[HELP] Retrieving TWRP data [SOLVED] - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello, I would like to know how I could extract backed up TWRP data on my computer? maybe because the data was large TWRP split it into two files : data.ext4.win000 and data.ext4.win001 (sizes 1.5 and 1.2 GB)
How I got there:
I've been using XenonHD rom for quite a while, and this rom uses koush's superuser app.
I noticed there was a newer version on the market so I installed it; however it appears the one used by the rom developer was modified and therefore had a different package name: I ended up with two superuser apps, one of them asking to update the binaries, which I did.
After that the phone got stuck and rebooted two or three times before being stuck indefinitely at 'updating app' message right after the bootanimation. I tried:
- to wipe dalvik cache but it was still stuck;
- I reflashed the rom + gapps but it was still stuck;
- then I went to the /data/app/ folder (via TWRP) and deleted the superuser app i installed from market, as well as the corresponding data in /data/data, wiped cache and dalvik again: still the same...
-the I decided to make a backup via TWRP : one of the whole system, and one of Data partition only;
- then I realised I couldn't transfer it to my computer in TWRP, so I finally made a factory reset, re-flashed the rom+gapps, and then (it worked) copied my backup to the computer
now; how can I retrieve the data of my apps only, as I guess it is the system data that is messed up?
Of course I tried to restore the Data backup in twrp and it got stuck again the same way....
any help greatly appreciated!

You could try appextractor on the play store
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

forvrknight said:
You could try appextractor on the play store
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It didn't work for me...
I finally got my data back by this tricky procedure (there might be an easier way but google+xda was not my friend on this one, I tried ext2explore and ext4explore, linux_reader, Andoird_ICS_JB_ext4_unpacker and maybe some more without success)
I renamed the two files:
data.ext4.win000 renamed as data.ext4.tar.001
data.ext4.win001 renamed as data.ext4.tar.002
Unzipping the first one with 7zip recreates a .tar archive named data.ext4.tar, which is not really a tar archive (extracting it will only give a very few files, for me it only included the image files of my custom bootanimation)
On this file I used AccessData FTK Imager, which would recognise the 'evidence' as a tar file and would allow you to export the data, however this is only the data contained originally in the first file (data.ext4.win000) (although the reconstructed archive was the right size, for me 2.7GB, the part extracted by this software was only 1.5GB)
To recover the second part, simply rename the second file (initially data.ext4.win001) into data.7z and then extract. (this does not work with the first file, all you would get is again a very few files, for me it looked like the content of a single apk file)
All you have to do now is to merge the two data folders and voilà
I could then retrieve my sms mms messages by retrieving the file smsmms.db (and eventually smsmms.db-journal) located in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases, and putting them on the phone in the same folder
I could also retrieve my phone call logs by retrieving the files contacts2.db (and eventually contacts2.db-journal) located in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases, and putting them on the phone in the same folder
Hope it helps someone someday
For some reason replacing the data folder of a particular app does not always work, I have to investigate a bit or maybe start fresh with a new rom and try again

asim0 said:
It didn't work for me...
I finally got my data back by this tricky procedure (there might be an easier way but google+xda was not my friend on this one, I tried ext2explore and ext4explore, linux_reader, Andoird_ICS_JB_ext4_unpacker and maybe some more without success)
I renamed the two files:
data.ext4.win000 renamed as data.ext4.tar.001
data.ext4.win001 renamed as data.ext4.tar.002
Unzipping the first one with 7zip recreates a .tar archive named data.ext4.tar, which is not really a tar archive (extracting it will only give a very few files, for me it only included the image files of my custom bootanimation)
On this file I used AccessData FTK Imager, which would recognise the 'evidence' as a tar file and would allow you to export the data, however this is only the data contained originally in the first file (data.ext4.win000) (although the reconstructed archive was the right size, for me 2.7GB, the part extracted by this software was only 1.5GB)
To recover the second part, simply rename the second file (initially data.ext4.win001) into data.7z and then extract. (this does not work with the first file, all you would get is again a very few files, for me it looked like the content of a single apk file)
All you have to do now is to merge the two data folders and voilà
I could then retrieve my sms mms messages by retrieving the file smsmms.db (and eventually smsmms.db-journal) located in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases, and putting them on the phone in the same folder
I could also retrieve my phone call logs by retrieving the files contacts2.db (and eventually contacts2.db-journal) located in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases, and putting them on the phone in the same folder
Hope it helps someone someday
For some reason replacing the data folder of a particular app does not always work, I have to investigate a bit or maybe start fresh with a new rom and try again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It actually helped me, thanks a lot!

