Backup Your Pre or Pixi!

[pico23]

is it possible to just make a disk image?

[jbennett]

Originally Posted by pomplun

The Pre spec says 8GB, ~7GB user available. When I look at it as a USB drive, Properties matches this 7GB number. Presumably these two are the same physical memory. In my case about 1GB is used. So contacts, calendar, memos, etc must be in here someplace. Where? Why can't a disk image backup program (like Acronis TrueImage?) completely back up my Pre?

The ~7GB that you see when connected via USB is actually a separate FAT32 partition, apart from the partitions used by the device itself for the OS and internal storage. The contacts, calendar, memos, etc. aren't on this "media" partition that's exposed via USB. Personally, my hope is that someone will come up with an app to easily copy the internal OS data *to* the "media" partition, which we could then offload to a PC via USB.

--John

[bspesq]

Well, there's this:

Backing Up via Rsync - WebOS Internals

Another option would be just good old tar. But the one on the device is weird...so you'll need gnutar, which can be found here:

http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/op...1.22-2_arm.ipk

after you install that, you could use gnutar to backup the filesystem to somewhere else, like the /media/internal space. So something like this, I think would work:

gnutar -cvzf /media/internal/bigbackup.tgz / --exclude /media --exclude /sys --exclude /proc --exclude /dev

Obviously -z is going to be slow because you're running it all through gzip, and that's a bit pokey on that little CPU. I think that syntax will exclude those four directories, which I think are full of stuff that can't be backed up. /sys is a particularly bad one to descend into--touching some of the files in there causes the phone to reboot.

Someone please school me on my commandline; I'm sure it's not as sophisticated as it could be.

[louboy23]

Anyone been able to confirm if any of these programs backup really everything !? Especially SMS, Call Logs, Bookmarks, and program settings ? I did a partial erase before and not willing to try that anytime soon again, till a real backup is available.
Thanks !

[Kelley B]

Thanks for the info. I will look into several of those apps to find the right one.

Wish I would have done this before I inadvertently dumped all my data (my fault, wasn't paying close attention to the pop-ups on my computer when I was running WebOS Doctor). DOH!!!

[yungthrilla]

good info

[yung7928]

thx. It works

[bulls96]

anyone tried a full restore from sync toy yet? not into homebrew apps or rooting yet so i am looking for a way to backup my SMS.

[dmanlee]

So I take it that this method does in fact backup all settings/bookmarks/etc? This would be great news as my camera has stopped functioning (stuck on the gray camera icon screen) and I'll probably need to have my Pre replaced.

Now, does anybody know how I would go about restoring all this shiznit back to a new Pre? I've figured out how to access linux on the Pre, (thanks to all the tutorials on this forum) but I'm a newb when it comes to all the Linux command-line syntax (does bring back fond memories of the MS-DOS days though, ah... Wolfenstein 3D)

For instance, what would I have to type in to the phone to unpack this tgz file and replace the files that are on the new Pre? Also, would I simply do this by enabling dev mode and then accessing the root or would I have to put the phone into some other hypnotized zombie state where it won't get mad at me for tinkering with its innards. Wasn't sure if replacing these hidden files would mess with the OS while it was running.

P.S. Big ups to bspesq, (nice Bill & Ted reference btw), for getting us closer to the truth.

[bspesq]

Sounds like you want to be the guinea pig

You might try the WebDoctor first if it's just the phone app itself that is ill. I've never used it, but it might be able to tell you if something is fixable (instead of the hassle of getting a replacement Pre)?

So I'd say yes--basically what you're saying is correct. After the backup, on a new/fresh device root it, copy your backup onto the USB media drive, and then (after sudo'ing to root), do something like:

(ipkg install of gnutar first)

cd /
gnutar -zxvf /media/internal/bigbackup.tgz .

(X is extract, Z is gzip'ed, v is verbose output, and f is file.) The dot means to restore into the current directory.

And yes it is possible that some binaries will be in use when you try to restore them. In general this is not a problem in unix-land, but if you have a fresh Pre you're probably not concerned about the binaries, anyway--what you're really after is your settings.

It would be most excellent if someone with the webos emulator could try the backups/restores on a virtual Pre and post their results.

