Acronis True Image Expand Partition

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Im a new Linux user. I've reinstalled my Wubi from scratch at least ten times the last few weeks because while getting the system up and running (drivers, resolution, etc.) I've broken something (X, grub, unknowns) and I can't get it back to work. Especially for a newbie like me, it's easier (and much faster) to just reinstall the whole shebang than try to troubleshoot several layers of failed "fixing" attempts.

Coming from Windows, I expect that there is some "disk image" utility that I can run to make a snapshot of my Linux install (and of the boot partition!!) before I meddle with stuff. Then, after I've foobar'ed my machine, I would somehow restore my machine back to that working snapshot.

All references to the file system and hard disks are located locally on the virtual /dev/ filesystem. There are a multitude of "nodes" in /dev/ that are interfaces to almost all the devices on your computer. For example, /dev/hda or /dev/sda would refer to the first hard drive in your system (hda vs sda depends on the hard drive), and /dev/hda1 would refer to the first partition on your hard drive.

The most straight forward way to make a raw image of your partitions is to use dd to dump the entire partition to a single file (remember the OS access the partitions /dev/sda1 through a file interface). Make sure you are on a larger partition or on a secondary drive and perform the following command:

You can use the exact same command to back up the entire hard disk (replace hda1 with hda). You can then use any compression program (gunzip, zip, bzip) to compress the file for storage. You can use this same technique to make rote copies of entire partitions to make clones of your computer.

There is one limitation though, when restoring the backup: The partition needs to be the same size (or bigger) as the partition you took the image from, so this limits your options in case of a restore. However, you can always expand the partition after you've restored the backup using gparted or parted. The picture gets even muddier when you are trying to restore entire disk copies. However, if you are restoring the backup to the same exact hard drive, you don't need to worry about this at all.

Obviously, a partition cannot be copied while in use: it needs to be unmounted so it doesn't suffer changes during copying (that is self-evident). Therefore, in order to back up your system partition you have to boot in a usb live system - or, as seen in the above image, in a separate (multi-boot) system. The system partition is the one marked with a star. If you try to copy the system partition you get an error soon enough:

Also, one has to take notice that the back-up and the restoration of bootable partitions are both risky procedures and that a back-up of valuable/sensitive data should be first done in a different way (by copying the data instead of the entire partition, etc). - From my experience, this works with Ubuntu system partitions but not with Windows ones.

Optionally, in order to minimize the space taken by the saved image, a partition can be first shrunk (from end, that is from right) so that it would not include the empty space. Here is a post on that: create partition backup image no larger than its files.

Following this answer: How to correctly restore system partition (iso image) with 'Disks'. See the question there. The main idea is that the image (iso) has to be restored onto an existing empty partition that is:

See the comments under the above linked answer on the fact that Gparted reports the difference of space between the destination partition and the restored one as un-allocated space. That can be fixed with Gparted: select partition and apply "Check" action.

Backup with dd

The following example will create a drive image of /dev/sda, the image will be backed up to an external drive, and compressed. For example, one may use bzip2 for maximum compression:

Restoring a drive image

To restore a drive image, one will want to boot into a live environment. Restoration is quite simple, and really just involves reversing the if and of values. This will tell dd to overwrite the drive with the data that is stored in the file. Ensure the image file isn't stored on the drive you're restoring to. If you do this, eventually during the operation dd will overwrite the image file, corrupting it and your drive.

There also Ghost for Linux, but Clonezilla is the better option - it's more up to date. The latest version of Ghost for Linux is listed May 2009, while Clonezilla's latest version was posted in November 2010. One minor limitation of Clonezilla compared to Ghost is that you can't resize the partition on restore, while Norton Ghost can.

