How to Back Up and Restore a WSL Distro

Before you experiment with a distribution, upgrade it, or hand a working environment to a colleague, it is worth knowing that the whole thing exports to a single file. It is the closest WSL has to a snapshot.

Back It Up

# stop it first so nothing is mid-write
wsl --terminate Ubuntu

# export the whole distribution to a tar file
wsl --export Ubuntu D:\Backups\ubuntu-2026-08-13.tar

The file is the entire Linux filesystem, so expect it to be large. Exporting a distribution that has been in use for a while can easily produce several gigabytes.

Restore It

# restore into a new folder, under any name you like
wsl --import Ubuntu-Restored D:\WSL\ubuntu-restored D:\Backups\ubuntu-2026-08-13.tar

# confirm it is there
wsl -l -v

Cloning Is the Same Trick

Because the import name is arbitrary, export and import is also how you clone a working environment to experiment safely:

wsl --export Ubuntu D:\Temp\base.tar
wsl --import Ubuntu-Test D:\WSL\ubuntu-test D:\Temp\base.tar

Worth knowing too: this backs up the Linux filesystem, not your Windows files. Anything you keep under /mnt/c lives on Windows and is not in the tar.

Related

• Change the Default User in WSL
• Reinstall a WSL Distribution
• Uninstall a Linux Distro in WSL
• WSL Complete Guide

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