I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the NVME
drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried the Disks
app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and since the image
created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too small. I was told I can reduce
the partition on the NVME drive to make a smaller image, but I'm afraid
to do that in case I lose data. I will try Rescuezilla, but if that
doesn't compress the image there's no gain from that. Does anyone have
any better suggestions for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

--
Linux Mint 22.3


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 3 May 2026 14:00:45 +1000, Axel wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the
NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive.

Use rsync.

<https://manpages.debian.org/rsync(1)>

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Le 03/05/2026 … 06:00, Axel a ‚critÿ:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the NVME
drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried the Disks app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and since the image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too small. I was told I can reduce
the partition on the NVME drive to make a smaller image, but I'm afraid
to do that in case I lose data. I will try Rescuezilla, but if that
doesn't compress the image there's no gain from that. Does anyone have
any better suggestions for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

why this image ?

when you install...the time stamps is correct ! the time stamps software install too !

so, after what we need ? a skeleton about yours folder with the config
files ? yes, the name user is not the sometimes...

what is your feel ?

--
Amicalement,

Frenchy Friendly, & French touch !

german

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 3 May 2026 14:00:45 +1000, Axel wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the
NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive.

Use rsync.

<https://manpages.debian.org/rsync(1)>

I don't want to use the terminal. I won't know what I'm doing

--
Linux Mint 22.3


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

german newsgroups wrote:

Le 03/05/2026 … 06:00, Axel a ‚critÿ:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the
NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried
the Disks app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and
since the image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to
a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the
NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone
it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too
small. I was told I can reduce the partition on the NVME drive to
make a smaller image, but I'm afraid to do that in case I lose data.
I will try Rescuezilla, but if that doesn't compress the image
there's no gain from that. Does anyone have any better suggestions
for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

why this image ?

when you install...the time stamps is correct ! the time stamps
software install too !

so, after what we need ? a skeleton about yours folder with the config
files ? yes, the name user is not the sometimes...

what is your feel ?

Je ne comprends pas votre anglais

--
Linux Mint 22.3


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 5/3/26 12:21 PM, Axel wrote:

german newsgroups wrote:

Le 03/05/2026 … 06:00, Axel a ‚critÿ:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the
NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried
the Disks app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and
since the image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to
a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the
NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone
it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too
small. I was told I can reduce the partition on the NVME drive to
make a smaller image, but I'm afraid to do that in case I lose data.
I will try Rescuezilla, but if that doesn't compress the image
there's no gain from that. Does anyone have any better suggestions
for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

why this image ?

when you install...the time stamps is correct ! the time stamps
software install too !

so, after what we need ? a skeleton about yours folder with the config
files ? yes, the name user is not the sometimes...

what is your feel ?

Je ne comprends pas votre anglais

Ignore this idiot.
Clonezilla will work fine for you.



--
Once an organization gains any influence, it will be corrupted from both within and without.

Edmund

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

George wrote:

You could try Clonezilla, or ask Windows users to provide an Acronis or Macrium ISO. These ISOs can be booted with Ventoy, and both Acronis and Macrium will allow you to create an exact replica of your hard disk.

Hiren's PE (the W11 one) has Macrium Reflect v7.3.5925 which isn't quite
as new as the one at Macrium which free trial has limitations.

Also some older Hiren's have old Acronis.

Those Hiren's .iso/s do fine w/ Ventoy. I used to keep a USB Ventoy
stick w/ the Hiren's from Win XP to W10 & W11. The XP Hiren's also has
linux tools.

--
Mike Easter

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Axel wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk.

There was a discussion in the LM forum which generated this useful comment:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2575317&sid=ebff5389a5082fa6f10775b8aeac8591#p2575317

Backup Software Recommendation (SOLVED)

Jeannie's handle is Lady Fitzgerald.


<warning; severe topic drift ahead; drifting on female contributors>

And bravo to Cherie DeVaux; first woman trainer to win the Kentucky Derby.

Cherie didn't just fall off the training turnip truck; she spent 14 y
working for other trainers and has had her own training biz for 8 more.

--
Mike Easter

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Mike Easter wrote:

There was a discussion in the LM forum which generated this useful comment:

Also, in that same thread, AndyMH, the dev of Foxclone contributed
thrice, and his remarks are also quite useful.

