Database Info

[Utility] Format back to ext3....

Just flash in clockwork and it will format your system and data partitions back to ext3. Faster than dealing with nandroid restores.
Useful for reverting from installs using Dragon or Trinity kernels that convert you to ext4.
NOTE: This FORMATS your partitions, you WILL lose all data held on them. Your phone will NOT boot until you install a ROM ZIP file or restore a nandroid backup. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
CREDIT: @paulobrien from Modaco wrote this for the O2x. I just changed the partition names to match our setup. I left his original banner in there as a result. My change amounts to about 4 bytes. If you have issues, please don't bother him, post here.

This is great...I always hesitate trying out updated or experimental kernels because of the amount of time it takes to nandroid....the cm7 kernel has been really good as of late so I've been sticking with that
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

Hmmm Let the confusing questions begin in 5,4,3,2....

Thanks man!
Sent From My Stock G2x

Reminder: NONE of my kernels and ROMs require the use of this utility. All of my kernels and ROMs are ALL NATIVE EXT3 only mounted as ext4.

faux123 said:
Reminder: NONE of my kernels and ROMs require the use of this utility. All of my kernels and ROMs are ALL NATIVE EXT3 only mounted as ext4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow, i never knew that. so if we are using one of your cm7 ext4 kernels and then flash a new nightly/kang we could go back to using the stock cm kernel and wouldn't have to necessarily flash your kernel again?

mattyg151 said:
wow, i never knew that. so if we are using one of your cm7 ext4 kernels and then flash a new nightly/kang we could go back to using the stock cm kernel and wouldn't have to necessarily flash your kernel again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeap... should be no issues.

Is there a difference between this and just wiping, formating system and data, in cwm?
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk

billydroid said:
Is there a difference between this and just wiping, formating system and data, in cwm?
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cwm is set up to keep whatever format you have at the time you run it, so if you are on ext4, the format command will format to ext4. It makes sense, you wouldn't want to write an ext4 fs onto a partition with vfat on it, for example. Not automatically anyway. And most users wouldn't know what to tell it to use if it were to give you the option. The forum would be full of "What file system do I use?!?!?"... The usual method is to restore a nandroid backup from stock or a stock file system. This is significantly faster.
It is of somewhat limited usefulness as many kernels/roms don't change the filesystem. However, as I switch around a lot with running tests for the cm guys, my own stuff, etc., it's nice to have a fast way to deal with it.

ttabbal said:
cwm is set up to keep whatever format you have at the time you run it, so if you are on ext4, the format command will format to ext4. It makes sense, you wouldn't want to write an ext4 fs onto a partition with vfat on it, for example. Not automatically anyway. And most users wouldn't know what to tell it to use if it were to give you the option. The forum would be full of "What file system do I use?!?!?"... The usual method is to restore a nandroid backup from stock or a stock file system. This is significantly faster.
It is of somewhat limited usefulness as many kernels/roms don't change the filesystem. However, as I switch around a lot with running tests for the cm guys, my own stuff, etc., it's nice to have a fast way to deal with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk

EDIT: nvm. looked over the files and got my answer.

Works great thanks for putting this together. Will come in handy.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

is this utility gonna wipe out all my data (meaning I will have to install all the apps again, setting up my phone again, signing in to google again and stuff) ?

te_quiero_forever_girl said:
is this utility gonna wipe out all my data (meaning I will have to install all the apps again, setting up my phone again, signing in to google again and stuff) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it will wipe.
Upgrading EXT3 to EXT4 will preserve data but downgrading from EXT4 to EXT3 won't.

With cm going ext4 this is priceless.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

xsteven77x said:
With cm going ext4 this is priceless.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A nandroid of ext3 is the same thing also I have installed an ext3 rom over ext4 works great
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

Why do we people want to go back to ext3 when ext4 is much faster and stable than all the other filesystems.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

going back to cwm from 4ext

I recently flashed arhd which replaced my cwm recovery with 4ext. Should I need to go back to cwm, how would I do it? I presume I can't just restore a nandroid backup.

