Develop Bugs

Phone Backup Confusion

What does clockwork do exactly when it comes to backing up your data? Does it just do the important files or the entire phone?
REAL QUESTION:
I have viper rom installed. When the real froyo gets released or an updated Viper rom is release, what do I do?
1. Do I use clockwork to do ALL my backup and restoring? If not, what programs do I use?
2. I have some apps installed on the microsd card too, what app will restore those files once I flash my phone with a new rom?
3. everytime I do a backup with clockwork, do the older backups get erased?
4. What are your suggestions on how I should do my backup?

jd254 said:
What does clockwork do exactly when it comes to backing up your data? Does it just do the important files or the entire phone?
REAL QUESTION:
I have viper rom installed. When the real froyo gets released or an updated Viper rom is release, what do I do?
1. Do I use clockwork to do ALL my backup and restoring? If not, what programs do I use?
2. I have some apps installed on the microsd card too, what app will restore those files once I flash my phone with a new rom?
3. everytime I do a backup with clockwork, do the older backups get erased?
4. What are your suggestions on how I should do my backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CWM (Clockwork Mod) performs a full backup of all system data, which includes the ROM and Kernel, any theme you have installed, all apps and their respective data, as well as any other settings. I would not suggest using only clockwork for your backups, a program such as Titanium Backup would be a better bet in case your NAND gets corrupted, which would disable your ability to restore from backup. Clockworkmod and Titanium Backup can both backup and restore apps on the sdcard, so I wouldn't worry about that. The backups in clockwork are concurrent, meaning that each time you do a new one it saves it as a completely separate backup containing only the files that you backed up on that occasion. I personally use clockwork for large backups such as individual ROMs, and then titanium for my apps and data. I hope this helps, feel free to pm me if you have any more questions/need more explanations!

Amon_Ra not creating md5 files

last night i made a nandroid backup and when i went to restore it, it quit right away and said"nandroid file corrupt" or something to that effect. when i compared backupo to eachother i noticed the md5 files were not being created, so i tried reflashing amon ra 2.3 it didnt work even went back to cwm and then to amon ra and it didnt work. any help with this would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

Are you renaming the backup file and if so are you using special characters in the name? Also, what do you mean when you say amon RA is creating an md5? I am unaware that it did such a thing. You said you also switched to CWM. Were you able to make a nandroid backup with it? By the way, did you happen to rename the folder containing the nandroid backup?
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dougjamal said:
Are you renaming the backup file and if so are you using special characters in the name? Also, what do you mean when you say amon RA is creating an md5? I am unaware that it did such a thing. You said you also switched to CWM. Were you able to make a nandroid backup with it?
posting & replying via the XDA Premium app
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no not changing the name at all and i dont think ive done anything concerning the recovery since the last nandroid i made. the nandroid files normally contain 9 files inside the new ones i try and make only contain 8 and the one missinf is the md5 file, no i havent tried with cmw i will now though gimme a sec and ill report back. thank you for your help.

Yes it creates a full useable backup with CMW, but i would love to figure out whats wrong with Amon_Ra. Maybe downgrade it and then upgrade would that maybe work? ill try it when i get home from work.
Edit: I think i know what may be wrong- With CMW when i try and wipe dalvik it says "unknown volume for path [sd/ext]" and last night when i tried to flash a new rom it didnt format the sd/ext because when i went to the app drawer all the old apps were still there in the new rom. and now that i look back at the back up log for the back up i just created in CMW it says no sd/ext found. so i guess i need to fix the sd/ext path. would this some how be dome in dtapp2sd?

steal25 said:
no not changing the name at all and i dont think ive done anything concerning the recovery since the last nandroid i made. the nandroid files normally contain 9 files inside the new ones i try and make only contain 8 and the one missinf is the md5 file, no i havent tried with cmw i will now though gimme a sec and ill report back. thank you for your help.
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Click to collapse
I get it. You're referring to the nandroid.md5 file "within" the backup itself. Why do you have 9 files inside your backup? Are you selecting to back up EVERYTHING when you make a nandroid backup? If so, you don't need to do that. With amon RA, you only need to use the default selections, unless you have apps stored on sd-ext partition then you would also select it. Prior to making a nandroid backup, I suggest you wipe the cache & dalvik, if you're not already doing so.

