NOTE: DID NOT WORK FOR ME - DRIVE WOULD NOT BOOT ON EC2 INSTANCE SO JUST FOLLOWED THIS INSTEAD: http://atodorov.org/blog/2014/02/07/aws-tip-shrinking-ebs-root-volume-size/ ********************************************************************************************* (Original Paste Below) Lets you backup a running instance of linux. (Should stop services like mysql first for good measure...) This command taken from archlinux article found here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/full_system_backup_with_rsync rsync -aAXv --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found"} /* /path/to/backup/folder Perhaps Better?: rsync -PazSHAX --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found"} / /path/to/backup/folder