Acronis similar programs. Clonezilla is a free analogue of Partition magic, Acronis, Norton Ghost, etc.

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Clonezilla - FREE analogue of Particion magic, Acronis, Norton Ghost, etc.
When creating a partition/disk image, only occupied data blocks are copied; the image can be compressed. The resulting image can be written both locally and to a remote server (ssh, smb, nfs).
Unlike simply copying with the dd command, which also copies the free space, Clonezilla includes several utilities that process the data stream before the dd utility, completely ignoring the free blocks.
Therefore, only the data will be included in the image.

Also, do not forget that the resulting image is an image created using the dd utility and an archiver (optional) with which you can work on any UNIX system, and you are not tied to one distribution (product).

Clonezilla ...what is it?
You're probably familiar with the popular proprietary commercial package Norton Ghost®, and its OpenSource counterpart, Partition Image. The problem with these software packages is that it takes a lot of time to massively clone systems to many computers. You"ve probably also heard of Symantec"s solution to this problem, Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition® with multicasting. Well, now there is an OpenSource clone system (OCS) solution called Clonezilla with unicasting and multicasting!

excerpt from the off site:
* Free (GPL) Software.
* Filesystem supported: ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs of GNU/Linux, FAT, NTFS of MS Windows, and HFS+ of Mac OS (testing feature provided by partclone). Therefore you can clone GNU/Linux, MS windows and Intel-based Mac OS. For these file systems, only used blocks in partition are saved and restored. For unsupported file system, sector-to-sector copy is done by dd in Clonezilla.
* LVM2 (LVM version 1 is not) under GNU/Linux is supported.
* Multicast is supported in Clonezilla SE, which is suitable for massively clone. You can also remotely use it to save or restore a bunch of computers if PXE and Wake-on-LAN are supported in your clients.
* Based on Partimage, ntfsclone, partclone, and dd to clone partition. However, clonezilla, containing some other programs, can save and restore not only partitions, but also a whole disk.
* By using another free software drbl-winroll, which is also developed by us, the hostname, group, and SID of cloned MS windows machine can be automatically changed.

As can be seen from the excerpt from the off site, the program supports most file systems!

Also, in addition to LiveCD, there is a server option.
Clonezilla supports PXE installation of images. I will not consider this option. Anyone interested can read about this

Let's get started:

1) Go to Clonezilla.org and download the latest Stable Live CD from there
We write it to CD or, in the case of using Grub4DOS, do the following:
Mount the image:

mkdir -p /mnt/iso
mount -o loop /tmp/clonezilla-live-1.2.1-23.iso /mnt/iso

2) Mount the Flash partition to which we will copy the Clonezilla files

mkdir -p /mnt/flash
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/flash # sdb is my Flash, and sdb1 is my 1st Flash partition with Grub4DOS
cp -r /mnt/iso/live /mnt/flash # copy the live folder from the iso image that contains the Clonezilla files

3) In the menu.lst file we enter:

title Clonezilla
root(hd0,0)
kernel /live/vmlinuz1 boot=live union=aufs ocs_live_run=”ocs-live-general” ocs_live_extra_param=”” ocs_live_keymap=”” ocs_live_batch=”no” ocs_lang=”” vga=791 ip=frommedia nolocales
initrd=/live/initrd1.img

4) Save, congratulations, you now have a Live Flash version of Clonezilla with loading via Grub4DOS

Now all that remains is to follow the instructions of the Clonezilla wizard.
If you suddenly go to the command line and don’t know how to start the wizard, run:

sudo -i # get root rights and you can, for example, mount disks, etc.
clonezilla # launch wizard

Once cloning is complete, you will receive an image that can be easily restored using Clonezilla or any other Live Linux distribution.
If you need individual files or an image, you can simply copy them from the image, linking it to a virtual device.

Free program for managing logical hard drive partitions.

Previously, when the capacity of hard drives was measured in megabytes, in order to accumulate any decent space, you had to connect several drives to your computer.

The operating system recognized them and named them alternately with letters Latin alphabet. Everything was simple: how many hard drives cost - so many drive letters are displayed.

However, with the advent of high-capacity media, the situation began to change dramatically. Now almost every modern PC has only one real hard drive, but the system detects it as two or more!

The thing is that modern hard drives can be “split” into several partitions, each of which is assigned a separate letter, and which can be worked with separately without affecting the file system of sectors of adjacent logical drives.

As you may have guessed, today we will talk about a program that allows you to manage hard drive partitions. And it's called Wondershare Disk Manager.

