Macrium Reflect Linux equivalent

auntjemima

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Reference the title.

I clone quite a few drives when upgrading people's laptops from a spinner to ssd. It's easy peasy in windows with this program.

I am looking for something the same. DD doesn't work, as I'm not just looking to copy partitions, but a sector by sector copy.

I need it in Linux because I am upgrading my own system from an SSD to an m2 NVME. So I can't do it within windows, because it's copying it's own drive.
 
You might find something useful in this article. GParted should do what you are looking for since you can resize partitions prior to cloning should that be necessary. Hope this helps.
 
You might find something useful in this article. GParted should do what you are looking for since you can resize partitions prior to cloning should that be necessary. Hope this helps.

I am currently in the process of clonezilla, but should that fail, I'll try it. I wasn't really expecting gparted to do the trick, even though I do use it for partitioning etc.
 
Clonezilla works well. I'm not an avid linux user but have cloned several CentOS boxes with it without any trouble.
 
Clonezilla works well. I'm not an avid linux user but have cloned several CentOS boxes with it without any trouble.
No luck here with clonezilla. Seemed pretty straight forward... asked me to select source disk, then destination disk, did a sector copy and off it went

When it finished the terminal said it had tried to install grub, but no ext fat partitions available. Then ended, so I rebooted and unhooked my sata ssd. On reboot it just sits there spinning the windows dots and then freezes the machine. Go into the bios and I have 2 boot options for that drive, one is the Windows boot loader and the other is a Grub boot. No idea why it would try and install grub on it, when I just wanted a direct clone.

Anyway, I booted back into windows 10 and I am running Macrium Reflect to clone the C hard drive to the new NVME... I didn't think it would be possible with the drive in use, but so far it hasn't given me an error or stated it would be a problem. When it is done and I reboot, I will give an update.
 
ahhh, now I understand. I thought you were cloning a linux box and trying to avoid Windows based tools. Yes, some software supports cloning from an active drive. I believe Samsung used to supply a branded Acronis software that does this if you bought their drives that included the transfer cable.

If you are just cloning a windows system most modern cloning software comes with the option to make a bootable USB or CD that you can run a clone from. I think Macrium has an option to create a bootable environment as well.
 
Well, it didn't work. This is my first time trying to get an nvme to work.

And oddly enough it still shows Ubuntu as an option for that drive in the bios.
 
ahhh, now I understand. I thought you were cloning a linux box and trying to avoid Windows based tools. Yes, some software supports cloning from an active drive. I believe Samsung used to supply a branded Acronis software that does this if you bought their drives that included the transfer cable.

If you are just cloning a windows system most modern cloning software comes with the option to make a bootable USB or CD that you can run a clone from. I think Macrium has an option to create a bootable environment as well.
I'll have to see if they have that. Because this is not working at all.
 
If you are using the paid version it should. I know for sure the paid versions of Acronis and AOMEI Backupper do.
 
If you are using the paid version it should. I know for sure the paid versions of Acronis and AOMEI Backupper do.
I haven't been able to get back into windows since my last reboot, so it doesn't matter much at this point.

SSD works fine.. so I boot windows 10, clone my drive to the nvme, shut down, remove other drives, boot.. no good. Keeps taking me to auto recovery. I follow some steps online to fix BCD.. reboot, now I can't even get into the recovery tools.

So, shut down, boot in a Linux usb, use gparted to clear and format the nvme to a basic 500gb NTFS partition.

Shut down, hook back up my normal SSD that's never had an issue. Now it won't do anything but go into either auto recovery or it boots to my windows login screen and then an install BSOD with Critical Process Died..

Neat lol.

Currently in the recovery console running a chkdsk.
 
Reference the title.

I clone quite a few drives when upgrading people's laptops from a spinner to ssd. It's easy peasy in windows with this program.

I am looking for something the same. DD doesn't work, as I'm not just looking to copy partitions, but a sector by sector copy.

I need it in Linux because I am upgrading my own system from an SSD to an m2 NVME. So I can't do it within windows, because it's copying it's own drive.
Why can’t you clone a drive you’re using? I’ve done it plenty of times. There was no need to do it outside Windows.

free versions of Acronis do this, EaseUS todo free does it, among others. Not a difficult process at all.
 
