Can I Copy SD Card To Set Up New Raspberry Pi?

[electricphalanx]

Hello,

I've most recently been running a Raspberry Pi 3 with OpenElec as a media server primarily. I am looking to set up a second identical unit with the same set up. Can I simply copy the SD card to my PC then copy those files to the new SD card to avoid the setup process or do I have to do the entire setup on the new Raspberry Pi by scratch?

Thank you for any help you can give me. I tried searching but couldn't find anything discussing this particular topic.

Thanks!

[W. H. Heydt]

Yes, you can do that. How3ver, you don't do it by copying the files. You do it by backing up your existing card as a "disk" image and then writing that to the new card. Us older Pi users are used to using Win32Diskimager to do this. The more recent program of choice is Etcher.

You can also do this using the Pi itself by putting the new card in a USB adapter and using the "dd" program to replicate the existing system image onto the new card. There is also an RPF released utility to do this, though I don't recall the name of it at the moment. The utility will account for size differences between cards that the other methods will not...and even a minor size difference between cards can create problems.

[B.Goode]

There is also an RPF released utility to do this, though I don't recall the name of it at the moment.

PiClone, or SD Card Copier. That is available under Raspbian, so may not be applicable to OpenElec.

[electricphalanx]

Awesome! Thank you so much to you both for your help! Can't wait to set this up!

[davidcoton]

If the new Pi is to be on the same network as the old one, remember you will have to change at least the computer name -- you don't want two Pis with the same name on one network.
If you have set static IP addresses, that will need attention. (One of the reasons why static IP addresses are best avoided.)
If you want to log on to different networks, you will need to adjust that on the clone (and if you want headess access on a different network, that will need attention potentially before cloning).

EDIT: typos

[electricphalanx]

Thanks so much for the additional info. I'll change the name of the original Pi after I clone then change the cloned one to avoid any issues.

Thanks again!

[marine_hm]

I used win32disk imager to put the files on the sd card, run Raspbian Buster.
I got things going the way I want but want to set it up as a standalone Access Point. Before I do that... I want to make a backup so I don't have to start from scratch, just pick up where I'm at now in case I screw it up.

When I run win32diskimager, it is not reading an img file on the SD. What am I missing?

Thanks

[B.Goode]

I used win32disk imager to put the files on the sd card, run Raspbian Buster.
I got things going the way I want but want to set it up as a standalone Access Point. Before I do that... I want to make a backup so I don't have to start from scratch, just pick up where I'm at now in case I screw it up.

When I run win32diskimager, it is not reading an img file on the SD. What am I missing?

Thanks

Firstly, if you are running the supported Raspbian Buster Operating System why not use the supplied SD Card Copier tool to make a replica microSD card?

Secondly, regarding Win32DiskImager - it can read an image and create a microSD card, or it can read a microSD card and create an image. Your description " it is not reading an img file on the SD" sounds like a misunderstanding? And beware that an image made with this tool can only be written back to a target microSD card whose actual (not 'nominal') capacity is the same or greater than the original. And the laws of the universe conspire to arrange that your new target card is always smaller than the original...

[marine_hm]

Can you elaborate on the "supplied sd card copier tool"?

How to... or send me a link that describes how.

Thanks!

[B.Goode]

Can you elaborate on the "supplied sd card copier tool"?

How to... or send me a link that describes how.

Thanks!

Described in a 4-year-old blog post from Raspberry Pi here - https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/anothe ... -raspbian/

Basically, just go to the 'Raspberry' "start" menu and find it somewhere in the drop-down menu options...

[stan_qaz]

Here:

pi-sd-cpy.png (77.38 KiB) Viewed 187 times