Develop Bugs

HELP NEEDED with CWM "error while restoring /data!"

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?

Backup Issue

Recently, every time I try to do a basic nandroid backup either to my SD card, or my internal SD, I get the same message right as the backup looks like it's about to finish. "Could not backup image /data!" What the hell? This has never happened to me before and it's frustrating because I want to try out different ROM's, but not without a successful backup in case of a bad flash. I am currently on KonstantinKeller's CM9 Nightly build, and apparently some other guys on this ROM are having the same issue. I've tried just about everything and nothing is working. If someone could offer a fix, I would be very greatful. Thanks.

bbaaccoonn said:
Recently, every time I try to do a basic nandroid backup either to my SD card, or my internal SD, I get the same message right as the backup looks like it's about to finish. "Could not backup image /data!" What the hell? This has never happened to me before and it's frustrating because I want to try out different ROM's, but not without a successful backup in case of a bad flash. I am currently on KonstantinKeller's CM9 Nightly build, and apparently some other guys on this ROM are having the same issue. I've tried just about everything and nothing is working. If someone could offer a fix, I would be very greatful. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Under mounts and storage, try manually mounting /data and see if that helps. Failing that, I would suggest flashing a different recovery like the other cwm that you're not on or twrp

yoft1 said:
Under mounts and storage, try manually mounting /data and see if that helps. Failing that, I would suggest flashing a different recovery like the other cwm that you're not on or twrp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mounting data unfortunately failed to work. Can you link me over to touch recovery?

FYI Touch Recovery failed to backup as well. ANYONE at all experiencing anything close to this?

[Q] Error Restoring Nandroid

Ok so I am currently running the newest version of MIUI. I just got it a few hours ago and I want to go back to my old ROM (codename android) to back up all of my apps to titanium backup. I make 2 nandroid backups before I installed MIUI. Every time I go into clockworkmod and try to restore one of the backups. I get an error saying "error while restoring /system." Is there anything that I am doing wrong? I tried wiping data/cache/dalvik and then installing the ROM, but I get an error saying "some symlinks failed." Any help with this? I need all of my apps back.

Titanium will allow you to restore apps from a nandroid backup. You could also pull them out yourself -- the nandroid script stores them in a tarball.

efrant said:
Titanium will allow you to restore apps from a nandroid backup. You could also pull them out yourself -- the nandroid script stores them in a tarball.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I will do that. But I also need to know how to get back to my old ROM?

maxbakerman said:
Ok, I will do that. But I also need to know how to get back to my old ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just redownload it and flash it, no? After that you can use TB to extract your apps, or you could even just restore /data in CWM -- if I remember correctly, it should allow you to restore each partition individually. So if you are having problems restore the nandroid as a whole (because it fails on /system) just restore /data and /boot.

efrant said:
Just redownload it and flash it, no? After that you can use TB to extract your apps, or you could even just restore /data in CWM -- if I remember correctly, it should allow you to restore each partition individually. So if you are having problems restore the nandroid as a whole (because it fails on /system) just restore /data and /boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wont let me flash it. That's my problem. I get an error saying "some symlinks failed." And also whenever I try to just restore /data or /system it fails

maxbakerman said:
It wont let me flash it. That's my problem. I get an error saying "some symlinks failed." And also whenever I try to just restore /data or /system it fails
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what recovery/version are you using?
sent from my i9250

bk201doesntexist said:
what recovery/version are you using?
sent from my i9250
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cwm 6.0.1.0

use old cwm.
sent from my i9250

[Q] Nandroid backup not restoring

So i exchanged my phone out today but I kept a backup of the nandroid backup on my computer. After placing it back on the phone it says "error restoring /system", then stops. I have two other older images and they both say "error restoring /data" and stop. Anyone know how I can fix this?
I am wiping data/cache/dalvik before performing this
EDIT: now it seems I cant get my phone to boot up anymore. It just get's stuck on the galaxy note II screen. This was done with a brand new phone.

Jinra321 said:
So i exchanged my phone out today but I kept a backup of the nandroid backup on my computer. After placing it back on the phone it says "error restoring /system", then stops. I have two other older images and they both say "error restoring /data" and stop. Anyone know how I can fix this?
I am wiping data/cache/dalvik before performing this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you try backup from your old phone file to new phone ? I want to know the answer too.

simplelife said:
So you try backup from your old phone file to new phone ? I want to know the answer too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, but it errors when i try to restore, i have tried 3 different images

Jinra321 said:
yes, but it errors when i try to restore, i have tried 3 different images
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell me why you need to do that? 3 backup images , you nandroid backup from stock recovery or CWM ?

simplelife said:
Can you tell me why you need to do that? 3 backup images , you nandroid backup from stock recovery or CWM ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's rooted with CWM. i only need 1 image, but none of them work

