Time to clone

[Mikem124]

Hi, I'm new to this forum.
This is a general question regarding cloning or copying raspberry pi SD cards with applies to imgclone as well, please can anyone tell me why it takes so long to create the .img file, e.g., over 4 hours so create a 12.7Gb from the 16Gb source SD card?
Thanks
Mike

[tom-2015]

Depends on the access speed of your SD card, destination card, Raspberry Pi version and maybe other programs running on the Pi.

[Mikem124]

Thanks for the response. One Pi’s SD card is a 64Gb Sandisk Edge – sorry can’t find details of its read/write speeds Another Pi’s card is a 64Gb SanDisk Ultra – apparently with a tested write speed of 15.5Mb/s and read speed of 66.3Mb/s Both Pis took similar times to copy/clone regardless of method. The destination device is a 64Gb 100 G3 DataTraveller – apparently its writing speed is 27.6MB/s (1Gb in 38.85s) There were no programmes running on either. I guess this is a bit simplistic but would the write time be a simple 64Gb/66.3Mb calculation, I think that works out to be about 16 minutes? I realise this is maybe outside the remit, but I would very much appreciate any suggestions or recommendations of SD cards for my future builds. Thanks again Mike From: Tom ***@***.***> Sent: 04 April 2021 09:45 To: tom-2015/imgclone ***@***.***> Cc: Mikem124 ***@***.***>; Author ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [tom-2015/imgclone] Time to clone (#10) Depends on the access speed of your SD card, destination card, Raspberry Pi version and maybe other programs running on the Pi. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10 (comment)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ATQUIZSQZ3X56RYUY6WN33DTHARINANCNFSM42KNACLQ> . <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/ATQUIZXDWDVTQRO5ZEWPD4TTHARINA5CNFSM42KNACL2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOGB2VURQ.gif>

[tom-2015]

It is not as simple as 64Gb/66.3Mb because after creating the .img file it runs a file copy command. This means all files will be copied individually, each file generates overhead because it needs to be created / space assigned in the new file system. If you have a lot of small files there will be more overhead than the actual copying takes. Some USB drives/SD cards are more optimized for copying large files like photos and movies. But I must admit 4h for a 16GB card is quite long.

If you want high speed, remove the card use something like dd or Win32Diskimager.

[Mikem124]

Wow, what a quick response, thanks. Yep, I thought it wouldn’t be as simplistic as I suggested. Many thanks for the explanation. I’ve already tried the dd route, with similar results, an awful long time. I simply do not trust Win32Diskimager, it has corrupted more than one Pi SD card for me in the past. Despite finishing the operation I could not ‘eject’ the SD card irrespective of what card reader I used (and I tried 3). Or it just would not start the copying process and I’ve left if for over an hour to start, then it would not eject again. The end result in both scenarios was a corrupted Pi SD card. Hey ho Cheers Mike From: Tom ***@***.***> Sent: 04 April 2021 13:35 To: tom-2015/imgclone ***@***.***> Cc: Mikem124 ***@***.***>; Author ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [tom-2015/imgclone] Time to clone (#10) It is not as simple as 64Gb/66.3Mb because after creating the .img file it runs a file copy command. This means all files will be copied individually, each file generates overhead because it needs to be created / space assigned in the new file system. If you have a lot of small files there will be more overhead than the actual copying takes. Some USB drives/SD cards are more optimized for copying large files like photos and movies. But I must admit 4h for a 16GB card is quite long. If you want high speed, remove the card use something like dd or Win32Diskimager. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10 (comment)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ATQUIZXI6VYH5WIAR7CJTNTTHBMGBANCNFSM42KNACLQ> . <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/ATQUIZWCU6LT234L7JJZAZDTHBMGBA5CNFSM42KNACL2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOGB24SPA.gif>

[tom-2015]

Never had any problems with Win32Diskimager when reading a card.
You could also try CloneDisk if you don't like the Win32Diskimager.

[Nikhchan]

I am sitting here at 4:43 AM Copying an 8gb sd card to a USB drive. Its been over 3:30 hours. Can II just stop it in the middle? just shutdown?

[tom-2015]

Yes you can stop and shutdown but the image will just not be complete.

[Nikhchan]

Yes you can stop and shutdown but the image will just not be complete.

Thanks I did that. May be it has to do with the non-discript Chinese sd card I got along with my Genesis flash cart.

[LahaLuhem]

Not the most elegant solution, but if you have a rough estimate of your current file-system size, you van keep running clear && df -h continuously. You'll see the 'Used space' change continuously for your plugged in device, and check that against the file-system size from before.

[tom-2015]

That's what the -p command line parameter does automatically to show copy progress.

[LahaLuhem]

That's what the -p command line parameter does automatically to show copy progress.

I tried running imgclone -dp <imagename>.img with a sudo vairant and separating the flags, but it didn't work for me that way
Is it that the flags are to be used separately (as in -p instead of -d)?

[tom-2015]

Yes, like imgclone -d -p <imagename>.img

[LahaLuhem]

Yes, like imgclone -d -p <imagename>.img

I tried imgclone -d -p test.img (while in /media//<drive_name>), but I get a Invalid argument test.img error.

Should I make a new issue instead?

[tom-2015]

Sorry, maybe try to swap -d and -p parameter imgclone -p -d <imagename>.img

[LahaLuhem]

Sorry, maybe try to swap -d and -p parameter imgclone -p -d <imagename>.img

Yes, this was accepted!