Well, there are basically 2 kinds of backups you can take off Harmattan. The first type is the normal backup via the "settings -> backup" menu. This creates backup of your settings, messages, notes, whatever application data you have (or most of it) and the result is a new subdirectoty under MyDocs/.backups/ which contains 7 zipfiles and a metadata file. This backup does not contain your applications, so to reinstall those you need to either reload from store or save the DEB's when you install applications. The second type of backup is the type taken with BackupMenu or ubiboot maintanance console, which is a snapshot of the filesystem state at the moment it was taken. This type saves the state exactly as it is, which is a problem if your state is not correct (like on your N9), as if you restore this kind of backup to your device after a reflash, you will get the device back in the (broken/faulty) state it was before So, if you have a device in a broken/faulty state, you do not want to use the second type of backup.