Develop Bugs

[Q] Nandroid Backup?

Is it possible to have a rooted device, use nandroid to make a backup, revert to stock/unroot, and then restore data from that backup? Can you even use the backup after you unroot?

never tried that - although I do not see why not
odin back to factory reset
you will need to odin clockwork recovery as stock recovery will not work
three finger startup to Clockwork
then go to restore - advanced - pick the file and restore data only
I just learned about advanced restore recently but have not done what you ask
If it does not work you can restore to where you were with no harm done
remember that titanium backup only works with root access.

If you're stock then you won't have the recovery needed to do a restore from the nand backup.

Yes, you would have to have clockwork recovery installed also though. Then just odin back to one of the stock images. Then later re root and reinstall clockwork and restore back up.

If you are talking about EI22 and want to keep CWM as a recovery to be able to restore said backup then you will need a custom kernel anyway so that the stock recovery doesn't keep overwriting CWM. What is the reason why you want to do this?

kennyglass123 said:
If you are talking about EI22 and want to keep CWM as a recovery to be able to restore said backup then you will need a custom kernel anyway so that the stock recovery doesn't keep overwriting CWM. What is the reason why you want to do this?
Click to expand...
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I screwed up my phone a while back with the crappy samsung cable that comes with it. Ever since it has been slower and my pc won't recognize it no matter what I do. So I bought a new cable and I wanted to revert to stock to try and start over with the rooting and custom rom process, but I didn't want to lose all my contacts, apps, music, etc. in the process.

W0lfy B said:
I screwed up my phone a while back with the crappy samsung cable that comes with it. Ever since it has been slower and my pc won't recognize it no matter what I do. So I bought a new cable and I wanted to revert to stock to try and start over with the rooting and custom rom process, but I didn't want to lose all my contacts, apps, music, etc. in the process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. once you root again and have CWM back on you will be able to restore everything. So Odin away to EC05 stock, one-click root, flash a GB ROM and restore your data.

Well you should always be saving your contacts to your google account, then when you sign back in it will just use your account to reload your contacts. Your music is saved to SD, so when yiou open any new music program it should search your SD and find the music. Likeness previous posts, the issue your going to have doing this is not having a custom recovery...you wont be able to restore a nand with stock recovery. I agree with previous posts, it sucks you'll lose data, but the most functional and clean way to do this would be to Odin to EC05, use the EC05 to EI22 modem zip in the development section, and flash your custom rom and kernel. If you are concerned with performance and lag, see Universeral Adrenaline Shot and Supercharger script...good Luck!
sent from my EPICally transmogrified EI22: Thunderhawk III- adrenaline injected, SUPERCHARGED

[solved] Help! cannot restore stock rom!

few days ago I just flashed cwm recovery and made a backup for every partition, after that I flashed the cm7.2.
but now when I want to go back to stock, I cannot restore the backup. it seemed that the recovery cannot format the partitions into rfs. (even I used the rfs+ext4 recovery)
anyone has any ideas?

Did you have an ext4 partition when you did the backup? I've experienced problems with the CWM backup a couple of times because it's not getting along well with ext4 partitions so I had to go from scratch a couple of times because I couldn't do a restore. For Galaxy Gio, I would recommend you to use Titanium Backup instead of CWM Recovery from now on if don't want to get into trouble with backups and stuff.

Just flash a new firmware via ODIN.

LegoGabi said:
Just flash a new firmware via ODIN.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for replies but my original firmware contains chinese which cannot available here

Try this:
1) flash some stock multi-package firmware (that would format your FS to rfs from ext4); shouldn't matter much what firmware you flash, just something Gingerbread-ish to allow CWM to work, as you only need it to format partitions
2) flash CWM (or install via update.zip method from recovery) that works with stock firmware (I believe it's the one with rfs+ext4 support but you better check in CWM thread)
3) restore your stock ROM backup

Have you checked Samsung firmware websites like samfirmware to see if they had yours?
If not, there are instructions here on creating an Odin flashable backup, which you could do if you have access to another, unmodified Gio.
Otherwise, look into the workings of CWM. You may be capable of DD'ing the nandroid files manually, but don't take my word for it.

