How To Create a System Image With Macrium Reflect Rescue Disk In Linux Mint.

[catweazel]

placed in another Computer

You added that just now, as soon as you realised your mistake. If you doubt that, post the text where you said it previously.

What are you on ?

I take it that you can't post the text.

[April]

Hi I am new to Linux mint and was reading this thread with interest, I have a boot disk for a backup program on windows called easeus todo backup which also has a free version with a winPE boot disk . I thought id try it and see what happens and well it reconised all the hard disks and ran as expected no problems .

[bob466]

Hi I am new to Linux mint and was reading this thread with interest, I have a boot disk for a backup program on windows called easeus todo backup which also has a free version with a winPE boot disk . I thought id try it and see what happens and well it reconised all the hard disks and ran as expected no problems .

Welcome April to the Forum and Linux Mint.

Creating a System Image is very important and yes there's plenty of Imaging Software but will it work well with Linux ? Are you sure the Image you create will Boot when you Re-Image the HDD or SSD ?

There's nothing worse than Re-Imaging a HDD or SSD only to find the image is bad and you've lost everything...Re-Imaging will wipe everything on the Destination Drive just like if you were installing the OS.

I have used Macrium in Windows for years and in Linux Mint for over three years and it's never let me down. Macrium Free has some very good features...It's reasonably fast...Easy to use...Works great with Linux and verifies the Image...so you know the Image you've created is good.

No Imaging Software that I know of and this includes Clonezilla have the features listed above...but of cause the choice is always yours. With Macrium you can create a System Image of your Mechanical HDD and put it on an SSD...as long as both are the same size and it works just fine because I did so not long ago.

Macrium doesn't and will never have a Linux version but that doesn't mean you can't use it for Linux...the reason I wrote the Tutorial...anyway give it a try...you'll be glad you did.

[AZgl1800]

No Imaging Software that I know of and this includes Clonezilla have the features listed above...but of course the choice is always yours. With Macrium you can create a System Image of your Mechanical HDD and put it on an SSD...as long as both are the same size and it works just fine because I did so not long ago.

Macrium doesn't and will never have a Linux version but that doesn't mean you can't use it for Linux...the reason I wrote the Tutorial...anyway give it a try...you'll be glad you did.

I totally agree... Clonezilla IMO is a disaster, and I am not a newby to software.
w/o an easy to use GUI, it is fraught with user mistakes being made.

I too, have used Macrium Reflect for about 20 years, maybe more.
If you don't have a Windows pc, borrow one, create the DVD or USB media recovery software.

MR has never, ever, failed me. Not once.

and it is newby friendly.
when making the backup media software, be sure to tell it to install the optional drivers so that it will work with any PC on the market, not just the one you used to create the media.

[bob466]

I totally agree... Clonezilla IMO is a disaster, and I am not a newby to software.
w/o an easy to use GUI, it is fraught with user mistakes being made.

I too, have used Macrium Reflect for about 20 years, maybe more.
If you don't have a Windows pc, borrow one, create the DVD or USB media recovery software.

MR has never, ever, failed me. Not once.

and it is newby friendly.
when making the backup media software, be sure to tell it to install the optional drivers so that it will work with any PC on the market, not just the one you used to create the media.

I think that some people are set in their ways and refuse to try something that's actually better and much faster too. Then there are those who wont use it because it has a Windows PE...they think it's going to phone home.

Some time ago I created an Image of my HDD that had about 100GB of data with Macrium and it took 1hr 20mins ...Clonezilla was still going after 3.5 hrs...where I stopped it...could have had another 3.5 hrs left...who knows.

One thing I did notice...Macrium takes the same amount of time to create a System Image of either a HDD or SSD but works just fine.

[Bob M]

Ok, I want to clone a 250Gb HDD to a 1Tb HDD.

What is my best option without wasting 750Gb of disk space?

Thanks
Bob

[AZgl1800]

Ok, I want to clone a 250Gb HDD to a 1Tb HDD.

What is my best option without wasting 750Gb of disk space?

Thanks
Bob

IF, you want to use Macrium Reflect, just point it to the target drive and tell it to go.

works fine. it will expand out the 250gB partition to 1Tb for you.

[Bob M]

Thanks for that AZgl1500, but I'm sure I've read in a number of posts that with Macrium Reflect you have to clone to a drive of the same size?????

[AZgl1800]

Thanks for that AZgl1500, but I'm sure I've read in a number of posts that with Macrium Reflect you have to clone to a drive of the same size?????

Might be, but I have not had to use it in a couple of years like that, I just make images with it now on the Win7 and Win10 PCs...

Clonezilla will do it, but I cannot understand the Text oriented menu on Clonezilla, I have screwed up every time I use it.

[AndyMH]

No, they don't need to be the same size. I used macrium reflect to clone a 500GB HDD to a 240GB ssd. All I did was make sure that the total partition space used on the HDD was less than the size of the ssd and that all the unallocated space was at the end of the drive.

[bob466]

Ok, I want to clone a 250Gb HDD to a 1Tb HDD.

What is my best option without wasting 750Gb of disk space?

