imaging OS partitions with Clonezilla and similar programs and making them bootable

[IPOpotamus]

imaging OS partitions with Clonezilla and similar programs and making them bootable

Hi tektippers

I’ve using this restoration Tools for several months (Clonezilla, Acronis), results have been good,
however I had a reappearing frustration, to make a backed up partition bootable when restoring.

I mean:
I make a backup of my OS partition (windows 2008 R2 / R1, 7, etc), say 50 GB only, but when I restore it, even in the same computer it will NOT be bootable.
If I make a whole disk image say 1000GB, although only one partition of 50 GB exists, it will not be able to be restored on a physical disk smaller than 1000GB, that’s a hard limitation.

What I am trying to do is to clone OS to save time of installation, or as a backup of my own machine in case of critical failure.
I would read a book, make a course, go to the university, or whatever to learn how to do it!

cloning work is what all of we look for, to have time, to have life, is it true or not?


=== having a NICE time with NICE ===

 

[cdogg]

Not being able to restore to a smaller drive is Clonezilla's biggest Achilles heel. What I typically do is build the image off a small hard drive (e.g., 80GB, 120GB), clone it with Clonezilla, and then restore onto the larger hard drive I want to use. Obviously, this only works for base images and not for periodic backups that may someday need to be restored onto a smaller drive, but it's better than nothing!

If you find a better workaround, let us know!

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[goombawaho]

Ghost is okay with going from larger to smaller drive.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[cdogg]

Acronis should be too, actually. As for free solutions, I'm not aware of one.

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[lopes1211]

Why not use System Image built into win7 and win8? Works great and you already have it.

-CL

 

[edfair]

Acronis is fine with it. 2 in the last 2 days.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[cdogg]

lopes1211,

System Image, which is built into Win7 and Win8 is an good suggestion, but it too suffers from the same limitation as CloneZilla. You can only restore the image onto a drive that is the same size or greater. The OP wants an image that has the option of being restored onto a smaller drive.



-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.