Backing up/ restoring /Data partition manually - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Backing up/ restoring /Data partition manually - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello everyone!
I would like to know if it was possible to backup and restore /data without a custom recovery, like, manually
1-Copy pasting /data to an SD card or PC
2-Reset my phone
3-Copy pasting /data
I know these three steps only didn't work for a friend of mine who tried it, so.. could these help?
4-Using terminal emulator to mount data?
4-Giving higher permission to the folder with root browser?
I'm just wondering, as I personnally would use TWRP for it but the friend that tried was rooted but did not have custom recovery at that time.
I would have done it with Titanium backup but well... he tried another method
This is all just out of curiosity, as this friend is now back running with his phone normally, as this happened a few months ago, but this question never got out of my brain so I decided to ask here.
Sorry for the long life story, It was just to set up why I got to this question
Have a good day.

Related

Root problem

Hey guys.. after like 2 months i still havent figured out what to do after following thousands of guides..
I've tried rooting my hero but it stucks on downloading .boot.img = FAILED (remote:no access) or sth like that.. i have followed every step in like 20+ guides?and i always get the same error no matter what i do.. also the one-click flash rooting fails because from what i've been told i have an updated kernel (or how its called) version and it is fixed :/
any info u might want i am open to tell you (like my kernel version etc) i just dont know what u need to "solve" my problem ;d just ask!
i just want to root it so i can have apps on my sd, bluetooth and nothing else

Dont worry, you havent bricked your Hero yet!
GO TO THIS>>>>>>
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=543571
and read 3rd post first and first thenafter and read on. Ypu should find everything you need. Be patient.

And also this thread>>>>
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=559613

thx A LOT for the replies! one of the few i got so far in multiple forums..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=543571 this is the guide i had followed and it failed ;/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=559613 i have a newer version of hero and i've been told that the flashrec is patched on mine ;/ is it possible or? i couldnt do the guide (some options werent there atleast)

bump
so i somehow managed to downgrade my hero, flash it through recovery and i can access the new menu from home + power button but it still says am not rooted... any ideas?:/

You have achieved major hurdles.
To get root you have to flash rooted rom like Mocado's. I have v2.8 which I think has everything I wanted. You can have your own choice>>>
http://www.thei.tguy.co.uk/hero/Older 'Updates'/

if i flash a rom do i loose my messages/contacts if i DONT backup?also can i partition my SD without rooting? and i have already tried Amon Ra with better terminal emulator but it fails ;d btw if possible try pm me

f--k this-.-
after all the good progress i've had..
i managed to root it, partition my SD and when i tried to move my apps it, midway, it asked me to restart my device..so i did.. and now all my apps are gone, factory reset has been made, contacts are lost, messages are lost..almost EVERYTHING is lost apart from application shortucts-.- :S i have made a backup but i dont know how to use it (lol-.-) pls reply
freaking p----ed...

sry for all the bumpness.. really in need of help
whenever i try to fastboot it says not allowed..and am about to cry..
stupid nandroid backup cant get it to work! pls help!

You flashed Amons recovery... With it you can format and partition sd card, and flash rom of your choice.
Yes you loose everything when flashing rom. You could have copied your contact on sim or sd, same for applications. You can reinstall but a word of advice,
Do your wipes first, I mean to ensure smooth running of rom. Hope it helps.
And when not sure please read, read and read, we are all here to help one another. Regards.

how can i do a backup for my contacts and messages? i have the .img files ;/
when i fastboot it says remote: not allow
also htc sync doesnt work now
and when i restore from recovery boot it says nandroid mobile sh failed run via console ;/

No dont flash .img.
Re- restoring contacts, I dont know any easy way but all your sim contacts can be copied. All phone contacts will have been wiped ,that swhat happenes when we install new os.

