Backing up a Pi image (chip)

[James Kessel]

ALL of the books and instructions I have seen tell you to backup you Pi by taking the memory chip out, moving it to a Windows computer and backing the chip up using Win32 Disk Imager. I don't own Windows or Win32 Disk Imager or a Windows computer.
Is it really necessary for me to get a Microsoft fix for a Raspberry Pi backup?
I have SD chips, flash memory chips and hard drives attached to my Raspberry Pi2. Is there some way I can do a backup of my Pi without removing the memory chip?

[JimmyN]

I use "rsync". Very fast, very configurable, works great for local backups as well as across a network.

[James Kessel]

The Synaptic Package Manager does not recognize rsync. Where can I find it?

[kusti8]

The Synaptic Package Manager does not recognize rsync. Where can I find it?

Strange, it should be there. Can you install it in the terminal?

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rsync

[James Kessel]

Well apparently I am wrong. When I typed 'sudo apt-get install rsync' , I was told rsync is already the latest version.
Thanks for the tip. I will try to translate the man pages into something I understand.