Clonezilla Save Disk Image Guide: Back Up a System Drive to Another Disk

Clonezilla Live can save an entire drive as an image directory, which can later be restored to a disk. The official example saves the first disk sda as an image and stores it on the sdb1 partition of the second disk.

Official document: https://clonezilla.org/fine-print-live-doc.php?path=clonezilla-live/doc/01_Save_disk_image

This is different from disk-to-disk cloning. Disk cloning writes the old disk directly to a new disk. Saving an image first packages the current disk as a backup and stores it on another disk, external drive, or network storage. When needed, you can later use restoredisk to write the image back to a target disk.

Do two things first

First, make sure the system you want to back up is fully shut down.

The official document specifically notes that the original system must not be in hibernation, Fast Startup, or a similar half-shutdown state. Windows users should pay special attention to Fast Startup. If the system is not fully shut down, the file system may not be clean, and the restored image may have problems.

Second, make sure the image storage location has enough space.

Clonezilla does not always save data equal to the raw size of the entire drive. It handles the image according to partitions, file systems, and actual data. Still, the storage disk needs enough free space. In the official example, sda is 20GB and the final image directory is about 1.3GB because the sample system contains little data. Do not use that as a general estimate.

Example scenario

The official example has two disks:

sda has Debian Bookworm installed and contains several partitions, such as sda1, sda2, sda3, and sda4. Clonezilla saves disk-level information, including boot information, partition table, partition data, and hardware/system records.

Do not judge by sda and sdb alone. Device order may change on different machines. Before selecting, check capacity, model, connection type, and partition information.

Boot Clonezilla Live

Boot the computer from a Clonezilla Live USB drive, CD, or other boot media.

If the machine does not boot from USB automatically, adjust the BIOS/UEFI boot order, or press the boot menu key during startup, such as Esc, F8, F9, or F12. The exact key depends on the machine.

In the Clonezilla Live boot menu, the default 800x600 mode is usually enough. The official document also describes several common choices:

1. Default mode: normal Clonezilla Live boot.
2. VGA 800x600 & To RAM: copy Clonezilla Live files into memory and run from there, allowing the boot media to be removed later.
3. VGA with large font & To RAM: useful for high-resolution displays or when larger text is needed.
4. Safe graphic settings: useful when framebuffer graphics cause problems.

Saving an image does not always require ToRAM, but if you want the boot media to be released later, or need to remove the USB drive, choose a mode with To RAM.

Enter device-image

After entering Clonezilla, choose:

1. Select language.
2. Select keyboard layout. The default is fine for a US keyboard.
3. Choose Start Clonezilla.
4. Choose device-image.

device-image means backup or restore through images. Saving and restoring disk images both use this entry point. Direct disk-to-disk cloning uses device-device.

Some Clonezilla menu items require the space key to select. The official hint says that when multiple choices are available, press Space; selected items show *.

Choose local_dev as the image repository

Next, tell Clonezilla where to store the image.

The official example chooses:

1

local_dev

local_dev is suitable when the image will be saved to a second local disk, external drive, or USB drive. After selecting it, Clonezilla scans local disks. If you use a USB drive or external drive as the image repository, insert it and wait a few seconds.

When the device appears in the scan results, press:

1

Ctrl-C

to exit the scan report and continue.

If you do not have a second local disk, you can choose sshfs, samba, nfs, WebDAV, S3, or OpenStack Swift depending on your environment. For a normal personal backup, local_dev is the simplest.

Mount the partition that stores the image

The official example chooses sdb1 as the image repository.

Linux device names roughly mean:

If you save the image to an external drive, it may not be sdb1; it could be sdc1. Use capacity and device information to decide, and do not accidentally choose a partition on the source disk as the storage location.

Clonezilla asks whether to check the file system of the image repository partition. The official example skips it. If that disk was previously disconnected unexpectedly or you are unsure whether the file system is clean, checking first is safer.