thanks everyone who replied, i finally figured out what's wrong.
It turned out to be the problem that no CWM for gio could format the partitions into rfs therefore they kept giving me errors when i tried to restore.
and after some trials, I found that the CWM for CM7 (cwm-v2.zip) can actually restore my backup, but with the system, data, cache formated in ext3. Therefore with the stock kernel, it won't boot.
Final remedy: use CWM for CM7 to restore the backup, then flash a custom kernel for stock rom.

crescal said:
thanks everyone who replied, i finally figured out what's wrong.
It turned out to be the problem that no CWM for gio could format the partitions into rfs therefore they kept giving me errors when i tried to restore.
and after some trials, I found that the CWM for CM7 (cwm-v2.zip) can actually restore my backup, but with the system, data, cache formated in ext3. Therefore with the stock kernel, it won't boot.
Final remedy: use CWM for CM7 to restore the backup, then flash a custom kernel for stock rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which kernel? Im in your exact situation, i got the cwm you mention and it restored the back up and flashing the kernel for stock rom with lots of options claiming to support ext4 i get boot loops. If you can tell me what kernel you booted with i will be very grateful. Tomorrow is my daughters bday and i need my korean gio with different wifi hardware to tether to my tablet for ideo chat, which only works with stock. Thank you.

[Q] Flash a new rom then restore a backup

Lets say I am on a fairly stock rom and have a good TWRP backup and try a radically different rom (like a CM 10.x) and decide to go back to what I had before do I have to flash the old rom file then restore the back up file or can I just restore the TWRP backup?

You can just restore the backup but do a reset first. Eg wipe to install new rom

DavidEQ said:
Lets say I am on a fairly stock rom and have a good TWRP backup and try a radically different rom (like a CM 10.x) and decide to go back to what I had before do I have to flash the old rom file then restore the back up file or can I just restore the TWRP backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi - it depends on what you include in the backup on TWRP. If you select also Boot, System, Data and Recovery you will get back really everything you had. If you don't have a backup of EFS I would include that too. I did that quite often. When restoring backup you have also your old kernel/modem as it was working before. I never had bad experience with that. Whenever I'm now on CWM 6.0.3.5 as I'm using Android 4.3 (Probam 4.4).

[Q] How to flash a boot.img without fastboot?

Samsung apparently does not allow you to boot into the bootloader on their phones. I am trying to return to a different kernel I was using previously, which was contained in a nandroid backup. However, to my understanding, restoring a nandroid backup does not restore the kernel, and you have to extract the boot.img and flash that by itself.
What is the best way to go about doing this without fastboot?
Also, I don't suppose "restore boot" in nandroid advanced restore does this now, does it? Can't find anything on it online.

From what I recall, restoring the nandroid backup would restore the kernel. What recovery was used to create the nandroid?

audit13 said:
From what I recall, restoring the nandroid backup would restore the kernel. What recovery was used to create the nandroid?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used CWM. I read in several places (forums) that it didn't....Hm. I mean I have the boot.img from the backup, so I have the kernel right there. I suppose I could find some way to make it into a flashable zip, but I was just wanting to see if anyone knew a way around that.
But if you are confident that the backup would restore the kernel, do you know if I could restore just the kernel from advanced restore? It'd be fab if I could keep /data the same, but not a must I suppose.

I use TWRP on an HTC and just restored a nandroid backup. After restoring the backup, the previous kernel was restored too.
I don't have any devices at the moment that use CWM.
Not sure about just restoring the kernel. Any particular reason you just want to restore the kernel?

audit13 said:
I use TWRP on an HTC and just restored a nandroid backup. After restoring the backup, the previous kernel was restored too.
I don't have any devices at the moment that use CWM.
Not sure about just restoring the kernel. Any particular reason you just want to restore the kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started getting some problems after flashing a custom kernel and I want to revert to the previous one, the default CM one, to test if my problems are related to that kernel or not. I suppose I'll look into making the .img a flashable zip then, unless anyone else knows of a better way. I'm not familiar enough with Odin to know if you can flash a .img in it.
There's that "restore boot" option in the advanced restore menu on CWM. Do you have any idea what that restores? I want to naturally say that it probably restores the boot.img, but I have searched and searched and just cannot find anything online about what that actually restores.

