I did a phone swap, my original unrevoked rooted Evo 4G for my daughter's revolutionary rooted newer unit. Did a full backup of both phones, swapped the SD cards restored my backup to the new phone successfully, but am unsuccessful restoring her backup to the old phone. Fails at restoring the boot image after erasing the existing boot image. She only needs the old phone as a spare, but I would like to get it working again. I can get into recovery, but only have this one image. The data and system portions of the backup report that they can restore successfully, but not the boot image, and now I can't boot.
Can I install a separate boot image, and do I need to worry about HBOOT compatibility? Where would I find a compatible one?
Which is why you shouldn't do a backup from a different phone. Although it CAN be done, if you follow the procedures, it's highly NOT recommended.
You should probably run the RUU for that phone and start over.
n00b question: I've been seeing RUU throughout the Evo forums and despite all the time I've spent browsing these forums I haven't seemed to grasp it's meaning. What is RUU?
HipKat said:
Which is why you shouldn't do a backup from a different phone. Although it CAN be done, if you follow the procedures, it's highly NOT recommended.
You should probably run the RUU for that phone and start over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Don't know what you mean about the RUU. Please explain.
I assume that I can restore the image that was last on it from the original SD.
What if I restore just the boot from the original, and the data and system from the image I was trying to restore there? Should that work?
This phone has a bad speaker and is only to be used as a backup, but I would like to get it working again if that is possible.
Yes, swap the sd cards back and fet ur phone working.
You can not put a backup of one phone onto another FULLY. you can restore data and apps, but the hidden systems files etc are phone specific.
What you need to do us just back up your apps and data then flash a new copy of your ROM, then restore ur apps and data.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
I tried flashing the original boot image but the system from the other phone. Didn't work. Today, I will try flashing the original system as well.
Funny, everything worked well in the other (more important) direction.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
SOLVED. I restored the original image for the phone, did a "factory reset", then restored the data, cache, ext-sd, and wimax from the other phone. Everything seems to work, and it pretty much looks like the other phone used to look. Compatibility problem was boot, but the original boot image was incompatible with the other system.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Related
I rooted using unrevoked3 and did the nand unlock. Did a nandroid backup and installed the latest cyanogenmod to play. I've done this before and gone back to my previous rom using nandroid restore. The only thing different is I looked at ROM manager this time and it asked me if I wanted to install clockwork recovery (which I thought I already had so I didn' think much about installing). Now when I try to do a nandroid restore I get errors, and I can no longer boot into cyanogenmod. I can get to the restore screen and it seems to find my nandroid backups, but when I attempt to apply them I get "Error while flashing boot image". Now when I do a full bootup it goes straight to bootloader. I don't seem to be able to do anything from recovery with my nandroid without errors.
I was able to get back
I honestly don't know how I did it. Perhaps I wiped data and it was able to get back to a clockworkmod backup I had previously done. Regardless, I am back and can flash again. Kinda scary though. I am a computer guy, but new to android dev. My advice is to read, read, and read more. You need to understand the steps, not just do them.
NashTnGuy said:
I honestly don't know how I did it. Perhaps I wiped data and it was able to get back to a clockworkmod backup I had previously done. Regardless, I am back and can flash again. Kinda scary though. I am a computer guy, but new to android dev. My advice is to read, read, and read more. You need to understand the steps, not just do them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
always wipe data & cache before flashing again, that's why its all over the forums...MAKE SURE TO WIPE PRIOR TO INSTALLING ANYTHING...glad it worked out for you tho
I'm also rooted via unrevoked3.1, but I haven't unlocked nand yet. I also tried restoring from a nandroid backup (after clearing data and cache), and, though it said it completed successfully, when I booted, it was just the stock setup that was on the phone the day I bought it.
I assume it's because I don't have nand unlocked-can I ask what method you used to unlock nand?
use toast part 2 ...
Hi guys!
I am sorry if this has already been answered somewhere, but I searched pretty thoroughly and I couldn't find a solution
I am trying to S-OFF an HTC Desire for a friend of mine and install CyanogenMod using this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1016084.
