I'll root my S3 and then will install a custom ROM, do I need to backup my existing ROM or I can flash it back by downloading it via the forums?
you can either:
-back it up with cwm recovery(making a nandroid backup) so that when you restore it,it restores to the way it was when you made a backup
or
-just flash a custom rom without making a backup.(Note:you can restore it to stock using the stock roms flashable available but you would have to set it up again like you do when you factory reset.)
Lither said:
I'll root my S3 and then will install a custom ROM, do I need to backup my existing ROM or I can flash it back by downloading it via the forums?
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Click to collapse
Always make a full nandriod (use the toolkit) backup of your own ROM, a stock ROM won't restore your the efs folder and, if it gets corrupted during ROM installation can't be recovered.
backup your efs
in cwm, a nandroid backup is simply labelled as back up. it'll be in a zip file in the location of your choosing when it's done or in the cwm folder labelled by the date and time it is backed up.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
mputtr said:
in cwm, a nandroid backup is simply labelled as back up. it'll be in a zip file in the location of your choosing when it's done or in the cwm folder labelled by the date and time it is backed up.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your quick reply !
It should work like that and even more hoped it would work like that !
Instead of a .ZIP file, I get 3 directories under /sdcard0/ClockWorkMod : these are BACKUP, BLOB and DOWNLOAD.
On every backup, there is indeed a directory created in the directory BACKUP with the current date as name (like "2012-11-04.23.27.05").
The data in there can never be a full nandroid back, as it's only 18 MB (yes megabytes).
Here is a listing for example : (size filename)
> ..
8.388.608 boot.img
811 cache.ext4.dup
1.479.801 data.ext4.dup
237 nandroid.md5
8.388.608 recovery.img
289.833 system.ext4.dup
18.547.898 bytes
Notice the file extentions .DUP and their size for cache.ext4, system.ext4 and data.ext4.
I guess the real data must be distributed in the BLOG directory with it's > 2500 sub-directories and taking up 2.7 GB space.
The directory download contains some strange named files :
> ..
6.182.912 -1032133489
157 -1046604230
6.180.864 -1582411299
60.826 -2110140792
907 -750693690
4.846 102398884
2.263 1306009840
73.462 1487533053
630 386293678
9.153 426056750
747 488289109
12.516.767 bytes
Filenames are "random" numbers and all together only about 12 MB
I suspect it has to do with ROM manager, do you have ROM manager installed ?
The problem is that the only backup I have are these, so I can't just trash ROM-manager because I'm unaware of any other tool that is able to handle these backups.
What version from CWM recovery is displayed when a backup is started ?
weird... this is what it looks like in my nandroid back up folder....
it should look like this.
EDIT: i used CWM app to run the backup from the OS, but recovery should be the same
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
So if I didn't make a backup and wanted to restore back to JB, I will have to setup everything again?
a backup is only there to "restore" you to the point that you made a backup. think of it as a failsafe.
EDIT: yes, if you did not make a backup, you'll just have to flash a stock rom of choice (assuming you're going to stock) and set up everything again (contacts, apps, messages, etc)
the current CWM has 2 options when backing up the files.you can either choose TAR or DUP.default setting is dup.DUP saves more space when you make multiple backups as it stores the core files in the blob folder and only updates the different file when you make a different backup.if you want independent backups,set it to TAR in CWM recovery>backup and restore>choose backup format.
LaZyDood said:
the current CWM has 2 options when backing up the files.you can either choose TAR or DUP.default setting is dup.DUP saves more space when you make multiple backups as it stores the core files in the blob folder and only updates the different file when you make a different backup.if you want independent backups,set it to TAR in CWM recovery>backup and restore>choose backup format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you !
That must be why I could never make a single "stand-alone" NANDROID backup from my SG3 !
To eliminate any interaction from my ROM Manager, I uninstalled it using Titanuim Backup, as I've seen some posts saying that ROM manager doesn't work well with Sammy's, but I don't know for sure.
After rebooting, I went manually in to CWM recovery (the 3 button trick) and created a backup on my external SD card. (not on phone memory).
This is what I got :
An extra directory with current date as name was created under /mnt/extSdCard/ClockWorkMod with the files :
boot.img
cache.ext4.tar
cache.ext4.tar.a
cache.ext4.tar.b
data.ext4.tar
data.ext4.tar.a
nandroid,md5
recovery.img
system.ext4.tar
system.ext4.tar.a
system.ext4.tar.b
Total space occupied : 1.8 GB
Is this the "expected" output from a "backup" (I wanted a nandroid backup) from CWM ?
It seems that some .TAR files are 0 bytes and 2 files are then generated : one with a .TAR.A and one with a .TAR.B.
The file system.ext4.tar.a for example is is exactly 1.000.000.000 bytes, de rest is in system.ext4.tar.b
Note that I'm using the "Touch version 6.0.1.2" from CWM recovery (see method here by mskip (author from "The Toolkit v6.0 for SG3)"
Is this a so called "standard" NANDROID backup ?
