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[Q] A few questions about flashing ROMs

Hey All,
I am curious about a few things...
I had a couple/few nandroid back ups that were stored on my phone, do you all only keep 1 nandroid and delete your previous backups?
I am running mikfroyo and flashed another ROM about 2 days ago, had some issues so I went back to mik. I think I may have done it in a way that nobody else does...I did it like I was flashing it for the first time, wipe everything and flash from sd card.
Should I have just did a nandroid restore? What does this actually bring back? Text, recent calls, apps?
When doing a nandroid restore should I wipe all before doing so? I would imagine the answer is yes.
And one more, before switching to any new ROM, should I always flash Caulkins Format All zip?
Thank you.

Nand restore will restore everything that was on your phone when you made the backup. Definitely a good idea to flash the zip when installing a new ROM. I also do it to restore though.
When you restore, unless you are backing up the cache, which isn't necessary, you need to minimally wipe the cache/dalvik before you restore. Also, if your SD Card is partitioned, you would need to wipe SD EXT. I pretty much flash Calk's format all anytime I restore or flash a new ROM.
I almost never have one back up. I have a few ROMs I like so, I set them up the way I want and restore between them when I get bored, which is like 100 times a day it feels like.
I do usually only keep the latest backup of any one ROM though. At any given time I probably have at least 5.
Edit: I re-read your post and I think I misunderstood one part the first time. Sometimes, when I got back to a previous ROM, I do just reflash it and start over, but I am anal about fresh starts. Usually I do just nand restore, especially if I know the setup was running well. I don't typically restore a lot between ROMs b/c I feel like it just adds to something that can go wrong. A lot of times I redownload apps instead of restoring, especially if they are purchased, since they are just stored in my apps in the market anyway. And I never restore app data. Usually end up only restoring about 30 apps w/out data, but most people do backup/restore a lot of info with no problems.

You should have just restore from a previous backup. When you restore, it bring ti back to EXACTLY how it was, texts, number of calls, ect. Actually you don't need to wipe when doing a restore. Well you can manually wipe all of them, or flash the format all, so I'm saying yes.

Also, I suggest against wiping data before creating a nandroid backup, lol. That would defeat the purpose, as your info and apps will be gone! Just wipe cache and davlik before a backup, or nothing at all, just so there's no confusion.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Yeah, I didn't mean to wipe anything before backing up. But if your going to restore a different ROM and there's no cache included in the nand back up you're going to restore, then best to wipe it before you restore.

jstalford said:
Also, if your SD Card is partitioned, you would need to wipe SD EXT. I pretty much flash Calk's format all anytime I restore or flash a new ROM.
It is partitioned, what gets stored on there that needs to be wiped, apps?
Thanks for your help
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It is partitioned, what gets stored on there that needs to be wiped, apps?
Thanks for your help
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If the ROM has a2sd built in, yeah, if not, nothing. I always wipe it just so I'm in the habit of doing it for when it's there. Also depending on how a2sd is set up, dalvik can be on there.

Backup and flash questions

I rooted my Evo a while ago. Now I want to try a different rom and I am not clear about somethings. If the new rom requires a data wipe how can I migrate my data to the new rom?
I can use recovery to do a full backup then wipe and install the new rom. Can I then flash my old data back? Or would that not be considered a wipe? In other words does a wipe for a rom require all new data or is it OK that the data be "reinstalled"? Is the issue the actual contents of the data or the location in flash of the data partition?
If I can't use my existing data with a new rom is Titanium backup the only way to migrate existing data to a new rom?
Second, and related, is a basic question about partitions. If the size of a partition is fixed, at least at installation of a rom, then is there any benefit in deleting bloatware? If I install a rom that still has some sprint apps and then I delete one do I get that space back? Or is the size of that partition fixed so the deleted space is now empty but not available to my data partition?
Finally, if I install a rom that has new versions of an app is there an easy way to tell and to delete the version from data? For example if i have Google maps in data and then upgrade to a rom that has new maps how can I tell which is newer? Can I just uninstall the app in market, if the data version is older or the same as the rom?
Thanks for help with these basic questions.
I realize that I am missing a basic understanding of the "disk structure" of android. But I have not been able to figure out a good source to explain this.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App

