Database Info

[Q] Error when trying to nandroid backup with CWM

I made a previous clean backup prior to rooting the phone using the Odin method posted by Copperhed. Still running the stock at&t rom.
All was well. I moved the backup file over to my computer hd to free up space on my external sd card. I was tinkering around with different sd cards last night and accidentally formatted my main sd card that I usually use on my phone. No big deal.
I decided to try out some new roms and kernels so I wanted to make a nandroid backup. Instead of using the odin method to install cwm, I downloaded rom manager and flashed clockworkmod recovery.
I formatted the sd card to make sure space wasnt an issue. I clicked on Backup Current ROM, it was given superuser access and the phone rebooted into CWM. I thought this part was automated but it wasnt. Once the phone booted into CWM, it just sat there at the menu system.
No problems, I navigated down to backup and restore, then hit backup. I did some google searching and people have said this version (5.0.2.7) of CWM does not show a progress bar while backing up.
After clicking backup, I get the usual screen of it mounting the card and displaying how much space is free, then saying it is backing up boot image, recovery image, and system.
Takes a long while then just gives me this:
Error while making a backup image of /system!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any idea of why this would be happening? I searched around but did not find any solutions. The only core things I have installed on my phone currently is Titanium Backup Pro and SetCPU. The rest are just day to day apps, todolists, camera, games.
I've attached what it looked like below. In case the attachment doesnt work (http://i.imgur.com/2ZIPM.jpg)

Forgot to mention, after rebooting the phone when I get that error, I check the external sd card and see a backup folder, but there are only about 3 files in there, so it makes sense because it failed making a full backup.
I just now tried "back up to internal sd card" and it started working right away.. showing files and progress bar moving.
I guess this works too, I can still move the backup file over to my pc.. but this kind of worries me.. is CWM not seeing my sd card correctly?

Another update..
At the end of the backup run (to internal sd card) I get:
No sd-ext found. Skipping backup of sd-ext.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I mentioned formatting the card earlier, I used the phone itself to format it.

I think it has something to do with the variance between the T-Mobile version of CWM we are using on our Skyrockets and what should actually be on the CWM version for the Skyrocket (which still doesn't exist--wtf?! )
Disregard the error message, it's looking for a folder on the T-Mobile version that isn't on the Skyrocket.
If you used the "Backup to Internal SD Card" from CWM you should be fine. I've backed up this way and restored backups without incident.

so if your phone went through a soft brick or something bad happened messing with different roms and such, youre still able to boot into cwm and restore from the backup file that is stored on your internal sd?
i just want to make sure, in the case that we cannot boot from cwm / access internal sd, that we will be able to do so from the external sd.

I don't have a whole lot of faith in our CWM (which was built for a T Mobile variant). I've had a ton of weird messages any time using it and I'm surprised there isn't more talk about it here. I've seen a lot people casually mention the error messages so I know it isn't just me.
I don't know you'd lose the backup if restoring from a soft brick where you'd have to go back to stock first to fix it (never tried it). But I can tell you that if you flash a rom you don't like or doesn't work right you should be able to successfuly restore a backup made in CWM (after wiping data, etc., of course).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App

All you have to do is install the rom you had when you made the backup for the data going to the advanced options in backup recovery and restore data only and ready

understood. but in the case that the phone does mess up and for some reason it doesnt read the external sd card, would i still be able to access the internal sd card for my backup with cwm?

Just got my G2SR from ATT. Going through the motion of rooting it following instruction here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1340526
I also tried to do a backup to external SD and get the same "Error while making a backup image of /system"
I searched around and I tried the instruction here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1472954 by adding clockworkmod/.hidenandroidprogress in both /sdcard and /sdcard/external_sd/
It's still stuck in "backing up system". I have tried reformatting the SD card and perform error checkin on Windows, but that doesn't fix it.
Has anybody back up to the external SD card with CWM successfully?
And how exactly do we back up to the internal "/sdcard". When I go backup, it would complain I don't have an sdcard if I don't have the external SD card.
[update] I am on ClockworkMod Recovery v5.0.2.6 and I don't see any "backup to internal SD' option. Do I need to update my CWM and how do we do that?
Thanks in advance.