This small application for Windows allows you to create, delete, move, resize and copy (though it's a little tighter...) hard drive partitions. It contains all the most necessary tools that are in paid packages, so Wondershare Disk Manager can be compared with the Windows version of Acronis Disk Director:

Comparison of Wondershare Disk Manager with paid analogue Acronis Disk Director

Overall, Wondershare Disk Manager is a fairly simple and convenient hard drive manager. Among the shortcomings, it is worth noting the lack of support for alternative file systems, as well as a slightly inconvenient backup mechanism.

Otherwise, the program is quite worthwhile and, most importantly, even a person who has never encountered the process of partitioning a hard drive can figure it out.

Installing Wondershare Disk Manager

In order to install Wondershare Disk Manager, just run the installer, which you download in the archive from our website, and follow the wizard’s prompts (essentially, constantly press the “Next” button ;)). After installation is complete, the program registration window will open.

To receive an activation code, you must complete the free registration procedure on the website of the program manufacturer. To go to the site, just click the “Get Keycode” button.

The registration form will only require your name and address. Email, to which an activation code will be sent. If everything is done correctly, then go to your mailbox, copy the received serial number from there and paste it into the “Registration code” field. We enter your e-mail above and finally click the “Register” button.

Wondershare Disk Manager Interface

If everything is done correctly, the main Wondershare Disk Manager window will open in front of you:

Despite the fact that the program interface is English, everything here is quite clear, so there shouldn’t be any problems with the work. At the very top of the window there is a menu bar, which we will practically not touch, since all functions are placed on the toolbar (below) in the form of colorful buttons.

Below the toolbar we see the immediate work area, divided into three parts: on the left is the event panel, at the top right is a list of hard drives with detailed information about them, and at the bottom is a schematic representation of the disk space. At the very bottom of the window there is a status line with general information about hard drive partitions.

Working with disk

To start working with sections, just select one of them in the list or on the diagram:

After this, the action panel on the left will display a list of all possible actions on this volume, and the partition size control bars will be activated on the diagram.

What I really liked about Wondershare Disk Manager is the ability to resize partitions by simply dragging the mouse without having to bring up additional dialog boxes.

Here's a simple example: as you can see, there are 8 megabytes of unallocated space on drive D. To add it to the main section, simply select it and pull the right size control bar all the way.

After this, a record of the action we performed will appear in the list of operations, and three buttons will be activated on the toolbar that allow you to cancel, delete or confirm this action.

In our case, to confirm, you need to click the “Apply” button. A confirmation window will appear, in which we will be asked for the last time whether we really confirm our action :). Click “Apply” again and wait for the partition re-size procedure to complete.

It is worth noting that if you need to set the exact size of a partition, then to resize it, use the wizard, which is called up by clicking the “Resize” button on the toolbar.

Creating a new logical drive

In the previous example, we attached the unallocated space to the main partition, but we could have done it differently: take a couple of gigabytes from the main volume and create a new logical disk on the resulting empty area!

To do this, you need to select an unallocated area and call the partition creation wizard by clicking the “Create” button. In the first window of the wizard we can precisely reduce the size of the new volume, after which we will need to move to the next window by clicking the “Next” button:

Here you can select the file system for the new logical disk, set its name, letter, type and size of clusters (the standard settings do not need to be changed). After this, it will be enough to click the “Create” button and we will get a new section (albeit after the confirmation procedure described above).

Removing unnecessary partitions

Sometimes there are cases when we no longer need a particular partition and need to delete it (for example, to increase space on the main volume). In this case, we can use the Wondershare Disk Manager partition removal wizard:

Select the partition to be destroyed and click the “Delete” button on the toolbar. A window will open in which we can select the type of volume deletion. And there are two of them available: without destroying files and with completely erasing them (the latter mode requires a reboot).

In the first case, in the future, if we wish, we can easily restore almost all the files stored on the partition before it was deleted using the “Recover” function.

The second option allows you to completely clear the contents of the selected partition without the possibility of restoring it. In the “Shred files” mode, we can set the number of data overwrite passes on the selected partition from 3 (Primary) to 35 (Advanced).

After selecting the type of partition deletion, all you need to do is click the “Delete” button and confirm your action.

Partition recovery

The next tool in Wondershare Disk Manager is the Partition Recovery Wizard:

It is called by pressing the “Recover” button. In the first window of the wizard, we can select automatic or manual scanning of the hard drive (I recommend automatic). In the next window, the program, having scanned the hard drive space, will display a list of volumes available for recovery.

Select one of them and click “Next”. After confirming the action, we will receive a complete copy of the previously deleted hard drive partition with all the files stored on it (unless, of course, you erased them when deleting the volume).

