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The usb drive i want to clone is slightly bigger than the target usb drive - with about 1gb bigger, but the data on the source usb drive is with smaller size than the size of the target usb drive.

I booted Clonezilla from live usb, selected source and target usb drives, in advanced options i check -icds and in partion table option window i select -k1. Then i started Clonezilla operation and it took about 20 minutes to finish the operation but in the end i get this error: target seek error invalid argument

And at the bottom of the screen it showed this: Partclone fail, please check /var/log/partclone.log.

Is there a way to clone my usb to smaller usb or it can't be done?

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I would use gparted to shrink the partition size down so that it is smaller than the target. Then I would perform the clone operation on the drive. Or use dd if=/path/to/drivewithpartitionnumber of=/path/to/destination/drive

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  • Do you mean i can clone the usb with dd command? The usb drive i am trying to clone is bootable. Will the target usb drive become bootable if i use the dd command? Also, do i have to format and partition the target usb before using the dd command? – user1800997 Dec 3 '18 at 16:51
  • If you use the dd command to make it so it boots. You will have to use the base drive, like: dd if=/dev/sda of=/path/to/new/usb, ignore the error about size. Use gparted or similar to fix size error on the new usb after you remount the new usb. Should work just fine. – Michael Prokopec Dec 3 '18 at 16:54
  • Trying to put larger into smaller is always problimatic, that is why I suggested shrinking the partition down so it could be copied. This would however not be bootable because the MBR would not be copied in that way. The way I suggested in the comments should work as I have done this succesfuly for friends. – Michael Prokopec Dec 3 '18 at 17:08
  • Why shrinking the partition should matter? I am using disk to disk option in Clonezilla, not partition to partition. Or you mean i have to use the option 'partition to partition' after shrinking the partition with gparted? – user1800997 Dec 3 '18 at 17:59
  • @user1800997, See also this link. If you clone without shrinking some partition(s), at least a part of a partition will be truncated, when the cloning reaches the end of the target drive. – sudodus Dec 3 '18 at 18:06

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