Partclone

What Partclone is

Partclone is a free, open-source utility for cloning devices and saving or restoring the used blocks on partitions. It can create a filesystem image or restore one to a partition, with support listed for Btrfs, ext2/3/4, ReiserFS, Reiser4, XFS, JFS, NTFS, FAT, exFAT, HFS+, UFS2, VMFS, F2FS and NILFS2. The software is for GNU/Linux and self-hosted use.

Partclone commands run in text mode, with an ncurses interface option, and support stdin, stdout and pipes for scripting. Pipe direction depends on the task: receiving piped data is supported during restore, while sending data to a pipe is supported during backup. Rescue mode tries to skip bad blocks and back up blocks it can read. Backup blocks are verified with CRC32, and the included partclone.chkimg utility checks image files. Other utilities can make raw copies, display image header information and restore Partclone images. The project is licensed under the GNU General Public License. Downloads link to GitHub source and Debian and Ubuntu package repositories; Clonezilla is an integrated tool based on DRBL, Partclone and udpcast.

Who it suits

Partclone suits GNU/Linux users who need partition imaging, restoration or device cloning, including people working in self-hosted environments. Its scripting support and rescue mode may fit workflows that use pipes or need to preserve readable blocks despite bad ones.

Getting started

1. Visit https://partclone.org/.
2. Choose a download route: GitHub source or a Debian or Ubuntu package repository.
3. Install or build for GNU/Linux.
4. Use the text-mode commands or the ncurses interface option to image or restore partitions.

Verdict

Choose Partclone if you need free GNU/Linux utilities for partition imaging, restoring or device cloning, with support for many filesystems and scripting workflows. Consider its task-specific pipe direction and text-mode command interface when deciding whether it fits your workflow.