[HD2 Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting and Genera] Brookbond:
Hello,

I am looking for some advice with regard to a speciifc problem I have with my HD2 which is running Android from SD using haret.exe etc to start the system from within Windows Mobile 6.5. The android files are currently held on a 8GB sandisk card. I have prefered this method of using android basically because I find it useful to remove the SD card and create a backup of the files onto my PC, which gives me peace of mind before installing new tryout software, just incase something goes wrong, I know I have the option to go back to a working system very quickly by reloading the files back to the SD card from the PC backup.

Recently I have been thinking that it might be easier if I could backup the files using the phone directly, so I decided to buy a 16GB card in order to partition it into two virtual 8GB drives and load my existing android os files onto one partition, whilst using the second partition to save a backup of android. I thought I should be able to create a backup of android from within WM6.5 instead of having to remove the card and rely on a PC all the time to do this job.

So, using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, I formatted and partitioned the new 16GB SD card, I used FAT32 for each partition and proceeded to copy my android files to the first partition of the new card. I installed the card into my HD2 and started the phone up which booted into WM6.5

From within WM6.5, I used the file explorer and could see both partitions appearing as separate SD cards, the first containing all my android os files etc, and the second partition was empty of course. Just as a test I thought I would try a copy and paste of a couple of files from the android partition to the empty partition, and this worked just fine. I thought to myself I am onto a winner here : ) Read on....

With that I decided to boot into android by clicking on haret.exe.

The system started to boot as normal and everything appeared to be going very very well. Booting completed and the system was ready to use..... Then I thought I would have a look around and see if it was running ok. OH DEAR.... It was reporting that it couldn't find the SD card, even though it had booted from it ! All my files and folders inaccessible and any programs that had been moved to SD card wouldn't start up or were missing from the list of installed apps. I still cant understand why the system has booted from an SD card that it cannot find once the system has booted......

This whole excercise was basically motivated by the need to be able to backup and restore the system from one partition to the other without the constant need to remove the SD card and do the job from a PC. (Constant removal of the SD card is starting to bother me incase I end up wearing the card slot out)

So basically my question is can this be done using my existing android install? (I wouldn't want to start again and install from scratch because the system is highly customised, and has took me a long time to get where it is now) I want to be able to have two partitions on my SD card, one which boots, runs android and holds all my files associated with android, and a second parition which I can use to create and restore a backup from within WM6.5.

This is not a desperate requirement, but I feel it would be a lot better than needing to rely on having my PC to hand all the time. This idea has come from my longstanding history of creating backups using GHOST and similar applications in Windows XP. I would like to do the same with my phone. Obviously I would still periodically make a backup to the PC for safekeeping but it would be more convenient to do it with the phone itself.

Any advice on where I am going wrong would be very useful. Also if you can suggest any other ways of making a strong reliable backup that makes an image of 'EVERYTHING' as is from within android directly, please let me know. I have had a look at Titanium backup, but not sure if it would make a mirror image of 'EVERYTHING' the way I would like to do it (like Ghost does in windows). The way I am doing it at present works fine, except for having to constantly remove the card and rely on having a PC about.

Oh by the way the android version on my SD card is Froyo 2.2 incase this matters (I have never bothered upgrading because it works and does what I need it to do)

Many Thanks

Tony