Two Questions
asim0 said:
On this file I used AccessData FTK Imager,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a 4.6 Gigs professional software. If TWRP can read this type of file there must be a smaller tool available for this.
Can you please let me know of any other toll which would do the same?
asim0 said:
All you have to do now is to merge the two data folders and voilà
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the 2nd file do we need to follow the same procedure like 'evidence' and stuff?
Thanks, I am desperate to read some information from TWRP backup and cannot wait 6 days while the 4.6 Gigs of ISO will download.

pi_yush said:
This is a 4.6 Gigs professional software. If TWRP can read this type of file there must be a smaller tool available for this.
Can you please let me know of any other toll which would do the same?
For the 2nd file do we need to follow the same procedure like 'evidence' and stuff?
Thanks, I am desperate to read some information from TWRP backup and cannot wait 6 days while the 4.6 Gigs of ISO will download.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These files (at least the ones produced by TWRP2 on my phone) are just standard gzipped tar archives. The tar command has supported this format for at least 20 years. You can extract with a command like this:
Code:
tar xvfz data.ext4.win000
tar xvfz data.ext4.win001

number_thirty_two said:
These files (at least the ones produced by TWRP2 on my phone) are just standard gzipped tar archives. The tar command has supported this format for at least 20 years. You can extract with a command like this:
Code:
tar xvfz data.ext4.win000
tar xvfz data.ext4.win001
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks number_thirty_two, I copyed thes to a folder I named untar in my home folder of CYGWIN, and extracted my system files perfectly
C:\cygwin\home\carl\untar\
system.ext4.win000
system.ext4.win001
tar xvfz system.ext4.win000
tar xvfz system.ext4.win001

Apologies for resurrecting this, but does anyone know how to extract them if they were compressed as .comp files?

asim0 said:
It didn't work for me...
I finally got my data back by this tricky procedure (there might be an easier way but google+xda was not my friend on this one, I tried ext2explore and ext4explore, linux_reader, Andoird_ICS_JB_ext4_unpacker and maybe some more without success)
I renamed the two files:
data.ext4.win000 renamed as data.ext4.tar.001
data.ext4.win001 renamed as data.ext4.tar.002
Unzipping the first one with 7zip recreates a .tar archive named data.ext4.tar, which is not really a tar archive (extracting it will only give a very few files, for me it only included the image files of my custom bootanimation)
On this file I used AccessData FTK Imager, which would recognise the 'evidence' as a tar file and would allow you to export the data, however this is only the data contained originally in the first file (data.ext4.win000) (although the reconstructed archive was the right size, for me 2.7GB, the part extracted by this software was only 1.5GB)
To recover the second part, simply rename the second file (initially data.ext4.win001) into data.7z and then extract. (this does not work with the first file, all you would get is again a very few files, for me it looked like the content of a single apk file)
All you have to do now is to merge the two data folders and voil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Related