[Q] backups and restore issues

So I spent my weekend playing with some roms, and somewhere in the process something got hosed.
CWM shows my backups.. starts restoring my backups.. then gives me an error about E:..
Trying to recall for sure.. I think it said sd-ext is an unrecognizable format, and wouldn't restore anything.
It would take a new Rom ZIP from the external SD card and install it just fine, just not the backups I had made. I can access the data just fine..
Any suggestions on exactly what the problem is and how to fix it?
Current CWM (5.0.2.0)
Rom Mngr 5.0.0.7
Running Weapon 3.0 ROM
Thanx!

150+ views, and no replies.
Hmm.. A difficult question to answer, perhaps?

Chaosmstr said:
So I spent my weekend playing with some roms, and somewhere in the process something got hosed.
CWM shows my backups.. starts restoring my backups.. then gives me an error about E:..
Trying to recall for sure.. I think it said sd-ext is an unrecognizable format, and wouldn't restore anything.
It would take a new Rom ZIP from the external SD card and install it just fine, just not the backups I had made. I can access the data just fine..
Any suggestions on exactly what the problem is and how to fix it?
Current CWM (5.0.2.0)
Rom Mngr 5.0.0.7
Running Weapon 3.0 ROM
Thanx!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check your SD card, you should have folder called "clockworkmod" inside find folder "backup". Inside this folder are all rom backups that you made. I think your backups got corrupted. Once you are in the folder try renaming your backups(change the name of the folder) like 2012-02-original or 2012-04-22.MIUI, 2012-04-29.CM7(just samples you can use your own labeling but try to keep same format.) Hope this helps, if not format SD card and start all over again. In the future make sure when you have everything set on your SD card to make a backup to your PC.

ratza66 said:
Check your SD card, you should have folder called "clockworkmod" inside find folder "backup". Inside this folder are all rom backups that you made. I think your backups got corrupted. Once you are in the folder try renaming your backups(change the name of the folder) like 2012-02-original or 2012-04-22.MIUI, 2012-04-29.CM7(just samples you can use your own labeling but try to keep same format.) Hope this helps, if not format SD card and start all over again. In the future make sure when you have everything set on your SD card to make a backup to your PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's pretty much all you can do, other then that report exactly what the error said, i assume that these were all on the same recovery, how much space is on your sdcard. Was there an error when the backup finished? What are the files on your Clockwork Mod Folder list the files with on one of your backups...
mine has these folders.
boot img
cache.ext3.tar
data.ext3.tar
nandroid.md5
recovery.img
system.ext4.tar
any of those in there? my backup is something like 520mb...

Chaosmstr said:
So I spent my weekend playing with some roms, and somewhere in the process something got hosed.
CWM shows my backups.. starts restoring my backups.. then gives me an error about E:..
Trying to recall for sure.. I think it said sd-ext is an unrecognizable format, and wouldn't restore anything.
It would take a new Rom ZIP from the external SD card and install it just fine, just not the backups I had made. I can access the data just fine..
Any suggestions on exactly what the problem is and how to fix it?
Current CWM (5.0.2.0)
Rom Mngr 5.0.0.7
Running Weapon 3.0 ROM
Thanx!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well happened to me before all i did was wipe all data, cache, and dalvik before i restored and it worked for me

hypemanisus said:
Well happened to me before all i did was wipe all data, cache, and dalvik before i restored and it worked for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, I just assumed that he would've done this prior to trying to restore, That is probably the issue. I've seen it before, I think on my MyTouch 3G.

