How to copy / clone / back up a raspberry pi microSD card image for retropie and raspbian

Hey All! In this video I show you how to create / back up / copy / restore a full microSD card image. This is especially handy if you are a raspberry pi owner and frequently use RetroPie or Raspbian.
Creating an image of a MicroSD card is an effective way to back up or copy your setup!
Etcher:
www.balena.io/etcher/
Win32 Disk Imager:
sourceforge.net/projects/win3...
My recommended products on Amazon - MicroSD Cards and Anker MicroSD Card Reader:
www.amazon.com/shop/MrSujano

[@stevejanowski4557]

Just want to say that over the years, THIS is the video I've saved, referred to, and come back to over and over and over and over again. Thank you for making this video!

[@axitalia]

One of the biggest problems for those who follow tutorials in a foreign language is to understand the explanation of the procedure. You explain very clearly and your English is fully understandable. Thanks for the video.

[@TheSignOfJonah]

Yes the guy above says he could do faster but still came here for help

[@timmeakin428]

I used this to backup my OpenDingux systems. Thanks so much for simplifying the process!!

[@kenpressman2918]

Great information offering step by step directions which is very helpful. I purchased the anchor micro SD card reader from your site. I wish that you offered 512 or 1tb cards as well. But cool site so far, keep up the great service you offer.

[@mrE2me0]

Epic and Simple Vid. I have a Retropie build that I have been working on for some time but wanted to try flashing a friends image to my nicer SD card. This definitely helped bring me some peace of mind knowing I had a backup if his doesn't work out.

[@TheLoneRanger1992]

How do you get the image off an back into the sd card when you want to recover it ?

[@73richg]

This helped tremendously. I was looking for stock firmware for a an Anbernic rg353p for a few days and couldn’t fiind one. I used your method and that did the trick.

[@perryhutchlee3743]

Great video man. Simple and to the point.

[@gsetetin]

Thanks! Simple and effective!

[@queingenioso3318]

Thankyou very Much for your help. I followed your instructions to backup a Rapberry Pie image . I used both programs recommended WIN32 DISK IMAGER to READ and ETCHER to write.... The Backed up image Loaded my Menus but failed to load every game. I thought I had a bad SD CARD, so I purchased a new blank Card. I did the procedure again. Same result!!! So I tried READING with WIN32 DISK IMAGER and WRITING with WIN32 DISK IMAGER (No Etcher) - NOW IT WORKED . (Small Tip: After the backup file is written to your destination drive you must change the name and add the extension " .img " example to example.img in order for the WIN32 DISK IMAGER finds it prior to WRITING it to your new sdCard . Be careful to select the correct destination drive or you might overwrite another drive losoing information. Hope this helps someone.

[@irving.t]

Hello, thank you for your video, it help me alots and your tuto are the only one thats works for me. I have backup (Raspberry pi) usb drive to another usb drive and works great. Thanks

[@ULouOW]

Thanks This Really Helped Me Out

[@jdp1956]

Excellent video, I was going nuts trying to figure it all out. Thank you !!!

[@Red5.0931]

Thanks for the tip about naming .img!

[@Dave64track]

Just what I was looking for thanks I have subbed thanks for sharing.

[@dnestorjr]

thanks for posting this so helpful

[@TobiasDettinger]

Wow thank you very very much for this informations! Thank you so much!!! :D I want to build a cluster of raspberry pi's and dont want to install everything on each one by one. This is so helpful!!! :D

[@robertschoening7769]

Good job. Best instructions I've seen.

[@mechdiy]

Very helpful video! Thanks very much!

[@JoshuaStranger]

Thanks a lot. Great info.

[@johnrusso594]

thanks for another answer to a problem had!

[@benjrgadgets7223]

Thank you for a very clear instructions. I have a quick question when i tried it, there's 2 drives appear in my file explorer, H for EEROMS and I for Emuelec, those 2 are in that micro SD card? what shall I do. which one i am going to read and copy?

[@zazzau]

I have been backing up images for a while and have them on my N.A.S, works great 👍 as for writing i use Rufus.

