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Help What Does this Mean?
- Thread starter Lana30
- Start date
Yeah.
And it's a pretty esoteric command, used as part of a sequence as shown here -
http://androidforums.com/threads/guide-how-to-flash-a-nexus-factory-image-manually.706533/
Do you mind if I ask what you're up to and where you're getting instructed to do that if you don't own a Nexus?
That's perfectly OK.
I see a lot of people following advice for the wrong phone, it often doesn't end well, and could always be prevented.
And when I try to help I often hear, "But I did XYZ correctly!" - when XYZ didn't apply to their phone.
So that's why I was offering to help by asking what phone you were working on, "what are you up to if not a Nexus."
Glad you're getting it sorted, and of course, please ask about anything, I never meant that you ought not.
Not specifically.
Phones, like computers, have filesystems involving partitions. The command that you mentioned would replace the contents of the userdata partition with the contents of the userdata.img file. So the partition will be erased, but it would be more accurate to say it will be overwritten.
Similarly, "fastboot flash oldos newos.img" would replace the contents of the oldos partition with the contents of the newos.img file.
In any case, if you want your data intact, don't do that without making a backup first.
Phones, like computers, have filesystems involving partitions. The command that you mentioned would replace the contents of the userdata partition with the contents of the userdata.img file. So the partition will be erased, but it would be more accurate to say it will be overwritten.
Similarly, "fastboot flash oldos newos.img" would replace the contents of the oldos partition with the contents of the newos.img file.
In any case, if you want your data intact, don't do that without making a backup first.
Fastboot is two things -
1. An operating mode in a phone's bootloader that allows it to receive a small set of reserved instructions from a PC. Fastboot mode is invoked on a phone by a sequence of button presses that usually varies by the type of phone.
2. The name of a program that you install on the PC to send that small set of reserved instructions to the phone when the phone is in FASTBOOT mode and connected to the PC by a USB cable.
The two sides carry the same name so that it's easy for you to confirm that the phone is ready and that you are using the right program on the PC.
You perform fastboot commands through a command window on the PC.
Here's how you get a copy of fastboot -
http://androidforums.com/threads/adb-guide-updated-2014-11-11.443072/#post-5389081
Open Windows Explorer, unzip that sdk-tools.zip file, that creates the sdk-tools folder, shift+right_click and choose Open command window here.
To see all of the fastboot commands, in the command window say -
fastboot help
The following is the list of fastboot commands to watch out for or avoid unless you know that they are intended to work for a particular phone and what order to execute them in:
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
FASTBOOT COMMANDS USED INCORRECTLY, OR USED WITH THE WRONG DATA, WILL SCREW UP A PHONE AND CAUSE MORE WORK.
And that is why I asked the first time - what phone are you working on and what are you trying to do with it?
Twice.
Clearly you don't see a need to share that and that's okay. It's not a requirement.
You now have the answer to your questions (what is fastboot and what keywords to look out for), access to a copy of fastboot, how to get started with it, and the best warning I can offer in your favor.
I am not responsible for anything that goes wrong from this point.