Copying partitions

The last tool worth mentioning is partition copy. Ideally, we should be able to copy any selected volume to any media that has enough free space.

However, in reality, Wondershare Disk Manager only allows you to store a copy on the same physical media as the original. At least I couldn’t get the program to copy the partition from drive C to drive D (two separate hard drives) :(. Therefore, the benefit of such copying is rather doubtful...

Working through the context menu

To all the main and additional functions Wondershare Disk Manager can be accessed in several ways. We've already worked with the toolbar and looked at the event panel, however, as in many other applications, sometimes the context menu is a very convenient way to control it:

Here, as in the event panel, all possible actions on the selected section that are not on the toolbar are collected. For example, the “Explore” item allows you to quickly open the root directory of the selected logical drive, and the “Advanced” section contains additional tools for working with the partition:

These tools include Change Drive Name, Change Drive Letter, Convert File System, Set Activity, Check Disk Integrity, and Hide Partition.

As for me, the interface of Wondershare Disk Manager is more than simple, however, if you are intimidated by a large number of various information and menus, then especially for you there is a special wizard mode, which you can switch to by clicking the “Wizard Mode” button (the button on the far right on toolbar):

In this mode, we have access only to the most basic tools for working with partitions (resizing, creating, deleting, copying and restoring volumes). They are presented in the form of buttons with a short explanation, pressing which brings up the corresponding wizard described above.

An experienced system administrator might twirl his finger at his temple if I recommend Wondershare Disk Manager to him, but a simple user doesn’t need much. And the program copes with all the most basic functions (except copying) perfectly!

conclusions

If you are the owner of a modern, capacious hard drive and want to allocate separate logical partitions for a collection of music, movies, books, etc., then Wondershare Disk Manager will help you easily and quickly create the required number of volumes for your content and subsequently manage them very flexibly;).

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

Greetings, Dear friends, acquaintances, random passers-by, miscreants and other individuals reading this material. Today we will again raise the topic of backup, namely, we will talk about how to create copies of hard drive partitions. Surely you remember that this question has already been raised in an article entitled ""...

And in general, the topic itself is not new, because a certain number of articles on this project have already been devoted to it. There were also articles about creating backup copies, for example, using 'bat nicknames, - , - which help almost manually create backup copies of the necessary data, and later I talked about a program for automatic backup - namely, - in the article –

But, taking into account that the long-suffering Acronis has strongly slipped onto commercial lines, and not all software can make and restore copies of partitions outside of a loaded system, and just as part of broadening one’s horizons, today I want to tell you about this.. mmm.. a software package like CloneZilla, based on Linux. This, so to speak, program will be a little more difficult to work with than Acronis, but, in the end, the free nature and extra experience in working with such software should outweigh all the difficulties.

Overall, it is important to simply follow my instructions and be extremely careful - then everything will work out. I apologize in advance for the very dubious quality of... uh... "screenshots". It happened:(

How to take a snapshot of a Linux and Windows partition or disk

First, we need to download the distribution package of the program, namely, its image for burning to disk. This can be done. Next, we need to write the downloaded file to disk. This can be done using the SCD Writer program, which you can download.

After downloading, unpack the archive and run the program, it’s just a matter of small things:

As a result of this process, you will have a ready-made disk with the program. To do this, you need to go into the BIOS (the DEL button or one of the F2-F12 rows at the VERY early stage of booting the computer). Actually, if such a blue or blue-gray screen appears, then you, as they say, have found yourself in this most terrible BIOS.

“Welcome to the BIOS” or “Where did I end up?”
We got... well... into the heart of the computer. In order not to break anything, we walk through the sections carefully. We are interested in only one option - boot priority. Next, I will tell you where and what you need to click to boot from our disk. Many computers have different BIOS, so the settings of one BIOS manufacturer may be completely different from another. But that's not so bad. Even different versions of the same BIOS manufacturer have different settings. Therefore, I will only describe the most common options.

If you see the “Boot” tab, then go to it and look at 3 fields there (they go in a row) first, second, third boot device respectively. We put CD in the first field, HDD in the second, and we are not interested in the third. We go back and exit the BIOS (f10). Don't forget to save your changes. After this, the computer will restart.

Go to Advanced BIOS features (if there is none, then BIOS features) and look for either the Boot Sequence field or 3 fields (they come in a row) First, Second, Third boot device respectively. If we have Boot Sequence, then we set it like this: CD, HDD, floppy (or by disk labels, for example D, C, A). If we have three boot device fields, then we set them as in the previous paragraph. We go back and exit the BIOS (f10). Don't forget to save your changes. After this, the computer will restart.

