[Adam Android Development] webs05:
Below is some information to help out people with backing up their device, some backup tips, some general information on flashing, and tips and best practices for flashing. Hope this helps!!

Assumptions:

This guide assumes you are fully rooted at this point. If not follow any one of the guides.

To test root type "su" into a terminal. You should get a "#" back. You can use a terminal emulator from the market or ADB. To get ADB up and running follow this guide here. That guide is for Windows users, but Mac and *nix users shouldn't be much more difficult.

Backing up

NAND Backup:

Once rooted you can use the app quickboot to boot into recovery to do a NAND backup. If your ROM doesn't have this app installed, download from Marketplace. Open app and choose "Recovery". Once in recovery, find the backup and recovery option.

Once done you can reboot and continue on as normal. This is an essential step (or using Rom Manager below). If you ever screw up something major or you try a new ROM and want to go back, this will allow you to restore easily and get back to a point where things worked fine. It would also be highly recommended to do one of these backups before doing something major that has potential to break things. Use best judgment here.

Rom Manager:

NOTE: This is unverified to work. Once ROM Manager is functional on NI Adam I will update this guide.

Titanium Backup (TB):

Once you have your NAND backup I would also recommend installing Titanium Backup from the Marketplace (I would also pay for the license because you get better performance and the dev deserves some green for this awesome app!). Once installed open it. The first time it will ask you to update Busybox. Let it and wait for this to download. When done it will ask you reboot app from the notification area. Do this and then wait for app to fully load, two messages should appear, the second one indicates it is fully loaded. Then hit menu and go to the batch section. Choose " Backup all user apps + system data".

This will backup everything on your phone for you to your SD card. This will take a while so go get some coffee and check back in. Do not close the app or turn off your phone, the screen can go blank and you can let it sit, but it will need time to run. I think when the screen turns off it puts an icon in notification that should be updating the progress of the batch. Once done, it should tell you in the notification area. For me it takes awhile with my 228 some elements I'm backing up. Your mileage will vary.

SMS/MMS

I came across a thread that mentions using Handy Backup for backing up SMS/MMS messages. I have not tried this app or used it so I don't have any directions to give on it. But I have had people ask and I have seen folks ask in other threads. So if TB doesn't give you enough, try this one or some other app.

Backup to Computer:

I'm still looking for a better method for this one. I'm sure someone has something and if you do please let me know so I can update this section.

Currently I backup files and folders to my local NAS at home after major changes. Incremental changes I let TB handle. This is just a simple process of setting the SD card to storage and copy/paste. Works fine and I have only done this once so far after everything was set to my liking.

You might wonder why this important? Well if you are going to play around a lot with different ROMs and constantly read/writing info to your SD card, it is important because SD cards are not perfect. They can be corrupted and can fail from too much writing of info. It usually takes a lot of work to get one to the point of failure, but I managed to do it with my HTC Mogul so I can vouch that it can happen.

Important folders on SD card:

- /sdcard/clockwork/backup

This will get all backups performed by clockwork. If you grab the entire clockwork folder then you will get ROM downloads and such too. I don't really recommend this as it never takes more than 25 minutes for me to download any image. Plus with a secure NAND backup, you can always restore quickly.

- /sdcard/nandroid

This should be the backup the folder used by AmonRa recovery.

- /sdcard/TitaniumBackup

Folder used by TB for backing up of apps.

Of course throw in any other folders you deem important. What that is depends on you. Making a backup of everything else probably wont take long too. For me I rarely have more than 7gb of data on my card so backing up takes roughly 30-50 minutes.

All of this may seem like a lot of work, but once done you will have a robust system in place. And will allow you the opportunity to safely play!! :D

Restoring

Restoring is a simple process but can be time consuming. To speed things up you can pay for the full version of TB, which I highly recommend.

TB

Follow the directions below for what I do after flashing. If you have already read that and are ready to restore then do the following...

Open up TB and let if fully load, you will get two small popup messages. The second one means that TB has fully loaded the OS information. Then hit the menu key and choose batch. Scroll down and look for "Restore all apps with data". Run this batch to restore everything. Keep in mind if you backed up everything and are now changing ROMs that you might run into problems. I have yet to run across issues, but this is just an FYI. Also another reason to have a full NAND backup with Rom Manager. If you run into too many problems just restore with it and problem solved.

Restores and backups take awhile with TB, but are worth the wait. Once done with the full restore you can then do incremental backup and restores in the future.

Also don't forget to open up the apps after restoring and make sure the apps are setup how you want. Then double check with TB to make sure things are fully backed up, just click "Backup all new apps & newer versions". Once done with this reboot.

After a TB restore always reboot. After the reboot go into Rom Manager and NAND backup following the steps above in the backup section. This will ensure you have a full system backup with the settings you want.

Rom Manager

For now go to recovery to restore.

Flashing Tips and Problems

Watch Girls Gone Wild for help with this... :eek:

More to come here...

Stock ROM with Root (back to defaults) or Completely Unroot:

I Just Flashed with no Backups:

Below is what I did before I had Titanium Backup in place and after flashing a custom ROM...

Once booted right after flashing I make sure things look fine, fully sync to Google, then reboot. When I come back from that I turn on WiFi and go to Marketplace and Download section. Any apps I previously downloaded will be in that section waiting for me to download. Download them all at once, DO NOT leave that section before downloading everything, or you will lose that list and it will only show apps currently downloaded and installed.

Once done, open apps and customize to liking. Then download Rom Manager if you don't already have it and follow the above section. Once done with that follow the above section on Titanium Backup. Then enjoy your custom ROM.

Flashing in general:

ALWAYS make sure your battery is at least 50% full. The last thing you want is your phone to die on you in the middle of flashing.

Follow the above backup guides before flashing another custom ROM. Save yourself time and trouble. Also I have read about people using NAND backups to sort of switch between different ROMs. In the short term that shouldn't be a problem, but long term that can make your SD card unstable. Make sure you follow the above section for backing up your SD card to computer.

If changing from one ROM to another it is best practice and almost always recommended to wipe data and dalvik cache. This also will alleviate many issues people run into. And if you follow my backup recommendations then it shouldn't be an issue to do either of these.

Some ROM devs have other items you can add to their ROM. Follow their directions for flashing those items. Some devs want you to boot first than go back and flash, others allow for you to just start flashing right away with no waiting. Pay attention to the directions on your ROM thread. If you screw something up, try flashing the package again. If things look worse or it didn't work, re-flash your ROM or restore your backup and try again.

Once booted up follow guides above for backing up or restoring. Otherwise if you have problems look below before asking questions. If you can't find it here try searching before asking questions. If you still can't find it feel free to ask for help, but keep the question in the thread for your ROM you are flashing, or if you think it is a rooting issue, in the thread of the root process you followed.

Issue:

That's all for now!

I'm sure there is plenty more to add to this down the road, but for now this is all the dumping my brain can handle. Leave comments and suggestions and let's make this a strong guide with the right information to help those in need.