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Nandroid backup - does it get EVERYTHING ?

Folx,
I got bitten by the rooting bug. However, as I do use the phone quite a bit, I want to play it safe , so that if the ROMs I am about to try, don't quite work out, I want to get back to stock img and the apps I have and the settings I have etc.
So - as I perform Nandroid backup - does it backup everything ? In other words, if/when I have to restore from the said backup, will I get EVERYTHING back - all the apps and settings, as if nothing has changed ?
Or will I have to reinstall and configure all the apps anew ?

Yes, you will get your apps and settings back.
However I think it doesn't backup other partitions like "radio", because I recently had a problem with my radio and nandroid restore didn't help, I had to flash it again. Anyway, yes, as far as apps, settings, SMS, contacts etc. are concerned you're good.

BlueScreenJunky said:
Yes, you will get your apps and settings back.
However I think it doesn't backup other partitions like "radio", because I recently had a problem with my radio and nandroid restore didn't help, I had to flash it again. Anyway, yes, as far as apps, settings, SMS, contacts etc. are concerned you're good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It creates img files of boot, data, system (and your ext partition on your sd card if you are using one). Anything found in those will be imaged and backed up. It is way too dangerous and pointless to backup the radio. Radio isn't a partition btw.
Don't confuse nandroid backups with other (titanium for example) backups that can carry your settings from one rom to another...

So I have to have the radio image in order to safely restore a NANDROID backup? This thread is old and I don't know if things have changed by now...
PS: Unsure if I have to start a new thread to get an answer to this...

If you won't have a radio image intact, your phone won't boot at all. It won't even turn on.

[Q] Nandroid backup

Hi all
Is Nandroid backing up all the apps I've got at that moment? Or it just saves system files?
Like a complete and exact "photo" or are there things that I should do on my own if I mean to recover exactly as it was...
I assume that no wipe is necessary...
Thanks!

What's the truth about Nandroid backup?!
i guess there's no need to open a new topic, because i got kinda the same question
before you guys start to redirect me to the "search" function, i want to assure you that i have been using it, but i have found myself in a very strange situation, one question, two different answers... and because i'm new to the whole root stuff, i want to learn everything correctly before starting to make modifications to my phone
The question is: Nandroid backup, does it also back up the kernel or not?
I mean, if i root and install a custom rom that also comes with a custom kernel, will i be able to use my previous Nandroid backup to restore my phone to the old rom & kernel?
Searching the forums, i have found 2 totally different answers!
Answer 1: Nandroid does not backup the kernel: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=806340
Answer 2: Nandroid does backup the kernel: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=844352
So, please make me and all of us root noobs understand once and for all, does it backup the kernel or not?, will we be able to restore from a custom rom+kernel in case we need to?

and does it backup apps?

OK...As I understand it....
What does Nandroid Backup?
The ROM Itself..Obviously.
All your system settings, emails, SMSes, etc
All the Apps you have installed, so no need for TB
The Kernel you have installed (though there is controversy about this, and to be honest, I have never restored a nandroid backup when I had a different kernel already installed...however it really doesn't matter since kernels are easy to flash)
What does Nandroid NOT backup - This is VERY IMPORTANT
The modem (not a big deal)
The File System setting (A BIG DEAL)
This I think is where the confusion arises concerning the kernel being included in the nandroid backup. For many people the kernel is all about the lagfix. If you have installed a lagfix on your phone via the kernel, say changing the file system to Ext4, and then flash a Nandroid backup that includes a stock kernel or other kernel that does NOT support Ext4, you are in for a world of hurt...and in this case hurt means endless bootloops.
The way you avoid this is, if you need to flash a Nandroid with a kernel that does not support your lagfix...go into recovery, disable whatever lagfix, tell it when it asks that you wish to REBOOT INTO RECOVERY after the change....then flash the nandroid you wish.
This is why it is very important to keep regular nandroid backups, and to wait and see if a ROM/Kernel are stable for you before applying lagfixes or other tweaks.

