Hi everyone,
I’ve just used Clonezilla for the first time to clone a 500gb ssd with only 83gb being used.
Since only 83gb were used, could I clone that system on a computer with only 128gb? Or does it need to have at least 500gb of space even if most of it wasn’t used on my original system?
Clonezilla seems really practical but isn’t so accessible and I haven’t found an answer to that question online 😇
I’m using Fedora 38 but I don’t think it really matters.
Depends on the kind of image, but if it is a true “clone” you cannot image a partition to a partition of smaller capacity directly due to filesystem and sector/cluster sizing things. Or at least clonezilla won’t let you by default. (Note I said partition, not drive.)
The easy solution, assuming this is an upgrade and not a data recovery job, is to shrink the partitions on your larger drive to fit within the usable space envelope of the smaller drive before cloning. You can do this from windows disk management, or any Linux/Live USB that has gparted on it.
Regardless of what tool OP ends up using, this is the most straightforward way.
But witch partition should I shrink?
The source BTRFS one with my Fedora installation? And then leave the small ext4 and EFI ones that were automatically created during installation untouched?
If I resize my Fedora partition with Gparted it’s gonna keep its data and not get erased?
Yes. Resize your main large data partition (the one with all the free space) but make it small enough that it plus all other partitions will fit on the destination disk.
Resizing it should not lose any data. As long as it’s an unecrypted filesystem your Linux install can mount, and that gparted can see used/free space inside, it will only resize free space. However, as with all things- make a damn backup if you actually want to keep that data.
Thanks for the help 👍
You can use Clonezilla to resize filesystems, so you ought to be able to clone that filesystem onto a smaller drive. It’s been a couple decades since I used the tool, but I believe the guided steps should be enough to help you accomplish what you want - just be sure to thoroughly read the instructions!
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I simply don’t find myself needing to clone drives like I did before. My professional work moved back down into the embedded space, and I tend to do fresh installs for new systems for personal use. I might pull out my old Clonezilla boot drive if I pick up a bigger NVME drive for my gaming rig this coming Cyber Monday, though.
If you find the tool used by partclone for your filesystem type, it may or may not support responding to a smaller partition.
The libraries/tools used by partclone are documented here: https://partclone.org/features/
Beware it looks like partclone.org has been monetized with ads if you don’t like that sort of thing.
A quick Google will give you a link explaining this with a walkthrough of the steps