Can this completely restore my SG3 to it's current state including all apps, settings,.... ? Obviously I can do a restore using CWM recovery (t least I hope so, but also using "The Toolkit" via it's ADB commands ?
Further, I'm also asking myself about keeping on to use ROM-manager or not, any experiences on SG3 with it (good and bad please) ?
Related
ok here is a noob question... i want to restore my nadroid backup but whenever i select restore from recovery it says "no file found".. i really dnt knw wht is wrong.. all the image files are in the sdcard than why it cant restore?
The files should be in the 'nandroid' folder
mihir287 said:
The files should be in the 'nandroid' folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, if he's using AmonRA
If he's using Clockworkmod the recovery is in /clockworkmod/creation date
I think it's best to restore the nand backup with the recovery that it was backed up with..
wpyh said:
I think it's best to restore the nand backup with the recovery that it was backed up with..
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Click to collapse
It's not best. It's a must.
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
i put the nandroid image in the folder "nandroid/creation folder with date that was create at tht time/thn image file inside it... i used Clockworkmod recovery 3.01 .. guess i shouldn't had created the nandroid folder thn put the creation folder inside where nandroid image is located... i also created my backup with the clockworkmod recovery's nandroid....
deadcode00 said:
i put the nandroid image in the folder "nandroid/creation folder with date that was create at tht time/thn image file inside it... i used Clockworkmod recovery 3.01 .. guess i shouldn't had created the nandroid folder thn put the creation folder inside where nandroid image is located... i also created my backup with the clockworkmod recovery's nandroid....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop trying to restore backups made with CWM via AmonRA and vice versa and you will not have any issues. Moving the files will not do any good, simply flash the recovery you have used for backup you want to restore.
Yeah I knw I used clockworkmod for backup nd I'm also using the same for restore.. actually I moved my backup image to my PC to Save space on SD card now I moved it back to restore but it wasn't working.. now I knw wht i did wrong . I put them inside nandroid folder.. but I should have used clockworkmod. Thanks for everybody's Help I will try again later with my backup.
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
File must be in there :sdcard/clockworkmod (something like that) /date of creation. It as to be same folder as clockworkmod made when you did your backup. Happended to me at my first restore. copy my date of creation file in a clockworkmod folder on the root of sdcard and it works fine
Hey all. I wanted to know if it was ok to change the name(s) of my backups in my CWM file from my PC. I'm not a fan of ROM manager and usually do my backups via CWM but it names it by date/time and when I get home I'd like to rename it so I can remember which darn backup it was.
If you rename nandroid backup that was created by CWM, you might get some MD5 errors when restoring that backup.
What you need to do is use ROM Manager for backup, and when you select "Backup Current ROM" you can name your backup and it will be fine.
Next time, use the Search
I found the answer here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=623348
ofek said:
If you rename nandroid backup that was created by CWM, you might get some MD5 errors when restoring that backup.
What you need to do is use ROM Manager for backup, and when you select "Backup Current ROM" you can name your backup and it will be fine.
Next time, use the Search
I found the answer here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=623348
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but I did search and the only problem I read about was you couldn't put a space in the new file name. I just renamed my 2 backups and restored with no MD5 errors. I just wasn't sure with the newer CWM version.... Thanks for the reply though.
Phoneguy589 said:
Sorry, but I did search and the only problem I read about was you couldn't put a space in the new file name. I just renamed my 2 backups and restored with no MD5 errors. I just wasn't sure with the newer CWM version.... Thanks for the reply though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been renaming my backups with spaces with no problem. i think its a little weird that you might have an issue if you were to rename them with a space
The actual backup folder (the folder which name is the date the backup was created) size is 17mb. while the "blobs" folder located on the clockworck mod folder is 929mb...
is this normal ?
PD: in fact, i have other nandroids stored on my pc which the backup folder is like 700mb-1gb, and there is no "blobs" folder.
Poroto said:
The actual backup folder (the folder which name is the date the backup was created) size is 17mb. while the "blobs" folder located on the clockworck mod folder is 929mb...
is this normal ?
PD: in fact, i have other nandroids stored on my pc which the backup folder is like 700mb-1gb, and there is no "blobs" folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
the created blobs folder is normal. It will only one time created...
The backup with 17mb is definitly to small to be complete. So do u have to do it again.
CHEERS
Hannibal226 said:
Hey,
the created blobs folder is normal. It will only one time created...
The backup with 17mb is definitly to small to be complete. So do u have to do it again.
CHEERS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did the whole backup again, it came out exactly the same, heavy blobs folder while backup folder is 17mb, you guys sure this is not normal ?
Poroto said:
I did the whole backup again, it came out exactly the same, heavy blobs folder while backup folder is 17mb, you guys sure this is not normal ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that is normal. With new version of CWM recovery, incremental backups are created every time you do a nandroid. Do not delete anything in the blobs or all your backups will be useless. This is to save space and time on consecutive backups.
