Foxclone questions related to cloning from a smaller to a bigger SSD.

Sat Jul 6 22:59:09 UTC 2024

From: Bas Roufs, NL.

To:

+ Andy Warwick, UK, Foxclone developer;

+ Anybody Else with practical Foxclone experience with a view to 
«cloning» from a smaller to a bigger system-disk.

Hey dear Andy and Everybody.

At Foxclone.org, I find this passage at the index page....

«(...)
Got a problem? Contact help at foxclone.com.
Foxclone was previously hosted at foxclone.com. Foxclone has no 
association with the current foxclone.com site.
(...)».

The mail address help at foxclone.com does not work. That's why, I try 
help at foxclone.org and a few forums in the hope to soon find you or 
anybody else who has been using Foxclone to «clone» from a smaller SSD 
or HD  to a bigger SSD.

I have only three important questions about Foxclone. I have also useful 
additional information after reading a specific passage at Foxclone.org.

Before arriving at those questions and additional info, I share some 
background information.

1. PRESENT CONFIGURATION AND HARDWARE UPGRADE.

«Foxclone» I want to use to get a clone image iso of my whole old 250 GB 
SSD to a new bigger 1 TB SSD in a Lenovo Thinkpad 230 XP - not directly 
from «drive to drive», but via the intermediate step of a «full backup» 
at an external 4 TB SSD and/or a «compressed backup» at the 128 GB 
Ventoy USB stick from where Foxclone will be running, and/or at another 
128 GB Ventoy USB stick.

At present I work with the following configuration: Kubuntu 24.04 LTS at 
the aforementioned old 250 GB SSD and 4 GB RAM, in the Lenovo Thinkpad 
230 XP. It's just Kubuntu 24.04 LTS - no additional OS. At this old 250 
GB SSD, I am using now about 97 GB - system together with all the user 
files at this SSD. I am using Backintime for daily user file backups 
onto an external 4 TB SSD - every 10 minutes during each work session.

I have asked to a computer repairshop to upgrade the hardware of my 
laptop like this:
= maintain the old 250 GB SSD and mount it properly at one of the two 
spots where such an SSD can be mounted;
= add a new 1 TB SSD to the other place where an SSD can be mounted;
= take out two old 2 GB RAM memory banks and mount instead two 8 GB RAM 
memory banks - 1600 MHz, DD3, alltogether 16 GB RAM.

When consulting the manual of the Lenovo Thinkpad X230, both the PC 
repairshop keeper and me arrived at the conclusion that both the new and 
the old SSD can be mounted in the one same X230 laptop. My experience 
with the similar Lenovo Thinkpad X220 points in the same direction.  
However, I prefer not to use the «disk to disk» cloning method - I 
anticipate various complications when doing so. That's why, I want to 
carry out software related actions after the shopkeeper physically 
mounting the new 1 TB SSD, the old 250 GB SSD and two 8 GB RAM memory 
banks - 1600 MHz, DDR3. Like that's I'll have 16 GB RAM.

2. SOFTWARE ACTIONS AFTER THE HARDWARE UPGRADE; THREE QUESTIONS.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
After the shopkeeper taking care for the hardware upgrade, I'll take the 
lead with the software. The shopkeeper is good in the realm of hardware, 
however not really a Linux expert.

2.1. Memory test by means of «Memtest».
--------------------------------------
First of all, I'll use systemrescue-11.01-amd64.iso at a 128 GB Ventoy 
USB - simply to carry out memtest86+. Like this, I want to test the 
memory of the laptop after the shopkeeper carrying out the hardware 
upgrade. See https://www.system-rescue.org/ and https://www.memtest.org/.

2.2. Do I need to «partition» the big new SSD with Gparted before 
launching Foxclone for the clone?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the same 128 GB Ventoy USB, I have gparted-live-1.6.0-3-amd64.iso. 
For sure, I wanna use this software for two actions:
+ putting GPT partition tables at both the old and the new SSD;
+ formatting both SSD disks with ext4.

