Best method for backing up?
 

Hi,

I have yet to backup anything on my tablet as I havnt had it very long (had to reflash once though). Is the inbuilt backup app any good?

Ive heard stories of it not actually backing up everything. Is there anything else I can use, or a better method, of creating a full backup, eg so I can restore back to this point if I have to reflash?

:D

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

The built-in backup tool is the best method.

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

It's good to do the built-in backup, but that gets you only so far. For one thing, you still need to remember to backup whatever is on your SD cards, as the built-in obviously doesn't back up those up. (In fact, that's where it puts the back-up.)

But the built-in back up still makes you go through repository hassles if you restore, and I found it quite problematic. (This is especially true if you installed anything in Red Pill Mode, or if a repository is down.)

The only way I know of to do a comprehensive backup requires first setting up your Tablet to dual-boot from a cloned OS. Then you can do a "real" backup of the MMC, which will have your apps and OS and everything. See my signature, start with Post #2.

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

I'm not sure what you mean by this. It saves a lot of repository hassle and makes restoring applications very straightforward. Much better than having to re-add all the repositories and figure out what to install.

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

If you mean a backup of the entire N800 (directories, EVERY file, init scripts for example), you can do it over ssh and usb.

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

I agree that if you don't have what I'm calling a comprehensive backup, it's good and very worthwhile. It's infinitely better than no backup. But it's still a lot easier to do a restore from a comprehensive backup; and I've had hassles with the built-in because of repository problems.

OTOH, since it's easier to do a built-in backup, I still do those more often than a comprehensive backup.

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

That includes the OS and everything?

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

Yes. But it is hassle getting proper tar binary.

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

Ah, I see what you're getting at. Usually reflashes are upgrades for me, so a complete restore of everything doesn't make sense.

The cooler method for maintaining a complete, bootable backup, though, is to flash the device and get the OS setup how you like it with all of your favorite applications and hacks installed. Then copy that over to an SD card and boot from there. Then if anything ever goes wrong, you simply boot from the internal flash and copy things over again.

Re: Best method for backing up?
 

I have found the built in backup app to be only marginally useful. It does help after flashing the device but I still have manually install things that did not come from reposities and the settings for only some apps get backed up.

Below is what I do "normally" when not going between device updates.

I setup to boot from the removable memory.

I have 3 of the same memory card. I use the cp command in linux with root privilages to copy the contents of one card to another.

I generally have two partitions on the card. A 500 meg ext2 partition that I boot from and fat32 for the other partition.

Each time I want to backup I shut down the tablet mount my oldest card on my linux machine and format the two partitions. I then mount my newest card that I just pulled out of the tablet. I then copy the contents of the newest card to the freshly formated oldest one.

The old card (with the new copy on it) then goes into the tablet for use with the next most recent card carried as a spare (my case has couple of pockets I use for this. The oldest memory card stays at home for safe keeping.

I have had the card in use get corrupted on it's own, or with my help a :D, a few times this has worked out well.

My frequency of doing this depends on how much stuff has changed on the table and how painful it would be to redo it if things went bad.