I'm very new to developing software on the NIT. (So far just patching up xword.) I have a 770 and an N800. I'd like to test software on the latest available OSes for each device to make sure things work as anticipated.

How do other developers deal with this?

770 supports OS2006 (gregale), OS2007HE, and OS200HE.
N800 supports OS2007 (bora) and OS2008 (chinook and diablo).

That's six 'platforms' to test. I would prefer not to have to use the Windows flash updater utility all the time.

I am comfortable booting from flash using fanoush's initfs. I can backup my flash card to my desktop linux box, no problem. But there is still the issue of rootfs and kernel. Those require the flasher app IIRC, so as not to overwrite initfs.

So what is the best (for some value of 'best') way to save/restore a complete OS install for testing?