This episode began by my wondering if it was possible to have:
1. a Mint 17 instance installed by LiLi,
2. a bootable copy of Clonezilla on a 500MB fat32 partition,
3. a Mint 17 cloned install with apps on an 8GB ext4 partition,
4. another 500MB fat32 partition for utilities...beginning to realize that might not be possible? because of the loop device?...however...

I just wanted to post that, through these forums and other on-line research, videos and trial and error...
I had successfully transferred a cloned Mint 17 w/apps (Clonezilla)install from HDD to a USB and than back to HDD.

While trying to boot into the clone on sda3, I got about a half a page of error messages...near the bottom something about UUID not found (which I had changed), so I booted back into sda1 (changed the UUID back to what it was...and that maybe even unnessarily?), but later, when checking the /etc/fstab file, noticed only sda1 listed...so made edit to include sda3 UUID information...

reboot... presto booto, there's M17 booting into the clone on sda3 with all it's apps...and(with a little tiny bit of accomplishment) what a relief! Answered one question, anyways.

Moral of the story, am I correct in saying: All operating system UUID's must be listed in that /etc/fstab on the boot device?