Clonezilla is a free and open source program for cloning or copying a hard drive for data backup and disaster recovery. It can be used on a single machine or multiple machines simultaneously on a server, and can be run via standard program methods or a secondary device. Its availability as open source freeware makes it a cost-effective option compared to similar programs.
Clonezilla is a computer program designed for use in copying or cloning a hard drive or similar data storage device for easy recovery of a crashed system. This program is similar to a number of other computer programs that can achieve similar results, but it is free and open source freeware. There are two versions of the program: a main program that is easy to use on a single machine and a server edition intended for use on multiple machines simultaneously on a server. Clonezilla was developed by the National Center for High-Performance Computing in Taiwan.
The general purpose of Clonezilla and other similar programs is to allow cloning or copying of a disk drive or partition to a drive. This allows for fast and efficient data backup, although the real strength of this type of cloning program is in its utility in disaster data recovery. If someone is using a computer with a hard drive and part of the drive becomes damaged or the computer dies, it can potentially be quite difficult to recover data from the drive. A clone program like Clonezilla simplifies this process by creating a clone of the entire partition or hard drive on a second device.
Clonezilla can be run on a computer via standard program methods, or it can be used via a secondary device such as a compact disc (CD) or even a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port flash drive. This means that if a computer cannot boot properly, one of these secondary methods can potentially be used to initialize the program and access data by cloning a drive in the computer. Clonezilla can then be downloaded before a problem occurs and stored on a disk or flash drive as an emergency tool in the event of a critical failure or other computer problem.
One of Clonezilla’s greatest strengths is its availability as open source freeware that anyone can download and use. This is in stark contrast to similar cloning programs which can be quite expensive and typically require licensing fees to use on multiple machines. The server edition of Clonezilla can be used on several dozen or more computers at the same time. This is ideal for a system where multiple computers are running on a server together, such as across a network, and where cloning must occur across the entire system.
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