So, I have A HUGE problem. Apparently I massively misunderstood how the "superwipe" works, thinking it would erase all my apps, but not my personal files, like the file I had created and named "School", and stored all my papers, notes, and research files in. So, I made my nandroid of stock, and flashed Revolution, expecting that, like on my phones, the backups from MyBackup Pro, and other apps, and my personal files would be left untouched. It seems I was very, very wrong. Now I'm regretting not following my gut instinct and manually wiping to maintain those files, as well as not going the extra redundancy of copying them to my removable micro sd as well. Lesson learned. It boggles my mind more than a little that there isn't a clear explanation right on the front page with the rest of the warnings and disclaimers, that the superwipe would kill all your personal data as well as the necessary files to allow the flash.
That aside, and I know this is a long shot, but is there a way to recover that data? I've already flashed back to my stock nandroid, hoping that would somehow restore it, but no dice. Are there any other options here?
Thanks in advance for any help.
It's a long shot and I'm not sure if this will work on flash memory that has been formatted/overwritten, but you can try to connect your TF to your pc as mass storage device and run software such as http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/flash_drive_recovery.asp to retrieve this folder and files. Good luck!
To be fair right under the link it does say " This script will erase and format your data, system and cache partition using EXT4 file-system ---
--- Please note that the content of /data/media folder (internal virtual SD card) will be removed - do backup of necessary files! ---"
But yeah I agree, bigger font and capital letters say something like "THIS WILL DELETE EVERYTHING" would be more easier to understand
AFAIK recovery software won't work on it, due to the file system.
Sent from my customized HTC Desire using TTP
Related
Hey all,
I've been searching everywhere in google as well as in XDA with no success. I am trying to do a full Nandroid backup (just like people are advising you to do when changing roms).
I currently have Clockwork 3.0.0 and am Rooted on stock. When I go into recovery, the only thing I have in regards to backup is just "backup" and no "Nandroid Backup" like people are saying all over the forums. Do I have to install something specific? I am puzzled! Is nandroid a method of backing up or the name of a program?
Also, when I backed up using Clockword >> Backup I found its only around 300mb so I assume it doesnt backup your SD content (i.e. pictures and videos + programs) as well? Is there a way to do a FULL image with literally everything?
Any help will be appreciated!
Hi...well backup sounds about right. Don't worry about whether it says nandroid or not. Mind doesn't. Just go ahead and do the backup.
And as for the SD card...well no need to worry there either because the SD contents do not get wiped out anyway, so there's no need for it to be backed up in the sameway.
Hope that helps.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
When I'm looking at the development section, it says that it will "WIPE ALL YOUR DATA". Doesn't this suggest I should also backup my pictures + videos?
Thanks for the help!
The only thing that wipes all your data and sdcard is a fastboot oem unlock, and it sounds like you're already past there. Flashing new roms and choosing "wipe data" in clockwork recovery does not touch your sdcard at all.
It's always a good idea to backup your photos and videos just in case. It only takes a few minutes and better to waste a few minutes than lose a precious irreplaceable video of the kid's first steps.
Nothing should wipe your sdcard other than the fastboot oem unlock, but that doesn't mean it can't be wiped by mistake. I just responded in another thread where the guy accidentally formatted his sdcard. Everything gone.
Better safe than sorry, in my opinion.
haha i agree, will Titanium Pro backup my photos/videos aswell (as you've commented on the other thread) or it just backs up apps ?
co0kie said:
haha i agree, will Titanium Pro backup my photos/videos aswell (as you've commented on the other thread) or it just backs up apps ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will only backup apps/data on the internal rom space, not on the sdcard; so no, it won't take care of your photos/videos.
Mount the phone via USB, select mount USB storage, then drag and drop the folders with your photos/videos to your computer harddrive.
Camera photos and vids are kept in the /dcim folder if you use stock. Some 3rd party camera apps may put them someplace else.
I usually just make a full copy of the sdcard at one point, then use rsync periodically to keep it current.
distortedloop said:
It will only backup apps/data on the internal rom space, not on the sdcard; so no, it won't take care of your photos/videos.
Mount the phone via USB, select mount USB storage, then drag and drop the folders with your photos/videos to your computer harddrive.
Camera photos and vids are kept in the /dcim folder if you use stock. Some 3rd party camera apps may put them someplace else.
I usually just make a full copy of the sdcard at one point, then use rsync periodically to keep it current.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I guess this is one adv. of keeping apps on internal rom space.
Making a copy of the sdcard and resyncing it periodically sounds like a good idea IMO, what programe do you use to resync the sdcard?
thanks,
co0kie said:
So I guess this is one adv. of keeping apps on internal rom space.