[@TheAlexd51]

You went all 1992 there for a second with the floppy disk comment LMAO Thanks for the help i was looking for this for the exactly the same reason retropie.

[@usmale47374]

I can't help but wonder if this process would be the best way to transfer the contents of my 64gb card to a new 256gb card. No games, but I do want accuracy.

[@eikeweber1508]

Thanks for your video. I have a question: I have a 200GB micro-SD card and I want to put the image of a 128GB microSD card on it. How do I ensure that the remaining 72GB of the 200GB microSD card is added to the games partition and not the OS partition of the memory card? THX

[@stevehumphry9774]

A mixed review on this. Win 32 Disk Imager installed and worked flawlessly as described. Etcher not so much. It prompts you to install multiple unwanted programs during download, one of which I failed to decline and had to uninstall, and the exe file would not launch. Turns out you don't need it anyway. Disk Imager has a write feature that does the same thing.

[@Watdafuwant]

Thank you you’re the man I just lost my mind a few minutes ago when my SD card got corrupted

[@mohre5911]

Nice one thank you

[@hunterfarmington285]

Thanks for the video man!. Just got a new desktop and have had my PI for a year and ah alf. Would rather try to have . cosistent backup

[@MrSujano]

Completely agree! Thanks for watching!

[@mowaly64]

@@MrSujano hi boss… please how can copy sd card retropie game to another sd card please 🙏🙏🙏

[@m.sufianfitri3231]

Thanks! appreciate it!

[@fredzibulski3111]

Hello well explained. is this also going to work for sd card to SSD ? I want to move an image from a 16 GB Sd Card to a 250 GB SSD so i ca use it in a Raspberry pi argon m2 case. given i have all the needed hardware and tools to but the SSD in a case to image the image from the sd card on.

[@alpachino468]

Holy shit! For a moment there, I thought Seth Green was going to teach me how to clone a MicroSD card ❤️

[@bassonette]

Who the F is Seth Green -?

[@mikekazz5353]

@@bassonette Scotty from Austin powers, Greg the bunny and I think he's the producer or creator of robot chicken.

[@africantwin173]

How can i get rpi-clone installed on a Raspbian OS Lite that is running headless. I really liked the rpi--clone on the desktop version. I wounder if this rpi-clone with small gui could be installed on the Lite version.

[@gregalss]

will try it thanks

[@nickangelo116]

Even though I have an SD card reader, can I use an adapter plugged into an adapter plugged into an adapter?

[@michaelmclaren1333]

Question about the SD anchor/USB because my laptop doesn't have an msd card slot. I have the super console x pro. Can I just hook up my super console x pro to my laptop and back it up or do I NEED a msd card adapter for this to work?

[@codelaborative7127]

this is awesome so easy, do you have a tut on setting up an ssd now too?

[@danfisher3616]

Good video, but why didn't you use Win32 Disk Imager to write the image to a new SD card?

[@thomasgifkins9983]

Great Video! I am an Octopi user and I updated when I should not have done so. I thankfully had made an ISO of my working micro SD card. My working but dysfunctional card appears as an E: boot and an F: that tells me it needs formatting. I downloaded Balena Etcher program. Tried to go from a 32G micro SD image to a fresh micro SD, but I got the message that the fresh micros SD card was too small. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

[@ggkfdidi6538]

I tried exactly what you did and I just got Error 5. I tried this about 10 times the error the same. I read somewhere that after the error, if you take out the sdcard and replace it, the error goes away as long as you don't close winm32 Disk Imager. I tried that and it still errored. I was just about to write this after pulling it out and putting it back for the last time when I noticed it had started to read! I am thinking When you put the sdcard in, you have to wait for win10 to let go of it. Going to continue to test this hypothesis!

[@BartOuw]

Highly advise to check the "read only allocated partition" Else it will take ages to just copy empty blocks.

[@lumberfoot_jpg]

Will the new, bigger, card still be able to utilize it's empty space?

[@te5844]

you did not address what format the sd card needs to be, if a raspberry pi is used does it not require fat 32? and are not most sd cards above 32gb pre-formatted to exfat? does writing the image also automatically change the formatting as well?

