Database Develop

Nandroid: What Gets Restored?

Okay. I make regular Nandroid backups. I also brick my phone a lot since I like to play. I don't mind since I simple wipe and reload. However, last night I decided that I was going to try and put my many Nandroid backups to good use. The reason I haven't done so until now was that the process seemed too cumbersome and detailed. I always found it more straightforward, albeit more time consuming, to just reinstall my apps and change all my settings manually. It actually is surprisingly quick when you get used to it. Anyway, after quite some time, I finally managed to successfully configure and flash one of my Nandroid backups using the NNADROID Recovery GUI tool from this forum. To my surprise, it didn't seem to do much. I am not sure what was supposed to happen. I always assumed that all my settings and customizations would be there. While I didn't think my apps would (the Nandroid backup was too small to hold my files) I thought my app settings would and when I reinstalled an app it would contain all my settings. Nothing.
So my big question, after that lengthy background, is what exactly gets restored when you flash a Nandroid backup to your phone? Perhaps I am missing something. After an exhaustive search through these forums, all I've come up with was that Nandroid does a "complete restore" of your phone but no explanation of what that means. Perhaps I missed the post (for all you expert posters, I really look before I ask a question as this is my first ever question on a forum) that explains it. Perhaps one has never been written. Either way, can someone either point me in the right direction or explain what it is I am missing? I think it would benefit people who are new to the process. Personally, I am okay with my "system" however poor it may be. It works. But if there is an easier, more efficient method, I'm all ears.
Thanks.

Everything in the /system and /data I believe. YOu get back all contacts, SMS, app data..etc. IT DOES NOT backup your apps! or anything on your ext partition

I have /data/app, /data/data, /data/dalvik-cache moved to my SD card on an ext2 partition. From what you suggested, that will not be backed up. Is that correct?
I don't need apps restored. I also don't see the value in backing up contacts since this is done via sync anyway. I also use Backup for Root Users (BRU) which does a backup of my settings as well as SMS messages (I have about half a dozen apps to back up SMS messages and I don't really care that much about them). BRU backs up Alarms, Settings, Bookmarks, Shortcuts, Playlists, Data, SMS, Dictionary, Market DB, APN, Contacts/Calls and APKs. Not sure what else I need.
Also, the app data that was restored via Nandroid didn't seem to help me as the settings were not there when I reinstalled apps. It appears that Nandroid is less useful than it appears to be. With my "manual" method, I can essentially restore just about everything inside of 30 minutes, including apps (I use ADB to bulk install). So I am not exactly sure how I would benefit from Nandroid. There has to be something more that I am missing since the forum speaks of Nandroid like the Holy Grail.

It's just way more efficient. A click of two buttons and you have a stable ready to go backup of your entire phone minus anything on your ext partition. So you can easily switch between lets say..cyanogen and thedude's builds without having to wipe and flash or just plain flash.

While that sounds amazing, I am not sure what use it is without my ext partition. All my apps are on the partition and the Nandroid restore doesn't read them. I am assuming without the apps on SD it would be a very good thing. But it seems kind of useless otherwise. I don't want to drive everyone crazy especially since I am find with how I restore. I am just very interested in fully understanding the reasoning which doesn't seem to be coming through in your explanation. My Nandroid restore, which went smoothly, was completely useless to me.

Most people love the idea of an instant restore without hassle. It's useful you'll realize that sooner or later.
(Off topic: Fellow Brooklyner, *high five*) lol

Go Brooklyn. Damn straight.
I would LOVE to realize its usefulness. It takes two second to do a backup and about a minute to restore it. PLEASE explain what makes it so good. Someone needs to write up a detailed explanation of what it does and what gets restored. After my restore I basically has to redo all my settings anyway since the apps are on the SD. Not seeing it. I guess I'll just have to play some more to figure it out. I will have to wait until I brick my phone again (which should happen soon enough, LOL) to find out.

