Database Users

[Q] Backing up or Imaging SD card partitions

Has anybody succeeded in doing a backup/restore of the WP7 partition from a 2 partition (1 WP7 and 1 android) microSD card? What tools have you tried?
Would DD work? Trueimage? Ghost? Mac Disk Utility?
I want to setup my fresh WP7 partition the way I like it and then image it so I can restore to it if the current microSD starts having problems.
Greatly appreciate any help!

I did this in windows.
- Free up some space in your comp hard drive
- Go to Disk Management and shrink drive. (Free space should be equal to or greater than the SD card size)
- Install easeus partition manager
- Mount the SD card
- Right click on the partition on the SD card and choose copy.
- Choose the free space in the Comp's HDD.
- Repeat for all partitions that has to be copied.
Do the reverse when you want to copy back.

Does the reverse way also work with resizing the partition? On a larger SD card?

Thanks for the response! So the only way to copy would be to another partition? Is there a way to copy to an image file instead? And, have you successfully imaged it back onto the SD card?

I was able to successfully do this using DiskImage - a free download that I found here. I was able to save the entire SDCARD (not a single partition but the entire card) to an image file and then write to back onto another sdcard of the same size. It worked! I haven't tested this thoroughly so don't blame me if it doesn't work for you. If it does - please post here so others can benefit from your experience.

Yes its working...i have doen this 3-4 times...
I did that and i transfered my wp7 partition from a 8gb sd to another 16gb sd card...
Copy the partition to usb hd and then copy back to the new sd...
It works fine....And i have a backup of the partition in my USB sd.
My recomendation is not to mess with your computers hard drive...
Do this with an external usb hd..
Another free tool to use is the MiniTool Partition wizard from here
http://www.minitool-partitionrecovery.com/
colossus

[Q] Upgrading from 4gb sd to 8th sd?

So all i want to do is take everything off my 4gb sd card and use an 8gb sd card so that I have more storage space. Everything works great as is, and I wanted to keep everything as is. Just need more storage space. I've looked through the forums and haven't found anything that addresses this process. I am running CyanogenMod 7.0.3 w/a 4gb sandisk micro sd card. How do I copy so that it boots just like my 4gb card???? Thanks ahead of time for any help.

Bambam01 said:
So all i want to do is take everything off my 4gb sd card and use an 8gb sd card so that I have more storage space. Everything works great as is, and I wanted to keep everything as is. Just need more storage space. I've looked through the forums and haven't found anything that addresses this process. I am running CyanogenMod 7.0.3 w/a 4gb sandisk micro sd card. How do I copy so that it boots just like my 4gb card???? Thanks ahead of time for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend just writing an image file with winimage. Then writing it to a 8gb card, then using Easeus Partition manager to expand the last partition to full 8 gb.'

Do you boot from the SD card or eMMC?
If it's the latter, just copy the contents of the old card to the new one.
If it's the former, I recommend a fresh install; use a backup program (MyBackup, Titanium Backup) to back up your Apps and Data and then restore when you're done with the fresh install.

I'd like to do this as well.. in response to previous reply.. there are 4 partitions (boot, 2 other and last one with your data) do I have to create 4 different images with winimage or just for the first boot partition or does the winimage creates the image of the whole msd card?

The winimage will create a 4 gb image of your card on the 8 gb cards including existing partitions. What you'll need to do is get the largest partition to expand to the whole card. Assuming that the 4gb install on SD is the same as an 8 gb install if you did it fresh.
If the partitions are set different for 8 gb on a fresh install, you're better off just doing a fresh install and use titanium backup as the other guy said.

Phatdawg said:
If the partitions are set different for 8 gb on a fresh install, you're better off just doing a fresh install and use titanium backup as the other guy said.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a good point, the Size-agnostic SD installer uses different partition sizes for everything except the boot partition depending on the size of the card.

I tried winimage first to see if it even worked. Which it didn't. I didn't try to expand the existing partition. It just booted as a normal nook. You would think this would be a easy process but.... Lol, always new challenges. Guess that's why I enjoy doing this.

Well I tried yet again w image, expanded the partition. Still. Didn't work. I must be missing something. How hard can it be to make a copy of a bootable card? Must b brain dead today! Any other thoughts? Thanks!

