[Q] Copy/Wipe/Reflash , how to? - Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have sadly, yes, not rooted my Nexus or done anything to it. Didn't want to; but, now the bug will not let me go.
Anyways, I'm use to the epic and using Odin and what not. From reading write ups everywhere I'm pretty sure I can root in 10 minutes blindfolded. Excellent.
My question I can't seem to figure out is. BEFORE rooting/WITHOUT root I want to do/be able to do the following:
1) Copy the entire phones content. And entire mirror of what's on the phone now down to the texts, settings, home screens, OS, etc. Doesn't matter if I make the backup from the phone or from the computer. Either way as long as I have access to the file to move to the computer.
2) Be able to plug the phone in to the computer and format the entire storage of the phone. I guess this can be with root as I wouldn't have to do this unless I was already rooted. Just nothing left. Not even the OS
3) Flash the back up from number 1 through the computer and have the phone like I never touched it post that back up.
I would assume this is possible through ADB? Ideally what I'm looking for would be to plug the phone into the computer. Launch ADB. Run a command. Copy the entire phone to the computer. Then, later (Rooting, flashing, etc all in the middle of this period) when I want to go back to stock: plug in the phone. Launch ADB. run a command. Wipe the phone. Run another command. Flash the backup.
That possible on Android?
Thanks.

Looking at some of the ADB commands (Don't know if these are all of them). Would I essentially just be able to run the pull command to pull the entire root directory copying everything on the phone? The OS is in there?

It can't be done. When you unlock the bootloader, the phone will be wiped automatically. Sorry for the bad news.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

Rem3Dy said:
It can't be done. When you unlock the bootloader, the phone will be wiped automatically. Sorry for the bad news.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it was going to wipe. Actually just did it. Settled on making the IMG files post root with nandroid. Figured if I'm going to flash back to stock I'll just use the ones I have that were posted on some forums. At that point if I'm going stock either sending the phone in for repairs and can flash root imgs back later; or, I'm never going to see it again so doesn't bother me.
I was looking for the commands to make my own backup IMG files from the boot, recovery, system partitions in case I wanted to unroot.

Related

Simple (and probably dumb) rooting question

I am quite the newb when it comes to android and rooting period, if I already rooted my phone with a simple oneclick root, and want to use a new oneclick root, one with clockworkmod as part of it, can I just reroot by following the oneclick steps or do I need unroot first?
Sent from my epic 4g
sirens6 said:
I am quite the newb when it comes to android and rooting period, if I already rooted my phone with a simple oneclick root, and want to use a new oneclick root, one with clockworkmod as part of it, can I just reroot by following the oneclick steps or do I need unroot first?
Sent from my epic 4g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if you already have CWM installed then you shouldn't need to use the new version of the one-click-root method. All this does is simplify the actions even further by doing both tasks at once. If you do want to, for some reason, use the newest root method then I would suggest unrooting first just in case any errors occur with files already existing etc. Hope this helps!
Technically you shouldn't need to do an uninstall, but it doesn't hurt either...
I have rom manager but I don't think I have cwm. Everytime I test it by rebooting I get an error message and the options are still blue unlike the green options that I have seen if cwm is working. Is there some way to just install or flah or whatever it is cwm? If so, where do I get it and how do I do it? Thanks
Sent from my epic 4g
Rom manager won't work unless you have a kernel that supports it. I'm assuming that if you are rooting then it is the stock kernel and rom manager install won't work. You can install right over it if you want. Honestly the simplest way for me to do this was z4root from market and then clockworkmod recovery one click. Not the all in one. The try this last.bat seems to be less prone to failure. And if it is giving you trouble I might suggest that you install the usb drivers on another computer and run cwm rec from a thumb drive.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
What... the easiest way is to download noobnl one click zip and the drivers.
Install the drivers (exe). Restart the pc and the phone. Plug in the phone and let it install the phone. As long as it installs adb driver you'll be fine. Extract and open the one click and start the .exe in there. A black window opens, press enter and it should go to town. If you hit enter and it pauses. Just restart the pc again and unplug the phone. Open the one click .exe again, plug the phone in and hit enter. It will go.
Phone restarts and your good to go with clockwork.
5 roots, 5 different computers. Perfect every time. Noobnl has made this cake.
Sent from my SPH-D700
I used the noobnl oneclickexploit when i rooted my phone, i have not flashed any roms or kernels that i know of, please hold my hand and walk me through the process of what i should do to get clockworkmod flashed, should i follow the steps listed above or do i have to do something more?
Honestly, I prefer using the all-in-one batch file.
Install your drivers (if you haven't already)
Turn on debugging mode on your phone
Extract the .zip from the link above somewhere on your pc.
Plug phone into computer and let it recognize.
Run run.bat from the .zip you downloaded.
Press 1 to reroot. It will remove previous roots. Say yes when it asks, andlet it do its thing.
Press 3 to install CWM, say yes, let it do its thing.
And that's it. I've had some phones hang the first time rooting, but after restarting the phone it usually works. Also, keeping the screen alive seems to help. Always give it a few minutes to do its thing, but if it hangs, restart the phone and try again. It may help to restart the computer. I've seen one computer with buggy drivers that refused to do this or odin, but I have successfully done it with both my laptop and my work computer without too much trouble.
Press 1 and 3 on what, my phone or my computer?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
on computer. when you run it, it'll be a command prompt and you can just follow the instructions on it.
Ok, I understand all those steps, thank you. Next question, is there a place where I can find clockworkmod by itself, if so where, and how do I install?
Sent from my Epic 4g using Tapatalk