The old backup that you have was created using old CWM recovery hence the size.
Based on which version of recovery you are using you might have an option to choose backup type - tar or blobs.
Edit: tar is old format and blobs is new format of backup.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
acekay said:
Yes that is normal. With new version of CWM recovery, incremental backups are created every time you do a nandroid. Do not delete anything in the blobs or all your backups will be useless. This is to save space and time on consecutive backups.
The old backup that you have was created using old CWM recovery hence the size.
Based on which version of recovery you are using you might have an option to choose backup type - tar or blobs.
Edit: tar is old format and blobs is new format of backup.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
u definitely deserve to be thanked . thanks a bunch...
Hi.
So i decided to create the nandroid backup through ROM MANAGER. Before proceeding i selected the external SD as the backup storage from settings. I proceeded with creating backup which seems perfect and i went ahead and wiped my phone to install another custom ROM. Now i wanted to restore my nandroid backup and i tried to do that with ROM MANAGEr. Unfortunately rom manager gave "Md5 checksum mismatch" error. I checked my external SD and found out that the backup i created with ROM MANAGER for some reason was created in backupdate \ 01 \ 13 subfolder and this is the reason i cannot restore. I tried moving the subfolder "13" to the backup root but still get same error.
Now what can i do to restore my backup? I do have titanium backup of my apps thats not an issue, i just forgot to make contacts backup. Plus this will be helpful in the future if anyone knows the answer. I have no idea why the backup was created in second sub folder, this is not usually the case when done through CWM.
Any help is appreciated.
yusufjee said:
the backup i created with ROM MANAGER for some reason was created in backupdate \ 01 \ 13 subfolder and this is the reason i cannot restore..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you know that?
I'm sorry what? Do you use CWM 6 (like any CWM 6 version before 6.0.2.x?). If so, you've probably backed up with the blobs method instead of the previous default one (tar method). The tar backup method was once again made default in 6.0.2.x because the blobs thing was too much of a headache for most people.
I solved the problem by moving the contents of the subfolder to the main DATE folder.
Thread is closed...
I've been using onandroid to make CWM backups of my device for a while now.
It does work really well and I want to take the time to congratulate onandroid developer, congratulations Ameer!
Anyway, I recently got a TWRP image that supports my device and was very pleased with it as it has neat features compared to CWM (which is still awesome and flawless). So, I flashed TWRP recovery image and the next thing I did was create a typical TWRP backup with onandroid (v9.51).
Now, the thing is that I cannot properly restore the backup from TWRP. The system/kernel/recovery images seem to be recovered correctly because the system boots fine after a complete wipe, but the data is just not there. Instead I'm greeted with the typical brand new Android OS language selection, bla, bla. Everything is missing.
In an attempt to understand why I also backed-up my tablet's system and data partitions with TWRP (from recovery), this is what I ended up with both method:
TWRP
=====
system.ext4.win (508 MB)
data.ext4.win000 (1.47 GB)
data.ext4.win001 (805 MB)
Onandroid v9.51
=============
system.ext4.win (507 MB)
data.ext4.win000 (1.02 GB)
data.ext4.win001 (1.16 GB)
data.ext4.win002 (30.0 MB)
TWRPs backed-up data partition is correctly restored while onandroid isn't. Also, the contents of those archives are totally different. TWRP creates a data.ext4.winXXX structure with AndroidManifest.xml, resources.arsc file, res and META-INF folder, etc... while onandroid structure is the raw folder/file structure from the partition. I also need to mention that onandroid doesn't log any error during the process which takes around 10 minutes.
Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong?
I also tried using onandroid through Online Android Backup and I had the exact same result/problem.
PS: FYI my data partition is >2GB
Thanks for the help.
I am having the same problem. Restoring from onandroid backup restores everything but the data for me. I have tried multiple different ways to restore the data but no luck.
Teleshot said:
I am having the same problem. Restoring from onandroid backup restores everything but the data for me. I have tried multiple different ways to restore the data but no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about this but... FINALLY!
I thought nobody else had this damn problem.
I concluded onandroid is the problem because the backups do not follow the norm in comparison to the ones made by TWRP recovery.
I'm not sure if TWRP backups were officially made differently in previous versions. This is the single thing keeping me from using TWRP as a whole.
I even posted this issue on onandroid Github but so far I had no reply from the developer. Fortunately I have a choice between TWRP and CWM, unfortunately not everyone has both compatible custom recovery roms.
I have the same problem with a CWM based recovery. Everything is restoring fine but when It comes to the data it stops with an error
DirkStorck said:
I have the same problem with a CWM based recovery. Everything is restoring fine but when It comes to the data it stops with an error
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a very different issue and I don't get errors restoring TWRP backups, it just doesn't restore the data.
Anyway, what error(s) do you get while restoring your CWM backup?
Is your data partition over 2GB?
What CWM backup method do you use (default, split, incremental)?
What is your CWM rom version?