Finally going to root. I have a few specific questions

[piaband]

Coming from a Palm Pre, the whole ROM world is a little confusing.

I finally learned what a Nandroid backup is. But when I take a Nandroid backup with a stock, rooted ROM, can I then flash a CM7 ROM and restore the Nandroid backup on the CM7 ROM? I want to keep all my apps, app data, and settings and apply them to the CM7 ROM. Or can you only use a Nandroid backup from the same ROM?


TL;DR Can I use a stock Nandroid backup on a CM7 ROM?



#2. I want to install the CM7 ROM. All I can find are the nightly builds. From what I read, these might not be stable. Can someone point me to where I can find the latest stable release of CM7 for the Nexus S 4G? Does one even exist right now?

 

[digitalslacker]

#1 A nandroid backup is designed to restore your system to a previous point in time. Think like windows restore point...
If you want to back up only your applications and settings, like if you want to try a new rom and don't want to lose Angry Birds, you can use something like Titanium Backup.

#2 CM has 3 types of builds, Stable, Experimental, Nightly. Right now the Crespo 4G (Nexus S 4G) has 1 Experimental (Release Candidate) and the nightlies. There aren't any stables, yet.

Here is the RC CyanogenMod Mirror Network - Powered by TDRevolution

 

[arrogant437]

You can restore a nandroid backup at any given point in time, however the operating system (or Rom) that u created the nandroid from will be the one that is restored. A nandroid is a full rom image backup including your data,system, boot,and cache. Lets say you make a nandroid on Cyanogen but you are currently running some other ROM. If you restore your Cyanogen nandroid while running this other ROM, your operating system will revert to Cyanogen.

Remeber when changing from one ROM to another, ALWAYS wipe DATA, CACHE, DALVIK
(If you dont know what these are you will by the time you root)

As Digitalslacker stated, if you want to restore individual apps or settings, you will need a market backup app. I HIGHLY recommend Titanium Backup.

 

[piaband]

Thank you both. One more question. Will rooting my device wipe all my data?

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

 

[arrogant437]

Thank you both. One more question. Will rooting my device wipe all my data?

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

I know once the bootloader interface is unlocked all data gets wiped. Check this forum for a post about the topic. I thought I might have seen a post that described a waay to root w/o losing data. But generally yes you will lose your data. Save what you can by copying your phone storage contents to your laptop/pc.

 

[simon.ponder]

You can restore specific partitions instead of the entire nandroid if needed, using the currect ClockworkMod Recovery 3.1.0.1. Also if the ROM you are flashing and the current installed ROM are the same android version, you can usually get away with only wiping the system partition and then flashing the ROM.

Always remember to wipe the cache partition after flashing, but before booting. Not doing that is the cause of many issues.

 

[nmoreman]

One question along these lines - I have rooted my phone, giving it to my daughter, so I relocked. It kept root.
However Sprint said I need to hard reset to allow her Google account to access that phone for contacts, cloud info, etc., which makes sense.

Does anyone know if a hard reset will affect the root? This was the first phone I did, a pain, the second was easier, but was hoping I didn't have to do it again . . . but will if needed.

 

[popularbelief]

One question along these lines - I have rooted my phone, giving it to my daughter, so I relocked. It kept root.
However Sprint said I need to hard reset to allow her Google account to access that phone for contacts, cloud info, etc., which makes sense.

Does anyone know if a hard reset will affect the root? This was the first phone I did, a pain, the second was easier, but was hoping I didn't have to do it again . . . but will if needed.

hard reset will not affect root. when you wipe the stock rom via clockwork before flashing a new rom. (you should be doing this for any fresh install) you essentially wipe data / dalvik/ cache. unless there's something i am missing from some mysterious thread. these are the same exact thing.

 

[briguyy]

Just picked my Nexus up today. If i root will i still recieve system updates? Because coming from the Samsung Verrizon Fascinate if rooted the phone would not recieve updates.