Backing up SD Card

TheStrayMongrel

Now that I've got things working pretty damn well config wise (thanks to many folks here!) the first thing that i did was rip out the SD card and save an image of it... just in case. Its a bit of a pain to get to my SD though so was wondering if it was possible to remotely do a back up image, and what peoples solutions are for backing up? I'm guessing its possible through ssh but sometimes my connection can be a little flakey so I'm guessing a 16 odd gb image would fail doing it that way (and i really want a back up to be rock-solid). That said my FTP connection is a lot more solid but not sure if its possible through there.

Interested to hear peoples thoughts on safeguarding all their set-up efforts.

Thanks

demesauce

Once you get the SD card just how I want it. Shut down retropie, turn it off completely. Pop out the SD card and put it in your Mac/PC (Mac for me). I use the app Pi-Baker, if you have a PC use the equivalent. There is an upfront option to back up the SD card. Select the card and let the program to the wok. Then pop your card back into you pi. If you ever need a backup, burn it from Pi-Baker, or whatever you use.

Yes, yes, I know there are ways to do it in terminal, but GUI is easier for most, and it makes me feel warm inside....

Drakaen391

I actually built a back up program for RetroPie if your interested

edmaul69

@TheStrayMongrel on top of a pi image i ftp in and copy:

/opt/retropie/ folder
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms folder
/etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg
/boot/config.txt
/boot/cmdline.txt

To a folder on my computer that i name whatever version of pi i am on. Then if i need to fix something i already have the files and i dont have to reflash my card back to an img that might be outdated and is a pain to do when you dont have access to the sd card.

TheStrayMongrel

@demesauce Ha, that is exactly what i did do (mac user also)! :) My pi is inside my controls though, and i tend to be tinkering at night and i just know im going to drop the removed SD down the decking at some point or another given how small it is. More after a remote solution... thanks all the same.

TheStrayMongrel

@Drakaen391 Interested, do tell..? I dare say, given I'm a mac user, that'll hamstring whatever you've got going... but i hope not.

TheStrayMongrel

@edmaul69 Yeah thats a good call. Will have to do that also. Thanks for the heads up.

Drakaen391

@TheStrayMongrel I will have to send the github link when I am back on my PC.

The program runs directly on the pi

TheStrayMongrel

@Drakaen391 Brilliant, will be keen to check it out. Thanks.

Ekstreme

Ditto. I'm forever re-imaging after a pooch configs :)

flop

I extract manually the SD and use a SD reader, then "Win32DiskImager" will make you a fast image of your SD, and too could be used for rewrite the SD (backup :P), aaand, win32 its for windows, obviously XD

GtBFilms

I have the same problem, the pi is in a picade cabinet, bolted to the back door, so to get the card out I have to unscrew it.

A better solution (for me) would be if I could stick a USB Pen drive into one of the pi's usb ports, or even a sd card in an sd card reader, and just dump am image of the sd card straight to that from the pi.

I'd be very interested in other's backup solutions!

TheStrayMongrel

@GtBFilms said in Backing up SD Card:

A better solution (for me) would be if I could stick a USB Pen drive into one of the pi's usb ports, or even a sd card in an sd card reader, and just dump am image of the sd card straight to that from the pi.

Yeah that'd be cool. I'd make a port of the side of the control panel for such a thing.

Drakaen391

The program is at github.com/Drakaen391/rpibu

Be sure the read the readme

The file is in beta, so please let me know how it works for you guys

GtBFilms

@Drakaen391 awesome, thanks! Won't get the chance to try it out for a week or so but will let you know how I get on.

TheStrayMongrel

Good stuff @Drakaen391 thanks. Can you give me a little more info, does it make a back up image of the SD Card or copy across certain files?

Drakaen391

It defaults to back up folders most commonly changed

TheStrayMongrel

Ah yep gotcha, can see that in the .cfg file.

Cheers

bu_file="etc/emulationstation opt/retropie/ home/pi/RetroPie/roms boot/config.txt boot/cmdline.txt home/pi/retropie/bios"

TheStrayMongrel

Hmm have i done something wrong? I assume the retropie-Thursday.tgz file is automatically generated? Sorry a bit of a beginner at all this. Thanks

pi@retropie:~/RetroPie/rpibu-master $ sudo bash rpibu.sh
Backing up etc/emulationstation opt/retropie/ home/pi/RetroPie/roms boot/config.txt boot/cmdline.txt home/pi/retropie/bios to home/pi/backup/retropie-Thursday.tgz
Thu 25 Aug 12:26:56 UTC 2016

tar (child): home/pi/backup/retropie-Thursday.tgz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now

Backup finished

Drakaen391

@TheStrayMongrel it didn't as the path doesn't exist...

The folders should exist prior to running the program