Thanks
Bob

Put your smaller Image on the 1TB HDD...you will see a lot of Unallocated Space... just Boot into your Linux Mint Live DVD or Flash Drive and use Gparted to Extend the Unallocated Space...done.

Putting an Image on the same size HDD/SSD or larger is the best and safest option IMO but people are free to do what ever they like.

[AZgl1800]

Ok, I want to clone a 250Gb HDD to a 1Tb HDD.

What is my best option without wasting 750Gb of disk space?

Thanks
Bob

Put your smaller Image on the 1TB HDD...you will see a lot of Unallocated Space... just Boot into your Linux Mint Live DVD or Flash Drive and use Gparted to Extend the Unallocated Space...done.

Putting an Image on the same size HDD/SSD or larger is the best and safest option IMO but people are free to do what ever they like.

an obvious, but easily overlooked solution.

[Bob M]

Thanks Guys,

How does this sound?

I wish to CLONE my 250Gb HDD in my Desktop PC, which is run by Mint 18.0 with cinnamon desktop onto a 1Tb external drive formatted as Ext4.

From there I wish to install a new 1Tb HDD in my Desktop and unpack the Cloned image onto that.

Effectively I want to replace a very old 250Gb HDD with a new 1Tb HDD without loosing any data or having to set everything up again.

Having jumped this hurdle I would like to be able to use the spare 750Gb on both 1Tb drives for say Music or Video Storage.

My reading on the subject ranges from dead simple to damn difficult. As you can see I’m still a little “gun shy” in case I screw something up completely.

Now are we absolutely sure Macrium Reflect can do this, given that it is a Windows program, and Windows doesn't understand Ext4 format, or so I'm told?

[AndyMH]

Now are we absolutely sure Macrium Reflect can do this, given that it is a Windows program, and Windows doesn't understand Ext4 format, or so I'm told?

The drive I cloned with macrium was a dual boot win10 + mint 19.0 setup. Windows doesn't understand ext4 but macrium does.

Sounds like you are going 250GB internal HDD > 1TB external HDD > internal 1TB HDD. Why not cut out the middle man and use a usb to sata converter cable and just do 250GB HDD > 1TB HDD. It's what I did using this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01 ... UTF8&psc=1

When cloned, use gparted to add more partitions to use the unallocated space in the 1TB drive if that is what you want.

[Bob M]

Thanks Andy,

The reason for using the External Drive as an intermediary is that if everything works, I can be assured that I do have a backup that works rather than finding out later my back-up is no good. Being an External Drive I can take it with me when I travel and store it off site should I wish.

Anyway, all going well I intend to give it a go tomorrow so watch this space.

[AZgl1800]

Long thread,
just wanted to help a newbie to Macrium Reflect.

Your External USB HDD must be plugged into the computer, before you boot up Macrium Reflect..... that is when it detects the hardware on the computer.

Great Tutorial and lots of great helpful posts.

[Bob M]

Unfortunately guys an epic fail.

I booted from my Macirum Reflect 7 Disk and all was looking good except I couldn’t see the folder I had made to insert the Back-Up in on the target external usb Drive.

I could see the drive ok

Oh well, I’ll just back-up anyway.

Up pops a message: Your Target Disk is not formatted do you wish to format it?

Well it is formatted and has my Timeshift backups on it along with the folder I wished to place my clone in.

The only thing I can think of is the External disk is formatted ext4 and Macirum can’t read it?

I’ve had a quick look at Clonezilla and was left wondering if they could have made the program more complicated?

I guess the question now is “What to do next”.

[AndyMH]

I guess the question now is “What to do next”.

Have PM'ed you with an alternative.

[bob466]

Unfortunately guys an epic fail.

I booted from my Macirum Reflect 7 Disk and all was looking good except I couldn’t see the folder I had made to insert the Back-Up in on the target external usb Drive.

I could see the drive ok

Oh well, I’ll just back-up anyway.

Up pops a message: Your Target Disk is not formatted do you wish to format it?

Well it is formatted and has my Timeshift backups on it along with the folder I wished to place my clone in.

The only thing I can think of is the External disk is formatted ext4 and Macirum can’t read it?
I guess the question now is “What to do next”.

Sounds to me like you're trying to put the Image on a Flash Drive Formatted to Ext4 which will not work.

The first step says...1. Plug in your External HDD and create a Folder and name it eg Mint Backup 18.3 and date it.

External HDDs come Formatted to NTFS which work just fine with both Linux and Windows...you can use any size HDD...2TB or larger...remember an Image can be over 100GBs...I use a Portable 2TB HDD as shown below...
https://i.ibb.co/184p8Gw/Screenshot-fro ... -23-16.png
Hope this helps.

[AZgl1800]

I keep a big 1tB USB HDD that is reserved for backups, it is NTFS, so it can be used for Windows or Linux.

I create a folder named for the PC in question. e.g. Win7 20191208 Full Image

then when Macrium Reflect comes up, it sees that USB NTFS drive, and I navigate to:

K:\Win7_Images\Win7_20191208 Full Image

and press go.... MR then saves the full image into the new sub-folder.

just name your folders appropriately for whatever you are doing.