--
Mike Easter

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Mike Easter wrote:

AndyMH, the dev of Foxclone contributed thrice, and his remarks are also quite useful.

His 'How I do it' is sufficiently worthwhile for its link:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2582224#p2582224

--
Mike Easter

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 5/3/2026 12:44 PM, Mike Easter wrote:

George wrote:

You could try Clonezilla, or ask Windows users to provide an Acronis or
Macrium ISO. These ISOs can be booted with Ventoy, and both Acronis and
Macrium will allow you to create an exact replica of your hard disk.

Hiren's PE (the W11 one) has Macrium Reflect v7.3.5925 which isn't quite as new as the one at Macrium which free trial has limitations.

Also some older Hiren's have old Acronis.

Those Hiren's .iso/s do fine w/ Ventoy.ÿ I used to keep a USB Ventoy stick w/ the Hiren's from Win XP to W10 & W11.ÿ The XP Hiren's also has linux tools.

Macrium works for things like the following.

FAT32 NTFS ExFAT EXTn <=== done via a smart copy (similar to partclone smart copy)

SWAP <=== done via a "dd" run

Microsoft-Reserved <=== a small partition with NoFS, gets done via a "dd" run (Gparted won't touch this)

BTRFS... <=== Anything that is not recognized, gets the "dd" treatment, not efficient.

That means a wide range of other Linux filesystems,
might well receive the "dd" treatment per partition,
which is not particularly efficient if the partition
is only partially full. If you were BTRFS, then that
would not be a candidate for Macrium at least.

The Macrium staff are not oblivious to Linux, as at
one time, the Macrium Rescue CD was Linux based. And somehow
Microsoft convinced them to take the WinPE path (even though
that takes quite a bit more downloads).

If your workflow uses EXT3 or EXT4 and nothing else,
then you can work your project through Macrium Rescue CD
(for both Backup and Restore of a disk image). This would
be suited to disaster recovery applications.

There is a Windows application "img2vhd.exe" provided with
earlier versions of the software, that works with later
versions of backup images (Full Images at least). The application
itself is no longer supported, or available in Macrium 8+ .This
allows converting the MRIMG proprietary format, into
a VHD, and from there, various other converters can
convert to other containers as you wish. This is an alternative
path if you aren't running Windows and using the MRIMG mounter
that Windows has. You could for example, run img2vhd.exe under
WINE and do conversions as needed. It's just an alternative
path for acquiring single-file copy/paste.

Since it involved a VHD container, that workflow cannot handle
items bigger than 2.2TB. It's a fine workflow for a person with
a 512GB NVMe drive as the source of the backups. Not a good
workflow for a Linux user with a 24TB boot drive...

While Rescuezilla 2.6.1 Oracular Image.Explorer is not working,
maybe at some point it will get fixed. It's not clear where this
Image Explorer code is coming from. It appears to be a mounter
of some sort, it seems intent on ingesting a Partclone file,
but it is not working at the moment. Whoever wrote that code
or forked it, it's likely to be a bit on the raw side. Maybe
AndyMH knows more about the status of such things. It could
be that the /dev/nbd device in the kernel, is the part
that is actually at fault. But I cannot be sure about that.

No tool, seems to be unambigiously capable of restoring a
1TB NVMe to a 512GB NVMe at the moment. (Clonezilla has some
parameters you can add, but while the backup runs to completion,
there is something still wrong with the restore to the smaller item.)
While there is a special condition a person could use, to make it
possible to do such restorations, the requirements on partition
size are absurd, and nobody is going to configure their
tres-expensive hardware device in such a manner. And you still have
to do backup/restore testing, to verify this even works on the
tools you test this on (Clonezilla, Foxclone, maybe not RescueZilla).

I just checked the prices of local NVMe drives here, and it's
unlikely anyone in the audience can afford one anyway. So if your NVMe is dying, you're looking an an Ebay HDD as a replacement <whimper>.
You can't buy 1TB and 2TB HDD at my computer store, they
don't exist. Occasionally, 8TB or 10TB drives show up,
at inflated prices. This week is hardly the right week
to be having a hardware failure. Whatever crap you've collected
to date, that's what you've got to work with, basically.
Nobody else can bail you out.

