How to create images of expanded OS & packages

[Necon45]

I am new to pi and am having issue with creating an image of an already expanded OS with packages installed. Basically I expanded Raspbian and set up tightVNC and fingbox so that the pi can monitor my network (works great). Now I want to save this just the way it is so I can reproduce more network monitors without having to do all the back end setup again. I want to be able to just copy my saved image to a new sd card load it in a new pi, boot it up and be done. Can this be done with pi? If so does anyone have some reference material they can point me to. I am trying to Google my way to a solution now but I'm not sure of the exact way to phrase my question so Google will find the results I want so any help would be appreciated.

[Necon45]

Oh ya I tried to just copy the files from the SD card that is setup to a new SD card. When I put the new SD card into the new Pi it opened up NOOBS. This is not the goal I was going for.

[GTR2Fan]

Were you hoping to carry this out with just the Pi, or do you have a Linux or Windows PC available to do the donkey work?

[Necon45]

Windows PC to do the hard labor. Im actually trying to save the backup file on my server for later use. I work for an IT firm and we are hoping to set these things up on our customers networks for real time notification of networking issues. Basically I want to be able to reproduce my expanded OS with services infinity.

[GTR2Fan]

Win32DiskImager in the downloads section will allow you to make an image (.img file) of the entire card. Just bear in mind that SD card sizes differ from one to another even if they're marked as being the same size, so it can make life easier down the line if you create the image from a smaller card, eg, 4GB instead of 8GB for a target of 8GB cards.

I believe that Gparted can be used from a Linux Live disk to manually shrink the partition a little if needs be, but I'm unfamiliar with that process being mostly a Windows guy.

[Necon45]

Thank you mate, I will check that out now.

[GTR2Fan]

Begging your pardon. It may not be as easy to find on that page as I thought it was. The URL for it is...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

[Necon45]

Thanks again, I already got it installed and am giving it a try but I think this is just what I was looking for. I too am a Windows user so basic I was looking for the linux version of Norton Ghost. My Googlings were not exactly fruitful. Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction.

[GTR2Fan]

You're welcome.