How to make a complete backup of my Hero

[mslisaj]

I am using My Backup Pro to backup my phone. While it does a good job it only does a selective backup. Is there a program that I can use on my stock phone to do a more comprehensive backup? Maybe a mirror backup like Nandroid?
I appreciate the advice...

 

[lv2bll]

what all are you trying to backup, my backup pro is pretty thorough?

 

[V425]

I personally would like a way to backup my customizations in Handcent and the assignment of ringtones. After a hard reset those were the only things that annoyed me.

Everything else is pretty much already backed up (contacts through gmail, music ringtones and photos on SD, and my apps were still under my downloads in the market to download them again, although I do have Astro to also back them up)

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

I personally would like a way to backup my customizations in Handcent and the assignment of ringtones. After a hard reset those were the only things that annoyed me.

Everything else is pretty much already backed up (contacts through gmail, music ringtones and photos on SD, and my apps were still under my downloads in the market to download them again, although I do have Astro to also back them up)

You answered your own question. Rooting is not that difficult and once you do then you can create a recovery image anytime you want. If you are concerned with voiding the warranty, just make sure you only root and install the recovery. Then, assuming you are still on Android 1.5 when you need to use the warranty, just run the 1.5 RUU before turning in the phone. If you never needed to use the warranty, then you would never need to do anything else.

Some folks seem to think that rooting is this evil and/or dangerous thing, which it almost never is. Having your phone unrooted is like buying a new car and not having the ability to look under the hood, perform maintenance on it or to even change a tire. Another way to look at it is as if you went to Best Buy and bought a new Windows PC and got it home only to find out that you can't uninstall any of the preinstalled programs, even those that are unnecessary and that harm the performance of the system. Then you realize that while you can install some games and apps on the computer you can't really modify the system at all to help those programs run better and forget about really customizing it the way you want.

Anyway, if you just root and install the recovery image you can then do nandroid backup and restore anytime you want. Just because you root doesn't mean you have to install custom ROMs, however once you have a working recovery image why not try out a ROM or two. You might be surprised by what you find.

 

[mslisaj]

The reason that I wanted to have a better back up then the "My Backup Pro" was that yes that program gets my data and some of the programs but not all. I have CompanionLink on my Hero and during a sync I fouled up a group of my "notes/memos". I dug through the Back Up Pro and I couldn't restore that data as it wasn't among what is backed up. It was a very lengthy process as I'm sure we all have been though more often then we care to admit. But that is why I was looking for a backup program that if something like that happened again I could back up to the last version and keep going. I'm very pleased with Backup Pro and it has saved me a couple of time but one time it couldn't and that is why I posed the question...........

As far as rooting, yes I have read all the instructions. I have studied it very well and probably could instruct someone on how to do it. But I have unanswered questions and then I read that when you root that it's like getting a new phone and you have to redo all your settings, reload programs and start from scratch. I'm assuming, and I could be dead wrong on that, but the update Sprint may come out with in the future (and who really knows when and if they ever do) will be a seamless install that captures and keeps all your data and settings. It would be like an update you get off the Market. I love the analogy about buying a car and can't open the hood or change a tire. The better analogy is buying a PC with all the junk that is on it and not being able to clean and streamline that machine. I attack a PC and get rid of the junk. I run a very lean machine with my laptop or desktop. The Hero and Sprint frustrate the HELL out of me that I can't do that with out rooting. But I will eventually root it. The problem is with me that the phone is only three months old and it's working perfectly like that new car. But maybe in a few months, when I get more used to the Hero, put the first scratch in it so to speak I will root it and free my self from the hated bloatware. I would love to take it to a shop and have it done and pay for it and that way it all would be working with out spending hours on tweaking it all out again. But I may be overly worried about stuff that doesn't go on. All you folks have been very kind and I just have to do it but all good things in time I guess and I'm just looking for an easy Market answer that may be a better back up for now.

But rest assured that when I finally root this phone I will be hating myself for putting up with the crap on it for as long as I have..........

Thanks again for your help.......

Lisa

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

If all you want to do is have a recovery image and get rid of the bloatware then all you need to do is root. You will not have to redo the settings on your phone, redo your scenes or anything. All you will be doing is increasing your permissions, "su", and then adding the image writer and flashing a recovery image. It will literally take less than 10 minutes to root and you will not have to start out from scratch.

I can't recommend doing this enough, having a nandroid backup is the best thing since sliced bread. I know what you mean about having to reconfigure the phone, it sucks. Once you have a nandroid backup if you screw anything up or just make a ton of changes and want to quickly go back to what you like, it takes 5 minutes. Seriously, if you root according to these instructions, all you have to do is copy and paste these instructions if you don't want to type it out or make a mistake and it practically does it for you.