If you did everything correctly at the stage above, then after saving the settings and exiting . When it happens, you will see something like the following window (I apologize for the quality of the photos, it was not possible to do better):

Next, we actually need to decide on the launch parameters. If you have a small amount of RAM (up to 1Gb), then it makes sense to use the first line, namely “ CloneZilla live (Default settings, VGA 800x600)”, if there is enough memory, then select “ Others modes of Clonezilla live”, and then the third line, namely “Clonezilla live (To RAM..)”, which will allow the program to load into memory and not depend on the CD/DVD ROM, i.e. work faster.

After downloading, you will need to select the program language. I think that Russian will suit us :) On the next tab they will offer to change the layout. In most cases this is not required, so feel free to select the “ Don't touch the layout”, and on the next tab select the item “ Launch Clonezilla”.

Burning/recovering partitions/disks from an image
Write/restore from disk to disk, from partition to partition

IN in this example we will consider the first option, because it is more complicated, more interesting, and also because the second involves cloning a partition/disk, i.e., if you, say, want to create a backup copy of a disk with a system on another physical disk, then the data is on another disk will be overwritten, and it will become a complete copy of the first one, i.e., in order to consider this option, you will need a clean hard drive or partition, and therefore for now we will consider the first point. On the second, you can practice on your own. Select “ device-image work with disks or partitions using images”.

On the next tab, you will need to select the image repository, i.e. the disk ON WHICH we will save the image of a particular partition/disk. I chose the largest single one, i.e. physical, of all the disks available to me now. You can choose either an external or any other disk yourself, as long as it has enough space for the image of the disk/partition that you are going to copy.

On the next tab you will be asked in which folder we want to save the image. I chose the root of the disk, i.e. / . You can choose a folder convenient for you.

Next, we will need to decide how much we want to customize. In fact, the expert level is only needed if problems arise, and the initial, also automatic, level is suitable for most people and cases. For now, choose the first one, i.e. “ Beginner: Entry level" If you have problems creating a backup, write to me and we will use the second option. If you wish, you are also very welcome to “play” with the expert settings yourself after finishing the lesson, but only carefully and reading all the tips.

Next, we need to choose whether we want to copy the entire disk or one/several of its sections. Choose what is closest to you. Within the framework of the article, I used the second point, i.e. “ Save_local_partitions_as_image”.

On the next tab, specify a name for the image. I leave it as is, because the date is indicated there, which is convenient.

Now the most important thing is to select the disk or partition (in my example, partition) that we will copy. You can select several. The selection is made by pressing the SPACEBAR key, upon pressing which the symbol * appears next to the disk or partition, which means that the disk/partition is selected. When you finish making your selection, click OK.

On the next two tabs you will be asked about the need to check and restore the file system, as well as the final created image. I'm used to refusing so as not to waste time, i.e. select “ Skip checking/repairing source file system” and, further, “ No, skip checking the saved image”.

After all this, a process will start that mounts devices and takes care of other things needed by the program. Here you will need to make sure that the correct disk or partition is indicated in yellow, enter y on the keyboard and press the Enter button, after which the copying process will start.

All that remains is to press, as asked, Enter, then enter 1 and Enter again. The computer will need to restart. Don't forget to indicate booting from your hard drive, because previously we set booting from a CD/DVD drive.

All, backup copy ready. You can rejoice.
Now all that remains is to learn how to recover from the image.

Restoring from a backup image

Actually, it’s much easier to recover from the image.

We boot again from the disk with the program, only this time we select the item “ Restore image to local disk" or " Restore the image to local partitions”, depending on whether you saved a partition or a disk.

Next, select the image file to restore and VERY carefully select the disk/partition where you will restore the contents of this image. Be careful because all information on the disk or partition (depending on what you are restoring) will be replaced by the contents of the image.

After checking everything three times, put y and click OK. Then do it again, because... they will ask you again and again you will have to put y and click OK.

We wait for the end and - voila - everything is ready!

That's it, the backup copy has been restored from the image.
Something like this:)

Afterword

These are the pies. Be sure to be attentive and careful, especially the first time... Well, then you’ll get better at it, and this thing will be quite a good tool in your arsenal. Not Acronis, of course, with its interface, but also quite a powerful thing, especially if you learn to use all the capabilities of this CloneZilla. And no failures will be scary - you can always restore from a backup copy.

I hope that the information was useful to you. As always, write comments with questions, suggestions and all that stuff.

Stay with the project - you are always welcome here;)