So, let me see if i got this right, Nandroid does backup up my current kernel along with my rom, but if i apply any changes (lagfix) to my kernel afterwards or change it with a custom one with lagfix, nandroid won't be able to restore it anymore...
so the whole problem here is that nandroid is not able to backup / restore The File System setting, this being the rfs / ext4 transition
If this is the case, it seems that the Nandroid type backup is not as powerful as i thought, you can't really change from one rom to another in just a few clicks, but then again i guess that all the customs roms already come with some type of lagfix and you can make a nandroid restore between them, the problem would be when you want to revert back to a stock kernel, then you'll have to disable the lagfixes or simply flash a stock kernel and then restore the stock nandroid backup
so, i got this right guys?

maranello69 said:
So, let me see if i got this right, Nandroid does backup up my current kernel along with my rom, but if i apply any changes (lagfix) to my kernel afterwards or change it with a custom one with lagfix, nandroid won't be able to restore it anymore...
so the whole problem here is that nandroid is not able to backup / restore The File System setting, this being the rfs / ext4 transition
If this is the case, it seems that the Nandroid type backup is not as powerful as i thought, you can't really change from one rom to another in just a few clicks, but then again i guess that all the customs roms already come with some type of lagfix and you can make a nandroid restore between them, the problem would be when you want to revert back to a stock kernel, then you'll have to disable the lagfixes or simply flash a stock kernel and then restore the stock nandroid backup
so, i got this right guys?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes as I understand it.
You see Nandroid can't convert your file system or change anything, all it can do is flash a disc image onto your phone. If that image can work with your file system, you are golden. If not, it is like flashing a Mac OS image onto a Windows machine....nothing will work right.
However the good news is that most custom kernels support Ext4...so really the only problem comes when you try to flash back to a stock image...or vice versa.

got it then, thanks for your answers
and, if i still got your attention, maybe one more question
i just downloaded a stock firmware from samfirmwares.com, and all i got is a .tar file, can i use it somehow to flash just the kernel from it or i have to flash the whole firmware?
if i flash the whole firmware, will it also change my PHONE and CSC?, because the .tar file must be put just in the PDA section in odin

maranello69 said:
got it then, thanks for your answers
and, if i still got your attention, maybe one more question
i just downloaded a stock firmware from samfirmwares.com, and all i got is a .tar file, can i use it somehow to flash just the kernel from it or i have to flash the whole firmware?
if i flash the whole firmware, will it also change my PHONE and CSC?, because the .tar file must be put just in the PDA section in odin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it will flash the PDA, csc, modem and kernel...the whole shooting match. The single file firmwares are designed like that to avoid mismatches and issues. Once you flash it, flash a kernel that supports cwm (I suggest speedmod or something by CHAINFIRE) via odin, then flash a new csc and modem if you wish from recovery.
Remember that installing a new csc will do a factory reset so do it before reinstalling apps.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

great stuff man
finally i got enough info and i can start my root & flash procedure, guess i'll also learn a few other tricks along the way, this community is definetly the place to be if you want to learn how to "really use" your device
the whole info about the issues with the Nandroid type backup should be integrated in one of those massive info topics, so the root noobs like me know what they're dealing with

maranello69 said:
great stuff man
finally i got enough info and i can start my root & flash procedure, guess i'll also learn a few other tricks along the way, this community is definetly the place to be if you want to learn how to "really use" your device
the whole info about the issues with the Nandroid type backup should be integrated in one of those massive info topics, so the root noobs like me know what they're dealing with
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

Hey guys i actually used the search button (yay) and this is definitely the most informative one regarding the topic.
However i still have one more question: does it backup files and folders as well? Ie. my Nexus S storage is mainly used up by my videos and music (about 7-10GB) which are in their own folders and not tied to any apps in particular. Hence if it does include those i wouldn't have enough storage space to create a nandroid backup am i right?
Edit: thanks to the search button i didn't realise that i posted on a Galaxy S forum please forgive me, the question should still be relevant to the topic though

frenccw said:
Hey guys i actually used the search button (yay) and this is definitely the most informative one regarding the topic.
However i still have one more question: does it backup files and folders as well? Ie. my Nexus S storage is mainly used up by my videos and music (about 7-10GB) which are in their own folders and not tied to any apps in particular. Hence if it does include those i wouldn't have enough storage space to create a nandroid backup am i right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I understand it, it does save folders and files, so yes if you have large data folders on your internal SD it will make GIGANTIC nandroid backups. You may want to store such files one your external SD.
I know that there is a version of CWM that does not backup /data/media in Nandroid on the Galaxy Tab 10.1...perhaps there is something similar that I don't know about for Galaxy phones. Does anyone know?

