How to Install Clonezilla Live in a Bootable media

Clonezilla Live is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program for single machine. Basically it is a useful tool to perform disk backup and recovery. It is a bootable GNU/Linux distribution for both x86 or amd64 based computers. One of the best things about Clonezilla is despite it is an open sourced tool, you can use it for any OS, regardless it is Microsoft Windows, Linux, or even Mac OS.

System backup and restore are never a surprise job for engineers at site. Once awhile the system may require routine system maintenance or server reformat, or even encounters for major situations like migrating the backbone automation system. These are the scenarios where Clonezilla can become handy.

To use Clonezilla, first you will need to install it in a bootable media in order to launch it.

Tools needed:

  • USB drive (or CD/DVD if preferred)
  • Clonezilla ISO image (download here)
  • Image burning tools (Example: Tuxboot)

A bootable media can be either a CD/DVD, USB drive, hard drive, or even a PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) server. In this guide we shall just use a USB drive, which is a more popular demand nowadays.

Step 1:
Download Tuxboot (based on your own Operating System), then double click to launch it.

In Tuxboot dialog, select “Pre Downloaded”, choose “ISO”, then locate your Clonezilla ISO image file. Plug in your USB drive and select “USB drive” as shown in screenshot. After that click on “OK” to proceed.

tuxboot setting iso image usb drive

Step 2:
The burning process shall start with progress bar showing in percentage (%). Wait for it to finish then click on exit and safely remove your USB drive.

tuxboot process iso image usb drive

Boot your device:
Now that you have created a bootable USB drive with Clonezilla inside. Power off your system, with your USB drive plugged in, startup the system. Press on “Esc” or “F12” key (depends on your machine) to enter the Setup and select to boot from your USB device.

After making the selection, your system will boot from USB and Clonezilla Live boot menu will be shown as following screenshot.

clonezilla live boot menu

And it’s done, you can proceed to perform cloning or restoring easily using this great tool.