We rooted the phone without any issues, but before going through Alpharev I decided to make a nandroid backup through the phone's original recovery image (just as advised on Alpharev's site: "We try to leave the current ROM and datastructures completely intact. It is, however, advised to ALWAYS nandroid backup your phone before you run this procedure.
You will then always have a correct/current backup to fall back on in case something breaks."). So I just went into the Backup and Recovery menu and I chose backup.
Unfortunately after backing up, the phone went into a boot loop. We tried taking-out the battery and even doing a hard reset but nothing helped. Eventually we flashed the original RUU from O2 (it's an O2 Germany phone) and this fixed the issue.
I am a bit concerned since I wasn't able to find anyone who had the same problem and it is a bit weird that the phone should go into a boot loop without even installing another ROM or anything - just trying to do a backup of the stock ROM. I am thus a bit hesitant to go on with the S-OFF...
Any help would be deeply appreciated!
Well, first of all, you don't need to be S-Off to install CyanogenMod7. Only root. Usually, people do S-Off so they can change the Boot Splash image.
Make a Gold Card for your SD. Some Desire's need it, some don't. Better safe than sorry.
Secondly, after root, I would goto the market and install ROM Manager. Then flash to the latest Clockwork Recovery.
Then,I would make sure I have a recent Recovery image (NandBackup)
Download Gapps.zip to the root of the SD.
Download the CyanogenMod7 to the root of the SD, boot phone to recovery, Wipe cache memory, also goto Advanced and wipe the Delvik memory.
Then Install from SD, do the CM7, then after it finishes, Select Install from SD again, and install the Gapps.zip
Why your backup failed, who knows. I suppose you were using Unrevoked?
Thanks! Do you know why the boot loop could happen?
Moscow Desire said:
Well, first of all, you don't need to be S-Off to install CyanogenMod7. Only root. Usually, people do S-Off so they can change the Boot Splash image.
Make a Gold Card for your SD. Some Desire's need it, some don't. Better safe than sorry.
Secondly, after root, I would goto the market and install ROM Manager. Then flash to the latest Clockwork Recovery.
Then,I would make sure I have a recent Recovery image (NandBackup)
Download Gapps.zip to the root of the SD.
Download the CyanogenMod7 to the root of the SD, boot phone to recovery, Wipe cache memory, also goto Advanced and wipe the Delvik memory.
Then Install from SD, do the CM7, then after it finishes, Select Install from SD again, and install the Gapps.zip
Why your backup failed, who knows. I suppose you were using Unrevoked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose, there was some code that didn't get deleted due to the rooting process, if you used unrevoked. Although it rarely happens, sometimes it does.
Or maybe it didn't like some Application. Who knows. All it takes, is 1 peice of bad code.
With AlphaRev, although many use it, I believe it changes your bootloader code.
And, you can sometimes have problems as well.
But follow the steps I mentioned, and you should be ok.
Just make sure you create and use the Gold Card first.
The boot loop is a common issue with the first nandroid. All you had to do was restore the nandroid you just made.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA Premium App
TheGhost1233 said:
The boot loop is a common issue with the first nandroid. All you had to do was restore the nandroid you just made.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right - I thought about that, but then I was hesitant, because I figured if it went into a boot loop then it probably did not create the backup image properly... So can I still restore the backup image now? It is saved on the sdcard so it should be intact after the RUU, right?
It "should be", but, one can only assume so.
Typically, I make a couple of backups each week. One never knows. Yeah, it will tell you successsful. but, better safe than sorry.
I have s-off and am permanently rooted. I am able to flash and run such roms as CM7.1 and RMK Gingersense from the original .zip file without a problem. However I have been unable to restore a single backup made with ClockworkMod Recovery.
For example, once I flash Gingersense I am unable to restore a backup to CM7.1. If I flash CM7.1 I am unable to restore a backup to Gingersense. In fact, I can't even successfully restore a previous backup of the same rom. I have reloaded CMR several times.
Every time I try to restore a backup, when I reboot I freeze on the white HTC screen. I have tried wiping everything before restoring, but that doesn't help.
It's a pain not being able to play with new roms and variations without being able to painlessly restore from a backup.
