Root Imaging a phone for backup/recovery purposes? (like Symantec Ghost for PC's)

[ds801]

I've read a number of posts here about rooting, custom rom's, custom restores, etc, (and THANK YOU to all the people who have done all that hard work and shared their knowledge!) But I'm still confused about something, and I haven't been able to find the answers yet myself.

I don't necessarily want to root or make any changes to my stock Verizon Ally (running Froyo 2.2.1). What I do want is to be able to make a complete backup image of my phone (like you can do to a PC using something like Symantec Ghost). That way, if I do something that screws up the phone (like I do decide to root/modify the phone some day), or I don't like the latest "update" that Verizon forces onto my phone, I could then use the image I've taken to restore the entire phone back to it's previous (stock) system.

In the PC world, this would not involve installing any software on the computer that I'm going to make an image of, and it doesn't even require having administrator rights on that computer (boot the computer using a CD or USB stick, run Ghost to image the system drive and store that image someplace. Reverse the process to restore).

So, my question is, Is it even possible to make a complete backup image of a phone?
If yes:

- Do I have to root the phone first, in order to do it?

- What program(s) would I use to make and/or restore the image on the phone?

 

[KingOfGreen]

you can make "Nandroid" backups, you do need root to do so and more specifically a custom recovery. this would back up nearly the phones entire state at the time of the backup. if you have fastboot i THINK you could flash a custom recovery and make a nandroid backup WITHOUT rooting the phones stock ROM and once finished the recovery probably wouldnt stick. meaning it would remain 100% stock and have a backup on the sdcard, restoring would mean manually flashing the recovery via fastboot again.

i managed to make a backup BEFORE rooting my replacement phone and upon restoring it i am stock, recovery included. to back up this way without going through the entire root process would require that you have a phone sold with 2.1 ZV6 on it. the OTA updates would not effect fastboot AND you would have to manually flash the recovery. if you have a newer phone you will have to downgrade the software and update which would also wipe the phone in order to gain access to fastboot.

fastboot is the phones bootloader, having access to this allows you to flash any radio, recovery, ROM, ect to your phone. to use it you need the andoid sdk installed (just necessary tools adb+fastboot) and fastboot and adb drivers.

there is always the option to root, this will GREATLY extend the capabilities of your ally i would not still own this phone if i didnt root. it will also void your warrany (you can always go back stock) but there is the risk of "bricking" your phone which is UNlikely if you read before you do, are cautious and dont do anything you havent looked into.

 

[BWB8771]

I'm interested in doing precisely what the OP asked originally. Sprite Backup did exactly that for me back in the old WinMo6 days, so I was more than a little disappointed when I installed it on my GS3 and didn't get yhe desired results.

How are you guys backing up your phones now? Has anything improved in ICS?