tool to backup win10 partitions to iso,inside mint

[Noal]

since i dont plan to use windows any longer,and pretty much everything works now in linux since a couple months,i want to backup my win10 m.2 and just dump it on my gdrive,just in case. but the missing part here,is a linux app that does that clone to iso part

i tried clonezilla ,which didnt figure out where my partitions are, meaning it found the 1 the 3 but not the 2 and 4, (win 10 uses about 4 partitions,the 4.as main)
all the other drives it found easy,but they dont matter.

i want to avoid a external tool,like those where you have to reboot. i usually reboot once in 2-3 months,and i simply wanna backup it and throw it beside,to use that m.2 for /data

any tools or ideas? it still has to work to be restored,in case i found something that doesn't work with linux.. (yes i have win10VMs,but they cant handle my C9 keyboard settings,as example)

iam open for suggestions

[AndyMH]

If you have nothing of significance installed in win and have copied out any data files you want, why bother? Just keep a win10 iso handy (which gets larger and larger, now nearly 6GB) . If you need to re-install, win 'phones home' and will recognise that your PC has a valid licence.

i want to avoid a external tool,like those where you have to reboot.

That's how they work. You cannot image a live filesystem hence the need for booting a separate system, typically a usb stick. Nor am I aware of any tool that 'clones to an iso'.

But... if you are not dual booting off your M.2 drive, you could download the deb for foxclone* and install it in mint and take an image of your win drive. Note, you don't want clone you want to take a backup and then copy the backup files to the cloud or wherever.

Be aware that when you install foxclone it will disable swap (deletes any entries for swap in fstab). It renames your existing fstab to fstab.bak so it is easy to undo. This is needed for cloning/restoring linux systems, irrelevant for win.

* I'm the dev.

[Noal]

thanks for the reply,
my win is heavily modified, it was a work of a year+ just to get it todo what it should.. (every con controled,auto backups,no updates,autoremote to job stuff etc) lets say my job made it clear,win is shit for my case,and it was more a pain then a gain. it took me 2 years to switch from w7 to w10, after w10 came out.
then more then one,to get it where it has to be.

and next, i got too frustrated, learned a half year how to get my system to linux,made a dualboot,and startet more n more, adding stuff,to get it running (hp drivers, mouse, differend screens,touchscreens etc..) and only after 3 more months,running without a real issue, and not touching w10 or a w10vm.. i can say ,shelf win10,iam done with it, even my job can be done with mint mate perfectly.

if there is not a real simple method, (i have to check your idea with foxclone),i would simply remove the m.2 and replace with with another 8tb, since win10 had a whole bunch of databases,which i could easy rebuild via Gdrive, and keep them online, its kinda nothing fitting on a usbstick..
i simply was hoping for a "sure,there is EaseUs alike program XY" ...but thats a nope

thanks for your time,i will look into it,if there is a more simple method,let me know

[Petermint]

Is fastboot off? Backing up Windows with fastboot on is unreliable.

Any imaging of a disk while the disk is booted, faces the problem of things changing while the image is created. Booting a separate USB stick, like Clonezilla, ensures there are no file system changes during the image. There are over a hundred occasions where I, as a consultant, said "do it this way, not that way" but the customer chose that way and a few months later, their emergency restore failed. What can I say? It might work...

[Noal]

no fastboot is on,as much as i remember
all my bootdrives are m.2 with a quite high performance.

the difference is,the win disk isnt touched, its just "a disk" aka xTB Volume

the mainproblem with a usb stick is, none is large enough
if i would clone it into a img, it has to go somewhere, all my drives are veracrypted and/or linux encrypted, even win10, meaning,i have no space where the image can be dropped to, i dont know if any of the usb cloneprogs can make use of gdrive or pcloud, thats where it might get dropped.but i cannot drop it on any veracrypt drive (i have space,no worries,its just secured)


about the "dont change while cloning", i know that from windows, thats why i was very specific if it came to data security. but this time i can clearly say,nobody touches the win10 ,its not even hosted with veracrypt,meaning its a simple disk,and nothing goes in or out there,all my cloudsyncs are on ext4 drives, its basically a useless strip with chips,for now ,like i said,in worst case i just screw it out,and another 8tb in, but since i let my pc work 24/7 i still try to avoid it at any cost.