I have recently built systems using the Raspberry Pi (Raspi) at work and university.

I have seen many such situations where my subsequent work destroyed a system halfway through construction.

The Raspi can keep a clone of the system I have made halfway through on an SD card so that I can store the SD card image file on my PC. I can then duplicate the SD card as needed.

With this clone in place, I can continue to develop with peace of mind.

-----

However, there is another problem with this.

(1) When SD cards are ordered from workplaces or universities, it takes one to two weeks, and paperwork is required, so the work cannot be started immediately.

(2) The capacity of the SD card that Raspi handles is increasing daily (128GB now), so I can't use the SD cards that I have personally.

That's why I always go to Amazon's website to check the price of SD cards; Amazon usually delivers them the next day.

Who could blame me for reaching for the Amazon purchase button when I weighed "1,500 yen + next day" against "2 weeks + paperwork + multiple requests for approval"?

-----

A further recent problem is the capacity of SD cards.

When I first used Raspi, the SD card was 512MB.

It has grown to 1GB, 4GB, 16GB, 32GB, and now 128GB (32GB for Raspi, the Ebata family's video surveillance system).

Backup time has grown from a dozen minutes to four hours, and then the image files for the clone are straining my PC HDD.

-----

I feel a little depressed, 'I wonder if I must keep investing in these IT gadgets from now on.