how to get a backup of phone contents using dd

schneidz · 11-30-2011, 02:53 PM

hi, has anyone played around with getting an archival backup of an android fone using dd ? thsi is what the fone comes up as when i select usb mass storage and plug it into my pc:

Code:

[liveuser@localhost ~]$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs                4.0G  2.8G  1.2G  71% /
udev                  1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev
tmpfs                 1.9G  352K  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                 1.9G  760K  1.9G   1% /run
/dev/sdb1             7.4G  1.4G  5.7G  20% /run/initramfs/live
/dev/mapper/live-rw   4.0G  2.8G  1.2G  71% /
tmpfs                 1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                 1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /media
/dev/sdb1             7.4G  1.4G  5.7G  20% /mnt/live
varcacheyum           1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /var/cache/yum
/tmp                  1.9G  2.3M  1.9G   1% /tmp
vartmp                1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /var/tmp
/tmp                  1.9G  2.3M  1.9G   1% /tmp
vartmp                1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /var/tmp
/dev/mapper/live-rw   4.0G  2.8G  1.2G  71% /home
/dev/sdd              2.0G  1.5G  492M  75% /media/E0FD-1813
/dev/sdc               12G  930M   11G   8% /media/561E-07D3

corp769 · 11-30-2011, 03:12 PM

If you want a full backup, yes you can use dd. You can also tar and gunzip the files also. Which route do you want to go? Read the man page for dd for more details, as it is pretty much fully explained on how to use it.

Cheers,

Josh

schneidz · 12-03-2011, 08:30 PM

^ yes, i know about the usual dd parameters i was just wondering if doing this would also back up system settings like 'contacts' which is not navigatable when the drives are mounted on my fedora machine.

(i am also concerned if by doing the reverse dd would turn the fone into a brick).

corp769 · 12-03-2011, 10:19 PM

Hey, just so you know, I came across this thread - http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-lucid-868516/
That may answer your questions.... Let me know if it does or not.

Cheers,

Josh

schneidz · 12-04-2011, 04:15 PM

that seems to be almost the same question but i missed it when i searched... thanks for pointing it out. i am planning on rooting this fone but i was wondering if there is a quick restore method like when i use dd for my xbmc/ fedora live-usb's.

also since i notice that sometimes updates to certain apps crash, it would be nice to restore to a point where i was running the previous version.