Restoring a backup of the SD Card

[waltd]

Before I make some tricky updates, I backup the Pi SD Card using Win32diskimager with the "Read" option and created an .img backup file on my laptop HDD. To restore this backup file to a SD Card, do I need to run Win32diskimager with the "write" function, or just copy/past the backup file to the SD Card? Also, is the new SD Card to be in FAT32 format? Thanks.

[DBryant]

Personally I'd restore the whole disk; picking files out of a backup set will give you a mixed system, with potential for error and/or inconsistencies.

It won't matter about the format of the SD card, it will be zapped completely by the copy process

[Mobius]

Before I make some tricky updates, I backup the Pi SD Card using Win32diskimager with the "Read" option and created an .img backup file on my laptop HDD. To restore this backup file to a SD Card, do I need to run Win32diskimager with the "write" function, or just copy/past the backup file to the SD Card? Also, is the new SD Card to be in FAT32 format? Thanks.

Win32diskimager actually copies the whole SD card so you just select the file you want to restore and click on the "write" button. Periodic backups are a must while you are experimenting. The new SD card probably doesn't have to be FAT32 format to begin with but SD cards usually come that way. The image should just overwrite everything on the card anyway.

[waltd]

Thanks Mobius. So I need to use Win32diskimager and the "write" option to restore the backup file to a SD Card. This is the info I needed.