Partclone is an open source program similar to the well-known backup utility “Partition Image” a.k.a partimage.
Partclone provides utilities to save and restore used blocks on a partition and is designed for higher compatibility of the file system by using existing libraries, e.g. e2fslibs is used to read and write the ext2 partition.
All partclone utilities named prefix partclone.blabla… It’s just like mkfs.[fstype] or mount.[fstype] and easy to remember.
Key Features
- Clone partition to image file.
- Restore image file to partition.
- Restore image file to raw file as loop device.
- Duplicate partition on-the-fly.
- Create domain file for ddrescue.
- crc32 support.
- Pipe support(restore from stdin | clone to stdout).
- Text mode | quiet mode.
- Ncurses Text interface.
- Rescue support.
- Transfer rate, elapsed time calculating.
- Supports raw clone (like dd).
- Supports most major file systems including ext2, ext3, ext4, hfs+, reiserfs, reiser4, btrfs, vmfs3, vmfs5, xfs, jfs, ufs, ntfs, fat(12/16/32), and exfat.
- Internationalization support.
Website: partclone.org
Support: Docs, Mailing List, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Steven Shiau, Thomas Tsai, Ceasar Sun, Jazz Wang
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

Partclone is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Backup Tools | |
|---|---|
| restic | Fast, efficient and secure backup software |
| Borg | Deduplicating backup software |
| Duplicity | Encrypted bandwidth-efficient backup |
| TimeShift | Takes regular incremental snapshots of the filesystem |
| Duplicati | Store encrypted backups online |
| bup | Backup a system based on the git packfile format |
| Déjà Dup | Hides the complexity of doing backups the Right Way |
| Bacula | Network backup, recovery and verification |
| Kopia | Secure backup/restore tool that allows you to create encrypted snapshots |
| Clonezilla | Offers similar functionality to Symantec Ghost |
| Bareos | Backup Archiving Recovery Open Sourced |
| rsync | Fast remote file copy program |
| BackupPC | High-performance, enterprise-grade system for backing up PCs |
| Vorta | Desktop client for Borg Backup |
| Backrest | Web UI and orchestrator for restic backup |
| Back in Time | Equivalent of OS X's Time Machine |
| UrBackup | Easy to setup open source client/server backup system |
| Rescuezilla | Easy backup, recovery & bare metal restore |
| Mondo Rescue | A powerful disaster recovery suite |
| KBackup | Backup program targeted at non-computer experts |
| rsnapshot | Local and remote filesystem snapshot utility |
| Amanda | Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver |
| FOG | Cloning / imaging solution / rescue suite |
| Partclone | Provides utilities to save and restore used blocks on a partition |
| XtraBackup | Backup tool for InnoDB and XtraDB databases |
| Plakar | Scalable backup solution |
| kup | Backup scheduler for the Plasma desktop |
| BURP | Uses librsync to save network traffic and space |
| Btrbk | Backup tool for btrfs subvolumes |
| Pika Backup | App focused on backups of personal data |
| PING | Also offers similar functionality to Symantec Ghost |
| dar | Full featured archiver with support for differential backups |
| tar | Tar archiving utility |
| Cedar Backup | Local and remote backups to CD or DVD media |
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| ArchiveKeep | Keeps your files archived in multiple places |
| ZnapZend | ZFS centric backup tool |
| Vykar | Fast, encrypted, deduplicated backups in Rust |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Disk Cloning Software | |
|---|---|
| GParted | Industrial-strength package for partition editing |
| Clonezilla | Perform system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery |
| Rescuezilla | Easy Backup, Recovery & Bare Metal Restore |
| FOG | A cloning / imaging solution / rescue suite |
| G4L | ncurses-based hard disk and partition imaging and cloning tool |
| Mondo Rescue | Reliable, disaster recovery solution |
| FSArchiver | Save the contents of a filesystem to a compressed archive file |
| PING | Partimage Is Not Ghost |
| Partclone | Save and restore used blocks on a partition |
| Redo Rescue | Simple backup and recovery solution |
| Foxclone | Image backup, restore and clone tool |
| qt-fsarchiver | Frontend for fsarchiver to save/restore partitions, folders and MBR/GPT |
| Partimage | Stores partitions to a image file |
| dcfldd | Enhanced version of dd |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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