[Q] Doubts about unlocking bootloader and rooting

Hi guys,
I've been playing around with my Nexus S for about 3 weeks and I've decided to root it, but I have some question, I've been searching the answers in older posts but it's not quite clear yet, hope you can help me.
When I unlocked the bootloader, what kind of data will be wiped? It's just the SD card or also all the apps I've already downloaded? what about SMS, pictures and videos?
Is there anyway I can backup that data considering I haven't root it yet???
Thanks in advance.
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol what? its nobodys fault but your own. all the resources are available, just because somebody isnt responding to your threads and holding your hand to restore a nandriod backup doesnt make it a "lack of a community".. and your phone isn't bricked, it can be recovered but you are too close-minded and cant install Clockwork Recovery / get drivers working
The data that will be wiped are most likely your SMS/settings/etc. This is standard procedure. And its something you'll go through a lot when you are using custom ROMs.
There are complete instructions for rooting, unrooting and unbricking your phone. It's all here in the forums, and many other places, you just have to look and learn. I read for two weeks before I unlocked and loaded a ROM into my NS.
If you don't have a need to root your phone I wouldn't do it just because you can. I wanted to run the Voodoo app so I had to root and load a ROM. It took a little while but it was painless and I liked learning about the Android system.
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
RogerPodacter said:
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
"brick" describes a device that cannot function in any capacity (such as a device with damaged firmware)
In the strictest sense of the term, bricking must imply that software error has rendered the device completely unrecoverable without some hardware replacement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
Netconn said:
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
Make a nandroid backup first and foremost! Use Titanium Backup to make a backup of all your apps. If you want a backup of your sms, go sms pro really does a great job of that. Dont forget your contacts as well! Then copy your sd card and place it on the hard drive of your computer. When you unlock the bootloader, it does wipe your sd card. Once your unlocked and rooted, you should be able to restore everything once you replace the copy of your sd card back on the phone. Coming over from a Vibrant, I was nervous about rooting the phone but its an easy process. Just take your time and do lots of reading! Hope this helps!
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Woops..yeah, your right there. Too quick to reply. I followed this method here..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=895545
and had no problems. Once you get unlocked/rooted and clockwork recovery, then you can make the fore mentioned backups. Export your contacts to the sd card then copy the sd card to the hard drive of your computer before unlocking the boot loader. I do not think apps get affected during the sd wipe unless you have them stored there.
zephiK said:
its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
may i suggest a noob proof guide|? i postted 1 in the htc desire forum and people love it. yesterday i returned a moto xoom because ti was overheating , got a nexus s and 2day il b returning that because it wont turn on. can any1 help me think of a good idea i can tell the future shop return people?
kmhil said:
I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are forced to lose your data to initially root your device. then after that point, you can always create backups and never lose data again while you switch between ROMs and flashing etc. but i think to initially root, you have to lose everything. not the sd card though.
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do keep in mind, we don't have an i9020 or an i9023, we have an i9020A So the instruction out there all need to take that into considerations. I rooted mine fine with no "Bricking" I had to follow the instruction for the i9023, but it worked. I figure it took me all of 1 minute to root my phone. Admitedly, the "One click root" for the Galaxy series was easier.
