ClockworkMod Backup

[Guest TheTwiddler]

I've baked a Custom ROM with apps2sd included and gone out and bought a 4GB microSD card and a card reader, and fired up a copy of Fedora Core 14 so as to use gparted to create a 3GB FAT32 partition and a 1GB ext2 partition.

Then I used ClockworkMod to format the sdcard and sd-ext partitions again as I read in one of the posts about installing Quick System Info to check whether apps2sd was working or not. Quick System Info now reports A2SD storage as Total: 0.98GB, Free: 0.93GB.

So now I have a couple of questions that will be bleedin' obvious to those of you in the know:

1. What are the differences between ClockworkMod Backup and the Titanium backup app? Is one "better" than the other?

2. I tried making a ClockworkMod Backup and got this message on screen:

No /sdcard/.android_secure found. Skipping backup of applications on external storage

Is this something I need to fix to be able to back everything up??

3. I exported my Contacts to SD Card as file 00001.vcf then connected the Phone to the PC via USB. Though I can then see this file in the Filer app and via adb, it seems to be invisible to Windows Explorer so I can't make a copy of it. However, if I copy a file from Windows to the SD Card it sems to be readable/writeable by the Phone. Anyone have any idea what is going on here??

The reason for my questions is that I want to be absolutely confident I understand what's going on and how to fully backup and restore the phone before splashing the cash on paid apps such as Co-Pilot.

Regards to all

Edit:

I think I have found out what's going on with exporting contacts to the SD Card. If I do this and then power cycle the phone the file then becomes visible to the PC, so I think its got to do with syncing the file to the SD card. Linux/Android must defer writing the file to save on unneccessary write cycles, just in case the file is created and then deleted again. Powering the phone off forces syncing the file. Performing a sync manually via an ADB shell doesn't seem to do it though, so either there's a different shell command which I don't know about or it's an OS only operation.

Edited October 18, 2010 by TheTwiddler

[Guest xzyk]

I've baked a Custom ROM with apps2sd included and gone out and bought a 4GB microSD card and a card reader, and fired up a copy of Fedora Core 14 so as to use gparted to create a 3GB FAT32 partition and a 1GB ext2 partition.

Then I used ClockworkMod to format the sdcard and sd-ext partitions again as I read in one of the posts about installing Quick System Info to check whether apps2sd was working or not. Quick System Info now reports A2SD storage as Total: 0.98GB, Free: 0.93GB.

So now I have a couple of questions that will be bleedin' obvious to those of you in the know:

1. What are the differences between ClockworkMod Backup and the Titanium backup app? Is one "better" than the other?

2. I tried making a ClockworkMod Backup and got this message on screen:

No /sdcard/.android_secure found. Skipping backup of applications on external storage

Is this something I need to fix to be able to back everything up??

3. I exported my Contacts to SD Card as file 00001.vcf then connected the Phone to the PC via USB. Though I can then see this file in the Filer app and via adb, it seems to be invisible to Windows Explorer so I can't make a copy of it. However, if I copy a file from Windows to the SD Card it sems to be readable/writeable by the Phone. Anyone have any idea what is going on here??

The reason for my questions is that I want to be absolutely confident I understand what's going on and how to fully backup and restore the phone before splashing the cash on paid apps such as Co-Pilot.

Regards to all

Can you please confirm you're rooted, have superuser on and which version rom you're running ?

Edited October 17, 2010 by xzyk

[Guest TheTwiddler]

Can you please confirm you're rooted, have superuser on and which version rom you're running ?

Rooted: Yes

Superuser: Yes. V2.3.6.1

ROM: R4 Custom Rom baked from Kitchen with A2SD support

[Guest rjm2k]

I've baked a Custom ROM with apps2sd included and gone out and bought a 4GB microSD card and a card reader, and fired up a copy of Fedora Core 14 so as to use gparted to create a 3GB FAT32 partition and a 1GB ext2 partition.

Then I used ClockworkMod to format the sdcard and sd-ext partitions again as I read in one of the posts about installing Quick System Info to check whether apps2sd was working or not. Quick System Info now reports A2SD storage as Total: 0.98GB, Free: 0.93GB.

So now I have a couple of questions that will be bleedin' obvious to those of you in the know:

1. What are the differences between ClockworkMod Backup and the Titanium backup app? Is one "better" than the other?

2. I tried making a ClockworkMod Backup and got this message on screen:

No /sdcard/.android_secure found. Skipping backup of applications on external storage

Is this something I need to fix to be able to back everything up??

3. I exported my Contacts to SD Card as file 00001.vcf then connected the Phone to the PC via USB. Though I can then see this file in the Filer app and via adb, it seems to be invisible to Windows Explorer so I can't make a copy of it. However, if I copy a file from Windows to the SD Card it sems to be readable/writeable by the Phone. Anyone have any idea what is going on here??

The reason for my questions is that I want to be absolutely confident I understand what's going on and how to fully backup and restore the phone before splashing the cash on paid apps such as Co-Pilot.

Regards to all

Clockwork does a full image of your phone, titanium probably backs up apps and data seperatly, it's effectively the same thing but a full image definatly has everything. The only limitation of clockwork (nandroid) is that if your partition sizes ever change (ie the manufacturer releases an update that changes them as happened on the pulse) you might not be able to restore.

Message about /sdcard/.android_secure doesn't matter.

As for .vcf file, make sure show all files/system files is on in windows explorer.

[Guest ken218]

I use titanium backup to restore all my apps after I flash roms (of course, you need to have the apps backup first)

ClockworkMod backup is for you restore your phone back to the state you backup (like system restore in windows?)

Titanium Backup keep a backup of your apps and system settings (data), so you can selectively restore apps/settings at any point in time (not sure this can be described in the windows term...)

For your ultimate question regards to CoPilot. All your app purchases are linked to your google account. So even if you don't backup your apps, you can still re-download and install the apps from the market without being charged again.

That also means, when you upgrade to your next android phone, you can keep the apps you have paid for on the new phone!!

[Guest TheTwiddler]

Clockwork does a full image of your phone, titanium probably backs up apps and data seperatly, it's effectively the same thing but a full image definatly has everything. The only limitation of clockwork (nandroid) is that if your partition sizes ever change (ie the manufacturer releases an update that changes them as happened on the pulse) you might not be able to restore.

Message about /sdcard/.android_secure doesn't matter.

As for .vcf file, make sure show all files/system files is on in windows explorer.

Thanks for your reply. But can you tell me why you are so sure that the message doesn't matter? Would the data.img (or another) be missing if it did matter?

[Guest rjm2k]

Thanks for your reply. But can you tell me why you are so sure that the message doesn't matter? Would the data.img (or another) be missing if it did matter?

sdcard/.android_secure is used by froyo for apps on the sd card,. you don't have froyo, therefore it doesn'matter

[Guest TheTwiddler]

sdcard/.android_secure is used by froyo for apps on the sd card,. you don't have froyo, therefore it doesn'matter

Thanks for the explanation. Happy bunny now.