The easiest/cheapest way to clone 2 Identical USB SSD with hassos

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I am trying to figure out the easiest way without buying software to clone my home assistant running on a USB SSD 250. I have had a few scares and looking for a easy foolproof fix when something happens. I do do backups automatically and manually when I think I need to. Even to Google. But when you can get a 250 USB SSD for $25 and is many hours as I have put into my home assistant I thought I would create 2 exact copies cloning them and change them out once a week or whatever just like doing a backup. I would appreciate any thoughts anybody may have about this.

Thanks
Dennis
HADummy

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Here’s a reddit quote I saw in my google search.

u/Brave_Comment_3144 avatar

Brave_Comment_3144

• 9mo ago • Edited 8mo ago

There are many great options: Clonzilla, Acronis True Image, EaseUS Partition Master, Paragon Hard Disk Manager… Check this list and details: Free Disk Cloning Software in 2024

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How is this backup system not sufficient?

If I were you I’d just put a copy of the latest HA OS on one of the spare disks. You can swap it in, update it and restore a full backup in less than 15 minutes.

But if you really want to clone the disk, I’ve used this to clone disks before, it’s free but can not do live backups (you have to shut the system down).

https://clonezilla.org/

The other option is to use a proxmox high availability cluster. There are topics about this somewhere.

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Thanks I will do that. I didn’t even think about if balenaEtcher will do it.

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That is mostly aimed at windows systems, not Linux. It is also extreemly biased towards their own product.

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Well that’s part of my problem I know nothing about Linux.
Can’t type or spell either.
I will try out that software this weekend my 2nd drive will be here Friday.

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That sounds very unpractical to say the least… better approach would be just to store backups of one of the drives (which doesn’t need to be powered 24-7) and just call it a day :man_walking:

And maybe invest in a ssd from a well known brand that also produces flash cells… :pinched_fingers:

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I’m sure you’re right

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I was looking for clonezilla, and that was the first one… It mentioned others, went with it.

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I am with @orange-assistant here. Very impractical. Make frequent backups and if your MicroSD crashes, flash HAOS to a new one using the Raspberry Pi Imager program and restore from a backup.

For backups I recommend Samba Backup or Google Backup add-ons. At the least, use the Samba Share add-on and copy your config folder to your PC.