steal25 said:
Yes it creates a full useable backup with CMW, but i would love to figure out whats wrong with Amon_Ra. Maybe downgrade it and then upgrade would that maybe work? ill try it when i get home from work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
amon RA v2.3 is "solid". I use it and I highly recommend it. Try downloading a fresh copy of amon RA and reflash it. I have amon RA v2.3 Haus Mod. I could send you a link to download it from my DropBox, if you'd like.
UPDATE: I sent ou the link via PM, just in case you were interested.

steal25 said:
Edit: I think i know what may be wrong- With CMW when i try and wipe dalvik it says "unknown volume for path [sd/ext]" and last night when i tried to flash a new rom it didnt format the sd/ext because when i went to the app drawer all the old apps were still there in the new rom. and now that i look back at the back up log for the back up i just created in CMW it says no sd/ext found. so i guess i need to fix the sd/ext path. would this some how be dome in dtapp2sd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SD-ext should have been detected. I know it is in amon RA and you're right, if your apps were still present after a fresh install of a new rom, the ssd-ext was not properly wiped. As for dt app2sd, wouldn't you have to repartition your SD card? I mean, you would have to create the EXT2 Partition. Then use the option to upgrage EXT2 to EXT3, at least that's how you would do it via amon RA. I don't use CWM.

dougjamal said:
The SD-ext should have been detected. I know it is in amon RA and you're right, if your apps were still present after a fresh install of a new rom, the ssd-ext was not properly wiped. As for dt app2sd, wouldn't you have to repartition your SD card? I mean, you would have to create the EXT2 Partition. Then use the option to upgrage EXT2 to EXT3, at least that's how you would do it via amon RA. I don't use CWM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so I made a new nandroid and checked it through root explorer, IM not art home to check on my computer, and its showing that it created an md5 file. thanks Doug for that file! I can flash again!!
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

steal25 said:
So I made a new nandroid and checked it through root explorer, IM not at home to check on my computer, and it's showing that it created an md5 file. Thanks Doug for that file! I can flash again!!
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're very welcome. I'm glad I was able to help. Take care and enjoy your weekend...

dougjamal said:
I get it. You're referring to the nandroid.md5 file "within" the backup itself. Why do you have 9 files inside your backup? Are you selecting to back up EVERYTHING when you make a nandroid backup? If so, you don't need to do that. With amon RA, you only need to use the default selections, unless you have apps stored on sd-ext partition then you would also select it. Prior to making a nandroid backup, I suggest you wipe the cache & dalvik, if you're not already doing so.
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So your saying when i nandroid BU i only need to back up what is checked by default and sd-ext because i do have an ext-3 partition set up, and thats it? yeah i have been backing up everything and it takes for ever. so i no longer need to check cache, recovery, wimax or .android_secure ? thanks for your help brother!!

steal25 said:
So your saying when i nandroid BU i only need to back up what is checked by default and sd-ext because i do have an ext-3 partition set up, and thats it? yeah i have been backing up everything and it takes for ever. so i no longer need to check cache, recovery, wimax or .android_secure ? thanks for your help brother!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is correct. It is also a good idea to make nandroid of your wimax. With amon RA, the nandroid will have have names similar to BDEAS-20110409-1532. The letters prior to the first hyphen tells you what was backed up. B for boot, D for data, E for ext partition, A for Android.secure and S for system. The middle portion is the date the nandroid was created. I usually rename the middle portion. Anyway, take care and enjoy your weekend.
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[Q] New EVO coming...restore nandroid??