Why can’t you clone a drive you’re using? I’ve done it plenty of times. There was no need to do it outside Windows.

free versions of Acronis do this, EaseUS todo free does it, among others. Not a difficult process at all.
I would have expected it to fail because it couldn't get access to parts of the drive in use. Old hat, maybe.
 
I would have expected it to fail because it couldn't get access to parts of the drive in use. Old hat, maybe.
Old hat. Works just fine. And I’m surprised someone else didn’t chime in and say the same. I do it quite often for customers. No issues at all. Once cloned, remove the old drive, slap in the new drive, and magic happens.
 
I have used Macrium to clone the active HDD to an M.2, removed the HDD, and then booted off of the M.2 SSD just fine. Just did it a few days ago upgrading a computer.

You might be having additional issues with your source drive that is making the copy fail, but Macrium will do what you are asking.
 
Seems I really fucked something up boys. Now I have to install windows for the first time in nearly 13 years.

Could run SFC /scannow from the recovery console, chkdsk found nothing..

Windows just boots to a BSOD now.
 
Seems I really fucked something up boys. Now I have to install windows for the first time in nearly 13 years.

Could run SFC /scannow from the recovery console, chkdsk found nothing..

Windows just boots to a BSOD now.
Lol sorry man but the time has come either way. There’s zero chance I’d have a windows install that old. What’s even more surprising is that it was stable enough to last through all those software OS upgrades without major issue. Shows Windows has come a long way.

hopefully you have everything important on a separate drive and backed up. Windows got me in the good habit of keeping important stuff on different drives and backing everything up.
 
Lol sorry man but the time has come either way. There’s zero chance I’d have a windows install that old. What’s even more surprising is that it was stable enough to last through all those software OS upgrades without major issue. Shows Windows has come a long way.

hopefully you have everything important on a separate drive and backed up. Windows got me in the good habit of keeping important stuff on different drives and backing everything up.
I reinstalled windows on my new nvme... Have the SSD with the old windows in the machine and I can pull data from it.

Yeah, I have been meaning to reinstall, but my kids play Roblox on here and they made the account and don't remember the password... So I was hoping I wouldn't need to, because now it's gone lol
 
I'm still going to try it in another PC and also replace my chrome folder from the old appdata folder. Might solve the issue. I mean, the login persisted through windows updates and shut downs and all, so it has to be kept somewhere.
 
I reinstalled windows on my new nvme... Have the SSD with the old windows in the machine and I can pull data from it.

Yeah, I have been meaning to reinstall, but my kids play Roblox on here and they made the account and don't remember the password... So I was hoping I wouldn't need to, because now it's gone lol
that makes sense if its just a extra junker box. I was thinking it was your daily driver.
 
that makes sense if its just a extra junker box. I was thinking it was your daily driver.
It is my main machine lol..

They have one and I have one. Sometimes they like to play together. So my 9 year old daughter uses my system.

No biggie in the end, I'll just make her a new account.
 
I've successfully pulled an entire image of a virtual machine over the network using dd...
 
I've successfully pulled an entire image of a virtual machine over the network using dd...
A VM image is just a file though, no? I have limited VM experience, but usually the entire instance is housed inside a single container. Copying a hard drive isn't just about copying it's Giles, it's also about the attributes associated with the drive and it's hidden structure.
 
Reference the title.

I clone quite a few drives when upgrading people's laptops from a spinner to ssd. It's easy peasy in windows with this program.

I am looking for something the same. DD doesn't work, as I'm not just looking to copy partitions, but a sector by sector copy.

I need it in Linux because I am upgrading my own system from an SSD to an m2 NVME. So I can't do it within windows, because it's copying it's own drive.
dd can copy entire disks no problem. If you specify the device rather than a partition it will copy the entire device.
 
dd can copy entire disks no problem. If you specify the device rather than a partition it will copy the entire device.
I have no better luck with it than the others. Pretty sure in the end it was a drive issue.

