Nandroid

[milehighclubber]

I have a rooted Galaxy Nexus (4.0.4- stock- obviously the unofficial leaked stock update). I cannot make CWM recovery make a recoverable backup. Okay, I made a backup when I first updated to 4.0.4 and rerooted it. A month (and a whole lot of data and apps) later, I made a new backup. To test out the recovery (I had never tried to restore to a backup because I had never needed to.), I decided to change up some things and attempt to recover. I made minor adjustments, then went into recovery mode and hit "restore" on my last backup. So, it got almost done restoring, but finished saying "Error while restoring /data!" I rebooted and found all my data gone and some stuff messed up. So, I restored my old backup that I made when I had very few applications and not much data. That worked perfectly.
So, I thought I had just gotten one corrupted backup. I waited for Google to restore my apps, changed some stuff, backed up my apps with Titanium, and made a new backup. Tried to restore to it, and the same problem came up. I tried my old backup, and it worked fine.
Now, I have been at this for a week, making backups and trying to restore to them, and the only backup I can make work (successfully restore to) is that one old one. I keep getting the same error. The only thing I can figure is that there is some app or something that messes up the backup. Does anybody know? Nobody else seems to have this problem, or maybe I am just missing something really obvious (I tend to do that.).

I am using the recommended 5.5.0.4 recovery, but did try the touch recovery only to find that it does the exact same thing, so that is not it.

Also, is there any way I can make a manual nandroid and try that (like with adb)? If so, I would really appreciate a clear, step-by-step walkthrough on how to do that.

Thanks for your time. I look forward to seeing the obvious thing that I am missing (or finding out that I have the one Galaxy Nexus in the universe that rejects large nandroid backups-- or just hates me).

 

[2defmouze]

When you say you "changed up some things" do you mean you touched the backup file in your clockworkmod folder? Obviously that would screw it up.

If that's not what you meant I'm not really sure what you're doing... you could potentially run into an issue restoring a backup made with one version of CWR using a different version. I recommend updating to the official touch recovery 5.8.0.2 and sticking with it. Going forward any backups you make should restore just fine. It sounds like you were just experimenting and aren't in a bad situation right now so you should be ok, right?

If you use ROM manager (I advise against it) then have it install the official touch version. If not, load it via fastboot... drag this file to your computer's folder with your adb and fastboot files: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47300967/recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.0.2-toro.img

Reboot into the bootloader (vol down + up + power), connect phone. Hold shift and right-click in the folder, click Open command window here. Type:
fastboot flash boot recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.0.2-toro.img
Hit enter, done.

 

[zero neck]

One other thing - did you make your backups manually in CWM or did you use rom manager ro make them? More chance of bugs if you're using rom manager, although usually their backups are pretty solid.

 

[greydarrah]

Did you change the names of your backups? It's OK to change them, or add something to the default name so you can tell which one is which, but you can NOT add ANY blank spaces to the file name. If you do, the backup will fail.

 

[milehighclubber]

When you say you "changed up some things" do you mean you touched the backup file in your clockworkmod folder? Obviously that would screw it up.

If that's not what you meant I'm not really sure what you're doing... you could potentially run into an issue restoring a backup made with one version of CWR using a different version. I recommend updating to the official touch recovery 5.8.0.2 and sticking with it. Going forward any backups you make should restore just fine. It sounds like you were just experimenting and aren't in a bad situation right now so you should be ok, right?

If you use ROM manager (I advise against it) then have it install the official touch version. If not, load it via fastboot... drag this file to your computer's folder with your adb and fastboot files: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47300967/recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.0.2-toro.img

Reboot into the bootloader (vol down + up + power), connect phone. Hold shift and right-click in the folder, click Open command window here. Type:
fastboot flash boot recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.0.2-toro.img
Hit enter, done.

Oh, sorry, no, I didn't mess around with the file name or anything like that. I just meant I changed some simple settings (touch sounds, etc.) to test out the recovery. No, I didn't use ROM manager to make the backup. (I tried that once to see if it would make it work, but it did the same thing.)
2defmouze, don't you mean "fastboot flash boot recovery recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.0.2-toro.img" ? If I was supposed to put this recovery image as the boot image, that would most likely be the problem. I have been flashing to to recovery, not the boot. Please get back to me. I appreciate it.
Just to double check, I don't have to do anything fancy like wiping anything before recovering, right? (Although, yes, I have tried wiping a bunch of stuff before recovering, too, only to find the same problem.)
Finally, I saw in the ?advanced? (I think) "menu" in cwm recovery that my /system was not mounted like everything else. So, I clicked it (with the power button). That didn't change the problem, but I was was wondering if that was a good decision, or should I just leave it how it was when I flashed the recovery?

My suspicion as of right now is that there is some weird, corrupt file or app that is messing up my backups, but I really don't know.