I try to make it a point to never be the "First" person to do something on their phone. Much safer that way.
I also find it very unusual that you've managed to brick two phones, I've also had the pleasure of owning the telus fascinate, and not once did i get it bricked, I tried Bionics, CM7, Darky's and a bunch of other ones. Just never mess with the boot loader. When you went back to stock, did you make sure it was a stock ROM for the I9020A?
Have you tried connecting the USB to a computer, holding the volume up (or in the case of the galaxy, both up and down) While powering on the device? I've had to use that a few times to recover my galaxy (Thank you odin!!).
Now in regards to the OP, I would recommend using a program like Ti to back everything up, unlock the bootloader then restore from Ti, it's a little more hassel, but you can pretty much keep your settings and data. Personally, i rooted my phone before configuring a single thing on it.
kmhil said:
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no way to make a good backup without rooting.
basically yes, you will lose all your settings
there are a few apps you can use to backup your apk before unlocing/rooting the phone.
look for App admin on market https://market.android.com/details?id=az.mecid.appadmin&feature=search_result
the stuff backed to SD does not get wiped
only the internal storage stuff
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i took about 12 minutes total to unlock my bootloader, flash clockwork, and flash a custom rom. its not difficult if you pay attention to what you read. youre phone is not bricked. btw, i read your threads. if you werent so demanding, i would have helped. use the pdanet website the next time you need to install the proper driver, and follow the directions that they give you.
When I unlocked I used Astro to back up my apps, I turned on the Google data sync to back up my contacts and I did a back up of my SD on my computer.
When the unlock and recovery was done NS asked for my Google account then it restored all my contacts, Astro restored all my apps and I restored my files from my computer. A few steps but not difficult at all.
You will have to redo your accounts and data, and maybe an app or two won't load but the market will show them installed, just reinstall any that didn't.
Make sure you follow the directions properly in the forum. I had to use two computers to get it to work, but it did work and nothing was damaged.
With all that said.... This was the first time I have ever owned or altered an Android phone. Sure I was nervous... Now I'm hooked.. haha
I wound up using NSCollab .17 so far so good..
First thing I did when I got my phone was fastboot oem unlock.
Even if you don't want to root, use another ROM. Fastboot unlock it so your data doesn't get wiped.
If your hardware and everything seems okay, then flash Clockwork Recovery and do a nandroid backup so you can restore to pre-flashing point if you need it for OEM purposes.
Afterwards, go crazy and flash like theres no tomorrow and find something that you'll like.
And agreed with simms. You've made so made so many threads about this. I would help you step by step but I've been busy so I can't do that anymore. But if you search, you'll find about two or three threads where I did help somebody get their phone to a working state.
The basic idea is... if your phone doesn't boot but you can get to recovery.
- Download a ROM or Nandroid backup
- Install USB drivers
- Fastboot oem unlock (if you haven't)
- fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (or whatever the recovery.img is named) should be in /sdk/tools
- reboot into recovery (adb reboot recovery)
- mount and storage: mount USB, put the nandroid backup or ROM onto phone
- nandroid restore or flash a ROM (wipe factory,dalvik,cache --> flash ROM (if its CM7.. flash gapps afterwards)
- reboot
your phone boots. alternatively, you can use Odin but thats not a popular method but the choice is available if you wish to go towards that approach
in the worse worse possible case scenario there is always ODIN to the rescue
Why did you guys wait at all?
Once i got the phone i immediately plugged it into my computer and rooted it.

