[Q] Help fixing CWM - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Some background info: I got my phone used, so the rooting and stuff was done for me.
When I got the phone, the top of the recovery said Semaphore CWM 6.something, I don't know what I did to it but now the recovery says CWM based recovery. I also notice that fix permissions is not there anymore, there is probably more things missing that I never noticed. My question is, How do I get back to the original Clockworkmod?
Also, does anyone want to give me the basics on flashing stuff? I see people talking about Titanium Backup and ROM Manager. Every time I want to make a backup I just go into the recovery and make a backup there. What's ROM Manager? What's the best way to do this kind of stuff?
EDIT: I just booted back into recovery since a while (when I flashed my current rom) and noticed that it's back to normal. It says Semaphore CWM Recovery 6.0.3.8, when it used to say CWM-based recovery 6.0.3.6. Back then, it also gave me a warning called Warning: no file_contexts. That's gone now, should I have anything to worry about?

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oneupe1even said:
Some background info: I got my phone used, so the rooting and stuff was done for me.
When I got the phone, the top of the recovery said Semaphore CWM 6.something, I don't know what I did to it but now the recovery says CWM based recovery. I also notice that fix permissions is not there anymore, there is probably more things missing that I never noticed. My question is, How do I get back to the original Clockworkmod?
Also, does anyone want to give me the basics on flashing stuff? I see people talking about Titanium Backup and ROM Manager. Every time I want to make a backup I just go into the recovery and make a backup there. What's ROM Manager? What's the best way to do this kind of stuff?
EDIT: I just booted back into recovery since a while (when I flashed my current rom) and noticed that it's back to normal. It says Semaphore CWM Recovery 6.0.3.8, when it used to say CWM-based recovery 6.0.3.6. Back then, it also gave me a warning called Warning: no file_contexts. That's gone now, should I have anything to worry about?
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Usually your ROM comes pre-packaged with a version of recovery.
ROMs that use the Semaphore kernel also generally come pre-packaged with a modified version of Clockworkmod recovery designed to compliment the kernel.
for reference:
if your recovery says: CWM recovery X.X.X.X then its usually the official version
Semaphore CWM Recovery 6.0.3.8 is a modified version for use with Semaphore kernel
CWM-based recovery 6.0.3.6 - is a modified version likely for use with another kernel (They dont always specify)
I would recommend just sticking with whatever version comes with your ROM.
there is rarely a need to change it.
ROM manager is an App that makes flashing clockworkmod recovery easy as well as downloading and flashing ROMs.
but for the most part if you know how to use recovery already your probably better off doing stuff manually in my opinion.
Titanium backup - is an app that lets you back up and restore all of your installed apps and data.
so for instance if you wanted to install a new ROM. you could back your apps and data up with Titanium backup and then install your new ROM and even wipe user data and still be able to get all of your apps back just as they were before you switched ROMs.
in comparison a nandroid backup (the backup done through recovery) backs up everything including your current ROM so restoring from that would also restore whatever ROM you were using when you made the backup.
as an example if you do both a Nandroid and Titanium backup while running android 2.3
then you decide to update to android 4.1
after the update if you restore from the nandroid backup you will be back at android 2.3 with all of your apps and everything back the way it was.
if you restore from a titanium backup you'll still be on android 4.1 but you'll have all your apps back as they were before.