Linux Backup and Disk Imaging Cheat Sheet

Linux Disk Storage•Permalink

Backup, copy, imaging, clone, and storage troubleshooting workflows on Linux.

View

Standard Detailed Compact

Export

Copy the compact sheet, download it, or print it.

Download

`D` dense toggle · `C` copy all

Copy and Synchronize

Copy, archive, and sync data efficiently.

Copy a directory tree preserving metadata

Preserve mode, ownership, timestamps, and symlinks.

↗#

bashANYcparchivecopy

bash

cp -a /src/. /dst/

Preserve mode, ownership, timestamps, and symlinks.

Mirror a directory with rsync

Powerful local or remote copy preserving metadata and ACLs when supported.

↗#

bashANYrsyncarchivecopy

bash

rsync -aHAX --info=progress2 /src/ /dst/

Powerful local or remote copy preserving metadata and ACLs when supported.

Mirror and delete removed files

Make the destination match the source exactly.

↗#

bashANYrsyncsyncdelete

bash

rsync -a --delete /src/ /dst/

Make the destination match the source exactly.

Sync a directory over SSH

Efficiently transfer deltas to a remote server.

↗#

bashANYrsyncsshbackup

bash

rsync -aP /src/ user@host:/backup/

Efficiently transfer deltas to a remote server.

Create a compressed tar archive

Package and compress a directory tree.

↗#

bashANYtarbackuparchive

bash

tar -czf backup.tar.gz /data

Package and compress a directory tree.

Extract a tar archive

Restore archive contents to a target directory.

↗#

bashANYtarrestorearchive

bash

tar -xzf backup.tar.gz -C /restore

Restore archive contents to a target directory.

List archive contents

Inspect what an archive contains before extracting.

↗#

bashANYtarlistarchive

bash

tar -tf backup.tar.gz

Inspect what an archive contains before extracting.

Create a cpio archive from find

Useful in some initramfs and recovery workflows.

↗#

bashANYcpioarchivefind

bash

find . -print | cpio -ov > archive.cpio

Useful in some initramfs and recovery workflows.

Show throughput for a pipeline

Add transfer progress to streaming backup pipelines.

↗#

bashANYpvbackupprogress

bash

tar -cf - /data | pv | gzip > backup.tar.gz

Add transfer progress to streaming backup pipelines.

Compute a checksum for a backup

Record integrity hashes for backup artifacts.

↗#

bashANYsha256sumbackupintegrity

bash

sha256sum backup.tar.gz > backup.tar.gz.sha256

Record integrity hashes for backup artifacts.

Images and Clones

Create raw images and clone or restore devices.

Create a raw disk image

Image a disk device to a raw file.

↗#

bashANYddimagedisk

bash

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=disk.img bs=64K status=progress conv=sync,noerror

Image a disk device to a raw file.

Write a raw image back to disk

Restore a disk image onto a target device.

↗#

bashANYddrestoredisk

bash

sudo dd if=disk.img of=/dev/sdb bs=64K status=progress conv=fsync

Restore a disk image onto a target device.

Recover an unhealthy disk with ddrescue

Preferred over dd for failing disks because it tracks progress and retries.

↗#

bashANYddrescuerecoverydisk

bash

sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdb disk.img disk.log

Preferred over dd for failing disks because it tracks progress and retries.

Backup a GPT partition table

Save GPT headers and partition entries to a file.

↗#

bashANYsgdiskgptbackup

bash

sudo sgdisk --backup=gpt.backup /dev/sdb

Save GPT headers and partition entries to a file.

Restore a GPT partition table backup

Restore GPT layout from a saved backup file.

↗#

bashANYsgdiskgptrestore

bash

sudo sgdisk --load-backup=gpt.backup /dev/sdb

Restore GPT layout from a saved backup file.

Inspect a virtual disk image

Show image format, virtual size, and backing file info.

↗#

bashANYqemu-imgimagevirtual-disk

bash

qemu-img info disk.qcow2

Show image format, virtual size, and backing file info.

Convert a virtual disk image

Convert between raw, qcow2, and other image formats.

↗#

bashANYqemu-imgconvertimage

bash

qemu-img convert -O qcow2 disk.raw disk.qcow2

Convert between raw, qcow2, and other image formats.

Compress a raw disk image

Compress large raw images for storage or transfer.

↗#

bashANYgzipimagecompress

bash

gzip -1 disk.img

Compress large raw images for storage or transfer.

Compress an image with xz

Use stronger compression for cold storage backups.

↗#

bashANYxzimagecompress

bash

xz -T0 disk.img

Use stronger compression for cold storage backups.

Compare two images byte-for-byte

Quick equality check for cloned images of the same size.

↗#

bashANYcmpimageverify

bash

cmp disk1.img disk2.img

Quick equality check for cloned images of the same size.

Troubleshooting

Find hot paths, busy mounts, and performance or capacity problems.

Show disk throughput and utilization

Inspect per-device read/write rates and utilization over time.

↗#

bashANYiostatperformancedisk

bash

iostat -xz 1

Inspect per-device read/write rates and utilization over time.

Watch per-process I/O usage

Find which processes generate the most disk I/O.

↗#

bashANYiotopperformanceio

bash

sudo iotop

Find which processes generate the most disk I/O.

Show per-process I/O counters

Track read/write activity by process over time.

↗#

bashANYpidstatperformanceio

bash

pidstat -d 1

Track read/write activity by process over time.

Show system-wide I/O wait and block activity

Quick check for iowait, swap, and block device pressure.

↗#

bashANYvmstatperformanceio

bash

vmstat 1

Quick check for iowait, swap, and block device pressure.

Filter kernel logs for storage messages

Look for hardware and filesystem errors in kernel logs.

↗#

bashANYdmesgstorageerrors

bash

dmesg | egrep -i 'sd[a-z]|nvme|md|I/O error|ext4|xfs'

Look for hardware and filesystem errors in kernel logs.

Search journal for disk errors

Kernel journal view for storage-related problems.

↗#

bashANYjournalctlstorageerrors

bash

journalctl -k | egrep -i 'I/O error|blk_update_request|nvme|md'

Kernel journal view for storage-related problems.

Interactive disk usage explorer

Find large paths interactively with a terminal UI.

↗#

bashANYncdudisk-usageinteractive

bash

sudo ncdu /

Find large paths interactively with a terminal UI.

Find large files

Locate unexpectedly large files on a filesystem.

↗#

bashANYfindlarge-filesdisk-usage

bash

find /var -xdev -type f -size +1G -printf '%s %p
' | sort -n

Locate unexpectedly large files on a filesystem.

Find deleted files still consuming space

Useful when df is full but du cannot explain it.

↗#

bashANYlsofdeleted-filesspace

bash

sudo lsof | grep '(deleted)'

Useful when df is full but du cannot explain it.

Trim mounted SSD filesystems

Discard unused blocks on mounted SSD-backed filesystems.

↗#

bashANYfstrimssdtrim

bash

sudo fstrim -av

Discard unused blocks on mounted SSD-backed filesystems.

More in Linux Disk Storage

Linux LVM, RAID, and Encryption Cheat Sheet

LVM volume management, mdadm RAID, and LUKS encryption workflows.

Linux Filesystems and Mounts Cheat Sheet

Mount, unmount, fstab, filesystem check, and repair workflows on Linux.

Linux Disk Storage Cheat Sheet

Disk inventory, partitions, formatting, and capacity analysis for Linux systems.

Recommended next

No recommendations yet.

Browse all sheets →