My impression is that dd doesnt copy sector to sector? So, it misses boot loaders and the like? Am I mistaken?
 
I have no better luck with it than the others. Pretty sure in the end it was a drive issue.

My impression is that dd doesnt copy sector to sector? So, it misses boot loaders and the like? Am I mistaken?
It does copy sector/sector. You don't even need to specify the filesystem as it copies block by block. It's a very "dumb" program. You give it an input/output & it copies block by block. This is good in some cases, and....not so great in others.

EG: If you try to dd from a 1TB drive to a 500GB you will end up with a non-functioning 500GB drive because DD will simply fill the devices & give you an error "no more space on device". However, if you go from 500GB->1TB it should work great.

if you specify such as (sda being 500GB drive, sdb being 1TB)

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

it will clone /dev/sda to /dev/sdb INCLUDING the area before partitions start as you are cloing the entire device.

If you do "dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb" it will NOT pick up boot sectors & other stuff in the first 512k->1MB as you are cloning the partitino & not the entire drive. I hope that makes sense.
 
It does copy sector/sector. You don't even need to specify the filesystem as it copies block by block. It's a very "dumb" program. You give it an input/output & it copies block by block. This is good in some cases, and....not so great in others.

EG: If you try to dd from a 1TB drive to a 500GB you will end up with a non-functioning 500GB drive because DD will simply fill the devices & give you an error "no more space on device". However, if you go from 500GB->1TB it should work great.

if you specify such as (sda being 500GB drive, sdb being 1TB)

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

it will clone /dev/sda to /dev/sdb INCLUDING the area before partitions start as you are cloing the entire device.

If you do "dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb" it will NOT pick up boot sectors & other stuff in the first 512k->1MB as you are cloning the partitino & not the entire drive. I hope that makes sense.

Makes sense for sure! Thanks! I'll have to give this a go next time. I assume a command like

dd if=/dev/sd0 of=/dev/sd1

Would copy the entire drive?
 
Makes sense for sure! Thanks! I'll have to give this a go next time. I assume a command like

dd if=/dev/sd0 of=/dev/sd1

Would copy the entire drive?
Hm, those are kind of odd device names.

Usually it's sd[a-z][1-9] if you are referencing a partition, or sd[a-z] if you are accessing an entire disk. But if the entire disk was named [sd0] and the new disk was [sd1] then that should work fine.

Pro Tip: If you have stuff like multipath fiberchannel and/or tons of disks, you may see device names such as sdab, sdda etc as once it hits sdz it will go to staa IIRC.
 
Hm, those are kind of odd device names.

Usually it's sd[a-z][1-9] if you are referencing a partition, or sd[a-z] if you are accessing an entire disk. But if the entire disk was named [sd0] and the new disk was [sd1] then that should work fine.

Pro Tip: If you have stuff like multipath fiberchannel and/or tons of disks, you may see device names such as sdab, sdda etc as once it hits sdz it will go to staa IIRC.
That's what I though, reference the sda and sdb. But when you mentioned a requirement to tell it to copy the first chunk of the drive, I thought it was weird as I would expect it to just copy EVERYTHING without the need for options.

Made me think you were referencing partitions.
 
That's what I though, reference the sda and sdb. But when you mentioned a requirement to tell it to copy the first chunk of the drive, I thought it was weird as I would expect it to just copy EVERYTHING without the need for options.

Made me think you were referencing partitions.
Oh it will copy the entire disk.

You could do dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb and it will just clone the entire disk

bs is "block size". default is 512 bytes to read/write (verrry slow) so better to chose something "large" like 1MB.

Using the sda/sdb will start from byte 0 on the drive & get boot sectors & literally copy everything that can be read from the device to the ne new device.
 
Oh it will copy the entire disk.

You could do dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb and it will just clone the entire disk

bs is "block size". default is 512 bytes to read/write (verrry slow) so better to chose something "large" like 1MB.

Using the sda/sdb will start from byte 0 on the drive & get boot sectors & literally copy everything that can be read from the device to the ne new device.
Ugh! I misread your post three posts up. The one listing a partition to a drive. Oof.

Thanks for your help!
 
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