i thought it was the other way around and i copied everything on my mobile.. lol..
anw doesnt matter ;d just had 40 contacts anw ;d
can i restore messages, application saves and application folders at least? btw my phone aint working on htc sync now ROMS are still on btw
and how can i correctly partition my SD so any application i add it is saved on SD?thx ;d

Just one thing. Refrain from using foul languages as this forum is open to all ages of members and it will also reflect bad on you.
Install something like Astro, open it ,click menu and go from there to back up all your installed apps.

yeah sry forgot :/
will edit it right away
also thats what i mean, all my apps and their saves/settings are on backup.imgs :/ my hero is like a brand new one with modaco installed and nothing else... and htc sync doesnt load it, although i can use mass storage

Back up images are actually of rom itself. Sorry I dont know how to reinstate sms messages. This questiones was asked by a friend about his iPhone and again I couldnt answer as I never owned iPhone.
Anybody out there to answer question raised in above post?

meh doesnt matter i guess
i'll just "rebuild" it from scratch ;/
just wanna know what to do now so i get a partition on my SD.. i have a 2gb card which was partitioned before but i restored it.. i want 2 things
1) howto partition it for automatic saving apps on SD! and not having to move them everytime
2) how to make HTC sync works -.- i think i "broke" it:S i reinstalled it 4 times so far..nothing..

1) Format and partition feature s in your recovery. Format the whole card as fat32 and next make partition but again you will loose everything on card! After that you will need to mount your sd card ( option in recovery) so that you can put copy back everything on it. But why do you want to do it if everything is working?
2) Do you see ADB in system properties? If yes, drivers are installed correctly.
It is worth browsing Dream forums as Dream was first Android phone hence more to read and almost all can be related to Magic and Hero units operational practices except rooting and flashing bits.

one last thing man
atm i am looking for another application to connect to my hero to install other apks :/ currently i have apps2sd on hero although and i was wondering if all i have to do is Copy apps to SD and thats all? (whats dalvik cache that asks me to copy btw?)
i asked about formating and partitioning cause i am getting an 8gb in a few days and i was wondering if i should do it like that
and no i cant see ADB in system properties ;o how can i install the drivers ;/

1) i've read that modaco doesnt work with HTC sync anymore sometimes.. so i was wondering if there is anyway i can install apk without htc sync?
(tried with adb had 2 different errors)
2)is there anyway to like load 2-3 roms and swap between them without loosing anything? (if yes, how)
thx
edit: i reinstall htc sync and my drivers are gone! cant get them back..my pc doesnt even load APK files! :S

[Q] How do I retain the configuration?

Hi, I've signed up for an account quite a while ago since I was on HTC Tattoo, but this is my first post because I've gotten really desperate here but I couldn't figure out what has been wrong.
I've done searching around xda-developers and tried Googling. I have an Xperia mini pro SK17i and here's my problem:
What I've done:
1. I've unlocked its bootloader.
2. Flashed Rage Kernel (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1398910).
3. Using CWM included after flashing Rage Kernel, I flashed Hybrom V6 (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1373435).
4. Before this I partitioned my SanDisk Mobile Ultra 32GB Class 6 microSDHC for sd-ext (27.7GB of FAT32 and 4.06GB of ext2).
5. Installed Titanium Backup.
6. Yay, from Titanium Backup I could see that a2sd is enabled.
Then came the problem:
7. I POWERED OFF my device.
8. Pulled its battery out.
9. Put it back in.
10. Turned the phone back on. When it's at the homescreen, Titanium Backup is gone.
11. So, I installed Titanium Backup again. But this time, I can't see a2sd's remaining free space, means it's not enabled?
12. So, I went ahead and rebooted into recovery, reflashed the rom again, and it all goes back to step 1.
While I was doing those, I tried checking whether a2sd was enabled each time, and it seemed that it was random. Sometimes enabled, then after a reboot, it got disabled, then I reflashed again and so on.
I'm really frustrated now. Any help is really appreciated!!