aaronratner said:
Go Brooklyn. Damn straight.
I would LOVE to realize its usefulness. It takes two second to do a backup and about a minute to restore it. PLEASE explain what makes it so good. Someone needs to write up a detailed explanation of what it does and what gets restored. After my restore I basically has to redo all my settings anyway since the apps are on the SD. Not seeing it. I guess I'll just have to play some more to figure it out. I will have to wait until I brick my phone again (which should happen soon enough, LOL) to find out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=459830&highlight=infernix You can look at that. Entire thread on nandroid. Honestly whether you think its useful or not is based on personal preference. It's possible to backup the ext partition by just doing a simple "adb pull /system/sd" and a simple "adb pull /data/data" will backup all your app data but nandroid is just more efficient. Read through the first couple of pages and last couple of pages in that thread and you'll have a better understanding of why we consider it our holy grail. Cheers

Since you say Nandroid doesn't back-up apps. but Back-up for Root users does then would the apps. that I back-up using BRU show as installed in Market/My downloads if I wipe?, or would I have to redownload them from Market...the reason why I ask this is because I paid for two apps. on my old Gmail account and was able to switch them to my new one but I'll lose them or basically have to buy them again if I wipe.

I use ASTRO to back up my apps. I don't think it shows up in the Market unless you backup Market data. I use aTrackDog to track updates to my files. When I reinstall apps, I do it via ADB or a file manager like ASTRO or Linda. I have the APKs backed up (even the paid ones, go ROOT!). The Market seems very forgetful when you wipe. I have to do another build anyway since my phone just crashed. Which brings me to an off topic question regarding apps to SD for which I will open a new thread. My phone keeps crashing and I think it's my apps to SD method.

_Kyros_ said:
Since you say Nandroid doesn't back-up apps. but Back-up for Root users does then would the apps. that I back-up using BRU show as installed in Market/My downloads if I wipe?, or would I have to redownload them from Market...the reason why I ask this is because I paid for two apps. on my old Gmail account and was able to switch them to my new one but I'll lose them or basically have to buy them again if I wipe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The purchased apps will stay but any free apps will not, unless you backup and push your market.db back

You can backup your market.db. Backup for Root Users lets you do this

alritewhadeva said:
The purchased apps will stay but any free apps will not, unless you backup and push your market.db back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the purchased apps will stay but the problem is I didn't purchase them from the Gmail account that I'm on now I purchased them from my original Gmail account so if I wipe they might still show up in Market/My downloads but I'll have to purchase them again so that's why I asked if you use BRU will they reinstalled them and show in Market/My download as installed or will I have to reinstall them myself from Market/My download if they show up?

If you install them using BRU they won't show on market under my downloads

I saw this and looked because I've wondered myself. I recently managed my first backup restoration and it took a few tries. To combat the losing apps on your ext partition I found (yes, through hours of research ... honest) the easiest solution is to use one card for one firmware and switch cards if I want to flash or use another. That way I have all the apps for that particular firmware. It isn't the ideal solution but cards are cheap enough to do it.

Like the solution, sort of
Dyonas, I like your solution. By keeping two SD cards it solves a lot of issues. However, so far I have not been given a detailed response of what exactly happens with a Nandroid backup. Let's assume that I have two identical SD cards with identical partitions and something goes wrong when I do something with the phone. If I do a Nadroid restore and put in the "stable" SD card (remember, for arguments sake, they are identical in every which way minus the last minute corruption), would that essentially restore it to like new? If I didn't have identical SD cards, what exactly would be restored (I understand apps do not get restored)?
Again, I am fine with my method of restoring but I think this would be a tremendous help for the community as a whole if someone could actually say what it is that happens with the restore. I will continue with my nightly Nandroid backups just in case I need them (which has happened once). But simply saying Nandroid is "amazing" or a "must" doesn't explain anything.
Thanks all.

