Clonezilla: cannot create partition table (old 2013 problem returns!)
by pprotus from LinuxQuestions.org on (#4VEMX)
This issue involves restore of a Win10-Pro operating system to a "fanless mini PC" sold with OS pre-installed.
I have purchased several of these small, fanless computers for use by low-tech clients who only need moderate internet access...such as email and/or browsers. For backup, I have been making an image of the entire embedded 64 GByte boot disk (or SSD, or EMMC, or whatever) using Clonezilla. Recently, one client deleted much of her operating system by mistake. I tried to restore her system...but Clonezilla cannot create a partition table on the embedded drive. I've attempted to create a mirror of her drive...using an external USB disk...in order to recover her data. This also fails. As near as I can tell, it is not possible to restore a Clonezilla backup of these systems to any media.
I'm using Clonezilla v2.6.4-10-amd64. Source drive is (was) a 64 GByte embedded SSD of some sort. I've attempted multiple restore operations to the original system. No Joy. I've also attempted to restore to flash sticks, SSD drive (in USB carrier), spinning laptop drive (in USB carrier), and uSD (in USB adapter).
I have many photos...but I'm not seeing any "post a photo" links on this forum.
The show-stopping error appears to be as follows:
"Failed to create a partition table on this disk: /dev/sdb"
Creating a partition (with partition table and disk label) in advance appears to be fruitless...because this release of clonezilla uses a destructive "dd" command to zero-out portions of the target disk.
Earlier on...from reading the /var/log/clonezilla.log file, there appears to be an error when trying to access /dev/sde. This confuses me...to the best of my knowledge, the original system had only one drive (the boot drive). And /dev/sdc in the restoration system is the clonezilla backup image storage flash stick.
Any help and/or advice would be appreciated.
I have purchased several of these small, fanless computers for use by low-tech clients who only need moderate internet access...such as email and/or browsers. For backup, I have been making an image of the entire embedded 64 GByte boot disk (or SSD, or EMMC, or whatever) using Clonezilla. Recently, one client deleted much of her operating system by mistake. I tried to restore her system...but Clonezilla cannot create a partition table on the embedded drive. I've attempted to create a mirror of her drive...using an external USB disk...in order to recover her data. This also fails. As near as I can tell, it is not possible to restore a Clonezilla backup of these systems to any media.
I'm using Clonezilla v2.6.4-10-amd64. Source drive is (was) a 64 GByte embedded SSD of some sort. I've attempted multiple restore operations to the original system. No Joy. I've also attempted to restore to flash sticks, SSD drive (in USB carrier), spinning laptop drive (in USB carrier), and uSD (in USB adapter).
I have many photos...but I'm not seeing any "post a photo" links on this forum.
The show-stopping error appears to be as follows:
"Failed to create a partition table on this disk: /dev/sdb"
Creating a partition (with partition table and disk label) in advance appears to be fruitless...because this release of clonezilla uses a destructive "dd" command to zero-out portions of the target disk.
Earlier on...from reading the /var/log/clonezilla.log file, there appears to be an error when trying to access /dev/sde. This confuses me...to the best of my knowledge, the original system had only one drive (the boot drive). And /dev/sdc in the restoration system is the clonezilla backup image storage flash stick.
Any help and/or advice would be appreciated.