Try installing Hybrom v7 now
And when ever you flash your rom everything which is inside your SD card and was associated with system files will be of no use as you have to reassign it to system after you flash your rom
To solve this,when you think you have fully working system and now you want to keep it as backup to avoid reconfiguration when you reflash your ROM then make a backup of current working ROM for this
Reboot in recovery mode of CWM
Go in backup and restore
Make a backup of your ROM and you are done !
(This backup can be found on SDCARD/clockworkmod folder)
When you want to reinastall the "Same ROM" then you can use that created backup to get back to the status where you made backup.So there is no need to reinstall software and no need to make settings again.
This backup creates MD5 check sum so it can't be used for any versions of ROM.Use it with same version of ROM.And you will get ex-sd back as you mod in before back up.
I hope you got what i said ... cause when ever you completely flash the ROM and start it freshly you will have to go to step 1 as you said and do all things again so backup is good way to avoid this frustration and problem
And because of that sd-ext will not work...

Thx for the advice.
But I still can't get a2sd to work.
I connected my device to my computer, then I via adb shell I typed
a2sd check
everything seems to be okay except that sd-ext is not mounted. :'(
What should I do to get it to work?

I managed to get a2sd working consistently.
What I did was to partition my sdcard and format it separately.
Whenever I did a wipe data/system/cache CWM would wipe and format the sd-ext partition too, because of this, upon flashing a new ROM, a2sd would not be enabled.
But now I have another problem, I would love to move dalvik-cache to sd-ext, I tried doing it with:
#a2sd cachesdreset
then it reboots my device, but it ended up in a bootloop.
What should I do next?

I found out another issue. Everytime I pulled the battery out, my Xperia mini pro would fail to mount sd-ext.
THEN I would have to first do:
# a2sd repair
then the device reboots, then:
# a2sd reinstall
then it would get a2sd back again. But this time, all of the settings for the apps on sd-ext are lost.

i don't know bro
sorry
sent by
Xperia Mini Pro

scrotumsasi said:
i don't know bro
sorry
sent by
Xperia Mini Pro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have nothing to say, don't post at all. We don't need random spam here like this.
Also, this topic is 4 months old, why bump it?
Sent from my Xperia Live using xda premium

[Q] CWM error while making backup image of /data

This error is still not answered on the forums so im starting a new thread.
i get the error as the title.
sd card space is not the problem.
i tried formatting the sd card.
i have less than 50 apps installed.
wiped dalvik cache, and all other sorts people say on other posts.
(my phone is LG P936 so "fix permission" screws up the phone. all text disappears)
have latest cwm recovery.
and still get the error.
any answers please?
and please dont reply if you are going to write an opinion.
only answers please.
sorry for my rude behaviour but I'm sick and tired of reading posts full of opinions and "maybe"s.

Not sure if you ever got this fixed but I 'm suffering from the same error. I tried pretty much everything you tried (even fix permissions) and I have about 20GB free on my SD card so space shouldn't be an issue. I have not yet tried formatting the SD card since it has always worked and CWM is able to write to it because the following files are created:
- boot.img
- data.ext3.tar
- recovery.img
- system.ext3.tar
The files that are missing are (based on older backups):
- .android_secure.vfat.tar
- cache.ext3.tar (probably because I wiped it first?)
- nandroid.md5
I have attached the log from CWM in the hopes that someone can tell me what is wrong. The error occurs at the end of the progress bar of 'backing up /data'.

hey just use TWRP Recovery. It's way better than CWM. normal backup on cwm took me like an hour but twrp was never longer than 10minutes.

