Database Develop

Help, partially bricked phone

I’m hoping someone can help me out with my phone. I have been searching the forums but it’s all getting a little much and i just need some advice please.
The background
I flashed my UK sgs (i9000 i think) with a darky modded ROM which has worked fine for about 6 months my phone has become more and more unstable. Seeing as i can work Odin i thought i would flash it again and fix my issues. Then my phone crashed and wouldn’t boot up, it was stuck on the Samsung Galaxy screen, before the flashing S. I then downloaded the official 2.3.3 ROM’s from the link of official Samsung ROM’s from the thread in the General forum and flashed it. This all went fine until i rebooted my phone, it went into recovery mode fine, although i got some error messages about being unable to mount the SD cards (i can add the proper error message tomorrow for you) i cleared user data and cache, rebooted and my phone came up with a new Gingerbread ROM. This was fine until i realised it had not mounted either my Internal or External SD cards. The operating system worked fine but i could not format or mount my SD cards. I then decided to reimage the phone using the same image i had downloaded in case something had gone wrong but i got the same error messages and now i couldn’t boot into the OS. Since this has happened i have downloaded a 2.2.x ROM and flashed that but i still have the same problem. I have also downloaded and flashed the Darky Resurrection ROM but that doesn’t seem to have helped. I have asked Odin to repartition, i have used PIT 512 and a couple of others, 1 and 3 file ROM’s and if i am honest, i have got nowhere apart from a headache.
I think i have some how corrupted the internal SD card and need to reimage all the right folders and stuff but with the huge amount of official ROM’s, custom ROM’s, recovery tools and tips and tricks, my head is just swimming. Can someone please just point me in the right directions and hopefully i can have a working phone in the morning.
Many thanks in advance,
Simon

do you have any lagfix before you flash to the official 2.3.3 ROM’s ?

I'm having a similar issue w/ mine. The external sd wouldn't mount and i had kind of already started the process to update the rom. It was a dumb mistake. i knew the sd wasn't mounting so i used a different phone to mount put the updates on. Nevertheless i can't use my phone, other than to get on clockwork.

I think i may have had a lag fix on it but as i was unable to get my phone to start there was no chance of removing it before i reflashed the phone. Now i just need to get the damn internal SD working again so i can have a working phone, can you help?
Also, sorry if my main post is a little rambling, i wrote it when i got home from the pub drowning my sorrorws and may have been a little drunk...

Ok, now i've had a coffee and my headache is dying down i can add a little more info which will hopefully help.
I just downloaded GT_I9000_XWJS7_XXJPY_XEEJS1 from Darky rom user guides page on restoring a SGS to a stock ROM and followed all of the instructions. the flash in Odin goes just fine, no errors or anything, my phone the reboots, gets to the Samsung Galaxy screen and i get into the recovery mode with the following messages :
Update media. please wait
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
(no such file or directory)
E:copy_dbdata_media: Can't mount SDCARD
Your storage not prepared yet, please use UI menu for format and reboot actions
copy default media content failed.
This is where i then get stuck, my phone will just get stuck in a boot loop and there seems to be no way to get into the phone. This is starting to drive me to dispair now as everything i have tried has failed badly! Does anyone have any idea how i go about recovering from this?

ok so,
-flash froyo firmware (2.2.1 might be better) then flash speedmod kernel
-get into recovery mode and check your phone's file system in lagfix option
-if it is rfs change it to ext4
-if it is ext4 change it to rfs
im not sure about this method but i ever had this preblem after i converted system to rfs (ext4 before)
hope it helps you and tell me that it works or not,thanks.
edit:wrong word

FLash darky's resurrection Rom ...that error caused by you forget disable lagfix before...
or try Flashing a full rom (3files) with .pit to repartitioning your phone... thick repartition...and thats not "Brick" if you can go download mode...
Come on lets see

I once had the same problem. Same error.message. I searched a lot in xda n finally read something which says to flash Rom with 812 pit and eclair (2.1) with 3 files. After flashing the error message came again so I relished using only pda file. Next time it rebooted normally into home screen. Hope it helps
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

OK, we're getting somewhere now but not there yet. Flashing the speedmod kernel lets me boot the phone which is further than i have got for a day so thats good, but it still won't recognisse any internal or external SD cards, if you look in the settings section it just shows options to format the sd cards.
I tried changing the filesystem to ex4 as recommended but once it reboots when it says it will go to the recovery menu to debug it just presents me with the option to convert it again as it says the filesystem for /data is RFS still.
Any ideas why it would be doing this and why it won't recognise any of the memory cards? I have also noticed that when i connect the phone to my PC now and tell it to go into Mass storage mode, it shows the drives but says there is no media there! I'm very confused by the whole thing now but at least i do have a phone again of sorts!