Now, I arrive at my first important question related to Foxclone. Do I 
need to manually partition via Gparted the big new 1 TB SSD in a way 
similar to what I did with at the old 250 GB SSD? Do I need to do this 
BEFORE launching Foxclone with a view to «cloning» a backup of the old 
250 GB SSD to the new 1 TB SSD?  I DID document how exactly I have done 
the partitioning at the old SSD a few months ago - I can do the same 
partitioning at the new 1 TB SSD.

2.2. How best to get a proper «clone» at the new 1 TB SSD?
----------------------------------------------------------
Now, I arrive at my second question. What is or are the best option(s) 
to get a proper «clone» at the new 1 TB SSD? I am considering different 
options. One of them is create two identical backups at the two 
different 4 TB external HD's I have, and use one of them to «clone» to 
the new SSD. A third (compressed or full?) backup I could create at the 
128 GB Ventoy USB with the Foxclone ISO I gonna use. From that 128 GB 
USB stick, I am using about 10% now. A fourth similar backup I could 
create at a second 128 GB Ventoy USB.

My most important question in this context....  Can I ALWAYS launch 
Foxclone from a Ventoy USB stick, also when using afterwords a backup 
from an external HD? Or is it better to use the copy at the same USB 
stick from where I launch Foxclone?

My provisional idea - before going to the computer repairshop, I want to 
create two, three or four (nearly) identical Foxclone backups: 1 «full» 
backup each at two external 4 TB hard disks - and probably also 1 
«compressed» backup each at two Ventoy 128 GB USB sticks. By doing so, I 
want to make sure that I'll have at least one backup that I can 
effectively use to make a proper clone from the smaller old 250 GB SSD 
to the bigger 1 TB SSD.

2.3.) What exactly do I need to get a Foxclone backup ISO «cloned» to 
the bigger SSD?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

However, do I need to carry out the following 3 steps in order to get a 
Foxclone backup ISO «cloned» to the bigger SSD? Here are the steps I 
think about after consulting the Foxclone User Guide.

STEP 1.
======

Attaching the two Ventoy USB sticks as well as two external hard disks 
to 4 different USB ports in the laptop and docking station I have....  
Before launching Ventoy > Foxclone?

STEP 2.
=======
Do I need to use after step 1 the Ventoy stick with a view to launching 
Foxclone and approaching one of the backups from there?
128 GB Ventoy stick - Kubuntu 24.04 LTS plus some user data, 97 GB. From 
that USB stick, I am using now about 10%. A compressed image will be 
about 30% less - so, about 67.9 GB out of 97 GB -according to the user 
guide at Foxclone.org:

https://foxclone.org/uguide.html

After carefully reading this user guide, I arrive at understanding you....

STEP 3. Which Ventoy version do I need?
========================================

Look at this page:

https://foxclone.org/downloads.html.

This page points at two versions of Foxclone.

The standard version is based on ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) has a 5.4 kernel 
and is suitable for all PCs manufactured before 2019.

The focal version, based on ubuntu 20.04, has a 5.15 kernel and is 
intended for newer PCs.

My laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad X230, produced in 2012, as far as I can 
see. From that point of view, a choice for the standard version would be 
the most logical choice.

On the other hand, the OLD 250 GB SSD I am still using now, is from 
2019. A PC Repair shop shopkeeper is going to add a 1 TB SSD to my 
laptop. This internal storage device is probably from this year or 2023. 
New, anyway. The same applies for the two 8 GB DD3 1600 MHz memory 
banks. That's the reason, I am wondering which of the two versions I can 
use best in my situation: the standard or the «focal» version? This is 
the important question I still have about Foxclone. Everything else in 
the  is enough clear for me.

Thanks.
Yours.
Bas.

====
Bas G. Roufs MA
Rijksweg 66a
NL-6585 AG Mook
The Netherlands
+31 6 446 835 10
BasRoufs at gmail.com

Mook is about 10 km. south of Nijmegen and 10 km west of the German border.
Pronunciatiation -ou- family name «Roufs»: like in «about».