Arch Backup Image

Backup T7 from Windows WSL2

1. First, ensure that the Samsung T7 is connected to the Windows host machine. from an admin PowerShell window run the following:

   wsl --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3 --bare

2. Once mounted, open your WSL2 terminal.

   lsblk

   which should look something like this:

   NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS sda 8:0 0 388.4M 1 disk sdb 8:16 0 186M 1 disk sdc 8:32 0 8G 0 disk [SWAP] sdd 8:48 0 931.5G 0 disk ├─sdd1 8:49 0 512M 0 part ├─sdd2 8:50 0 890G 0 part └─sdd3 8:51 0 41G 0 part sde 8:64 0 1T 0 disk /snap /mnt/wslg/distro /

   In this example we know it will be `sdd` based on the size of the drive, the partitions which we recognise as the EFI, root and home partitions.

3. Now we can create the backup image using `dd`.

   sudo dd if=/dev/sdd bs=64M status=progress | zstd -T0 -1 | dd of=/mnt/nas/arch_t7_backup.img.zst bs=4M

   • Replace /dev/sdd with the correct device identifier for your T7.

   • Replace /mnt/nas/arch_t7_backup.img.zst with the desired path and filename for the backup image.

   • The image is compressed using zstd to save space.

1. Remount the Samsung T7 in WSL2 from an admin PowerShell window:

   wsl --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3 --bare

2. Once mounted, open your WSL2 terminal.

   lsblk

   which should look something like this:

   NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS sda 8:0 0 388.4M 1 disk sdb 8:16 0 186M 1 disk sdc 8:32 0 8G 0 disk [SWAP] sdd 8:48 0 931.5G 0 disk ├─sdd1 8:49 0 512M 0 part ├─sdd2 8:50 0 890G 0 part └─sdd3 8:51 0 41G 0 part sde 8:64 0 1T 0 disk /snap /mnt/wslg/distro /

   Identify the correct device for your T7, in this example it is `sdd`.

3. To restore the backup image to the T7, use the following command:

   zstd -d -c /mnt/nas/arch_t7_backup.img.zst | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=64M status=progress

   This uses the zstd decompression to read the backup image and pipes it to `dd` to write it back to the T7.