aaronratner said:
Dyonas, I like your solution. By keeping two SD cards it solves a lot of issues. However, so far I have not been given a detailed response of what exactly happens with a Nandroid backup. Let's assume that I have two identical SD cards with identical partitions and something goes wrong when I do something with the phone. If I do a Nadroid restore and put in the "stable" SD card (remember, for arguments sake, they are identical in every which way minus the last minute corruption), would that essentially restore it to like new? If I didn't have identical SD cards, what exactly would be restored (I understand apps do not get restored)?
Again, I am fine with my method of restoring but I think this would be a tremendous help for the community as a whole if someone could actually say what it is that happens with the restore. I will continue with my nightly Nandroid backups just in case I need them (which has happened once). But simply saying Nandroid is "amazing" or a "must" doesn't explain anything.
Thanks all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid backups are stored onto your sdcard. They don't change anything on your phone. The backup stays there until you want to use it. When you do use it to restore it restores you're phone to the exact way it was when you did the backup. It doesn't matter where the nandroid backup is unless you are using cyanogen's 1.4 image and are recovering from the recovery menu. In that case you would have to move the nandroid folder to your other sdcard. Hope I answered your question Look in dream android development for the switchrom.sh script. Backups everything included ext partition and you can easily restore it from recovery console.

Tells the how, but not the what [SOLVED]
I fully understand how to backup and restore. But you said what everybody else use saying that it restores your phone to the way it was when you backed up the phone. But what exactly is restored is the question. Data? Cache? Apps? Settings? Etc. I know apps seen't but is the app data. The one nandroid restore that I performed did not seem to help me much in terms of my settings and app data. However, I have my methods using several programs and will continue my nightly nandroid backups until I figure it all out. Thanks. I will mark this as solved. If someone cares to write a detailed post on this they can just start a new thread.

aaronratner said:
I fully understand how to backup and restore. But you said what everybody else use saying that it restores your phone to the way it was when you backed up the phone. But what exactly is restored is the question. Data? Cache? Apps? Settings? Etc. I know apps seen't but is the app data. The one nandroid restore that I performed did not seem to help me much in terms of my settings and app data. However, I have my methods using several programs and will continue my nightly nandroid backups until I figure it all out. Thanks. I will mark this as solved. If someone cares to write a detailed post on this they can just start a new thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EVERYTHING except apps. App data, everything on your /system. Everything except apps. Your app data won't restore unless the apps are already installed. It's that simple. Don't know why its so hard to understand.

[SOLVED]
Okay. That makes sense. I was wondering why my app data wasn't restored after a restore. But according to what you said the app needs to be installed first (which doesn't make too much sense). All I know is that I did a nandroid restore and it did not restore some of my settings which were definitely in the backup. It's no big deal. I will run a few restores to test for myself. I just didn't like the answer that every kept giving which was "everything" which explains nothing. But i am pretty sure I understand it now and one or two restores should give me a complete picture.

nandroid only partially backing up/ restoring

Hi all, I did a nandroid restore and it only partially restored my phone content, for example it did restore
- hotkeys
- sms
- wallpaper,
but didn't restore
- contacts
- homescreen setup
- applications (and data).
It worked perfectly well when I tried it, but last time it didn't. Here is what I did:
Installed 6.1 per ClockworkMod without Google Apps and did a nandroid backup as I was asked, booted into 6.1, rebooted, flashed Gapps tiny 201020 something, rebooted, didn't come past "tap the android to begin" (don't know why tapping didn't do anything), so I restored the backup I did prior to installing 6.1 and it restored only what I wrote above.
Any help will be greatly appreciated guys!

Unrelashade said:
but didn't restore
- contacts
- homescreen setup
- applications (and data).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Contacts get restored from Google.
2. Did you use alternative launcher before (i.e ADW or LP). If so, the only way Nand would restore it, if you still have it on your phone but what you say is that it did not restore any apps which leads me to next point.
2. Did you have your apps on SD card? Did you do Nand+Ext backup or just Nand? Regular Nandroid back-up will not touch your ext partition. If you did just a Nandroid backup and wiped your ext partition - your apps are gone for good.