[GUIDE] Extract files from Nandroid backups

I have seen this asked a few times recently so I figured I would try to put together a quick and easy guide to extracting files from Nandroid backups. This guide only covers Windows, I assume if you are running Linux you can download unyaffs and compile/run it without my assistance. If you are adventurous you can install cygwin and compile unyaffs on your own (or download it at any number of sites across the internet), however I have included all the files needed to extract the files from the img files.
1. Download unyaffs along with the cygwin1.dll
2. Extract the files to a new folder.
3. Copy the system.img file from the ROM or your Nandroid backup to the folder you extracted unyaffs.exe and cygwin1.dll to.
4. Open a command prompt and cd to the folder containing the three files. If you are on Windows 7 you can just navigate there with Windows Explorer and in the URL bar type cmd to open a comman prompt in that location.
5. Type unyaffs system.img
You have now extracted all the files from the system partition of your Nandroid backup. The APKs are in the /app folder and some apps require library files that can be found in the /lib folder. For example: Swype.apk requires that libSwypeCore.so be in the lib folder for it to work properly.
I get an "end of image" message and no folder is created with the extracted files.
I am trying to recover some photos from my Gallery, which I presume is in data.img - but no matter what I try to extract, I get "end of image"
any ideas?
Is the system.img the only thing you can open with this or can you open the data.img or the wimax.img also?
Lock-N-Load said:
I get an "end of image" message and no folder is created with the extracted files.
I am trying to recover some photos from my Gallery, which I presume is in data.img - but no matter what I try to extract, I get "end of image"
any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your photos should be on your MicroSD card, not on one of the system partitions. Look in SDCARD:\DCIM\100ANDRO, your photos should be there.
cruise350 said:
Is the system.img the only thing you can open with this or can you open the data.img or the wimax.img also?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want to know this also
Seems to work ok for me for data.img and system.img, but not wimax.img or boot.img.
Yep, I tried that too...worked.
Is there a command to repack the system or data image after you have unpacked and played around with them???
I am pretty sure that my issue is within the data file...I removed what I think caused the problem but how do I repack it all to put it on the sd card and try it out?
thanks
Does anyone know a command to repack the files???
Worked for me.
Pretty much my whole family has Evo's. theyre all rooted too thanks to me but in my experimenting, i lost the 4G keys to mines. so i troubleshooted. i put Amen Ra's recovery on my brothers phone, and nandroid'ed only the wimax. put the entire folder for that backup on my sdcard on the spot where u would find ur backups, ran Amen Ra on my Evo. and bam. working 4G. u just cant use them at the sametime cuz it interfears.
Oh ok cool.
Is there anyway to pack the files on windows
I want to see if my phone will boot now that I got rid of some programs I believe to be causing it to bootloop
Stupid question. Don't mind me.
Awesome this works Thanks allot
how can I extract /data/system to then package back as either
* SBF
or
* update.zip
to write to another identical phone?
re
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=17217163#post17217163
ubuntu fyi
I've extracted *.smg files from a SBF Rom File. I'm willing to extract Stock Apk's from it.
Now, my Unyaffs is in the same folder of the SMG files such as cygwin1.dll, however when i try to execute "unyaffs cg39.smg" I receive the following:
8 [main] unyaffs 5960 handle_exceptions: Exception: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATIO
N
2790 [main] unyaffs 5960 open_stackdumpfile: Dumping stack trace to unyaffs.e
xe.stackdump
the log says:
Exception: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION at eip=004010B0
eax=444E1A20 ebx=0000001A ecx=FFFFFFE4 edx=00801322 esi=0040130E edi=610E21A0
ebp=0022EE88 esp=0022EE50 program=C:\Motorola\unaffys\teste-extracted\unyaffs.exe, pid 4708, thread main
cs=001B ds=0023 es=0023 fs=003B gs=0000 ss=0023
Stack trace:
Frame Function Args
0022EE88 004010B0 (0022EEE9, 00000000, 00000000, 00401333)
0022EEB8 004013AF (00000002, 00800180, 00800090, 610A5E22)
0022EFA8 61004DD2 (0022EFC0, FFFFFFFF, 77A651CE, 00000000)
0022FF58 6100594F (00000000, 00000000, 00000000, 00000000)
End of stack trace
I've tried to regsrv32 the DLL and also receveid error as a invalid Dll. Does anyone have an idea?
I'm looking for stock Phone, Contacts and the keyboard apk, by the way, anyone knows the keyboard apk file?
thanks
Thanks
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2
hi guys,exist a new link for this tool or another tool for open .img files?
thanks in advance

Efs backup -- important !!!!