Any ideas?
bsteenson said:
I have s-off and am permanently rooted. I am able to flash and run such roms as CM7.1 and RMK Gingersense from the original .zip file without a problem. However I have been unable to restore a single backup made with ClockworkMod Recovery.
For example, once I flash Gingersense I am unable to restore a backup to CM7.1. If I flash CM7.1 I am unable to restore a backup to Gingersense. In fact, I can't even successfully restore a previous backup of the same rom. I have reloaded CMR several times.
Every time I try to restore a backup, when I reboot I freeze on the white HTC screen. I have tried wiping everything before restoring, but that doesn't help.
It's a pain not being able to play with new roms and variations without being able to painlessly restore from a backup.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here are a couple of thoughts.
1 - Is your SD Card full? I had been flashing ROMs and doing back ups a lot recently. As I flashed a ROM to give it a try, I noticed that my back up went very quick. I thought nothing of it, but when I restored that back up, it did not work and caused problems. Looking into things, their was not enough room on the SD Card for the back up to complete all partitions, so it did what it could and finished. You may have several back ups that are incomplete.
2 - You are not waiting long enough for the phone to boot. I have had my phone stuck on the HTC screen for a minute or more before it finally starts the boot animation. If the HTC animation keeps starting over, you have a boot loop, but if it is just on the screen, it may just be taking longer to boot.
I hope this helps.
I had some similar issues at one point. I would try deleting the entire clockwork folder from your SD card and let it recreate when you go back into cwr. That's what worked for me. I believe it was due to some older files that were left behind from prior versions of cwr.
Sent from my ADR6350
Sounds like the same problem I had. Which was a bad SD card format. You can try to format your SD card via Windows and start all over. One thing to note is when you hook your phone up to your computer and mount it that you must use the safely remove device icon in the system tray. This will cause many problems for you if you don't. Trust me, I learned the hard way!
Thanks for suggestions, but I don't think we've got it yet.
Plenty of room for backups (more than 7 GB) on SD card. Have looked at backup files and am pretty sure they are complete. Backups take the usual amount of time, but I notice the failed restores go more quickly than full new installs.
Always use safely disconnect to disconnect from computer (rarely mount to computer anyway - files are usually sent to phone through Dropbox).
Suppose I can reformat SD card, but what a hassle to copy/paste everything back on.
Will try deleting CMR folder, but don't think there could be vestiges from previous versions since this is the first/only version installed since root.
Any other ideas from the incredibly bright and helpful people on this forum?
Have you tried reflashing recovery?
Sent from my Droid Incredible 2
ruvort said:
Have you tried reflashing recovery?
Sent from my Droid Incredible 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, even tried using an earlier version. No joy.
bsteenson said:
Suppose I can reformat SD card, but what a hassle to copy/paste everything back on.
Any other ideas from the incredibly bright and helpful people on this forum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is your best solution. If it doesn't work then you might have a bad SD card. It is a hassle to format the card but if you want it to work then it's the best solution.
Just a follow-up for anyone who lands on this thread because they have a similar problem.
Following the advice of spizzo03, I completely deleted ClockworkMod Recovery -- the app, the paid license app and the folder on the SD card. I then reinstalled just the free app of CMR from the Market.
Testing by trying to restore one of my backups ... IT NOW WORKS. Goes through the entire restore process -- system, data, cache, etc. -- whereas before it used to stop while restoring system.
Thanks to all who offered suggestions.
bsteenson said:
Just a follow-up for anyone who lands on this thread because they have a similar problem.
Following the advice of spizzo03, I completely deleted ClockworkMod Recovery -- the app, the paid license app and the folder on the SD card. I then reinstalled just the free app of CMR from the Market.
Testing by trying to restore one of my backups ... IT NOW WORKS. Goes through the entire restore process -- system, data, cache, etc. -- whereas before it used to stop while restoring system.
Thanks to all who offered suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another one here. I was having issues as well restoring backups and simply wiping the sdcard's clockworkmod folder was enough for me.
