SD Card - how to backup/clone

Hi everybody,
any hints from the community how to make a perfect clone of the SD-Card??? Android 6.0 :slight_smile:
I own the FP2 now around two years and lot of data is summing up. And I really don’t know any more what’s needed and not.
Although the SD-Card is about three years old (just took it out of the old SAMSUNG ) and there are reading and writing problems occurring. :sob:
Thank You for any ideas!!! :+1:

Since you have written that there are reading/writing problems already your first step should be checking the filesystem.

Using a sd-card adapter should be the easiest way to perform this.
This way there won´t be any connection/access issues coming up because of the phone.
First assure that all pins of the sd-card are clean.

AFAIK external storage in FP2 is FAT32 formated. A simple Windows xx dos command is: chkdsk (sd-card drive letter):

Depending on the result further actions need to be taken. As it is unknown whether the card is physically damaged or maybe the filesystem, you can simply copy all data to another drive/sd-card.

Usually there are no specific permissions needed to copy (considering your phone is not encrypted).
If there is an replacement card available first insert it into the phone and get it formated before being filled with your data via PC.
After this your new “cloned” card is ready to be used in the phone again.

This is a basic procedure. no specific tool is needed for. Also there is no need for a “sector-by-sector” copy. Now you at least have saved all available/readable data.

Depending on the file check result you may try the chkdsk xx: /f /r command on the old card. If necessary the filesystem will possibly be fixed as long as the card is not physically damaged, Otherwise the data on it may be even more damaged or lost as hardware errors cannot be fixed.

In case of success though you may once more copy the data to your new card overwriting all existing files.

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Thank You for the detailed instructions. :smiley::+1:
I tried to do more or less the same, but there are files which can not be copied from the PC to the SD-card. That’s why I came up with that “simple” question.
I have already a 1:1 copy of the SD-card. chkdsk I haven’t done yet.
Thanks for the hint!!!:+1:
I will report any outcome!

If you want a perfect clone of your SD card, you should give Win32DiskImager a try (assuming you have access to a Windows machine). It writes raw image files from SD cards and vice versa. I’ve been using it for handling RaspberryPi OS SD cards for some time now and never had any problems.
A second suggestion, which is also available for MacOS, would be Etcher, but I have no personal experiences with this one.

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Thank’s for the support, I will give it a try.:sunglasses:

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