ClockWorkMod Backup Questions

Hello all,
Coming from a Thunderbolt I was very comfortable with ClockworkMod Recovery, I backed up and flashed often through recovery.
On this VZW S3 upon rooting and installing CWMR standard version 5.8.something my backups were only going to the internal SD card and the dates were never right, always saying 1970. The file size seemed about right (1.5 gb) and there were the normal dozen of so in the backup directory.
Out of desire to backup to my external I card I tried the new EZ Recovery app which installed CWMR 6.0.1.0 I believe, the non touch version. This version would backup to the external SD card, but still had the wrong date name for the backup folder. When I browsed that folder it was only 30mb but there was another folder called blobs that was about 1.5 to 2gb.
Is this how version 6 works? I don't have much confidence that this is a good nandroid backup and that I could restore off of it.
Looking for confirmation that this is how it is to work with version 6 and/or any tips or alternatives you can offer. I want to be able to backup and restore off of my external SD card.
Thanks in advance!

wonderrx said:
Hello all,
Coming from a Thunderbolt I was very comfortable with ClockworkMod Recovery, I backed up and flashed often through recovery.
On this VZW S3 upon rooting and installing CWMR standard version 5.8.something my backups were only going to the internal SD card and the dates were never right, always saying 1970. The file size seemed about right (1.5 gb) and there were the normal dozen of so in the backup directory.
Out of desire to backup to my external I card I tried the new EZ Recovery app which installed CWMR 6.0.1.0 I believe, the non touch version. This version would backup to the external SD card, but still had the wrong date name for the backup folder. When I browsed that folder it was only 30mb but there was another folder called blobs that was about 1.5 to 2gb.
Is this how version 6 works? I don't have much confidence that this is a good nandroid backup and that I could restore off of it.
Looking for confirmation that this is how it is to work with version 6 and/or any tips or alternatives you can offer. I want to be able to backup and restore off of my external SD card.
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is indeed how version 6 works. As for the dats, those are sadly messed up in general I haven't seen a fix for that, but i also haven't searched for one because i know which ones are my latest and don't keep many of them anyways. As for it not backing up on 5.8 its because you have to have your SD formatted as FAT32 and exFAT (again not sure if 6.0.1.0 changes that because i formatted mine) But i did successfully backup and restore on version 6 and it worked perfectly.

Neverendingxsin said:
That is indeed how version 6 works. As for the dats, those are sadly messed up in general I haven't seen a fix for that, but i also haven't searched for one because i know which ones are my latest and don't keep many of them anyways. As for it not backing up on 5.8 its because you have to have your SD formatted as FAT32 and exFAT (again not sure if 6.0.1.0 changes that because i formatted mine) But i did successfully backup and restore on version 6 and it worked perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Never,
I wiped the card when I first had issues backing up on 5.8. Formatted it with the phone but it still wouldn't give me the backup options. How can you check the formatting?
Wonder how multiple backups work in version 6, does it dump it together in the blobs? Or is is some more intelligent non duplication way of storing multiple backups?
Thanks again!

wonderrx said:
Thanks Never,
I wiped the card when I first had issues backing up on 5.8. Formatted it with the phone but it still wouldn't give me the backup options. How can you check the formatting?
Wonder how multiple backups work in version 6, does it dump it together in the blobs? Or is is some more intelligent non duplication way of storing multiple backups?
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I formatted mine on the computer just to make sure it worked. So no idea how to check it from the phone sorry.
As for multiple backups, i've got a few backups and it always restores fine, so im assuming its got a way of knowing what goes with what.
And your welcome