Hey guys,
I have kind of a serious issue right now. I used Touch Recovery 5.8.0.2 and made a full backup today of my whole ROM (2.5GB) before trying out some mods which eventually didn't work. So I decided to wipe and restore the backup I made. No matter what I do I cannot get it to restore my data partition properly. I keep getting "Error while restoring /data!" message, however it does the boot image and system fine but doesn't continue to cache and sd-ext because of the failed data. Whenever I boot it up, some of my apps are missing from the home screen and practically all of them are not working when I launch them (force close). I also get boot up error of Google+ force close, among a bunch of other issues. This is happening even when I try to restore an older backup as well. My device is not working state right now and although I can just restore the stock images to get it working again, it is urgent that I restore my data ASAP! I tried wiping several times and even using the non-touch 5.5.0.4 recovery to restore and same thing keeps happening.
Any help would be highly appreciated!
Please don't tell me my backup is corrupt
Update 1: Eventually I gave up and started from scratch but I have confirmed already this happened on a fresh backup as well, at this time we are trying to figure out what is causing this so I can go back to safely backing up and restoring backups.
Update 2: We have test builds of TWRP Recovery that may have resolved this issue! We need testers!
Please see this post: Link Here
Update 3: We have test builds of ClockworkMod Recovery 6 that may have resolved this issue as well! We need testers!
Please see this post: Link Here
***Always see last few posts on the thread for updates on what we discovered just in case I don't update the OP***
Unfortunately I also have the same error today!
Please help us out.
JayantSparda said:
Unfortunately I also have the same error today!
Please help us out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is your phone encrypted?
are you running stock recovery?
are you running a stock Rom?
have you done a factory reset yet?
Hi Spectre85,
My phone did fine yesterday, I was running AOPK Milestone 3 with FAUX123 kernel.
But when I woke up, my phone looked like it's battery was emtpy.
- When I plugged the phone with the charger, I started the phone again.
- Unfortunately my phone keep looping at the Google screen over and over.
So I pulled the battery and put the battery back again in the phone.
- I went to the bootloader and went to CWM recovery.
Deleted Data, Cache and Dalvike cache.
- Tried to retrieve my backup rom, but keep getting this "Error while restoring /data!" message.
I've tried to install other roms as well, but I still keep getting the bootloop at the Google screen.
Have you guys have any advice for me?
spectre85 said:
is your phone encrypted?
are you running stock recovery?
are you running a stock Rom?
have you done a factory reset yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, no, no (CWM Touch 5.8.0.2), yes (stock rooted 4.0.4), no but my goal is to restore my data not erase it.
I had this happen to me before, what I did was flash a factory image through fast boot and it was fine after.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Thanks guys..I flashed the factory image through Fastboot mode and the phone works perfectly again! Too bad I lost all my data, but I'm happier that I have my phone fully functional again
You can't access your backup right? There's no way you can copy the file to your desktop?
mohitrocks said:
You can't access your backup right? There's no way you can copy the file to your desktop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did copy it. I have full access to the file. Also, just fyi my goal here is not just to get to working state (I'm aware of the stock images) but to actually recover my data. My phone is currently on stock images completely blank and working now.
Fast boot flash the nand images just like u did the stock ones.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
bwcorvus said:
Fast boot flash the nand images just like u did the stock ones.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nanadroid files can be flashed in fastboot? Are you sure? First time I'm hearing this. Doesn't fastboot need .img files? These are .tar files.
Open it up and see if its image...sorry all my recoveries use images.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
bwcorvus said:
Open it up and see if its image...sorry all my recoveries use images.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it depends on the recovery version you use. I remember older versions actually had .img files. However 5.5.0.4 and Touch 5.8.0.2 both have ext4.tar files.
Which version of recovery do you use?
If you have root, you can restore your data partition using Titanium Backup. Use "Export from Nandroid Backup" within TB, select the nandroid backup and then select all apps that you want to restore
Immix said:
If you have root, you can restore your data partition using Titanium Backup. Use "Export from Nandroid Backup" within TB, select the nandroid backup and then select all apps that you want to restore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting...will this include settings as well like my home screen icon/widget layout, wallpaper, etc?
open1your1eyes0 said:
Interesting...will this include settings as well like my home screen icon/widget layout, wallpaper, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Titanium Backup can restore all your system apps as well as downloaded apps from a nandroid backup. Not as clean as a nandroid restore from CWM but essentially the same thing. But try to see if Titanium Backup can extract your nandroid backup. It all depends on what exactly went wrong with your nandroid backup to begin with. I don't think it restores cache. So not sure about wallpaper.
