Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230
Hi
I have been installing Debian lite on a Pi model 3, I have it about where I want it and would like to back it up. I thought the best way might be to pull the card and use "Win32 disk imager" to take a copy of the image and store it in a safe place. The idea behind this, is so that during my "messing around" if anything goes wrong I can just restore with that good image. Before I do that there were a couple of questions I regarding these ideas.
Could I use this image on another new Pi model 3? I have another Pi that’s not being used, and if I can, would I have to do anything to the original Pi before taking the image. I was thinking more about the MAC address and perhaps the IP and host name.
If I do have to normalise the image is there any software that can do this for me.
Thanks in advance of your time and help with my questions
I think, although I do not possess a Pi computer, you need to backup the entire partition plus the bootloader. Regarding the partition it all depends on what filesystem you are using. I use fsarchiver to backup ext4 Linux-native filesystems. Please, be aware restoring a partition containing an entire installation does not necessarily result in a bootable installation. Restoration will also need the bootloader to be fully restored. A bootloader is made of several parts, some of which reside in obscure places to users like the first sector of the disk.
Debian == { > 30, 000 packages }; Debian != systemd
The worst infection of all, is a false sense of security!
It is hard to get away from CLI tools.
the Raspberry Pi forums have some very detailed threads about these topics. For example on how to best make back ups and how the bootloader (on the FAT) partition works etc. But bascially the answers to yout questions are: 1) yes you can use the image on another pi 2) if you need to make changes depends on your settings and sourroundings, but most likely no.
