Once fully configured according to your custom needs it's a good idea to create an raw image backup of your Raspberry Pi SD Card setup, once backed-up a user simply need to re-image the card in-case the underlying operating-system or filesystem gets corrupted. There are various methods to backup and restore the Raspberry Pi SD card, we reviewed all and here are the best options to get the task completed in shortest time with smallest file-size.

The most widely used Windows utility for RAW image backups and restores Win32 Disc Imager is an easy to use option but the resulting file-size is bigger as it is uncompressed, using any popular compression format results in smaller backup size as shown below. However, this approach consumes more time and requires manual efforts twice.

HDD Raw Copy Tool is my choice of free utility to get the Raspberry Pi backed up, HDD Raw Copy creates an exact raw (dd) copy of the entire media (including service data such as MBR, Boot records, etc) with all filesystems (even hidden) just like Win32 Disk Imager but compresses them to offer smaller filesize as shown below.