Hope you don't mind me showing another trick I learned using dd also to insert into this thread. This is compressing your image backup included so as to save space on drive.
1. Boot up your rasberrypi debian install.
2. Open a terminal window on the GUI desktop.
3. Plug in the external drive.
4. Not owning a rasperrypi or using Debian Arm. I don't know if you will need to mount it manually or if it will show up as mounted in /media or /dev.. One you find it
is a good way to find the path after usb is plugged in. Then you can look in rox or whatever file manager to get the exact name of folder.
However> Whatever you do,Do Not try to access the system disc at this time.
5. Assuming that the external drive was mounted as /media/disk, execute the following command in the command-line window:
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dd if=/dev/sda | gzip -c >/media/disk/system-image.gz
That will copy and compress the system disc image, including the partition table, boot loader, and all of the partitions. Later if you need to restore it, then bootup your other computer with whateverOS and insert the sd card you want to restore.
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gunzip -c /media/disk/system-image.gz | dd of=/dev/sd?
I put a ? after sd because fdisk -l will show what to put for the path is for the external sd card. You will need to make sure external sd card is mounted also before running the above command also as root user in terminal.
@ Sickgut. Feel free to explain what I said better if you so wish. I am just a Linux using biker trying to show what works for me. But I have a poor way of explaining things that work for me in my head. Kinda like giving map directions. You know how to get there. But explaining to a total stranger can get them lost.
I can't take credit for this. I stole this from a good buddy of mine who is a known scientist and musician and knows his stuff. I have some really good knowledgeable online bros.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/applic ... post809640
If you go a few posts down in that thread. You will see me mentioning PUDD and Puppy Linux and me mentioning how I am going to steal the code.