Sooo... because I am a control freak (or security maniac), despite I plan to convert my final machine from Win10 to Linux in about a month or two, I decided to clone my existing Win10 installation on HDD on a usb of the same size, just in case. I used Rescuezilla, I am familiar with it and had a success with it on 64bit machines. I didn't succeed this time!
Firstly to find the right option for booting on UEFI/BIOS was a struggle, different F keys offered me different options. I found F9 worked for me on the HP computer, offering me a menu of various booting options right there, hitting enter on the one I wanted booting right into it (in my bit newer Dell laptop I need to choose from a menu on the left, a newer UEFI version). I am more familiar with my Dell machine BIOS than this HP one, despite I was playing with its BIOS in the past. My memory is merciful.
I have Rescuezilla on Ventoy, so it should completely bypass Windows installation. There were some struggles with the target usb being 'offline', so I had to go back into Windows, into cmd in my admin account to bring it back to online (repeatedly), after repeated failures clear the messed up partitions and start all over. I did it once in the LMDE laptop via gparted, but there still was some issue, probably plugging the target usb into turned off computer, so it wasn't mounted, just me speculating. I am still a normie, you know. On repeated occasions, when it finally started cloning, less than 10 % into the process the computer suddenly restarted itself into Windows. Secure boot was off, later on I turned the fast boot off, I don't know what else was causing this. I just didn't succeed.
I also have a nvme disk in this computer, with another LMDE installed on it. So I booted into LMDE. And I started cloning via terminal command. I regularly checked how the process went, it looked to be on the good path at 120 GB transferred. So I went away to do other things. In about an hour I came to check the process (it is 1TB drive of about 70% full disk), the bastard was on the Windows login screen again and the clone hasn't completed (I couldn't boot from that usb like I could boot from my other Linux clones from a laptop in the past where there was no Windows except of the one in the virtual machine).
My next step is to turn this bastard on its face down on the desk (it is an AIO PC), take out that effing HDD and clone it outside of it via an enclosure on my LMDE laptop. I might never need the clone, but until I make a full switch I want to have a clone. Having a functional clone saved my a$$ a couple times on LMDE when I messed up the installation and it didn't want to boot. Rescuezilla simply cloned the clone back to the main nvme and in under 10 minutes (not much data there, and also faster usb ports and everything) I had my system fully back. Incremental backup wasn't relevant on that laptop.
Firstly to find the right option for booting on UEFI/BIOS was a struggle, different F keys offered me different options. I found F9 worked for me on the HP computer, offering me a menu of various booting options right there, hitting enter on the one I wanted booting right into it (in my bit newer Dell laptop I need to choose from a menu on the left, a newer UEFI version). I am more familiar with my Dell machine BIOS than this HP one, despite I was playing with its BIOS in the past. My memory is merciful.
I have Rescuezilla on Ventoy, so it should completely bypass Windows installation. There were some struggles with the target usb being 'offline', so I had to go back into Windows, into cmd in my admin account to bring it back to online (repeatedly), after repeated failures clear the messed up partitions and start all over. I did it once in the LMDE laptop via gparted, but there still was some issue, probably plugging the target usb into turned off computer, so it wasn't mounted, just me speculating. I am still a normie, you know. On repeated occasions, when it finally started cloning, less than 10 % into the process the computer suddenly restarted itself into Windows. Secure boot was off, later on I turned the fast boot off, I don't know what else was causing this. I just didn't succeed.
I also have a nvme disk in this computer, with another LMDE installed on it. So I booted into LMDE. And I started cloning via terminal command. I regularly checked how the process went, it looked to be on the good path at 120 GB transferred. So I went away to do other things. In about an hour I came to check the process (it is 1TB drive of about 70% full disk), the bastard was on the Windows login screen again and the clone hasn't completed (I couldn't boot from that usb like I could boot from my other Linux clones from a laptop in the past where there was no Windows except of the one in the virtual machine).
My next step is to turn this bastard on its face down on the desk (it is an AIO PC), take out that effing HDD and clone it outside of it via an enclosure on my LMDE laptop. I might never need the clone, but until I make a full switch I want to have a clone. Having a functional clone saved my a$$ a couple times on LMDE when I messed up the installation and it didn't want to boot. Rescuezilla simply cloned the clone back to the main nvme and in under 10 minutes (not much data there, and also faster usb ports and everything) I had my system fully back. Incremental backup wasn't relevant on that laptop.