borodin1 said:
1. Contacts get restored from Google.
2. Did you use alternative launcher before (i.e ADW or LP). If so, the only way Nand would restore it, if you still have it on your phone but what you say is that it did not restore any apps which leads me to next point.
2. Did you have your apps on SD card? Did you do Nand+Ext backup or just Nand? Regular Nandroid back-up will not touch your ext partition. If you did just a Nandroid backup and wiped your ext partition - your apps are gone for good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your answer! Yes I had 6.0 before 6.1 with ADW. Nandroid did restore one or two apps, but not all... (just found that out). Yes I had some apps on my sd card but nandroid didn't recover them, neither the others. Just the few I mentioned before, but I had more on my SD and more on my internal flash storage. And no, I had no ext partition of sd card (copied some of them via froyo apps2sd). Also, I didn't remove any of my files from my SD (except for some songs to make more free space).
It seems like Clockwork didn't warn me that I had not enough free space on my SD and the backup had not enough space... However I managed to get the data I needed with this tool from a German forum: http://www.android-hilfe.de/root-ha...6339-nandroid-backup-auslesen.html#post592908
Copy your .img to your computer, open with and choose the unyaffs.exe, works perfectly well
Now I still don't know why I wasn't able to get past the "Getting Started" Android first steps, but I'm going to flash again (this time with everything safely backed up) and see if it works this time.

Glald you figured it out. Hopefully you'll have better luck with it next time around.

[Q] new to cyanogenmod + Titanium Backup + Link2SD

Hey,
I have decided to give CyanogenMod a go for the first time.
I've been rooted for some time now - running a stock Gingerbread 2.3.4 rooted.
I've heard so many good things about CyanogenMod and I have had an itch for a bit of a change, that I decided now is a good time to give it a try.
I was hoping you guys might be able to help me clarify a few things first though.
I have Link2SD installed and setup. I have linked a couple of apps using and I was wondering if anyone knows how it works with Titanium Backup?
What I was hoping to be able to do was:
Code:
1)
Make a back up of some of my apps + their data using Titanium Backup - Some of these apps have been moved using Link2SD
2)
Install ClockworkMod Recovery and make a full nandroid backup.
3)
Make a backup of all the contents on my SD card - from the fat32 partition primarily.
4)
Install CyanongenMod using ROM Manager
5)
Redo the ext2 partition on my SD card and reinstall Link2SD once CyanogenMod has been installed
6)
Reinstall Titanium Backup and restore all the apps I backed up.
I was hoping that by doing the above I could hang onto all the custom settings I have in some of the apps.
For the apps that have been linked using Link2SD, will Titanium backup restore them properly as long as that ext2 partition on the SD card is there?? Or am I going to run into issues?
I have done some searching on these forums but there seems to be no clear cut answer.
Any help or advice would greatly be appreciated!
Thank you

You'll be fine - just make a full Titanium backup and a nandroid (just in case).
Do a full wipe, install CM with gapps, install your apps2sd, then restore your Titanium backup...

Titanium Backup will just restore the apps to the /data partition (or the ext if you have app2sdext enabled), but since link2sd is setting up individual symlinks for each app, those probably won't be carried over when you restore with Titanium Backup. You will have to redo those apps. But this may be time to look into a full app2sdext option. It is much simpler than link2sd and there aren't any noticeable performance hits (unless you do data2sd).

Good catch bass - I missed the Link2SD detail!

@danger-rat @bassmadrigal
Thank you guys for giving me some advice.. it is much appreciated!
So the app2sdext option can be done using dark tremor?
I was looking at dark tremor previously when I was trying to decide what method to use to relink apps.
Do you guys know of a good tutorial to go about setting it up? Is it done pre install of Cyanogen? Or post install?
My other concern about moving apps to the SD card using methods like link2sd and dark tremor is recently I had a situation where my ext2 partitions filesystem actually became corrupted. I ended up having to a 'fsck' on it to repair it ( I am pretty sure I got lucky with that ). Using the app2sdext do I still have the options to decide what I move to my SD card?