So i flashed Darky's resurrection ROM and this is now booting up much as the phone was with the speedmod kernel flashed but i still have the same issue where it won't recognise either the external or internal SD cards so i have no storage space at all. Is it possible i have broken them? I assume at least a bit of the internal card is working or the OS wouldn't be there but why can it not see the other half of the card?

Right, after messing about for far too long i have bitten the bulit and sending it in for repairs, i've read through a couple of posts that seem to say it's the only way to fix it so will see how good the Samsung techicians are!
Thanks for all the help though, you've got me a working phone again, even if i can't save anything on it!

[Q] Cant mount /SDCARD in recovery droid 3

I don't know if I'm an idiot or what but I can't find any answers.
I used the bootstrap from the market and got the success popup and when I boot into recovery it says error mounting sdcard.
I can mount everything else though.
Should I just be using safestrap?
I'm also using the vzw droid 3 and all that.
everything seems like 2+2 until this point
EDIT:
Just tried safestrap with the same outcome following all the normal precedures.
But backup just launched under internal sdcard, I don't need a external to flash right?
I feel like a Fck noob

To a noob
make shure the sd card is not corupt. plug it into a usb reader(not the phone, throu the usb, it will screw the phone up). then right click on the device when it pops up on my computer. click format. format as a FAT32 or else... then put the software back on. hope this helps.

Its the internal sd card on the droid 3. I'm about to see if I can flash. heres to hoping

How'd it go? Thinking of rooting my droid too.. Had it for 5 days not liking the bloat
Sent from my DROID3

Everything went fine. You dont need to be able to mount the sd card in safestrap from the mount menu.
Bootstrap was comming up with an error about mounting it and not letting me backup, so switch to safestrap if anyone else runs into this problem.
CM9 ICS now on my droid 3
Thats whatsup

[Q] No sdcard or sdcard-ext with Minimoto 1.7 ROM

Hello,
With the issues I was having with the CM 10.1 nightlies, much as I would like to stay, I decided to install the Minimoto 1.7 ROM into the second ROM slot (created with Safestrap 3.05). First, let me say "wow!" I never thought I would see this much speed and available RAM on my Droid 3. Thank you very much, thingonaspring.
For the most part, everything is working great *except* access to both the sdcard (internal) and sdcard-ext (external) storage areas. I read many posts in the Minimoto thread and searched around but nobody else appears to have encountered this which I find rather odd.
After the initial install and after reboots, these areas were still not accessible. I finally ran the terminal emulator and found that, for some unknown reason, they were *not* mounted. I *did* find the internal storage (/dev/block/emstorage) mounted at /ss but not at /mnt/sdcard. I became root using "su" and did the following:
# mount /dev/block/emstorage /mnt/sdcard
# mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/sdcard-ext
Now I can access them along with all of the files I previously had there. The included file manager, when started, presents buttons for "Internal Storage" and "SD", but it still complains that internal storage is not mounted. It will allow me to access the SD card, though.
Under Settings->Storage Settings, everything under "Internal storage" and "SD card" says "unavailable" and both the mount and format buttons are grayed out. Yet, under the "Windows Media Sync" heading, I *can* choose between internal and SD *and* it even shows the correct available/total space values.
Why were these not mounted to begin with? Is mounting them manually an acceptable solution? If it is, where do I put this information so that it occurs at boot like it should (there is no /etc/fstab on Android)? Did I perhaps do something wrong when installing this ROM, maybe because I used ROM slot 2 instead of 1 (which still contains the most current CM 10.1 nightly)?
I really want to get this resolved because, so far, everything else appears to work wonderfully. Even 3g access, which I still haven't gotten working with CM 10.1.
--John Gruenenfelder

I've been running Minimoto for months and both /sdcard and /sdcard-ext are mounted at bootup for me, always, just like stock.
So, I wish I could tell you why, but I cannot.
I guess what I would do is start over. Reboot into Safestrap, remove that second slot and recreate it. Flash the ROM and restart the phone. Do not wipe data/factory reset after flashing the ROM or you will be missing some files (basically, some files required by the customized initial setup application.)