Bambam01 said:
Well I tried yet again w image, expanded the partition. Still. Didn't work. I must be missing something. How hard can it be to make a copy of a bootable card? Must b brain dead today! Any other thoughts? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done this several times, and I recommend downloading easus todo backup free. Then place both sdcards in a card reader, run todo backup and just copy the 4g to the 8g and expand the fourth partition right there in todo.
This applies especially if you want to copy to same size sd's, as you will not run into the usual image sizing issues.
Hope this helps

I don't know what you're doing wrong. before expanding the partition, make sure the sd boots, if it doesn't, then there's a problem with image being read or written as opposed to the partition.

I also had a problem with a new SD card not booting that I fixed by using the nook (that is the core nook OS) to reformat the card, then put the image onto the SDcard (shouldn't have changed anything as far as I know, but it did anyway).

Ok I tried this and it worked flawlessly. Used win32diskimager to "read" my 4gb sd with cm7 image. and then used "write" to 8gb sd card. It cloned 4 gb original image with 4 partitions and one unused partition of 4 gb. After that used easeus partition manager(latest version) to format unused pattition to fat32 and then merged with last partition of 2gb (move/resize) ..so now I have 6 gb of data partition which i can use to transfer files or move apps from nook's internal drive. The new 8gb card with cm7 image booted without any issues keeping my original settings of 4gb. One thing to mention that somehow it did not work on one pc with windows xp (kept getting write error on win32diskimager program)but worked on my laptop with windows 7.

That is exactly how I have done it in the past as I described in my first post. I don't know why a person would have trouble with it unless there was a format issue (i.e. ntsf, etc).

sd card reporting wrong filled space problem

I have bought a new Sandisk 32 GB class 4 sd card
I formatted it as fat32 with the windows normal utility
the strange thing is that when I look at each single file in it with a file manager it shows its size correctly
however the system reports that the space occupied in the card is twice as much as what it really is.
For example I copied in it all of the content of my old 8 GB card, and after copying
the system said that the occupied space in the new card was 15 GB, which is impossible.
Could it be a formatting related problem?

Format it from the phone, from Settings -> Sd card or something like that.

Thanks for the help
anyway I fixed following a different method
Made a long format
then copied the data from the old card to the computer and then those into the new card
Before I copied directly between the cards after a quick format.
Now I see that any new file that I add occupies the right amount of space

[Q] Rooted:Where is my backed up image? How to get my lost sd card space back

So I am rooted w Nookmanager. I followed the instructions to the letter. I couldn’t be happier with the rooted Nook.
Since Im still a n00b at this..i have a few questions:
1. Which is the back up file of the original Nook, so that I can transfer it to my laptop and save it for any emergencies.
2. Also , my sd card (16gb) is only showing a fraction of the space when I insert into the sd card reader of my laptop. How can I get its full 16gb space back. Do I need to reformat it? If so, how and what software can I use?
3. I have some ebooks already saved in the My Files section on the internal hard drive of Nook. These books don’t show up on mantano reader (or other 3rd party reader apps I have installed).
a. I want to save my ebooks in a folder from where I can access them through Nook native reader as well as any third party readers I have installed.
Thanks for your help…. And long live XDA

sLiKK said:
So I am rooted w Nookmanager. I followed the instructions to the letter. I couldn’t be happier with the rooted Nook.
Since Im still a n00b at this..i have a few questions:
1. Which is the back up file of the original Nook, so that I can transfer it to my laptop and save it for any emergencies.
2. Also , my sd card (16gb) is only showing a fraction of the space when I insert into the sd card reader of my laptop. How can I get its full 16gb space back. Do I need to reformat it? If so, how and what software can I use?
3. I have some ebooks already saved in the My Files section on the internal hard drive of Nook. These books don’t show up on mantano reader (or other 3rd party reader apps I have installed).
a. I want to save my ebooks in a folder from where I can access them through Nook native reader as well as any third party readers I have installed.
Thanks for your help…. And long live XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Step 1. Insert microSD and connect your nook via USB.
Step 2. In windows explorer there will be a drive labeled backup. That's the partition Nookmanager created on the SD card.
Step 3. Open it up and copy the 2 files that are in there.
Getting your space back (after you copied off your backup):
Step 1. Start menu, search "partition", you should find windows partition manager in the control panel.
Step 2. Find the SD card which is now divided in 2 partitions, delete the partitions
Step 3. Right mouse click and create new simple partition, fat32.

