"Clonezilla" (GPL software) for cloning systems

W

witan

Does anybody in this group have experience using Clonezilla. A friend
suggested it to me, and he thinks highly of it. The info in the Web
site http://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/ is impressive:
"Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore.
While Clonezilla server edition is for massive deployment, it can
clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously."
It is free (GPL) Software.
"Filesystem supported: ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs of GNU/Linux,
and FAT, NTFS of MS Windows. Therefore you can clone GNU/Linux or MS
windows. For these file systems, only used blocks in partition are
saved and restored. For unsupported file system, sector-to-sector copy
is done by dd in Clonezilla....etc."
I shall be thankful for expert opinion.
 
A

Andrew E.

Why use 3rd party software when xp can clone/mirror hds by using XCOPY.
Always works..Also,as far as backup/restore,xp has restore,& backup.However
backup software isnt worth having,one can be backing up corrupted software.
The best "backup" to use,open FTW from xp cd,set as old pc,select
files/settings/
data to save,save to new folder,once thru,move to cd.This way,if xp was to be
corrupted,or hardware failure,a new clean install is best,then run FTW to
install
user settings as it was..Also,most "server software" is never free..
 
U

Uncle Grumpy

Pegasus \(MVP\) said:

Surely, you jest. Or are you a geek who is unable to let go of
something that was once the only good tool to use - like in DOS 5.0?

Because it's kludgey, because it lacks the ability to easily restore
-especially at the file level - as does Acronis True Image, etc. etc.

Note that the person I was replying to also promoted XCOPY as a useful
tool to image a disk... which is completely wrong.
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

Uncle Grumpy said:
Surely, you jest. Or are you a geek who is unable to let go of
something that was once the only good tool to use - like in DOS 5.0?

Because it's kludgey, because it lacks the ability to easily restore
-especially at the file level - as does Acronis True Image, etc. etc.

Note that the person I was replying to also promoted XCOPY as a useful
tool to image a disk... which is completely wrong.

Not quite. There are at least two methods that make use of xcopy.exe
to create a bootable copy of a Windows partition:
- Boot the machine with a Bart PE CD, or
- Connect the source and the target disks as slave disks to some
other Windows XP PC.

Disk imaging programs are, of course, much easier to use. However,
if Andrew E. knows his trade then he can easily do it with xcopy or
even better with robocopy. You may have been off-target with
your name-calling reply.
 
P

PD

Not quite. There are at least two methods that make use of xcopy.exe
to create a bootable copy of a Windows partition:
- Boot the machine with a Bart PE CD, or
- Connect the source and the target disks as slave disks to some
  other Windows XP PC.

Disk imaging programs are, of course, much easier to use.

Thank you.

MOST folks asking for help here are NOT GEEKS.

It would be advisable to use the K.I.S.S. method when replying to
them.

I stand by my original comment.
 
U

Uncle Grumpy

Pegasus \(MVP\) said:
You may have been off-target with
your name-calling reply.

I don't think so. The person I replied to was NOT the OP, a person
with much less knowledge.

Your reply was to the name-calling, not to the OP's problem.

Stop yourself.
 
W

witan

I don't think so.  The person I replied to was NOT the OP, a person
with much less knowledge.

Your reply was to the name-calling, not to the OP's problem.

Stop yourself.

To "Keep It Short and Simple" (I presume this is what PD meant by
K.I.S.S., not the other variants), what I wanted was advice on using
Clonezilla for *cloning* my Windows-XP system drive. I thought this
was clear from the Subject line of my post.
XCopy wil not serve my purpose, and I think Uncle Grumpy is right.
Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost will do, but Clonezilla is FREE,
and, moreover, one can make a bootable CD with Clonezilla on it and
use it for cloning. IOW, it is not necessary to have Clonezilla on
one's hard drive. I have already downloaded Clonezilla Live and made a
bootable CD.
Clonezilla is said to be based on Debian Linux. My experience with
Linux systems is very limited, although I am using a dual-booting
machine with Mandriva 10.1 and Windows-XP Pro. Therefore, before I try
to clone my Windows system with Clonezilla, I'd appreciate advice
from anyone who has successfully used Clonezilla for cloning.
 

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