Root Nandroiding, Backups, Oh My

[argedion]

I've seen a few threads now where people seem to be completely flubbered about what Nandroids are and some wanting to know whats the difference between a Nandroid and Using something like Titanium Backup. What to backup How to restore it. Nandroids not restoring getting an "Opps something went wrong" message. Which Recovery is better? Rom Manager is broke.

So with all this where to begin? Lets Start with Recoverys
Clockwork Mod
Amon RA
Twrp
These are the 3 recoverys for the HTC EVO. Most of the users here will probably prefer Amon RA. I know I do and I highly recommend it over clockwork which has had wipe issue's and causing all kinds of havoc. Now Twrp (Team Win Recovery Project) Has done something evil. They have released a GUI for Recovery. I am very impressed with it. I look forward to seeing some of the bugs worked out and it being perfected a bit more. So Twrp is one to keep in your focus but I would probably wait to use it as my recovery until its more reliable and stick with Amon RA. As far as what you should pic only advice I'll give is you want a fully dependable recovery and for many here that recovery is Amon RA.

Now the Second thing is Rom Manager. It is buggy. It does not always wipe well. It will not help you when all you have is a recovery to go into and you don't know where to begin. Recovery is your friend. Get to know it, Use it, and soon you'll love it. ROM Manger is Not your friend it pretends to be then breaks it off in ya at the most crucial time you can imagine. Nuf Said.

"Opps something went wrong" now your fu While it can be a bit tedious you should test out your nandroids to make sure you have no issues. If I'm going to flash a new rom I will Nandroid then turn around and restore it just to make sure I don't have problems. (Now I am not like super perfect) I do not do this 100 percent of the time however I do have a good Nandroid on my phone at all times. Who knows what wrong and yes you can move the log file over to the sdcard but it wont help if you don't know what your looking at so best thing is to test your nands out.

Do I need a backup program if I Nandroid? Yes you do. A Nandroid is a "Clone" of the moment in time in which it was taken. Think of a Picture. If you ever had your picture taken you understand that you were photographed but have changed since the picture. Well its the same for a Nandroid. It takes a picture but as soon as you change something on the phone the nandroid is really just been outdated. A Backup Such as Titanium Backup will give you a suitcase that you can take some of your stuff to a new place with. This differs in the fact that a Backup is only concerned mostly with the User Data and Applications. Now Some will want to keep contacts / call logs / sms these are all keepable using backup programs.
Notice How I stated some of your stuff? When you go on a trip you don't take your dishes and furniture with you no you leave them home. Well somethings when you move to a new ROM you don't want to take with you like System data or apps. These would cause problems with your new ROM much like trying to haul a dresser on a Plane will cause you problems. Really All you ever want to move to an new ROM is User Data? (this includes your sms/calllogs etc)

How many Nandroids should I keep? 10, 20, more?
Personally I have 3. Maybe 4. Never more than that. Why? Well its simple Programs Update, ROMS Update. Some Roms I didn't care for. My SDCARD is Not for only Nandroids. Nandroids weigh in around 500 - 600 megs. This can add up quick on a standard 8 gig storage. (I'm on 16-2 i use for sd ext) I also have a ton of photo's and I have a couple of ROMS and Kernels and I also have ringtones and notification sounds. Yes I dared to have things of interest to me on the card and its not all for backups and Nandroids.I also never keep more than 3 copies of my titanium backups.

 

[ocnbrze]

nice right up once again argedion. one thing is that you left out the amon ra style recovery. and i will add this to the root info sticky.

 

[9to5cynic]

Nice one. I hope this will help some people out, it really stinks going to a thread and knowing that a nandroid would save someone a lot of hassle, but for one reason or another they haven't got one.

Nice job.

 

[MizzouBrent]

Awesome writeup. Might I add that it's a good idea to keep a nandroid backup copy on a cloud server like Dropbox so that if your sd card and pc crap out at the same time, you will still have a copy saved somewhere.