[GUIDE] How To Root The Sprint CDMA Hero (Windows) - xda-developers

Go to that site and follow those directions. The only difference is step 3. That is the old recovery so choose one of these instead. I personally prefer the blue carebear.
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Then when you get to step 18 you just make sure you change the name of the recovery you chose to reflect that.

In other words instead of:
flash_image recovery recovery-RA-heroc-v1.5.2.img
if you chose the blue carebear version you would type in:
flash_image recovery recovery-RA-heroc-v1.6.2-blue.img

of course if you chose a different recovery image then you would just make the appropriate changes. Seriously, this method takes 5 minutes and afterwards you can backup your system, install root explorer and start removing those pesky bloatware apps that you don't want. Just make sure you check the programs you want to remove against a list online to ensure you don't lose functionality on the phone. Of course you will have a backup image after you create one in recovery so you are set.

edit: By the way, you don't have to wait for the phone to lose it's luster before you start to dig into it and make it work the way you like. Like you I had just got my Hero when I rooted it the first time. I think I only had it a couple weeks and then I got bored one day and went for it. Just like you I was perfectly happy with how my Hero was working, I just had to do it because I felt like I was missing something. On my two previous Android phones, Samsung Behold 2 and Samsung Moment, I had to root them as soon as I got them because they literally did not work well at all out of the box. Rooting was the only way to make those phones usable and so when I had my Hero sitting here for a couple weeks without root on it I really felt like I wasn't giving it enough attention or something. The thing just worked, and just worked right.

Having said that, even a perfectly working Hero on Android 1.5 works even better once you remove the crapware and start making it do what you want instead of what HTC and Sprint wanted. Also, It's not just Sprint and HTC doing this, Samsung and T-Mobile do it too. T-mobile has myfaves and their account app along with games and programs from Samsung on their android phones and they really suck. Nothing like having myfaves running and using 15MB of memory when you don't even have it on your account. Also, demo versions of bejeweled, where's waldo and diner dash. Nothing like having games on your phone that you can't remove and they are only demos that you can only play so long.... Anyway, ending my rant now.

 

[mslisaj]

Okay..................

I have printed out a copy of those instructions and yes I can cut and paste the commands. I still have one slight issue. When I try to install the HTC Sync software it gets about 3/4 through and then coughs with an error message and then sort of keeps going so I'm trusting that Sync Software. On the same instructions that are on the android forums they say to use PDAnet software in case you have trouble with the HTC Sync stuff. Apparently you need this software so you can get to the base of the Hero and write on the command lines.

I'm going to try the install of the PDA net and see what happens with that. If I get a clean install of that software then I may attempt this root. So I understand my phone will be pretty much exactly the same as I will be reinstalling the same software it's running now. I'm just going to get ride of the "lock" basically that is keeping me from gaining that sub-access and cleaning it up. I really love the little device and it works really well. The bloatware is driving me crazy...........

So let me know what you think of the PDAnet software and of my assumptions when I'm finished............

Lisa

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

Okay..................

I have printed out a copy of those instructions and yes I can cut and paste the commands. I still have one slight issue. When I try to install the HTC Sync software it gets about 3/4 through and then coughs with an error message and then sort of keeps going so I'm trusting that Sync Software. On the same instructions that are on the android forums they say to use PDAnet software in case you have trouble with the HTC Sync stuff. Apparently you need this software so you can get to the base of the Hero and write on the command lines.

I'm going to try the install of the PDA net and see what happens with that. If I get a clean install of that software then I may attempt this root. So I understand my phone will be pretty much exactly the same as I will be reinstalling the same software it's running now. I'm just going to get ride of the "lock" basically that is keeping me from gaining that sub-access and cleaning it up. I really love the little device and it works really well. The bloatware is driving me crazy...........

So let me know what you think of the PDAnet software and of my assumptions when I'm finished............

Lisa

Yes, just rooting and running recovery will not get rid of any customizations on your phone. It just gives you root access a.k.a su, and it allows you to make a recovery image and then to remove the apps you don't like or to install a custom ROM if you want to. Of course a custom ROM will wipe out all your data and customizations, though doing a nandroid restore would give you everything back.

The HTC Sync install is so you have the usb drivers needed to use the android sdk to do the install. If you are having problems installing HTC Sync it may be because you are using the version that came with it. If you go to
Sprint - Software Downloads - Select your device type

then select smartphones and then the Hero, there is an upgraded version of the HTC Sync software. If you are still having problems then you can try PDAnet. The only reason I don't recommend PDAnet right away is that once you are rooted if you really need tethering to your phone, adding in wifi tether is easy and it is much more convenient than being tied to the USB cable.