(Hmm...I think the backup command I listed above is missing the '=' sign for each exclude statement. Either I didn't type it in, or the forum software removed it for some reason.)

[jmantn]

does any of these options back up sms texts? Sorry but will be getting my pre next week and have yet to see a solution posted.

[bulls96]

Originally Posted by jmantn

does any of these options back up sms texts? Sorry but will be getting my pre next week and have yet to see a solution posted.

i have been waiting for a root-free sms backup solution. anyone?

[todivefor]

I tried this procedure using synctoy. Somehow I screwed something up on the Pre. I could no longer access App catalog or updates. The last Pre backup was from the 12th, the day I was playing with synctoy. In addition, I could not access Palm profile. I did a partial reset and all is back. Will have to try this again. Any ideas as to what I could have done wrong? I like the idea.

[Daemon]

I was unable to install the gnutar ipk linked above using WebOS QuickInstall.
It said it had installed it without error, but it never shows up on the device.
I ended up having to unpack the ipk with gunzip and tar (or PC version of gnutar with -xzvf flags)
and copy the contents of opt/libexec and opt/bin in the archive, to Pre's media
share and then copy from there to Pre's /opt/libexec and /opt/bin
in root shell and chmod appropriately.

Running the gnutar command as shown above, but without z compression flag
created a tar archive of 395 Megs. Adding compression burns a lot
of CPU, takes a *long* time but only nets about 2:1 compression ratio.

ian

[bdhu2001]

Originally posted by todivefor:
I tried this procedure using synctoy. Somehow I screwed something up on the Pre. I could no longer access App catalog or updates. The last Pre backup was from the 12th, the day I was playing with synctoy. In addition, I could not access Palm profile. I did a partial reset and all is back. Will have to try this again. Any ideas as to what I could have done wrong? I like the idea.

I've used SyncToy a few times. After my second full erase, I learned to change the setting, copy my desktop folder and rename it. The extra copy gives me the ability to try again if I mess up the sequence the first time. You're wanting to use the Eco functions, but you're also wanting to make sure that your desktop copy is the folder on the left. If you're scared, just use contribute and then go back and delete the unwanted extras from your desktop copy and resync using the synchronize function.

[BMIC50]

My keyboard stopped working, so I finally resulted in a partial erase. Upon restore, I was disappointed that it seemed to not have restored the data inside of SplashID, and no matter what I did, I couldnt get my contacts to sync back (stored on my Gmail account). I am growing frustrated...scratch that! I am ****ED! I run Sync Toy at home and will try to re-sync when I get there, but something is telling me that it wont restore these items. And I thought it was supposed to save my accounts. I only have my main Gmail account and the Palm account showing. What is the freakin point of Palm Backup if these basic things are NOT backed up??! This has got to be the BIGGEST issue I have ran into since June 6th and I am NOT a happy camper!!!

[bdhu2001]

Originally posted byBMIC50
. . .and no matter what I did, I couldnt get my contacts to sync back (stored on my Gmail account). . .I run Sync Toy at home and will try to re-sync when I get there, but something is telling me that it wont restore these items.

I don't know what is happening to your Gmail account. A few people have had to totally delete the account from their phone an re-enter it. I would recommend that. As far as SplashID goes, Sync Toy did restore my records; but I also had the desktop version for Backup.
When it comes to my bookmarks, I back them up in a mobile sites folder in Xmarks. Then I pull them up on my phone and re-book any sites that need to be rebook marked on my phone.

My Backup system is a touch of overkill, but on a Beta phone, it makes me feel comfortable and I'm always able to get important information back.

[BMIC50]

I tried replacing the data on my Pre (synced by SyncToy) with the data on my computer, but that did nothing. I guess I needed to have some hack for it to see the full filesystem. I will do more research on that soon because I cannot afford to lose all of the info I lost again!

[bdhu2001]

What settings did you use for sync Toy? Was it your SplashId are Google that you need to retrieve? Do you update w/ SplashId desktop & export?

[Zorro1]

So that's it huh? Anyone yet tried a third party conduit and use Palm Desktop? Or anything other than (I hate it) Outlook?