You can use Darktremor or S2E as the popular methods. S2E is a bit more intuitive (its an app in the market, with a front end GUI).
Install after you've installed CM.
As far as corrupt cards, just make sure you backup from time to time. Titanium or nandroid should do the trick. The advantage of having an ext partition is that once you have the partition, you can reformat it without losing your regular SD partition...

i would also recommend S2E, recently went from dt to
s2e and its working great.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

I remember seeing you mention s2e once before! At the time though I couldn't use it since I wasn't running CyanogenMod
That sounds like a good plan.
What do you think of this
Code:
1)
Do a Titanium Backup of my apps+their data
(including ones that have been moved using link2sd)
2)
When I install CyanogenMod, setup and install s2e
3)
Install Titanium Backup and start recovering my apps.
Since Titanium Backup should restore apps linked via
link2sd back to the default /data directory, I should just
be able to relink them using the s2e method?
I was wondering something else to actually.
@danger-rat you have mentioned in the past that you do not like the most recent version of the ClockworkMod recovery due to stability and reliability issues (I have seen a few other people say this as well). If this is still the case, can you recommend a version to install? From Rom Manager itself, can you choose a different version of ClockworkMod recovery to install?
Sorry for all the questions!
EDIT ------------------------------------------------
Just after I posted this I noticed there is an option in Rom Manager "All ClockworkMod Recoveries" - It looks like this option will allow me to install older version of ClockworkMod?

I use CWM 2.5.1.4 and install via ROM Manager, just as you suggested...

Thank you sir for suggesting a version and confirming I can do it via ROM manager.
Hopefully I can try this in the next couple days. Will report back success/epic failures!
Thank you baseballfanz as well!
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

Why posting a question in general section???
Thread moved.

hey sorry I wanted to ask one more question...
Since I plan on implementing s2e I will have to reformat my ext2 partition to ext3 or 4 (I think it said ext4..)
My question is, what should I do with my fat32 partition?
After I backup all the data on it, should I reformat it as well? Then after I get CyanogenMod installed, move back only what is important - Titanium backup directory for example? Or copy everything that was on it. There will probably be a lot of useless/old files on there that aren't really useful.
EDIT ---------------------
Sorry Mr.Clown for posting in wrong section.. I'll post correctly next time!

i went from dt a2sd to s2e with no need to redo anything on my sd card. i had ext4 already.
if you use amon ra you can change ext 2 to ext 3 or ext 4.

Sorry, I was gone all day and away from a computer. Glad others chimed in. But to start, S2E and DarkTremor's a2sd both are not selective on which apps are installed to the sdcard. It is an all or nothing approach. That is the difference between app2sdext and link2sd. With S2E, you just install it and open the app. Select the checkboxes to move apps to the sdcard and then I recommend moving the dalvik cache as well (as it takes a lot of space). Reboot, and any apps you install/restore will be automagically put on the sdext partition.
And to answer your last question, if you already have an ext partition on your card, there is no reason to change it. It may say ext 3 or 4 is needed, but I am running ext2 on mine without any issues (I have been too lazy to take the time to change it). Just make sure the ext partition is wiped (which can be done in recovery under Mounts and Storage). The fat32 can be wiped, but it isn't necessary. Although, if it has been awhile, you may want to consider it, just to get rid of some of the stupid folders that devs can't figure out how to keep them out of the root of the card.

@bassmadrigal
thanks for the response man!
All or nothing eh? I will give it a try and hope for the best! At least then I will have more flexibility in the amount of apps that I can have!
I think I will just reformat the entire card since it has been a while. There is so much stuff on the card now I don't really know what is what anymore. I will keep a back up of it though juuuust in case.
I think the ext2 partition might have some files left over from link2sd so I think I might wipe it out as well and start again.
I have since removed all the apps I moved using link2sd just to calm my nerves a little bit (ha!).
I am currently trying to purchase titanium backup but it looks like maybe the market is having issues. It is stuck on "Authorizing purchase..." seems like a few people have had this.
In the mean time I will install the recovery image and do a nandroid backup!