ok so here's my situation....my EVO has a loose charging port and the power button is failing so i took it to sprint and they ordered me a new one...so i figured i would just nandroid when the new phone got here after re-rooting it and i would be good...but then i got to thinking that when i downgraded my hboot version from .97 to .76 i couldnt restore my previous backup because i switched versions...and i plan to root using the unrevoked method and i would assume they would install the lastest version of CWM witch would make my backup unusable right??...
Basically i just need to know if i would be able to restore my backup from my memory card right after i root it or if i need to jump through some hoops to do it...or if i just need to flash CM7 clean and start all over, which i would rather not do...so if anyone can give me an answer it would be much appreciated and i will give said person a kiss *muah*....hahaha
thanks in advance

I'm 99% sure that this would not work...nandroids have to be from the same phone, not just same phone specs/firmware

Even if your recovery would allow you to restore the backup, I wouldn't do it. You run the risk of restoring the wimax partition from the old phone on the new one, essentially borking your wimax. I could be wrong, though.
I would backup all of your user apps + data with Titanium Backup, skip the system stuff. Make sure you've synced everything to Google. Gather the rom you like & any addons, then run unrevoked. After it's done, flashing, restoring, and setting back up shouldn't take too long.

exactly what plainjane said!

Ok I guess I get that...but would I be able to advance restore just my data after flash my rom and kernel?...so I have my apps and data in less than 5 mins?
Sent from my nightly EVO

Vinchenzop said:
I'm 99% sure that this would not work...nandroids have to be from the same phone, not just same phone specs/firmware
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I tried restoring one of my Nandroid backups on my GFs rooted EVO....no go.

thebeast614 said:
Ok I guess I get that...but would I be able to advance restore just my data after flash my rom and kernel?...so I have my apps and data in less than 5 mins?
Sent from my nightly EVO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just be careful but this should be fine. You may be better off using an app like MyBackup *root* which is free in the market to backup your apps and app data.
I have used it to move apps from rom to rom, and a new phone would be no different.

For apps...back them up via titanium backup, and you can restore them to a new/different phone
For contacts...open your contacts/people app..while looking at your contacts, press menu and choose "export to sd". This will create a file in your sd called 00001.vcf which contains your contact list and can be restored through contacts/people on any rom
Root your new phone, flash whichever rom you want...put your old sd card into your new phone...install titanium backup and reinstall your backed-up apps. Open contacts/people... press menu, import from sd card. Profit

Vinchenzop said:
For apps...back them up via titanium backup, and you can restore them to a new/different phone
For contacts...open your contacts/people app..while looking at your contacts, press menu and choose "export to sd". This will create a file in your sd called 00001.vcf which contains your contact list and can be restored through contacts/people on any rom
Root your new phone, flash whichever rom you want...put your old sd card into your new phone...install titanium backup and reinstall your backed-up apps. Open contacts/people... press menu, import from sd card. Profit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 What Vinchenzop said.

ROM Hopping

I want to play with different ROMs (i.e., Cyanogen 7.x, Kingdom and other leaked stock ROMs) but I would like to backup and restore my apps+data for use between the ROMS *AND* have my current stock ROM (yes, its rooted) imaged/ghost'd so I can clone back to it if I don't like the other ROMs (like Ghost, DriveImage, ShadowProtect does for PCs). Is this possible? If so, how?

It's built into recoveries. It's called a nandroid backup. I switch betweek MikFroyo and CyanogenMod7 by using recoveries. If you've rooted your phone you should already know how to do it

To back up your current rom:
reboot into recovery
wipe cache/dalvik (trust me, it's faster that way)
select backup
select nandroid backup (not restore)
it'll give you a list of options to select. Select all but the last 2. (which is like android.secure and your sd card. don't need backups for that)
select "perform backup".
Be patient, it takes several minutes to perform the backup. This will back up your rom as it is right now. After that reboot, use your favorite file manager, go into the nandroid folder and rename that nandroid backup to whatever you want (remember NO SPACES IN THE NAME or it WON'T WORK. Don't name it MikFroyo 4.61, name it MikFroyo_4.61, for example). Then, no matter what, you can restore to how your rom is at the very moment you saved it.
If you wanna just back up apps, get "titanium backup" from the market and back up all your apps. Then you can restore just the apps to whatever rom you flash.
Any flashaholics have nandroid backups and titanium backups.
I flash back and forth between Virus 2.1 Sense, the gingerbread w/sense leak and mikfroyo 4.61 and have nandroids for all three. Can't wait for Kingdom to be officially released (3.0 and 4g? sign me the hell up!)
Hope this helps. Us flashaholics gotta stick together.