Making a copy of the sdcard and resyncing it periodically sounds like a good idea IMO, what programe do you use to resync the sdcard?
thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium will backup apps and data that are on the sdcard if you put them there with the apps2sd feature. It's smart that way. I'm talking about the apps that store settings and stuff (like Titanium itself, Launcher Pro, ADW, the gym log apps I've used, lots of games, etc) that put user data on the sdcard outside of the protected or apps2sd storage area on the sdcard.
I don't use an app for rsync, I just use the rsync command from the terminal on my Mac.
There's a couple of rsync apps on the Market. Someone mentioned using an app to rsync in one of the threads on here not too long ago. Here's an appbrain link to a search on the term rsync, it only shows two apps.
What if I move the app using Gingerbread feature to "move to sd", will it still know to back them up?
/is that what u meant in the beginning by feature of apps2sd? not sure cause there is an actuall program that does this
co0kie said:
What if I move the app using Gingerbread feature to "move to sd", will it still know to back them up?
/is that what u meant in the beginning by feature of apps2sd? not sure cause there is an actuall program that does this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's what I meant. It also covers just about all of the various apps to the sdcard hacks that various rom makers have implemented over the last year or two; certainly the popular ones like cyanogen and darktremor's versions.
If you get Titanium Pro, pay for the license. It will enable batch restore where all your apps can be restored at once without user intervention, otherwise I believe you have to okay each one individually.
I just bought it and performed a batch back up thank you!
Now, assuming i have already perfomed a backup and now if i move the app2sd, will it know to update it next time?
Then, when i jump to the next ROM, all i have to do is batch restore?
co0kie said:
I just bought it and performed a batch back up thank you!
Now, assuming i have already perfomed a backup and now if i move the app2sd, will it know to update it next time?
Then, when i jump to the next ROM, all i have to do is batch restore?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you move the app to the sd, the restore will put the app back in its location where it was during the backup. Just run a batch backup of all changed applications after moving anything around.
After you flash a new rom, just run a batch restore: apps and data only, usually not a good idea to restore system settings across different roms.
I see options to 'encrypt all data'. However, I have already made backups. If I encrypt everything (and I assume this includes the backups; as I understand it, they are on the external SD), does this render the backups useless, or does CWM have decryption tools builtin? If not, should I erase the backups, as they contain all the data unencrypted? Confused as to how best to manage encryption and backups.
---
Samsung Galaxy SII Epic 4G Touch
Syndicated Ice, CWM 5.0.2.6
2GB ext SD
This is a great question.
I have never used the Encryption at all and just did the regular backups on my droid but I'm thinking that you should keep your encrypted backups because unless you want to redo everything from scratch in setting up your system every time, it's a good thing to just keep them and try to back them up on your pc and then go from there.
Once you've backed them up (including your current state of the phone non-encrypted for safety measures), i would try to recover an encrypted file and see how it works... if it does not work for some reason then you can revert back to your UN-encrypted version... let us know how it turns out.
Hope this helped in some way.
When doing a backup in cwm, this is what it says right before completion. What does this mean?
Also, can you not rename ur backups. If you have more than one. How do you tell them apart?
Thank you
That's normal. If i remember correctly, its a partition inside your internal sd card for your external sd card and it's not mounted in CWM by default.
And you can rename it. Once you back up I'm CWM, boot your phone and go into your sd card. Inside clockworkmod/backups there's folders with date and time as the name, rename it to your hearts content
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app
sd-ext is an ext4 partition on the sdcard in addition to the normal fat32 partition. Just as an fyi, the defacto "standard" for alternative sdcard partitions also includes the ability to have a dedicated swap partition.
I have a proper sd-ext partition and get the same message, so it's likely that CWM isn't set up correctly. Nothing you can do about it unless you want to rebuild CWM
I also believe that partitioning the sdcard through CWM also doesn't work properly.
jparnell8839 said:
And you can rename it. Once you back up I'm CWM, boot your phone and go into your sd card. Inside clockworkmod/backups there's folders with date and time as the name, rename it to your hearts content
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everytime i renamed backup. It would never let me restore, if needed too. Due to MD5 checksum error (or something like that)
i googled why it was happening and read changing backup name will cause the issue.
So next backup i made, i didnt rename it, annd restored as expected. kinda sucks would like to no which back up, is which.
trevor7428 said:
Everytime i renamed backup. It would never let me restore, if needed too. Due to MD5 checksum error (or something like that)
i googled why it was happening and read changing backup name will cause the issue.