I used HP USB Manger to reclaim the SD card space back by reforming it.
To get your backup file, please read:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2040351
Good luck.

jun127 said:
Step 1. Insert microSD and connect your nook via USB.
Step 2. In windows explorer there will be a drive labeled backup. That's the partition Nookmanager created on the SD card.
Step 3. Open it up and copy the 2 files that are in there.
Getting your space back (after you copied off your backup):
Step 1. Start menu, search "partition", you should find windows partition manager in the control panel.
Step 2. Find the SD card which is now divided in 2 partitions, delete the partitions
Step 3. Right mouse click and create new simple partition, fat32.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THanks.
I used Minitool Partition to format, delete the partition and then create a new partition . But in the process, I now have only 14.8GB. I lose 1.2GB. My original card was 16GB. is there anything I could do to get the lost space?

sLiKK said:
THanks.
I used Minitool Partition to format, delete the partition and then create a new partition . But in the process, I now have only 14.8GB. I lose 1.2GB. My original card was 16GB. is there anything I could do to get the lost space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the full size. A "16gb" SD card is actually about 14.83gb because SD cards are sold by the bit. About 15.9 billion bits in a 16 "gb" card, divide that by 1024 three times and you get 14.83 something gb, and that's how windows see's it. Don't worry, you didn't lose anything.

jun127 said:
That's the full size. A "16gb" SD card is actually about 14.83gb because SD cards are sold by the bit. About 15.9 billion bits in a 16 "gb" card, divide that by 1024 three times and you get 14.83 something gb, and that's how windows see's it. Don't worry, you didn't lose anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh..okay...thanks alot.

jun127 said:
Step 1. Insert microSD and connect your nook via USB.
Step 2. In windows explorer there will be a drive labeled backup. That's the partition Nookmanager created on the SD card.
Step 3. Open it up and copy the 2 files that are in there.
Getting your space back (after you copied off your backup):
Step 1. Start menu, search "partition", you should find windows partition manager in the control panel.
Step 2. Find the SD card which is now divided in 2 partitions, delete the partitions
Step 3. Right mouse click and create new simple partition, fat32.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hiya, I know a bit of time has passed, but I'm having problems finding my stock back-up image I made.
I've followed the instructions as above, but explorer doesn't show the backup partition at all. I just have 'Nookmanager' and 'Nook' (the internal memory). I'm connected to the sd card through the nook simple touch (i.e. not through an sd card reader).
Any ideas how I can access the hidden back-up partition?
Many thanks in advance.

tooplanx said:
Hiya, I know a bit of time has passed, but I'm having problems finding my stock back-up image I made.
I've followed the instructions as above, but explorer doesn't show the backup partition at all. I just have 'Nookmanager' and 'Nook' (the internal memory). I'm connected to the sd card through the nook simple touch (i.e. not through an sd card reader).
Any ideas how I can access the hidden back-up partition?
Many thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think the Nook will present second and subsequent partitions on the SD card for USB mounting. You'll need a memory card reader; a cheap one from eBay will do the job.
The files are backup.full.gz and backup.full.md5 in the NookBackup filesystem.

cowbutt said:
I don't think the Nook will present second and subsequent partitions on the SD card for USB mounting. You'll need a memory card reader; a cheap one from eBay will do the job.
The files are backup.full.gz and backup.full.md5 in the NookBackup filesystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a similar problem in copying the two Nook Backup files to my PC. Using a standalone SD card reader, I can see the 1.78 GB NookBackup partition in my MiniTool Partition Manager and in XP's Disk Management, but I cannot assign a drive label. The 64 MB NookManager partition is assigned a drive label, but NookBackup partition shows no drive assigned.
Since I cannot see the two backup files in Windows Explorer, how can I copy them to the PC?