Nandroid backups created with CWM need to be restored using CWM.
Sorry, not sure what the advanced options will do but you could try different ones.

Restoring boot in advanced nandroid restore restores the zimage and initrd.gz. The kernel. Thus, I suppose a full restore will restore the kernel. Perhaps there are exceptions for certain devices. Restoring boot got me where I needed.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA Free mobile app

[Q] Need some adivse PLEASE!!!!

So this is the situation,
I have SPH-l710 Rooted with CWM, I THOUGHT I made a backup of my stock system.....It made a image.zip and an image directory. SOOOO I flashed the phone with CM121...........In light of all the issues I could not get my camera to work with any app, them CM121 updated, Google play got stuck in a error force close loop that could only be avoided by logging into a separate user account on lollipop. Which is where the camera began to work oddly enough. Anyways I use my camera constantly and wanted to revert back to my 4.4.2 kitkat. SOOOO I booted into recovery and when I selected restore it couldnt find anything. So I installed from the image.zip and everything appeared to be fine EXECPT I couldnt get passed the second samsung logo right after the animation. Just stuck........How can I restore my poor phone back to my system image I have saved?
I tried this multiple times, then just reloaded CM121. PLEASE HELP!!!!!
the wipe/factory reset
wipe cache
wipe dalvik x 3

You could Odin back to stock. What modem are you on? (Ex. nj3, nd8, etc)

Powered_By_Linux said:
You could Odin back to stock. What modem are you on? (Ex. nj3, nd8, etc)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
L710VPUCNJ3
I did find an image.zip and an image directory with my full phone backup i assume minus the damn splash screen that started this whole thing in the first place. Would I just use odin to flash the image.zip file to restore my original os or would I use CMW and install from zip and use the image.zip file?
And thank you for replying, it's hard to get anyone to help sometimes.

aanddink said:
L710VPUCNJ3
I did find an image.zip and an image directory with my full phone backup i assume minus the damn splash screen that started this whole thing in the first place. Would I just use odin to flash the image.zip file to restore my original os or would I use CMW and install from zip and use the image.zip file?
And thank you for replying, it's hard to get anyone to help sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you Odin to stock, you need a computer. You download the program (sadly Odin is leaked software so it's pretty shady; you could give Heimdall a shot but it didn't work for me, also Odin is Windows only and Heimdall is cross-platform) and then you download a .tar of a stock image and you plug your phone in in download mode and flash it.
However, there is no nj3 modem so you need to use an older one. Is your phone sprint, Virgin Mobile, boost, etc?
Edit: give this thread a look for info on stock .tars http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3121212
---------- Post added at 11:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 PM ----------
Here's a good thread on instructions for flashing the ndc modem. If you use sprint, flashing nj2 should be the same process, just a different .tar. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2774333

Powered_By_Linux said:
If you Odin to stock, you need a computer. You download the program (sadly Odin is leaked software so it's pretty shady; you could give Heimdall a shot but it didn't work for me, also Odin is Windows only and Heimdall is cross-platform) and then you download a .tar of a stock image and you plug your phone in in download mode and flash it.
However, there is no nj3 modem so you need to use an older one. Is your phone sprint, Virgin Mobile, boost, etc?
Edit: give this thread a look for info on stock .tars http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3121212
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Odin already from when I flashed cmw 6+ to the phone, but before I installed cm12.1 I used clockworkmod and made a backup image. It created a image.zip file, will this contain my original stock but rooted image?

aanddink said:
I have Odin already from when I flashed cmw 6+ to the phone, but before I installed cm12.1 I used clockworkmod and made a backup image. It created a image.zip file, will this contain my original stock but rooted image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would assume so, however, I'm not sure. I've only used TWRP and a little Philz for recovery. Afraid I can't help you there, but someone else (or Google lol) might know

