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Help Create mirror image of apps and data?

svenmonet

Newbie
On a PC there is a program called Norton Ghost which allows you to create a mirror image of the entire operating system and all installed programs. If your PC crashes you can re-install Win XP or Windows 7 then run Ghost from a CD Rom to recover everything from an external hard drive. Your PC then looks like where you left off before the crash. It's a very cool idea and gives you peace of mind knowing it updates everything daily.

My Nexus just crashed a few days ago and the only way to get going again was to do a factory reset. I've patiently been installing my apps again which isn't fun.

Is there anything like Ghost for Android? If there isn't what is the best app for factory reset situation where you want your apps back fast? I would like to backup everything via the USB interface to my PC and know I can re-install everything on the Nexus quickly. I'm not sure you can.

Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated.
 
I use Titanium Backup (needs root) to backup apps and their data. By default it saves to SD card which may be a virtual device on some phones but the backups can of course be copied to a PC, whatever.

I have used it to repopulate a new phone (replaced under warranty) by simply installing it on the new phone, copying the backup files back to the internal SD then letting TB do the rest. Worked perfectly.

The only downside is that the device needs to be rooted for TB to work, but the good news is that any Nexus is trivially easy to root, which I did purely to allow the use of apps like TB rather than to mess about with it as many do :-)
 
To go along with John TB is your best bet. However if your rooted you can make what is known as a Nandroid Backup. This is very much like Norton Ghost. With a Nandroid Backup all you have to do is simply restore the phone to an earlier point. (Preferably the latest backup) this will take the phone back to that state with very little effort. WARNING Never use a Nandroid from one device on another it could leave you with a nice shiny brick
 
I've always been intimidated to root my phone but now is a good time to try. Which program is best/safest to use? Is as easy as installing a trusted root app and running it?

If there are going to be any problems I would rather have them now before I settle into my new install of all my apps.

Thanks!
 
If you tell us the phone you are using and who your carrier is we will move this thread to the forum dealing with questions about it being root-ed.

... Thom
 
If you use a Windows PC the simplest way is to use the Nexus Root Toolkit, which can do pretty much everything including walking you through getting the Windows drivers to work - something that is often the hardest part of the process.

Manual rooting is quite straightforward if you're comfortable using command line tools, but if all you want to do is root to allow the use of apps like TB then the toolkit is the way to go.

Incidentally, this is by far the best time to do it since the first thing you need to do is unlock the bootloader - which will effectively do the same as the factory reset and delete all user data. If you're ever going to root then do it now while the device has no data on it.

Have a look in the Nexus 4 and Nexus 4 All Things Root forums for lots more information.

Edit: sorry, I assumed Nexus 4 when you simply wrote Nexus. Go to the forum for your particular Nexus if it's not a N4. Rooting methods are the same for any Nexus but the files you need to do it manually will differ depending on the device.
 
Pardon my ignorance but since I've already installed many apps again am I going to lose them if I use the Nexus Root Toolkit?

Phone is Galaxy Nexus 4.0.3.

Thanks.
 
Thread moved from Android Lounge.

As you can see there are multiple all things root sub-forums. If you want to pursue root-ing, investigate the sub-forum for your carrier.

... Thom
 
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