Just as an FYI, if you redo your partitions (ie repartitioning your sdcard through the recovery), that will erase and format both partitions. I think by default, clockworkmod will do an ext2 partition, whereas Amon_RA gives you the option between ext3 and ext4. One thing to keep in mind, in the past, with ClockworkMod v3.x, it had been known to cause issues with partitioning cards. I don't know if that has been fixed in the v5.x, but I know it doesn't exist in v2.x and it also works properly in Amon_RA.
All or nothing really isn't a bad approach. I have a class 4 32GB Sandisk, and I don't seem to have any speed problems. Then, with some of the apps that have a large amount of data, I will move those individually with Titanium Backup. Two big ones are Google Earth (16MB of frickin data), and Firefox (I don't remember how much, but it is still a large amount). But I had to move those because I was running out of room in my internal memory (I have a lot of apps installed).

I was actually just about to update this thread!
I have been busy since my last post!
I have since installed clockworkmod recovery, done my backups, installed cyanogenmod, and am just in the process of going through it.
I FINALLY got titanium backup pro key to install.. I think there must have been something wrong between google and the titanium backup app, but after like 2 hours of trying it finally went through!
I think I am okay with the "All or nothing approach" as well. I know now that I need to start to take backups WAY more serious! So if I ever run into a situation where my ext partition dies, I won't be devastated!
I think what I will end up doing is reformatting it all tomorrow at work. I will turn the phone off, remove SD card, format using a Linux system at work, place card back in and go from there.
To restore my ROM Manager backup and my Titanium Backups I just have to copy those folders back to the SD card (after the format) from the backup I made of the SD card prior to formatting it (sorry if I am sounding repetitive, I can't tell if what I am saying will make sense to anyone other then myself lol + plus I am EXHAUSTED!)
That's awesome though its working for you. I have a class 10 8 gig kingston SDcard and so far its been great!
So when I setup s2e (I have it installed, but not configured!) I should select the check boxes "Applications, Private apps, and Dalvic Cache"?
You mentioned that you use Titanium Backup to move certain apps like Google Earth... I was just wondering in what direction you were moving them? From the phone to the SDcard, or from the SDcard to the phone? Sorry for probably another really stupid question I just wanted to make sure I was following you correctly!
Thank you again for all your help though. Things have gone smoothly so far

In S2E move applications, private apps, dalvik cache and optional too download cache.
As for moving data to sd card individually by Titanium, you are moving the data from internal memory to sd card

Yes, all you need to do is copy those folders back, but if you restore any of your nandroid backups, you will reset everything in your system back to the time before you installed S2E. So, I would only do that as a last resort. But, Titanium Backup does not have that limitation. It is just restoring the data to whatever the system is setup to do.
Once you do get everything up and running properly, it would be beneficial to do a nandroid. But as far as a lot of backups, you can set TB to run on a schedule to back up your phone every so often while you are asleep. And then, I just make sure I do a nandroid before I flash ANYTHING.
And ditto for what baseballfanz said. I never bothered with the download cache, as that is stored on a different partition within the phone (the /cache partition). Unless you resize all your partitions, it is probably pointless to move it. And yes, I am moving the data (ie the saved games/settings etc) for the app to the sdext partition with Titanium Backup, but you probably won't need to do this for a while (I have 213 user apps installed according to TB).

@bassmadrigal and @baseballfanz
Thanks guys for all your advice!
Sorry for the million's of question, I'm learning a lot from you guys though!
So.. Cheers!
Nandroid is similar to Acronis (imaging software) for PC so I definitely follow you when you say that restoring an Nandroid backup will erase anything I have done since doing that particular backup.
Good to know that moving those folders back onto the SDcard is all I have to do so now reformatting the card isn't as scary! Oh and I have to make sure I grab the Titanium Backup License file - Sorry I just read this is the old method!
I will definitely take your advice and produce a Nandroid backup once everything is up and running just in case! I have been thinking about it and I figured I could automate a backup of the Titanium Backup folder and the clockworkmod folder by using the rSync app. I could just copy everything to my NAS during the night, which would ensure I have two physical copies just incase my SD card decides to dead.
thanks for clarifying the direction of the data being moved using titanium backup. I figured it was that but wanted to be sure. I still have a lot of learning to do with that app to get fully familiar with it!
I'll be setting up my two new partition today and hopefully I can start restoring apps later this afternoon. Will report back my status.
Thanks again for the help!
cheers

what is the difference between cw backup and titanium backup?

what is the difference between cw backup and titanium backup?
which is better, more safe (for brick issue) , faster ...
what is meant by nandroid backup?

