Foxclone - linux image backup, restore & clone

[diabolicbg]

I did some tests on Foxclone - a wonderful program. I'm just delighted. Finally I found a program with which I managed to make a backup of my laptop Acer TravelMate B 117. Thanks to the author!

[Rademes]

Can you run foxclone from a terminal with foxclone --dump, repeat what you did and after it has looped and you've got back to the main window so you can select the partitions to verify - Quit. Copy the terminal output to a file and email it to help@foxclone.com. It might give me a clue.

OK, I have run again verification option using foxclone --dump three times. And yes, this bug appeared on both USB disks at all three tests, on which I store backups. One of them is Transcend StoreJet 25M3.
Here are the dumps:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UwMLuI ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DyFCrv ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nXZOmT ... sp=sharing
Hope it helps to fix this bug.
Also, maybe you could try to replicate this bug using removable USB disk, just like Transcend StoreJet 25M3?

[AndyMH]

Stress tested foxclone today. Was running out of space on the 1TB HDD backup drive in one of my laptops. Replaced with 2TB HDD drive. Cloning the old drive with foxclone took 3:43 hours and cloned 946GB. Old drive on a sata3 interface, new drive on a sata/usb cable plugged into a usb3 port. Resized the partitions to use the new drive (I've got a small partition at the end running LM19.3 so I can independently boot it - legacy). It all works.

Did have one minor problem - initially bought a Seagate Barracuda (the third 2TB I've bought, probably six overall inc. the 1TB drives I've bought). Dead on arrival, did show up briefly in gparted, but then no more. Replaced with Toshiba, guess I got unlucky.

[Drugwash]

Did have one minor problem [...] a Seagate Barracuda [...] 2TB [...] Dead on arrival [...]

A friend of mine recently came asking for help with a similar drive, an ST2000DM008. Manufactured 17 Nov 2018 in Singapore. Dead after about five months of very moderate usage. Maybe one or more bad batches...?

[AndyMH]

Think it was just unlucky, I've got four other 2.5" barracudas, oldest bought Jan 18, no problems. Didn't check the manufacturing date on the failed one - it's now back with amazon. Unlucky for Seagate, they didn't have next day delivery on the replacement which is why I went for Toshiba (next cheapest).

[AZgl1800]

Think it was just unlucky, I've got four other 2.5" barracudas, oldest bought Jan 18, no problems. Didn't check the manufacturing date on the failed one - it's now back with amazon. Unlucky for Seagate, they didn't have next day delivery on the replacement which is why I went for Toshiba (next cheapest).

I have been doing more, and more business with Amazon:

Simply because of their Return Policy:

No questions, just send it back, and they pay for the Return.

[Kendoori]

What is the latest on what I can expect if I use FoxClone to clone my UEFI-based (single boot, single drive) 20.1 system? I have an external USB SSD in an enclosure that is bigger than the source drive.

If I clone to the external drive, what will be necessary if I want to boot from it?

[motoryzen]

It's thanks to the efforts of guys like Andy developing Foxclone, as well as guys like Chris Titus Tech, Wendell from Level1Techs, Anthony from Linus Media Group, obviously Clem and his team, Joe Collins ( ezee linux), Gardner Bryant, and probably hundreds of others that help encourage and make it easier as the years go by for more people to migrate to the Linux world and free themselves from Windows.

Cheers to all of ya.

[farkas]

@ Kendoori
If I clone to the external drive, what will be necessary if I want to boot from it?

Just plug in the external drive and and select it from the boot menu.
Page 9 of https://www.foxclone.com/download/foxcloneV45.pdf
"At the manufacturer’s splash screen, press the key to get into the boot menu1. This key varies across PCs, as an example for a Lenovo Thinkpad it is F12, on my desktop it is F11. Consult your user manual to find out what the key is or google. Do not confuse the boot menu."

Select the the cloned external drive and it will boot from it. If it boots it should look identical to the original drive . You will have unused space on the larger drive which you can expand a current partition, create a new partition or leave it as it is in order to clone it back to your original drive, if you use it as a backup of last resort.
I used Foxclone to replace an HDD with a larger SSD in my desktop and laptop. The hardest part was opening the clamshell design of the laptop case.

[sanmig]

If I clone to the external drive, what will be necessary if I want to boot from it?