If the new rom requires a data wipe how can I migrate my data to the new rom?
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Contacts and calendar should be backed up to google, as long as they are "google contacts" and not "phone contacts".
Texts can be backed up with SMS Backup and Restore.
Pics should obviously be on the sd card.
Apps and their settings can be backed up and restored with Titanium Backup.
Using the above things, the ONLY thing that you should have to setup when flashing a new rom is: first, your google account, and then your homescreen layout and system settings. Keep in mind, Titanium will back these up for you, but this is NOT to be used to restore between roms, it is only to be used within the same rom. If you try to restore system settings and home screen layouts between roms, it will mess up the rom.
I can use recovery to do a full backup then wipe and install the new rom. Can I then flash my old data back? Or would that not be considered a wipe?
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No, as that would defeat the purpose of wiping data in the first place. I know it's a pain, but you NEED to wipe data when flashing roms, if you dont you WILL have many problems with the new rom. I've got it down to about 20 minutes from flashing a new rom to being fully set up again.

[Q] Now CM 10, 4.1.2 going to 4.2.2. How easy to go back?

I've been running CM 10, 4.1.2, on Verizon gn. Works fine.
But I can't leave well enough alone, and want to try 4.2.2.
That should be easy right, just flash the recent CM 10.1. No cache wiping. Right?
But if I do that and I don't like it. how do I go back? Is it as simple as just flashing CM 10?
Also, I have Ti backup. The backup folder is sdcard/TitaniumBackup. I've read that 4.2.2 creates /sdcard/0/ for data. Does this mean that my present backup will be deleted?
Any help appreciated.

Since you are migrating Android versions, I would recommend that you do a full wipe, so system, data, and cache (and restore apps from TiBu if you must). You can do a nandroid backup from recovery; if you don't like 4.2 just restore it. When restoring a nandroid backup everything will be exactly the same.

seandarcy said:
Also, I have Ti backup. The backup folder is sdcard/TitaniumBackup. I've read that 4.2.2 creates /sdcard/0/ for data. Does this mean that my present backup will be deleted?
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I just upgraded from 4.1.2 to 4.2.2 and had the same concern about being able to go back if I had problems and knowing that the partitioning of internal storage would be changed.
I recently got my GN back from Samsung after getting the screen replaced. Before sending it off, I totally wiped and reset the phone to stock. I made sure I did a full Ti backup first, then a Nandroid backup, and finally copied the entire contents of internal storage via "adb pull" to my desktop computer. When I got the phone back, I reversed the process and was able to restore the phone entirely to where it was before the wipe.
I did the same operation before upgrading to 4.2.2, without wiping the phone. So if I'd have wanted to go back to 4.1.2, I'd have wiped the phone, including internal storage, and restored as described above. I'm pretty confident that this would have removed the new partitioning from 4.2.2 and reset it to where it was before the 4.2.2 upgrade.

Sorry to be dense, but...
So I do a nandroid backup from TWRP 2.4.4.0, system, data and cache
From TWRP flash the CM 4.2.2.
Do nandroid restore from TWRP?
Flash gapps, restore apps from TiBu.
Now if want to go back to 4.1.2:
Flash 4.1.2, wipe system data cache.
Flash gapps, restore apps from TiBu
Do I have this correct?

Nandroid the entire thing from TWRP, wipe system, data and cache from TWRP, flash CM10.1 and gapps from TWRP, restore apps from TiBu in ROM. If you don't like it just restore the nandroid from TWRP. TiBu only restores apps, nandroid restores everything: ROM, account, system settings, apps, etc.

The only extra thing I referred to was making a full copy of your phone's internal storage to your computer using "adb pull". This would allow you to wipe the internal storage and restore it, in case the partitioning change from "/storage/sdcard0" to "/storage/emulated/0" needed to be removed. But if TWRP's nandroid backup and restore takes care of this, this step isn't necessary.

How easy? Dead easy.
Sent from my Nexus

Do i have to wipe data??

Okay so, Right now im using CM10.1 Nightlies and i want to update from that to aokp_primoc_unofficial_Nov-18-12. Do i have to wipe data??
IF so how do i keep ALL my files?

