Question about rooting/backing up/restoring/unbricking

[carzaddict]

This is my first android and my first time rooting......as im sure it is for a lot of other people, the amount of knowledge is great! however i feel that its all scattered........leaving me with a few questions.......at the same time i want to be able to organize all the thoughts.

- to root: i use Petes 1 click method
- i can use titanium backup to backup everything to an SD card and freeze bloatware.
- if I mess up, I can use FXZ file to restore my phone? Back to 100% stock settings? (instructions found here: Droid Bionic Receives Fastboot Recovery Files - BriefMobile)

[Q] - How does using the FXZ file to restore differ than doing a fastboot restore? Which is better?
[Q] - Just to make sure....the FXZ will restore my phone 100% to stock? no matter what I do?
[Q] - Can I make a nandroid backup of my phone? How do I do this? Does Bionic support this yet?
[Q] - If I want to restore my phone to the point of where I made the nandroid backup....how do I do this? FXZ flash? root again? restore nandroid backup?

Essentially what I want to do is be able to make images of my phone at any current state....and then be able to restore that image if i ever screw something up.......the idea being getting all my settings/apps/etc from the backup.

Thanks for your help guys. for the people in the same boat as me, I will update this post with my findings to make things easier.

 

[wseyller]

I don't think FXZ is different from fastboot. FXZ stands for Fastboot XML zip i'm pretty sure.

It will restore 100% stock. Not sure it would revive anything you do, but most anything.

We are waiting for a custom recovery coming soon which will allow you do make nandroid backups. Nandroids are backed up and restore via the customer recovery menu.

 

[2defmouze]

My advice:

After you root (which, by the way, be sure to follow the easy but deliberate instructions to get it done), install Titanium Backup. Then pay the $7 for the full version (you spent $300 or more on the phone and accessories, just consider this $7 another NECESSARY accessory).

In Titanium, after you grant it Super User access, first run a full backup. This takes a few minutes. Then under the backup tab you can see a list of everything installed on your phone. You may easily click anything, click Freeze, Titanium will freeze it, all very nice and simple. Go by the list in the sticky that Cory provided at the top of the page to see what will be safe to freeze. Afterwards you MAY decide to freeze something else, but do it intelligently, nothing that looks necessary. And do so one at a time at that point, make sure there are no problems on the phone, and continue. Through the same menu, you can find all of your frozen items are now highlighted in blue (Or can you filter to only see frozen items). You can just as easily click one of these and select Defrost to restore it.

This is the simplest method and should avoid you doing any damage to your phone and having to worry about restoring. Of course if you have any more questions always ask on here before trying anything. Good luck!

 

[carzaddict]

Thanks guys.

The titanium backup is def the first thing I am going to purchase. $7 wont break the bank. But I feel like it wont satisfy my need for a full image backup........which I was informed is still not possible yet for the Bionic

 

[wseyller]

My advice:

After you root (which, by the way, be sure to follow the easy but deliberate instructions to get it done), install Titanium Backup. Then pay the $7 for the full version (you spent $300 or more on the phone and accessories, just consider this $7 another NECESSARY accessory).

In Titanium, after you grant it Super User access, first run a full backup. This takes a few minutes. Then under the backup tab you can see a list of everything installed on your phone. You may easily click anything, click Freeze, Titanium will freeze it, all very nice and simple. Go by the list in the sticky that Cory provided at the top of the page to see what will be safe to freeze. Afterwards you MAY decide to freeze something else, but do it intelligently, nothing that looks necessary. And do so one at a time at that point, make sure there are no problems on the phone, and continue. Through the same menu, you can find all of your frozen items are now highlighted in blue (Or can you filter to only see frozen items). You can just as easily click one of these and select Defrost to restore it.

This is the simplest method and should avoid you doing any damage to your phone and having to worry about restoring. Of course if you have any more questions always ask on here before trying anything. Good luck!

I do titanium backups as well. The nandroids are nice if you just want to restore to a certain point. One click to restore in recovery, then after it reboots, right into your phone exactly the way it was. it has a little more upside than titanium in that sense. Titanium is nice for backing up apps and settings for the use of selective restore. Also titanium is good to keep multiple versions of app backups in case an app update is not so good. Normally I use nandroids when flashing between different roms. If a particular rom I try out is not so great then I just restore my nandroid and I'm back up in a few minutes. WIth titanium you have to setup the phone initially and you have to install titanium backup before you can even use titanium to restore items.

 

[carzaddict]

i was planning to do both.

one thing i always tell my clients is to make backups of backups....you never know what happens. Titanium is good for temporary backup and restores.....but if something goes bad, the image restore would be the best thing...and i get all my settings back

 

[carzaddict]

We are waiting for a custom recovery coming soon which will allow you do make nandroid backups. Nandroids are backed up and restore via the customer recovery menu.

you mean like clockwork recovery?

 

[wseyller]

you mean like clockwork recovery?

Exactly. There are two versions coming out soon by two different devs. One is a bootstrap method and one is via 2nd init. Just testing before release.

 

[dcgore]

Wow, all this is very informative. I think i may try rooting and getting on this crazy wagon!

 

[carzaddict]

Wow, all this is very informative. I think i may try rooting and getting on this crazy wagon!

if you're feeling hesitant, just wait until ClockWork Mod comes out....that way you can do a full backup of your phone incase something goes wrong.

but from everything that ive been reading, the rooting method is solid and restoring works just as well