Joydeck said:
I have a similar problem in copying the two Nook Backup files to my PC. Using a standalone SD card reader, I can see the 1.78 GB NookBackup partition in my MiniTool Partition Manager and in XP's Disk Management, but I cannot assign a drive label. The 64 MB NookManager partition is assigned a drive label, but NookBackup partition shows no drive assigned.
Since I cannot see the two backup files in Windows Explorer, how can I copy them to the PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://superuser.com/questions/61487/usb-sticks-and-multiple-partitions looks useful.

cowbutt said:
I don't think the Nook will present second and subsequent partitions on the SD card for USB mounting. You'll need a memory card reader; a cheap one from eBay will do the job.
The files are backup.full.gz and backup.full.md5 in the NookBackup filesystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried both with a card reader and through the plugged in Nook. No joy either way. I looked at the card in Win7's Partition Manager and although it shows the extra space, it doesn't show it as being active or labelled or anything.
When I did the backup it took ages (nearly 30mins) and I was beginning to think it was stuck or something, but then it said it was completed.
I'm wondering whether it actually failed to create a backup. No sign of a backup or backup partition any where.
I think I might just format the card and hope I don't get any problems. Everything seems to be working ok.
Is it possible just to download someone else's backup or get the firmware off B&N again if I need it?

tooplanx said:
Is it possible just to download someone else's backup or get the firmware off B&N again if I need it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, your /rom partition is unique to your device.

tooplanx said:
I've tried both with a card reader and through the plugged in Nook. No joy either way. I looked at the card in Win7's Partition Manager and although it shows the extra space, it doesn't show it as being active or labelled or anything.
When I did the backup it took ages (nearly 30mins) and I was beginning to think it was stuck or something, but then it said it was completed.
I'm wondering whether it actually failed to create a backup. No sign of a backup or backup partition any where.
I think I might just format the card and hope I don't get any problems. Everything seems to be working ok.
Is it possible just to download someone else's backup or get the firmware off B&N again if I need it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The memory card reader won't help as windows won't allow you to mount anything other than the first partition on removeable media. What you need to do is boot your Nook from the NookManager SD card and then plug it into your PC. You will then get two new disks in Windows that each show a single partition. The first disk will be the 64MB NookManager partition and the second disk will be the NookManager backup partition that takes up the rest of your SD card. If for some reason Windows doesn't automatically assign a drive letter go into the Windows partition manager and assign one. The key is you must be booted into NookManager. It won't work if you are booted up normally to read books.

straygecko said:
The memory card reader won't help as windows won't allow you to mount anything other than the first partition on removeable media...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works well.
Having copied the original Nook partition to Windows, could I also backup the rooted partition from the NookManager backup menu? I would also copy the new folders on the SD Card. Or is there another way?

Joydeck said:
Works well.
Having copied the original Nook partition to Windows, could I also backup the rooted partition from the NookManager backup menu? I would also copy the new folders on the SD Card. Or is there another way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Note that NookManager's 'Backup' function will overwrite any pre-existing backup on the NookManager partition, so transfer your backup of your stock firmware first before you make a backup of your rooted firmware.

straygecko said:
The memory card reader won't help as windows won't allow you to mount anything other than the first partition on removeable media. What you need to do is boot your Nook from the NookManager SD card and then plug it into your PC. You will then get two new disks in Windows that each show a single partition. The first disk will be the 64MB NookManager partition and the second disk will be the NookManager backup partition that takes up the rest of your SD card. If for some reason Windows doesn't automatically assign a drive letter go into the Windows partition manager and assign one. The key is you must be booted into NookManager. It won't work if you are booted up normally to read books.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah... that sounds like it might work! Unfortunately, after spending several hours messing around with the sd card and the nook trying to make the other partition readable using partition manager and EasUS, I gave up and just formatted the SD card so that it was usable again. I did a data recovery sweep on the other hidden partition before-hand and managed to retrieve a .gz file of approx 49MB. I presume that is the back-up, but I couldn't retrieve the other file.
Oh well, fingers crossed I don't have problems :fingers-crossed:. At least the Nook was very cheap (£29) so it's not the end of the world if it things go bad.
Thanks for your help. :good:

tooplanx said:
Ah... that sounds like it might work! Unfortunately, after spending several hours messing around with the sd card and the nook trying to make the other partition readable using partition manager and EasUS, I gave up and just formatted the SD card so that it was usable again. I did a data recovery sweep on the other hidden partition before-hand and managed to retrieve a .gz file of approx 49MB. I presume that is the back-up, but I couldn't retrieve the other file.
Oh well, fingers crossed I don't have problems :fingers-crossed:. At least the Nook was very cheap (£29) so it's not the end of the world if it things go bad.
Thanks for your help. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
49MB sounds a couple of hundred meg shy of a backup. You can try unzipping it with something like 7zip to see if its any good and worth keeping around but I doubt it. The other file you didn't recover is just an md5 of the backup and isn't necessary other than as a confirmation of a good backup.
You should take another backup of your Nook as it is now and keep it. That way you'll have a backup of your ROM partition so if things ever go too far south you'll be able to use someone elses full backup and then replace the ROM partition with your devices information.

What straygecko said. 49MB sounds too small, and even a non-pristine backup is worth having.

[Q] Rooted Nook Simple Touch, Help Partitioning micro SD card

Hi! Successfully rooted my Nook ST using Nook Manager, except I used a 32 GB micro SD card to do the rooting. After rooting, I ended up with two partitions on the SD card, Nook (239 MB) and Nook Manager (62.9 MB). I was wondering what I need to do to be able to utilize the rest of the space on the card? The reason I bought a 32 GB card was so I could store all my sideloaded books there, and now I find I'm just limited to the space/partitions showing up when I connect the nook via USB.

You need to repartition your card.
Partition Magic can do that.
If you want to use multiple partitions on the SD card (like 2 x 16 GB) you might want to look at:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2184495

Renate NST said:
You need to repartition your card.
Partition Magic can do that.
If you want to use multiple partitions on the SD card (like 2 x 16 GB) you might want to look at:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2184495
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, will download a copy of Partition Magic later. I really am completely clueless when it comes to programming though. In fact, I'm only here because the folks at mobileread told me I'd probably have better luck having my question/s answered here than there. So just to confirm, I can repartition the drive using partition magic so I'll have one extra partition for the books I want to sideload, and I'm good to go already when I re-insert the SD card into the Nook? Or do I have to attempt the code that you gave in the thread you linked?

If you want to have a single FAT partition on your SD card you can do that without much change.
It comes down to whether you want to be able to pull the SD card and plug it into random desktops and things.
If you want to have multiple partitions or ext3 partitions you will have to use the new vold in the link above.

if used windows 7,8. Insert a memory card into the card reader. Go to cmd(administrator mode) and run command:
Diskpart
List Disk
Select Disk 1 (#select sdcard)
clean (#clean partition sdcard)
create partition primary
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign (#run command if not view sdcard in mycomputer )

Renate, I tried to repartition my SD card, but got a "disk is not formatted, do you want to format it now?" message. So I had no choice but to do a data recovery using EaseUs Partition Master first, then went ahead and clicked format now. Then I tried using Minitool Partition Wizard (couldn't find a free version of Partition Magic) to create new partitions in the formatted SD card so that the NookManager partition would be larger (27 GB) while the NookBackup partition would be 2 GB. Except that I can't seem to create any new partitions at all. And I also have no idea how to restore the data I'd backed up earlier either.

Sorry, I missed seeing this come up when you posted it.
When your Nook asks you if you want to format you should say "No!".
It could be that it misidentified the situation.
In any case, you want to look closer before formatting anything.
Here's a gotcha.
If you are using ext3 and the internal clock has reset itself then the last mount will be in the future.
That makes things angry. Check that the date/time on the Nook is correct.

You can use gparted to give the card the partition layout you need (i.e. first NookManager partition is big, second NookBackup partition is only large enough to hold a backup), then write the first partition from NookManager.img into first partition of the card (you need to do something roughly similar to this. Then you can use gparted to set the "boot" flag on the first partition and use the card to backup&root your Nook. Then remove the "boot" flag, and keep using the card for storage (it's a bit messy to have both user&app files AND NookManager boot files in the same place, but if you only have one card, then this is inevitable - i haven't found a way to mount the second or the third partitions from the card). The card will act as normal storage device when flag is not set, and as NookManager bootable card when flag is set.