[@fuba1]

Well... The Problem is -> Raspberry Systems actually have 2+ partitions and Win32 Disk Imager can only read "mounted" partitions but NOT the whole SD-Card like Linux's DD can do... So sadly it's useless in most cases if you wanna "Backup or Clone" the whole System!

[@johntoye6602]

So I have found. Its doing my head in. I have cloned the system config, it even recognises some of my save files. Yet, there are a ton of missing systems such as snes megadrive and so on. The games drive shows up on my pc, but it is effectively useless. I can't add games as there is effectively no space, but it is effectively dead space because whatever is there doesn't show when i put that sd in super console x pro.

[@susanguy925]

I want to clone the Micro SD card that came with my Super Console X. When I put the card into my computer it comes up with 2 drives..E: for the data and F: for the Roms. Do I need to do 2 separate images onto the new micro sd card?

[@jonathanmullins8534]

Quick question. I have an rg35xx and Garlic os, Garlic creates an image that has 2 drives but win32 will only select one of these drives. M and N. Id like to backup my garlic os drive w all my tweaks. Is there a way to do this?

[@Enthcreations]

Thanks a lot. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@saimuddin5401]

Brother I have a quick question I have 2 PC's of raspberry pi 3 model b I am using one of the raspberry pi it have a software for my 3d printer so if I duplicate that sd card and then put it in my second raspberry pi will it work the same as the 1st one ??

[@cillockcube]

why dont use wind 32 disk imager to flash that image file too? cause it have that feature named "write image"

[@erickcarmona8638]

Hello, Does this procedure work for the case when microSD source has 2 logical units?

[@benjrgadgets7223]

Thats my case i guess also, my Super Console X Plus has 2 drives inside that 256 microSD H drive for EEROMS and I drive for Emuelec. I was warned before that the reason why the manufacturer put a seal on the MicroSD because it might get corrupted when copied.

[@whatistruth101]

Found a sidekick 2, was wondering if I can make it into a retro gaming phone, any thoughts on how?

[@rasmusastrom7646]

Any idea of why I'm getting a redundancy error after finishing reading in win32?

[@jaymacaulay81]

Will this work for Emuelec? I want to back up my Kinhank Super Console X4 Plus SD card. Thanks for any help on this!

[@easytips305]

Thanks 👍👍

[@hummygreen]

Hi question. Ive tried this but no good results. Im using windows 10 pro And the reading proces went well..and here comes the promblem. When i try to put the image file to an other micro sd card(enough space) Windows says..cant write to this card(remove the write protection, ther is none) However i can format the card so the card is acessable besides writing to it(image). Justs plain files it, it will write. Accept image files(iso) Any ideas? Thank you!!

[@murshidmalik8245]

When I cloned the os the size of the image increased??

[@michaelgould1706]

Do you ever really to check the box that says for read only allocated partitions?

[@lumberfoot_jpg]

is there a reason you specifically used etcher to write the image instead of win32 disk imager?

[@feralshad0w]

I have a 256gb sd card with only 30 gb of data on there. Is the image going to be the full volume, or just a 30 gb image?

[@rfranz220]

Great step-by-step video. Thanks! Why don't you just use Disk Imager for writing too?

[@nightbirdmedia]

You can use it to write the initial retropie image but I've read some people have had issues trying to write to a back up using a different sd card than the one used originally.

[@LangersVW]

nightbirdmedia agreed I’ve had that issue today!!

[@benjrgadgets7223]

@@nightbirdmedia I was about to ask that but good thing you answer that so for reading i will used Win32Disk and for Writing i will use balena Etcher.

[@damarlboromans]

Why bother using etcher over win32 Disk Image to write the .img back to the SD? Is there any certain reason other then just preference?

[@nightbirdmedia]

I couldn't even write the official pi 4 image using windisk. Simply put, windisk isn't up to the task

[@rivec33]

Can you write to the card using win32? Or you need etcher?

[@Silentblackhorse]

I copied an image from a 32GB card, but when I go to try to write that image to another 32GB MicroSD, it tells me its too small...Any help for this?