One thing that is interesting, is the most expensive NVMe you could
consider buying, is missing from my computer store listing. The
staff then, can "sense" the audience for extravagantly expensive
storage is "strictly limited" and not worth wasting the time of
day on. My computer store allows you to "special order" items, which is
basic drop-shipping in action, but they couldn't even be bothered
to do that, suggesting there isn't even a supply of the item to be had.

As a result of these observations, if you're restoring your NVMe,
there's a good chance there is a (larger) HDD in your future. It will be
the "cheaper, if I can find one" option. I have plenty of HDD here,
but they're slow and not exactly my go-to solution for a boot drive.
That would be a special kind of torture, to be replacing a flash device
with something like that.

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Axel wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the NVME
drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried the
Disks app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and since the
image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to a drive
larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the NVME drive
is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone it to a
500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too small. I
was told I can reduce the partition on the NVME drive to make a
smaller image, but I'm afraid to do that in case I lose data. I will
try Rescuezilla, but if that doesn't compress the image there's no
gain from that. Does anyone have any better suggestions for what I can
do? thanks to all. :)

thanks for all replies, I will investigate them. for now, this is what I
have done. successfully created an image of the NVME using rescuezilla. successfully wrote that to a 500Gb SSD, but it won't boot. Disks shows
there are no files in the main partition:
https://auslink.info/linux/copy.png
this is the nvme i copied from: https://auslink.info/linux/nvme.png
???

--
Linux Mint 22.3


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Axel wrote:

Axel wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the
NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried
the Disks app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and
since the image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to
a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the
NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone
it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too
small. I was told I can reduce the partition on the NVME drive to
make a smaller image, but I'm afraid to do that in case I lose data.
I will try Rescuezilla, but if that doesn't compress the image
there's no gain from that. Does anyone have any better suggestions
for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

thanks for all replies, I will investigate them. for now, this is what
I have done. successfully created an image of the NVME using
rescuezilla. successfully wrote that to a 500Gb SSD, but it won't
boot. Disks shows there are no files in the main partition: https://auslink.info/linux/copy.png
this is the nvme i copied from: https://auslink.info/linux/nvme.png
???

p.s. this is the image I made. if that helps? https://auslink.info/linux/image.png

--
Linux Mint 22.3


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 5/3/2026 7:59 PM, Axel wrote:

Axel wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I found that the image can only be written back to the original drive, which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried the Disks app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and since the image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too small. I was told I can reduce the partition on the NVME drive to make a smaller image, but I'm afraid to do that in case I lose data. I will try Rescuezilla, but if that doesn't compress the image there's no gain from that. Does anyone have any better suggestions for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

thanks for all replies, I will investigate them. for now, this is what I have done. successfully created an image of the NVME using rescuezilla. successfully wrote that to a 500Gb SSD, but it won't boot. Disks shows there are no files in the main partition: https://auslink.info/linux/copy.png
this is the nvme i copied from: https://auslink.info/linux/nvme.png
???

Directory: 2026-05-03-1942-img-rescuezilla # This is a backup of a 200GB LLM223 UEFI/GPT install
# sda1 = ESP, sda2 = main ext4, sda3 = swap

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 233 blkdev.list
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 632 blkid.list
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:45 PM 51220 clonezilla-img
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 198 dev-fs.list
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 4 disk
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 1894 Info-dmi.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:45 PM 235 Info-img-id.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 14682 Info-lshw.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 1288 Info-lspci.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 912 Info-OS-prober.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 182 Info-packages.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 868 Info-smart.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 11 parts
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 37 sda-chs.sf
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 17408 sda-gpt-1st
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 16384 sda-gpt-2nd
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 17920 sda-gpt.gdisk
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 676 sda-gpt.sgdisk
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 512 sda-mbr
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 392 sda-pt.parted
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 351 sda-pt.parted.compact
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 549 sda-pt.sf
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 7118216 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.uncomp.aa -a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:44 PM 4000000000 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.aa -a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:44 PM 4000000000 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.ab -a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:44 PM 762122082 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.ac -a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:45 PM 53 swappt-sda3.info

The swap info file says:

UUID="d87e9ab3-7db2-4bfd-87ae-016f1a3fd208"
LABEL=""

so no space is used backing up swap.

Does your backup resemble that ? The sda2.ext4-ptcl files are PartClone files so
only the used portion of the partition is stored in there. I specifically turned
off compression, as I was expecting to be able to use Image Explorer.

