Clonezilla failing due to check disk

I'm trying to create an image backup of a laptop with Clonezilla. Once all the settings have been chosen and I try to start the process it displays an error stating that the source drive is scheduled to run check disk and that I should either boot into Windows or run it manually. I've tried both, and check disk completed successfully without encountering any issues. However, when I attempt another backup I get the same issue. It's like it's not turning off whatever trigger says to run check disk next time it boots even though it's been run multiple times. Any thoughts?

Blake

Posted 2014-04-03T01:20:22.293

Reputation: 336

Answers

It sounds as if the imaging method chosen requires the source to be mountable. Why the disk isn't mountable is a good question, but I can certainly understand wanting to take the image first and figure out the problem second.

In CloneZilla, you can choose a different imaging mode. I would be amazed if the 'dd' image method had that issue, for example. It will take longer, but not longer than never.

It would be good to solve the problem at some point. These are just guesses, but could it be a problem with the system clock (e.g. always too long since the last check), or maybe the system doesn't shut down properly?

Slartibartfast

Posted 2014-04-03T01:20:22.293

Reputation: 6 899

Possibly, not sure why either, it's nothing special, just a regular old sata drive that came with the computer. That was a great suggestion about the system clock, didn't even think of that. I did just check it and it's correct, but I'll have to keep that in mind for future reference. I have rebooted a few times and made sure it powered down correctly. How does the DD image method differ from the default? – Blake – 2014-04-03T01:45:25.417

The 'dd' style image is a byte-for-byte copy from the disk / partition. It isn't as fast as a smarter tool that understands the filesystem format because it doesn't try to figure out which blocks are unused and skippable. In this case, that might be a win for you. – Slartibartfast – 2014-04-03T01:48:34.843

Okay gotcha, I had heard of that method being used for unrecognized file systems so that makes perfect sense. Do you know if I can access that via the GUI or do I need to use the command line? – Blake – 2014-04-03T01:49:46.717

The GUI exposes it, but you may have to choose an 'advanced' option or two. The defaults should be fine for everything else. The menu you are looking for should have options like 'dd', 'partclone', and 'partimage'. You want 'dd'. – Slartibartfast – 2014-04-03T01:53:20.593

Awesome! Thanks so much, I'll give it a shot and post back here in a few minutes... – Blake – 2014-04-03T01:54:31.247

I think I just figured out the problem, your suggestions got me there :) I'm gonna answer the question with a complete explanation assuming it all works. – Blake – 2014-04-03T02:11:56.580

Thanks to @Slartibartfast's suggestions I came up with a solution:

I set things up using the dd imaging method as suggested and it worked, however it would have taken up a tremendous amount of disk space since it wasn't removing unused bytes from the image.

It turns out HP set things up using five partitions, still not completely sure why. One of course was for the OS, one was for recovery, then there were three others, two of them were filesystems Clonezilla recognized, the other was not.

By backing up the hard drive in two parts (broken down by partitions) I could use the defaults on the file systems Clonezilla knew (that way it wouldn't be larger than necessary) and the dd imaging method on the one it didn't.

The only thing I haven't figured out is why the error said it was scheduled to run check disk as opposed to saying it didn't support the file system on partition x. Possibly it initially looked like something Clonezilla supported but upon reading the data it didn't understand it and assumed the integrity was compromised thus prompting it to tell you to run check disk?

Blake

Posted 2014-04-03T01:20:22.293

Reputation: 336