Backing Up Your Raspberry Pi 5 onto an SD Card




Backing up your Raspberry Pi 5 onto an SD card is a straightforward process using the built-in SD card Copier tool. This tool allows you to create a complete copy of your Raspberry Pi's storage onto another SD card, providing you with a reliable backup. ollow these steps to perform the backup:

Prerequisites

SD Card

A secondary SD card with sufficient storage capacity to hold the backup. Make sure the SD card is formatted and empty.

Steps to Back Up

1) Insert the SD Card:

Insert the SD card into a USB card reader, then plug it into a USB port on your Raspberry Pi 5.

2) Open Sd Card Copier:

  • On your Raspberry Pi, open the main menu.

  • Navigate to Accessories and select SD Card Copier

In the Raspberry Pi, the raspberry pi icon is expanded, and the accessories menu is expanded with SD Card Copier highlighted.

3) Select Source and Destination:

  • In the SD card Copier window, you will see two drop-down menus for device selection.

  • Copy From Device: Select the source device (usually the internal storage of your Raspberry Pi).

  • Copy To Device: Select the destination device (the SD card you inserted).

The SD Card Copier menu with Copy From Device filled with "Unnamed Drive (/dev/mmcblk0) (/dev/mmcblk0)" and Copy To Device filled with "Mass Storage Device (/dev/sda).

4) Start the Copy Process:

  • After selecting the source and destination devices, click on Start.

  • Confirm any prompts to begin the copying process. This process may take some time depending on the size of your data.

5) Wait for Completion:

  • The SD card Copier will show the progress of the backup process. Wait until it completes. Do not remove the SD card or power off the Raspberry Pi during this process.

6) Eject the SD Card:

  • Once the backup is complete, safely eject the SD card from the Raspberry Pi.

By following these steps, you can easily create a backup of your Raspberry Pi 5 onto an SD card using the SD card Copier tool. This ensures that your data is safe and can be restored in case of any issues with the primary storage.