Best/easiest method create drive image for emergency restore?

Hardware Support
1

I searched here, but the newest comments I could find about images was for Zorin 17 and 16 from two or more years ago.

I'm totally new to Linux. Been using PCDOS/MSDOS and Windows since the 1980's. I still use Win XP and Win 7 daily. (I hate Win 10 and 11, so I'm trying Linux)

Late March of 2016 I installed Zorin 18 core, and it did a few updates over the next 2 weeks. On 4/14 or 4/15 I was prompted to install another update which I did. Then last night 4/16 I started my laptop (Dell Latitude 5400 i5) and something got hosed with tons of lines of text scrolling. It also changed my BIOS date/time setting to another date and time. After a while trying to fiddle with it I gave up and reinstalled Zorin 18 Core ISO image from late March.

What is the best/easiest method to copy the entire SSD with all settings and applications etc to usb hard drive (or flash drive) so I can use the image to replace whatever might get corrupted in the future?

Thanks

2

Welcome to the Forum!

An Update shouldn't be able to do something like this ... Did You tried to switch to an older Kernel for the Case You got a Kernel Update? Can You remember what Update/s You got?

3

After the initial problem I shut down by holding the on/off button for about 20 seconds. I rebooted and was presented with three options (which I photographed for myself)

Zorin OS
Advanced options for Zorin OS
UEFI Firmware Settings.

I tried the UEFI (they used to call that BIOS, but things change). The first thing I noticed was the date had advanced one day and the time was about 20 hours off. I reset the date/time, shut down and restarted with F12 and set it back to something that said "best previous working setting" or something like that.

Rebooted and then tried "Advanced options for Zorin OS". Which listed 4 options which I did not write down or photograph.
The top two ended with .20
The bottom two ended with .19
I tried all of them, and then gave up and reinstalled Zorin 18 that I originally download in late March. It is currently showing "6.14.0-37-generic" and is working fine, but I lost a number of settings, printer settings, etc.

It is working great now. I want to reinstall printers and a few other things, then create a bootable image before trying any more updates.

Thanks

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4

i use timeshift for a quick reset back to where i created the timeshift i also use

for cloning my system to another drive...saved me butt a few times....lol

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5

Rescuezilla looks interesting. I will try it soon.
Thanks!

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