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[mike]

https://github.com/billw2/rpi-clone

Thank you so much for this idea.  I installed it and played with it.  I plugged in a 64GB SD card in USB adapter to my hub and see it.  So this would indeed make smaller backups it seems.  My problem is I am still not so good at linux, and unless I miss all the instrucs I read, to restore one of these backups requires a running pi!  So if I just have one running SD pi card, and it messes up, I am finished and cannot run rpi-clone to recover.  Or I need a image of another running card with rpi installed on it to run to pull off the backup;  but then it would overwrite my backup imaged SD card...    I think I should stick to windows for imaging. 

That said, I search for similar programs that can backup only the used portion of a card, and rewrite a SD card that may be smaller...   found this:  https://www.alexpage.de/    USB Image Tool that will make an image that is the data size not the SD size.  I have not experimented with it yet.

[bkenobi]

My problem is I am still not so good at linux, and unless I miss all the instrucs I read, to restore one of these backups requires a running pi!  So if I just have one running SD pi card, and it messes up, I am finished and cannot run rpi-clone to recover.  Or I need a image of another running card with rpi installed on it to run to pull off the backup;  but then it would overwrite my backup imaged SD card...    I think I should stick to windows for imaging.

The goal of RPi-Clone is to have a second SD card that you duplicate your working card onto.  You can do it once and have a backup sitting on a shelf or do it periodically and have a live backup (for RPi with only 1 SC slot, you will need an adapter of some kind).  In either case, should you have a problem with the boot card where it won't work, you simply power down the RPi, pull the non-working card, replace it with your backup card, reboot.  There isn't anything else easier out there IMO.

If you use your current approach, you need a working computer of some kind (PC, RPi, etc) that can write an image file to SD.  With RPi-Clone, you only need the one RPi and it must be working at the time of the backup.  That's it.

EDIT:
The only thing you need to be careful of is selecting the correct drive in the right order.  If you backup SDB to SDA and the original were in SDA, you'd write a blank file system to the boot and would be hosed.  It's not difficult to use RPi-Clone, but I can't say that it's impossible to break things as I didn't write the code nor have I verified it has checks to keep you from doing serious damage to the boot OS.

[mike]

well that sure sounds good.  I misunderstood;  my takeaway was each 'image' was a special commpressed FILE copied to the USB stick SD card.  So I would put in a 64GB SD card and copy multiple times to it.  Then, to use it, find a working SD card to install (from elsewhere) with the clone program on it, and pull off a copy of the image and I guess overwrite the good backup SD card I just booted with... 

[bkenobi]

You could do it that way.  I don't think you'd be able to get multiple versions on the same SD with this approach.  It's intended as an easy way to create a backup/duplicate boot SD for the RPi.  If you really want images this won't work for you.  However, if you have a stack of SD cards sitting around, you simply write a backup to one and label it (sticky note?).  You can create multiple and they all are as easy to use as swap them in and reboot.

If you want to archive on a HDD, use the normal imaging tool.  If you want a backup card that's ready to go instantly on a failure, use RPi-Clone.