[Q] Question before rooting

I'm getting ready to root my phone, but one thing I haven't been able to figure out is what is the best way to make an image of my stock rom on the AT&T Nexus S before using a tool that's going to delete all my data?
I would really like to make a full system image so that if anything goes wrong, I can flash it back to where it is before the root takes place. Is this possible? Is there a guide out there that I just haven't seen?
Thanks
VillainousVivi said:
I'm getting ready to root my phone, but one thing I haven't been able to figure out is what is the best way to make an image of my stock rom on the AT&T Nexus S before using a tool that's going to delete all my data?
I would really like to make a full system image so that if anything goes wrong, I can flash it back to where it is before the root takes place. Is this possible? Is there a guide out there that I just haven't seen?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i hate saying this, but its true. this should go into the Q&A section, not into development. anyways, i think that you need root for that. but if there is a way, i think that it would be through adb.
Not a problem, if a mod can move it, that'd be great. I thought that a backup before making modifications would fall under the realm of development. After all, without a good backup, I wouldn't want to make too many changes
VillainousVivi said:
Not a problem, if a mod can move it, that'd be great. I thought that a backup before making modifications would fall under the realm of development. After all, without a good backup, I wouldn't want to make too many changes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what you want is to perform a nandroid backup, and you can do that through a custom recovery. you either need to unlock your bootloader for that(which wipes your phone and sd storage) or you can search how to root without unlocking the bootloader, root it, and use rom manager to flash a recovery/perform a nandroid backup without wiping but getting root.
Just use my back up pro to back up whatever that app will allow. Then copy over all your SDCard contents to your computer....Google takes care of contacts and apps....
Sent using two tin cans and some string.....

does anyone know how to back up a rom?

Hey,
Kinda new to rooting. I figured out how to root my phone but I'm trying to make a back up of my from before I make any changes. I tried clockwork but it doesn't have this device listed. Does anyone know of a working method to backup the RAZR HD ma x's rom?
There is no recovery available for it yet. There is however the fastboot files so if you screw something up you can use those to restore back to "stock"
Sent from my JB'd X2
anytime i buy a new phone, i will do a "adb pull /system/" command just to have a copy of the system folder from my phone before i make any changes. then i will zip it with winrar so if i use something from it, i wont loose anything from dragging and dropping versus forgetting to use copy and paste. may sound a lil anal since there are factory images, but, i do it. without a custom recovery, like cwm, you can't make a nandroid backup.
I am assuming this was sorted out, the thread is old, but I need to get to my post limit.
You can now unlock the bootloader and install TWRP on the Razr HD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW45FPZNv4g (bootloader)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKneYkGqp_A (twrp)

