Macrium and Linux Disks cloning

Hi folks

@CountMike

if you guys are messing around with Linux and want to clone things like USB sticks / micro sd cards

why not use the simple linux dd command -- you can output to a file as well if you want. your micro sd device might be shown as /dev/mmxxxxxx or just a bog standard /dev/sdx device. Use lsblk to list block devices on your system.

From within Windows if you use the WSL and the WSL can see the devices then use the dd command as well.

Macrium usually works for cloning an entire HDD but if you are trying to "Stretch" its capabilities you shouldn't expect it to work 100% -- nice when it does but that's not what it was designed for. !!!

(as su / sudo : dd if=<input file / device / partition> of=<output file / device /partition> bs=64M status=progress) .

Cheers
jimbo

I just wanted to resurrect this thread in case someone (like me) reads through it to understand Macrium Reflect Free capabilities in regards to cloning Linux partitions.

I am dual booting Windows 10 with a Linux OS and use Macrium Reflect Free to do image backups and cloning to other drives as needed.

As jimbo says, yes is is possible to clone Linux formatted HDD's / SSD's with Macrium from within Windows. However as noted in this forum thread:

"Linux Ext 2/3/4 file systems are supported for 'Intelligent Sector Copy' images. This is, image files will only contain file system blocks that are in use by files on the file system. However, resizing of Ext partitions in not supported."

I ran in to this problem when trying to clone a Linux partition from one disk into a larger partition on another disk. Macrium Reflect Free cannot clone a linux partition/file system into a larger partition such that the data from the source is copied into the destination partition. Instead the (smaller) source partition is copied over to the destination disk and remaining space on the destination is left as unallocated.... since you didn't use all available space in your intended destination partition.

To fix this you could use GParted in Linux to expand the Linux partition (on your destination disk) to use up the remaining space you wanted Macrium Reflect Free to use in the first place.

I really think Macrium should be able to support this by now.

Flex

I tried to use Macrium to clone a Proxmox install (debian linux based), it mostly succeeded but messed up the MBR data.

I ended up using clonezilla which worked perfect, so I recommend clonezilla for linux cloning. I booted from it, not sure if can be run from inside windows.

There isn't any doubt that Macrium CAN make a backup image of a partition containing a Linux distro. My point is there is a limitation which is a big drawback... you cannot restore the contents of images of linux partitions into a partition that is smaller or bigger... either you or the Macrium software cannot re-size the Linux partition on to the destination disk. Macrium does this automatically for Windows partitions (NTFS, FAT 32 etc). I think this is a major drawback of using Macrium to image Linux partitions.

Yes I take your point that you might as well use Clonezilla to image Linux partitions if you will need to re-size them to fit on the destination disk... well certainly if you want to make them smaller on the destination. As for growing the EXT partition on the destination... you could use GParted to do that.

Flex