Best Way to Clone Micro SD Card on Linux?
I'm going to upgrade the micro SD card I use for emulation to one with more storage. What is the best way to close the micro SD card I have in my steam deck now to a new one so I can just plug in and go with all my games and save files?
Everyone is going to tell you to use dd. dd if=/dev/oldsdcard of=/dev/newsdcard
Personally, I have actually eaten an entire system by getting the wrong /dev names for the input file and the output file.
Gparted lets you copy whole partitions and resize them, and is graphical. I have yet to destroy my computer using gparted, but I've definitely done so with dd. (I'm also an idiot though, so...) Edit: gparted will also let you resize the new SD to the bigger partition size! However, it is actually possible to break your system in gparted too, so make sure you aren't deleting partitions and stuff in there.
I have yet to destroy my computer using gparted
Though that’s 100% possible, Bringus actually destroyed his system drive on a laptop by being impatient while using gparted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0T9SiUVvHk
No! You shouldn't have told me that it could be done! Now, the next time I launch gparted, I'll somehow manage to wipe everything! Not just my system, but, like, all my systems! If it can be broken on a computer, I'll be the one to break it!
You can use dd, but as others have said, dd is nicknamed disk destroyer. If it was me, I'd probably just copy the files, which will be slower but easier to do.
phanto's suggestion of using gparted/kparted is also a good one. Another thing to keep in mind is that many cloning programs will clone the partition size as well, so you may need to use kparted when you're done to grow the partition to the larger microsd size.
Dd is a solid option, I've used to image emmc modules, make CD isos, clone drives etc., but Clonezilla is a great tool to have around and quite literally purpose built for cloning and imaging disks, that's how I'd do it myself.
The Chaotic Good choice here is to install Syncthing on your Steam Deck and on another device with an sd card slot (something like a raspberry pi maybe?) and let them sync on a local network. Once the SD card is "cloned"/copied to the new SD card just stop the file sync.
Bonus points for getting Syncthing setup on your Steam Deck which will end up being useful in lots of other ways too!
https://flathub.org/apps/me.kozec.syncthingtk
From what I've seen it doesn't matter. Just put the new card in and format it. Then insert both cards into the steamdeck or PC and copy steamapps folder and a file called libraryfolder.vdf to the new card then you're done. Also you can just switch them however you want but make sure to close games if opened.
If you need to install a new drive you can use clonezila but I recommend a fresh install.
What's wrong with "cp -r"?
As far as "having a second SD slot to facilitate the copy" goes, Anker makes decent card readers.
Won't work if the card has multiple partitions, also might not copy symlinks properly. dd is the way to do this if you want an exact copy, you just need to be very careful. You can take a disk image, that way you only need one slot.