[Miscellaneous Android Development] TheDrive:
Thank you! Certainly I know this good product. It can manipulate NVRAM through COM-port, just the way QPST does it communicating w/modem FW. Is has many advanced options but seems not to be reliable enough (too many OEM customizations around, it's difficult to reverse all) As you stated it can also backup some partitions (like EFS). but you can do this yourself just by simple ADB/Unix shell commands (e.g. "dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p?? of=/sdcard/mmcblk0p??.img")

You can write simple scripts and perform such backups directly from device (to SD). Furthermore, you can customize CWM/TWRP for your device to perform such backups from recovery.

To do it you should know which partition numbers to backup/restore (to backup/restore what data you want).

There are methods/commands available to get needed info to build full device partition map (e.g. some devices contains "folders" named "by-names" deeper in /dev/block/... (where partitions are named), but in some cases (e.g. some 2013 MSM7227 based Samsung phones like GT-S756x) there is no names associated with particular proprietary partitions in the device, (at all) so the only way to find what data reside there is to backup and look (hex) with your own "experienced" eyes what these data seems to be (or search what others found on the theme). EFSPro "from the box" also knows only a few device's partition maps so, in most cases you should build configuration for your device manually with full knowledge of it.

There is no problem to locate and backup encrypted modem data partitions (modemst*/efs/etc...) if your device is rooted. Moreover, if your device has standard Qualcomm bootloader (not OEM's cut) you can switch device to the standard Qualcom DM (download mode) when all your eMMC contents will be exposed to USB bus as mass storage device (just like UFD or SDCard) and you can backup/restore whole drive contents or particular partitions just like PC's own partitions (try some "chnese" stuff (made of quality parts) instead of "branded" ones and you'll see superiority of the "open world". :)

But main question is how to decrypt modem data to explore and change them as I want at any time. Mfrs (i.e. Qualcomm and OEMs hide serials, locks etc BS there, but there is a lot of other interesting stuff related to modem configuration which is also closed and encrypted. This drives me wild because it's my device and my serials/locks and other stuff too, so it's my option to do with is what I want and no one else. I'm definitely know and sure modem FW/config and even mask ROM (which we most probably never will be able to explore) contains many hidden features that may lead to remotely force device to collect info about user and perform actions without his knowledge and consent. I have no matter what all these sec... services planned to do with all these exploits they forced OEMs/chipmakers to implement., but (sic!) they allowed information about these exploits to leak wild! So some "generic" engineers who simply have job and low level access to cellular provider's equipment (which able to broadcast custom service packets) to make "what they want with user's phones (e.g. switch it on or request GPS data) just "for fun". F them all, but most idiotic is fact that being an 25y experienced "lowest level" service engineer I can't get access and control over my own devices (i.e. computers). It's incorrect. It would be difficult but we should pay more attention to explore internals and get clue what goes on.

I've personally explored OSX files and partitions and seen much modern Linux code inside. They even don't hide "copyrights". Nobody will explore anyway and nobody cares. Old 80x-90x versions of public licenses allowed to do "anything" with free open sources (including to make changes, then close sources and sell product). After some smartasses like Apple used this hole to sell free labor of thousands of peoples, public license had changed. Modern licenses allows you to sell derived product, but obligate you to open sources (with same license) so anyone else can use them to and sell too. :) You can't close your part of sources if free code is most valuable part of your product. E.g. router mfr can't close part his own sources to make firmware sources "uncompilable" because Linux definitely is most valuable part of router FW. This warrant later development of free open source programs and free community n whole. Apple stated that they used only old 80x code in their OS'es and then developed it separately and thus they are not obligated to open sources to everyone. They would be right unless they didn''t used a lot of modern code protected by modern public license's requirements. I didn't explored deeply. May be they publish all derived code for free. Today we can't say accurately if some modern Linux components they adopt for Mac/iOS are most valuable part of their systems or not. We should explore all the code to make decision. but anyway it's not fair to use a lot of thousand's people's free labor just to make money. Google's position here is not ideal but much more fair. They publish most of sources and support open source community. They don't try to make system "unbreakable" and they don't force you to use their accounts too much. I've NO Google "phone" account AT ALL. I've no need in any "markets", "clouds" ect BS., which lead absolutely no problem to me to effectively use Android devices. There are lots of free APK's around

It practice, I have 2-3 old iPhones just for experiments. Yes we have Jailbreaks and some other stuff, but even if you break and get access to your device it's very uncomfortable to work with it at low level. On my sight just one ADB interface costs more then all "jingles and bells" of iOS's GUI. All these "tethered-untethered", "unbreakable" bootloaders in Mask ROM, lack of normal tools to explore and manage data on any level, total control and extraction of my data by mfr via strongly encrypted obfuscated protocols and hidden services make these devices useless for me in practice.

Windows Phone is even far more closed OS then iOS. You have no control over your data at all. You can't do a thing with WP device unless you sign up with MS account. You can't get access to your own data (except MM files) unless you sync it with MS cloud, i.e. you will be forced to send all your private data to MS and MS will decide whether to give piece of it back to you or not. Matrix in action. :) I've absolutely no clue what thought MS bosses when they decided to close ALL in OS that have had less than 1% of market. Their 1st goal was to attract developers to write apps for their OS and there was no better way to kick them than "close All". There is no matter does it perform GUI actions good or not when devs and users have no effective way to collect and use "useful" results of device's work.