How to backup operating system?

Hello, I am new to Raspberry PI and Linux. Recently I purchased an SD Card with Debian already installed for Rasberry PI. Before I use it I was hoping to back it up just in case I mess something up on it when I do use it.

Does anyone know if it's possible to back this SD card with windows xp pc?

I seem to recall that you can do this with Win32DiskImager

If you do manage to mess things up, you can download a new image-file of the operating system and use Win32DiskImager to put that image on to the card. As empire mentions, you can also back the card up (copy the card to an image).

Link to download that tool and instructions on how to use it are on http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setu ... on_Windows

You can also download images of other operating system configurations (the "normal" one is Debian, there's a new beta version of the Debian system with some fixes now available), write them to your card and try them out. You might want to find some spare SD cards or buy a couple more, if you want to try a new OS distrubution without erasing your old one.

Thanks so much. I am going to get this done tonight. Sounds like no problem

Is there a way of backing up an OS that only uses the RasPi?

Is there a way of backing up an OS that only uses the RasPi?

Plug in a USB card reader/writer, put a blank card into the external reader, then do:

dd bs=1M if=/dev/mmcblkWhatever of=/dev/sdWhatever

Thanks Joe - that seems very straightforward.

I was a bit confused by dding if=/dev/something, but I see that's just a way ofcopying a partition.

But isn't the output a file - so it can be mounted with mount -o loop, but we can't boot from it?
If that's right, we still don't have a bootable OS in case we mess up this one...

Thanks Joe - that seems very straightforward.

I was a bit confused by dding if=/dev/something, but I see that's just a way ofcopying a partition.

But isn't the output a file - so it can be mounted with mount -o loop, but we can't boot from it?
If that's right, we still don't have a bootable OS in case we mess up this one...

I think you are confusing drive with partition.
SDD is a whole drive
SDD1 is the first partition on drive SDD

I think you are confusing drive with partition.
SDD is a whole drive
SDD1 is the first partition on drive SDD

Quite possibly
So this command dd bs=1M if=/dev/mmcblkWhatever of=/dev/sdWhatever will produce a bootable image of one drive (which happens to be an SD card)?

I think you are confusing drive with partition.
SDD is a whole drive
SDD1 is the first partition on drive SDD

Quite possibly
So this command dd bs=1M if=/dev/mmcblkWhatever of=/dev/sdWhatever will produce a bootable image of one drive (which happens to be an SD card)?

Quite so. It produces a true backup - i.e., a copy of the original object (which is a plastic, bootable, SD card). The copy is also a plastic, bootable, SD card.

Also, as others have noted, this produces a copy of the entire disk, not a "partition".

Also, as others have noted, this produces a copy of the entire disk, not a "partition".

Ok - sorry, lack of headings & a long section on floppy disks (here led to me missing "Cloning an entire hard disk".

Just a matter of finding a spare SD card reader then...

What happens if the SD you want to back up to is bigger than the one being backed up?

What happens if the SD you want to back up to is bigger than the one being backed up?

Then you're gonna have a bad time.

I mean size(if's SD)<size(of's SD)?

I mean size(if's SD)<size(of's SD)?

That's likely to be OK. It is the opposite case that will be a problem.

So, I think the answer is: No problem. It will write the first X bytes to the card then quit, leaving the rest of the card unallocated/unused. But it should boot fine.

Ok - thanks, that's good.

I ask because I think I read somewhere SD's degrade and decrease in size gradually as you use them; if that's right this will be a common scenario.

you can resize SD cards great with gparted. I tried increase the size (backup was smaller), works fine.