Are you trying too back up through rom manager? I've given up on that. I do not have an external card, am rooted, using the latest non touch cwr. I usually boot into recovery manually or through rom manager and backup from there. Have the same issues with dates and large size. But happy to report that I go back and forth between cm10, stock, and synergy rom regularly with no problems. Also remember kexec boots 3 times, it's not a bootloop.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

loveubuntu said:
Are you trying too back up through rom manager? I've given up on that. I do not have an external card, am rooted, using the latest non touch cwr. I usually boot into recovery manually or through rom manager and backup from there. Have the same issues with dates and large size. But happy to report that I go back and forth between cm10, stock, and synergy rom regularly with no problems. Also remember kexec boots 3 times, it's not a bootloop.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I boot into recovery and backup there, if I do it through Rom Manager I get no choice to backup to external SD at all, but I can in version 6 thru recovery.
Glad to hear it works OK.
What flavor of CM10 are you running and can you give me a link to the one you are using? Does Google Now with the cool voice search work well on CM10? Been dragging my feet! Might be ready to take the plunge.

I can't stand the Touchwiz crappy so cm10 was the only choice for me. Apparently the sms/mms not working but it does not effect me since I use Google voice. Very smooth. Google DROID hive forum and look for it there. It's by dhacker.
Google now working great.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

loveubuntu said:
I can't stand the Touchwiz crappy so cm10 was the only choice for me. Apparently the sms/mms not working but it does not effect me since I use Google voice. Very smooth. Google DROID hive forum and look for it there. It's by dhacker.
Google now working great.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, I'll keep watching the development, sms bugs are a deal breaker for me and I have a tab open watching the Droid Hive forum already!

wonderrx said:
Hello all,
Coming from a Thunderbolt I was very comfortable with ClockworkMod Recovery, I backed up and flashed often through recovery.
On this VZW S3 upon rooting and installing CWMR standard version 5.8.something my backups were only going to the internal SD card and the dates were never right, always saying 1970. The file size seemed about right (1.5 gb) and there were the normal dozen of so in the backup directory.
Out of desire to backup to my external I card I tried the new EZ Recovery app which installed CWMR 6.0.1.0 I believe, the non touch version. This version would backup to the external SD card, but still had the wrong date name for the backup folder. When I browsed that folder it was only 30mb but there was another folder called blobs that was about 1.5 to 2gb.
Is this how version 6 works? I don't have much confidence that this is a good nandroid backup and that I could restore off of it.
Looking for confirmation that this is how it is to work with version 6 and/or any tips or alternatives you can offer. I want to be able to backup and restore off of my external SD card.
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was wondering if there is somewhere or someone here in the forums that can clarify how these new back-up files work. I like to back-up my back-ups on drop-box, but now that it is creating all these files do I need to move all of these created files together or just the file with the date and time stamp? I want to flash a new rom but want to make sure my current is backed up correctly on my dropbox before doing so.
Any direction is appreciated Thanks

Phone formats to sd card to extFat. Fat32 must be done on PC. No recovery supports extFat. Kexec no longer supported by anyone once bootloader was unlocked. Haven't used Clockwork since TBolt days so don't know how Blob files affect Dropbox backup.

There is an option in CWM to turn off the blobs. I prefer to have backups that are stand-alone, so I personally turn this off.
In CWM Recovery 6.0.1.2:
backup and restore > choose backup format > tar
The two options are "dup (default)" and "tar". The "dup" option gives you the blobs folder. The idea is that it saves space when you have multiple backups. The "tar" option seems to work just like you are used to - one folder per backup.

Where does the sms folder goes?? I forgot to back up my sms using smsbackup and restore but then i was able to make a backup on cwm i like to restore my back up but when i hit restore it says md5 mismatch.. but since i was able to make a backup on cwm where i can find the right folder for sms.. cause i would like to copy it on my current rom folder so i can restore it
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

[Q] PLEASE Help

Hello everyone, for starters im a complete newb at rooting phones and have never before tonight so please excuse my ignorance. I just rooted my phone which went fine, downloaded titanium backup and backed up everything, and then moved a zip of m1 cm10 and gapps onto my ext sd card. then i followed a video on how to install these. i was running clockwork recovery and did a factory reset/clear. in the video, the next screen had an option for "choose zip from sd", all mine had was something like update from external so i clicked that and it brought up my sd card files, including the cm10 and gapps files. i clicked on them (i tried each more than once) and they both stgarted to install then said failed. Im literally here freaking out because none of the apps i downloaded to restore my stuff are on my phone anymore, and when i downloaded them from the play store they said i had not backed anything up. somebody please help me, im legitimately having a nervous breakdown because i lost everything and dont know what to do.

