Originally Posted by
PaulQ I don't really understand the difference between Factory Image and OTA image though.
An OTA is usually just a small subset of files that the system needs to load to update itself... say getting a security update that might only be 50MB to 100MB. They are often build specific... i.e. to install the September 6.0.1 update, you would need to load it on top of the August 6.0.1 update, etc.
But this OTA is a little bit different as it is a major system upgrade. I took a quick look at the 7.0 OTA, and it's nearly as big as the full on factory image... only16MB smaller... so, without tearing it down to its tiny bits, the 7.0 OTA file that Google released is basically a full on factory image that's been OTA-ified... meaning it has been packed and signed to allow the stock recovery to install it automatically AND it won't wipe your data in the process.
Granted, if you grab the full factory image, take the '-w' switch out of the flash-all.bat script and run that, you'd end up in the exact same spot as the OTA would leave you.