*******

For any data-full partitions, you can use the fsarchiver program to back
up the partitions. If RescueZilla seems incapable of populating your main partition properly, you can overwrite your main partition with an fsarchiver run.

I was hoping to build my own backup solution, if I could find a "skeletal" backup function
for the non-partition parts. The sda-mbr file, the sda-gpt-1st and sda-gpt-2nd files, are
items to be restored via "dd". Booting is via sda1.vfat-ptcl (which is the ESP partition).
Those would all be examples of skeletal bits. Macrium would have backed up my SWAP
as a 2GB "dd" file, whereas RescueZilla just creates a new SWAP using the appropriate
GPT GUID-type for the job. And maybe a mkswap for the filesystem part.

If the main partition part does not work, you can attempt to use fsarchiver in its
place (to fill the partition manually after RescueZilla is "finished").

At this point, it's all experiments. The RescueZilla really should have worked.

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-05-03, Axel <none@not.here> wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness.

To be correct the image neds to be written to the same size or larger disk/partition, and yes down to the byte.

I want an image of the NVME
drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive.

If you accept the size limitation then you will get a working drive after
the copy is done.

Bork your HD and you can install the backup image and be away right from the reboot after the copy.

You need to understand the tool(s). It is some what frustrating the the copy partition/disk needs to be larger(or the exact size) than the backup.

I tried the Disks
app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and since the image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too small. I was told I can reduce
the partition on the NVME drive to make a smaller image, but I'm afraid
to do that in case I lose data.

Well, have about you do an image backup of the disk before you try reducing
the NVMe partition? then if you lose data all you need to do is to restore
the NVMe partition from the backup and try again.

Just keep in mind that a partion is not the whole disk in some cases.

I will try Rescuezilla, but if that
doesn't compress the image there's no gain from that. Does anyone have
any better suggestions for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

Clonezilla, and others use partclone as the engine.

Regarding compression. Clonezilla does not copy the unused space on the orginal, it then compresses the copied parts. The issue is that clonezilla *demands* that it needs a space as large as the orginal to copy it back to.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Axel wrote:

Axel wrote:

Axel wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the
NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried
the Disks app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and
since the image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to
a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the
NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to
clone it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is
too small. I was told I can reduce the partition on the NVME drive
to make a smaller image, but I'm afraid to do that in case I lose
data. I will try Rescuezilla, but if that doesn't compress the image
there's no gain from that. Does anyone have any better suggestions
for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

thanks for all replies, I will investigate them. for now, this is
what I have done. successfully created an image of the NVME using
rescuezilla. successfully wrote that to a 500Gb SSD, but it won't
boot. Disks shows there are no files in the main partition:
https://auslink.info/linux/copy.png
this is the nvme i copied from: https://auslink.info/linux/nvme.png
???

p.s. this is the image I made. if that helps? https://auslink.info/linux/image.png

solved! I mounted the 'empty' partition using Disks and the files are
all there https://auslink.info/linux/mounted.png, so I tried the disk in
a different PC, and it works perfectly. issue was the first PC I tried
was using legacy bios. thanks everyone,

--
Linux Mint 22.3


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Paul wrote:

On Sun, 5/3/2026 7:59 PM, Axel wrote:

Axel wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I found that the image can only be written back to the original drive, which pretty much negates it's usefulness. I want an image of the NVME drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive. I tried the Disks app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and since the image created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to a drive larger than 500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the NVME drive is actually a fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone it to a 500Gb drive I get a message that the receptor drive is too small. I was told I can reduce the partition on the NVME drive to make a smaller image, but I'm afraid to do that in case I lose data. I will try Rescuezilla, but if that doesn't compress the image there's no gain from that. Does anyone have any better suggestions for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

thanks for all replies, I will investigate them. for now, this is what I have done. successfully created an image of the NVME using rescuezilla. successfully wrote that to a 500Gb SSD, but it won't boot. Disks shows there are no files in the main partition: https://auslink.info/linux/copy.png
this is the nvme i copied from: https://auslink.info/linux/nvme.png
???