Ok first things first. What was the fail error that CWM produced? I dont understand what you mean by none of the apps you downloaded to restore your stuff are on the phone anymore. Where did they go? If you didnt delete them they should still be there. Did you boot up after the failed attempt, and are now at a factory state OS? Perhaps titanium isnt pointed to the correct location of the backups you made. Please provide more info.
Edit: Ok I misunderstood a point. The apps I take it are gone from the factory reset, but I still dont understand why the backup data cant be restored.

Sounds like CWM didn't flash. That sounds like stock recovery. Flash factory image via Odin, reroot, and reinstall CWM. Download an app called EZ Recovery from the market and follow the instructions. You will be fine.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

Just a side note as far as using CWM goes:
I've noticed that with CWM, the backup file sizes are way too small. Hence a possible corrupted backup folder. TWRP seems to work better with our device as far as backups go.
It's always a good idea to check the size of a backup afterwards before proceeding with any risky procedures like low level flashing. Luckily there is always ODIN.
With my device backup sizes range between 2.0GB and 2.34GB.

tekrhino said:
Just a side note as far as using CWM goes:
I've noticed that with CWM, the backup file sizes are way too small. Hence a possible corrupted backup folder. TWRP seems to work better with our device as far as backups go.
It's always a good idea to check the size of a backup afterwards before proceeding with any risky procedures like low level flashing. Luckily there is always ODIN.
With my device backup sizes range between 2.0GB and 2.34GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've got to remember that CWM backs up differently now. It backs up data separately in blobs in a different folder. So your backups in clockwork are naturally smaller. Also, I've heard nothing but bad things with TWRP on this device. I'd stay away from it and stick with non touch CWM.

mustbepbs said:
You've got to remember that CWM backs up differently now. It backs up data separately in blobs in a different folder. So your backups in clockwork are naturally smaller. Also, I've heard nothing but bad things with TWRP on this device. I'd stay away from it and stick with non touch CWM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This!

apacseven said:
Ok first things first. What was the fail error that CWM produced? I dont understand what you mean by none of the apps you downloaded to restore your stuff are on the phone anymore. Where did they go? If you didnt delete them they should still be there. Did you boot up after the failed attempt, and are now at a factory state OS? Perhaps titanium isnt pointed to the correct location of the backups you made. Please provide more info.
Edit: Ok I misunderstood a point. The apps I take it are gone from the factory reset, but I still dont understand why the backup data cant be restored.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I open titanium backup and try to restore, it tells me no backups have been performed. Before trying to flash cm10, I moved the backup to my external sdcard and it is still there, yet I still can't restore it and when I try to do something with the files on my card it says no application can perform this task. Ive gotten my contacts back through tha app I backed them up on so I'm at a loss for why tb Isnt working.

levibernhardt said:
When I open titanium backup and try to restore, it tells me no backups have been performed. Before trying to flash cm10, I moved the backup to my external sdcard and it is still there, yet I still can't restore it and when I try to do something with the files on my card it says no application can perform this task. Ive gotten my contacts back through tha app I backed them up on so I'm at a loss for why tb Isnt working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Launch titanium and hit menu/preferences. From there you can change the backup location to wherever you moved it to and it should see them.
Also for your contacts... If you are planning on flashing roms do yourself a favor a migrate your contacts off your phone and on to Google. That way you just log back in to your Google account after a re flash and they are all resynced. Plus you can access them from anywhere at contacts.Google.com
Sent from here using this