 

[MizzouBrent]

Hey one question about backups actually. I have flipflopped recoveries lately between RA 2.3, 3.08 and TWRP. Every time I backup, I choose the "recovery" option as well. I noticed when I restored an older nandroid backup the other day, I all of a sudden had RA 2.3 on my phone instead of the newer version. I guess I didn't realize that it would even restore the recovery that you had on your phone at the given time you made the backup. Or did something really funky just happen when I restored my backup?

 

[9to5cynic]

I've never changed recoveries (besides to amon ra...) so I don't know.. I always just assumed that backing up 'recovery' would be the amon ra... so I'd guess that what happened is 'normal'

(but I don't know that for sure.. )

 

[argedion]

nice right up once again argedion. one thing is that you left out the amon ra style recovery. and i will add this to the root info sticky.

I wasn't getting into the differences of the Recoveries. And honestly I figured Amon RA is Amon RA. 3.08 is my version. I love using my buttons

Maybe I will sit down and shine a bit more light on the subject when I get the time.

 

[argedion]

Hey one question about backups actually. I have flipflopped recoveries lately between RA 2.3, 3.08 and TWRP. Every time I backup, I choose the "recovery" option as well. I noticed when I restored an older nandroid backup the other day, I all of a sudden had RA 2.3 on my phone instead of the newer version. I guess I didn't realize that it would even restore the recovery that you had on your phone at the given time you made the backup. Or did something really funky just happen when I restored my backup?

My assumtion is that maybe you had checked recovery in that particular nandroid? and this is why the recovery changed? Or maybe Jack D changed it and didnt tell ya

 

[argedion]

Awesome writeup. Might I add that it's a good idea to keep a nandroid backup copy on a cloud server like Dropbox so that if your sd card and pc crap out at the same time, you will still have a copy saved somewhere.

Always a good Idea. Sometimes a better alternative is to have it stored in a cloud that way if your on vacation when phones SDCARD takes that Final Dump to the Sky you atleast have someway to retrieve some things. However you will need something to communicate to the stored server that you want your nandroid back on your card.

 

[andygu3]

Hey one question about backups actually. I have flipflopped recoveries lately between RA 2.3, 3.08 and TWRP. Every time I backup, I choose the "recovery" option as well. I noticed when I restored an older nandroid backup the other day, I all of a sudden had RA 2.3 on my phone instead of the newer version. I guess I didn't realize that it would even restore the recovery that you had on your phone at the given time you made the backup. Or did something really funky just happen when I restored my backup?

If you check recovery in a nandroid backup, then whatever that recovery is, if you restore that nandroid, you will then have that recovery

My assumtion is that maybe you had checked recovery in that particular nandroid? and this is why the recovery changed? Or maybe Jack D changed it and didnt tell ya

Correct, whatever recovery you backup in a nandroid will be the recovery you'll have when you restore the nandroid.



And to add to the op, nandroids are the most important aspect of having a rooted device but another important thing to have on the sdcard is a solid rom for disaster flashing. I know you mentioned restoring nandroids after making a nandroid, this a great way to insure you don't run into any problems but it can be time consuming and imo, a waste of time. Most nandroids will restore fine, without issue but my suggestion would be to never rename nandroids. This is the biggest trouble people run into, renaming nandroids and having md5 mismatches.

So along with having a solid nandroid to restore, I would also highly recommend keeping a solid rom(ie:MikG) to flash if a nandroid restore doesn't work. This way you can flash the rom and have a working phone in 5-10 min




Thanks for the great write-up

 

[argedion]

Yes checking nandroids can be a waste of time unless it doesnt work then at which point you know you have an issue. So I'll have to stand behind my original statement on that Only because well hell i said it A Good Rom is absolute must and I rekon I take advantage of the fact the one I have is on my card stuck in a folder marked break glass incase of emergency. (Ok nothing that drastic but it sounded cool.) I guess we should mention that you should keep the ROM updated every now and then. Also if you have an AOSP you may want to go ahead and have GAPPS stored on your sdcard as well. You may also want to make sure you have a good "recent" backup of titianium in your dropbox account incase something does go wrong. Personally I have a backup of the important stuff for my phone in dropbox.