Linux Mint: Disk image
Instructions for disk image preparation:
1. Obtain Linux workstation PC. Any recent Linux distribution is ok
2. Open the terminal and print current partitions
$ cat /proc/partitions
3. Attach the disk you are going to clone to the workstation PC and print detected partitions again:
$ cat /proc/partitions ... 8 80 30932992 sdf 8 81 2929664 sdf1 8 82 97280 sdf2 8 83 97280 sdf3 8 84 488448 sdf4
In the example above attached disk named /dev/sdf and it has 4 partitions: /dev/sdf1, /dev/sdf2, /dev/sdf3, /dev/sdf4
4. Open the terminal and save disk layout using fdisk tool:
$ echo -e "O\nfdisk.layout\nq\n" | sudo fdisk /dev/sdf $ cat fdisk.layout label: dos label-id: 0x5a0ae517 device: /dev/sdf unit: sectors /dev/sdf1 : start= 2048, size= 5859328, type=83 /dev/sdf2 : start= 5861376, size= 194560, type=ef /dev/sdf3 : start= 6055936, size= 194560, type=4 /dev/sdf4 : start= 6250496, size= 976896, type=83
5. Open the terminal and save disk layout using blkid tool:
$ sudo blkid /dev/sdf* -s UUID -s TYPE > blkid.layout $ cat blkid.layout /dev/sdf1: UUID="34b4205b-d2b9-4e50-9ea1-c559fdab97d3" TYPE="ext4" /dev/sdf2: UUID="52DE-F66C" TYPE="vfat" /dev/sdf4: UUID="025c89f7-eb46-424b-883b-23f7f0771b27" TYPE="ext4"
6. Save filesystem from each disk partition using partclone tool and compress using lz4 tool partclone tool supports: NTFS,EXT2/3/4,FAT and many other filesystem types Install required cloning software: "liblz4-tool" and "partclone"
# for distributions based on Ubuntu/Debian $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install liblz4-tool partclone
In the example above according to blkid.layout:
/dev/sdf1 and /dev/sdf3 have "ext4" filesystem /dev/sdf2 has "vfat" filesystem /dev/sdf3 has no filesystem
According to the example need to save 3 partitions:
$ sudo partclone.ext4 -c -s /dev/sdf1 | lz4 > part1.ext4.partclone.lz $ sudo partclone.vfat -c -s /dev/sdf2 | lz4 > part2.vfat.partclone.lz $ sudo partclone.ext4 -c -s /dev/sdf4 | lz4 > part4.ext4.partclone.lz
7. Calculate md5 for files you've preprared
$ md5sum *.layout part* .partclone.lz > md5sum
8. Send us the fdisk.layout, blkid.layout and all part*.partclone.lz files and the md5 file