Directory: 2026-05-03-1942-img-rescuezilla # This is a backup of a 200GB LLM223 UEFI/GPT install
# sda1 = ESP, sda2 = main ext4, sda3 = swap

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 233 blkdev.list
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 632 blkid.list
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:45 PM 51220 clonezilla-img
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 198 dev-fs.list
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 4 disk
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 1894 Info-dmi.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:45 PM 235 Info-img-id.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 14682 Info-lshw.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 1288 Info-lspci.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 912 Info-OS-prober.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 182 Info-packages.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 868 Info-smart.txt
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 11 parts
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 37 sda-chs.sf
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 17408 sda-gpt-1st
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 16384 sda-gpt-2nd
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 17920 sda-gpt.gdisk
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 676 sda-gpt.sgdisk
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 512 sda-mbr
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 392 sda-pt.parted
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 351 sda-pt.parted.compact -a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 549 sda-pt.sf
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:43 PM 7118216 sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.uncomp.aa
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:44 PM 4000000000 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.aa
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:44 PM 4000000000 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.ab
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:44 PM 762122082 sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.uncomp.ac
-a---- Sun, 5, 3, 2026 3:45 PM 53 swappt-sda3.info

The swap info file says:

UUID="d87e9ab3-7db2-4bfd-87ae-016f1a3fd208"
LABEL=""

so no space is used backing up swap.

Does your backup resemble that ? The sda2.ext4-ptcl files are PartClone files so
only the used portion of the partition is stored in there. I specifically turned
off compression, as I was expecting to be able to use Image Explorer.

*******

For any data-full partitions, you can use the fsarchiver program to back
up the partitions. If RescueZilla seems incapable of populating your main partition properly, you can overwrite your main partition with an fsarchiver run.

I was hoping to build my own backup solution, if I could find a "skeletal" backup function
for the non-partition parts. The sda-mbr file, the sda-gpt-1st and sda-gpt-2nd files, are
items to be restored via "dd". Booting is via sda1.vfat-ptcl (which is the ESP partition).
Those would all be examples of skeletal bits. Macrium would have backed up my SWAP
as a 2GB "dd" file, whereas RescueZilla just creates a new SWAP using the appropriate
GPT GUID-type for the job. And maybe a mkswap for the filesystem part.

If the main partition part does not work, you can attempt to use fsarchiver in its
place (to fill the partition manually after RescueZilla is "finished").

At this point, it's all experiments. The RescueZilla really should have worked.

it did. I was copying the LM disk from a machine with UEFI bios, and
trying to use the copy in a PC with legacy bios. so booting was the
problem. (see my latest post)

Paul

--
Linux Mint 22.3


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Gordon wrote:

On 2026-05-03, Axel <none@not.here> wrote:

I want a full back up of my 500Gb NVME disk. I tried Foxclone, but I
found that the image can only be written back to the original drive,
which pretty much negates it's usefulness.

To be correct the image needs to be written to the same size or larger disk/partition, and yes down to the byte.

Ok

I want an image of the NVME
drive I can use on any disk to create a working drive.

If you accept the size limitation then you will get a working drive after
the copy is done.

Bork your HD and you can install the backup image and be away right from the reboot after the copy.

You need to understand the tool(s). It is somewhat frustrating the the copy partition/disk needs to be larger(or the exact size) than the backup.

I will use Rescuezilla in future

I tried the Disks
app, and discovered it doesn't compress the image, and since the image
created is a bit over 500 Gb, I can only write it to a drive larger than
500Gb. (sigh) I think the problem is that the NVME drive is actually a
fraction over 500Gb, since if I try to clone it to a 500Gb drive I get a
message that the receptor drive is too small. I was told I can reduce
the partition on the NVME drive to make a smaller image, but I'm afraid
to do that in case I lose data.

Well, have about you do an image backup of the disk before you try reducing the NVMe partition? then if you lose data all you need to do is to restore the NVMe partition from the backup and try again.

yes, good idea

Just keep in mind that a partion is not the whole disk in some cases.

I will try Rescuezilla, but if that
doesn't compress the image there's no gain from that. Does anyone have
any better suggestions for what I can do? thanks to all. :)

Clonezilla, and others use partclone as the engine.

Regarding compression. Clonezilla does not copy the unused space on the orginal, it then compresses the copied parts. The issue is that clonezilla *demands* that it needs a space as large as the orginal to copy it back to.

Ok

--
Linux Mint 22.3


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)