How To Use Clonezilla To Clone Windows 10

If y'all've always wanted to clone your Windows x drive, y'all might've found that it takes some know-how.

At that place are many things that you need to proceed an center out for in this process, and many of them, if set-up the wrong way, might exit you with a cloned drive that doesn't work like you lot intended it to. Fortunately, nosotros got your back here, with detailed instructions on what to exercise.

Click on these links to jump to the dissimilar parts of the commodity:

Why clone your bulldoze?
What is Clonezilla and why it is the tool that y'all demand
The downsides to Clonezilla
The actual cloning steps

Why would people desire to clone their bulldoze?

At that place could be many reasons. They might want to exercise it…

As a elementary backup strategy: and then they could have a clean installation in instance their computer gets infected with a virus, or malfunctions.
So they could accept a faster version of their operating system on an SSD.
And so they could have all their files and preferences immediately on somebody else's computer.

And to practice all those things, I wholeheartedly recommend Clonezilla.

What is Clonezilla and why is it the merely tool you need for cloning

Clonezilla is an open source software. Information technology is basically a combination of multiple packages which give you an extremely efficient piece of software that y'all can use to clone from one to forty machines simultaneously. For a personal user one is enough, but for an enterprise IT pro, this advanced functionality can be priceless.

Clonezilla comes with support for numerous file systems such every bit ext2, ext3, xfs, jfs, GNU/Linux, HFS+, NTFS, Fat etc. There's likewise Multicast and LVM2 support. The software comes from the NCHC (National Center for High-Performance Computing) software labs and gives you lot plenty of flexibility.

Yous tin can clone anything from a unmarried bulldoze, to a single division within the drive, to be able to recover it subsequently. Storing the cloned data can be done as a duplicate re-create, or as an image file, it is your option, and information technology'due south also upwards to you whether yous shop information technology on an internal/external drive, CD/DVD bulldoze, or fifty-fifty on a networked drive.

Are there any downsides to Clonezilla?

It's worth mentioning that in that location are two potential caveats to using Clonezilla, but they're both pretty easy to deal with.

The offset 1 is the user interface. Many users aren't actually used to the cursor-based, DOS-like interface, and this might be a brick wall for them. However, one, the UI is nonetheless fairly intuitive, and two, nosotros've outlined all the steps downward below, then all y'all need to do is read them through.
The 2d one is that Clonezilla isn't really backed up by a big company that has your back when something goes incorrect. Information technology is, however, backed upwards by an open source community that is huge, and that has a lot of skills and knowledge – and to us that feels like enough.

Now that nosotros have the details of what information technology is, why you need information technology, and why you lot demand Clonezilla rather than something else, permit'due south jump into the cloning.

Let's clone! Follow these steps:

Download the Clonezilla ISO. Clonezilla works from a live CD or USB, so you'll need to make one for the purpose of using information technology. The easiest pick is to utilise something like Rufus or UNetbootin for this, as both are lightweight tools that are practically fabricated for this. Once yous have your alive CD, or USB, ready, it's time to go to work.
Next, either attach the USB, or insert the CD, in the computer whose drive you want to clone. Later on, you will want to reboot the device. Interrupt the booting process (unless your kick order is set to boot from USB/CD starting time, and hard drive second), and boot from the Clonezilla media, instead of your boot drive. What yous'll see here is the Clonezilla boot screen. Cull Clonezilla Alive, and allow'southward get started.
Cull a language and continue. Y'all'll be asked to choose a keyboard layout, and yous'll be presented with two options. The default one is the US keyboard, so if that's what you want, or are using, choose "Go on". If yous're using a different one, choose "Change", and select the layout yous want accordingly.
Hither you can either get with a console, or starting time Clonezilla. Unless you're someone who knows their way effectually both Clonezilla, and a panel, go with the "Offset Clonezilla" option.

From this point on, be extra cautious

This is where yous get to choose between doing the re-create direct, device-to-device, or creating an image. The ameliorate selection is to create an image, especially if y'all're cloning or backing upwardly for the first time.
Next, you need to choose where y'all want Clonezilla to save your image. If you are someone who knows what they're doing, you lot can cull SSH, NFS or Samba, simply they all require setting up. Usually what you'll be using is the local_dev choice, which saves your paradigm to an external drive. Note though, that since the image is pretty big, you'll want the external drive to be at least equally large equally the drive you're imaging. This might exist obvious, but still, it's important enough that it's worth mentioning.
Adjacent, y'all should choose which repository holds your image. You must be careful here, as selecting the wrong segmentation might mean that your primary, working partition, gets overwritten. For example, in Linux, you lot have partitions labeled like "sda", "sdb", "sdd" etc. The partition that ends in a is the chief partition, and you must not overwrite it. Requite your image a proper noun, and let it work. A good thought hither is to include a date, especially if you lot're doing this oftentimes. That would help y'all to easily decide which backup it is.

After this, information technology's time to permit Clonezilla do its thing. Every bit far as imaging tools go, it is really pretty fast and snappy. That means that information technology would take take anywhere from one-half an 60 minutes to three hours. This depends on your drive's size, how much data it has, as well as the interface you lot utilise to transfer the data. Once it completes, you're good to reboot your automobile. In instance anything happens, yous now have a fully working fill-in of your bulldoze.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Clonezilla also clone a perfect copy of Windows 11?

Yeah, Clonezilla should definitely be able to clone a perfect copy of Windows 11 just similar it is capable of cloning Windows 10 since both operating systems are extremely like in the way they are congenital and the fashion that they function.

Is Clonezilla safety to use? I don't want to adventure infecting my PC.

Clonezilla supports encryption with the eCryptfs protocol, an open up-source and thus well-vetted solution for AES-256 and other encryptions. With that said, the encryption protocol that information technology uses is i of the most secure we take ever seen, so yous should not have any trouble with your data getting stolen, corrupted, or getting infected by malware, viruses, spyware, or, God forbid, ransomware.

Only remember your decryption primal by storing it somewhere safely, either on your phone, another computer, or simply writing information technology down clearly and so that you lot can recover your files one time y'all want to migrate your installation.

Does Clonezilla work with an SSD?

Yep, Clonezilla works but fine with any SSD. If y'all are having trouble running information technology on your particular SSD, then the problem might be on your end. Either it can be a misconfigured setting, something incorrect physically with your SSD, or whatever other similar problem. If you accept encountered problems, we recommend checking out Clonezilla's official website.

Is there a GUI version of Clonezilla or any other visual version that might help a newbie out?

Yes, and it's called Rescuezilla (ironically enough). Y'all tin read more than almost it hither.

The Bottom Line

Clonezilla and Rescuezilla should work just fine with just about any PC or laptop configuration out there. We promise that this guide has helped you out and we would kindly appreciate it if you lot shared this commodity with others in example you take found it useful.