A simple bash script to backup or restore SSD card of a Raspberry Pi
rpi_to_img_backup.sh backup <DISK_PATH> -t <BACKUP_FOLDER_PATH>
For my Raspberry Pi the full command is :
rpi_to_img_backup.sh backup /dev/mmcblk0 -t /mnt/backups
/dev/mmcblk0 is the Linux device for my SSD card, it coould be /dev/sda, or whatever. To know your disk name run fdisk -l.
/mnt/backups is for my case a NFS mount point to my NAS, you must choose here an external disk, USB or network mount.
rpi_to_img_backup.sh restore <GUNZIPED_IMAGE_FILE_PATH> -t <DISK_PATH>
Full command example :
rpi_to_img_backup.sh restore /mnt/backups/20201113_rpi_piserver.img.gz -t /dev/disk4
From another computer, put your SSD card from USB card reader, then run the above command. The computer must be a Linux system or MacOS, Windows is not supported. Be careful when choosing the target DISK_PATH, you can brick your computer if choose a bad disk.
On Linux use fdisk -l to found your USB card reader, on MacOS use diskutil list.
CAUTION : I currently not tested the restore function, but this should work without any problem.
To run the script periodically you can use a cron task on your Raspberry. For instance if you want to backup your Raspberry Pi one time per week on Sunday at 4:00 you can use this rule :
0 4 * * SUN /home/pi/rpi_to_img_backup/rpi_to_img_backup.sh backup /dev/mmcblk0 -t /mnt/backups
Please, do not forget to adapt your script path, disk and backup path!
Here is a very helpfull cron generator : https://crontab.guru/