Immix said:
Yes. Titanium Backup can restore all your system apps as well as downloaded apps from a nandroid backup. Not as clean as a nandroid restore from CWM but essentially the same thing. But try to see if Titanium Backup can extract your nandroid backup. It all depends on what exactly went wrong with your nandroid backup to begin with. I don't think it restores cache. So not sure about wallpaper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. This works great for restore data to select apps (got my notes and game saves back). I think the icon layout is held in the launcher settings, I'm about to try and restore the data to the launcher app and see what happens. I'm making a CWM backup of first of my current state (that's assuming this backup will actually work).
EDIT: Yes! That did it! Widgets position weren't saved but it's ok I only had a few so I manually put them back. Thank you! I never knew TB had the ability to work with nandroid backups.
I guess this now just leaves me figuring out what went wrong with the CWM backup. It happened twice (I have two backups from the same day that won't restore). Does anyone else use CWM Touch 5.8.0.2 and have successful backups? I would experiment to see if it works now but I don't want to end up with a corrupt backup and redo everything again.
Yes with me its the same thing my data its corrupt is even worse every time I do a nanobackup and restarted my phone the phone freezes on the boot logo and I have to go back to recovery trying to use my backups but I can't so I have to flash a new from again and start from the beginning again!!!! Anybody here has the same experience with that ???
So AGAIN, I'm having the same issue. This time on a recovery 5.5.0.4 that used to work for me when I originally got my phone. I think either my data partition might be too big or something but this really needs to fixed pronto. Anyone know how to contact Koush directly in regards to this matter?
HTC One V [CDMA], Virgin Mobile US, original (pre-OTA) radio version, TWRP recovery
Has anyone else experienced flakiness with Nandroid backups on this phone? All of them that I've done with major OS changes—even after factory reset—have failed to produce a working restore even though they were taken from a working state.
I'm also unable to get back my previously-working CM 10.1 ROM even though I followed the exact same procedures (with the same files) that I used to get it working before.
This has been happening since my first failed Nandroid restore trying to go back from CM 10.1 to the HTC Sense Nandroid backup I made before attempting CM 10.1 in the first place. I thought this was due to the Sense Nandroid having been made under the OTA-upgraded radio version (I had to use the stock rom.zip from the RUU to get CM 10.1 working at all), but now I'm not so sure. I get the HTC logo and angry red legal text indefinitely now with those setups.
I can't even get back to the Nandroid I made of the stock HTC Sense ROM right after I restored from the RUU's rom.zip.
Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong? Or is this model really just that much of a pain?
Are you flashing the correct kernel in fastboot after completing the restore? The recovery is not able to flash a kernel, that still needs to be done through fastboot, even with a nandroid restore.
riggerman0421 said:
Are you flashing the correct kernel in fastboot after completing the restore? The recovery is not able to flash a kernel, that still needs to be done through fastboot, even with a nandroid restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the boot.img, right? I did try flashing that after the restore didn't work the first time. No joy.
EDIT: Actually, that explains why some of my restores have failed, but not all of them.
EDIT 2: Mystery solved. I think. The Nandroid backup I took yesterday evening must be broken somehow. I noticed a few minutes ago that TWRP wasn't actually telling me that it finished restoring the backup—it was just taking me back to the home screen. I switched to CWM Recovery to grab a backup I took yesterday Morning, and that one worked.
So now I'm just left extremely disconcerted that I can't be certain my backups are reliable.
mynewshiny said:
That's the boot.img, right? I did try flashing that after the restore didn't work the first time. No joy.
EDIT: Actually, that explains why some of my restores have failed, but not all of them.
