Hey all. (Hopefully) Simple question. Can I use the documented NAND Flash Backup & NAND Flash Restore to safely backup and restore the currently installed image + root + home + data? My idea is to use this so I can simply swap between OZ/opie, OZ/gpe, OZ/e17, pdaxrom & cacko without having to go through the whole reflash, reinstall personal apps, update & upgrade process to get back to square one.

thks

Yep... that is what alot of people do....

Just get everything set up the way you want... and back-up...

just a reminder... installing apps to a CF or SD will cause problems... especially if you are hopping from Cacko to pdaXrom or OpenBSD...

Happy NAND'ing!

Thanks for the answer & the tips!

I finally got around to trying my first backup & it failed. IIRC I read somewhere that the cf card has to be formatted FAT16, correct? I think that may be my problem, but there doesn't seem to be an option to save to sd (at least not on my 860). According to the backup page thould that be possible? thks

All I get when I try to create a backup is 'cannot initialize cf'. Does this mean that my card (a 2GB PQI CF 40X) isn't compatible for this? I've reformatted it as 'FAT' under XP, then tried a 'mkfs.msdos' on my Z. Neither worked.

If it's incompatible, and there doesn't seem to be an option to save to the sd, I'll have to go out & get another (preferably cheap) card. Anybody have any suggestions on brands? thks

I run backups and restores from an Iomega(IBM) 340mb Microdrive...

I can vouche for that MD... Sorry about your luck...

Mine are formatted fat 32.

I know that some types of CF cards do not work. I had tried a kingston 256mb card to restore a nand and it failed (couldn't read the card). I switched to a different card (sandisk) and everything worked.

I went out & bought a Lexar 512mb (factory formatted to FAT16) & it worked. so I'll keep that card just for nands.

Last question (well ok, I doubt it too ). The back creates a file, systc860.dbk. Can this be renamed to 'whatever.dbk' and the restore will recognize it? What happens when I then have multiple files on the card, will the restore allow me to pick, or 'there can be only one' ?

Thanks for the help.

I believe it needed to be name systcxxx(x).dbk....



Well to not contradict my last statement I will have to say no...

Can't have multiple files with the same name... :-)

It sounds like they're similar to the rom flashing files (initrd.bin, etc), that there can be only one. So if I wanted to have multiple images stored, I could have (for example) oz-3.5.4-opie.dbk, oz-3.5.4-gpe.dbk, etc, and then copy the one I wanted to restore to systc860.dbk. Does that sound right?

thks

Yea... I think.... LoL

when you pop you CF in and do a NAND Backup restore... that file will need to be named

systc860.dhk...

so... even though having the multiple and being able to pick and choose, would be nice... but I dont think it works...

Just a note to say that alls working great. I've confirmed that no matter how many .dbk files you have on the card, the systc860.dbk is the one that wil be restored (on my C860, anyway). So far I've got the following on the card:

oz-gpe-3.5.4.rc4-working-image.dbk (135mb)
cacko-1.23-base-install.dbk (135mb)
systc860.dbk (0b)

(the systc860.dbk file is just any empty placeholder to remind me what the image name has to be). I just move the image that I want to restore to systc860.dbk & it works like a charm.

Thanks again for all the help. takecare