Root Nand Backups

[Bob Cat]

I was going to send Scary an e-mail asking him this question but the I thought others may want to know the answer to this. Can a Nand Backup be renamed? Say I have a backup of the White Widow Rom and I would like to revisit it but of all the backups I have I don't know which one it is.

 

[Podivin]

Yes you can rename them, but you must avoid 'special characters'.
To keep it safe use only alpha, numeric, underscore and period. There might be others you can use but I'm sure those will work. Do NOT put a space in the file name, that will prevent the nand from loading correctly.

 

[doogald]

I always rename them. Typically, the ones made from Amon's are called something like BDS-20110205-1215; I add the name and version of the ROM I am running, so I change it to something like BDS-20110205-1215-CELB43

 

[Bob Cat]

Thanks guys.

 

[scary alien]

Yeah, this question comes up in a lot of root forums for both Amon_RA and ClockworkMod recovery.

Also, in case you want to know, the name format of the Nandroid backups that Amon_RA creates, BDS-ccyymmdd-hhmm, tells you that:

1. The boot (B), data (D), and system (S) partitions were included in the backup. There are lots of other things that the nandroid-mobile.sh script could backup and cause this part of the directory prefix to be a little different: C = cache, E = ext2, M = misc, R = recovery.

2. The date the backup was created is ccyymmdd

3. The time the backup was created (GMT, I believe) is hhmm

Also, as the guys indicated, there are certain character that "play nice" with the nandroid-mobile.sh script and those that do not. What actually determines this is how the nandroid-mobile.sh is invoked by the custom recovery. Its done via a shell script launch (/sbin/sh) and the nandroid-mobile.sh command with all of its parameters, including the backup or restore directory name, is passed in the command that is passed to the sh shell that is launched. So, using characters that might be interpreted other-than-intended in the backup directory name, might cause the sh shell to become "confused" or just not work right.

I added into my "Verify Nandroid Backup" function in my AFV app, a built-in test/check to analyze the name of the backup directory that the nandroid.md5 file is in to look for certain, "sketchy" characters that might cause problems. The ones I added include space, asterisk, question mark, greater than, less than, vertical bar (pipe), semi-colon, and amperand since I could envision circumstances in which the nandroid-mobile.sh command would certainly not be properly interpreted by the shell should these characters be used.

Hope that helps. Cheers!

 

[Bob Cat]

That's all just a Tad confusing for a plumber such as I am but it's all good.

 

[Podivin]

I added into my "Verify Nandroid Backup" function in my AFV app, a built-in test/check to analyze the name of the backup directory that the nandroid.md5 file is in to look for certain, "sketchy" characters that might cause problems. The ones I added include space, asterisk, question mark, greater than, less than, vertical bar (pipe), semi-colon, and amperand since I could envision circumstances in which the nandroid-mobile.sh command would certainly not be properly interpreted by the shell should these characters be used.

Very cool Scary. I can see where that would be very helpful to some folks - plumbers included.

 

[Bob Cat]

Very cool Scary. I can see where that would be very helpful to some folks - plumbers included.

 

[scotty85]

i started to rename mine,but ive got so many that i decided to just keep on keeping a list in my ipod of what they are so i can add descriptions.
for example:
1)celb 4.3 after setup (BDS-ccyymmdd-hhmm)
2)celb 4.3 with cache to cache (BDS-ccyymmdd-hhmm)
3)celb 4.3,same as above 2-2-11 (BDS-ccyymmdd-hhmm)
4)celb 4.3 same as above,new radio (BDS-ccyymmdd-hhmm)

etc

 

[doogald]

4)celb 4.3 same as above,new radio (BDS-ccyymmdd-hhmm)

Just FYI, Nandroid does not backup or restore the radio. You may know this, but if you described it this way as a way to recover if the new radio didn't work, restoring an older Nandroid backup would not bring back the old radio.

 

[Bob Cat]

Just FYI, Nandroid does not backup or restore the radio. You may know this, but if you described it this way as a way to recover if the new radio didn't work, restoring an older Nandroid backup would not bring back the old radio.

So once you install a new radio it's always there?

 

[doogald]

So once you install a new radio it's always there?

Not quite true. Most ROMs do not include a radio, by design but some do. I believe that the RUU utility installs a radio. Erisuser1's Flashback21 includes a version that flashes the radio (saying this, this may be the only ROM that I know of that does.) The OTA updates from Verizon also updated the radio. However, Nandroid does not back up nor restore the radio.

 

[scotty85]

Just FYI, Nandroid does not backup or restore the radio. You may know this, but if you described it this way as a way to recover if the new radio didn't work, restoring an older Nandroid backup would not bring back the old radio.

i had noticed that the new radio followed in to other other roms. initinally i did think that restoring the backup with the old radio would bring it back. looks like its just a description now to help me remember what backup it is,lol.

thanks for the info