For those of you that don't think you need to read this - you are wrong! I have flashed 100's of ROM's with no issue until the end of last week.
MODERATORS PLEASE STICKY THIS IN A PLACE WHERE EVERYDAY USERS THAT FLASH ROMS WILL SEE IT
I uneventfully flashed a ROM (not important which one because I don't think it has anything to do with particular ROM) and all went well. I went to bed with a working phone and the somehow a reboot happened and awoke with a phone with no signal. The error was saying that there was no SIM card and / or No Network Available.
I finally used HC-kTool app on the Market (used latest version) to Restore an efs.tar file and my phone started working but I had a generic / fake IMEI number -- 004999010640000
If you have backed up your /EFS folder on the root of your phone then all is well. The easiest way is to use Hellcat's HC-kTool to back up your EFS and save a copy on your sdcard and your PC and that way you will not have to go through my misery.
However if you have not BACKED UP your EFS files then you will have issues like I did
Ok so here is what I can tell based on my experience:
Look for any files or folders on your sdcard that have EFS in the name. You might get lucky and look in the /EFS folder on your phone. If the nv_data.bin file has been corrupted the .nv_data.bin.bak might still be OK. If that is the case you may be able to follow this guide: http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f606/samsung-android-repair-efs-imei-repair-without-box-1348192/
What won't work is any sort of simple copying nv_data.bin from the sdcard to the /EFS folder using Root Explorer - I spent almost an entire weekend trying this.
If your /EFS folder .bak file has been corrupted then in my case I found a folder on my sdcard named EFS_BACKUP that I assume that Clockworkmod has created during some of my ROM flashes (somebody correct me if I'm wrong because otherwise I have no idea how it got there).
In the EFS_BACKUP folder I have a number of files form different dates (I assume of flashes) labelled efs_xxdate.tar.gz
btw you can use these or any .gz file when using HC_kTool tool simply by renaming the file (long press with Root Explorer) to just a .tar file (delete the .gz). HC_kTool uses a file named efs.tar on the root of the sdcard to restore.
In my case I had to extract one of these files by long pressing in Root Explorer and choicing extract. I then went to the extracted folder on the sdcard (using Root Explorer) and found a folder named efs_xxdate and within that a folder named EFS
... again don't get mislead -- simply copying and pasting that file or any other to the root /EFS folder will not work!!
I noticed that there were multiple files in the extracted/efs_xxdate/efs folder but the dates were different. The nv_data.bin and the nv_dat.bin.md5 files were dated the same as the date of the folder BUT the .nv_data.bak file was dated Dec31, 2010
Here's how I restored that file:
1) I extracted the .tar.gz file as above
2) Went to sdcard\extracted\efsxxdate\efs folder and copied the older dated .nv_data.bak to the root of the sdcard using Root Explorer (long press, copy, then paste)
3) Then renamed the .nv_data.bak file to nv_data.bin on the root of the sdcard
3) Then followed these instructions from line 14 on in this post .. http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f606/samsung-android-repair-efs-imei-repair-without-box-1348192/
14 = at command prompt [ C:\adbtools\ ], type adb shell
15 = type su
16 = type cp /sdcard/nv_data.bin
17 = type rm -rf /efs/nv_data.bin.md5
18 = type exit & exit
19 = REBOOT YOUR PHONE
I'm not sure why this works but EVERY combination of copying and pasting nv_data.bin , .bak, or entire EFS folders suing Root Explorer does NOT work but this above technique did work for me ! Somehow having the .md5 file recreated is the key ??
I hope this helps someone.
BACKUP YOUR EFS -- Hellcat's HC_kTool seems to work great
Thank the DEVELOPERS
Already been highlighted a few times
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068193&highlight=efs
Can you please clarify....I always keep a weekly copy of clock work mod backed up. Is this not enough? A lille confused about the need for efs backup...
Sent from my SGS2
Thx for this post. Anyway, i got stuck at 17, it says "-rf: not found". What does that mean? Am i unable to mount efs?
Nice post. Not happened to me *yet* but you never know.
Here is the direct link to Hellcats K-tool
Backing mine up now
jcrompton said:
However if you have not BACKED UP your EFS files then you will have issues like I did
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..
s2d4 said:
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually i don't understand how he made it: ktool doesn't use a tar file like posted, but an img file, and you can only find tar.gz files in the backup folder. How do you get an img file out of those?
s2d4 said:
someone move it to general please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorted
Used K-Tool since the method mentioned via terminal never worked..
stylez said:
Sorted
Used K-Tool since the method mentioned via terminal never worked..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good for you
But what did you do exactly? How did you obtain the img file for ktool to flash it? I only have the tar backups from the Efs_ backup folder...
s2d4 said:
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not have a new efs image file
All the files I had had been corrupted
I spent four days PMing all the big wigs re this. It's not as simple as you think unless you familiarize yourself with EFS backup BEFORE you need it!
Clockwork mod and nandroid backups do not alter the efs folder when a backup is restored! It must be backed up separately
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
vnvman said:
Good for you
But what did you do exactly? How did you obtain the img file for ktool to flash it? I only have the tar backups from the Efs_ backup folder...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not have an image file either. Look above at my post where I describe how to do it from step number 1 forward
I didn't use the tool to fix it
I just suggested getting the tool and learning how to use it
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
jcrompton said:
I didn't use the tool to fix it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to make the whole thread clear, is your IMEI now the original IMEI or the default U1 IMEI of 0049...?
Hmm..in the end i fixed this by flashing the efs from the official kh3 firmware through odin (clear efs checked). Now my imei changed to a generic one but i don't really care: i have my baseband back and the phone works. I just hope the FBI or something isn't after me now.
vnvman said:
Hmm..in the end i fixed this by flashing the efs from the official kh3 firmware through odin (clear efs checked). Now my imei changed to a generic one but i don't really care: i have my baseband back and the phone works. I just hope the FBI or something isn't after me now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have an EFS_BACKUP folder on your sdcard? And if so do you have any compressed files with older (mine was dated Dec31 2010) .nv_data.bak files?
If you do then that's what I ultimately used to restore my IMEI (not the generic one)
jcrompton said:
Do you have an EFS_BACKUP folder on your sdcard? And if so do you have any compressed files with older (mine was dated Dec31 2010) .nv_data.bak files?
If you do then that's what I ultimately used to restore my IMEI (not the generic one)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, i'll try that right away.
vnvman said:
Actually i don't understand how he made it: ktool doesn't use a tar file like posted, but an img file, and you can only find tar.gz files in the backup folder. How do you get an img file out of those?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kTool does both, raw .IMG dump and filebased .tar.gz backup.
Does K-Tool work with CF-Root kernel?
HellcatDroid said:
kTool does both, raw .IMG dump and filebased .tar.gz backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wtf, i got answered by Hellcat himself!
Thanks, i didn't notice that option, i would have gone much less nuts if i knew it, stupid me
nfribeiro said:
Does K-Tool work with CF-Root kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, should work fine.
Should you find any missbehavings or issues though, please let me know and they shall be fixed
vnvman said:
Wtf, i got answered by Hellcat himself!
Thanks, i didn't notice that option, i would have gone much less nuts if i knew it, stupid me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol xD
Well, but not necessarily stupid, the first few versions indeed only made the raw .IMG dump and the button still only says "backup to /sdcard/efs.img" (yeah, I should really change that text )
But since some 1.2x build it makes the .tar as well and when you hit the restore button it asks if you want to restore the .IMG or the .tar
Haha yeah right, i never hit restore because i didn't have an img dumped to the sd so i thought i had nothing to restore there

