Free drive cloning software

[Morningside]

I need to clone a drive so that it's exactly the same and boots as well. I have a USB to SATA connector so what is the best free software out there?

I know I can type this request into Google but that usually returns spyware and other unwanted crap.

[Nimby]

Clonezilla

[colin79666]

Driveimagexl has been around for years and gets the job done
https://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Clone Zilla is also good and can be used commercially.

[Thorburn]

Does Clonezilla play nice with UEFI/GPT bootable drives now? Used to use it but went elsewhere as wouldn't handle these at one time.

[Nimby]

Thorburn said:

Does Clonezilla play nice with UEFI/GPT bootable drives now? Used to use it but went elsewhere as wouldn't handle these at one time.

4th bullet in the Features list says "Both MBR and GPT partition formats of hard drive are supported. Clonezilla live also can be booted on a BIOS or uEFI machine".

[essayer]

If one is a Samsung their own tool is pretty good

[Thorburn]

Nimby said:

4th bullet in the Features list says "Both MBR and GPT partition formats of hard drive are supported. Clonezilla live also can be booted on a BIOS or uEFI machine".

That'll teach me to not check for myself.

[buggalugs]

+1 Clonezilla

[ging84]

dd

[eltawater]

Macrium Reflect Free

[SystemParanoia]

ging84 said:

dd

This.

Available on windows if you install bash on windows on linux subsystem in W10

[Mr Pointy]

Macrium Rflect Free:

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Very easy to use & will copy all partitions, unlike some of the alternatives. Make a Rescue disk/USB first - it's all described on the website.

[buggalugs]

SystemParanoia said:

ging84 said:

dd

This.

Available on windows if you install bash on windows on linux subsystem in W10

Its good for some things but copies free space and data regardless so takes frikking ages and makes huge images

[SystemParanoia]

buggalugs said:

SystemParanoia said:

ging84 said:

dd

This.

Available on windows if you install bash on windows on linux subsystem in W10

Its good for some things but copies free space and data regardless so takes frikking ages and makes huge images

Just pipe it through gzip or pigz on the fly.

[buggalugs]

SystemParanoia said:

buggalugs said:

SystemParanoia said:

ging84 said:

dd

This.

Available on windows if you install bash on windows on linux subsystem in W10

Its good for some things but copies free space and data regardless so takes frikking ages and makes huge images

Just pipe it through gzip or pigz on the fly.

Good if your free space happens to be a few billion zeros

[SystemParanoia]

buggalugs said:

SystemParanoia said:

buggalugs said:

SystemParanoia said:

ging84 said:

dd

This.

Available on windows if you install bash on windows on linux subsystem in W10

Its good for some things but copies free space and data regardless so takes frikking ages and makes huge images

Just pipe it through gzip or pigz on the fly.

Good if your free space happens to be a few billion zeros

then zero it
its not difficult.

but storage is so cheap these days.. why bother.
the op is obviously not going to DD from an enterprise datacentre, there are far more appropriate tools for that quantity of data.

[buggalugs]

SystemParanoia said:

then zero it
its not difficult.

but storage is so cheap these days.. why bother.
the op is obviously not going to DD from an enterprise datacentre, there are far more appropriate tools for that quantity of data.

Could you do that? Yes
Is it an efficient use of time and resource? No

[SystemParanoia]

buggalugs said:

SystemParanoia said:

then zero it
its not difficult.

but storage is so cheap these days.. why bother.
the op is obviously not going to DD from an enterprise datacentre, there are far more appropriate tools for that quantity of data.

Could you do that? Yes
Is it an efficient use of time and resource? No

waste of Time and resource ?

Set it off, then go to bed...

[ging84]

buggalugs said:

Its good for some things but copies free space and data regardless so takes frikking ages and makes huge images

Anything less than a block level copy would not be cloning the drive

[Morningside]

DD? Well that sounds a bit complicated but willing to try anything. Will report back tomorrow with my findings of how I get on (hopefully!)