how to get an image backup of phone contents using dd

[schneidz]

hi, has anyone played around with getting an archival backup of an android fone using dd (samsung galaxy s2)? thsi is what the fone comes up as when i select usb mass storage and plug it into my pc:

[liveuser@localhost ~]$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs                4.0G  2.8G  1.2G  71% /
udev                  1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev
tmpfs                 1.9G  352K  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                 1.9G  760K  1.9G   1% /run
/dev/sdb1             7.4G  1.4G  5.7G  20% /run/initramfs/live
/dev/mapper/live-rw   4.0G  2.8G  1.2G  71% /
tmpfs                 1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                 1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /media
/dev/sdb1             7.4G  1.4G  5.7G  20% /mnt/live
varcacheyum           1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /var/cache/yum
/tmp                  1.9G  2.3M  1.9G   1% /tmp
vartmp                1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /var/tmp
/tmp                  1.9G  2.3M  1.9G   1% /tmp
vartmp                1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /var/tmp
/dev/mapper/live-rw   4.0G  2.8G  1.2G  71% /home
/dev/sdd              2.0G  1.5G  492M  75% /media/E0FD-1813
/dev/sdc               12G  930M   11G   8% /media/561E-07D3

i am wondering if doing this would also back up system settings like 'contacts' which is not navigatable when the drives are mounted on my fedora machine.
(i am also concerned if by doing the reverse dd would turn the fone into a brick ).

i am planning on rooting this fone but i was wondering if there is a quick restore method like when i use dd for my xbmc/ fedora live-usb's.
also since i notice that sometimes updates to certain apps crash, it would be nice to restore to a point where i was running the previous version.

[schneidz]

so sprint just sent my fone a notification of a 48.6 mb update for android (i assume ice cream sandwich).

i wish that i was able to get a dd image backup in case i didnt like the new os i could restore with a flick of a switch.

[john test]

Sorry, no readyanswer here. At least, not so far. Please post back when you get the answer because you have a very good question. The answer to which will benefit us all.

[notfaded1]

Easiest way I think is doing a Nandroid backup in ClockworkMod Recovery. You can copy the directory with the backup files over to your pc after making the backup. This way even if your entire device fails you could even replace the hardware... put CWM back on... copy your files back to device and do a Nandroid restore... back in business. This is one of the most widely used tried and true method of backup up any Android device.