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Custom recovery? They usually provide a backup menu. Backup solely EFS, then system, cache and data altogether. Then backup from time to time to your computer. (just once for EFS).
Thanks for the reply Tonus, but tell me have you been able to backup the whole OS(operating system) or just parts of it.
My phone(moto g, android 5.02) only offers me to back some of my data and that's it.
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I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to achieve? As far as I can gather it is pretty hard to brick a phone to the extent that it can't be reset to factory defaults so why would one back up the OS at all? In fact, if you do brick the phone how would you recover the OS? Is this some kind of proof of concept exercise?
I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to achieve?
What I would like to achieve is to have a phone with up to date software, if that means I have to install a different OS myself then I'm more than willing to do that but before I do I'd like some way of a backup plan if things go wrong.
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As far as I can gather it is pretty hard to brick a phone to the extent that it can't be reset to factory defaults so why would one back up the OS at all?
Maybe I don't understand the process correctly so could you please answer me this, If I were to install CyanogenMod for example but messed things up or didn't like it how would I be able to reinstall the OS that came with the phone.
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In fact, if you do brick the phone how would you recover the OS? Is this some kind of proof of concept exercise?
I don't think I understand what you mean. I'd like to have a back up operating system before any bricking took place surely.
Thanks again
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What I am saying is that if you install Cyanogenmod and brick your phone then it's bricked -- it matters not that you have a copy of your old OS because you can't restore it because your phone won't boot because it's bricked.
What I would do in your position is find out how to restore the OS of your phone should you run into difficulties but I would doubt very much that it involves backing up the OS that is already on your phone. This isn't like with a Windows PC where you could, perhaps, use dd to take an image of the hard drive then use a live distribution to restore it -- this is a phone where you cannot boot it from anything but what is on the device itself.
I'm not convinced that you could even access the storage on the device with a PC if the operating system on the device was not running.
@273
For some reason I was under the impression that you can have a software brick(like a blank screen) or a hardware brick(like a dead battery). Why is installing a OS on a phone so potentially destructive, don't phones have a bios screen where you can choose to boot from usb(mini usb) or the internal flash drive(storage).
Anyway it looks like I have to sign up to motorola's terms and conditions just to find out whether a recovery image(OS) is available or not. The only other alternative is to download the firmware(OS) from some random file sharing site(which I wouldn't advise anyone to do by the way).
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I was, perhaps, exaggerating the risk of bricking your phone and I dare say that should the OS fail there is a way to plug it into a Windows PC and reinstall the OS using a piece of software provided by the manufacturer.
But I ask you how you think you would put a backup of the OS back on the phone, what mechanism are you using to do this?
Back up your contacts and other data you can't replace and, if you do damage the OS, you'll have to take whichever steps the manufacturer recommends to restore to factory defaults then you'll be able to put your apps and other data back.
But I ask you how you think you would put a backup of the OS back on the phone, what mechanism are you using to do this?
I didn't know and don't have any mechanism, my google searches kept on pulling up links to just download this or that random software (without much explanation) but I still had unanswered questions like how do I revert back to a previous state.
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...that should the OS fail there is a way to plug it into a Windows PC and reinstall the OS using a piece of software provided by the manufacturer.
Thank you this is the sort of information I need, my google foo isn't strong with phones in fact this moto g is my first smart-phone.
@Tonus
I don't understand this 'better is to do it from dev.' do you mean from my phone under Settings > developer options
Although forum.xda-developers seems to be the site to goto for things like this their links usually ends with download this rom from some random person.
You will find lots of threads in xda that will link you to files that are maintained recognized devs. You usually find those in the thread's OP (original post).
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