[@MyZangief]

I have both a Pi400 and a PI4 B. Can I copy the image from the PI400 and have it work on the PI4 B?

[@augustheat]

when you make the new copy that card has to be fat 32 right?

[@robertschworm6036]

Hi, I have a sd card image that came off a 8gb sd card. I put in a new 16gb card and wrote the image to it with win32diskimager. Now - the new sd card is no longer 16gb but shows a size of 8gb. I was told that when writing an image to a sd card, the new card takes on the size of the master sd card. I used diskimage to get the sd card back to 16gb - ok - and wrote the image again - - back to 8gb size. Question - how do you write a 8gb image to a 16gb sized card and maintain the card size? Bob S

[@woodstockxx]

Nice to see a reply..not ! .. I’m having exactly the same problem when trying to upgrade from a 16GB to faster & bigger Sandisk 64GB card..watched a KZbin video that showed how to do this..I followed it to the word but every time I carry out this procedure, the cloned card no longer boots..AAAARRRRGH !!

[@DippySippy]

@@woodstockxx do you have the video? I think i saw one that you didnt have to loose your data. I think the higher space use a different type of data.

[@jeremyschultz4731]

i have android sdk my issue was the generated sd card image kept getting corrupted when it made an VR SD image in turn making it impossible to mount it as VR drive on windows 11 to pull apps or made emulated info or files, from the vr drive vr os of an emulated android to windows 11. meaning after copying a real sd card i baked up with the first app i linked the sd card image to the vr emulated android studio app in advanced settings all to counter the corruption error. i figure to figure out a work around basically, allowing me to push pull and push pull both ways of a emulated device and all it took was the first app you mentioned copy paste from an vr emulated sd card saved me after pointing to the link in advance settings making my image access able by emulated android so it can be edited like a real sd card then i un-mount it in the main app and mount it with windows 10-11 or demon mount tools and can copy content out of the device XD in a long winded nut shell that app saved me headaches.

[@skylerfurstonberg9506]

Will the backup also boot up in my pi?

[@javilarg]

Is this good too for TF cards with several partitions?

[@kenleysteadman637]

cheers bro

[@ZeusCannon94]

is this only for rasberry pi or does work it with steam deck. like duplicating a micro sd card for roms ??

[@christopherbrown5338]

I must be missing something. As long as both sd cards are formatted fat32, why can't you just copy the files from the original to the new card? I tried it and it didn't work, like I said, I must be missing something & I'm new to the Raspberry Pi 4

[@mannygonzalez7987]

I have a 256gb micro sd card I bought loaded with over 20,000 games. Would this method work if I wanna save it to another micro sd card for a friend.

[@ronch550]

Why not use the built-in feature of Win32 Disk Imager to write the image to a microSD card? Is Etcher better?

[@fightnight14]

Whats the answer for this?

[@mickeymurderous3326]

What’s the difference between writing and classic drag and pull copying and etching?

[@RubenRyb66]

Is the write option in win32disk not as good as etcher or something?

[@glenng.8254]

LMAO ! " If you didn't like the video, leave a LIKE" ... Too Funny !

[@justint3620]

Does the sd card have to be formatted to fat 32 first before the write in order to run on rasp pi?

[@shanefrench3447]

Yes, you need to format an SD card to FAT32 if it has a capacity greater than 32 GB before installing it on a Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi's bootloader, which is built into the GPU, can only read from FAT file systems, including FAT16 and FAT32, but it cannot boot from an exFAT file system. FAT32 has better compatibility than exFAT, and most devices, including Raspberry Pi, do not recognize hard drives formatted to exFAT

[@Khalrua]

Does this process keep all the partitions in place?

[@benjrgadgets7223]

I think i have that kind of case, the microSD i have in my Gamebox has 2 Drives inside one for EEROMS and one For EMuelec my PC detected 2 drives.

[@crfishing1980]

Do you think you could copy a navionics boar mapping card, with this method

[@glovedcop69]

What is the case is partitioned? What do we use?