To add to what AbsolutZeroGI stated, I would recommend, being this is your first time making backups and we don't know how your SD card is partitioned, that you select to backup your boot, data, system, android.secure, sdext and wimax.For all other backups, just use the default options. If your recovery is amon RA, the aforementioned options are clearly seen, bit I'm not sure about ClockworkMod. It's been too long since I last used it.
posting & replying via the XDA Premium app.

dougjamal said:
To add to what AbsolutZeroGI stated, I would recommend, being this is your first time making backups and we don't know how your SD card is partitioned, that you select to backup your boot, data, system, android.secure, sdext and wimax.For all other backups, just use the default options. If your recovery is amon RA, the aforementioned options are clearly seen, bit I'm not sure about ClockworkMod. It's been too long since I last used it.
posting & replying via the XDA Premium app.
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Click to collapse
I don't think how the sd card is formatted matters. I formatted mine for virus 2.1 sense B3 and my mikfroyo and stock still work perfectly. It says to back up the sd card on the computer before you format and put it back after you're done.
Not saying you're wrong, but a backup with .secure and sdext takes FOREVER (like half an hour the last time I tried it, maybe longer) and it's not really necessary.

AbsolutZeroGI said:
...
Not saying you're wrong, but a backup with .secure and sdext takes FOREVER (like half an hour the last time I tried it, maybe longer) and it's not really necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I respectfully disagree. Before making a backup, I always wipe cache & dalvik and when I had all of my apps on the sdext partition, the backup was maybe a minute longer than using the default settings. Furthermore, a few of my apps are on android,secure and the backup time is the same. At least that has been my experience....
posting & replying via the XDA Premium app.

dougjamal said:
I respectfully disagree. Before making a backup, I always wipe cache & dalvik and when I had all of my apps on the sdext partition, the backup was maybe a minute longer than using the default settings. Furthermore, a few of my apps are on android,secure and the backup time is the same. At least that has been my experience....
posting & replying via the XDA Premium app.
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Click to collapse
I'd have to agree. When I backup my android secure it only takes about a minute or 2 extra than the regular settings...never a half and hours..that's just ludicrous.

Rats! I was hoping I could just dd this ***** and be done with it.
What's this .secure, android.secure and sdext business? I was picking up what y'all were putting down until y'all mentioned that stuff (I've yet to come across that stuff in my nandroid'n/rooting/ROM'n adventures so far).

Also if you backup your apps using Titanium Backup, make sure when you restore you are not restoring and system apps from a Sense Rom to an AOSP Rom or vice verse. I will throw your phone into a Bootloop more than likely and you will have to restore your backup and start all over.

DiGiTY said:
Rats! I was hoping I could just dd this ***** and be done with it.
What's this .secure, android.secure and sdext business? I was picking up what y'all were putting down until y'all mentioned that stuff (I've yet to come across that stuff in my nandroid'n/rooting/ROM'n adventures so far).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you go into recovery to create a nandroid backup using amon RA, System, Data and Boot are selected by default to be backed up. Most of the time, that is all that is required and all you have to do is initiate the backup. However, some people's device is setup a little differently and to prevent their devices from bootlooping at the rom's splash screen, they have to select sdext and/or android.secure to also be backed up when creating a nandroid backup. Both are where certain apps are sometimes stored.
posting & replying via the XDA Premium app.

dougjamal said:
When you go into recovery to create a nandroid backup using amon RA, System, Data and Boot are selected by default to be backed up. Most of the time, that is all that is required and all you have to do is initiate the backup. However, some people's device is setup a little differently and to prevent their devices from bootlooping at the rom's splash screen, they have to select sdext and/or android.secure to also be backed up when creating a nandroid backup. Both are where certain apps are sometimes stored.
posting & replying via the XDA Premium app.
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Got it! Thanks! Is the WiMAX radio stuff included in all that too or is that a different procedure?

