Which command is designed for creating file backups and often utilized for copying data to external drives?

The command that is specifically designed for creating file backups and is commonly utilized for copying data to external drives is rsync.

Rsync is a powerful, flexible tool that allows you to efficiently synchronize files and directories between different locations. Its capability to only transfer the differences between source and destination (known as delta transfers) makes it an excellent choice for backups, as it minimizes data transfer and speeds up the process. It also offers options for compression and can preserve file permissions and timestamps, further assisting in backup tasks.

While the dd command can indeed create backups by copying raw data from one location to another, it is not typically used for backing up files in a filesystem sense; rather, it is more commonly used for low-level data copying, such as creating disk images or backups of entire drives or partitions.

Cpio and scp are also used for file operations; cpio is primarily for creating and extracting archives, while scp is used for securely transferring files between hosts over SSH. Neither directly targets the efficient backup mechanism that rsync provides for regularly backing up and synchronizing files, especially to external drives.