 

[2defmouze]

Oh, sorry, no, I didn't mess around with the file name or anything like that. I just meant I changed some simple settings (touch sounds, etc.) to test out the recovery. No, I didn't use ROM manager to make the backup. (I tried that once to see if it would make it work, but it did the same thing.)
2defmouze, don't you mean "fastboot flash boot recovery recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.0.2-toro.img" ? If I was supposed to put this recovery image as the boot image, that would most likely be the problem. I have been flashing to to recovery, not the boot. Please get back to me. I appreciate it.
Just to double check, I don't have to do anything fancy like wiping anything before recovering, right? (Although, yes, I have tried wiping a bunch of stuff before recovering, too, only to find the same problem.)
Finally, I saw in the ?advanced? (I think) "menu" in cwm recovery that my /system was not mounted like everything else. So, I clicked it (with the power button). That didn't change the problem, but I was was wondering if that was a good decision, or should I just leave it how it was when I flashed the recovery?

My suspicion as of right now is that there is some weird, corrupt file or app that is messing up my backups, but I really don't know.

Dang you are absolutely right there, lol should have said
fastboot flash recovery...
My bad on that but nice catch, lol
And nah you shouldn't mount /system in CWR

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

 

[milehighclubber]

What happens if the /system is mounted, just out of curiosity?

 

[2defmouze]

What happens if the /system is mounted, just out of curiosity?

A genie pops out and offers to grant you 3 wishes... but each wish will bring about undesired and unimaginable consquences, leading to your ultimate demise...



No but you only mount system if your making changes to the system folder from recovery... basically when you install a ROM, the rom install script will mount system for a portion of the install.. but you should never really have to do it, nor should you

 

[milehighclubber]

So, I think I figured out a (not ideal) solution. Apparently, I only get this error when my backup contains more than a certain number of apps (or possibly the /data is over a certain size). This deduction took me over a week of experimenting with backups and recoveries. Granted, I do have over 350 apps, but why is CWM Recovery messing up while trying to restore a big backup? It really should not affect it, but it seems to. So, I will be backing up with Titanium for my apps, and making nandroid backups only when I have under about 350 apps installed. If anybody else has any insight, please share it with me. Thanks.

 

[2defmouze]

Wow... I couldn't tell you, as I don't have the entire freaking Play store installed on my phone... LOL.

I have something like 70ish user apps installed... I would love to know how on earth you could need 350?? Thats insane , lolz.. Could it be the cause of the backups screwing up... Idk, maybe.. Seems plausible. I think thats a pretty insane amount of apps to have haha. Probably slows your phone down something fierce too. That's like Hoarders level on your phone..lol

I would try to get that down to a manageable number... ask yourself how many of those you REALLY need or even use. You really ought to be able to cut that down a significant amount.

 

[davidnc]

HaHa I agree thats a bunch of apps .
I am sure you should be able to thin it down some.
I guess I win for having the least apps that I downloaded myself. It's18 user apps but I use almost all of them everyday.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

 

[oxfat]

If you use ROM manager (I advise against it) then have it install the official touch version. If not, load it via fastboot... drag this file to your computer's folder with your adb and fastboot files: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47300967/recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.0.2-toro.img.

Just curious, why do you not recommend using ROM Manager?

ox

 

[zedorda]

You can also backup without /data included and that should fix your issue and just use a 3rd party app to backup the apps.

It sounds like the image being built was to large to load entirely onto the RAM to be restored. I believe nandroid loads the entire partition it is restoring into RAM before flashing it to internal memory.

Your kinda running into the old school CD burning error "buffer under-run failure" back before we had more RAM than a CD-ROM held.

 

[2defmouze]

Just curious, why do you not recommend using ROM Manager?

ox

Same reason I hate one-click root tools.. It keeps people from learning anything. Rom manager screws up sometimes, or people invariably get themselves into situations where they can't get into it.. And then they have no idea how to navigate recovery, flash things from the bootloader, etc. The more you do things on your own the more you will pick up and become more competent... Things like Rom Manager and 1-clicks just hurt the population.

Ok /rant... Lol

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

 

[milehighclubber]

So, I was kind of wondering what the point of having a 32GB internal memory is if I am not allowed to fill it with plenty of apps and stuff. I mean, I guess I could install everything, then back everything up with Titanium, then uninstall a bunch of stuff with Titanium, then make a backup in CWM recovery, then reinstall everything with Titanium, but that is kind of a pain. Oh, well. It is a bunch of storage that is nearly going all to waste, unfortunately. I can't believe no one else has ever run into this problem before.

 

[dmmarck]

So, I was kind of wondering what the point of having a 32GB internal memory is if I am not allowed to fill it with plenty of apps and stuff. I mean, I guess I could install everything, then back everything up with Titanium, then uninstall a bunch of stuff with Titanium, then make a backup in CWM recovery, then reinstall everything with Titanium, but that is kind of a pain. Oh, well. It is a bunch of storage that is nearly going all to waste, unfortunately. I can't believe no one else has ever run into this problem before.

Meh, if you Nandroid frequently it fills up quite fast lol

 

[milehighclubber]

Yeah, I guess that's true. It is nice to have plenty of room for Nandroids.