This tutorial is going to show you how to clone an Ubuntu system using Clonezilla. Clonezilla is a powerful disk cloning and backup utility. It can backup the whole disk or selected partition only. The backup or cloned disk can be saved locally or in remote server (Samba, SSH, NFS and some others). If you need a disk clone utility, Clonezilla is the perfect one.
On this tutorial I am going to show you how to clone Ubuntu system to my second disk connected to Ubuntu. First of all, make sure we have the destination disk recognized in Ubuntu. You can check if there is second disk in Ubuntu. Execute this command on Ubuntu:
sudo fdisk -l
You should see your disks listed there
Disk /dev/sda: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders, total 41943040 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000609caDevice Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 38871039 19434496 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 38873086 41940991 1533953 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 38873088 41940991 1533952 82 Linux swap / SolarisDisk /dev/sdb: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders, total 41943040 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000609caDevice Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 38871039 19434496 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 38873086 41940991 1533953 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 38873088 41940991 1533952 82 Linux swap / Solaris
On the example above I have two disks with several partitions on it. I want to backup my first hard disk which is /dev/sda to my second one /dev/sdb. The first disk contains Ubuntu system and all data files in it. Both disks has the same size.
Now I boot my computer using Clonezilla ISO. You may download the latest version of Clonezilla from this link. Select first option on the boot screen. This will let Clonezilla boot and we’ll start from there.
Select language
Now select keymap or leave the default value
Now select to start Clonezilla
Now you need to select device to image or device to device mode. Since we want to clone the disk to another disk, we use the second option.
Select Beginner or Advanced mode. If you do not need to modify another parameter, the Beginner mode should be fine.
Select the clone destination. Choose the first option disk to local disk one, since we want to clone the disk to another disk connected to the computer.
Select the disk source. This is the disk which we want to be cloned
Now select the destination disk. This is the disk where the backup will be saved. Please note that the content of this disk will be wiped and overwritten. So be careful with the data you may have.
Specify the advanced parameter. If you want to check and repairing the source file system you can select the second option. If not, simply use the first one.
Press Enter to continue and press Y and followed by Enter to confirm the process.
You will be asked to copy the bootloader if any. If you want the second disk can be bootable (if containing operating system), you must press Y and confirm it.
Now the copy process will start
Wait until it finished. Once finished you can reboot your computer and the clone process is finished.
