How to best backup SD Card

[smoere]

I am worried that my SD Card dies. I just wonder if a file based backup would be fine?
Furthermore i wonder if I need a backup of the Games folder? I want to backup crucial stuff and dont need a copy of the games in my backup.

 

[BaamAlex]

The only thing i saved is a emmc backup and the games in .nsp format. And the pictures and videos (for the case i want to keep them). The rest is downloadable via github (atmosphere, hekate and signaturepatches). Oh...and my savegames when i played the games through.

 

[smoere]

So what you are saying is that a backup of the SD card is not even required

 

[BaamAlex]

What do you mean with that specifically?

 

[smoere]

Well i mean: there is nothing on the SD that is really relevant to get the switch going again if the SD dies.
Furthermore:

- NSP i dont need to backup as i have them backed up already in original format
- EMMC backup is not SD card content but an image of the EMMC chip. So of course that is required but it is not something that stays on the SD standard
- Pictures and Videos...nice to have but not important
- Savegames might be a point but think to recall they dont stay on the SD?

 

[mrgone]

a complete file based backup does work for everything besides the MMC!
as how else would one switch sd card to a bigger one?

 

[smoere]

Yes makes sense.

 

[2pacsawyer]

I use a free program called ImageUSB. It allows you to take bit-by-bit file backup of portable devices such as USB thumb drives and micro SD cards.

I'll make a backup before I start messing with new firmware, apps, and more.

If you ever "lose" the micro SD card or need to restore it just make sure the micro SD card is the same size as the previous one and you are up and running again. No need to format the new card and download custom firmware reinstall apps, none of that.

 

[smoere]

I use a free program called ImageUSB. It allows you to take bit-by-bit file backup of portable devices such as USB thumb drives and micro SD cards.

I'll make a backup before I start messing with new firmware, apps, and more.

If you ever "lose" the micro SD card or need to restore it just make sure the micro SD card is the same size as the previous one and you are up and running again. No need to format the new card and download custom firmware reinstall apps, none of that.

Thanks. But this is not a backup on filesystem level it describes how to create a cloned image of the SD.
That is of course great and works but that was not my question.

 

[impeeza]

I am worried that my SD Card dies. I just wonder if a file based backup would be fine?
Furthermore i wonder if I need a backup of the Games folder? I want to backup crucial stuff and dont need a copy of the games in my backup.

there are several ways, the hard ones and the easy ones:

Hard one:

• Take a backup of each game.
• Take a backup of each save game.
• Take a backup of each bit of information.
• pray for to no forget anything.

The Easy Way: Copy all files on your SD Card to a folder on your computer. And if you are using EmuNAND based on RAW partition use EmuTool to backup that partition on your computer, after the backup you can choose even convert that RAW partition based EmuNAND on a files based one and from then you only need to backup your SD Card files because the EmuNAND now are files on the principal partition of your SD.

 

[romanaOne]

If you have a Linux PC, just CAREFULLY! use dd to make a disk image:

dd if=/dev/youroriginalcard of=./backup.img bs=1M status=progress

If you don't have much disk space, you could get two card readers and a second card (of the same size) and copy directly from one to the other. Just change the output file (of above) to of=/dev/yournewcard_same_size_as_old.

This will copy everything, no fiddly wondering which steps of the guide you forgot. I think this is the easiest way, unless you do not know anything about Linux. Also works on Mac OS X, but I think there might be a difference in the bs= line; I always forget whether the M is capital or lower: BSDs do one, Linuxes the other.

 

[mrgone]

image tools can be problematic, as sdcards never have exactly the same size

 

[romanaOne]

Sounds like your SD cards might be, err, problematic. Fakes? I've done this with several brand new Sandisk 128GB cards and a couple Crucial SSD drives. All were precisely the same size. I suppose, if there is some difference, you should just use a larger size card for your backup. You can always expand the FAT32 partition and filesystem (with idiot-friendly gparted, if you like) afterward to fill any unused space.

I'd be curious to see the output of fdisk on these variable sized cards advertising the same capacity.
What brands are they?

Of course, I was saying you should back up the whole card if=/dev/sdd, which gets every single block on the disk, preserving emummc and partition layout, rather than do each partition as separate image file (if=/dev/sddn of=./partn.img , where n=1,2,3...) and write each image file one at a time to a newly partitioned card. sdd is just an example, your drive letter will vary.

 

[smoere]

My SD is an original Scandisk. It is totally fine up to here. I am just preparing for the case.

The background of my question "what to backup" is HDD space. The most data is in the "Nintendo" folder with all the games in it. But i dont need a copy of the games as i have them all backed up as NSP.
So i am more or less asking what is REALLY required in the backup. Will i need anything that is inside of the "Nintendo" folder. Because everything else is no problem as it does not use a lot of space.

 

[kidkat210]

The bare minimum you need for backups is a nand backup. Besides that. Everything else is more or less replaceable. Saves are stored to the nand. So to back those up, either do a nand backup or extract the saves with either checkpoint or jksv. Can't really backup a profile to my knowledge. Besides that, it up to you on what you wanna backup.
I personally like backing up hekate, atmosphere, and my homebrews