Relentless D said:
Launch titanium and hit menu/preferences. From there you can change the backup location to wherever you moved it to and it should see them.
Also for your contacts... If you are planning on flashing roms do yourself a favor a migrate your contacts off your phone and on to Google. That way you just log back in to your Google account after a re flash and they are all resynced. Plus you can access them from anywhere at contacts.Google.com
Sent from here using this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did this ^ in titanium and the files show up, but it still says there is nothing to restore.
Also, could someone tell me/point me to a good method of flashing M1 cm10 onto a us cellular gs3?

mustbepbs said:
You've got to remember that CWM backs up differently now. It backs up data separately in blobs in a different folder. So your backups in clockwork are naturally smaller. Also, I've heard nothing but bad things with TWRP on this device. I'd stay away from it and stick with non touch CWM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree 100%, the non-touch version of CWM works perfectly. I could care less about touch/non-touch/color of the app etc. ALL I care about is the capability to do a sucessful restore & CWM has never failed me for that.
I did a restore from it last night & it worked perfectly. The ONLY thing I have ever had to do after a CWM restore is clear data in GMAIL to get it to send.

[Q] Multiple clockworkmod errors???

Hi, I'm running Cyanogenmod 10.1.3 with the latest cwm installed (6.0.4.3).
I've made multiple nandroid backups before and restored them perfectly fine, but it seems that recently,
1) When I try to backup using the rom manager app, my S3 boots into recovery, but then cwm says:
*date*
E: unknown volume for path [/external_sd/clockworkmod/backup/*the name of the backup*]
Can't mount backup path.
/tmp/recovery.log was copied to /sdcard/clockworkmod/recovery.log. Please open ROM Manager to report the issue.
This has been going on for a while, even after the app updated to its newest version (5.5.2.8).
2) When I try to restore a backup, it restores all the way until half of the data is restored. Then it shows:
Restoring data...
Error while restoring /data!
I've tried advanced restore, and only restoring data, but that doesn't work either.
Are these simply all of the app's errors? Or are they something more complicated? Thanks!

aznsensazn29 said:
Hi, I'm running Cyanogenmod 10.1.3 with the latest cwm installed (6.0.4.3).
I've made multiple nandroid backups before and restored them perfectly fine, but it seems that recently,
1) When I try to backup using the rom manager app, my S3 boots into recovery, but then cwm says:
*date*
E: unknown volume for path [/external_sd/clockworkmod/backup/*the name of the backup*]
Can't mount backup path.
/tmp/recovery.log was copied to /sdcard/clockworkmod/recovery.log. Please open ROM Manager to report the issue.
This has been going on for a while, even after the app updated to its newest version (5.5.2.8).
2) When I try to restore a backup, it restores all the way until half of the data is restored. Then it shows:
Restoring data...
Error while restoring /data!
I've tried advanced restore, and only restoring data, but that doesn't work either.
Are these simply all of the app's errors? Or are they something more complicated? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has something to do with the folders it's trying to restore. You're on a 4.2 rom, so if you really want to get it to work then moving your backups, formatting your SD card, and moving them back on will probably get them to restore properly.
Also I wouldn't use rom manager to make backups, try doing it manually and see if you can get it to backup to the internal or external SD card.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

BadUsername said:
It has something to do with the folders it's trying to restore. You're on a 4.2 rom, so if you really want to get it to work then moving your backups, formatting your SD card, and moving them back on will probably get them to restore properly.
Also I wouldn't use rom manager to make backups, try doing it manually and see if you can get it to backup to the internal or external SD card.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I definitely will try it, just not enough time right now.

BadUsername said:
It has something to do with the folders it's trying to restore. You're on a 4.2 rom, so if you really want to get it to work then moving your backups, formatting your SD card, and moving them back on will probably get them to restore properly.
Also I wouldn't use rom manager to make backups, try doing it manually and see if you can get it to backup to the internal or external SD card.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It didn't work...