Hello bright minds,
Since I got into Pi's I have always purchased identical storage devices to use the build in SD copier tool that allows me to essentially make a clone of the Pi before I go and make major changes. It's a great backup tool. Originally I had been using some little Samsung USB nubs that were 128 GB, they worked well enough and the performance was better than SD cards but still not super great.
Enter the RPI 5 8GB, now we could run real NVME drives! So I bought two Samsung 980's and an enclosure for one (connects via USB). And again SD copy tool works fine, see's the one installed in the case as nvme0 or something like that. And when I plug in its twin via USB it shows up usually as dev/sdb. Works fine copies everything perfectly works great!
Now the issue.
I recently purchased two Corsair NVME drives that fit in a USB enclosure. These were going for my main RPI 4 8GB. There was a delay on the shipping so they arrived at staggered times, I was able to fire up the first NVME over USB no problem. Loaded the OS and its been running noticeably faster than the old USB nubs. However my problem is when I plug in the 2nd NVME drive to do a copy, the SD Copy program does NOT see it at all. I noticed in the file explorer that it had actually mounted the 2nd NVME as /boot and /root if I recall correctly, I tried to eject/unmount them but they would pop up again in the explorer window when I opened a new instance of it. Still not showing up on my SD Copier tool.
I looked at the file system on the RPi4 and under /dev I saw a mess of items SDA, SDB, SDA1, SDB2, and others. I'm not that strong at Linux so wasn't sure how to troubleshoot this from the command line.
The 2nd NVME disk works. I was able to access it from my Mac, I was able to use the RPI imager to flash bookworm on it (install not flash I suppose is the right terminology) I was even able to boot into that fresh instance of Bookworm if I disconnected my "production" NVME USB. So the disk and USB work there's no question about that.
Anyone know how I can get SD copier to work? I tested on my PI 5 and I noticed when I plug in the 2nd disk via usb it pops up a window telling me there's a new drive added and asks me what it wants to me to do, on the Pi4 it doesn't do that. I only noticed it was actually being read because I looked at file explorer and them, when I clicked on each one /boot and /root I then got an icon on my desktop showing them as drives.
But no matter what I cannot copy my production or main NVME to the secondary one using SD Copier tool.Can anyone help me understand why and or how to fix it.
I don't mind if I have to make a full bootable clone of it via command line that's fine, I just want to make sure I get the right disk since I'm not sure what the 2nd disk (backup) is being called. Is it dev/SDB is it /boot /root all three. I'm confused.
Please help I have frozen my project at this time because I want to ensure I get a reliable backup whenever I need it, and SD copier has always been my tool. For whatever reason it's only showing me the main production NVME as /dev/SDA.
The only difference that has cause SD Copier to fail is that the USB drives are NVME's.
2 identical USB thumb drives RPI4 OK
2 identical NVME's on Pi5 (one being on the PCI bus) and other USB connected OK
2 SD cards of pretty much any combo so long as it has enough space RPI4/5 OK
2 USB based NVME's on RPI4 = fail, only the main drive detected in SD copier tool.
Thank you in advance, I'm open to again command line solutions (will need the syntax all of it..) or another program (free I hope) and how to figure out what linux is calling it /SDB /root /boot...?
Since I got into Pi's I have always purchased identical storage devices to use the build in SD copier tool that allows me to essentially make a clone of the Pi before I go and make major changes. It's a great backup tool. Originally I had been using some little Samsung USB nubs that were 128 GB, they worked well enough and the performance was better than SD cards but still not super great.
Enter the RPI 5 8GB, now we could run real NVME drives! So I bought two Samsung 980's and an enclosure for one (connects via USB). And again SD copy tool works fine, see's the one installed in the case as nvme0 or something like that. And when I plug in its twin via USB it shows up usually as dev/sdb. Works fine copies everything perfectly works great!
Now the issue.
I recently purchased two Corsair NVME drives that fit in a USB enclosure. These were going for my main RPI 4 8GB. There was a delay on the shipping so they arrived at staggered times, I was able to fire up the first NVME over USB no problem. Loaded the OS and its been running noticeably faster than the old USB nubs. However my problem is when I plug in the 2nd NVME drive to do a copy, the SD Copy program does NOT see it at all. I noticed in the file explorer that it had actually mounted the 2nd NVME as /boot and /root if I recall correctly, I tried to eject/unmount them but they would pop up again in the explorer window when I opened a new instance of it. Still not showing up on my SD Copier tool.
I looked at the file system on the RPi4 and under /dev I saw a mess of items SDA, SDB, SDA1, SDB2, and others. I'm not that strong at Linux so wasn't sure how to troubleshoot this from the command line.
The 2nd NVME disk works. I was able to access it from my Mac, I was able to use the RPI imager to flash bookworm on it (install not flash I suppose is the right terminology) I was even able to boot into that fresh instance of Bookworm if I disconnected my "production" NVME USB. So the disk and USB work there's no question about that.
Anyone know how I can get SD copier to work? I tested on my PI 5 and I noticed when I plug in the 2nd disk via usb it pops up a window telling me there's a new drive added and asks me what it wants to me to do, on the Pi4 it doesn't do that. I only noticed it was actually being read because I looked at file explorer and them, when I clicked on each one /boot and /root I then got an icon on my desktop showing them as drives.
But no matter what I cannot copy my production or main NVME to the secondary one using SD Copier tool.Can anyone help me understand why and or how to fix it.
I don't mind if I have to make a full bootable clone of it via command line that's fine, I just want to make sure I get the right disk since I'm not sure what the 2nd disk (backup) is being called. Is it dev/SDB is it /boot /root all three. I'm confused.
Please help I have frozen my project at this time because I want to ensure I get a reliable backup whenever I need it, and SD copier has always been my tool. For whatever reason it's only showing me the main production NVME as /dev/SDA.
The only difference that has cause SD Copier to fail is that the USB drives are NVME's.
2 identical USB thumb drives RPI4 OK
2 identical NVME's on Pi5 (one being on the PCI bus) and other USB connected OK
2 SD cards of pretty much any combo so long as it has enough space RPI4/5 OK
2 USB based NVME's on RPI4 = fail, only the main drive detected in SD copier tool.
Thank you in advance, I'm open to again command line solutions (will need the syntax all of it..) or another program (free I hope) and how to figure out what linux is calling it /SDB /root /boot...?
Statistics: Posted by anglerfish27 — Sun Feb 02, 2025 5:55 pm — Replies 3 — Views 32