Guest pillock Posted December 4, 2009 Report Share Posted December 4, 2009 Hi all Firstly, many thanks to Paul for MCR, and the rest of the devs here for putting out some great software without asking for a single penny. You guys work really hard! I'm getting to grips a bit more with Hero now, I'm currently running Amon-RA-1.3.2 Recovery, and MCR3.0. I just want to ask a few questions about backups - there doesn't seem to be much documentation online after searching here and XDA-Dev. Does a Nandroid make a full backup of everything? As in, if I get a perfectly working MCR3.0 setup, with a good radio and stuff, do a Nandroid, can I then start to play around with the new 2.1 ROMs without any risk? If I really screw it up, will Nandroid Restore put everything back as it was or so I need to manually put MCR and/or radio back on first? Basically I'm used to using Sprite Backup on Windows Mobile, where you had to put your working ROM back and then Sprite just installed programs and settings. What does BART do better/worse/differently to Nandroid? Is that also suitable for making an entire system image in order to let me mess around on the bleeding edge? thanks guys :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kendon Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 first of all, a nandroid backup is like a hard disk image on your pc. it just makes an exact copy of the hard disk (in this case flash memory, as the hero obviously does not have a disk drive... :D ) this contains the rom part, the radio, the recovery image, [i am not 100% sure about the bootloader aka spl aka hboot, but i think it is included aswell, like 99% :( ], your settings like application settings, contacts, messages, mails, bookmarks, passwords and so on. it does not backup your apps if you are using apps2sd, and it does not backup the contents of your sdcard (what you see when you mount it on your pc). also keep in mind that you need a working recovery image to restore a nandroid backup, so even though it contains the recovery image and spl you won't be able to restore the backup if you fubar these parts! or in short words: do not flash spl or recovery unless you are sure it is the right one. idk exactly about bart, never used it so far, but this seems to be the documentation for it. i personally use nandroid and some linux scripts for a full backup. when i enable the usb mass storage on the phone my ubuntu sees two partitions, as it is able to read the ext2/3/4 apps2sd partition aswell as the regular fat partition. one simple script gives me the ability to backup all contents, and even toggle between a "stable" and a "test" environment (with manually made nandroid backups, but hey, thats two clicks on the trackball...). i think this is pretty much what BART does, but i like to a) know what exactly is happening, and :D have the stuff completely on my harddrive in addition to the sdcard, this way i need to screw up TWICE in order to be really screwed ;) let me know if i can help you with that, under the condition that you use some flavor of linux on your pc, though it might be possible with windows it would be... well complicated and crappy. i can clean up my scripts a little, so they can be used without deeper knowledge of a linux shell. my system might not be the most effective one, but it works and is pretty straight forward, as i said i like to know what exactly happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dan Mullen Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 As far as I can tell, a BART backup does a nandroid backup and a TAR archive of your app, app-private and lost+found directories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pillock Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 Oh right, thanks guys..... I'd basically had a failed Nandroid backup - when I restored it after screwing up, I was missing quite a lot of stuff like my home screen layouts, settings for apps, contacts and calendar info, device settings.... I worried that Nandroid was only a partial backup, but then I realised that I ran out of space on my SD Card when making the backup and it doesn't warn you, it just completes anyway. I use apps2SD so don't think BART offers much over and above Nandroid for me, my apps-private will already be on the SD card. Kendon, I'd like to see those scripts and I'm sure they'd be useful to others too.... I'm on Windows at home but use Ubuntu at work so would be able to make use of them (I get far more Herofiddling done at work than home!). It'd be nice to be able to mess around with 2.1 all day but then quickly get a stable environment back on my phone before I go home. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kendon Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 here is my backup script, using rsync to speed things up. you need to have your ubuntu box set up to mount the hero's drives in the same partition each time, or you have to alter the directories in the script each time. i suggest using the UUID labels in /etc/fstab for this, as they are independent of what device the hero was given by ubuntu (/dev/sd[a,b,c...]). UUID stays the same until you repartition your sdcard. when you set up the directories for mounting put them in the script, it is commented what to do. before doing the first backup run "herobackup first" while the hero is mounted, so the script can set up the detection mechanism to see whether it is mounted or not in the future. also the destination directories for the backup are created. you only need to do that once, after that run "herobackup" for backup and "herobackup restore" for restore. after you restored the contents of the sdcard with this script you need to run a nandroid restore, if you want also the contents of your flash memory to be restored. remember to make a nandroid backup first, then run this script, so EVERYTHING is backed up: the nandroid backup you just created, your files (like music, pictures and whatever) and all your apps. the first backup may take some time as everything needs to be copied, after that only files that were changed since the last backup are copied. this script will SYNCHRONIZE two folders, meaning it will also DELETE on your pc what you deleted on the hero. keep that in mind when using.herobackup.