Today I have formatted the SD card and tried again, but as expected it did not change anything.
ceoleaders said:
hey just use TWRP Recovery. It's way better than CWM. normal backup on cwm took me like an hour but twrp was never longer than 10minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I will give this a try. Can I just install it over CWM or can they run side by side?

different reciveries cannot be run side by side as they are installed on a different partition. so it will always be installed over your current one.

ceoleaders said:
different reciveries cannot be run side by side as they are installed on a different partition. so it will always be installed over your current one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I tried TWRP and it also fails at backing up my data partition. The log is a bit more clear though and it seems to get stuck on "/data/data/com.android.vending/cache/images" which is the last line before it gives an error. I checked the "images" folder and it seems empty but I cannot delete it. Tried ES File Explorer and Terminal Emulator but no way to get rid of it. The folder appears to be related to Google Play, so I cleared all data and cache from Google Play, even uninstalled the updates but there 's simply no way to get rid of it. I 'm not sure if this is the reason why the backup fails, but I CAN copy the folder and even rename it.
Pff looks like I 'm going to have to do a clean install after all .

Hello, I too have this problem and unfortunately TWRP is not available for my phone.
I used to be able to do CWM backups fine on my old phone, and they work great on my tablet. But they consistently fail at "/data" on my Galaxy Ace II x. Might it be because I'm using Link2SD? I don't see why that would cause a problem, but maybe it's having trouble with the symlinks?

Hmm. Seems the issue was that, despite having only 1.28 GB total available storage space on stock, the backups wanted more than 4 GB. Cleared some room on my microSD card and suddenly backups worked fine! Of course, shortly after I installed CyanogenMod, which has much smaller backups...
Sent from my GT-S7560M using Tapatalk 4

I forgot to report back here but the only way I found to fix the problem was by doing a clean install. After that, I was able to backup my data partition again. I then restored my apps ' data with TB and was unable to backup the data partition again. I 'm guessing one of my apps had corrupt data, but never got to find out which one it was.

maybe your partition not match with recovery, like something wrong vold.fstab

Just in case anyone still wants to know how to fix this, I managed to solve it by running these commands:
1. run adb shell in recovery.
2. unmount data partition (umount /dev/block/mmcblk0p26). -> this one failed so I skipped it
3. run e2fsck /dev/block/mmcblk0p26
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48659092&postcount=868 for original post.
I got a few HTREE errors and a bunch of duplicate names which I renamed when prompted. Booted the phone and rebooted into TWRP and now I am able to backup my data partition again. :good:
EDIT: Problem reappeared so I tried the above commands again but it said that the filesystem was clean. Ran 'e2fsck -f /dev/block/mmcblk0p26' instead and had to fix a bunch of HTREE errors from Facebook again and duplicate names from Xprivacy but now I 'm able to backup my data partition again.

Dude just selest the backup format as both zip and tar filea

+1 Like Tweet HELP! LG_Home launcher deleted and phone bricked

I was trying to free up space and saw LG Home was taking up some space. Never knew it was a critical launcher. Ive tried millions of methods on various sites including xda, android forums, android central with no luck. Here is a rundown of the situation.
1. I had clockwork installed then it "disappeared" adb reboot recovery stopped letting me go to the clockwork bootloader
2. I have a custom ROM sitting on an sdcard called Cyanogen.zip Its never been messed with yet.
3. I do not have a "nandroid" backup or backup of the stock rom because clockworkmod never worked
4. Doing a factory reset did not fix the issue because apparently the OS runs live off the rom aka it never installs itself to the device like in WIndows . SO I get a total black screen setup screen with only a signal bar on top.
So the latest thing ive been trying is adb pushing a copy of LG_Home into the /system . This is not working because im getting a "permission denied" . Now before you get hasty please do not have me do these commands:
1. mount /system already did this back when doing clockwork
2. remount -o ,rw does not work, probably due to already having root
3. adb root tried it and it doesn't really do anything, I still get permission denied, and usage errors
This does not make sense because the phone is rooted (does factory reset take away root? ) , chmod 777 has been applied to /system . If I lost root doing a factory reset, is there a way to root the phone now that I don't have a functioning phone?
Here is what im aming to do with your help
1. Force the LG_Home.apk file into the /system
2. Force some way to get cyanogen mod installed as I now have a corrupt stock rom
Something has to work and im hoping someone will help me

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