It seems to be fixed! See below for (perhaps) how...
Okay, I gave this a try. Rather than wiping ROM-slot-2, I had enough free space to create slot-3 and I reinstalled Minimoto 1.7 there. Also, this time I downloaded the zip file on my PC and transferred it over rather than downloading it directly onto the phone. Using the UNIX "cmp" tool told me the two files were identical, but I still used the "new" one. It installed fine and I did *not* perform a data wipe.
Unfortunately, same issue. When the device starts I can see the "Preparing XXX storage" messages appear in the notification bar for both internal and SD storage. There are no error messages, but it also did not actually do anything. Then, using the terminal emulator, I gave a long read through the dmesg output. I am more familiar with the kernel messages one sees when booting Linux on a PC, but I still did not see anything unusual.
So, back into Safestrap recovery. This time I tried something different. First, I noticed that the Safestrap file manager *can* see both storage areas and in the locations where they ought to be. This is not new, actually, it has always been the case. Second, I uplugged the USB cable. I have been using it for charging (of course), but at present it was plugged into my laptop and not into the wall charger. Depending on how the mounting occurrs and the exact mount order, I thought this might interfere. Thirrd, and finally, I used the "Fix Permissions" button available in Safestrap on ROM-slot-2 where I had first intalled Minimoto.
After doing these two changes I rebooted the device back into ROM-slot-2. Surprise! I once again saw the "Preparing" messages in the status bar except this time it really worked. The two storage locations are available where they should be and I an access the data just fine. Even the "Storage properties" screen in Settings shows both as mounted with the correct available/total space values given.
Since a plain reboot did not work previously, I have to assume one of the two changes I made fixed the problem, though, since I did both at the same time, I cannot be sure which fixed it.
Now I can get back to enjoying the impressivee speed from Minimoto while I wait to see if (or perhaps when) either the 3g or HW keyboard ALT-key issues are fixed in CM 10.1. Of course, given how much slower CM 10.1 operates (by virtue of using *much* more RAM than Minimoto), I think I might find it very difficult to switch.
--John Gruenenfelder

If you've been trying to hoot while plugged into your laptop I can see it causing issues as when usb mass storage is active, the device can no longer see the sd cards. That is why we have a separate data partition for apps and app data. So if the computer is trying to mount them and denies the phone the ability to mount then I could see issues arising
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium

[Q] Internal/ External Storage cannot be read

Hi all
For days I've been flashing all different kinds of things in hope to get my phone fixed, but I just can't find the answer.
So for those of you most kind enough to help, here's what's going on with my captivate (at&t)
I took it out of my pocket last week and the phone was frozen. Sometimes it happens... a quick pull out of the battery and re-insert fixes it in most cases... but not this time.
After restarting the phone was hanging on boot screen (CyanFox bootscreen).
I restarted... 15 minutes on that bootscreen still. I had no idea what was going on.
So I decided to reflash. It was a big decision, seeing as this ROM has been working absolutely fine for weeks, but I needed to get it working.
Soon after getting it into recovery, CWM was saying that it couldn't mount /sdcard
I tried even flashing using Odin to go back to stock following the guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1300843 still not working.
Most of them ended up showing that little android loading bar for a second or two, but then get stuck in a boot loop.
I tried flashing many different kernels, and different recoveries, but everything all pointed towards: Unable to mount /sdcard
But alas, finally I found something that more or less works. I flashed the Initial Kernal for Cognition: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1127578
And I finally got back into a working device... or so I thought.
The phone is still unable to access the internal SDCARD. Just says 'unavailable'. I tried putting in an external 2GB sdcard, but that reads as Total Space: 00, and Available Space: 00
The external sdcard I know works, because my wife's samsung mini2 reads it just fine.
Multiple formats and it still can't be read.
I tried plugging in the device into my pc and select mass storage, but although the computer detects that the phone is plugged in (in device manager) the 2 drives for internal and external both remain hidden, and cannot be accessed.
I have absolutely no idea what to do next. I've used Odin and Heimdall, Repartitioned, and followed every stickied guide here, but I still can't find what to do.
I really appreciate any help anyone can give me on this.
Just for the record, ADB works just fine from my PC. I can send the commands to the device, but mounting the sdcard still proves impossible at this stage (no file exists).
Thanks again, I look forward to any advice anyone can spare.

