Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Restore Introduction

raspiBackup provides complete restores, i.e. all partitions are usually restored.

In contrast, in partition-oriented mode, the partitions to be restored can be selected and thus only parts can be restored.

During a restore, new partitions are created on the target data device (SD card, USB disk, ...) and then with the appropriate tool (dd, tar or rsync) the data is restored there.

The target data device must therefore not the currently used operating system. It must be another card, USB disk, SSD or NVMe device connected with a card reader.

A restore requires a Linux systemfor a tar or rsync backup. You should usually use a Raspberry for this. Other Linux systems also work, but it is not 100% guaranteed that they will always work.

If an external root file system has been backed up, it will also be restored to an external device. (Only in normal backup mode with tar or rsync backup).

A manual restore of the data with the previously used backup tools dd, tar or rsync is of course also possible. It is also possible to restore individual files (manually), especially with the rsync backup.

The backup script can also be used to clone systems: A backup is created and then restored to another device. A typical application is to copy an SD card to an SSD or NVMe and then operate the system with the SSD/NVMe and no longer with an SD card.

For a complete list of all restore options see here.

Further topics on this page:

Recovery scenario with a Raspberry with RaspbianOS

Any backup can be restored using the Raspberry Pi.

  1. Start a Raspberry Pi OS on the Raspberry

  2. Install *raspiBackup

  3. Connect the system device to which the backup is to be restored (e.g. an SD card with an SD card reader or SSD).

  4. Connect the medium that contains the backup (e.g. a hard disk) and mount it or mount a network drive with the backup data.

  5. If the root partition is located on an external partition, connect another device with a preformatted partition which will get the external partition been restored

  6. Start raspiBackup for restore to the device.

This is usually used:

  • The system device /dev/sda
  • The backup partition /dev/sdbx
  • And a possible root partition /dev/sdcx.

If a network drive is used, the root partition is usually /dev/sdbx.

The actual device assignment may differ and should always be checked, to avoid other partitions being overwritten by mistake.

E.g. with

sudo parted -l

Restore scenario for Windows users on a Windows system

Only a dd backup can (also) be restored directly under Windows, with the Win32DiskImager.

Restore scenario for Linux users

Note

In principle, any Linux OS can be used to restore a backup. But with possible incompatibilities of its tools, compared to the Linux tools used for the backup Linux tools used for the backup, there may be problems. An occasional candidate for this is sfdisk, which has changed to be incompatible with both Jessie and Bullseye.

Therefore:

A restore should always be performed with the same OS that was used to create the backup. the backup was created.

The device to which the backup is to be restored is connected to the Linux system, the backup partition is mounted and a partition is provided for any external root file system.

Then start raspiBackup to restore to a device.

If no RaspbianOS and/or no Raspberry Pi is used, the option --unsupportedEnvironment must be specified.

See also Supported hardware and software.

Example calls

Hardware required for the restore:

  1. A running Raspberry Pi with a running Raspberry Pi OS or another Linux operating system or another Linux computer with raspiBackup installed.

  2. A connected target device of the backup

  3. A connected backup device (via USB or network)

  4. If an external root partition is to be restored or the USB boot mode is used where no mode is used where an SD card is no longer used, another disk must be connected via USB. another disk must be connected

Similarities of the example calls:

  1. The backed up system is called "raspberrypi" in the example call.
  2. The target disk that is to receive the restore of the boot/boot and root partition boot and root partition is available in the example as /dev/sdf. Further below is described how to find out the current value for -d
  3. Attention: All existing data on the target data carriers will be deleted after a confirmation prompt from raspiBackup before the restore.
  4. The backup to be restored is available under /remote/raspifix/disks/backup/rsync/raspberrypi/raspberrypi-rsync-backup-20141230-213032/

Restore to an SD card

sudo raspiBackup.sh -d /dev/sdf /remote/raspifix/disks/backup/rsync/raspberrypi/raspberrypi-rsync-backup-20141230-213032/

Restore to a USB device without SD card (USB boot mode)

sudo raspiBackup.sh -d /dev/sdf /remote/raspifix/disks/backup/rsync/raspberrypi/raspberrypi-rsync-backup-20141230-213032/

Restore to an SD card and an external partition

  1. To receive the restore of the external root partition, a correspondingly large partition /dev/sda was created on /dev/sda. Formatting is not necessary.
sudo raspiBackup.sh -d /dev/sdf -R /dev/sda1 /remote/raspifix/disks/backup/rsync/raspberrypi/raspberrypi-rsync-backup-20141230-213032/

How to find out the device names of the external SD card and external disk?

Enter the following command on the Raspberry:

fdisk -l | egrep "^Disk /|^/dev"

The output then looks like this, for example:

pi@raspberrypi:~# sudo fdisk -l | egrep "^Disk /|^/dev"
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 8011 MB, 8011120640 bytes
/dev/mmcblk0p1 8192 122879 57344 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 122880 15646719 7761920 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sda: 15.5 GB, 15548284928 bytes
Disk /dev/sdb: 300.1 GB, 300069052416 bytes
/dev/sdb1 1 586072367 293036183 ee GPT

Here you can see that

  • The internal SD card /dev/mmcblk0 is 8GB in size
  • The new external SD card /dev/sda is 16GB in size
  • The external disk /dev/sdb, to which the root partition is to be moved, 300GB in size and has a partition /dev/sdb1.

The parameter for -d is therefore /dev/sda (external SD card).

If an external root partition was also backed up, -R /dev/sdb1 (external root partition) is also required. root partition) is required.

The parameters must of course be adapted to the local conditions.

Note:

A backup should be tested regularly: Whether the restore still works and still contains all data.

Nothing is more frustrating when, at the moment you need the backup, the backup is corrupt or does not contain all the data...

A test is quite simple with the Raspberry:

Insert a new SD card, restore the backup and boot from the new SD card. If no SD card is used, e.g. an SSD, the restore test can also be performed with a hard disk. as long as it is large enough to hold all the data on the SSD.

If for any reason the restore with the script fails, you can of course at any time use the standard Linux tools that were used for the backup - dd, tar or rsync - to manually restore. However, this is not quite as convenient as with the script and appropriate Linux knowledge is required ;-) See also Manual restore of a backup.