Yeah the best hing to do is a full wipe. You will keep all your data stored on the SD CARD but you will lose your apps. If you want to be able to restore your apps after flashing your New rom I suggest you back them up with apps like titanium backup or carbon BEFORE you do a full wipe

twrp backup wont restore

I have a nandroid backup of my phone from earlier in the day i am trying to restore. It finishs no problem says its restore but when i reboot it goes back to factory settings??
I have rooted the phone and also s off just done tonight.
Any ideas this is driving me crazy i really really dont want to have to set up the whole phone again!!!

Are you talking about data backup? If so let me tell that doing a data backup in TWRP will be nontheless, as long as data partition is still encrypted. In that case TWRP won't be able to decrypt it, due to proprietary encryption used by HTC, and the restored backup is no data backup as a matter of fact. Will say at the moment it is not possible to backup/restore the encrypted data partition.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA Labs

So nandroid backups are pointless at the moment then?

angerfist2009 said:
So nandroid backups are pointless at the moment then?
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for user data yes. Try Titanium backup or just store everything on your external storage and use google backup to restore to the best of its ability. I've actually found google backup restores to be fairly decent lately. Much better than the old HTC backups.
TWRP can still be useful for system backups. If you make system edits, you can simply restore with TWRP and not have to touch data at all. For example, if you modify build.prop or use xposed or some other system mod, and want to return to stock system, you can just restore your system backup. Of course, you may need to then remove anything that your mod did to the data partition manually.

So the backup still works but when you restore, it'll land you back at out of the box stock? And I started a backup and it said 27gb! Is that right?! I know it gets bigger everytime with each new phone, but 20gb larger than m9 backup is nuts.
System is 3.x GB and data is 24.xx GB. Should I just uncheck data and only backup system and boot?
Just want to be 100% sure before I wipe stock rom
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk

Evocm7 said:
So the backup still works but when you restore, it'll land you back at out of the box stock? And I started a backup and it said 27gb! Is that right?! I know it gets bigger everytime with each new phone, but 20gb larger than m9 backup is nuts.
System is 3.x GB and data is 24.xx GB. Should I just uncheck data and only backup system and boot?
Just want to be 100% sure before I wipe stock rom
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
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Restore system with no data wipe will leave you with your data intact.
Twrp can't see anything on the data partition, so it tries to backup the whole thing, which on my phone was about 25 GB. Unfortunately, this backup is useless. If you restore it, your system will not boot with a warning that your data is not encrypted and you need to wipe data to fix. Which kind of defeats the point of the data backup.

jollywhitefoot said:
Restore system with no data wipe will leave you with your data intact.
Twrp can't see anything on the data partition, so it tries to backup the whole thing, which on my phone was about 25 GB. Unfortunately, this backup is useless. If you restore it, your system will not boot with a warning that your data is not encrypted and you need to wipe data to fix. Which kind of defeats the point of the data backup.
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So if I flash a rom and it doesn't boot, am I out of luck getting back to anything bootable? I'm on the Verizon model so I don't have many options yet.
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk

Evocm7 said:
So if I flash a rom and it doesn't boot, am I out of luck getting back to anything bootable? I'm on the Verizon model so I don't have many options yet.
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
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Well. I think there is an ruu for Verizon, so you should be able to get back to full stock by flashing it. But you will lose everything on you internal storage so make sure to back everything up prior to doing anything. At the moment, internal storage is inaccessible on a device that can't boot into system.
I personally am not keeping anything of importance on my internal storage right now knowing that everytime I flash something I could be forced to wipe.
Twrp system backup should work to get you back to where you are too, without wiping any of your personal data.
Having said all of this. I'm really not that familiar with Verizon specifically. So take all of these above as general device information.
Remember, it's just data partition that there are issues with. If you have a good system backup you should always be able to restore to a bootable state. But you may have to format data in order to do so.
When wiping, try topjohnwu's wipe script in the dev section to wipe app data, but not userdata first. If it doesn't work, then full wipe

I nothing valuable on internal so I think I'll try it. Thanks for the help
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