# Installing partclone

**URL:** <https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/installing-partclone/82068>\
**Category:** Applications\
**Created:** [October 20, 2026, 11:49pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/installing-partclone/82068 "2026-10-20T23:49:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ionmich](https://forum.endeavouros.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@ionmich](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/ionmich)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 11:49pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/installing-partclone/82068/1 "2026-10-20T23:49:04Z")

</div>

Installed but won’t start.

```auto
[ion@Desk ~]$ sudo pacman -S partclone
warning: partclone-0.3.50-2 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Package (1) Old Version New Version Net Change

extra/partclone 0.3.50-2 0.3.50-2 0.00 MiB

Total Installed Size: 1.81 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
(1/1) checking keys in keyring [--------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity [--------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) loading package files [--------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts [--------------------------------] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) reinstalling partclone [--------------------------------] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/2) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(2/2) Checking which packages need to be rebuilt
[ion@Desk ~]$ sudo partclone
sudo: partclone: command not found
[ion@Desk ~]$ 

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bink](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/bink/32/87216_2.png) [@Bink](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Bink)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 11:51pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/installing-partclone/82068/2 "2026-10-20T23:51:54Z")

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Try:

```auto
partclone.info

```

Then using it, you’d need to use `partclone.[fstype]`, like `partclone.ext4` or `partclone.btrfs`.

See details here:

> **[Partclone - Usage](https://partclone.org/usage/)**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ionmich](https://forum.endeavouros.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@ionmich](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/ionmich)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 12:27am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/installing-partclone/82068/3 "2026-10-21T00:27:58Z")

</div>

I read through the instructions, but as I understand them if I want to do a drive to drive clone I would need a third drive to save the image file unless I reboot. I think I will stay with using dd. Slower but it has always worked. Thanks for the assistance.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ajgringo619](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/ajgringo619/32/35599_2.png) [@ajgringo619](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/ajgringo619)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 12:39am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/installing-partclone/82068/4 "2026-10-21T00:39:06Z")

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`partclone` can save drives as restorable image files; I do this all the time for long-term system backups. You can also use `clonezilla`, which is a front-end to `partclone` that can copy drive-to-drive directly.

While `dd` does work, its image files are the exact same size as the partition. while `partclone` images are never bigger than the partition’s actual used space.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bedna](https://forum.endeavouros.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Bedna](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Bedna)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 7:35am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/installing-partclone/82068/5 "2026-10-21T07:35:39Z")

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> [@ajgringo619](#):
>
> `partclone` can save drives as restorable image files; I do this all the time for long-term system backups.

Or more specifically: (ext4 and sda1 in this example, -d is debug and is optional)

```auto
# create clone image
sudo partclone.ext4 -c -d -s /dev/sda1 -o /path/to/backup.img

# restore img to a partition
sudo partclone.restore -d -s /path/to/backup.img -o /dev/sda1

```

There are great examples in the documentation, [clone](https://partclone.org/usage/partclone.php) & [restore](https://partclone.org/usage/partclone.restore.php)

@ajgringo619 can you also do this directly on a “drive”, not only partitions?  
Like:

```auto
sudo partclone.dd -d -s /dev/sda -o /path/to/backup.img

```

I can only see partitions being mentioned, not full devices (drives) and have never tried.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nyan](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nyan/32/136741_2.png) [@Nyan](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Nyan)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 10:11am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/installing-partclone/82068/6 "2026-10-21T10:11:03Z")

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> [@ajgringo619](#):
>
> While `dd` does work, its image files are the exact same size as the partition. while `partclone` images are never bigger than the partition’s actual used space.

DD can DD to gzip bzip or zstd. In which case you get image usually smaller than used partition size.