[Q] Backup ext? - Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So my daily build is the CM7 nightlies.
I have pretty much all my apps on my ext3 partition. However, if I want to flash another ROM (aside from another nightly) I pretty much have to wipe. Wiping also wipes the ext3 partition.
I do do a nandroid before wiping, and it does back up the ext3 partition, but when I restore it doesn't seem to restore the ext. Also for some reason, after restoring I am unable to install apps at all to the ext3 partition, and I have to format the whole sd card to fat32, then make a ext3 partition again.
I actually kept getting hotboots after restoring a nandroid whenever an app would try to install. This was after I installed dta2sd.
So how can I backup a ROM with info on an ext3 partition, and restore it after wiping the partition.

I guess you're using ROM Manager with its default recovery.
Use AmonRa's recovery.

Related

Moving Dalvik cache to EXT - unable to boot

Hello guys,
I have a little problem which seems to be coming when I move the dalvik cache to the EXT partition of my device.
I am using the latest version of MIUI. It has A2SD built in, but it doesn't seem to be working. It was working before though...
What happened:
I restored the NANDROID backup of the stock ROM I had made before flashing MIUI. Once I booted into it, it warned me about the 2.3.4 OTA update. I did it, but forgot that it overwrites the bootloader, removes root and I will not be able to revert to MIUI.
I pushed the Clockwork recovery and immediately started restoring the NAND backup of my MIUI ROM. Without gaining root on the Stock 2.3.4 ROM.
The Dalvik was moved to the EXT on the MIUI I was trying to restore and functioning properly.
The restore went fine, until it got to restoring the sd-ext. It stood there at some *.tmp file for an hour or so. I removed the battery, booted into recovery, wiped and started the restore again. This time it finished, but when I went to start the phone, it got stuck at the Nexus logo, not even showing the MIUI boot screen.
Wiped again. Tried booting into a previous backup, which didn't have the Dalvik moved to the EXT partition. Restored and booted just fine.
I tried several more times restoring the latest backup I had (the one with dalvik to ext) and got the same result.
Then I tried installing the MIUI backup that didn't have Dalvik moved to EXT and tried moving the Dalvik to EXT. The phone rebooted and same thing happened. Didn't want to get past the Nexus logo.
I then wiped everything except batt stats, formatted ext, and flashed the MIUI ROM. It booted perfectly, but A2SD was not working, just like before (solution was to move dalvik to sd). I downloaded the A2SD GUI only and moved the dalvik to EXT AGAIN. And AGAIN - not booting past Nexus logo.
The only thing I still haven't done is formatting the SD and re-creating the EXT partition.
Any other suggestions on what may be causing this and how to fix it?
I want to have a2sd on this ROM and moving the dalvik to EXT seems to be the only way of achieving this.
Repartition SD card, you've most probably corrupted the EXT partition by pulling the battery.
Do you think that restoring the last MIUI backup I had after this will do the job?
After repartitioning? As long as you back up the files from the main FAT32 partition on the computer, and restore them back - the EXT will be overwritten when restoring nandroid anyway.
Well.... I just formatted the card with Panasonic SD formatter. Transfered only the nandroid backup (without creating an ext partition beforehand) and restored it successfully, but when the phone starts booting it is stuck at the Nexus logo.
I also checked the MD5 of the backup and everything is fine.
Godzi said:
Well.... I just formatted the card with Panasonic SD formatter. Transfered only the nandroid backup (without creating an ext partition beforehand) and restored it successfully, but when the phone starts booting it is stuck at the Nexus logo.
I also checked the MD5 of the backup and everything is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wipe Cache and dalvic. Than try again. Your System Need a ext wenn you push dalvic to sd before.
I ran out of options.
Formatted the card, tried restoring - Nexus logo
Wiped Everything + Dalvik and Cache, restored - Nexus logo
Wiped Everything + Dalvik and Cache, didn't restore old MIUI backup - successful boot. When I tried to move Dalvik to EXT after the successful boot - Nexus logo after restart.
If anyone can suggest anything... Because this way I have no access to the A2SD on the device with this ROM. And everything was working fine before I restored the Stock Ginger.
Did you try installing DT on any other ROM and try and move dalvik to the sd to see if it does the same thing?
Dude Random21 said:
Did you try installing DT on any other ROM and try and move dalvik to the sd to see if it does the same thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I haven't tried with another ROM. I guess I will try CM7 and see what happens when I move the Dalvik to the EXT.
I repartitioned once again, this time using the same EXT size as before the breakdown (512MB). When the backup I am trying to restore was made.
Was using 1024 when I partitioned previously and got the Nexus logo again.
Edit: Same thing. Successful restore and then the Nexus Logo.
I suspect it's the ext partition. Why don't you try formatting through recovery, and do a clean install?
Which recovery do you use? I would avoid Clockwork 3.x...
Well. I formated using Panasonic SD Formatted and then partitioned using the recovery. I did a clean install after that and as soon as I move the Dalvik to the EXT, I can't boot past the Nexus logo.
Yes, Clockwork 3.x. I guess I will try Amon_RA as well. Nothing left to lose.
If you partition with Amon Ra, make sure you up the partition from ext2 to ext3 (available through the Ra menu options)...
Ok. Partitioned with RA.
Tried to transfer the nandroid backup made by Clockwork to a sd/nandroid folder so I can restore it from within RA but it kept giving out some error telling me to look at the recovery log when I selected *.img files from the list.
Good news. I booted into MIUI and installed a2sd GUI. Moved Dalvik to EXT without a problem. I guess Clockwork's partitioning is flawed. Everything is working fine now.
Thank you.
Can anyone suggest a method I can use to restore the Clockwork made NAND backup + the EXT backup now when my partitions are finally alright.
Any method would be fine. Even manual through adb. I don't care. As long as I restore my phone to yesterday.
Thank you guys once again.
You should be fine if you load a clockwork prior to v3.x. I think 2.5.1.4 was the latest version prior to the v3.x series. The issues only arise with v3.x.
But only clockwork is able to restore clockwork backups, and the same goes for Amon_RA.
As an alternative, you can just extract the img files and manually load your data back on. It is definitely more time consuming, but it wouldn't matter what recovery you use. It has been a while since I extracted anything from the img files, and when I did, I just got the data from apps stored on the internal (apps and dalvik were stored on the sdcard), and I think the only program I used was unyaffs2 to extract the data.
Thank you guys!
Partitioning the card with Amon_RA and restoring the old Clockwork-made backup with Clockwork 2.* worked perfectly.
I will not use Clockwork ever agian. Putting Amon_RA and that's it.
You will only have this problem with clockwork 3.x - there doesn't appear to be the same issue with clockwork 2.x
I have been using v2.x without any issues (never upgraded to v3.x). I prefer it because it gives me the option to wipe the /system partition, whereas Amon_RA is missing this feature and you can only do it with a flashable zip.
I use 2.x for a number of reasons. I tried 3.x a few times, but always had ext issues on my N1. Having said that, I've used 3.x on my nook, MT4G and G2, and never had issues with them - just on the N1...
I've used RA 2.2.1 on CM7, MIUI ,Sense rom. I never seen sd-ext issues on my Nexus One.

