Update without Upgrade?

[Guest amarzahn]

hi team,

i rooted my htc desire (modaco r2) a while ago and am pretty much satisfied.

i experience minor difficulties with radio connections indoors and a battery drain (daily charges) apparently due to the nature of this multimedia wonders...

after a month since root i have pretty much everything set up as needed (newsticker, gmail, calendar, etc).

i was wondering if there is any way to update radio or modaco OS without killing all settings and tweaks?

do i always have to flash the complete OS when updating radio?

will titanium backup take really care of all my settings after i flashed my phone?

and how is this backup done in a good way?

i remember doing a backup of win7 that would completely fail to restore anything after all ;)

thanks for your support

best,

alwin

[Guest Ellis Grouse]

Depending on the ROM you are installing, it may be possible to keep your settings.

If you plan to upgrade to the same 'type' of ROM, ie from 2.1 to another 2.1 build, you should be able to install it fully without doing a wipe in advance, and all your settings will then be kept.

This may also work going from 2.1 to 2.2, but I have not tested - the best thing to do would be to perform a Nandroid backup in advance, try it out, and then restore the backup if all goes wrong.

Referring to Titanium Backup; you can ask it to backup all your apps + settings to the SD card before you install the ROM. When you then boot back into the new one and reinstall Titanium, you can restore your settings from the SD card without issue. Note that I've never been successful in getting Titanium to restore my apps... only my settings.

Hope this helps you out some ;)

[Guest irishandrew]

Just to add to what has already been said, I have been successful with Titanium (although I use the paid version to save on all the installing clicking! - I have a lot of apps!). Occasionally I need to reconfigure my widgets, but generally after a couple of reboots it has sorted itself out. This is on an installation using A2SD+ just for your information.

If your current setup includes A2SD make sure whatever you are updating to has the same version to save on any issues forcing you to wipe (i.e. if you use A2SD then keep it in the new ROM, or A2SD+ keep it as A2SD+ it you're not planning to wipe). I have installed many a new ROM on top of old without Wipe (and without losing settings or apps), but I do wipe as the version numbers increase or the base ROM for Paul's builds has been changed, or if I have made significant changes to the configuration (via the kitchen).

If you are wiping - be aware that if you use A2SD you will need to either format the EXT partition in Linux (where the apps would be stored) or repartition your card via the Recovery console to prevent bootloops. By doing this you would thereby lose everything on the SD card, including Nandroid backups and Titanium backups - so make sure to copy the contents of your FAT partition (the one visible as a disk in windows) to your computer before doing this and AFTER making your backups to be extra safe!

To recap - Fresh install, everything wiped, maintaining current setup:

1. Make a nandroid backup in recovery; if you don't like how things turn out you can get back to the way it is now.

2. Any app d/l'd and installed from the market will be linked to your google account so will be in your list of "Downloads" in the market to re-download after a fresh install on a wiped handset, however using Titanium you can re-install everything at once including your current settings and system wide configuration, in addition to maintaining the market status for updates.

3. To be safe copy the contents of the FAT32 partition on the SD card to your computer before wiping. You can do this from recovery by mounting the USB; I believe this has been fixed in the more recent recovery images or if you are using clockwork? Otherwise just boot up the phone following your nandroid backup, perform your titanium backup, then mount the sd as a disk and copy the contents to a folder on the computer. You can copy it back later once the new ROM is installed. With titanium be sure to verify your backups before proceeding (under the batch menu) - just in case there is a faulty one.

4. Put the new ROM on your SD, enter recovery and wipe everything.

5. Flash the zip from the SD card

6. Use the recovery to repartition the SD card after installing the ROM (provided you have been/will be using A2SD - if not then ignore this step and your SD card contents will remain unaffected).

7. Boot up the phone and skip through the setup - you don't need it.

N.B. It may be wise to reboot the phone now before doing anything. Paul's ROMs usually need a reboot after first boot to complete everything - usually says in the system info IIRC.

8. If you formatted from recovery or repartitioned the SD card then mount the phone as a disk and copy back the contents from the backup you made - this will include the titanium backup. If you did not format the FAT32 partition or repartition the card you can skip this step.

9. Open up Titanium backup - if it's not in your ROM then download it from the market.

10. On the "Overview" tab click the "Problems?" button and install BusyBox. This will ensure the right version for Titanium is on your phone. (Actually do this before making your first backup too - just to be sure).

11. Press the menu button and select "Batch". Select "Restore all missing apps + system data". If you are using the free version you will have to sit with the phone and tell each app to install. If you are using the paid version then it will all happen automatically.

12. Power off your phone, then reboot.

13. May need to repeat step 11.

14. Reopen Titanium and click Menu->Market Doctor. This will ensure the market links with all your apps are fine.

15. It is likely that you'll have to reconfigure the widgets on your home screens. Otherwise everything else - settings, bookmarks, login details etc. should be retained.

If things still feel/look wrong to you and you want to go back - simply reboot into recovery and do a Nandroid restore to your original backup. This is the configuration as you left it to enter Recovery the first time :-)

The process is easier if not Wiping - just install the ROM from recovery (do a Nandroid backup first!). Unless your new ROM is vastly different from the old it should all be fine and will boot into your familiar configuration. Just beware changing too much to do with A2SD as talked about above.

Hope this helps,

Andrew.

P.S. Radio updates are separate to the OS. They can be flashed without wiping or changing the OS at all. Just download the radio version you want to flash and flash it in the recovery. Be aware that the install completes on the reboot, and as such the phone can appear as though it has hung sometimes. It hasn't - just be patient, as pulling the battery mid radio update will brick the device.

Edited June 20, 2010 by irishandrew