Exploring TWRP backups on Windows

This question is not specific to the G2 however since it's the device I currently own I figured I might as well ask it here since it seems as good as place as any to ask. That being said I would like to know how I can explore the contents of a TWRP created nandroid backup from my PC running Windows 7 professional. I have already transferred the files to my computer without issue, but when I try to extract the "data.ext4.win000" or "data.ext4.win001" files using 7Zip it just says the files are not supported so I am not sure what piece of software I need to get to open these files and explore their contents from within Windows and any help would be greatly appreciated.
TIA,
MTCellph
You need a specific program to view the files inside, as soon as I check the one I use on my laptop I'll let you know
Sent from my LG-D800 running stock kk, rooted with philz using XDA app
---------- Post added at 11:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 AM ----------
Ok so here's what you want to do rename the file to data.est4.tar.gz and you will be able to explore the archive using 7zip
Sent from my LG-D800 running stock kk, rooted with philz using XDA app
I did that and there was a Tar file inside of the tar.gz file which I tried extracted to my desktop and tried to open in 7zip, but it would not open so I am at the same spot I was in to begin with
mtcellph said:
I did that and there was a Tar file inside of the tar.gz file which I tried extracted to my desktop and tried to open in 7zip, but it would not open so I am at the same spot I was in to begin with
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for some reason that keeps happening with the data folder but you can easily view the system
XxZombiePikachu said:
for some reason that keeps happening with the data folder but you can easily view the system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for the reply. I was trying to view the DATA folder as you may have guessed which as you found out does not work (or atleast I could not get it to work for me) on Windows so I had to boot up into my Ubuntu partition on my machine and concatenate the 2 .WIN files into one file using the following command from the Ubuntu terminal.
cat data.ext4.win000 data.ext4.win001 > data.tar (or tar.gz if compression was enabled when you created the backups in TWRP)
I then used the built in archive manager in Ubuntu and was able to browse the DATA partition and extract the information that I needed. This should not be necessary, but as we both discovered, windows (for whatever reason) does not seem to be able to handle the DATA partition while Ubuntu can so if anyone stumbles upon this post wanting to know the same information then you should try downloading a live cd / live usb version of Ubuntu (if you don't already have it installed on your machine that is) and running it and follow the steps above to access the files in your DATA partition.
Note: In the above example I had to combine the 2 data.ext4.win* files into one file before I could access the archive. If you do not have multiple data.ext4.win* files then you can skip that step and go straight to the next step which is opening the data partition in the built in archive manager that comes with Ubuntu.
HTH,
MTCellph
mtcellph said:
Thanks again for the reply. I was trying to view the DATA folder as you may have guessed which as you found out does not work (or atleast I could not get it to work for me) on Windows so I had to boot up into my Ubuntu partition on my machine and concatenate the 2 .WIN files into one file using the following command from the Ubuntu terminal.
cat data.ext4.win000 data.ext4.win001 > data.tar (or tar.gz if compression was enabled when you created the backups in TWRP)
I then used the built in archive manager in Ubuntu and was able to browse the DATA partition and extract the information that I needed. This should not be necessary, but as we both discovered, windows (for whatever reason) does not seem to be able to handle the DATA partition while Ubuntu can so if anyone stumbles upon this post wanting to know the same information then you should try downloading a live cd / live usb version of Ubuntu (if you don't already have it installed on your machine that is) and running it and follow the steps above to access the files in your DATA partition.
HTH,
MTCellph
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great I already run Ubuntu on a virtual machine so this is very useful information
explore/extract system.ext4 with IZArc
Sorry - please ignore this post - I don't know what I'm talking about sometimes...
I know the thread is over 6mon old, sorry...
I have a recent backup from TWRP 2.7.x and really need to figure out how to get into /data/media or whatever the equivalent is in the archive. I did a 'cat' of my 4 data.ext4.win00* files and opened that in Ubuntu. All it contained was a big stack of APKs and a subfolder with a bunch of 0 byte objects. What bugs me the most is that the file browser reports the data.ext4.tar.gz I created at 3.3GB, but the ubuntu handler only reports the /data folder inside at 1.6GB.
I lost a buttload of data and files to an Odin restore necessitated to wipe 2 stubborn cache files. Nothing I tried could change their properties (thanks G00gle). Anyway, I ended up doing a full wipe of the phone thinking I had a good TWeRP backup on the extSDcard. Wrong.
I just checked system.etx4.win* and found the same/similar files under it's /app folder.