Flashing over a rom?

So im wondering, what is the standard practise, or based on your own experiences. What is the best way to flash over an existing rom using CWM? What do you do to prepare the fone for new rom, wipe user data, dalvik cache, before or after flashing. Just trying to get a good idea of how to do it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

going from rom to rom:
put rom.zip on /sdcard/
reboot to recovery
install zip from sdcard
point to rom.zip
flash
reboot
any rom that has been properly done will wipe user data and dalvik cache for you. no need to do it manually

i always flash back to eclair and master clear with odin one click to make sure all files from previous roms are gone then CWM flash new ROM

Pirateghost said:
going from rom to rom:
put rom.zip on /sdcard/
reboot to recovery
install zip from sdcard
point to rom.zip
flash
reboot
any rom that has been properly done will wipe user data and dalvik cache for you. no need to do it manually
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Except I do clear the caches manually, but that's just because I have OCD.

CremeFraiche said:
i always flash back to eclair and master clear with odin one click to make sure all files from previous roms are gone then CWM flash new ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lets look at the master clear function shall we?
when you flash to stock...your entire / is stock (RFS, eclair 2.1, /data /system, etc)
essentially, you have just reformatted your root, think of it like formatting your C drive and your sdcard is like a secondary internal drive that contains storage
master clear at this point will only delete items off your /sdcard
roms dont care about your /sdcard, master clear is worthless when you are stock
there was a time where it was necessary to flash to stock to reset the filesystem and then flash the rom. it has not been needed in months, but it continues to get preached as gospel.
even flashing to stock isnt necessary unless you are trying to come from CM7 or MIUI....or if something goes horribly wrong

Thx for info guys, I have flashed a few times and it seemed like now and then my fone must became bogged down and needed to be fully wiped, sound didnt work or lagfix folders bunch of text docs, just seemed cluttered. So if wanted to really clear out junk what would be a good way without having to flash back to stock?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Just flash. If you have a problem then back to stock Ans a MC. I have flashed hundreds of time back to stock once.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

Pirateghost said:
lets look at the master clear function shall we?
when you flash to stock...your entire / is stock (RFS, eclair 2.1, /data /system, etc)
essentially, you have just reformatted your root, think of it like formatting your C drive and your sdcard is like a secondary internal drive that contains storage
master clear at this point will only delete items off your /sdcard
roms dont care about your /sdcard, master clear is worthless when you are stock
there was a time where it was necessary to flash to stock to reset the filesystem and then flash the rom. it has not been needed in months, but it continues to get preached as gospel.
even flashing to stock isnt necessary unless you are trying to come from CM7 or MIUI....or if something goes horribly wrong
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would definitely agree. I have also seen people say to disable lagfix before flashing. I have not done that either and never had any problem.

Would just like to amend the advice already given with the following:
Pre-flashing:
1. Titanium Backup of apps and data
2. Nandroid backup in case something goes boom.
Post-flashing (assuming success):
TB restore of user apps/data only. NEVER RESTORE SYSTEM FILES.
They may not apply to some people, but I feel those are necessary steps for anyone that actually uses their phone daily.

modest_mandroid said:
Would just like to amend the advice already given with the following:
Pre-flashing:
1. Titanium Backup of apps and data
2. Nandroid backup in case something goes boom.
Post-flashing (assuming success):
TB restore of user apps/data only. NEVER RESTORE SYSTEM FILES.
They may not apply to some people, but I feel those are necessary steps for anyone that actually uses their phone daily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why not restore system files? Does this apply if coming from flashing back to stock first, or just flashing from one rom to another?
Glad to hear the advice about not flashing back to stock, that's been one of the major reasons I haven't flashed quite as many rom's as I want, too time consuming.........not to say that i'm not flashing a couple rom's a week, but there's just so many options to try

neophile said:
why not restore system files? Does this apply if coming from flashing back to stock first, or just flashing from one rom to another?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Making "search" a standard practice would be very helpful.
Restoring system is known to mess up ROMs in all cases. Though may not be mandatory, but make it a standard practice to flash stock. Takes hardly 10 mins, and helps save big headaches later.