[@MikeG-js1jt]

does it have to be an image file that is being cloned?....or can I clone (not just copy) any sd card

[@timmeakin428]

I used it for the entire (full) 32gb card.

[@richardreed6868]

You can use PiSafe to easily create a compressed image of your SD card or USB stick. Then restore it to a different device any time you like.

[@electronixTech]

Thanks for the tip. I was looking for something like this.

[@carlmieleszko2944]

Can you then transfer this to a portable hardrive?

[@MyZangief]

I brought the exact same card and did everything you said but when I made the image and tried to put it on a new SD card it said the SD card was too small for the image. Its the exact same SD card and same size. I don't understand

[@CoolSteve77]

Same exact problem I have. Identical SD cards.

[@ninline2000]

Would be nice to not need another computer to back up the Pi. Are there no solutions that don't require me to buy a windows computer?

[@krazykarens7431]

will this work to copy a Funkey S card?

[@CoryJacobsen]

Thanks for the tutorial. I wanted to switch to a larger micro SD for Mister, and didn’t want to set everything up again.

[@DippySippy]

I did this now my new micro sd card is showing only 32gb instead of the 512gb upgrade. How do i fix this

[@meendog28]

Does this work with an Linux Image also? Great Video

[@JustAFatGuyInTX]

Can this be done with an image made for the Retroflag Gpi case? I want to essentially copy/paste my image to another case to reduce the time to set up another Gpi case as a gift.

[@JustAFatGuyInTX]

And so I don't have to set up the patches and shutdown prompts for the case again.

[@v0idtheory]

@@JustAFatGuyInTX yes it will work. all settings are saved

[@guanaco1626]

When I click READ I get a message that the disk is not large enough. ???

[@shguevara]

I have the same error on Windows 10

[@robertschworm6036]

Also - - -Rasbian has a sd copier utility. It also copies the operating sd card over to a backup sd card. Again, the new card takes on the size of the original sd card. I want to maintain the new sd card''s size. This is like throwing 16gb of storage on the floor!! Bob S

[@Jeffreycee]

What about EmuELEC kinhank systems? Does this work ?

[@valp8198]

I get a error saying the image is too big for the new sd card, but the new card is the same size as the original one. Is there a workaround for this?

[@v0idtheory]

if they are two different brands then they are not necessarily the same size. if you use a "64gb" sd card then you are probably only getting about 62 with a samsung, and even less with other brands.

[@wigg1yscott554]

Who knows this feeling?: You really don’t wanna get involved with this stuff, you just wanna play the pi! BUT you are aware if you don’t back it up you could lose it. Video looks simple enough but what’s the bet you hit a roadblock in 30 seconds flat? I’m gonna go try it now. Thanks for the video tho, looks doable.

[@wigg1yscott554]

Loooooool!! The irony of my earlier comments! The second program seemed to corrupt my memory cards. I didn’t realise the problem at first, booted in safe mode got locked out of my PC and had to reinstall windows.

[@wigg1yscott554]

Oh. and now I just realised I could have just used the first program for both jobs.

[@michaelkranitz4162]

Win32 keeps saying there is not enough space on disc any solution

[@richardreed6868]

I am having trouble sharing where to find PiSafe. It is on that opensource developers website that starts with git and ends with hub. Then RichardMidnight then pi-safe. - peace

[@dosequzla]

What gives? my SD Card has several partitions as I imagine yours did as well but the Etcher app is refusing to write the image to the EMPTY SD card. Any ideas? both cards are 16GB capacity.

[@installtekzdotcom9777]

all SD cards have a sleight capacity difference from a few KB to several MB. even if both cards are "16GB". This method doesn't work.

[@sdevane75]

@@installtekzdotcom9777 not really the answer to the question he asked... he asked about multiple partitions i.e. which one are you supposed to select?... in order to backup the entire sdcar?

[@BorderlessGamer]

It doesnt matter, it backups and restores ALL partitions of the SD card.

[@MobileDecay]

Ha ha! Floppy disk! 😂 Why not a tape drive? 😁

[@joshcatalano5127]

Is this free to do on these apps?