Copying SD Image to a File

balenaEtcher
1

I have used Etcher to write the Raspbian image from a file to an SD card. Now I want to duplicate the SD card by reading from the card into a file on my Windows PC, then using Etcher to copy the image to other cards. What is the best way to copy the card image to a file?

2

Thanks for using balenaEtcher! It sounds like you’re looking to duplicate your Raspbian SD card after you’ve logged in and made some changes to the system. Is that the case? If so, you’ll need to turn the modified contents of the SD card into an image (a sort of reverse-Etcher). Unfortunately, Etcher doesn’t do that step. On Linux, you’d use the “dd” command. On Windows, you can run Linux natively with WSL (the Windows Subsystem for Linux https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10). With dd, you can create a new image of your modified Raspbian SD card with “dd if=/dev/sdX of=/home/yourusername/my-updated-raspbian.img” where “sdX” is the the SD card device name, not a partition. Without using dd, you may find some Windows tools out there (https://www.itechtics.com/convert-files-folders-iso-windows-10/). Once the image is created from the modified SD card (my-updated-raspbian.img), you can then use balenaEtcher to repeatedly burn it to fresh SD cards.

4

Hi @Ciaraldi,

Did you have any success?

John

6

Thanks for checking. This looks like it will work, but I have not had a chance to try it.

7

Thanks for letting us know. If you have any further issues, feel free to get back in contact with us!

Best regards,

Heds

9

Thinking about your response I have a question as I’m new to Linux. Say have have made an image using dd of my current setup, do I need to prep the new sdcard before dd’ing my imagine to the new card for it to boot?

10

Hi @Femike, welcome to the forums!

Once you have an image, you could use balenaEtcher to write it to SD card and make it bootable. Just be aware that Etcher is going to delete the existing contents of the SD card and re-create partitions. Basically Etcher handles all the preparations for you.

Cheers…

1 Like
12

Hello everyone,

Can any one suggest what would be the device name “/dev/x” for a balenaFin as there is no SD card?

Moath

13

Hi Moath,
could you please start a new thread in the balenaFin category so that your issue could be referenced separately from this one? We will be keen to answer your questions there.
Thanks

15

There is a very easy way to do it on Windows: Win32diskImager. Use the Read option