Foxclone - linux image backup, restore & clone

[diabolicbg]

Today I tested the new Redo Backup 4.0. I recorded a 128 GB SSD, used 28.5 GB for LM. Then I shot the same SSD with Foxclone. Result - Foxclone finished 3 minutes faster and made almost the same image volume at compression 1. I repeated the experiment with compression 5 and the image became much smaller than that of Redo.

Second experiment: Acer TravelMate 117M - 64 GB SSD with LM. Redo loaded Welcome to GRUB! and failed to move on. Foxclone is the only software that allows me to back up this Acer to an external drive.

Thanks for the great software!

[AndyMH]

I used to use redo, but developed foxclone because it had not been updated since 2012 = wouldn't boot on a lot of modern hardware, no support for UEFI and more. At the same time as I was developing foxclone someone else had reached the same conclusion. The result is rescuezilla. We released within a couple of months of each other. The rescuezilla dev was answering all the questions (github I think) on redo issues. This put the redo dev's nose out of joint and he got his arse in gear and updated/rewrote redo.

I'm happy to recommend rescuezilla as an alternative to foxclone. I will not recommend redo.

Surprised you are seeing that much of a difference in time, under the hood all three are using partclone, although it's a while since I looked at the detail inside redo.

Busy rewriting foxclone, from the tests I did (in the user guide) there is not much advantage using a compression level greater than 1. When foxclone50 finally gets released there will be no choice on compression level, it will be set to 1.

[diabolicbg]

I used to use redo, but developed foxclone because it had not been updated since 2012 = wouldn't boot on a lot of modern hardware, no support for UEFI and more. At the same time as I was developing foxclone someone else had reached the same conclusion. The result is rescuezilla. We released within a couple of months of each other. The rescuezilla dev was answering all the questions (github I think) on redo issues. This put the redo dev's nose out of joint and he got his arse in gear and updated/rewrote redo.

I'm happy to recommend rescuezilla as an alternative to foxclone. I will not recommend redo.

Surprised you are seeing that much of a difference in time, under the hood all three are using partclone, although it's a while since I looked at the detail inside redo.

For me, rescuezilla is a bit confusing and I feel insecure. Besides, I also couldn't back up this wooden ACER with it.

[AndyMH]

Just updated my post

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I used to use redo, but developed foxclone because it had not been updated since 2012 = wouldn't boot on a lot of modern hardware, no support for UEFI and more. At the same time as I was developing foxclone someone else had reached the same conclusion. The result is rescuezilla. We released within a couple of months of each other. The rescuezilla dev was answering all the questions (github I think) on redo issues. This put the redo dev's nose out of joint and he got his arse in gear and updated/rewrote redo.

I'm happy to recommend rescuezilla as an alternative to foxclone. I will not recommend redo.

Surprised you are seeing that much of a difference in time, under the hood all three are using partclone, although it's a while since I looked at the detail inside redo.

For me, rescuezilla is a bit confusing and I feel insecure. Besides, I also couldn't back up this wooden ACER with it.

Rescuezilla confusing? It seemed pretty straight forward to me. If you have problems with its GUI, there are a few good YouTube videos on how to use it.

Take Cloneszilla (please*). Now THAT is confusing!


(*Apologies to Henny Youngman.)

[AZgl1800]

After having tried every backup utility available on the 'net,

there is only one (1) that I consider trustworthy and use all the time. F O X C L O N E !!!


uh, actually, Macrium Reflect and Acronis are both solid contenders, but they copy bit-by-bit and I can't handle that enormous overhead.... it takes 17 hours to copy one of my HDDs with MR.

[diabolicbg]

Rescuezilla confusing? It seemed pretty straight forward to me. If you have problems with its GUI, there are a few good YouTube videos on how to use it.

Take Cloneszilla (please*). Now THAT is confusing!


(*Apologies to Henny Youngman.)

My mistake. I wrote Rescuezilla and I was thinking about Clonezilla. However, it is true that I cannot back up the aforementioned ACER TravelMate with Rescuezilla. Gives strange error messages on some screens and does not work efficiently. In addition, Foxclone's file manager is much better than Rescuezilla's and Redo's, which only show their own root directory. For me, the winner is Foxclone.

After having tried every backup utility available on the 'net,

there is only one (1) that I consider trustworthy and use all the time. F O X C L O N E !!!


uh, actually, Macrium Reflect and Acronis are both solid contenders, but they copy bit-by-bit and I can't handle that enormous overhead.... it takes 17 hours to copy one of my HDDs with MR.

Macrium Reflect and Acronis cannot copy EXTFS correctly. They are good for Windows.

[AndyMH]

Macrium Reflect and Acronis cannot copy EXTFS correctly. They are good for Windows.

Not true, or it used to be. Before I developed foxclone I had used macrium to clone a linux drive.

[diabolicbg]

Macrium Reflect and Acronis cannot copy EXTFS correctly. They are good for Windows.

Not true, or it used to be. Before I developed foxclone I had used macrium to clone a linux drive.