EDIT 2: Mystery solved. I think. The Nandroid backup I took yesterday evening must be broken somehow. I noticed a few minutes ago that TWRP wasn't actually telling me that it finished restoring the backup—it was just taking me back to the home screen. I switched to CWM Recovery to grab a backup I took yesterday Morning, and that one worked.
So now I'm just left extremely disconcerted that I can't be certain my backups are reliable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I originally thought this was just an isolated incident, but it seems to be recurring. Several of the Nandroid backups I've made more recently, both within TWRP Recovery and via the Online Nandroid Backup app, seem to produce this result. (Fortunately, I have a known good backup that I've been able to use reliably.)
Is there a way to validate a Nandroid backup other than trying to restore from it? I don't mean comparing a hash (which is what I find using Google), but rather making sure that the original, uncorrupted file is valid for use as a backup.
As a side note, every backup I've done with CWM Recovery has been reliable, so my fallback plan is to switch to CWM. I just find TWRP easier to navigate.
mynewshiny said:
I originally thought this was just an isolated incident, but it seems to be recurring. Several of the Nandroid backups I've made more recently, both within TWRP Recovery and via the Online Nandroid Backup app, seem to produce this result. (Fortunately, I have a known good backup that I've been able to use reliably.)
Is there a way to validate a Nandroid backup other than trying to restore from it? I don't mean comparing a hash (which is what I find using Google), but rather making sure that the original, uncorrupted file is valid for use as a backup.
As a side note, every backup I've done with CWM Recovery has been reliable, so my fallback plan is to switch to CWM. I just find TWRP easier to navigate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've played with recovery files before (se my signature) when cwm wasn't working well.
Basicly if you want to know that the backup is correct, you can only compare the hash codes (nandroid.md5) which is practically useless, because hases are made only for the .img files, so the OS itself is not protected like this, which is somehow ok, because the files are compressed to a .tar file, which also means it has it's own validation algorithms itself. So you can validate it if you can decompress the file (don't ask that how it could be done under windows) without errors, it should be allright.
I personnaly can say only this: use CWM 6. i-don't-know-which version (which is online now). There is a possibility for cache not mounting, and of course a backup to not be full, but as you can see from my signature, it can be "bypassed" so the OS will be backed up, and because we don't have S-OFF, it doesn't really matters. All of my backups from CWM is working (have at least 10 gigs at the time, from stock to EV).
I always use android file verifier by scary Allen (free market download). It has saved me many times!
Sent from my HTC One V using xda app-developers app
so as a conclusion, nandroid backup won't restore boot image? and the option in cwm advance restore>restore boot is useless? Me also always got stuck using nandroid restore
Ken-Shi_Kun said:
I've played with recovery files before (se my signature) when cwm wasn't working well.
Basicly if you want to know that the backup is correct, you can only compare the hash codes (nandroid.md5) which is practically useless, because hases are made only for the .img files, so the OS itself is not protected like this, which is somehow ok, because the files are compressed to a .tar file, which also means it has it's own validation algorithms itself. So you can validate it if you can decompress the file (don't ask that how it could be done under windows) without errors, it should be allright.
I personnaly can say only this: use CWM 6. i-don't-know-which version (which is online now). There is a possibility for cache not mounting, and of course a backup to not be full, but as you can see from my signature, it can be "bypassed" so the OS will be backed up, and because we don't have S-OFF, it doesn't really matters. All of my backups from CWM is working (have at least 10 gigs at the time, from stock to EV).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sellersj27 said:
I always use android file verifier by scary Allen (free market download). It has saved me many times!
Sent from my HTC One V using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Confirmed that comparing file hashes isn't helpful for this purpose—I just downloaded scaryalienware's AFV as suggested and ran it against several of my Nandroid backups. It said all of them succeeded, including at least one of which I know will not restore successfully. However, of interest is the fact that it took about half as much time to scan the known "bad" one, and further analysis shows that it's about half the size of the others. I'll have to make some more backups via the various mechanisms to confirm that the size is an indicator; it may be simply that I had fewer apps installed when making those backups.
Too bad there isn't some kind of Nandroid Restore Simulator. But even if there was, this phone probably wouldn't have enough memory to use it. Checking Nandroid backups in a VM would be awesome though!