CWM-type BACKUP almost a reality!

[leeb]

(Title modified to reflect completion (to MY satisfaction) of the project. Lee B)

The eGlide came with a VERY RESTRICTED

CWM-type backup (v 3e) which had been configured for factory restore only.

Since I knew I had a couple of versions I used on my oldest SP1 that was NAND-based, I began configuring it to work.


FORTUNATELY for me, I got it ALMOST right so far... Fortunate in that I ended up having to FRESET due to the Local-disk being wiped out.

Gone was the new 'root'... all my installed apps, their data, my configurations, ALL of it...
UNTIL
I went to the CWM backup on the EXTERNAL TF (being called SDCARD right now) and was able to get back ALL but the Local-disk.

I consider myself quite lucky... or talented/lucky... or STOOPUD-lucky!

Right now it will save/restore the RAMDISK, KERNEL, SYSTEM, DATA and CACHE sections.
Will report back once it is possible to save off the Local-disk too...

 

[leeb]

I am currently attempting a run with <what I hope is> sd-ext tied to Local-disk, and it is supposedly backing it up now. I ran it once already and it took a VERY LONG TIME to get 1.1 Gb done...

Since it is possible to access 'Local-disk' as a 'USB drive' thru Windows, I MAY not setup the CWM to do a backup of it after all.
I will wait this time (for a couple of hours anyway) to see if the backup finishes on its own... then risk restoring the sd-ext/Local-disk...

Considering that other devices may not have any larger than 4gb NANDs in them, and this one is configured for Local-Disk of around 2gb... it MIGHT be worth it to keep it...

While there is no option(s) for selective backup, there ARE options that allow for selective RESTOREs... just system, or data, etc...

Not holding my breath... I need it too much!

EDIT:

Almost lost Tiny from that effort...
Since the Local-disk is only 2G anyway, I have decided to relocate the backup storage to EXTERNAL TF... (sdcard1).
Seems to work VERY WELL that way, and I think I can be happy with a 16Gb external TF there!

 

[leeb]

Well, Tiny did not come out of this 'unscathed'...

During the attempt to read/write the 'Local-disk' the ubi formatter screwed up the cache partition (mtdblock4) and now it thinks that it is unuseable.

Without it, the Play store will not update/install...

Until I find a programming solution I will have to wait, I guess.

At least I can get in by CWM, backup everything (else), and ADB thru CWM too!

bummed a.out dude!

 

[leeb]

I feel it is necessary to say that the tablet ITSELF is in NO WAY 'defective' or 'responsible' for what has happened.

It was MY 'traipsing in' without fully knowing the filesystem...

The Local-disk is using the UBI filesystem (ubifs) which is designed to distribute the wear-level more evenly across the entire device (partition, in this case)...

From what I can see, it looks to a non-ubs read/write sequence as a bad sector (alternating '00' and 'FF') and thus, the regular mtd read/erase/write function will not work.

I will need a program that can go UNDER android (likely temporarily replacing the kernel) and do a 'nand scrub' of that area.

As I DO have the PC/Linux file transfer ability I do not need 'recovery-level' backup of the ubifs contents.