N00b here, take my advice with a grain of salt:
Cloning will always clone “as it is”, thus the new partitions will have the same UUID(s) than the original ones.
Thus be aware, running both drives simultaneously may / will confuse the OS and may result in file corruption.
You can change the UUID(s) by GParted but take care of entries in the /etc/fstab file.
E.g. see: viewtopic.php?p=1948535#p1948535
or/and: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab
Maybe an expert could chime in?

[Kendoori]

Thus be aware, running both drives simultaneously may / will confuse the OS and may result in file corruption.

My only reasoning for wanting to boot and run the cloned drive target is to ensure it works. Cracking my laptop open to swap the drives in a PITA on my Thinkpad T480, so my preference is to have a testing method that doesn't require that. I wonder whether disabling the onboard SSD in BIOS would make a difference?

[AndyMH]

It might work. As sanmig said, you have two identical drives, same UUIDs on partitions, etc. Confuses BIOS in legacy mode, suspect it will be same with UEFI. The only way to really check is boot the usb drive off another PC, or disconnect the system drive in the PC you cloned.

[sanmig]

My only reasoning for wanting to boot and run the cloned drive target is to ensure it works.

AFAIK (and have done often) that will not make any problem, what I understand is:
When any app (the OS?) edits (saves) a file on the first partition, and after the next boot opens the file on the other partition, you may be in trouble.
I don’t know about disabling in BIOS, but if that works … it should work
AndyMH’s hint is on the safe side anyway.

[Kendoori]

@andyMH the US download is not working (the UK download is):

[AndyMH]

Thanks, on the case.

[AndyMH]

Fixed

[Kendoori]

Confirmed that the US link now works

[gittiest personITW]

Hi Andy.
Just to say that Foxclone managed to clone a Lenovo Yoga 700 (80QD) and Clonezilla couldn't due to uefi/gpt issues. Acronis could make an image but couldn't restore an image (Windows) so that has now gone.
So well bloody done mate.

One question (and I can take it on the nose) for the future - are you planning on adding any encryption option?

Cheers Andy.

[AndyMH]

One question (and I can take it on the nose) for the future - are you planning on adding any encryption option?

Short answer - no.

Longer answer - it will/should backup/clone encrypted partitions, it's just that it uses dd to copy the whole partition = long time, whereas with a 'known' filesystem, e.g. ext4, it just copies used blocks = quicker. It also falls into the 'too difficult' category, I don't use encryption, as in LUKS, so would require more learning on my part. I'm not a fan of full or home partition encryption, seen too many posts here with newbies borking their system and losing the lot (why do people not take backups???). I solve my modest privacy needs using veracrypt containers (=a file).

If you asked, you'd get the same answer about LVM (can't see a need for it in the normal PC use scenario).

What I am working on - rewriting foxclone to make the code more maintainable (V45 is the end of the line for the current code base, starting to look like spaghetti). Few minor tweaks to the UI, like resizable windows, no significant change to functionality. I'd also like to have more flexibility with the iso - current is based on bionic*, I'd like to build with focal, and/or offer older versions, e.g. xenial for those with older hardware (and it be easy to offer this on an ad-hoc basis to meet specific needs). Best guess, about a third of the way through the rewrite, I set myself a target of six months (Summer is on the way, I've been given lots of other jobs to do).

I'm also thinking about a utility that you would install in mint, just like any other, but would clone your existing system to another drive. BUT would deal with larger to smaller drives and sort out UUIDs, etc. so that the cloned drive could co-exist with the source. This might deal with encryption. I take no credit for the idea - suggested to me by Kadaitcha Man. If it happens, realistically, 2022.

Andy

* the current bash script that builds the iso is around 800 lines.

[blueicetwice]

"So well bloody done mate." I second that one, Gittiest.

Andy, I did a second drive to drive clone with Foxclone! It was so easy and after 27 minutes I was done.
Even my pet monkey gave me a pat on the back.

I just plugged the USB external HDD into the USB port and followed the three or four steps. To test the cloner,
I disconnected the internal HDD and rebooted with the external HDD and holey cow, there was my Mint 20.1, in
all of its glory. I would have no issue doing this every other month or quarterly.

As for ACRONIS backup software, it sucks a big one.