Jinra321 said:
it's rooted with CWM. i only need 1 image, but none of them work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe the old image not compiable with your new phone.For me, i will stop doing that before i damage my phone

failed to mount /system structure needs cleaning

Hi,
I have this kind error after restoring nandroid backup?
Any fix advice?
I tried substractum theme, then it messed up something and everything freezes. Then i went in twrp and flashed substract recivery zip but sill everything was still strange. Then i dexided restore my 2 days old nandroid backup and I get this kind of error.
I have rooted. 5.0.4.
Right now i have this recovered nandroid backup and looks like everything is working but why this error.
I got same error when i flash kernel (structure needs cleaning), like in picture

Mairo said:
Hi,
I have this kind error after restoring nandroid backup?
Any fix advice?
I tried substractum theme, then it messed up something and everything freezes. Then i went in twrp and flashed substract recivery zip but sill everything was still strange. Then i dexided restore my 2 days old nandroid backup and I get this kind of error.
I have rooted. 5.0.4.
Right now i have this recovered nandroid backup and looks like everything is working but why this error.
I got same error when i flash kernel (structure needs cleaning), like in picture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey bud,
I had the same issue when restoring my nandroid backup and I fixed it by doing the following:
1. Wipe the system partition only
2. Remount it as 'ext 4'
3. Restore the system partition from your nandroid backup
If that doesn't work then try a different version of TWRP (Standard, Blu or codworkx)
Edit: I've seen some people asking some more questions surrounding this issue. For newer devices with A/B partitions I'm unsure what to do in most of these cases.
'Magellon1991' posted their findings regarding the 'vendor' and 'system' partitions.
As for anything further, this is beyond my knowledge - I simply stumbled across this initial solution by trial and error and it is likely a little outdated by now.
Best of luck!

Ok. I will try it later.
Edit: looks like it fixed problem. So thaks BenisMusical!

BenisMusical said:
Hey bud,
I had the same issue when restoring my nandroid backup and I fixed it by doing the following:
1. Wipe the system partition only
2. Remount it as ext 4
3. Restore the system partition from your nandroid backup
If that doesn't work then try a different version of TWRP (Standard, Blu or codworkx)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for posting this. Only fix I found that actually worked

Work in ZX1
Shaneee said:
Thanks so much for posting this. Only fix I found that actually worked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But not at once. First, the format of the "system" and "vendor" sections, after restoring only the "system" and "vendor", and then the "image and image systems and image vendor", and then restoring the OEM, otherwise it was a bootlope without OEM

BenisMusical said:
Hey bud,
I had the same issue when restoring my nandroid backup and I fixed it by doing the following:
1. Wipe the system partition only
2. Remount it as ext 4
3. Restore the system partition from your nandroid backup
If that doesn't work then try a different version of TWRP (Standard, Blu or codworkx)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue occuring for me. I have tried restoring multiple backups but same error every time. I can boot into the system by flashing the rom file and then restoring the data. But why cant i restore TWRP backup??

BenisMusical said:
Hey bud,
I had the same issue when restoring my nandroid backup and I fixed it by doing the following:
1. Wipe the system partition only
2. Remount it as ext 4
3. Restore the system partition from your nandroid backup
If that doesn't work then try a different version of TWRP (Standard, Blu or codworkx)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome post, thanks a lot.
It worked perfectly.

This was lifesaver!

I did what BenisMusical recommended. Additionally I have to flash the last image. Without there was the boot loop...

BenisMusical said:
Hey bud,
I had the same issue when restoring my nandroid backup and I fixed it by doing the following:
1. Wipe the system partition only
2. Remount it as ext 4
3. Restore the system partition from your nandroid backup
If that doesn't work then try a different version of TWRP (Standard, Blu or codworkx)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Logged in just to say thank you. Did what you told down to the letter, and I got my data back. Thanks again!

i have a error failed to mount cust (structure need cleaning)
how to fix this?

BenisMusical said:
Hey bud,
I had the same issue when restoring my nandroid backup and I fixed it by doing the following:
1. Wipe the system partition only
2. Remount it as ext 4
3. Restore the system partition from your nandroid backup
If that doesn't work then try a different version of TWRP (Standard, Blu or codworkx)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Benis,
I'm a Crisis Counselor.
I need my rooted Note 9 for house visits.
I am SOL without my phone 'cause I can't navigate/make phone calls.
I am in your debt. Anything you need, I will get you...
Actually, I can't go that far, but I want to give you a heartfelt THANK YOU, and a firm, anti-COVID, handshake.
Thanks Pal.

Didn't work for me sadly. I use Treble and I just restored data, flashed the original vendor zip and system.img (Not the one from the backup - as well as magisk) and it worked again.

BenisMusical said:
Hey bud,
I had the same issue when restoring my nandroid backup and I fixed it by doing the following:
1. Wipe the system partition only
2. Remount it as 'ext 4'
3. Restore the system partition from your nandroid backup
If that doesn't work then try a different version of TWRP (Standard, Blu or codworkx)
Edit: I've seen some people asking some more questions surrounding this issue. For newer devices with A/B partitions I'm unsure what to do in most of these cases.
'Magellon1991' posted their findings regarding the 'vendor' and 'system' partitions.
As for anything further, this is beyond my knowledge - I simply stumbled across this initial solution by trial and error and it is likely a little outdated by now.
Best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
absolute legend worked for me