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Root Odin fails to backup SD-Ext....Now what?

Apache Thunder

Apache Thunder

Android Enthusiast
I had made the EXT4 partitions on my 8GB sd card for use with Kouma Kernel and have since installed apps and widgets that are now using space on the card instead of the internal phone storage.

Now that I've upgraded to a 16GB card, I've repartitioned it accordingly to match the old card (though with larger partition sizes since it's a larger card) and did a backup of it for use with Odin prior to putting in the new card. I have already moved over the data on the fat partition. (I've even tried reformatting the SD-EXT using CWM, but doesn't help either. Seems Odin just ignores SD-EXT as it doesn't seem to be part of my backup files)

However Odin doesn't seem to be restoring what was in the EXT4 partitions since after I finished and rebooted the phone, most of the apps I've installed no longer show up on my home screen or give me the app is not installed error when I try to run them. I pop the old one back in and things work again. :(


Any alternatives to cloning data in EXT4 partitions from one SD card to another? Odin doesn't seem to be doing it for me. I don't have a linux system so I can't exactly just open the partitions and copy and past the files over like I could with the fat partition.
 
ClockWorkMod backs up the ext... In recovery, after the partitioning is done, just select and restore your most current backup and it will put everything back into the ext as part of the restore.
 
1) Odin is a writing tool, and ti writes only to the internal portions of the phone. not to anything on the SD
2) My backup utility, which is separate from ODIN reflects this as well, it only backs up the raw images of the internal chips.
3) where /sd-ext gets mounted at runtime is immaterial because none of this is related to what the phone does at runtime.

Moving on, if you want to transfer your data structure from card to card, so long as the new partitions have at least enough space to hold the data, the following method should work (I make no guarantee): While your phone is running (not in CWM or Download mode) Open a shell terminal (terminal emulator or adb, doesn't matter)
Type in "tar -cvf /sdcard/databackup.tar /data/*" (without quotation marks)
Turn off your phone
swap to the new card that's partitioned and ready to go
turn your phone back on
go back to the terminal app from before
type in "tar -xvf /sdcard/databackup.tar -C /" (again no quotes and don't forget the ending / )

Remove your battery to turn the phone off without going through a power down menu or going back to the homescreen
wait 2-3 seconds
put the battery back in and power your phone back up
 
I'm guessing the swap partition I don't have to worry about? I am running the adb command now. Thanks for the help. Will post back on the result.


EDIT: Not working. I get an error when attempting to restore the data partition with the tar command. I ran the first command and it seemed to work fine. It created the tar file and I moved it to the new card in the same location it placed it. Then run the next command and get the following error:

"tar: /: not found in archive"

:(
 
Apache Thunder said:
I'm guessing the swap partition I don't have to worry about? I am running the adb command now. Thanks for the help. Will post back on the result.


EDIT: Not working. I get an error when attempting to restore the data partition with the tar command. I ran the first command and it seemed to work fine. It created the tar file and I moved it to the new card in the same location it placed it. Then run the next command and get the following error:

"tar: /: not found in archive"

:(
Click to expand...

did you copy the tar file from the old card over to the new one?
I figured that would be a no-brainer
edit: i see you did that, ok. there is a flag I forgot, let me find it. I'll fix the instructions soon

try:
tar -xvf /sdcard/databackup.tar -C /
 
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