Have I lost all those files or is there something else I can try? TIA.
Talos4 said:
explore/extract system.ext4 with IZArc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for this hint! I hadn't heard about IZArc before. It's really great and saved my day. :highfive:
Windows users
For windows (if you have multiple files) :
Code:
copy /B data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 output.tar
Mehdiway said:
For windows (if you have multiple files) :
Code:
copy /B data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 output.tar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks to this, I was having a bad time viewing each of the data.ext4.win000 etc. etc. can't handle by windows I think. Looking for solution from google and I end up here. Thank you my friend. :good:
zidane02 said:
Thanks to this, I was having a bad time viewing each of the data.ext4.win000 etc. etc. can't handle by windows I think. Looking for solution from google and I end up here. Thank you my friend. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want to explore twrp backup files on windows:
- rename i.e. data.ext4.win000 to data.ext4.tar and open that .tar file with winzip or winrar (whichever reads .tar compressed files) - same goes for .win001 etc...
btw just a sidenote - twrp doesn't backup your personal media files (photos, videos, etc)
I know I'm bumping a super old thread in a sorta old forum area, but Google brought me here. I am trying to browse a TWRP backup but I have a feeling I need to do a bit more fussing around. The backup is split into data.ext4.win000 through data.ext4.win007 and each of the parts has an accompanying .md5 with the same naming structure (ie. data.ext4.win000 and data.ext4.win000.md5.) There's also a data.info file as well.
The system backup is the exact same as described above for the data, except it's only 2 parts (system.ext4.win000 and system.ext4.win001, with the accompanying md5 files and the info file.)
Can someone provide a bit of guidance? I'm using a Windows 7 Home Premium machine.
I'm in the same situation cognitivedissonance is. Any help to put us on the right direction?
The answer for one question would be beneficial and highly appreciated: in which format the data.ext4.win00x files are ?
cognitivedissonance said:
I know I'm bumping a super old thread in a sorta old forum area, but Google brought me here. I am trying to browse a TWRP backup but I have a feeling I need to do a bit more fussing around. The backup is split into data.ext4.win000 through data.ext4.win007 and each of the parts has an accompanying .md5 with the same naming structure (ie. data.ext4.win000 and data.ext4.win000.md5.) There's also a data.info file as well.
The system backup is the exact same as described above for the data, except it's only 2 parts (system.ext4.win000 and system.ext4.win001, with the accompanying md5 files and the info file.)
Can someone provide a bit of guidance? I'm using a Windows 7 Home Premium machine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To browse the "system.ext4.winxxx" files, simply add at the end of the file ".tar" and decompress them in the same folder created by the first file.
The MD5 is a type of Checksum file wich is created just to check the integrity of the backup file is linked to.
the gladiator said:
I'm in the same situation cognitivedissonance is. Any help to put us on the right direction?
The answer for one question would be beneficial and highly appreciated: in which format the data.ext4.win00x files are ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are compressed in TAR format.
Mehdiway said:
For windows (if you have multiple files) :
Code:
copy /B data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win001 output.tar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually the file numbers should increment, using the above example:
Code:
copy /B data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win002 + data.ext4.win003 + data.ext4.win004 output.tar
In the example you're appending a file to itself over and over.
forkup said:
Actually the file numbers should increment, using the above example:
Code:
copy /B data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win002 + data.ext4.win003 + data.ext4.win004 output.tar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In most cases that should be;
Code:
copy /B data.ext4.win000 + data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win002 + data.ext4.win003 + data.ext4.win004 output.tar
And the other (uncompressed) .win image-files (like system_image.emmc.win) can be read with a tool like Ext2Read.
Mehdiway said:
For windows (if you have multiple files) :
Code:
copy /B data.ext4.win000 + data.ext4.win001 + data.ext4.win002 + data.ext4.win003 output.tar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, thats wrong. It might work with tar --ignore-zeros (-i) option but only for uncompressed archives.
Do not combine the data.ext4.win* files into one file before accessing. These are single standalone tarball archives (gzip compressed sometimes) you should rename and unpack for each own
I am also seeking a correct and up-to-date answer for this. I have TWRP 2.8.7.0 and multiple .win files, .md5 files and data.ext4 files in my SD Card. Is renaming archives enough to browse in 7zip? Is there any special tool for this, or do we also combine/merge multiple files into one?
Thanks a lot!
Can anyone here shed any light on my TWRP backup browsing issue described here? Thanks