I can't argue. I've been using Macrium Free for years to back up Windows, but my attempts to back up Linux have been unsuccessful. I don't remember what the version of Macrium was anymore.
I stopped using Acronis after it twice destroyed my installation on a server I was supporting. I always check the image before restoring, but Acronis suddenly reported during recovery that the already checked image was corrupted.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...My mistake. I wrote Rescuezilla and I was thinking about Clonezilla. However, it is true that I cannot back up the aforementioned ACER TravelMate with Rescuezilla. Gives strange error messages on some screens and does not work efficiently. In addition, Foxclone's file manager is much better than Rescuezilla's and Redo's, which only show their own root directory. For me, the winner is Foxclone...

I have the opposite problem. Even though Foxclone is superior (if only for the downloaded detailed directions provided by Andy on his website, a rarity anymore now), I have to use Rescuezilla because the *&^%$#@! NVIDIA graphics card in my laptop will not work with Foxclone. It's only recently that even Rescuezilla would work with my laptop.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Macrium Reflect and Acronis cannot copy EXTFS correctly. They are good for Windows.

Not true, or it used to be. Before I developed foxclone I had used macrium to clone a linux drive.

I can't argue. I've been using Macrium Free for years to back up Windows, but my attempts to back up Linux have been unsuccessful. I don't remember what the version of Macrium was anymore.
I stopped using Acronis after it twice destroyed my installation on a server I was supporting. I always check the image before restoring, but Acronis suddenly reported during recovery that the already checked image was corrupted.

Despite loving it in Win 7, I never could get Macrium Reflect to work correctly in Linux, either. I never could get Acronis to work well even in Windwoes so I never bothered to try it in Linux.

[diabolicbg]

Macrium Reflect and Acronis cannot copy EXTFS correctly. They are good for Windows.

Not true, or it used to be. Before I developed foxclone I had used macrium to clone a linux drive.

I just did a test of the latest version of Macrium Free 8.0.6161. I backed up a 128 GB SSD with LM. The backup was 'successful'. Together with the check lasted 7.15 minutes. Finally I tried to start the image with viBoot - I saw the home screen with GRUB and for 15 minutes now I've been watching a black screen with a flashing cursor without loading anything more. It doesn't work for me.

[AndyMH]

It was probably three years ago when I last used macrium. Maybe they changed something and it broke.

It's only recently that even Rescuezilla would work with my laptop.

Now that is a useful clue, I can look at what packages he installs. Won't be quick, too many other things on the go.

[diabolicbg]

It was probably three years ago when I last used macrium. Maybe they changed something and it broke.

It's only recently that even Rescuezilla would work with my laptop.

Now that is a useful clue, I can look at what packages he installs. Won't be quick, too many other things on the go.

I also use it at the moment on Windows 8.1, which I only keep to work. I design on AutoCAD and I have to endure M$. The last Windows I liked was 7.

[AndyMH]

I run win7 in a VM, but suspect not good enough for decent performance with autocad.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It was probably three years ago when I last used macrium. Maybe they changed something and it broke.

It's only recently that even Rescuezilla would work with my laptop.

Now that is a useful clue, I can look at what packages he installs. Won't be quick, too many other things on the go.

I'm using rescuezilla-2.2-64bit.hirsute

[diabolicbg]

I have the opposite problem. Even though Foxclone is superior (if only for the downloaded detailed directions provided by Andy on his website, a rarity anymore now), I have to use Rescuezilla because the *&^%$#@! NVIDIA graphics card in my laptop will not work with Foxclone.

My PC runs on Nvidia GF GTX 1050 with 2GB of RAM and has no issues with Foxclone.

I run win7 in a VM, but suspect not good enough for decent performance with autocad.

I tried many times - no virtual machine was able to run a normal autocad. Even Windows 7 had to be replaced because there were problems with AutoCAD 2020, and 2021 refused to work on it. AutoCAD is getting heavier.

I'm using rescuezilla-2.2-64bit.hirsute

The same version makes mistakes on my wooden Acer.

[AndyMH]

Suspect, could be wrong, that the hirsute version is a 5.11 kernel. foxclone is a 5.4 kernel.

From what you have said autocad = work, you have no real alternative but to dual boot. None of the potential linux alternatives will be acceptable.

[AZgl1800]

I don't what version(s) of MR that I have/used.

but it faithfully made backup images of a mixed NTFS/ext4 HDD a year or two ago w/o errors being reported.
never did a Restore with any of them though

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I have the opposite problem. Even though Foxclone is superior (if only for the downloaded detailed directions provided by Andy on his website, a rarity anymore now), I have to use Rescuezilla because the *&^%$#@! NVIDIA graphics card in my laptop will not work with Foxclone.

My PC runs on Nvidia GF GTX 1050 with 2GB of RAM and has no issues with Foxclone...

Mine is an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060.

...

I'm using rescuezilla-2.2-64bit.hirsute

The same version makes mistakes on my wooden Acer.

After the unhappy experiences I had with two Acer netbooks, a desktop, and a mouse (the keyboard I had was merely "meh" rather than garbage like the others), I'm inclined to believe the problem is far more likely to be with your Acer.