Powered_By_Linux said:
I would assume so, however, I'm not sure. I've only used TWRP and a little Philz for recovery. Afraid I can't help you there, but someone else (or Google lol) might know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK I understand thanks, one more thing if I assume its a full backup of the phone would Odin be better to restore with or use whatever software created the backup?

aanddink said:
OK I understand thanks, one more thing if I assume its a full backup of the phone would Odin be better to restore with or use whatever software created the backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Odin can only flash tars. Ideally, you'd want to restore the backup with the software that made it.

aanddink said:
I have Odin already from when I flashed cmw 6+ to the phone, but before I installed cm12.1 I used clockworkmod and made a backup image. It created a image.zip file, will this contain my original stock but rooted image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cwm recovery does not create zip files. If you made a full backup in cwm it should contain system, data, and boot img files. Restore it in cwm recovery.
But to go back to KitKat from lollipop you must wipe internal storage in clockworkmod recovery first .(if that's the recovery you are using).
By the way cwm is pretty crappy. After you fix it, install twrp recovery.

madbat99 said:
Cwm recovery does not create zip files. If you made a full backup in cwm it should contain system, data, and boot img files. Restore it in cwm recovery.
But to go back to KitKat from lollipop you must wipe internal storage in clockworkmod recovery first .(if that's the recovery you are using).
By the way cwm is pretty crappy. After you fix it, install twrp recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, been tryin to get help for a while. So my version of CMW has the option to create an image backup & also create the same backup in zip format. Inside the zip and inside the image directory they have the boot img files and the system data and ect. I have 2 questions, 1 is what part of the internal storage needs to be wiped? I assume you mean format the system directory? which would wipe the os out at that point? And second since I have cmw installed if I wanted to put twrp on and not wipe the system yet would I need to just use odin and flash it to overwrite cmw? I installed cmw with odin to root the phone originally, cmw is not restoring my backups at all correctly so I would love something that would really work.

aanddink said:
Thanks for the reply, been tryin to get help for a while. So my version of CMW has the option to create an image backup & also create the same backup in zip format. Inside the zip and inside the image directory they have the boot img files and the system data and ect. I have 2 questions, 1 is what part of the internal storage needs to be wiped? I assume you mean format the system directory? which would wipe the os out at that point? And second since I have cmw installed if I wanted to put twrp on and not wipe the system yet would I need to just use odin and flash it to overwrite cmw? I installed cmw with odin to root the phone originally, cmw is not restoring my backups at all correctly so I would love something that would really work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By wiping internal storage, I mean internal sd card (data/media) not system.
If you cannot restore your backup, and are not worried about losing your data, I would recommend using odin to flash the whole stock .tar and starting fresh from scratch. Then re root by using odin to install twrp.
If you are on boost or virgin Mobile use the ndc tar.

madbat99 said:
By wiping internal storage, I mean internal sd card (data/media) not system.
If you cannot restore your backup, and are not worried about losing your data, I would recommend using odin to flash the whole stock .tar and starting fresh from scratch. Then re root by using odin to install twrp.
If you are on boost or virgin Mobile use the ndc tar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, I will look into the tar I just need to make sure it's compatible with NJ3 and I am on Virgin mobile. I attached a snapshot of the file cmw created, Im pretty sure I saw a post on how to convert that into a flash-able tar file by combining them into one. That backup is clean except for a screwy boot splash screen and being rooted but besides that it was the first backup. Do you know if twrp has any issues with CM12.1? If I can flash my backup and un-root I would be able to start from scratch and do it the right way this time. I attached the snapshot just for your opinion on if I can use my backup from my phone if you dont mind, also to install twrp if I can use my backup I would need to unroot then re-root with twrp correct? Any thanks so much for the responses

