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I´m running a dual boot system with windows 8.1 and ubuntu. Both systems is on the same hardrive but of course at different partitions. I am happy with my system and want to backup the entire system. So I can go back to that if something messes up.

I´m thinking of using clonezilla to do a clone of the hadrdrive or create an image of the system. Let say I do an image and select all partitions will this work straight forward. I mean is it possible to make an image of two different os and then restore that image and you are back with the two os:s. Or do I have to make one image for ubuntu and one for windows?

I want to backup my entire system. My goal is to have the same hardrive so i gues image is right then? Clone if you should move the system to another harddrive?

What to do?

//I tried backing up with clonezilla and choosed to backup my partitions and selected all my partitions. But Clonezilla failed to backup one of the partitions. So should I choose to backup the whole hard drive instead? Will that work for two OS:s on the same disk. I think I did everything right but i didn't work for all partitions and I have no idea why.

I tried a backup on a 500gb harddrive with 200gb+ on it to a 1,5tb harddrive with 300gb+ empty space. I didn use any compression and the output file where 100gb+.

Any ideas? I forgotten the exact mesage that Clonezilla put as an "error".

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  • It should do all your partitions but as a precaution you can get CloneZilla to "dd" your disk. Be careful: CloneZilla records the size of the source disk/s and can only put images onto disks of same or larger space.
    – Kinnectus
    Sep 6, 2014 at 20:58
  • Ok sound nice but what do you mean with dd?
    – user3216616
    Sep 6, 2014 at 21:53
  • "dd" is a Unix command that duplicates data. CloneZilla uses it as a last resort if its other partition cloning tools can't clone the partition its found (a non-standard type). It copies disks or partitions on a bit by bit basis so is very thorough.
    – Kinnectus
    Sep 6, 2014 at 22:05

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Clonezilla disk image by default images the partition table(s), bootloaders, and all types of partitions. I believe it makes an assumption that the MBR or primary GPT and any boot loader that is not located in its own partition is located within the first 1 MiB on the disk. This is the case by default with all of the disk tools that I've ever heard of or used in both Linux and MS, including software raid.

I also believe it makes special effort to copy the backup GPT if it exists from the end of the disk.

All partitions are also imaged. If it doesn't understand the partition it just copies the whole thing byte for byte.

I'm not sure what options it gives if there is no MBR or GPT, like in the case of ZFS on bare disks or simply corrupt partition tables. I assume there is an option, probably in the advanced section to simply copy the whole disk byte for byte.

-- Answered here by BeowulfNode42

So basically if the normal copying methods fail the entire partition (for which the process failed) is copied byte for byte, meaning not only the used but also the empty space has to be copied. In that case you will need a total of 500gb free space to backup your drive.

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