Difference between Nandroid and Titanium backup
I am glad I found this, I have been looking for a thread I could submit a useful post in so that I would be able to see the thank button.
Nandroid backup is the type of backup that CWM does.
i.e. when your phone is rooted you can go into the recovery and one of the options is nandroid backup.
A nandroid backup copies every single byte of data stored in the phone onto your SD card (or wherever) and is an absolute backup of one particular state of your phone.
It is a very powerful tool, you do a nandroid backup before flashing anything and if it all goes wrong the nandroid backup will restore everything back to the way it was before you messed it all up.
(with the Note you need to be careful because the nandroid backup does a wipe and write on restore and that will trigger the hard brick issues with the leaked ICS ROMs that you will no doubt have read about in the stickies.
Titanium backup is a tool that is run from inside the OS and can back up the installation files and app data of all your apps, it will allow you to remove and replace individual apps or batch replace the whole lot.
It can also force the OS not to update certain apps if you want them to run at an older version.
It can sync its backup files to Dropbox or Google drive too.
I guess in a nutshell the differences are these:
Nandroid will only back up a snapshot of the whole phone but does not need a working OS to do it.
Titanium will only work if you can get the phone to boot into android but it can do more specific backups and roll backs.
Let me know if that has answered your question buddy.

amateurstuntman said:
I am glad I found this, I have been looking for a thread I could submit a useful post in so that I would be able to see the thank button.
Nandroid backup is the type of backup that CWM does.
i.e. when your phone is rooted you can go into the recovery and one of the options is nandroid backup.
A nandroid backup copies every single byte of data stored in the phone onto your SD card (or wherever) and is an absolute backup of one particular state of your phone.
It is a very powerful tool, you do a nandroid backup before flashing anything and if it all goes wrong the nandroid backup will restore everything back to the way it was before you messed it all up.
(with the Note you need to be careful because the nandroid backup does a wipe and write on restore and that will trigger the hard brick issues with the leaked ICS ROMs that you will no doubt have read about in the stickies.
Titanium backup is a tool that is run from inside the OS and can back up the installation files and app data of all your apps, it will allow you to remove and replace individual apps or batch replace the whole lot.
It can also force the OS not to update certain apps if you want them to run at an older version.
It can sync its backup files to Dropbox or Google drive too.
I guess in a nutshell the differences are these:
Nandroid will only back up a snapshot of the whole phone but does not need a working OS to do it.
Titanium will only work if you can get the phone to boot into android but it can do more specific backups and roll backs.
Let me know if that has answered your question buddy.
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thx alot for ur reply

amateurstuntman said:
I am glad I found this, I have been looking for a thread I could submit a useful post in so that I would be able to see the thank button.
Nandroid backup is the type of backup that CWM does.
i.e. when your phone is rooted you can go into the recovery and one of the options is nandroid backup.
A nandroid backup copies every single byte of data stored in the phone onto your SD card (or wherever) and is an absolute backup of one particular state of your phone.
It is a very powerful tool, you do a nandroid backup before flashing anything and if it all goes wrong the nandroid backup will restore everything back to the way it was before you messed it all up.
(with the Note you need to be careful because the nandroid backup does a wipe and write on restore and that will trigger the hard brick issues with the leaked ICS ROMs that you will no doubt have read about in the stickies.
Titanium backup is a tool that is run from inside the OS and can back up the installation files and app data of all your apps, it will allow you to remove and replace individual apps or batch replace the whole lot.
It can also force the OS not to update certain apps if you want them to run at an older version.
It can sync its backup files to Dropbox or Google drive too.
I guess in a nutshell the differences are these:
Nandroid will only back up a snapshot of the whole phone but does not need a working OS to do it.
Titanium will only work if you can get the phone to boot into android but it can do more specific backups and roll backs.
Let me know if that has answered your question buddy.
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Thats incorrect as per my post regarding backup cwm does not take a snapshot of whole phone. One more thing you need to backup seperately is efs. See my thread on that. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1606012
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Can't find cwm backup ANYWHERE

