Root Need to backup, repartition, reinstall a Gingerbread AOSP

[chrisr789]

Hello,

A few years ago I rooted my HTC Desire and installed a CM7 ROM. I must confess I can no longer remember how I did this.

For a while now I have been thinking that I really should repartition my internal memory because I am constantly struggling with low space. So, a few questions, and please assume I know almost nothing about what I'm doing here!

1) At present, my internal memory, according to the 4EXT Reeboot info page, is:

Name Total Free
system mtd3 250 118.5
data mtd5 147.6 21.5
cache mtd4 40 38.8

When I at what is in my internal storage (Settings > Applications > Manage Applications), I see that the largest size apps are:

K-9 Mail - 46.14 MB
WhatsApp - 5.86 MB
Antivirus - 5.57 MB
Contacts Storage - 3.84 MB
Dialler Storage - 3.20 MB
Browser - 2.94 MB
Superuser - 2.57 MB
Adobe Reader - 2.37 MB

The rest are less than 1 MB, mostly less than 100 KB. In total they add up to 90 MB, so how is it that 126 MB of the data partition is used?

2) What is the best/easiest/most reliable way for me to backup (and later restore) everything on my phone to my external SD card and PC?

3) What is the best/easiest/most reliable way for me to repartition the internal memory, to give a system partition of 190 MB and a data partition of 207.6 MB?

4) How do I then reinstall a ROM, and can anyone recommend any custom ROMs that are better with battery longevity than CyanogenMod7.

Apologies for all the questions, and again please remember that I'm very much a beginner with this!!

 

[Hadron]

Hello,

A few years ago I rooted my HTC Desire and installed a CM7 ROM. I must confess I can no longer remember how I did this.

For a while now I have been thinking that I really should repartition my internal memory because I am constantly struggling with low space. So, a few questions, and please assume I know almost nothing about what I'm doing here!

1) At present, my internal memory, according to the 4EXT Reeboot info page, is:

Name Total Free
system mtd3 250 118.5
data mtd5 147.6 21.5
cache mtd4 40 38.8

When I at what is in my internal storage (Settings > Applications > Manage Applications), I see that the largest size apps are:

K-9 Mail - 46.14 MB
WhatsApp - 5.86 MB
Antivirus - 5.57 MB
Contacts Storage - 3.84 MB
Dialler Storage - 3.20 MB
Browser - 2.94 MB
Superuser - 2.57 MB
Adobe Reader - 2.37 MB

The rest are less than 1 MB, mostly less than 100 KB. In total they add up to 90 MB, so how is it that 126 MB of the data partition is used?

Have you looked at system apps as well? Although their apks will be in the /system partition, all of their data will be in the /data partition, and on a de-odexed ROM (almost all custom ROMs) their dalvik cache files will be too. I would guess that will account for the other 36 MB.

2) What is the best/easiest/most reliable way for me to backup (and later restore) everything on my phone to my external SD card and PC?

Take a backup using your custom recovery. Then copy that from SD to PC for safety (don't rename it though - some people have had problems when they do that).

In addition, use Titanium Backup to back up your apps and data. This has a different function: it lets you restore them after changing ROMs, which the nandroid (recovery) backup doesn't (as restoring that restores the old ROM too). Don't bother backing up system settings, as you cannot restore those to a different ROM (well you can, but it will cause problems!). If you have the paid version of Titanium you can back up messages in a format that can be transferred between ROMs, otherwise a separate message backup is needed.

If your contacts are saved as Google contacts those are already backed up. Otherwise, go into the phonebook app and select "export" from the settings. That saves your phonebook as a .vcf file on your SD card. Again, copy to PC for safety.

That should be enough backups for most purposes

3) What is the best/easiest/most reliable way for me to repartition the internal memory, to give a system partition of 190 MB and a data partition of 207.6 MB?

First thing: are you S-On or S-Off? See top of bootloader screen, which you access by booting the phone while pressing the volume down key. You need to be S-Off in order to repartition the storage. If not you need to use Revolutionary to gain S-Off (just that, the rest of that guide can be ignored as you already have a custom recovery and ROM).

If you are S-Off, then the section "alpharev partition tables" in the root memory faq will tell you how to partition storage. The principle here is to use a modified bootloader which changes the internal storage. A number of these have been pre-made and can be downloaded from alpharev.nl, who also provide instructions for installing them. Follow these carefully and don't try any short-cuts. Make sure the ROM you wish to install fits in the new system partition. I preferred to install the ROM first, take a nandroid backup, change hboot, then restore the nandroid. The most important thing is to use the md5 code to check you have a good download before installing the new hboot - if you install a corrupted bootloader your phone will probably be irrecoverably bricked.

None of the pre-prepared hboots give you the particular partitions you ask for. But why do you want those particular sizes? Most Gingerbread AOSP ROMs will fit in a smaller system partition than that, so you can have more space for apps.

If you are feeling brave there is a tool out there for editing hboots yourself. The developer describes it here, but the download link doesn't seem to be working any more (so if you can find a copy elsewhere and use that you are doubly brave ). I have used this myself, but remember that if anything goes wrong you may have a brick on your hands.

4) How do I then reinstall a ROM, and can anyone recommend any custom ROMs that are better with battery longevity than CyanogenMod7.

Apologies for all the questions, and again please remember that I'm very much a beginner with this!!

Installing the same ROM is just a matter of:

* copy ROM .zip to SD card
* boot into recovery
* select install, select ROM .zip, confirm
* reboot when done

To install a different ROM, same procedure except do a full wipe/factory reset from recovery before installing the ROM, and restore your apps and data from backups afterwards. You just need to erase cache and data, do not need to format system (installing the ROM does that for you), and certainly do not want to wipe sdcard!

You'll find some guides with more information in the Desire All Things Root Guide sticky post.

As for ROM recommendations, there's a list of ROMs maintained at XDA. I can't really make recommendations myself as it's been a long time since I used the Desire. dGB was the last I used regularly - that one is very small indeed, and comes with its own custom hboot (which will give you twice the space you were looking for), but ROMs based on Oxygen or Redux should be good too. CM7 was never the most battery efficient ROM, so most should give some improvement.

BTW: all of the above assumes you have a GSM handset. If you have a CDMA one (some North American networks) then forget about custom hboots - they are for GSM only and would be very dangerous to install on a CDMA handset. The root memory faq has a section on the more complicated custom MTD method, which I think can be applied to CDMA handsets, but I never used that myself. Likewise ROMs are either CDMA or GSM, with most ROMs (including all those I named) being for GSM handsets.