So next backup i made, i didnt rename it, annd restored as expected. kinda sucks would like to no which back up, is which.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's weird :/ I always rename my backups and it's never gave me that error on all 3 android phones i've had (htc thunderbolt, wildfire s, and the blaze). something like "Current-10/3-preICSkies" and it never hurts. of course, I always copy my backups to windows to store on my hard drive before I rename
merwin said:
sd-ext is an ext4 partition on the sdcard in addition to the normal fat32 partition. Just as an fyi, the defacto "standard" for alternative sdcard partitions also includes the ability to have a dedicated swap partition.
I have a proper sd-ext partition and get the same message, so it's likely that CWM isn't set up correctly. Nothing you can do about it unless you want to rebuild CWM
I also believe that partitioning the sdcard through CWM also doesn't work properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it is all good if we get this message?
correct, phones of yester-year had low memory and storage. people devised ways to make apps2sd prior to froyo and thus an ext partition on the sdcard was born. i didnt include it as any device since the sgs1 has had plenty of space (the samsung galaxy prevail's /data partition was only 140MB's which included things like google maps updates etc)
you can use rom manager to rename backups, but cwm generates an md5 sum off the folder name, in this case a very specific date
trevor7428 said:
Everytime i renamed backup. It would never let me restore, if needed too. Due to MD5 checksum error (or something like that)
i googled why it was happening and read changing backup name will cause the issue.
So next backup i made, i didnt rename it, annd restored as expected. kinda sucks would like to no which back up, is which.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't you just make a folder name what you would like then put the back up into the folder that has the name you wanted to be able to tell them apart?
I just thought of it, Hey I actually came up with an idea on my own at xda, wow, not bad, it's about time though after so many years and not too technical either, Hey but I don't know if that is a good thing for me or not.
Well anyways I am going to try my new techniques. LoL
Oh hey I forgot why I was here's until just now, not only did my backup say the op title, but also said something about not backing up applications either
1) is that normal too!?
2) I looked for the back up and shows up fine I the new folder. Although I can't say I ever remeber after clicking backup then clicking the backup file seeing 4 other files to chose from, like system, data, etc.
What is really going on now? I thought after clicking on the file it would go to the confirm option and that was it.
Hello! I don't speak english, sorry. But I have a trouble. Can I mount System, Data folders to my PC for recover files on it?
I execute Format Data, Format System in 4ext recovery and lose my Contacts. I know that contact's database placed in some file on System or Data partition. How to recover it?
P. S.: I have not install any firmware after formatting partitions to prevent damage my data...
Please, Help me!
You can use adb to access any files on those partitions, but as you've formatted the data partition, those files will not exist anymore.
If you could "mount" the partitions, they would now be empty. I don't think there's any way to recover the data unless you have a backup somewhere (Google account?).
If there is a way, it's not a question of mounting the partitions, but actually using data recovery techniques on the phone's internal memory.
Does anybody know if that's possible / feasible?
Edit: don't you have a nandroid backup you could restore from?
that:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994705
might be possible solution, or a base (direction) do dig further...
I recently have been recovering, stupidly formated drive too,
got the data back (most of it anyway )
but the tree (folder structure )
was irrevertably gone, and part of a file names as well,
so, when you calm down, after getting data back,
you realise there is still a gigantic work ahead,
with bitting through thousands of files with names like:
< _ibc.so or _ops.png >, and guessing which belongs to what....
...but, if one strongly sets ones mind on accomplishing the task,
it is possible....
Edit: the link above, is just a beginning of the journey,
oft, one has to gather bits of several tutorials and [HOW TO]`s
and that is what i also, stongly recommend to do,
its because, these things are often non official- hundred percent
novice proof hardened methods,
each of them, had worked for somebody,
but there is no guarantees- that particular method`ll work for you...
Success:good:
Hey guys,
a nandroid backup is a really convenient method to backup your complete phone and restore everything or partially data. All partitions (/system, /data, /cache) were being backed up.
But what happens with the sdcard?
Before I flash/install a new rom, I always format my sdcard with my PC, hence I make sure, that it’s clean and has no remains from older roms.
On first boot, the android system creates a lot of folders contaning data, which both are modified during the daily use. For example the folder “DCIM” contains all the taken pictures and videos.
But what’s about these?
- .android_secure
- .dta
- .estrong
- and especially “Android” and subfolders
What happens, if I make a full nandroid of my phone, format my sdcard, so that all the folders and data, which were created while using the rom, were deleted. After that I restore the complete backup and boot up the phone.
My question is, how the restored system will react, if it notices, that these folders and their contents were not available?
- will they be recreated?
- does the system not boot
- after booting it will show some error messages?
- something else?
Thanks in advance!
