Clone qubes machine - any options other than backup and build again?

dumbcyber

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Dec 14, 2016, 6:19:14 AM12/14/16

to qubes-users

Hello, I am running Qubes from a 64Gb USB stick.

I am running R3.2 on my Macbook 11,1, and have built several template VMs, for example Windows.

What I want to do now is clone the entire USB stick to another USB external SSD drive. In other words I want to be able to stop using the USB stick and move to the SSD drive without building Qubes from again scratch and then performing backup/restore all my VMs.

Is this even possible? Am i dreaming?

Thanks in advance.

Franz

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Dec 14, 2016, 6:58:15 AM12/14/16

to dumbcyber, qubes-users

A couple of times I had success cloning entire hard disks using clonezilla under linux. It was easy and fast. But I do not know if it runs under MAC. Also I doubt it will work under Qubes if you boot it directly from the USB stick you want to clone. But if you have another computer with linux it should work.

Best

Fran

Thanks in advance.

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Andrew David Wong

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Dec 14, 2016, 9:07:12 AM12/14/16

to dumbcyber, qubes-users

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

I reckon there's nothing to lose by trying, as long as you keep the
original USB stick. You can try with dd or any program that makes a
bitwise identical image from the USB stick and faithfully writes it
onto the SDD drive.

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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dumbcyber

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Dec 18, 2016, 1:18:17 AM12/18/16

to qubes-users, dumb...@riseup.net

Quick update: On a Kali Linux machine, I managed to format and partition the destination disk as per the Qubes USB stick. I've used DD command to copy the contents of the two partitions. I get a success message at the end.

When I boot I get the option to boot from this new disk but nothing else happens. I've noticed using fdisk and gparted on linux that while the DD command is successful the second partition is actually empty. The first partition is fine - looks exactly like the source disk.

Any ideas appreciated.

dumbcyber

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Dec 27, 2016, 10:47:06 PM12/27/16

to qubes-users, dumb...@riseup.net

Just in case this helps anyone else: I managed to do this successfully with Clonezilla. Used the advanced options where I unchecked "reinstall grub".

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