How to Back Up a Raspberry Pi SD Card in Windows

Safely shut down your Raspberry Pi and put the SD card into your computer using a MicroSD card adapter.

Used here

See all

MicroSD card reader

Check Price on Amazon

Performing a Windows Raspberry Pi back up is easy. To accomplish this, you'll need a disk imaging program. In this guide, I'll be using Win32 Disk Imager. It's a free tool available for a wide variety of Windows applications.

To get started, launch Win32 Disk Imager. It can be helpful to launch the application with administrative privileges.

The Raspberry Pi backup will be stored in a single file. You'll need to choose a location to store your backup. Be sure to name the backup file and include the .img extension.

Example: C:\pibackup.img

This will create a backup file named pibackup.img located in the top level of the C drive.

Select the Read option to initiate the backup process. The amount of time this step takes can vary. You'll have the opportunity to track the progress with a loading bar.

To confirm your success, Win32 Disk Imager will notify you via a pop-up alert. However, it's best to double-check the location to ensure your backup file is actually there. It should have the .img extension following the name.

Congratulations! Your Raspberry Pi's contents are now backed up safely.

To restore your backup file to the Raspberry Pi, choose the backup image file, and set the device letter to your SD card. Click write to update the SD card with the image file you've selected.

Note: If your Raspberry Pi's file system is expanded to use all available space, be sure to load your backup image onto an SD card of the same size or larger.