[Q] Wiping ext2 partition on Apps2ext?

I have a 1gb partition made on my SD card. What's the easiest way to wipe this partition clean?
I want to know becuase when I install new ROMs that require a full wipe, all my apps are still on the ext2 partition and so when I install my ROM, all the apps come along.
Right now I'm trying to do a fresh install of CM7 and to start fresh without all that bloat that I had in my old apps and probably useless apps I don't want anymore. How do I wipe that ext2 partition clean in the easiest way? It
Use FuFu's OR. It has an option to wipe ext partition. You can find it here.

[Q] ext4 problems when changing ROM's

So I like to switch ROM's quite frequently, the only problem is that I seem to have to format my sdcard and set up the partitions each time I switch. I feel like nandroid either doesn't restore data to the ext4 properly or messes up the partition when I do a factory reset, since it formats the ext4 partition. Whatever the case, I am unable to move apps to the ext4 after a flash.
Whenever I want to switch to another ROM I have to backup my sdcard to my computer, format the card using diskpart, create the partition again in recovery mode, restore sdcard contents, and then finally flash the ROM I want. This can take forever and makes trying new ROM's out a huge hassle.
If I don't restore a nandroid and flash a ROM from scratch, I'll install s2e, reboot, and navigate to /sd-ext using root explorer and there will be no files.
I mainly use s2e with CM7, but I have tried a2sd with similar results. As far as I know though, they both use the same technique to move apps so it shouldn't matter.
Am I doing something wrong? I use nandroid and everything, but once I do a factory reset it refuses to restore the ext4 backup, and I get an error relating to space limitations.
Thanks a lot.
I've changed ROMs a few times, and everytime I've done so, the ext4 partition has remained fine. Although, it is seriously recommended that you flash the latest darktremor a2sd script as the incorporated ones don't seem to work well.
Flash darktremors, then enter the command line emulator on your phone and type:
su
a2sd reinstall (your phone will reboot)
su
a2sd cachesd (your phone will reboot)
su
a2sd zipalign
This should always be done after a ROM switch.
Alright, I will try that out.
Just wondering, will this restore all the apps I have on the ext4 partition? For example, if I flash MIUI for the first time, then commands the commands you gave me, will all my apps be restored? I assume no since clockworkmod wipes the ext4 partition when doing a factory reset.
The S2E and DarkTremor's a2sd apps actually use different ways of utilizing the ext partition, so the two are incompatible (although, S2E includes a way to convert from DT's to its own).
And as long as you didn't wipe the ext partition (which a Factory Reset does), using those commands should restore your apps.
But with what you are doing, it may be easier to use Titanium Backup to restore your apps back rather than nandroid. This will allow you to keep all your app settings and saved info as well. Just be careful to not back up system data. Restoring those on the same ROM can cause issues, and it would probably cause a lot more if it is between two different ROMs.
Switch your Ext 4 Partition to Ext 3 and you'll notice a lot more stability when switching roms.
Some roms don't have the correct Apps2SD or Kernel installed to support ext 4 but most, if not all, support ext 3.
I recommend using AmonRa Recovery as CWM always corrupts the ext partitions.
Re-partition your SD-Card and start again.
If This Helped please Hit THANKS