Bootloop from root app permissions

Alright, where do I start?
So I'm not really and expert on flashing stuff on Android. I was pretty comfy not rooting my phone for more than a year. TBH, I didn't really need it, because I was not a power user, but I've recently installed a root app called King User (King Root, etc.). Before you say anything... YES! I know it is the lazy way to do it. It made things easy for the very few apps I could not use without root permission. However, when I received the latest OTA (5.1.1. security update) I had to disable root authorization in order to install it. So I disabled it using the app's built in authorization setting.
The OTA update failed and gave me the error with the opened up android and the red exclamation mark. So I thought that the app messed something up. Disabling in house did nothing. Uninstalling it did nothing. So I decided to replace it with SuperSU using this guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/help/replace-kinguser-supersu-t2903003. I bet I'm not the only one who had problems after doing this. This, obviously, made things even worse. After SuperSU deleted KingUser and updated itself the phone remained stuck inside a bootloop. So I figured this replacement process messed up permissions.
Here is where it gets tricky, or rather stupid... My bootloader is locked and I have no custom recovery (because like I said, I just needed temporary root access for a couple of apps and wanted to avoid the hassle). When I enter Recovery mode in default fastboot it gives me the "No command" error (probably because of SuperSU permission). Now I don't even know if the phone is rooted or not. USB debugging was not enabled last time the phone was on and now I think I'm stuck in this point where nothing works without something else. I've been reading a couple of threads around here and elsewhere and I don't know what to do next... Doing a full recovery now would probably be asking for a lot, but right now, I would be happy if I could just do a factory reset or something...
Anyone?
val3nteen said:
Alright, where do I start?
So I'm not really and expert on flashing stuff on Android. I was pretty comfy not rooting my phone for more than a year. TBH, I didn't really need it, because I was not a power user, but I've recently installed a root app called King User (King Root, etc.). Before you say anything... YES! I know it is the lazy way to do it. It made things easy for the very few apps I could not use without root permission. However, when I received the latest OTA (5.1.1. security update) I had to disable root authorization in order to install it. So I disabled it using the app's built in authorization setting.
The OTA update failed and gave me the error with the opened up android and the red exclamation mark. So I thought that the app messed something up. Disabling in house did nothing. Uninstalling it did nothing. So I decided to replace it with SuperSU using this guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/help/replace-kinguser-supersu-t2903003. I bet I'm not the only one who had problems after doing this. This, obviously, made things even worse. After SuperSU deleted KingUser and updated itself the phone remained stuck inside a bootloop. So I figured this replacement process messed up permissions.
Here is where it gets tricky, or rather stupid... My bootloader is locked and I have no custom recovery (because like I said, I just needed temporary root access for a couple of apps and wanted to avoid the hassle). When I enter Recovery mode in default fastboot it gives me the "No command" error (probably because of SuperSU permission). Now I don't even know if the phone is rooted or not. USB debugging was not enabled last time the phone was on and now I think I'm stuck in this point where nothing works without something else. I've been reading a couple of threads around here and elsewhere and I don't know what to do next... Doing a full recovery now would probably be asking for a lot, but right now, I would be happy if I could just do a factory reset or something...
Anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Start here, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53439068. I'd return to stock and start all over, it will wipe your device, see the return to stock thread linked there. Then don't be lazy and read some more in the thread I linked you to. The n5 is one of the easiest devices to work with and you don't need kingroot, tool kits and junk like that
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
You should flash TWRP custom recovery on your phone that way you can copy your personal data to your pc first, then you should flash the factory image
deelan_chan said:
You should flash TWRP custom recovery on your phone that way you can copy your personal data to your pc first, then you should flash the factory image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but that is not possible, as I have not enabled USB debugging before bootloop. I need to unlock the bootloader (wipe) to install TWRP and backup data.
Can you get into fastboot mode? You can flash twrp from there no USB debugging needed
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Problem is his bootloader is locked, so follow fastboot for unlocking bootloader and then clean install latest factory image. Also, flash twrp after everything is working (and relock bootloader if you want) so this does not happen again.
wangdaning said:
Problem is his bootloader is locked, so follow fastboot for unlocking bootloader and then clean install latest factory image. Also, flash twrp after everything is working (and relock bootloader if you want) so this does not happen again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did just that. All fine now. However, I had to flash all .img files separately in fastboot (system, boot, cache, etc.), because adb was not working. Had some problems with the drivers. The device did not show up correctly within device manager. Fortunately, I did not loose anything. Had all my contacts and apps backed up with Google.
Thanks for all advice! I appreciate everyone's guidance.
val3nteen said:
Did just that. All fine now. However, I had to flash all .img files separately in fastboot (system, boot, cache, etc.), because adb was not working. Had some problems with the drivers. The device did not show up correctly within device manager. Fortunately, I did not loose anything. Had all my contacts and apps backed up with Google.
Thanks for all advice! I appreciate everyone's guidance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it is so fun to use fastboot. I remember almost dunking my wife's G2 until I got it to fastboot. Pain in the butt, but the command prompt does not lie

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