ROM Manager vs. Titanium Backup

[PaulQ]

Just in terms of backing up, does ROM Manager function as an effective backup method? My phone crashed a few days ago and I restored a relative recent ROM Manager backup. It put everything back the way it was.

Is this any different than Titanium Backup?

Thanks!
P

(Using Cyanogen7)

 

[cupfulloflol]

Just in terms of backing up, does ROM Manager function as an effective backup method? My phone crashed a few days ago and I restored a relative recent ROM Manager backup. It put everything back the way it was.

Is this any different than Titanium Backup?

Thanks!
P

(Using Cyanogen7)

No they are actually quite different.

ROM Manager makes a backup in your custom recovery, clockwork I assume. It makes a full backup of your phone. It can restore all at once, or each partition it has separated. The partitions are as follows.
/boot - Kernel
/data - Downloaded apps and settings and saved stuff from them, plus some other things.
/system - Essentially the ROM you are running

There are other partitions that you can backup as well, but I believe those are the defaults. /cache, /recovery, /android-secure, /misc, /sd-ext ...and probably some others are backupable via recovery, depending on recovery and phone.

Titanium Backup backs up just the apps and their data. It can restore in batch, or restore in app by app basis. It doesn't back up the kernel, quite a few things from /data and /system will be missing as well from this backup. But TiBu wasn't made for that purpose, that is what the recovery is for. If something is wrong with the kernel, your phone won't boot into Android, you will need to boot into your recovery to fix your problem.

Nandroid backups are made for situations exactly like that, or like your situation it sounds like. If you ever do something where your phone won't reboot into Android, and you can still get into recovery...you can get your phone back up. TiBU in that situation won't be helpful.

TiBU's main use for me, is when changing ROMs and I want to get apps + data back, plus text messages, call logs, and other things I may want to keep.

Say I am running ROM A, and see ROM B which looks interesting. In order to install a new ROM you more than likely have to wipe. Create a TiBu, create a nandroid backup, wipe, install ROM, reinstall TiBu from market, restore TiBu. Be careful with what you restore though as some things, especially system data, can cause things to act screwy.

It kinda sounds like I am bashing, TiBu. Believe me I am not, I am a big fan of TiBu. Just that a nandroid backup is almost required, where TiBu you could get by without. It just is helpful in some situations.

 

[Droid DOES!!]

Just in terms of backing up, does ROM Manager function as an effective backup method? My phone crashed a few days ago and I restored a relative recent ROM Manager backup. It put everything back the way it was.

Is this any different than Titanium Backup?

Thanks!
P

(Using Cyanogen7)

No they are actually quite different.

ROM Manager makes a backup in your custom recovery, clockwork I assume. It makes a full backup of your phone. It can restore all at once, or each partition it has separated. The partitions are as follows.
/boot - Kernel
/data - Downloaded apps and settings and saved stuff from them, plus some other things.
/system - Essentially the ROM you are running

There are other partitions that you can backup as well, but I believe those are the defaults. /cache, /recovery, /android-secure, /misc, /sd-ext ...and probably some others are backupable via recovery, depending on recovery and phone.

Titanium Backup backs up just the apps and their data. It can restore in batch, or restore in app by app basis. It doesn't back up the kernel, quite a few things from /data and /system will be missing as well from this backup. But TiBu wasn't made for that purpose, that is what the recovery is for. If something is wrong with the kernel, your phone won't boot into Android, you will need to boot into your recovery to fix your problem.

Nandroid backups are made for situations exactly like that, or like your situation it sounds like. If you ever do something where your phone won't reboot into Android, and you can still get into recovery...you can get your phone back up. TiBU in that situation won't be helpful.

TiBU's main use for me, is when changing ROMs and I want to get apps + data back, plus text messages, call logs, and other things I may want to keep.

Say I am running ROM A, and see ROM B which looks interesting. In order to install a new ROM you more than likely have to wipe. Create a TiBu, create a nandroid backup, wipe, install ROM, reinstall TiBu from market, restore TiBu. Be careful with what you restore though as some things, especially system data, can cause things to act screwy.

It kinda sounds like I am bashing, TiBu. Believe me I am not, I am a big fan of TiBu. Just that a nandroid backup is almost required, where TiBu you could get by without. It just is helpful in some situations.

Well said! Though I don't trust ROM Manager personally.

This thread has been Thunder struck!

 

[nerdslogic]

I agree with not trusting ROM manager.....nothing but bad luck for me there.

 

[PaulQ]

Hey thanks guys! As a newbie to rooting, this is very informative.

Last time I actually used TiBu, I actually ended up with some screwy behavior. I must have restored something I wasn't supposed to.