Pinephone OS Backups (System Images)

[ThrillGates]

Because I find the "need" to flash new OS images to SD cards and the eMMC of the phone, there is an equal need to backup these images. I think that we would all like to save ourselves the trouble of reconfiguring from scratch if it can be avoided. I've found some Windows desktop applications to accomplish this task, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. Connect SD card directly to PC or use Jumpdrive for eMMC. I will continue to update with new tools as necessary.

After some testing, I have to recommend Win32DiskImager as the best overall product for backups, assuming you have the storage space for it.

Win32DiskImager

• Best overall product. Simple UI with fastest transfer speeds.
  
• Strength: Saves images in standard .img format.
  
• Weakness: Direct copy results in images being the same size as the drive, which in this case is 30 times as large as Aomei.
  
• Note: The partitions will be listed as separate drives, but it will read and save the entire drive if you pick one of them. I pick the first one to be safe.
  
• Bonus: Balena Etcher can fail when writing to eMMC from a Windows PC and using Win32DiskImager resolves this issue.
  

Aomei Backupper

• Best for systems with limited storage.
  
• Strength: Intelligent sector copy only saves info for blocks that have data written to them and also features compression. Mobian on a 64GB sd card takes up less than 2GB as an image.
  
• Weakness: Saves images in proprietary .adi format and need paid option for functionality
  

Passmark ImageUSB

• Best for people afraid of CLIs. It's a slower Win32DiskImager with a prettier UI and some extra features.