[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] crawrj:
Making a full backup of the data partition

You could do this with the system up but the safest, and preferred, way of doing this is from recovery. I could only get ADB access by using PhilZ Recovery. CWM and TWRP did not work for me.

Your phone must be rooted in order to do this.

This method will require you to have an external sdcard with up to 16GB of free space to be safe. It will also have to be formatted with a file system capable of handling single file sizes of greater than 4GB. ExFat and EXT4 are a couple of examples. I just format the sdcard in the phone and that takes care of it. Be sure to back the card up first if you need to format it. Don't proceed if you are unable to meet these requirements.

1. Make sure you have the usb drivers installed on the computer. I have provided three links just in case one method doesn't work for you.

a. http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.c...ng_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones_v1.5.14.0.exe​

b. http://www.samsung.com/us/kies/​

c. http://koush.com/post/universal-adb-driver​

2. Install Philz recovery on the phone from here http://d-h.st/users/philz_touch/?fld_id=18376#files.

3. Enable Developer options and check USB debugging. To enable this go to Setting, More, About device. Tap on Build number until it says it is enabled. Then go back to More and you will have Developer options listed.

4. With the phone on and the system up, Connect the phone to the computer and accept the RSA request. Sometimes this doesn't show until you access adb.

5. If you don't have ADB on the computer already, download the zip file from here http://sdrv.ms/16euO58 and extract it to the computer, C:\ADB for example.

6. Open a command prompt on the computer and navigate to that folder. cd c:\adb for example.

7. Type adb shell and hit enter.

8. Check the phone and make sure you don't have the RSA prompt. If you do, accept it. You should see a prompt similar to this shell@jfltespr:/ $

9. Type su, hit enter and check the phone. Accept the su request on the phone if necessary. You should see a prompt similar to this root@jfltespr:/ #

10. Type reboot recovery and hit enter.

11. Leave the ADB window open as you will need it soon.

12. Choose Mounts and Storage.

13. Choose mount /storage/sdcard1.

14. Go back to the ADB window.

15. Type adb shell and hit enter. You should see a prompt similar to ~ #.

16. Type dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p29 of=/storage/sdcard1/userdata bs=4096 and hit enter. Make sure that you type this exactly as it shows or you could brick the phone. You can change userdata with any name you want to use. This will take about 16 minutes to run so don't think it is hung and shutdown the phone.

17. Once it is done you will see something similar to this 2554880+0 records in, 2554880+0 records out, 10464788480 bytes (9.7GB) copied, 1002.040284 seconds, 10.0MB/s

18. You now have a complete backup of your data. It will be stored in the root of your external sdcard with the name userdata or whatever you changed it to.

19. If you need to make another backup in the future just start from step 6.

Restoring a full backup of the data partition

1. Open a command prompt on the computer and navigate to the adb folder. cd c:\adb for example.

2. Type adb shell and hit enter.

3. Check the phone and make sure you don't have the RSA prompt. If you do, accept it. You should see a prompt similar to this shell@jfltespr:/ $

4. Type su, hit enter and check the phone. Accept the su request on the phone if necessary. You should see a prompt similar to this root@jfltespr:/ #

5. Type reboot recovery and hit enter.

6. Leave the ADB window open as you will need it soon.

7. Choose Mounts and Storage.

8. Choose mount /storage/sdcard1.

9. Go back to the ADB window.

10. Type adb shell and hit enter. You should see a prompt similar to ~ #.

11. Type dd if=/storage/sdcard1/userdata of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p29 bs=4096 and hit enter. Make sure that you type this exactly as it shows or you could brick the phone. If you changed userdata with a different name make sure you update the command before you enter it. This will take about 16 minutes to run so don't think it is hung and shutdown the phone.

12. Once it is done you will see something similar to this 2554880+0 records in, 2554880+0 records out, 10464788480 bytes (9.7GB) copied, 1002.040284 seconds, 10.0MB/s

13. You have now restored your data.