flapsy said:
Hi all
For days I've been flashing all different kinds of things in hope to get my phone fixed, but I just can't find the answer.
So for those of you most kind enough to help, here's what's going on with my captivate (at&t)
I took it out of my pocket last week and the phone was frozen. Sometimes it happens... a quick pull out of the battery and re-insert fixes it in most cases... but not this time.
After restarting the phone was hanging on boot screen (CyanFox bootscreen).
I restarted... 15 minutes on that bootscreen still. I had no idea what was going on.
So I decided to reflash. It was a big decision, seeing as this ROM has been working absolutely fine for weeks, but I needed to get it working.
Soon after getting it into recovery, CWM was saying that it couldn't mount /sdcard
I tried even flashing using Odin to go back to stock following the guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1300843 still not working.
Most of them ended up showing that little android loading bar for a second or two, but then get stuck in a boot loop.
I tried flashing many different kernels, and different recoveries, but everything all pointed towards: Unable to mount /sdcard
But alas, finally I found something that more or less works. I flashed the Initial Kernal for Cognition: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1127578
And I finally got back into a working device... or so I thought.
The phone is still unable to access the internal SDCARD. Just says 'unavailable'. I tried putting in an external 2GB sdcard, but that reads as Total Space: 00, and Available Space: 00
The external sdcard I know works, because my wife's samsung mini2 reads it just fine.
Multiple formats and it still can't be read.
I tried plugging in the device into my pc and select mass storage, but although the computer detects that the phone is plugged in (in device manager) the 2 drives for internal and external both remain hidden, and cannot be accessed.
I have absolutely no idea what to do next. I've used Odin and Heimdall, Repartitioned, and followed every stickied guide here, but I still can't find what to do.
I really appreciate any help anyone can give me on this.
Just for the record, ADB works just fine from my PC. I can send the commands to the device, but mounting the sdcard still proves impossible at this stage (no file exists).
Thanks again, I look forward to any advice anyone can spare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had the same problem a couple of weeks ago...
you internal sd card is dead...
you can do nothing about it for now...
if you want to confirm open your camera app and see if you can take any pictures...
if no, then follow the things as i say..
this requires you to do a partition of your external SD card and to that it should be formatted, so take the neccessary backups..
1) download this http://www.mediafire.com/download/sbjd049x4m36pb6/I897UCKI2_noBL_BoogsKernel.rar
2) after flashing this stock firmare with cwm, open up the recovery.
3)follow this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1447303
4)i couldn't get ICS to work..
5)so you can now use kitkat roms only on the captivate as we have the kernel for 4.4 only with swap sd
6)so after you follow the guide and boot into ICS, copy the rom.zip which you want to flash and the neat kernel swap sd, which can be found here http://www.mediafire.com/download/s34o69u39u66x8n/NeatKernel_v1.03-[02-08]-cma-swap-captivate.zip, be sure to thank the developer here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2548081
7)so flash the kitkat om which you want to use,and then flash the neat kernel after flashing the rom after that you can flash the gapps and reboot..
if you do everything like i said, your cappy will be up and working again..

Sir, you are a gentleman and a scholar
Although it didn't go exactly as planned step by step, with your instructions I finally managed to get it working on my 2GB external card.
Here was the process I did
1) Downloaded CM11, Gapps, Stock Kernal and the SwapSD kernal you linked
2) Flashed the stock kernal, the phone just went on a rebooting spree.. but after a few attempts I got it into recovery using the 3 finger combo
2) Followed the instructions on http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1447303 to partition the external SD card. (Since I have only a 2GB card, I partitioned 1GB for data, and 0MB for swap)
3) Done the classic wipe sys/ cache/ data
4) (Here is where things changed a bit for me, as I couldn't boot into ICS either. And no other rom would work at this point) I installed the new SwapSD kernal to get a newer version of CWM by mounting USB storage via CWM and copying the files to there.
5) The device rebooted a couple of times during install, but it automatically went straight back into the newer CWM.
6) Installed CM11, let that finished and installed Gapps straight after.
7) Rebooted and the phone is now reading my external sd card as its internal storage, which is fantastic
Although with it's limited storage and broken internal storage, it still needs replacing, but at least I now have a device from which I can still run a few apps on regardless.
So thank you again dude
*edit* just need to figure out why the adb drivers decided to not work anymore.
Sometimes I hate having windows 8...

[Q] Help !! :( unable to mount /modemfs

Ok, first time posting here, so pardon me for any stupidity. I need help, been using unofficial slimkat rom on s3 mini, was trying an app that uses part of your external SD as RAM, turns out my Kernel doesnt have the swap feature, tried to install another kernel, the phone got stuck in a boot loop shows this "unable to mount /modemfs" in recovery whenever I try to do anything, also there was unable to mount sdcard and unable to mount data, but those got fixed by too many formats and wipes and flashing some PIT and Modem files though Odin, have no idea what to do, can someone help please ?