@@RON
Hi
Greeting
Nandroid only backups phone memory
It does not backup sdcard
And their is no need to format sd card everytime before flashing Rom (i haven't formated my sd card even once ) every thing works f9
Even if u remove all the file from sdcard which u mentaion then the phone recreate these file againg and causes no problem
Basically a Rom has to do nothing with the sdcard the phone runs completely even without sdcard . Sd card is just an expansion of memory to phones
And you do whatever with it , it does not affect the way your Rom runs
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using xda premium
@@RON said:
Hey guys,
a nandroid backup is a really convenient method to backup your complete phone and restore everything or partially data. All partitions (/system, /data, /cache) were being backed up.
But what happens with the sdcard?
Before I flash/install a new rom, I always format my sdcard with my PC, hence I make sure, that it’s clean and has no remains from older roms.
On first boot, the android system creates a lot of folders contaning data, which both are modified during the daily use. For example the folder “DCIM” contains all the taken pictures and videos.
But what’s about these?
- .android_secure
- .dta
- .estrong
- and especially “Android” and subfolders
What happens, if I make a full nandroid of my phone, format my sdcard, so that all the folders and data, which were created while using the rom, were deleted. After that I restore the complete backup and boot up the phone.
My question is, how the restored system will react, if it notices, that these folders and their contents were not available?
- will they be recreated?
- does the system not boot
- after booting it will show some error messages?
- something else?
Thanks in advance!
@@RON
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When making a nandroid backup, system, data, boot and cache partitions are saved. Also, the android_secure from the SDcard is saved. As for the other folders, they are not kept. EStrongs is the guys who make ES File Explorer, and I believe this folder has something to do with the app. I don't know about the other folders, but they are not required for running the ROM. If they are missing, they will be recreated.
I believe I answered some of your questions above, but I'll answer the rest here:
-As I said, the restore won't create the folders, but the ROM might create them. At least one of the folders you listed is of an app, and there are many more apps that create folders on your SDCard, that's just cache or some data, which is not a problem to restore.
-The system will boot. That's the idea of a nandroid backup (if those folders were required, they would have been backed up)
-It will not show error messages, it will resume just like when you made the backuo.
-Something Else? You name it. There is no need to format your SDCard every time you flash a ROM, as usually it doesn't create problems. It can get a bit messy, but besides that, it's fine to keep it the way it is.
astar26 said:
When making a nandroid backup, system, data, boot and cache partitions are saved. Also, the android_secure from the SDcard is saved. As for the other folders, they are not kept. EStrongs is the guys who make ES File Explorer, and I believe this folder has something to do with the app. I don't know about the other folders, but they are not required for running the ROM. If they are missing, they will be recreated.
I believe I answered some of your questions above, but I'll answer the rest here:
-As I said, the restore won't create the folders, but the ROM might create them. At least one of the folders you listed is of an app, and there are many more apps that create folders on your SDCard, that's just cache or some data, which is not a problem to restore.
-The system will boot. That's the idea of a nandroid backup (if those folders were required, they would have been backed up)
-It will not show error messages, it will resume just like when you made the backuo.
-Something Else? You name it. There is no need to format your SDCard every time you flash a ROM, as usually it doesn't create problems. It can get a bit messy, but besides that, it's fine to keep it the way it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you're right!
I clicked through the folders on my sdcard and the most directories are named "cache" etc. Only some exceptions for e.g. whatsapp message database or downloaded maps for htc locations ...etc.
So it seems, that the android system and the installed apps create folders for their use. If a nandroid will be created, the last mentioned folder should be backed up, too ... but manually. Thus the first mentioned folders (.data ...) are unnecessary.
You said, that there is no need to format the sdcard everytime a new rom will be flashed. I think it is, because every new rom deserves a clean sdcard, which has no remains from older roms. So the rom can expand themself and have a great feeling
No joke, in my opinion it will be the better way, if there are no possible complications with older existing files.
@@RON said:
Yeah, you're right!
I clicked through the folders on my sdcard and the most directories are named "cache" etc. Only some exceptions for e.g. whatsapp message database or downloaded maps for htc locations ...etc.
So it seems, that the android system and the installed apps create folders for their use. If a nandroid will be created, the last mentioned folder should be backed up, too ... but manually. Thus the first mentioned folders (.data ...) are unnecessary.
You said, that there is no need to format the sdcard everytime a new rom will be flashed. I think it is, because every new rom deserves a clean sdcard, which has no remains from older roms. So the rom can expand themself and have a great feeling
No joke, in my opinion it will be the better way, if there are no possible complications with older existing files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What needs to be cleaned is cleaned when you wipe the phone. Anyway, formatting the SDCard is your choice. Files of apps that are not installed just won't be used. I like your idea of starting fresh, but it's quite a hassle to format and rearrange the SD every time I flash a ROM.
It's nice to have it clean without many directories (Imust say that I managed to reach such a situation with my own documents, with directories I created myself and have no idea what they are for. But I guess that's what you get when you don't clean your "room" for a couple of years.