Then select the directory where the image should be stored. The official example stores the image in the partition root /. Confirm the directory, use Tab to select Done, and press Enter.

Choose savedisk

After mounting the image repository, Clonezilla shows disk usage. Choose:

1

Beginner

Then choose:

1

savedisk

savedisk saves an entire drive image. It stores disk-level information and partition data, making it suitable for a full system disk backup.

If you only want to back up one partition, do not choose savedisk; choose the corresponding partition save mode instead.

Enter image name and select source disk

Clonezilla asks for an image name. It suggests a default name based on date and time, but you can rename it to something easier to recognize.

A useful name can include machine name, system, and date, for example:

1

thinkpad-win11-2026-06-23-img

Then select the source drive to save. In the official example:

1

sda

Be careful here. sda is the drive to read and save as an image, not the image storage disk. Check capacity, model, and partition count before continuing.

Compression, checking, and encryption

Clonezilla asks for a compression method. The official document mentions two common options:

1

-z1p

which uses parallel gzip.

1

-z9p

which uses parallel zstd and is usually faster, with a slightly smaller size than gzip.

Most users can choose the Clonezilla-recommended default. If speed matters more, consider zstd. If you prefer conservative compatibility, gzip is also fine.

Clonezilla then asks whether to check the source file system. The official example skips it, but it also notes that if you are not sure whether the source file system is clean, checking is recommended.

Next it asks whether to check the saved image. The default is to check, and the official document recommends doing so. This takes more time, but it can catch image corruption early, especially for important system disk backups.

Then it asks whether to encrypt the image. The default is no encryption. If you choose encryption, Clonezilla asks for a passphrase.

Be careful: you must remember the passphrase. The official document makes it clear that if you forget it, the image will not be usable later. There is no back door to decrypt it.

Start saving the image

After the options are confirmed, Clonezilla displays the actual command it will run. This command is useful for batch backups, custom Clonezilla Live media, or reproducible workflows.

Before starting, Clonezilla gives one more confirmation. After confirmation, it saves the source drive as an image. The official document says it usually saves:

1. MBR.
2. Partition table and disk CHS information.
3. Data on every partition or logical volume.

Different file systems are handled by different tools, such as partclone, ntfsclone, partimage, or dd. Ordinary users do not need to manage these manually. The important part is confirming the source disk and image storage location.

If you chose to check the saved image, Clonezilla automatically verifies it after creation.

What the image looks like

After completion, the image is not one large file. It is a directory. In the official example, the image directory is:

1

bookworm-2023-10-15-03-img

The directory contains many files, such as disk lists, partition tables, hardware information, file system images, and boot-related information. The official example includes files like:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13

blkdev.list
blkid.list
clonezilla-img
disk
efi-nvram.dat
Info-dmi.txt
Info-lshw.txt
sda1.vfat-ptcl-img.zst
sda2.ext4-ptcl-img.zst
sda-gpt-1st
sda-gpt-2nd
sda-mbr
sda-pt.sf

Do not copy only one compressed file. For future restore, keep the whole image directory.

What to do after completion

After saving the image, Clonezilla lets you choose:

1. Power off.
2. Reboot.
3. Enter command line.
4. Start over.

For a system disk backup, you can usually choose power off and safely remove the image disk.

It is also worth doing two more things:

1. Give the image directory a readable name, or record which machine, system, and date it belongs to.
2. Keep at least one extra copy. If the image exists only on one external disk and that disk fails, the backup is gone.

If the image is important, periodically use Clonezilla’s check function to verify that it is still readable.

Short advice

When saving a full disk image, remember this flow:

1

device-image -> local_dev -> choose image repository -> Beginner -> savedisk -> enter image name -> choose source disk

The points that deserve attention are:

1. Is the original system fully shut down?
2. Is the image repository partition correct?
3. Is the source drive correct?
4. Should the saved image be checked?
5. If encryption is enabled, is the passphrase stored safely?

Once these are clear, Clonezilla savedisk is a solid full-disk backup method.