You will be able to restore a backup.
You go back to clockwork recovery if you prefer that over 4ext but it isn't a must.
Either you flash it as a zip or as image by using fastboot.
Sent from my awesome HTC!

gonintendo said:
I recently flashed arhd which replaced my cwm recovery with 4ext. Should I need to go back to cwm, how would I do it? I presume I can't just restore a nandroid backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cwm backups (since cwm 5.x.x) and 4ext are compatible (not sure about cwm restoring 4ext backups though).
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

gonintendo said:
I recently flashed arhd which replaced my cwm recovery with 4ext. Should I need to go back to cwm, how would I do it? I presume I can't just restore a nandroid backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DL Clockwork manager from market....Open it, then download CWR for your phone, it will replace 4EXT. May I ask why you would do that though, wouldn't you prefer to convert to EXT4 instead?

Ace42 said:
DL Clockwork manager from market....Open it, then download CWR for your phone, it will replace 4EXT. May I ask why you would do that though, wouldn't you prefer to convert to EXT4 instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are the advantages of ext4 over whatever filesystem I'm on right now? I like cwm because I can name my backups right from my rom manager app. (I know you can just rename them after the fact, but it's more convenient that way lol)

I thought that CWR supported ext4 which is HTC uses for Android.
Sent from my Sensation using XDA App

I have cwm and 4ext. When I boot into recovery its cwm. Is 4ext just another Rom recovery manager?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

Yes
Sent from my Sensation using XDA App

moshe22 said:
I thought that CWR supported ext4 which is HTC uses for Android.
Sent from my Sensation using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure about this when referencing the current Generation(S3), on the previous Gen(S2) HTC used EXT3, Sammy had RFS(on all Galaxy). Maybe HTC uses EXT4 on Senny/Evo 3D by default, but that would make 4EXT rec useless; so I feel sensation has EXT3. And EXT4 is much faster and has journaling, these increase I/O speed compared to RFS or EXT3. However everything has to be EXT4 to see the true speed(ROM, system partitions /system /cache /data , kernel support). And I forgot to mention that I am not sure if CWR on Sens uses EXT4, on previous phone it did no converting, but I can look @ the CWR changelog.
Sorry for bumping thread!

Ace42 said:
I am not sure about this when referencing the current Generation(S3), on the previous Gen(S2) HTC used EXT3, Sammy had RFS(on all Galaxy). Maybe HTC uses EXT4 on Senny/Evo 3D by default, but that would make 4EXT rec useless; so I feel sensation has EXT3. And EXT4 is much faster and has journaling, these increase I/O speed compared to RFS or EXT3. However everything has to be EXT4 to see the true speed(ROM, system partitions /system /cache /data , kernel support). And I forgot to mention that I am not sure if CWR on Sens uses EXT4, on previous phone it did no converting, but I can look @ the CWR changelog.
Sorry for bumping thread!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RFS should be censored on these forums. Makes me shudder just thinking about it. (I do NOT miss my galaxy s)

moshe22 said:
I thought that CWR supported ext4 which is HTC uses for Android.
Sent from my Sensation using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ext4 is a filesystem. 4ext is a recovery.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

i have just noticed this and i think 4ext is better than cwm reason been is its much faster than cwm and you can skin it and backups from cwm do work with 4ext just tried

4ext recovery is just faster, themeble and its easier to flash things. Since there are less no no no etc. For the full feature list visit madmaxx82 4EXT thread.

Which recovery is best to make SD partition?

To make ext4 and is there a way to make ext 3 to 4 in cwm recovery??
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

No, as far as to make EXT.3 to EXT.4 in CWM Recovery. As for the best Recovery to use to make a Partition. I've used both ( CWM and TWRP ) , and they work equally well. But if you want a larger one TWRP is the one you want to use to make the partition. I used TWRP to make my 1GB+ parttion. Also I prefer TWRP to CWM.

prboy1969 said:
No, as far as to make EXT.3 to EXT.4 in CWM Recovery. As for the best Recovery to use to make a Partition. I've used both ( CWM and TWRP ) , and they work equally well. But if you want a larger one TWRP is the one you want to use to make the partition. I used TWRP to make my 1GB+ parttion. Also I prefer TWRP to CWM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thank you!
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Results wise it should be the same as Teamwin have said they used Koush's partitioning script for TWRP. But TWRP does let you select either ext3/ext4 and allows you to make the sd-ext partition as big as you want.

Moving from EXT4 ROM to an EXT3 one

I recently installed WCX Illuminati [3.5 Sense Based on 1.22.461.2 (Quicksall Rcmix kernel v12 )overclocked to 1536 by default.].
While the ROM is not advertised to be (as far as I can tell) an EXT4 ROM, I noticed during the install the system was formatted as EXT4.
I'll like to experiment with some other ROMs that are EXT3. Do I have to go through any special steps to go back to an EXT3 ROM after running an EXT4 ROM, I can I just flash the new ROM though CM Recovery?
Thanks.

Four-Fifty-X said:
I recently installed WCX Illuminati [3.5 Sense Based on 1.22.461.2 (Quicksall Rcmix kernel v12 )overclocked to 1536 by default.].
While the ROM is not advertised to be (as far as I can tell) an EXT4 ROM, I noticed during the install the system was formatted as EXT4.
I'll like to experiment with some other ROMs that are EXT3. Do I have to go through any special steps to go back to an EXT3 ROM after running an EXT4 ROM, I can I just flash the new ROM though CM Recovery?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are no steps for that, just flash the new Rom. But make sure to flash CWM recovery first as the illuminati Rom uses stock recovery. Go to Rom manager and flash recovery. Once you have done that flash the Rom you want.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App

glevitan said:
There are no steps for that, just flash the new Rom. But make sure to flash CWM recovery first as the illuminati Rom uses stock recovery. Go to Rom manager and flash recovery. Once you have done that flash the Rom you want.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good. Thanks.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App

I was wondering this myself also. But I want to ask a little deeper question.
Say I have 2 ROMS. One that is ext3 and the other that is ext4. Each one formats the system appropriately when installed fresh. But say I have a NAND backup of the ext3 ROM on my card and I have the ext4 ROM installed on the phone at the present. Can I restore the ext3 ROM without doing anything other than the normal wiping using clockwork? Or would I have to reinstall the ext3 ROM fresh to get the proper format and then restore the backup?
And would it be the same going the other direction too?

Agoattamer said:
I was wondering this myself also. But I want to ask a little deeper question.
Say I have 2 ROMS. One that is ext3 and the other that is ext4. Each one formats the system appropriately when installed fresh. But say I have a NAND backup of the ext3 ROM on my card and I have the ext4 ROM installed on the phone at the present. Can I restore the ext3 ROM without doing anything other than the normal wiping using clockwork? Or would I have to reinstall the ext3 ROM fresh to get the proper format and then restore the backup?
And would it be the same going the other direction too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess but not sure that when you do a wipe to install a new Rom your partitions are formatted and ifvyo don't use an ext4 Rom then you will have just ext3.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App

Agoattamer said:
I was wondering this myself also. But I want to ask a little deeper question.
Say I have 2 ROMS. One that is ext3 and the other that is ext4. Each one formats the system appropriately when installed fresh. But say I have a NAND backup of the ext3 ROM on my card and I have the ext4 ROM installed on the phone at the present. Can I restore the ext3 ROM without doing anything other than the normal wiping using clockwork? Or would I have to reinstall the ext3 ROM fresh to get the proper format and then restore the backup?
And would it be the same going the other direction too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how ClockworkMod handles this but I've been using 4EXT Recovery for a few months and it will automatically determine which format the ROM you're flashing uses and convert if necessary. Works for both fresh ROM flashes or backups.
I've been running ARHD and wanted to pull something off of the stock ROM backup I had. When I restored the stock nandroid, 4EXT formatted the existing ext4 partitions to ext3 and restored the backup. Then when I restored ARHD it automatically switched 'em back to ext4.

Thanks for the responses guys. Still looking for someone to answer positively on this last question. I don't want to be the someone asking about how to get my phone to boot when it is stuck on the white screen. lol.

Agoattamer said:
Thanks for the responses guys. Still looking for someone to answer positively on this last question. I don't want to be the someone asking about how to get my phone to boot when it is stuck on the white screen. lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm with the other guy, i use 4EXT. but when making a backup it says "writing ext4 data" (or something along those lines) for each partition that uses ext4. it does the same for ext3.
i would be inclined to believe that CWM does the same thing and changes the file system accordingly. one way to check if it records the file system type would be to look at the tar files. go to sdcard/clockworkmod/backup/whatever-you-named-your-backup that folder should contain, at a minimum, the following files: system.xxxx.tar, data.xxxx.tar, boot.img, and an md5 file. the xxxx should be the file system that particular backup uses.
EDIT: that is assuming that CWM uses tar backups and not yaffs2. not sure how those backups are structured. either way the filesystem should still get recorded some how.
i think you'd be fine just restoring. there would have been massive amounts of new threads popping up saying "OMGIDIDARESTOREANDMYPHONEISFUX0RED!!!!" if anyone had any problems once ext4 showed its face. know what i mean?
as an alternative. why not just flash 4EXT Recovery? since you KNOW it does what you're asking? kinda takes the guess work out... lol

[SOLVED]Not able to restore sd-ext data

Hey guys.
Trouble found me again this time.i m not able to restore sdext data from multiboot backup cm7 data as well as from nandroid backup.
I was flashing a different kernel on an existing one when this happened.
The error was that it can't format sdext ,so i formatted it through minitool.but still i could see that out of 1gb sdext partition 32 mb is used even after formatting.
Tried flashing the rom again from scratch..but no luck.the problems still there.
Can't afford to loose so much data.
Please help guys.
Sent from my GT-I5800 using Tapatalk

prohank said:
Hey guys.
Trouble found me again this time.i m not able to restore sdext data from multiboot backup cm7 data as well as from nandroid backup.
I was flashing a different kernel on an existing one when this happened.
The error was that it can't format sdext ,so i formatted it through minitool.but still i could see that out of 1gb sdext partition 32 mb is used even after formatting.
Tried flashing the rom again from scratch..but no luck.the problems still there.
Can't afford to loose so much data.
Please help guys.
Sent from my GT-I5800 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if 32 mb is used, then i think you'll need to format the sdcard too.......

which rom was you flashing?

prohank said:
Hey guys.
Trouble found me again this time.i m not able to restore sdext data from multiboot backup cm7 data as well as from nandroid backup.
I was flashing a different kernel on an existing one when this happened.
The error was that it can't format sdext ,so i formatted it through minitool.but still i could see that out of 1gb sdext partition 32 mb is used even after formatting.
Tried flashing the rom again from scratch..but no luck.the problems still there.
Can't afford to loose so much data.
Please help guys.
Sent from my GT-I5800 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what type of backups do you have?....e.g. : data.ext2/4.tar, data.img(data) or sdext.ext2/4.tar or sd-ext.img(sd-ext)??
and which kernel are you powered by?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sent from Galaxy
Hercolubus Rom v 2.1
powered by
G3mod by Arakmar 12/04/2012.zip
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

J.Purungrit said:
if 32 mb is used, then i think you'll need to format the sdcard too.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did it actually...still i get to see 32 mb and sometimes even 42mb,73mb,66mb on the partitioned part.i formatted through minitool.
Ava.tar said:
which rom was you flashing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rom-cm7 alpha8
Original kernel-arakmars openfimg.
Switching to fugumod ultrakernel.
rkoby13 said:
what type of backups do you have?....e.g. : data.ext2/4.tar, data.img(data) or sdext.ext2/4.tar or sd-ext.img(sd-ext)??
and which kernel are you powered by
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was arakmars openfimg..and the backups were in. Tar format..
Silly of me i thought its a tar file so flashed sdext through odin..didn't work..lol.
Eventually i found that data was ext 4 so it was getting restored but sdext was ext3..and my new partitioned part was ext4..so may be it was the problem.
And for those who want to know, cm7 stock kernel makes an ext3 partition.
Sent from my GT-I5800 using Tapatalk