CLONE RANGER
Sometimes, there’s nothing more useful than a dumb copy of your drive, but what’s the best way to achieve that? We’ll show you…
Sometimes, there’s nothing more useful than a dumb copy of your drive, but what’s the best way to achieve that? We’ll show you.
Part of the rationale of any backup strategy is not to bother with any data that can be easily downloaded again, which is why backups usually ignore boot drives these days. User folders store configuration files, and the general OS files are restored when you reinstall, right?
As true as that is, there’s still a couple of arguments for running clone operations; one of the most common is to migrate your boot media, transferring it from an old slow HDD, or perhaps shifting from an outdated SSD to a more modern one. The other argument is backup – while it’s true you can reinstall Windows from scratch, we all know how long that can take, and don’t get us started on updates. So, if a clone can be created easily and quickly, it can offer a simple way to deal with future problems.
We’re going to look at two options, one that Microsoft offers and the other an open-source solution. The first is the tried and trusted Windows System Image. It’s convenient, because it can run live as you use your system, and it ties in to the default Windows Recovery system. We’re also going to look at the off-putting but incredibly flexible Clonezilla, created back when everything was called
Cloning or imaging? We really should get our parlance sorted before we continue. When most people think of imaging a drive, it’s the process of copying an entire drive or partition to an image file stored elsewhere. In terms of drive cloning, people tend to think of “live imaging” of one drive or partition to another drive or partition on the fly.
Essentially, both processes are the same, it’s just the destination that’s different. Once a drive image is written to another drive, you’ve accomplished the same cloned state, just with an extra write step. To keep things simple, we’ll call it all drive or partition imaging; if we’re doing it disk-to-disk or disk-to-file, it’s hardly going out of our way to say so.
Typically with backups, an incremental option should be available. This is a drive image that only stores the bytes that have changed, so it’s quicker. Sounds useful, huh? Annoyingly, neither the Microsoft option nor the open-source tool support this, though it’s not out of the question.
To be fair on Microsoft, imaging isn’t a well-regarded way of backing up data these days, especially if you can’t use an incremental system. It’s timeconsuming, and even considered pointless. If you have a boot drive larger than 240GB, you might want to consider another approach or repartitioning, so your user data is stored separately from Windows.
Unix-based operating systems nailed this aspect of separating user files from the OS a long time ago, insisting that all meat-bag data is stored (originally) in a dedicated / home folder, and in recent years on a / home partition. This enables the OS files to be nuked from orbit, reinstalled, and the world keeps on turning, because user files and config files are safely stored away from the detonation site. Windows 2000 did introduce something similar, but there’s still an unholy mishmash of files all over the place. It’s annoying.
THE MICROSOFT WAY
We’re going to kick off by looking at the built-in Windows System Image tool. Microsoft tried to push people away from system images when it introduced Windows 8, in its not so subtle way of killing off Windows 7 Backup and Restore, which was originally introduced in Windows Vista. After much Gen-X moaning, Microsoft restored the system to Windows 8.1, and it remains tucked away in Windows 10 under the Control Panel section in “System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7).”
In its favor, it’s pretty straightforward to use, uses shadow copy to run in the background as you work, and the recovery (usually) works as part of the standard recovery mode options. The “usually” comment there is inserted as we have run into issues restoring images made under different versions of Windows – as in, it won’t do that. Technically (and actually), you should make a recovery disc as a catch-all – you’re prompted to do this when an image is completed.
Limitations with Windows System Image include: minimal options (it only images the entire system drive, and you can’t restore individual files after); it only backs up to the root of a selected backup drive, and it only allows one image on there; it insists on a network username and password for network shares, even if they have public access rights (in this case, you need to provide the remote system’s standard username and password); and, as mentioned, it doesn’t support incremental backups, so it always takes a long time to run.
Creating a disk image with Microsoft System Image is pretty easy, but you need a separate internal drive, a spare external drive, a big stack of DVDs, or a network share to which you know the username and password. Got that sorted? Good!
In “Search,” type “Control,” and select “Control Panel.” Under “System and security,” click “Backup and Restore (Windows 7),” and click “Create a system image” on the left. It scans for
what it considers viable backup targets. An external drive or network share would be best, though any internal drive is fine; as mentioned, though, for any network share, even if it’s set for guest access, you need to provide a suitable username and password. If everything appears to work, click “Next.” You’re provided with an estimate of the space requirements and a “Start backup” button. Hit that, and you can continue life as normal, while the drive is imaged in the background.
To recover your PC, you have two options: reboot using a recovery DVD, or start Windows in Recovery mode. If Windows runs, open the “Start” menu, type “Recovery,” and choose “Recovery options.” Select “Restart now” under “Advanced startup.” Choose “Troubleshoot > Advanced options > System image recovery.” Windows then reboots into Recovery mode. You need the drive with the system image on plugged in to your computer. Follow the prompts, and your system is restored.
THE OPEN WAY
So, the Microsoft tool is limited and slow, but it has saved our bacon a couple of times over the years. We look at other proprietary options in the box below, but we’d like to focus on the long-standing industry tool Clonezilla. In development since in 2007, it’s an enterprise-class disk-imaging and restore tool, with support for over 20 filesystems, over six operating system types, and sector-to-sector copy for those it doesn’t support. It has full network support, a client-server mode, and supports full encryption of its images. It’s beyond the scope of this article, but it also supports Multicast for multi-clone/restore to networked systems, with PXE and WoL support.
That’s all nice, but it means Clonezilla is more complex to use. It’s not helped by the fact that it has its roots in the Linux garden, so textbased interfaces and indecipherable drive names are the order of the day. The flip side is that it’s super-flexible, and free to use anywhere and on anything. And once you’ve run through the menu systems, you soon learn what’s important and what can be ignored.
Clonezilla is a “live disc” OS, which means you grab the ISO image from www.clonezilla.org, and write it to either a CD, DVD, or USB stick. You then boot your system off that. Get the “Alternative Stable” image, aka Ubuntu-based build, from www. clonezilla.org/downloads.php – it’s about 220MB. This version can avoid potential UEFI boot issues on new systems. If you want to write this to a USB stick, the latest tool to do that is Etcher.io. Gather all that together, write it to the USB stick, and come back when you’re ready.
Now work out how to boot your PC from a USB device – many systems