This is a first part to a more complete post that will be completed in a near future, because I haven’t fully tested the software known as Clonezilla. It’s free by the way! Why I haven’t fully tested the software? I’ve only done the first part where I created an image of my Linux system using Clonezilla. For Ubuntu user, you should use the alternative package that Clonezilla provides. Ubuntu updates its main packages all the time, and to keep up-to-date with Ubuntu, Clonezilla has to create an alternative version so it can be compatible with Ubuntu. The other part I haven’t tested with Clonezilla is to restore my Linux system using the image that I created with Clonezilla.
The faster your hardware, the faster Clonezilla runs to complete the process of creating an image of your Linux system. What is an image of your Linux system? To explain in simple way, an image of your Linux system allows you to restore your Linux system fully — to a clean and working state that you saved. This is great, because I always experiment with new software and hacking my own Linux system to the way I think best even though sometimes I tread on the wrong path of doing so; by doing all of those things, my Linux system can sometimes go really wrong or you can say, it gets wacky. Restoring my Linux system to its previous working state which I had saved as an image format using Clonezilla is a must for me. Clonezilla is great for you when you need to do something similar to what I do to a Linux system, by which I mean to abuse your Linux system extensively.
Use Clonezilla, first you must download a stable version of it from clonezilla.org. Burn the download image (i.e., .iso) onto a CD/DVD. Pop that into your CD/DVD drive, reboot your computer and make sure that your PC’s BIOS is set to boot CD/DVD drive first (i.e., HD boot second if there is no disk in your CD/DVD drive). Follow the instructions that display by Clonezilla to clone your Linux system. As long you have a need for a backup Linux system, you can use Clonezilla for an infinite number of time to restore a Linux system.
There are other simpler tools to backup your Linux system, and these can be found in your Linux’s repositories. I’m familiar with Ubuntu, and so I use Synaptic or aptitude to install these backup tools. Still, I think Clonezilla is a better tool for backup task although it’s a little scary at first for a beginner user (especially scary for Linux’s newbie). The next time I update this post, it will be about how I restore my Linux system using Clonezilla. By then, you can expect that my Linux has been extensively abused by me or has been extensively hacked by a hacker.
Vinh Nguyen