DiGiTY said:
Got it! Thanks! Is the WiMAX radio stuff included in all that too or is that a different procedure?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an adb way to pull and copy the wimax image, but if you mount the phone to the pc, copy the wimax to the pc and have an extra copy.
If you're on clockwork recovery, the wimax is already in the backup. If you're on amon_ra 2.3, you'll need to make a backup of it specifically.

teh roxxorz said:
There's an adb way to pull and copy the wimax image, but if you mount the phone to the pc, copy the wimax to the pc and have an extra copy.
If you're on clockwork recovery, the wimax is already in the backup. If you're on amon_ra 2.3, you'll need to make a backup of it specifically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot!

DiGiTY said:
Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whippin' out that 444! Lol...
And you're welcome.

How do I change to a different ROM?

A total noob question but that's because I'm a noob. Anyway I'm currently using CynogenMod7, but I want to try a diffrent ROM. What do I have to do?

All the info you need to do that is here

Okay but would I have to format my SD card or partition it?
How would I keep my old apps and app data?
Thanks

Tajio said:
Okay but would I have to format my SD card or partition it?
How would I keep my old apps and app data?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You dont need to format SD Card (some ROM's require EXT partition, if you dont have it then you might need to repartition it), to keep apps and app data use Titanium Backup.

Backup apps using Titanium Backup
Backup contacts
Boot into recovery
Perform Nandroid backup
Wipe/factory reset
Install new ROM from zip
Sent from my CM7.1 Desire using XDA Premium App

some basic things before flashing ROMs
Depends on what ROM you're trying to flash. Some ROMs don't require partitioning your SD card. However, ROMs that feature A2SD+, Data2SD, Data2Whatever or Data2Ext will require that you make 2 or 3 partitions. Those 4 scripts are for people who have tons of apps and cannot be served by the stock phone memory.
Safest way to enjoy flashing ROMs is to:
a) save all the stuff in your SD Card onto your computer or another storage device
b) sync all your contacts into a Google account. If you don't have one, make one. You'll find it very convenient to sync back all contacts everytime you flash a new ROM
c) use MyBackup Root or Titanium Backup; they can both save apps for later reinstatement, include settings and data, like your Angry Birds score. Personally, Titanium Backup is much better than MyBackup Root. Go buy the pro version, it works even better.
d) remember to make a Nandroid backup in recovery. Be aware, though, that when you make a Nandroid backup in ClockworkMod and in the future decide to flash Amon_Ra or another recovery, those cannot restore the nandroid backup that CWM did. Amon_Ra nandroid backup can only be restored by Amon_Ra recovery, likewise with other recoveries. So the first step to do after flashing a new recovery is to make another nandroid backup, in case of trouble.
e) remember the golden rule of safe flashing: always wear a condom. Ooops. I meant, wipe data, cache and Dalvik-cache. Many problems with hanging or bootloops can be traced to not doing the 3 wipes.

Alright thanks everyone!

Can somebody post a link how to root desire i have one and is running stock
want change it. Sorry for hijacking the thread as i dint wanted to start a new one for this.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1016084
There's a search feature also
Sent from my CM7.1 Desire using XDA Premium App

noob here too and this is exactly what I was looking for.
first root a few days ago and flashed GingerVillain 2.7 but was wondering how to go about flashing to a new rom (possibly cyanogen 7).
this answered my question.
thanks to all for the thread.

zedmarcus said:
noob here too and this is exactly what I was looking for.
first root a few days ago and flashed GingerVillain 2.7 but was wondering how to go about flashing to a new rom (possibly cyanogen 7).
this answered my question.
thanks to all for the thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into recovery, full wipe/factory reset + dalvik cache wipe and flash new ROM.
When you flash CM7 dont forget to also flash google apps (look in first post)