neophile said:
why not restore system files? Does this apply if coming from flashing back to stock first, or just flashing from one rom to another?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incompatibilities across rom versions, mostly. As the guy above me said, restoring system files tends to mess up a rom because you are overwriting part of it with files from a different rom.
There is one caveat, however. If you're flashing back to a rom you originally performed the backup on, you can safely restore system files. For example, if you were running Cog 4.3 and did a full TB backup, then decided to flash Serendipity 6.3, you would want to restore only your user apps and user data. However, if you decided to flash back to Cog 4.3 at some point, you could do a full TB restore without worrying about incompatibilities.

I agree with everyone else. Flashing over another rom seldom causes issues. I make s nandroid backup of my favorite rom with everything setup the way i like it. then flash away trying different roms. When i am done, i just restore my backup and all is good!

I have done a search, couldn't find the specific answer I needed, hence my asking. Could be I wasn't phrasing the search correctly......but here I am.....
To clarify, what do you dpo to get your system settings back after flashing a new rom? I flashed to serendipty 6.4 last night, as per the advice, I didn't restore system files, just apps and data, but that didn't work so well for me. I lost my data connection, could only use my wifi, and had no contacts, or any sms msgs. I don't know what else was missing, but I then went and restored system files, everything came back as needed, and there seems to be no issue......
How do I get my info setting back, or do I just need to manually re-set everything after flashing? Apart from wireless info, msgs and contacts, what else do you lose by not restoring?
Appreciate your help

havent flashed a new rom in a while and forgot if anything extra was needed when flashing a rom over a rom
thx!

[Q] Is it wise or unwise to restore only system from nandroid to revert mods?

Hi, I used to try flashable mods and then restored whole nandroid backup if I didn't like them or if they didn't work. But backup is some days older because I do not backup before every single mod, so I always lost some messages and settings etc (due to my laziness). To overcome this, I thought that because mods are flashed to modify system, why not restore only system? So, I tried and found out that restoring only system saves my data from being lost because the data is not touched. Since then, I prefer to restore only system whenever I want to "undo" a mod.
But the question is: Am I doing something wrong? I don't have technical knowledge and I am not a developer, so I thought I should ask the community if this practice is safe.

no its just fine.. you just need to make sure the system files are the same from the current rom as well.. as in no major difference XXLT4 -> LTA.. this may work but also may lead to a boot loop.

[Q] Can we verify whether or not our backups have been corrupted?

Hey guys, I just have a general question that (seemingly) applies to all Android phones. I'm posting this question in the GS3 mini section because I have a MetroPCS Galaxy Exhibit [SGH-T599N] and I guess that's where we're we've been relegated to, but this question, as I said, could really apply to any phone. My question is this: how can I verify that my NAND backups are not corrupted?
Here's some context: I recently flashed to CM 11. Everything's running great, it's my daily driver, and I love it. It's easily the best, most smooth ROM I've ever used but I recently discovered a need to flash back to the stock ROM backup I was running pre-CM 11. Before I flashed to CM 11 I was running the standard JB stock and incidentally I was also using a different Kik username. After flashing to CM 11 and installing Kik, I decided to make a new username. Now, given that I never logged out of that old username (the one I was using on JB stock), I know that if I were to flash back to that old ROM, I'd boot into a ROM that's logged into that old account. I need to be able to do this because I need to access that old Kik account's chat logs for personal reasons. My problem now is due to two issues: my amazing stupidity and...well, no that's really it.
At the time I was running stock I was running CWM recovery. I made a backup using Rom Manager but like an idiot I backed up to my internal SD card. In order to flash to CM 11 I had to wipe my internal memory, which eventually lead to me losing that backup. My only silver lining is this: I made one backup to external sd about a week before I flashed to CM 11.
Here's where it gets messy: Not knowing that the backup on the external sd was for my stock pre-CM 11 ROM, I stupidly deleted it to free up space and began saving files onto the external sd card. After I had flashed to CM 11 I made about three CM 11 backups. I deleted my pre-CM 11 backup because I mistook it for one of these three CM 11 backups. Upon realizing the height of my stupidity, I just finished recovering these lost folders and files using a data recovery program, but I have no idea whether or not the files have been irreparably corrupted. Is there any way I can verify that this backup is still good to use? I don't want to risk attempting to flash back to my old ROM only to have it wind up bricking my phone. Does anyone know of a good way I can figure this out? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
an idiot