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kendon Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 (I get far more Herofiddling done at work than home!) have you considered using ubuntu at home? i have it running here on a netbook, notebook and my htpc, just works great for all three purposes :D oh, and at work too... it just seems natural that a linux-powered phone is better to hacked/modded from a linux-driven computer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pillock Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 Shared computer at home, too much hassle and I'd get it in the neck for making things difficult :D Work is all mine mine mine though. I have considered dual-booting at home but never got around to it, it's a laptop with not a great deal of hard drive space left so it might have to wait. I'm also a bit of a Linux noob, the Hero has helped to some extent but despite being bought up on CLIs and Shells, Ubuntu terminal baffles me sometimes! Thanks for the script, I shall give it a whirl on Monday :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venturerider Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Dual booting is one thing, but you might want to look into VirtualBox as an alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venturerider Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 So, Nandroid -> everything in internal memory BART -> Nandroid + app and app-private (which is on ext4 sd card partition for me) So what does "Nandroid + ext" do? I've been trying to figure out the different type of backups and their contents for days. I still don't understand. I want a backup that contains ALL filesystems, internal and external, that I can copy to my PC for safekeeping. Which is my best option? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kendon Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 (edited) I've been trying to figure out the different type of backups and their contents for days. I still don't understand. I want a backup that contains ALL filesystems, internal and external, that I can copy to my PC for safekeeping. Which is my best option? i would go with nandroid + ext, also because i don't know what bart does exactly either. it is a tool for switching roms, so it probably does the same job, but nandroid is pretty straightforward, and the ext part is just a .tar.gz file which you can easily open on your pc if you need access to apps, i.e. for reinstallation of a single app. edit: don't forget that you need to backup the contents of the sdcard fat partition, if you want ALL stuff. this would also contain the nandroid + ext backup files. this means if you do nandroid+ext and then copy everything of you sdcard to your pc you got all you need. after that you can safely test if you can drop your hero in the ocean or if you can drive over it with your suv, after you get a new one it will be like the old one in a few clicks ;) are you using linux btw? i made script which does a fully automated backup i described above with one command (just plug in the phone, no need to touch it during the backup ;) ), but i stupidly deleted it... i might recreate it some day. Edited December 14, 2009 by kendon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venturerider Posted December 15, 2009 Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Thanks, kendon. I will run a nandroid + ext and see what I get. I'm running Vista at home, although I have VirtualBox and an Ubuntu VM lying around. I have Allway Sync on Vista. I'm only a couple of clicks away from a full backup of my SD card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dan Mullen Posted December 15, 2009 Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Thanks, kendon. I will run a nandroid + ext and see what I get. I'm running Vista at home, although I have VirtualBox and an Ubuntu VM lying around. I have Allway Sync on Vista. I'm only a couple of clicks away from a full backup of my SD card. Personally I run a BART backup then copy my SD contents to my PC. AFAIK, a BART backup is like a nandroid+ext... it's a nandroid backup plus a .tar file containing your app, app-private and lost+found directories from your ext partition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venturerider Posted December 15, 2009 Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Well, I've just confirmed that nandroid + ext creates a tar with app, app-private and lost+found. Sounds a lot like a BART backup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dan Mullen Posted December 15, 2009 Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Well, I've just confirmed that nandroid + ext creates a tar with app, app-private and lost+found. Sounds a lot like a BART backup! Yes ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venturerider Posted December 15, 2009 Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Next step for me is the 2.1 ROM that's available. After that, I'll get to try a nandroid + ext restore. LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest uk786 Posted December 16, 2009 Report Share Posted December 16, 2009 venturerider, I'll be waiting to see the outcome.. then I might give it a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dan Mullen Posted December 16, 2009 Report Share Posted December 16, 2009 2.1 isn't quite there for me yet... I'll be waiting until a more stable ROM is available. Really looking forward to Paul releasing MCR 4.0 ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest theFRAGGLE Posted January 16, 2010 Report Share Posted January 16, 2010 Well, I've just confirmed that nandroid + ext creates a tar with app, app-private and lost+found. Sounds a lot like a BART backup! Thanks for that, I have to try. Did only a "normal" nandroid backup so far. One question: if I do a restore from a nandroid + ext - does this copy the apps back to the sd card? Or this this ext backup just one-way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest c3k Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 One question: if I do a restore from a nandroid + ext - does this copy the apps back to the sd card? Or this this ext backup just one-way? yes when you restore a nandroid + ext, the applications will be restored too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest theFRAGGLE Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 OK, thanks. But I had problems with the nand/ext backup, as well the BART backup. Will try again and post the errors. Something like "do this with adb instead"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kendon Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 OK, thanks. But I had problems with the nand/ext backup, as well the BART backup. Will try again and post the errors. Something like "do this with adb instead"... check first post of recovery image thread, "for those having issues with ext4"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ejaponica Posted January 24, 2010 Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 (edited) OK, thanks. But I had problems with the nand/ext backup, as well the BART backup. Will try again and post the errors. Something like "do this with adb instead"... adb shell # nandroid-mobile.sh --backup it will create a nandroid+ext file Edited January 24, 2010 by ejaponica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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