Clonezilla saved my ass

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

So, I bought an SSD and loaded W8.1 onto it as the OS. I then downloaded Clonezilla and created an image of my SSD, which I updated a few days ago. Which is a good thing, because today, somehow, I managed to delete my user profile in Windohs! and using the restore point from 12/9/2015 did not fix it

So, I booted from my bootable USB thumb drive, started Clonezilla and restored the image. Presto, problem solved

Thanks for recommending the program Tetge, it saved my ass. It's a little clunky to use if you have no Unix or DOS experience, but it's not bad and it certainly works. My OS is functioning like nothing ever happened

[Tetge]

CloneZilla has proved to be 100% reliable thus far. I used it recently, after backing up Win7 with Norton Ghost on my secondary computer, to restore a CloneZilla image of W10 to that box so that I could install the latest and greatest cumulative W10 update to see how that worked. CloneZilla quickly put my saved W10 onto the computer and everything installed properly and worked, but, I still hate W8/8.1/10 as they removed some of the features of W7 that I have come to like. So, in addition to disliking the way it looks and feels, and how it tells on me all the time, it also lacks some functionality. But, now and then, I put it on the computer and bring it fully up to date as some day they will churn W7 out of useful existence, and I may have to use W10, although it appears that Linux will be just as good by then.

Ironically, although the W10 image did not take long at all to put on the HD, reverting to W7, using Ghost (which also generally works very well), became a real task. It seems that W10 makes lots of partitions and screws up the HD and really fights being written over, because, ultimately, I had to use a live Linux USB stick and format the drive and then, Ghost grudgingly restored a perfect W7 back onto the HD. But it took a very long time for Ghost to do that, and, since this is the only time that Ghost acts that way, I have to assume that nasty W10 was somehow the reason, even in spite of a complete re-format, including erasing all the partitions.

In any case, I keep recommending CloneZilla to people, and they generally ignore me, but it is a great program and it definitely works. Now I have two more testimonials, since my cousin, how was an early pioneer of computing and SonicKur, both heeded my recommendation and it saved both of them some serious and tedious work. I am not sure if that other sonic blue character, who might be the juan, got CloneZilla to work? But, I thought of him when I saw a blurb about the new Craparao SS running 10.6x with mild mods that included NOS. They said it went 11.7x without the NOS. So, it would have been close to that sonic blue car that ultimately I could not beat, even when I cheated and left on the first yellow.

But, I digress, as these days, due to being senile, the past has become much clearer to me than the present.

[SonicVenum]

It saved me too, a while back, though not in such dire circumstances. I bought a new head unit for our Explorer, and wanted to maintain the use of my steering wheel controls. I bought an adapter that's programmable, and gives you double functions for every button. Awesome. Not so awesome is that you have to program it through their website, which is optimized for IE ( ), but also, it is NOT compatible with W10. I had already updated both my PC and my laptop to W10, but luckily, I had Clonezilla images of both on a portable external HDD. I restored the laptop to W8.1, and ta-da! Functioning steering wheel controls. Thanks, Pat!

[Tetge]

It saved me too, a while back, though not in such dire circumstances. I bought a new head unit for our Explorer, and wanted to maintain the use of my steering wheel controls. I bought an adapter that's programmable, and gives you double functions for every button. Awesome. Not so awesome is that you have to program it through their website, which is optimized for IE ( ), but also, it is NOT compatible with W10. I had already updated both my PC and my laptop to W10, but luckily, I had Clonezilla images of both on a portable external HDD. I restored the laptop to W8.1, and ta-da! Functioning steering wheel controls. Thanks, Pat!

Good thinking, and, it also shows that keeping at least one good legacy image is also a good idea. I have to go back and purge old images now and again, as I keep quite a few and they eat up space after awhile, but, I generally keep one of the early images from just after I successfully registered the OS, that I always make while configuring a new system. That way, if I am using the same hardware, I can always go way back and start over if it becomes necessary. I always make backups as I install a new OS on a computer, so that I can easily revert back if some software or glitch bricks the installation. It takes a bit of time, but, it pays off when the latest MS update puts the computer into a loop and it keeps rebooting, or some bit of software gets upset and destroys all your work.

It has also been handy that storage got so inexpensive and huge in capacity, as I can now keep lots of things due to almost unlimited space. The days of using Stacker and tiny HD's are long past, and, I confess, I keep stuff that I should delete. But, then again, have a large standing shelf unit that is full of obsolete software in boxes, and, even if I use DOS Box, the software is too primitive to actually enjoy using. Not too likely that I am going to revert to Windows 3.1 for Workgroups, for instance, or, for that matter. Windows 95.

[jhwalker]

Hmmm.... I feel left out that I do so little, other than email, excel and word, with my Surface Pro that I have never used Clonezilla, much less be saved by it. I feel like I am missing out I must look into this Clonezilla right after I clear my 60+ other undone chores...

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

James, it is a little clunky in the UI, but if you've ever used X Windows in Unix, it is recognizable and can be navigated fairly easily. Image creation and restore functions on a 448 GB SSD each took less than 20 minutes. I shudder to think how many hours it would take to do a clean W8.1 install, add the updates and then install all of may apps from a wiped drive

[SonicVenum]

So this nerdy computer convo we're having makes me think of a project I have coming up. We will be moving to a house we own out in the IE very soon. I have big plans for the house. Other than the standard flooring, kitchen, and bathroom upgrades, I also have plans for home entertainment/computing. The den will be my office, and it shares a wall with the living room. My plan is to drill a hole through that wall to pass wires from one room to the other. My goal is to have the gaming systems and tv in the living room hard-wired to the internet, and my computer for access to all the movies & music I have on it. I also want to have a WiFi extender in the living room. I'm thinking of getting a bigger HDD, 3-5TB, to store all media an back-ups, just to be safe. I'm kicking around the idea of building a server to store work files, and also use as a back-up for my computer, but still be able to access all the files from anywhere with internet access. I already have a wireless keyboard/mouse combo that we'll be able to use in the living room to browse computer files and the internet from the comfort of the couch. It's an exciting prospect, and I already have a lot of what I need because my office shares space with the living room in our current home, and I have the big tv wired to my computer now.

John, sorry for the hijack, but you know how it is 'round these parts.

[Tetge]

Other than handling drilling a hole in the wall, you should have no problems at all with the rest of the stuff!

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

John, sorry for the hijack, but you know how it is 'round these parts.

Sorry for what? Did something unusual and egregious happen? Nothing to see, move along now, there's a good chap

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

One more thing about Clonezilla. Juan, you might want to add a 4TB external USB HD to your setup to use to create Images of your stuff. It looks like the Clonezilla images are the same size as the data you are backing up, and having one drive with most of your stuff on it with no backup should that drive die is bad. So, if you have 3 TB of stuff, a 4TB USB HD will suffice

I have a 64GB USB Thumb drive I boot from for Clonezilla, and a 1.5TB Internal SATA3 drive I store my backups on. That drive is only used for backups