[davidfor]

Originally Posted by idoit

I was forced to do factory reset because of the critical error. Only button available was to factory reset.

So to clarify, after dd-ing (or however cloning is done), copy all contents from Kobo's user accessible root folder (.kobo etc.) and we'll be good, right? This way, I would not face that critical error, correct?

I very much doubt it. If you imaged your current SD card to a new one, then it would have contained everything that is on the data partition. And if that data was missing, all it would have triggered was the setup prompting you to login, and checking for a new firmware version.

The problem was probably something in the imaging process. Between Windows and the Android phone, one of them probably touched something that it shouldn't have and the Mini didn't like it. What, it was, I have no idea.

If the purpose of this is to have a backup card, then you have one. If the purpose is to have a backup of all the books and their state, an image of the card isn't very useful as you would need to create a new copy whenever you added or removed a book. Or read one if you need the backup the status. There are simpler ways to do this.