aanddink said:
Thanks for the info, I will look into the tar I just need to make sure it's compatible with NJ3 and I am on Virgin mobile. I attached a snapshot of the file cmw created, Im pretty sure I saw a post on how to convert that into a flash-able tar file by combining them into one. That backup is clean except for a screwy boot splash screen and being rooted but besides that it was the first backup. Do you know if twrp has any issues with CM12.1? If I can flash my backup and un-root I would be able to start from scratch and do it the right way this time. I attached the snapshot just for your opinion on if I can use my backup from my phone if you dont mind, also to install twrp if I can use my backup I would need to unroot then re-root with twrp correct? Any thanks so much for the responses
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you put that back on your phone in the clockworkmod folder just restore it? If you flash the ndc tar in odin you will be stock unrooted. Ndc is the build before nj3. There is no nj3 tar so ndc is fine. If you manage to restore your backup and get going, you can just get the app flashify from the play store to install twrp. Get the image file of twrp 2.8.7.0 for sprint (d2spr) and install in flashify. Get it from twrp website.
Your backup only has system in it, it has no data. Next time do a full backup. System, data, and boot. You're trying to go from cm12.1 lollipop to KitKat touchwiz without a data wipe and restore. Won't work.
Honestly dude, you seem to have limited knowledge on this. Don't take that the wrong way at all. To save us both some time and get your phone working, just follow this
It's fine to flash over nj3. I'm on virgin Mobile and I've done it a couple times. Also do a factory reset to wipe data. Also wipe internal storage (data/media).

madbat99 said:
If you put that back on your phone in the clockworkmod folder just restore it? If you flash the ndc tar in odin you will be stock unrooted. Ndc is the build before nj3. There is no nj3 tar so ndc is fine. If you manage to restore your backup and get going, you can just get the app flashify from the play store to install twrp. Get the image file of twrp 2.8.7.0 for sprint (d2spr) and install in flashify. Get it from twrp website.
Your backup only has system in it, it has no data. Next time do a full backup. System, data, and boot. You're trying to go from cm12.1 lollipop to KitKat touchwiz without a data wipe and restore. Won't work.
Honestly dude, you seem to have limited knowledge on this. Don't take that the wrong way at all. To save us both some time and get your phone working, just follow this
It's fine to flash over nj3. I'm on virgin Mobile and I've done it a couple times. Also do a factory reset to wipe data. Also wipe internal storage (data/media).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not taken the wrong way, I am limited knowledge on the subject and that's why I ended up with problems. I appreciate the help since I could not get anyone to respond.

madbat99 said:
If you put that back on your phone in the clockworkmod folder just restore it? If you flash the ndc tar in odin you will be stock unrooted. Ndc is the build before nj3. There is no nj3 tar so ndc is fine. If you manage to restore your backup and get going, you can just get the app flashify from the play store to install twrp. Get the image file of twrp 2.8.7.0 for sprint (d2spr) and install in flashify. Get it from twrp website.
Your backup only has system in it, it has no data. Next time do a full backup. System, data, and boot. You're trying to go from cm12.1 lollipop to KitKat touchwiz without a data wipe and restore. Won't work.
Honestly dude, you seem to have limited knowledge on this. Don't take that the wrong way at all. To save us both some time and get your phone working, just follow this
It's fine to flash over nj3. I'm on virgin Mobile and I've done it a couple times. Also do a factory reset to wipe data. Also wipe internal storage (data/media).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate the link, understand the process. Just wondering the link to the .tar file is broken (at least for the moment) I will continue to try it, do you know if the zip file from samsung-updates " L710VPUDND8 firmware version for Galaxy S 3 LTE (Sprint) "
will work also?

aanddink said:
I appreciate the link, understand the process. Just wondering the link to the .tar file is broken (at least for the moment) I will continue to try it, do you know if the zip file from samsung-updates " L710VPUDND8 firmware version for Galaxy S 3 LTE (Sprint) "
will work also?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nd8 will work, however nj2 is the sprint equivalent to nj3 (latest update). It works fine. It's the last one I used. You may need to do the dialer activation code to get service working after you flash. I think it's ##72786# . I'll check.
here is nj2.