Can a non-rooted Android 4.0.3 smartphone’s ROM be backed up? Possible Duplicate:
  Full Backup of non-rooted devices  




I am using a smartphone running non-root Android 4.0.3 and am also a desktop Linux user (Ubuntu 12.04 amd64).

In Linux/Ubuntu, I could backup my whole system (whole partition) into a file image and when necessary, restore my whole system (including MBR) back on my desktop computer. (e.g. using "clonezilla")

It seems that there are similar Android apps (e.g. ClockworkMod) for system backup (Android rom backup) on a rooted Android device. However, I am not sure whether there is similar system backup apps for a non-root Android device ? Could anyone tell whether it is possible ?

I have difficulties in using root-device rom backup apps such as "ClockworkMod" as my smartphone (ASK SP404) is not a branded smartphone and I could not find any rooting procedures for this phone, although there are good discussions on the web that talk about this, e.g. HOW TO ROOT your Android phone. (This thread talks about Android rooting procedures for many branded phones, but not my phone ! )

It would be great if anyone could suggest a rooting procedure for my phone, or some directions that I could try. Thanks in advance for any advice.
To answer your first question, you cannot do a whole image backup from within Android without root, as no application or service you can run will be able to read the system partitions.  

If the "recovery" console (a small, BIOS-like image installed on the device) contains backup support, it has access to the raw partitions and could create a "Nandroid" backup image (see About the android recovery mode).  If your phone's default recovery does not support image backup (it would be somewhat surprising if it did), you may be able to install a new recovery, without "rooting" the Android installation.  Booting into recovery is very device specific (e.g., hold down power and volume down), and its features (and replacability) are fairly specific too.

If you have a recent Android Development Kit (ADK) installed, you can use the adb backup (and adb restore) commands to backup your installed apps and (some of) your data.  But its not a complete image/ROM backup.  I can't find any official documentation, but this   XDA Dev Forum post goes over it in some detail.

To your second question, see: How do I root my Android device?  There are suggestions and pointers there that may work for you.