create ext4 for use with a2sd

hi,
i'm usin ra passion 2.2.1 and wan't to use a2sd from ics 4.0.3 evervolv. how can i create a part ext4?
Google:
"a2sd partition sd card".
Enjoy.
Try 4EXT recovery www.4ext.net
I think its the easiest way to create partition.
Or else you can do it in pc via partition managers(i use minitool partition wizard)
You can google it and also can search in youtube for video tutorials.
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk
thanks for your help, i've done it in recovery.
one question is left:
what happen if i format the partioned sd-card under windows and do a full wipe in preparation for installing a new rom. i've read sd-ext even survive a full wipe? what does that mean? stays the partition untouched when i format the sd-card with windows? and what about the apps in the partition? are they still there even after a full wipe and can i use them after flashing a new rom out of the box?
Glad u succeeded in partitioning
Now if you format the fat32 partition in windows using those partition tools doesnt affect ur ext. Ext stays untouched but all the data on fat32 will be wiped(so backup first to pc)
If u want to merge there is an option called merge for that.
There is an free windows software called sdformatter, that formats the entire sdcard(fat32+ext)
Hope i helped a bit :thumbup:
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk
ok. i wan't to format it with the windows internal function via right click. is it the same and the ext4 stays untouched?
Full wipe in recovery wipes SD-EXT too.
heinz gruber said:
ok. i wan't to format it with the windows internal function via right click. is it the same and the ext4 stays untouched?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i do beleive that it should be untouched, cos normally windows cannot see the ext partition and hence only fat32 will be formatted
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk
ok. when ext4 stay untouched and i flash a new rom the apps are still in the launcher after flashing?
Jack_R1 said:
Full wipe in recovery wipes SD-EXT too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when i flash a new rom i use the format.zip form the xda user temasek which wipes system, boot, data and cache. so is sd-ext untouched when i use this file?
You insist on not listening and/or not understanding.
When you select "wipe data/factory reset" in custom recovery, EXT partition IS WIPED COMPLETELY. It doesn't stay.
I believe the same happens when using temasek's script, never bothered using it, so I can't say with 100% certainty.
If you don't wipe your phone and install a new ROM - be prepared for crashes of anything to everything, unless you install a ROM which is 100% compatible with what you have already - the next generation of the same ROM, usually.
If you're using A2SD and don't wipe EXT partition - you'll have crashes as soon as you boot, since system apps' data will be there (and wrong).
To keep your apps and their data, use one of the backup apps available in the Market, like Titanium Backup.
as Jack_R1 explained its always better to wipe everything(system,cache,dalvik n sdext) to be on safer side to avoid crashes n FCs.
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk
Temasek's Extreme Wipe does Data/System/Boot partitions but don't remember seeing ext in the list
However, as alluded too, I would format all outside phone with sdformatter or I think gparted, although never used that one
I thought I read a long time ago Windows formatter not recommended and do a full wipe not partial with whatever you use
Back up sdcard first
also, I believe you can use the Alignment Cool zip to get ext 4 from 3 on Amon and not lose anything--still backup
you do know MeDroid uses Ia2sd and different from a2sd on implementation
You don't need to wipe the regular FAT partition on SD card between flashes, because there's nothing there that loads automatically. And "wipe data/factory reset" option in recovery also wipes /sdcard/.android_secure.
hey guys, thanks for your answers i will keep them in mind.
edit:
one more question:
if i uses temaseks script and the sd-ext is untouched and i flash a newer version of my rom, are the apps then still there after flashing and booting the updated system? or is there another step i've to do?
No, the apps aren't there anymore - or to be correct, the apps are there, their data is gone (because the app data doesn't reside on EXT partition, unless you use specific mounting methods).
When you flash an updated version of your ROM, just don't wipe anything at all unless the instructions specifically mention having to wipe before installing that version. That means - don't execute temasek's script at all.

[Q] Will I be able to make a nandroid backup?

I have an LG Optimus 2X ( p990 UK ) with the stock ROM running Android 2.3.4.
The phone is rooted and I have installed ROM Manager and CWM Recovery.
Recently, for the first time, I used CWM Recovery to clear the cache partition after which I found that the cache partition ( /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 ) would no longer mount. This turned out to be because CWM Recovery formatted the cache partition as ext4 which my phone cannot use.
I reformatted the cache partitiion manually to ext3 and it was mounted normally on startup once again.
I have, in the past, made some nandroid backups using CWM Recovery which I now notice are all labelled .ext4. If I were to restore any of those then my phone wouldn't boot and would be unusable. So those backups are worthless.
I would like to try the CM10 ROM when it becomes stable but I would like a nandroid backup of my stock ROM as a safety buffer. Could someone please tell me if there is a way for me to make nandroid backups in ext3 format and to restore them?

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