives, they too wear out eventually. I have had to replace a few over the years. Do you have another DVD/CD drive or external DVD/CD drive you can use? Or perhaps try these bootable discs on another computer? Make sure the discs are clean too.

I still do not know if this computer is 32-bit or 64-bit and that matters as well because the bootable discs also come in 32-bit or 64-bit versions, and a 32-bit computer will not boot 64-bit properly.

Hope this helps ...

PlutoPup · Post by **PlutoPup** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 2:41 pm

Nothing's changed in 6 months.
Linux Mint cinnamon 18.2 64-bit
But it's possible that the DVD is Dusty.
I am going to clean and try again.

Reading the tutorial on Gparted, I didn't see anything on copying a partition. I might have missed it. I'll check again.

As far as surges go, there have been electrical storms but I'm a surge protector. Power outages, definitely.

vansloneker · Post by **vansloneker** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 2:51 pm

'Burn' the image on a stick!

PlutoPup · Post by **PlutoPup** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:43 pm

OK, here is what I did:

I ran a disc cleaner DVD in my drive.

Ran the Live DVD of Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.2 which works now that the DVD player has been cleaned. Dust.....

Ran GParted from the live DVD.

Resized the partition with the files by over 20 Gigs. (shrunk my Home partition). 2 TERABYTE SATA

Right Clicked the file partition and selected CHECK.

Rebooted to HDD. Everything is Right With the World again. I plan to buy a new HDD and Clone this one soon using Clonezilla.

Thank You All For Your input, Especially THANKS to "sdibaja" for the Link to the GParted Tutorial. I Learned a Lot..

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