First of al I'm not talking about our device but my friends S4 Mini LTE!
But the S4 mini community is not that active, really..
So I was going to flash Liquid Smooth for him (he was running stock rom, no root), so made backup for safety but the backup took 3gb space and that was all he had left.
I used this one (CWM) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2364980
I stopt after step 6, only wanted CWM recovery because Liquid Smooth would give root automaticly.. I did everything right!
- CWM worked properly
- Made backup (didn't know it would be 3gb)
- Rebooted, phone says not enough memory
- Can't find the backup. Really NOWHERE, trust me.
- CWM was not installed anymore when I again booted in recovery.
So the problem is that cwm is not installed anymore? If I flash md5. again with odin to get cwm will I find the nandroid backup?
I really need to solve this, it's my friends phone soo..
I made backup for safety, but now the backup is the problem because it's so big and can't be found.
Thanks
Again I know this is not s4 mini section but it's pretty dead over there, or our device section is extremely alive

coffeecore said:
First of al I'm not talking about our device but my friends S4 Mini LTE!
But the S4 mini community is not that active, really..
So I was going to flash Liquid Smooth for him (he was running stock rom, no root), so made backup for safety but the backup took 3gb space and that was all he had left.
I used this one (CWM) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2364980
I stopt after step 6, only wanted CWM recovery because Liquid Smooth would give root automaticly.. I did everything right!
- CWM worked properly
- Made backup (didn't know it would be 3gb)
- Rebooted, phone says not enough memory
- Can't find the backup. Really NOWHERE, trust me.
- CWM was not installed anymore when I again booted in recovery.
So the problem is that cwm is not installed anymore? If I flash md5. again with odin to get cwm will I find the nandroid backup?
I really need to solve this, it's my friends phone soo..
I made backup for safety, but now the backup is the problem because it's so big and can't be found.
Thanks
Again I know this is not s4 mini section but it's pretty dead over there, or our device section is extremely alive
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Probably nowhere, maybe it deleted files after there was not enough space. CWM make folder in root of exnternal/internal memory called clockworkmod. If it is not present, then there is no backup.

shut_down said:
Probably nowhere, maybe it deleted files after there was not enough space. CWM make folder in root of exnternal/internal memory called clockworkmod. If it is not present, then there is no backup.
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But space is fully
So there must be something..
And backup was succesfully completed.

Really need to find/delete it, it's my friends phone.
Is there other way than searching file, for example doing such thing it will be removed but he still has his photo's/music.

coffeecore said:
Really need to find/delete it, it's my friends phone.
Is there other way than searching file, for example doing such thing it will be removed but he still has his photo's/music.
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Try it on PC. And put hidden files to be shown. I have no idea where it could be. Maybe it is in different place on S4 mini.
Or make backup of stuff he uses, format and put them back on the phone.

shut_down said:
Try it on PC. And put hidden files to be shown. I have no idea where it could be. Maybe it is in different place on S4 mini.
Or make backup of stuff he uses, format and put them back on the phone.
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Have litterly searched everywhere, nowhere to find..
Think last option is to indeed to make backup from apps and format /system, right?

coffeecore said:
Have litterly searched everywhere, nowhere to find..
Think last option is to indeed to make backup from apps and format /system, right?
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Not system, backup is not there. Format sd card, the one you said it is full - and it has no apps it has data (music, pictures etc...). System has nothing to do with CWM nandroid backup.

shut_down said:
Not system, backup is not there. Format sd card, the one you said it is full - and it has no apps it has data (music, pictures etc...). System has nothing to do with CWM nandroid backup.
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Sorry sorry, I meant sdcard.. Thanks for your help, really appreciate it!

And what if I restore backup, backup won't be deleted afterwards, right?

coffeecore said:
And what if I restore backup, backup won't be deleted afterwards, right?
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What afterwards?

coffeecore said:
And what if I restore backup, backup won't be deleted afterwards, right?
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It will remain in phone, it will not self destroy. If that is what you ask.