💡 This article is written by humans, with all solutions and steps verified.
Many people have always been bothered by how to completely transfer all content from an old SD card to a new one when replacing it, especially those used in Raspberry Pi or NVIDIA Jetson Nano. A simple file copy won’t precisely duplicate critical elements in an SD card such as the storage structure, custom configurations, or hidden system and program data.
In this case, cloning the SD card is a perfect solution. Here, we will explain the reasons and provide you with a detailed step-by-step guide.
To be honest, copy-and-paste is enough if you're just moving a small number of ordinary files, like photos and videos, from an old SD card. However, when it comes to bootable SD cards, professional device firmware, or complex file structures, cloning the SD card is the right way. Here are the reasons.
In summary, cloning is more advantageous for replacing an SD card in most cases. If you decide to do so, we suggest doing the following before you begin:
Once you get everything ready, please continue reading. We will provide multiple methods to help you duplicate an SD card.
Cloning is inherently a complex process. If you want to copy the entire content from an old SD card to another without any changes, quickly and securely, then applying professional software for help is the first choice. Therefore, it’s very important to choose the right tool. Here we recommend two of the ones listed below. Though they differ in processing logic and applicable operating systems, they can achieve the same goal that you need.
It's a professional disk management tool that integrates over 40 features for your trial, catering to almost any need. Professionalism and comprehensiveness are the main reasons to recommend. Besides, it will not only help you detect damaged sectors on the SD card and extract their data, but also allow you to freely change the storage layout after cloning. This is very useful in scenarios involving embedded systems such as the Raspberry Pi or NVIDIA Jetson Nano.
If you've previously used tools claiming to clone the SD card for Raspberry Pi on Mac, you've likely encountered situations where the system fails to boot after cloning. This is because macOS has stricter permission requirements for applications, which prevent them from truly obtaining root privileges.
Therefore, it should be a more reliable approach to use a working mode like Win32 Disk Imager, which creates an image file of the source SD card and then writes it to a new one. To do this, you can use iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac. While its primary function is to help users recover deleted files on Mac, its latest version has added the feature to create sector-level storage device images. This happens to be able to achieve this.
Perhaps if you are handy or an advanced user, then using commands to clone the SD card is still feasible. If you'd like to try it, here are the relevant commands and their detailed instructions. However, it should be noted that the capacity of the target SD card must be equal to or greater than that of the source SD card.
The following is an explanation of this command:
| Parameters | Full Name/Meaning | Function |
|---|---|---|
| sudo | SuperUser Do | Get root access to read and write your SD card. |
| dd | Disk Duplicator | Copy byte by byte to preserve all information, such as the partition table and boot record, in each block. |
| if= | Input File | Specify the source of the cloned data. |
| of= | Output File | Specify the target device to write to |
| bs=4M | Block Size | The data block size for a single read/write operation is 4 Megabytes. The default size is 512 bytes, which is extremely slow. Setting it to between "1M-64M" can significantly reduce the number of I/O calls and improve the copying speed to the SD card. |
| status=progress | It displays the amount of data transmitted, the speed, and the time taken in real time. | |
| conv=fsync | Convert/Fsync | Force all data cached in memory to be physically written to the underlying SD card hardware. |
| && sync | A final check was performed to make certain that all data was securely written to the target SD card. |
Although there is no command similar to "dd" for sector-level copying in Windows, if you specifically want to use the above command to duplicate the SD card, you can use a tool that ports it and still achieve the same goal.
We hope one of the above methods helps you clone the SD card so you can easily upgrade your hardware. As you see, though they’re different in processing, they can achieve the same goal. With them, whether you need to migrate ordinary files, upgrade the boot card, or deploy a preconfigured Raspberry Pi, we believe you can handle it with ease.
Copying only operates at the file system level, copying files or folders from the current SD card to another SD card. Cloning the SD card copies all its contents sector by sector, including not only all the files but also invisible data such as partition tables, boot information, and even hidden system data.
Simply put, it creates a copy of the SD card that has exactly the same functionality and content as the original.
If the source SD card is only logically damaged, such as with a corrupted partition table, file system errors, bad sectors, etc., you can clone it as long as it is recognized by your computer. To do this, you will need a tool like iBeesoft Disk Partition Wizard, which supports sector-by-sector cloning and automatically skips bad sectors.
No, you can’t. Writing any files to the source card or modifying existing ones during the cloning process may prevent your Raspberry Pi from booting.
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