How To Backup Raspberry Pi SD Card

One command to rule them all!

The fastest way to backup the SD card on your Pi is to make a direct copy from the running SD card onto a second SD card that has been connected via USB.

Best of all, you do it all from the Pi itself! No need for another host or shutting down your Pi or transferring files.

This HOW TO assumes you have the knowledge to execute commands from a terminal window on the Raspberry Pi desktop or over an SSH connection.

Useful links:

Full web tutorial

[Aurora]

Fantastic job explaining this. Top notch!

[snaplash]

I just used the SD card copier app in the desktop. Copied to another card in a USB drive, and itcworked perfectly.

[kj-marslander]

'sudo fdisk -l' and 'sudo lsblk' are more accurate than just listing /dev contents.

[tocophonic]

When I attempt this, i receive an error message saying "Cannot open /dev/sda: no medium found" :(