[Miscellaneous Android Development] ledzepman71:
Hello, I appreciate your concern. On the topic of research, I was once told "a week in the lab can save you an hour in the library." I absolutely agree and would also encourage everyone to look deeper before plunging in head first.

If you are doubting the authenticity of my efforts and files allow me to elaborate on my method. As you will see, all the files were pulled directly off my personal phone and are not second hand impostors.

First, I looked up the partition table in adb using

ls -al /dev/block/platform/*/by-name

which output:

lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 DDR -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p13
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 aboot -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p5
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 abootbak -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 boot -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p33
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 cache -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p38
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 config -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p21
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 devinfo -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p20
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 drm -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p28
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 eksst -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p19
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 encrypt -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p18
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 factory -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p35
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 fota -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p23
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 fsc -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 fsg -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p14
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 grow -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p40
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 keystore -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p17
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 laf -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p32
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 misc -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p30
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 modem -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 modemst1 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 modemst2 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p11
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 mpt -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p36
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 persist -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p31
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 raw_resources -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p26
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 raw_resourcesbak -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p27
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 rct -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p24
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 recovery -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p34
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 rpm -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p4
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 rpmbak -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 sbl1 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 sbl1bak -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p6
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 sec -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p16
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 sns -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p29
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 spare1 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p22
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 spare2 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p25
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 ssd -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p12
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 system -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p37
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 tz -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 tzbak -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p7
lrwxrwxrwx root root 1970-01-10 18:59 userdata -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p39

As you can see, "/dev/block/mmcblk0p37" is the block device for the system partition. From there you simply duplicate the data into a raw image by doing

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p37 bs=2048 of=/storage/external_SD/system.img

To elaborate on what the command does, the input file is the system block mmcblk0p37 and the output file is created as "system.img" on the external sd card. From the man page, "bs=BYTES read and write up to BYTES bytes at a time." So it just means that the dd operation can read and write up to 2048 bytes at a time.

This process was simply repeated using a stock k330, rooted k330, stock ms330, and rooted ms330. After all the raw images were created I systematically flashed them to my personal phone using the instructions verbatim from my op to ensure that they indeed work.

I hope explaining my process sheds further light on the matter. If you want to investigate further on your own you can mount the raw image in linux. Assuming that the system.img file is in your home directory and you have the directory /mnt/tmp , simply run as root

mount -o ro ~/system.img /mnt/tmp

and you will then be able to see the contents of the image (build prop, preinstalled apps, and the like) in the /mnt/tmp folder.

If you have any further comments or questions I will happily oblige.

The whole point of my effort was to aid people in rooting there phones while mitigating the risk of bricking. I want to make the process as bullet proof as possible so all feedback is welcome. This includes testimonials from those whom this process worked. I guess the next step would be to post the TWRP backup zips to further automate of the process.