adamryanx said:
Hey guys, I just have a general question that (seemingly) applies to all Android phones. I'm posting this question in the GS3 mini section because I have a MetroPCS Galaxy Exhibit [SGH-T599N] and I guess that's where we're we've been relegated to, but this question, as I said, could really apply to any phone. My question is this: how can I verify that my NAND backups are not corrupted?
Here's some context: I recently flashed to CM 11. Everything's running great, it's my daily driver, and I love it. It's easily the best, most smooth ROM I've ever used but I recently discovered a need to flash back to the stock ROM backup I was running pre-CM 11. Before I flashed to CM 11 I was running the standard JB stock and incidentally I was also using a different Kik username. After flashing to CM 11 and installing Kik, I decided to make a new username. Now, given that I never logged out of that old username (the one I was using on JB stock), I know that if I were to flash back to that old ROM, I'd boot into a ROM that's logged into that old account. I need to be able to do this because I need to access that old Kik account's chat logs for personal reasons. My problem now is due to two issues: my amazing stupidity and...well, no that's really it.
At the time I was running stock I was running CWM recovery. I made a backup using Rom Manager but like an idiot I backed up to my internal SD card. In order to flash to CM 11 I had to wipe my internal memory, which eventually lead to me losing that backup. My only silver lining is this: I made one backup to external sd about a week before I flashed to CM 11.
Here's where it gets messy: Not knowing that the backup on the external sd was for my stock pre-CM 11 ROM, I stupidly deleted it to free up space and began saving files onto the external sd card. After I had flashed to CM 11 I made about three CM 11 backups. I deleted my pre-CM 11 backup because I mistook it for one of these three CM 11 backups. Upon realizing the height of my stupidity, I just finished recovering these lost folders and files using a data recovery program, but I have no idea whether or not the files have been irreparably corrupted. Is there any way I can verify that this backup is still good to use? I don't want to risk attempting to flash back to my old ROM only to have it wind up bricking my phone. Does anyone know of a good way I can figure this out? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
an idiot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you recovered it immediately after deletion - then it's most likely still good. I don't think there's any way to fully verify backups; but I will say this if you do chose to use that backup and it fails, you should easily be able to flash any rom over again to correct it, or even use odin to go back to stock rom and try again. The only way you truly hard-brick phones is flashing something over usb and it gets disconnected haflway through, or you accidently flash somethign to the wrong partition (if you were using hiemdall), generally speaking for nearly 80% of bricks are sem-bricks and should easily be able to recover from.

Exothermic said:
if you recovered it immediately after deletion - then it's most likely still good. I don't think there's any way to fully verify backups; but I will say this if you do chose to use that backup and it fails, you should easily be able to flash any rom over again to correct it, or even use odin to go back to stock rom and try again. The only way you truly hard-brick phones is flashing something over usb and it gets disconnected haflway through, or you accidently flash somethign to the wrong partition (if you were using hiemdall), generally speaking for nearly 80% of bricks are sem-bricks and should easily be able to recover from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your quick reply, Exo. I'm curious, do you think inspecting the .log file would be able to give me an indication about the integrity of the backup? In going through old backups I was able to open the .log file in Notepad and read in plaintext what was written there. If this could be used as an marker of the backup's health, then it seems I may be out of luck as the .log file for this backup seems like nothing but jibberish. I've opened it with Notepad, Notepad++, and I even installed a different third party program that's reads .log files exclusively (called Baretail), all to no avail. I'll try flashing to this backup in the meantime but I'm curious: do you think attempting to read the .log file could be a good way to verify the backup's integrity, or is there something I'm missing here? Thanks for your time.
Adam

First you should make a nandroid of your current ROM (CM I presume) so that if you brick your phone while trying to restore the stock backup, you'll still have the CM backup to restore if something goes wrong and the phone can't boot or says that there's no os installed.