use dd to back up transfer hard driver image [duplicate]

Solution 1:

• Both dd and Clonezilla should be run when the computer is booted from a third drive. The source drive with the original system, and the target drive where you want the cloned copy should have no mounted partition.

• The target drive must be at least as big as the source drive, not one single byte smaller. It is not enough that the nominal size is the same, look at the actual size of the source and target drives.

• Both tools work, but Clonezilla is better than dd

  • Clonezilla is much safer because it asks questions and gives you a chance to double-check, that you will be writing to the correct target drive.
  • Clonezilla is faster because it can identify which blocks in the partitions that are used and copies only them, but skips the free blocks. It saves a lot of time, particularly if there is a lot of free space.

  • I suggest that you download a stable version of the Clonezilla iso file, create a live system in a DVD disk, USB pendrive or memory card.

    link: clonezilla.org