How to restore 4.3.3 from itself, without the need of backing up 30GB?...

[kecskesadam]

Hello everyone,

My old bootrom factory unlocked 3GS is on 4.3.3, and it's getting painfully slow, lagging, freezing, running out of memory, spontaneous resprings... It's JB with redsn0w, and it's technically full.

I'd like to restore the iOS (wether to 4.3.3 or upgrade to 5.0.1), without the need of backing up all the 30+ GB of data (I just do not have enough space on the hard drive, let alone the C: drive, where backup is usually placed, even if I already moved the iTunes library to the D: drive). I'm also not sure what will be backed up by iTunes, for exemple a huge amount of video files from vlc player, or in download pro?

So, long story short: can I perform a restore or update on this phone, the re-JB, without the need of backing up, and keep the 30GB stuff intqct during the process?

Thanks in advance! Cheers!

[Simon]

No, any restore will wipe the phone. Normally an update would preserve stuff like movies/music etc (excluding jailbreak related stuff) but you cannot simply update to 5.0.1. It has to be a restore.

[kecskesadam]

Thank you for moving the thread to it's right place, and for the answer.

I'd like to ask though, because I don't get it, why is it not possible to just hit the update button in iTunes? What would happen?

[Simon]

You would get an error if you tried to update to 5.X from 4.X. Any time Apple releases a major update to iOS a restore is needed. This was the case for 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 as well.

[kecskesadam]

Thank you man! You helped a great deal.
Now I just have to figure out how to move the backup place to a pendrive or other external drive or so...

Anyway, if I may, could I ask your advice, what would be the best way to go here? I mean, should I stay on 4.3.3, or should I wait for the 5.1 maybe? And how to backup things? Is it a good thing to restore the phone from it's backup? If not, how can I preserve the text messages, the icon layout, etc... (stuff that's really painful to remake or that's not preserved in case of a clean install...) Thank you in advance!

[Simon]

A regular itunes backup can preserve your texts/contacts/apps etc. This could potentially bring back issues you may be having now though.

If you have a factory unlocked old bootrom 3GS then 5.0.1 should be fine for you. It is a untethered jailbreak for that. I have heard 4.3.3 runs a bit better on a 3GS then 5.X though.

[kecskesadam]

Thank you really!

[Simon]

No prob