kfatah22 said:
Ok, first time posting here, so pardon me for any stupidity. I need help, been using unofficial slimkat rom on s3 mini, was trying an app that uses part of your external SD as RAM, turns out my Kernel doesnt have the swap feature, tried to install another kernel, the phone got stuck in a boot loop shows this "unable to mount /modemfs" in recovery whenever I try to do anything, also there was unable to mount sdcard and unable to mount data, but those got fixed by too many formats and wipes and flashing some PIT and Modem files though Odin, have no idea what to do, can someone help please ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also new to android, but I know linux well
modemfs seems like another partition on the internal storage
since you reflashed this it might be in the wrong format / filesystem
my phone reports this entry in the fstab (mine is ext4 format)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /modemfs ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,journal_async_commit,errors=panic wait,check
you need to flash one in the correct filesystem, maybe try one of these from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2526831 not sure if these are odin compatible
if all else fails you can download the stock rom from http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/

thanks for your help
thanks for replying, and sorry for the late answer.
I will try the link you sent me, but there are a couple of stuff i failed to mention last time, before showing me that it used to show failed to mount /data and /sdcard .. I think the internal sdcard is damaged because I did flash the stock rom, the phone boots without the ability to install any apps, no network, yellow text is displayed on the screen saying stuff like PDA and Csc .. etc, inside settings baseband is XXXXXX. also when I connect the phone to my windows ... the internal is empty with incorrect size and you cant create or copy folders in it and was not able to formate it in windows or linux .. even recovery was not able to formate it.
update: I did try one of the files, but it is the same unfortunately .. I think its the sdcard issue .. but that is ofcourse my humble opinion. any other solutions ??

kfatah22 said:
thanks for replying, and sorry for the late answer.
I will try the link you sent me, but there are a couple of stuff i failed to mention last time, before showing me that it used to show failed to mount /data and /sdcard .. I think the internal sdcard is damaged because I did flash the stock rom, the phone boots without the ability to install any apps, no network, yellow text is displayed on the screen saying stuff like PDA and Csc .. etc, inside settings baseband is XXXXXX. also when I connect the phone to my windows ... the internal is empty with incorrect size and you cant create or copy folders in it and was not able to formate it in windows or linux .. even recovery was not able to formate it.
update: I did try one of the files, but it is the same unfortunately .. I think its the sdcard issue .. but that is ofcourse my humble opinion. any other solutions ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I seriously doubt that the internal memory itself is damaged. If you were able to flash anything then it still works.
Or are you referring to the removable SD card? Via USB connection none of the storage size is also not reported correctly on my phone.
What recovery do you have installed?
1. Firstly you should get the phone working again and work off WIFI.
I am not sure if the stock rom installer only copies files or if it dd the whole image (incl filesystem format).
Your IMEI is stored on a filesystem and mounted on /efs - You should not remove / format this filesystem !!! Do not even touch it!
When you installed the custom rom intially you probably formatted in the f2fs file system? I would install the custom rom again, and in the install menu format "data" and "swap" to ext4 filesystem just to be sure.
Flash back to stock make sure about model and baseband
The phone should boot up and at least be able to install apps via WIFI.
I installed the app "ssh/sftp server" and then login via ssh to browse and inspect the phone.
2. Step two is fixing the baseband (not having any network signal)
2.1 What is your original baseband?
2.2 What phone variant do you have 8190/8190L/8190N? If you flash a different one to your phone it will not work.

I mean the internal sdcard, cause previously it showed unable to mount /sdcard, right now I have the stock rom, each time the phone reboots, it resets itself again, all my changes are gone, yes I can turn on wifi but no apps are to be installed, using pc can't copy anything to the internal storage (I can only copy on my external card which I use to flash) right now I have TWRP and I tried CWM as well. as for installing a custom ROM, it didn't work, the phone doesnt get past the s3 mini logo, only the stock rom passes through, my phone is 8190 and I have no clue what is the original baseband um really sorry I am a total noob. I will try again to flash the customer rom using Odin and will get back to you.
thanks so much for going through the trouble.

kfatah22 said:
I mean the internal sdcard, cause previously it showed unable to mount /sdcard, right now I have the stock rom, each time the phone reboots, it resets itself again, all my changes are gone, yes I can turn on wifi but no apps are to be installed, using pc can't copy anything to the internal storage (I can only copy on my external card which I use to flash) right now I have TWRP and I tried CWM as well. as for installing a custom ROM, it didn't work, the phone doesnt get past the s3 mini logo, only the stock rom passes through, my phone is 8190 and I have no clue what is the original baseband um really sorry I am a total noob. I will try again to flash the customer rom using Odin and will get back to you.
thanks so much for going through the trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is
The baseband is linked to your country, it specifies the frequencies that you are allowed to use to communicate with the cellphone network. So If I know what country you are from we might be able to locate the correct Stock ROM on SanMobile. You might be flashing a wrong stock rom to start off with.
What country do you live in and what network operator?
Are you using ext4 filesystem for data and swap?
I personally used twrp 2.8.0. I think this is the way to go.
Do you know Linux?