convert tar to zip?

I've been scouring the interweb looking for a way to take a stock tar file and convert it to a zip file that will flash with twrp. I know it can be done, but thus far I'm not happy with the processes I've found... how do you guys do it?
The stock TAR files contain partitions in IMG format - an all in one file system, and in this case using EXT4 formatting.
In order to create a ZIP, you need to access the files on the partition, which means finding a way to mount those IMG partitions to copy their contents, or find a piece of software to extract from them w/o mounting. Since they are EXT4, you can probably assume a Windows solution isn't available (EXT4 is Linux). Some utilities may exist to handle EXT4 on Windows, but finding one that knows EXT4 and can extract/mount an IMG file is pretty specific.
EDIT : found a utility for you - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2285831
If you can somehow get the files out of the archive, you'll need to find a tutorial on the structure of a flashable ZIP. Generally, its just folders and files but there is also a META-INF folder, scripts to install and set permissions, etc. There are likely threads here on XDA that can detail these steps.
Spitzaf, thanks so much! I was hoping for just such a tool

Question about creating TWRP flashable file

Hey all, I've looked all over an can't find the answer to this... I have a NAND backup I made using TWRP, however, I had the problem many have had with getting errors when trying to restore it. So I thought I'd try a different way by creating a TWRP flashable file from the NAND files. I have taken the files from the backup and extracted them using CYGWIN. I read a thread here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2746044
But I'm stuck on a couple of things... First, the part about using the META-INF folder from another ROM... I've checked the files in in the META-INF folder and notice that the updater-script is what loads the files and directories. But none of the META-INF files I have found matches my backup files.
The files I want to flash are the complete system folder, complete data folder and the boot.img file. Is it possibly to flash these with TWRP without the META-INF folder/files? If I have to use the META-INF how do I make sure all the files and folders are flashed?
Would it be better to create an ODIN flashable file and just use Odin to do the flash? If so should I put the system and data folders into one file and then use the boot.img (or would I put the boot.img finle into a tar) in the Bootloader spot in Odin?
Thanks in advance.

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