If you do more than one nandroid back-up will it erase your previous back-up?

[noonanjs]

I am curious because i backed up my original stock rom with all of my apps and all that sprint junk, and now i would like to back-up the custom rom with a bunch of the sprint bloat removed. However I would like to have the option to go back to either of them. Please advise, thanks

 

[mercado79]

Nope, it keeps both of them (or more). The issue as far as I can see is that it doesn't give you the option to choose which backup you want to restore. It just assumes you want the most recent. So, I guess you'd have to manually move them on or off the card when you're ready.

 

[pking]

mercado79 wins the prize, that's exactly right.

I've made a habit of moving all my nandroid backups off to my PC except for the most recent, and making a new backup every time I make any significant change.

If I want to restore a specific backup, I just move the most recent to my PC and copy back in one of the older ones. Works like a champ.

One thing to be aware of, however, is that the nandroid backups can be a little on the largish size. Mine are coming out around 250mb, so make sure you have plenty of space on the card when you do a new backup.

 

[swaze]

This is some good information, I was ready to ask the same question.

Maybe someone can answer this for me. I plan on moving everything from my SD now, so I dont lose whats there before I root. During the root process and flashing the recovery image or Flash a new ROM, is my SD ever wiped out??? Reason im asking is because I read app2SD was part of the new ROM so if it partitions my SD won't I lose whats on there??

 

[pking]

Yes, if you want to use apps2SD you'll need to repartition the card, which will indeed erase your data.

Let me tell you, it's certainly worth the time it takes to back up your card and copy it back afterward.

That said, I do not think the MoDaCo ROM will automatically partition your card, it'll only use Apps2SD if your card is already partitioned. This is what the partitioning options in the Amon_Ra recovery image are for.

In short:

1) back up your card
2) boot the recovery image and repartition your card ( Use 'Part SD: fat32 + ext2 + swap )
3) use the USB Mass Storage option to mount the new partition on your PC
4) copy in the MoDaCo ROM as 'update.zip'
5) unmount, disable usb storage, and Apply sdcard: update.zip

A few minutes later you'll be swimmin' in ROMmy goodness.

*big scary warning*

Once you've done apps2SD, your card is an integral part of the OS - all of your applications will be stored and run from the SD card. This means that you should not remove the SD card while the phone is powered on and running, weird strange things will happen, and some have reported the need to re-flash MoDaCo after doing so.

I believe you can still use USB mass-storage mode without a problem - I'm about to make a backup and test that now.

[edit]
OK, USB Mass Storage mode works just fine. Hitting the 'Unmount' option in the SD Card & Storage settings works just fine. Undoing that by plugging back into USB and switching to mass-storage and back again works fine.

I do not want to tempt fate by actually removing the card, but I will continue to say 'do not do'.

 

[swaze]

Yes, if you want to use apps2SD you'll need to repartition the card, which will indeed erase your data.

Let me tell you, it's certainly worth the time it takes to back up your card and copy it back afterward.

That said, I do not think the MoDaCo ROM will automatically partition your card, it'll only use Apps2SD if your card is already partitioned. This is what the partitioning options in the Amon_Ra recovery image are for.

In short:

1) back up your card
2) boot the recovery image and repartition your card ( Use 'Part SD: fat32 + ext2 + swap )
3) use the USB Mass Storage option to mount the new partition on your PC
4) copy in the MoDaCo ROM as 'update.zip'
5) unmount, disable usb storage, and Apply sdcard: update.zip

A few minutes later you'll be swimmin' in ROMmy goodness.

*big scary warning*

Once you've done apps2SD, your card is an integral part of the OS - all of your applications will be stored and run from the SD card. This means that you should not remove the SD card while the phone is powered on and running, weird strange things will happen, and some have reported the need to re-flash MoDaCo after doing so.

I believe you can still use USB mass-storage mode without a problem - I'm about to make a backup and test that now.

[edit]
OK, USB Mass Storage mode works just fine. Hitting the 'Unmount' option in the SD Card & Storage settings works just fine. Undoing that by plugging back into USB and switching to mass-storage and back again works fine.

I do not want to tempt fate by actually removing the card, but I will continue to say 'do not do'.

Ok,

So let me clue you in on what I have done so far. Root, flash a recovery and did a nandroid backup. I also made a complete backup of everything on my SD and my nandroid backup and moved it to my PC.

Im assuming those steps above are exactly what I need to do to get where I need to be correct?

 

[swaze]

Quick question, lets say I want to start fresh with my SD so after I back it up on my computer, can I use the wipe SD from the recovery to erase the SD, then use the partition function to partition it correctly for app2sd?

And will I have to dl my apps again, or can I copy them back from my backup?? WHich would be easier?

 

[pking]

Actually just repartitioning your card will erase all of it's data, so there's no need to do the Wipe step first.

As for easiest app backup - it's hard to say. If you have a lot of apps, I'd recommend using something from the market like Astro to backup the apk files to your SD card and then copy them off to your PC before repartitioning. Afterward, you can use the same app to install the backed-up apks. If you've got fewer than like 10-20 apps, it's probably easier to just redownload them after you get MoDaCo installed.