Using Clonezilla to clone HDD that has an "EISA Configuration" Partition
 

Hi,

I am trying to clone a HDD which has Windows Vista installed. There are two patitions in in:
9.3GB EISA Configuration
65GB NTFS (the C: drive as windows calls it)

I am going to clone the entire hard disk with clonezilla, i am not sure what the EISA partition is and if it can be cloned(then restored) using clonezilla. I did google it, its probably some kind of a recovery partition of some sort.

Help!

Yes, you are correct about a recovery partition. It is there for windows use when you need to either reinstall or repair windows.

I cloned my acer hdd which has PQService.
I made images and put on debian machine.
I cloned the drive.
Also I restored an image to another drive.
I'm not sur if eisa and PQService are the same but it copied it in it's hidden state. In other words I didn't have to change from 12 to 0B.

Long story short. Consider g4u.

It is basically dd. While clonezilla can use dd you have a bigger learning curve. I use g4u which is nothing more than dd over compression to some place on non-supported partitions and formats a lot with great success.

If you want we may be able to force clonzilla to use dd on that partition or one may be able to simply change the partition type and then copy it. Just have to change the partition type back when you restore.

It is an Acer Aspire 4520, the LCD died, so i have to make a backup of the HDD before sending it for repairs(have it hooked to an external display).

I looked up g4u, i need to backup the HDD to an external USB Hard disk, and from what i've read so far i think it only works via FTP? Do you feel that the EISA partition could cause issues when i try to restore it later?

Mine is an Acer Aspire 3620 and clonezilla worked on mine. But like Jefro said there is a learning curve. It's easy to make image & storing but confusing when time to restore image. But during restoration it doesn't delete images saved.

Yes, every backup needs some place to go. G4U needs either a local hard drive or usb drive or ftp server.

The hidden partition should restore if it is properly copied. That would be the test.

You can buy a very cheap laptop to usb connector to save data off too.

Btw when replacing lcd they don't harm hdd

i have used Clonezilla in the past, i have managed to clone and restore HDD images, images of individual partitions have been a little difficult.
On this laptop i have now cloned both the HDD, and the "C:" Drive(sda2/NFTS/65GB), i'll try restoring the partition first and if that doesn't go well then i'll try the restoring HDD image...

jefro...my bad, i was in a hurry and didnt search hard enough, g4u does save images to external USB disks...i think i'll make images with g4u too, in case the ones made using Clonezilla don't come good...its my father's laptop from work, theres absolutely no room for a goof up on this one ;) The HDD has stuff from work that my father needs backed up before sending it in for repairs...like his HUGE lotus notes email inbox(&other folders), which i am having hard time figuring out how to export (help on this is welcome too,never used notes myself), so i thought what the heck! i'll clone the entire disk ;)

is there anyway i could test out these images without having to buy a second machine? has anyone tried testing out images on virtual machines?

Another hdd

Trying to restore the image onto VirtualBox VM didnt work, screenshot here
If i were to try restoring to another HDD(as a test), would that HDD have to be identical to the original one? i have an external USB 500GB HDD, it currently has the clonezilla image, i could make room for the image somewhere else and then try restoring to the external USB HDD.

virtual box requires conversion to vdi

i didn't try booting off the clonezilla image, i tried restoring it onto a VirtualMachine with a vdi hard disk.
I am reading this link, i'll post back on the progress...

That's a good 1, I got stuck at powering VM.

I test g4u images with qemu.