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Tool for Cloning / Copying Linux Drives

O

Operandi

Joined
Jan 28, 2021
Messages
871 (0.55/day)
So what I want to accomplish is copy the boot drive of my TrueNAS NAS work in progress system from a 320GB SATA drive to a 128GB nVME drive. I initially used the SATA drive to give TrueNAS a test drive and install other systems on different SATA drives to swap around with but I think I'm just gona roll with TrueNAS.

Normally I'd use Macrium for jobs like this on Windows Machines but I'm not sure whats available for Linux/Unix systems. I'm aware of Clonezilla but from what I've read you can't resize the partitions to make it fit a smaller detestation drive. The NAS isn't "production" (its going to be a overbuilt Plex and general storage system for home) so I can start over if needed but if there is a tool that can do this it would be handy to have.
 
Hi,
Think macrium reflect winpe media can system image a linux disk same as a windows disk
I've never tried it though.
 
Operandi said:
I was wondering if that would work but just assumed it wouldn't. I'll have to give it a shot.

Thanks, have not heard of that one, will try it out.
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Hi,
It should but linux has an option to encrypt so that would get in the way I'm sure.
 
Operandi said:
I was wondering if that would work but just assumed it wouldn't. I'll have to give it a shot.
Click to expand...
It that doesn't work Acronis True Image has a Linux boot tool that should be able to do it.
 
kacperoo29 said:
You gonna have to resize the partition either way, so just gparted it and then dd it to new disk.
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@Operandi , tmk this would be considered at least one of the 'right' ways for a *nixer to go about doing this. dd is the route I've used since getting into Linux about 15 years ago.
 
I used dd for disk cloning when I was a UNIX/Linux system administrator back in the Nineties.

My guess is that today's Linux graphical disk cloning tools are just GUI wrappers around command-line dd. Many Linux utilities are like this.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Windows disk cloning tools were actually GUI wrappers calling robocopy.
 
use reflect and let it resize the partition for you
using anything else if your not familiar with disk partitioning tools and the cli is a good way to trash your data

cvaldes said:
I used dd for disk cloning when I was a UNIX/Linux system administrator back in the Nineties.

My guess is that today's Linux graphical disk cloning tools are just GUI wrappers around command-line dd. Many Linux utilities are like this.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Windows disk cloning tools were actually GUI wrappers calling robocopy.
Click to expand...
that is so horribly and terribly incorrect I am not even sure where to start
 
OneMoar said:
use reflect and let it resize the partition for you
using anything else if your not familiar with disk partitioning tools and the cli is a good way to trash your data

that is so horribly and terribly incorrect I am not even sure where to start
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This is a discussion about Linux disk cloning utilities (see original thread title).

How well does Macrium run on Linux? I will explicitly point out that the OP is very aware of Macrium's prowess on Windows.

Did you even bother to read the original post?

Note that another commenter also mentioned gpart for the partition manipulation. Both dd and gpart are venerable Linux utilities. If you can't roll up your sleeves and use a CLI tool on Linux then maybe Linux isn't appropriate for you.

As it was back in the Nineties, Linux is still a piss poor desktop OS.
 
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use the winpe bootable it works fine will handle whatever partitions you throw at it ext* mac windows whatever
and I would refrain from making comments if you are going to throw reflect and other tools in the same boat as robocopy that shows a serious lack of understanding on your part
 
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I also have a kubuntu install that is a couple years old and I was moving it between some hdds and last year onto a ssd and in the case of the new storage being of smaller size I just resized the partitions inside the OS and afterwards just cloning it with any utility.
The thing is that in most cases you'll need to boot from a (linux boot recovery cd) from a disk or usb after you removed the old storage and choose to do the repair of the boot sections and afterwards it worked perfectly.

sourceforge.net

boot-repair-disk

Download boot-repair-disk for free. A rescue disk that includes the Boot Repair tool. See http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home
sourceforge.net sourceforge.net
 
Operandi said:
I was wondering if that would work but just assumed it wouldn't. I'll have to give it a shot.

Thanks, have not heard of that one, will try it out.
Click to expand...
Hi,
How did everything go ?
 
OneMoar said:
use the winpe bootable it works fine will handle whatever partitions you throw at it ext* mac windows whatever
and I would refrain from making comments if you are going to throw reflect and other tools in the same boat as robocopy that shows a serious lack of understanding on your part
Click to expand...
I've used robocopy and dd before. They did their respective jobs with zero drama.

Both are free and have a long distinguished history of getting the job done. Both tools are still frequently used by professional system administrators today.

Perhaps you are afraid of CLI utilities but that doesn't disqualify them as solutions for OP's scenario.
 
cvaldes said:
I used dd for disk cloning when I was a UNIX/Linux system administrator back in the Nineties.

My guess is that today's Linux graphical disk cloning tools are just GUI wrappers around command-line dd. Many Linux utilities are like this.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Windows disk cloning tools were actually GUI wrappers calling robocopy.
Click to expand...
Literally everything OS level is command line in any *nix OS.

OneMoar said:
use reflect and let it resize the partition for you
using anything else if your not familiar with disk partitioning tools and the cli is a good way to trash your data
Click to expand...
My day job is administrating AIX systems so I'm not afraid of the command line or opposed to it but its not always the best option. I've never had to move a OS from one drive to another before and its not something I imagine I'll do often.

With Reflect isn't the WinPE environment built based on the system Reflect is installed on? As in I'd have to install Windows on this system, then install Reflect to make make the WinPE based boot media?
 
Operandi said:
Literally everything OS level is command line in any *nix OS.


My day job is administrating AIX systems so I'm not afraid of the command line or opposed to it but its not always the best option. I've never had to move a OS from one drive to another before and its not something I imagine I'll do often.

With Reflect isn't the WinPE environment built based on the system Reflect is installed on? As in I'd have to install Windows on this system, then install Reflect to make make the WinPE based boot media?
Click to expand...
No PE is Generic you would need access to a windows pc to create the media (or find a premade .iso) but it can be any windows pc
@cvaldes
nobody is afraid of the command line but making absurd statements such as "Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Windows disk cloning tools were actually GUI wrappers calling robocopy."
pretty much shoots your credibility to hell. nobody cares if you can type dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=1M Your not special you don't know more then anybody else here (thats my job) run along now /s
knowing Linux doesn't make you Superior, Knowing how stuff accually works Might tho...

Most decent partition and backup tools don't give a flying fuck what the file system is the file system is completely irrelevant to the clone operation so is the hostOS/GuestOS so long as you can access the block device everything else is irrelevant
 
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Hi,
I believe you can make your own winpe if it's not on github or similar.
But it does need drivers for the system to so a little complicated.
 
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