After moving from Windows to Linux, I learned the hard way that breaking my operating system is just part of the learning process. I think I’ve had to reinstall Fedora KDE like three times now, simply because I was adventurous and wanted to see if I could set up a dual-boot with GRUB (I couldn’t).

It became clear that I really needed something that could pick up the pieces after blowing everything up, or, ideally, keep a backup of everything before it blows up. So I did some research and landed on Rescuezilla, and I’m glad I did.

Checking out Rescuezilla

Getting to know our tools

Rescuezilla was designed as a more accessible way to use Clonezilla. Clonezilla already has a pretty nice UI to use, but Rescuezilla takes it a step further by creating an entire bootable operating system you can hop into when things go south.

The operating system isn’t meant to be a daily driver; at least, that’s how it felt for me. Instead, it’s something you put on a USB stick and boot into whenever your main operating system goes belly-up. The advantage of this is that, yes, you still have access to stuff like web browsers and apps while you work. This can, at the very least, help keep you entertained while Rescuezilla works away. It’s also fantastic for looking up error messages and ways to fix specific issues you encounter.

By default, Rescuezilla includes handy tools to help you get the job done. This includes creating and restoring a backup image, cloning a drive, and performing some partition finagling with GParted. You can install other stuff if you need it, although it won’t persist after a reboot as it’s a USB-based OS.

Now we know what Rescuezilla can do, I think it’s about time we hopped into it. In this article, I’m going to spend some time backing up my Fedora OS from my SSD to my HDD, just in case I end up blowing up my main partition again (and I will). So, let’s get it booted up.

Getting into Rescuezilla

My diagnostic home away from home

Here we are! Pretty cool, right? To get this going, I grabbed the Rescuezilla ISO, loaded it onto a USB stick with Balena Etcher, and then booted into it. It felt like booting into any other Linux OS on a USB, so there’s nothing new there.

You can see all the stuff you can do in the screenshot above. All the essentials here, such as a terminal, GParted, and ways to clone and back up your OS. There’s also Firefox for searching stuff, or just watching YouTube videos while the processes sort themselves out. It’s sort of like the OS version of a nuclear bunker; it’s not laden with comfortable features, and you don’t want to use it daily, but you’ll be glad you had it when everything goes to pot.

Alright, that’s enough waffling; let’s get my Fedora install backed up.

Backing up an OS using Rescuezilla

Far easier than you might imagine

If you remember, my goal is to snag my Fedora install on my SSD and create a backup image on my HDD. This may sound complicated, but Rescuezilla makes it easy by taking a ton of guesswork out of the process.

Probably the most complex part of the setup was selecting the drive that Fedora was on, and the target HDD I wanted to put it on. For everything else, Rescuezilla tells you that, if you’re not sure what you’re looking at, you don’t need to worry. The app automatically sets up a complete backup for you, so all you need to do is hit the “Next” button and you’re golden. If you’re an expert and know what you’re doing, you can absolutely take over the wheel and do things your way, but for us mere mortals, Rescuezilla handles the hard stuff.

Once everything was set up, I let Rescuezilla do its thing. I did have the option to set the OS to either shut down or restart once it finished, which I can imagine is really useful if you want to leave your PC and do something else while it works away. However, my backup only took six minutes, so by the time I was done goofing around in Firefox, I was ready to go. Lovely stuff.

Now that I have my backup, I just had to tell Rescuezilla to restart, remove the USB drive once it was done, and then boot back into Fedora. Now I have an image ready to fall back to, and it barely took any time or energy to do. Lovely stuff.

Rescuezilla makes diagnosing my PC easy

While Rescuezilla is a powerful Swiss army knife of diagnostic tools, at no point does it feel complicated or confusing to use. This makes it really easy for people to get started with backing up their PCs and fixing issues without too much trouble at all. And for that reason, I really love this app.