adb - How to perform a full system dump/backup with a broken screen?

So, yesterday my phone took a serious tumble. It is now essentially useless, as the screen either fails to turn on, or when it does, there is nothing useful to see (just lines of primary colors, mostly).

I believe (from the fact that it still chirps at me when emails come in, etc), that the phone is still functional, otherwise.

I would like to perform a full system dump, so that I can get off any files from the phone (a TMobile SGS2 (hercules) running slimrom 4.3 build 1). The sdcard probably isn't important, as I can just pull it, but the phone's own internal storage I should like to get a copy of.

When I plug the phone into a usb port, it 'mounts' the usb via MTP, and I can see all the files. Unfortunately, when I do a select all | copy | paste operation, the paste op dies before transferring all files. I've tried a couple other ADB shell operations, in hope of flipping regular USB mounting on, but nothing has worked.

Any ideas how I can get a full dump of my poor phone's contents?

Currently running a adb pull /sdcard/ ... Its copying files presently, but its too early to tell if its going to get evertying I'm expecting.

looks like its going to work...its taking a rather long time, but it appears to be grabbing everything I was expecting it to.

Answer

Not a full-fledged answer, as even an excerpt would make it a rather long post, but here are some things you could try:

• An XDA article describes How To Backup and Restore using tar on adb shell. The article holds complete scripts for both. Still you should not execute them straight ahead as they are, but first use e.g. the mount command (without parameters) to make sure the mount points are correct, as they might differ between devices.


• Use AndroidScreencast¹ to "transfer the display to your PC". This way you see what you are doing, and might be able to backup using apps like Titanium Backup or Helium Backup


• GadgetsDNA has a useful article with 15 Useful Android Terminal (ADB Shell) Commands², including how to restore a Nandroid backup via fastboot. Unfortunately, nothing to create such.


• A German Tutorial at Android-Hilfe.DE (GoogleTranslate Variant) describes a tool named ADBRecovery, including download links. This should enable you to do a Nandroid backup as well as restore.

I hope one of these hints proves helpful to you.

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^{1: original code seems no longer maintained; yankee found this maintained fork working fine
2: links to Archive.ORG as the original page is gone; you can also find it at Slideshare}