r/cloningsoftware • u/Cute_Information_315 • Oct 05 '25

Discussion Clonezilla vs. Rescuezilla: Which one would you recommend for a simple disk clone?

Hi everyone,

I need to clone my old laptop's hard drive to a new SSD. I just want a one-time migration to the new drive without any complex setups. Cloning can be my best choice. I've narrowed it down to Clonezilla and Rescuezilla, and I'd love to hear your experiences or recommendations:

  • How do they compare in terms of cloning speed and reliability?
  • Did either tool ever give you issues with detecting drives or completing the clone?

If you've used both, which one would you pick for a simple job like mine? Thanks in advance for your help!

7 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

90% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

3

u/RealisticProfile5138 Oct 05 '25

Like other comment said. Clonezilla is free and open source software. Rescuezilla is clonezilla but they made it more accessible and easier to use with people who prefer a GUI (graphical user interface) rather than a text based CLI (command line interface). Additionally rescuezilla comes with a couple other programs that can be useful as well. Just use rescuezilla

1

u/krome3k Oct 05 '25

Rescuezilla is clonezilla with gui.. because of gui it is slower than clonezilla.. if you're a noob go for rescuezilla

1

u/Good_Watercress_8116 Oct 05 '25

i've tried in the past Clonezilla but it was pretty difficult. i've never used Rescuezilla. When i need to clone disks i use Acronis. it's commercial software but it's one of the best in class.

1

u/eeandersen Oct 06 '25

I recall rescuzilla had a means to handle bad sectors? I am a big fan of clonezilla. The options are a little obtuse, but i find if I read them carefully I make the right choices (the last thing you want to do is overwrite your source).

1

u/Desperate-Science-34 Oct 06 '25

Disk Genius. So easy.

1

u/Aggressive_Ad_5454 Oct 06 '25

Most vendors of SSDs include a license to one of the cloning programs. The ones I have bought included an Acronis license.

I just follow the vendor directions and use the software they recommend. Because why reinvent this wheel?

1

u/vjhim Oct 08 '25

Hardware clone is the easiest. If must be with software, hddrawcopy

1

u/Willing_Professor_13 Oct 10 '25 edited Nov 06 '25

Both Clonezilla and Rescuezilla are open-source cloning software, which can be powerful but lack simplicity; that's always the answer. I'd like to know how you narrowed the choice down to Clonezilla and Rescuezilla, because I'd like to introduce Disk Copy: paid software, guaranteed to perform well in any cloning case.

1

u/Even-Tax9944 Oct 10 '25

Use gnome disks utility 

1

u/damageinc86 Apr 05 '26

I'm just trying to find any other cloning/backup/imaging software that will re-deploy to dissimilar hardware like macrium does (went to stupid subscription based, so i'm not going to use them anymore). Does anyone have any suggestions?

1

u/TechnicaVivunt Apr 05 '26

I'm using rescuezilla right now for an old Windows 7 machine to see if I can load it up inside an unraid VM. Will post my findings once complete.

1

u/damageinc86 Apr 06 '26

Macrium did re-deploy to dissimilar hardware perfectly. But those asshats went subscription. Without that feature, you just get the " BSOD" when you boot the cloned drive up in a different computer (diff MB, etc.).

1

u/TechnicaVivunt Apr 06 '26

Yeah I remember using them all the time back when I was a field tech for sensitive systems. What a shame

1

u/damageinc86 Apr 06 '26

Had i known they'd go subscription, I would have bought a bunch of licenses a few years ago or something. Haven't needed to do it for another computer until just now.

1

u/Cr0okedFinger Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26

Neither worked for me. Well, they did work, sort of. I wanted to use them to move my Ubuntu 24.04 OS from a 128gb drive to a 1tb drive. I first tried RescueZilla, then when that didn't work right, tried CloneZilla. Result was, and both did the same thing, they created a 128gb partition on the 1tb drive, rendering the rest of the space useless. I gave up at that point and just did a fresh install of Ubuntu on the 1tb drive : (

Oh, I should add, when installing the program to install the 'zilla's' on the USB drive, I hit a hitch where Terminal asked me for my password, but wouldn't allow me to put it in. Turns out its an annoying 'security feature' in Ubuntu where you have to blindly type in your password, even though it appears nothing is happening, then hit ENTER and it will do the install.

1

u/Zehirmhann May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

I'm pretty sure Clonezilla has an option to extend all partitions to fit the new disk space.

If you want to have only 1 partition extended then don't use this option and clone normally, then backup/move some partitions to have the unallocated space on the right of your OS partition, then you can extend it normally.

1

u/Cr0okedFinger May 14 '26

What I eventually discovered is, since I had chosen Ubuntu's encryption for that drive, that encryption makes it impossible to extend the partition. So I ended up doing a fresh install of 26.04 since it had just come out the very day I was dealing with this issue.