A microSD card is a consumable: it always wears out eventually. Here is how to lose nothing the day yours gives up.
Everything that belongs to you sits in the share folder: games, bios files, saves, screenshots, themes and configuration. Copy it to your computer over the network share — it is quick, and it is enough in the vast majority of cases.
The folders not to forget if you do not copy everything:
| Folder | Contents |
|---|---|
share/saves/ |
Your game saves |
share/system/recalbox.conf |
Your entire configuration |
share/roms/ |
Your games and their gamelist.xml files (scraped data included) |
share/bios/ |
Your bios files |
The best backup is the one you do not have to make: put your data on external storage. System and data are then separate, and a full reinstall costs you nothing.
To keep an exact snapshot of your installation, system included, you need a full image of the card: see Cloning your SD card.
If your installation is simply in a bad state, a full reinstall is not always necessary: