I'm wanting to install a custom ROM and I've read when you do so you will need to do a factory wipe before hand. I did a full backup using CWM Touch and it saved to my internal memory card, not external. I also backed up my IMEI using Terminal, which I'm guessing is saved on my internal as well. So If i download a customer ROM and do a factory wipe along with a cache and delvik wipe, won't I loose those backups that I will need in case of an emergency? Can I just move the CWM Touch backup folder to my external or will that cause issues? I'm clueless.
Thanks,
It'll stay on your internal sd card.
Doing a factory wipe basically resets the data partition and caches, erasing all user and app data leaving the phone as a clean slate. However, this will not erase files from your phone. Your backup will be fine on an internal sd, and things like pictures, music, and downloaded files will stay there as well. You're imei backup is actually stored on your boot partition. That's pretty much as safe as it gets unless you hard brick your phone.
I put all my backups on an external so I can always pull them off if something horrible goes wrong. To move them you have to move the entire folder including the backups and blobs. They have to stay together or if you try to restore a nandroid it won't work.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
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.
Hi
I have managed to flash cm12 onto my S2 GT-I9100 and it is by far the best custom rom I have tried so far, but, when I went to flash GAPPS it stated to me that there was insufficient space, so I tried every size of GAPPS until the only one that would flash was "Pico".
My phone memory is using about 9Gb of the available 11Gb, surely when I did factory reset and Dalvik clear etc it should have wiped everything from this drive?
Maybe there are some files that I need to manually remove to free up some space?
Cheers
CM12 definitely does not need 9 GB storage. You most likely have junk files leftover in orphan directories. Use a root file manager to explore your internal storage and delete everything that you don't need. Don't delete DCIM (photos) or music directories, unless you do not care about them.
I've always used Samsung devices (last device was GS5) so I'm trying to understand the internal partitions on newer versions of android. I don't mean the dual slot stuff either.. just the normal partitions like /system
So with my GS5 of I went into TWRP and factory reset. That wiped all user data from the phone. Apps, settings, downloads, pics, etc..
It seems that's not how it works anymore. Just looking for a basic layout of the folder structure and what is stored on each partition
Where is my user data stored? Are my downloaded apps, settings, pics, downloads (everything I put on the phone) stored in one partition? If so where
When I factory reset in recovery what partitions is that wiping
At this point the only thing I know is /system which is where the actual OS itself is stored.
Any explanation would be appreciated!!
aholeinthewor1d said:
I've always used Samsung devices (last device was GS5) so I'm trying to understand the internal partitions on newer versions of android. I don't mean the dual slot stuff either.. just the normal partitions like /system
So with my GS5 of I went into TWRP and factory reset. That wiped all user data from the phone. Apps, settings, downloads, pics, etc..
It seems that's not how it works anymore. Just looking for a basic layout of the folder structure and what is stored on each partition
Where is my user data stored? Are my downloaded apps, settings, pics, downloads (everything I put on the phone) stored in one partition? If so where
When I factory reset in recovery what partitions is that wiping
At this point the only thing I know is /system which is where the actual OS itself is stored.
Any explanation would be appreciated!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/data
/data/app
/data/user
/data/media...
You can see all these folders and what they contain via something like Root Explorer. Then install an app or modify its settings, you'll easily see its date/time properties get changed.
Or you can use ES Explorer, every time a new folder gets created, ES notifies you. After a while, it gets annoying but it's good to be able to observe in the beginning.
I know I did an internal storage backup with TWRP. I have extracted the system and data TWRP files and see all the apps, system, etc.. but am not seeing the Internal Storage. Can someone please point me to where in the directory structure the internal is? (there is no storage folder or mnt)
SyCoREAPER said:
I know I did an internal storage backup with TWRP. I have extracted the system and data TWRP files and see all the apps, system, etc.. but am not seeing the Internal Storage. Can someone please point me to where in the directory structure the internal is? (there is no storage folder or mnt)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@SyCoREAPER I'm not sure you can backup internal storage with TWRP. If memory serves me right you can back up System, Cache, Data, Boot and EFS. However, having just woke up maybe I'm not reading your provided information right or possibly I'm completely wrong. When I back up internal storage I use my laptop or PC OS file manager.
DowntownRDB said:
@SyCoREAPER I'm not sure you can backup internal storage with TWRP. If memory serves me right you can back up System, Cache, Data, Boot and EFS. However, having just woke up maybe I'm not reading your provided information right or possibly I'm completely wrong. When I back up internal storage I use my laptop or PC OS file manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know you are right. I remembered seeing it in Wipe, not in Backup. Well that sucks turds. Google Photos backup turned on from now on. At least I have a partial outdated backup but all my TSO (Trans Syberian Orchestra) shots are gone. Had great seats too