However you might be interested in using Clonezilla if you have an external USB hard disk drive or a NAS. You just have to download an ISO image by clicking here (you can access the global download page here), burn it with "Brasero". Boot from Clonezilla Live CD and perform a backup (disk or partition to image) of your main hard disk drive (with your healthy Ubuntu). Please note that you can't backup the partition you have mounted as backup destination (quite logical). If your system is broken, you just have to boot again with Clonezilla Live CD and perform a restore of your system. Don't forget that Clonezilla makes snapshots, so if you have your data ("/home", "/etc", ...) on the same disk/partition as Ubuntu system, you'll get back the one from the backup and loose what has been done since that backup was performed...

You can also use "Back In Time (backintime-gnome)" (available from Ubuntu Software Center) or else (Dj Dup, ...) alongside to get a backup of your data. You just have to include ("/home", "/etc", "/var", "/usr/local", ...) in the backup profile. Like that you can get back your healthy system with Clonezilla and then your latest data with "Back In Time" or else.

The link I provide in this and other instructions in step 2 does not work anymore. However, I had downloaded the Remastersys files before the website shut down and they can be installed perfectly through Ubuntu Software Center. !! I am not sure if the files are available in Ubuntu Software Center, but if you have them on your computer, they can be installed through it.

As you said, the partition tools provided by Windows are simply not good enough. I use them only when I install a new disk and need to partition it to a single partition occupying the whole (or almost the whole) disk.

There are a lot of different categories of important utility programs that are not provided by MS. It never really bothered me in my Windows days as long as I could get the job done without having to pay extra for something that would otherwise be thought to be something that should be part of the OS.

Agree with Susan absolutely. I have an older HP laptop that came with WIN 8. I upgraded it to WIN 10 and am left with an OEM partition (with the WIN 8 backup) that I emptied out but which prevents me from expanding my C: partition. Microsoft should have provided a mechanism for recycling the OEM partition in conjuction with the upgrading process. (I have newer hardware, as well, that came equipped with WIN 10, but the older one is preferred on trips as it would be no great loss if swiped or worse.)

They wrote the entire OS. Of course they can write a decent partitioning tool if they wanted to, or any other of the tools that you refer to. They just choose not to. They give you the bare minimum to get by and leave the rest up to you.

Used MiniTool Partition Wizard the one time I needed to mess around with the partitions on my disk and it worked perfectly for me. Also used it for migrating the OS from a mechanical disk to an SSD and that went without an issue as well.

I agree that Windows should have a full featured disk partitioning tool built in. I have used GpartEd for at least 15 years. Prior to that I used Partition Magic. I am sure that other third party tools work as well.

Nothing unusual about that! The pattern I see is: When a new Windows version appears, you start with 1/2 or less of previous version benefits and features and then have to live with slowly improving beta software for about 5 years. Next you have a fairly well working system for about 2 years until the next new Windows version installs and then the cycle repeats. There seems to be no end to this pattern. Why expect more?

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things. We were all once "Average Users".Computer Specs

I'm an unaffiliated Software Developer who is also a Free Software enthusiast and a contributor to various Open Source projects.

Akeo is the name of my company, but it's really just a one-man operation that I conduct in my spare time, so please don't expect it to have the same level of resources as Microsoft, Google, or Apple when it comes to development and support...

Oh, and incidentally, Akeo is the name of a small lough that's only visible from the top of Muckish, but you don't really care about that, do you?...

Mostly because I found that I really can't stand proprietary software and grew tired of seeing everybody use the trusted, yet old and limited HPUSBFW formatting utility. Reverse Engineering that tool to create a Free Software clone seemed like an interesting challenge, so I just went for it. For additional background info, see here.

Besides, with the code being Free Software (which is a very deliberate choice as Rufus would not be as good as it is if it was closed source, due to its ability to leverage the great work of others!), anybody could recompile and distribute the same version free of charge.

Of course, with all this being said, remember that Rufus is 100% Open Source. So if you really want a feature, you can try to find a sympathetic programmer (or even better, develop your own programming skills) to modify the code and then submit a patch for review.

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