[Q] internal_sd is swapped with external_sd by phone - Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Greetings to all,
I have a Galaxy S GT-I9000 which I bought last year.
I had no problem flashing any firmware with odin and every flash I made was successful.
I never had an external_sd card ever since I bought the phone.
Now my problem started when a couple of months ago I flashed ICS 4.03 from CWM from
an external_sd card.
As strange as it may sound, all apps and media files where installed on the external_sd
card. I found out about this after the phone booted up successfully and by checking the contents
of both the internal_sd & the external_sd cards. I wasnt bothered by this as long as the phone
boots up normaly and storages mount.
Now I wanted to flash XXJW4, I did everything by the book. (i.e factory reset, clear cache, clear delvik)
and flashed successfully.
The phone entered into an endless bootloop.
Taking out external_sd card and booting to recovery 3e results in /sdcard & /data mounting problems
Inserting external_sd card and booting to recovery 3e produces no mounting problems. in fact I can
clear cache and factory reset.
So my guess is that: the phone identifies the external_sd card as internal_sd and mounts it to search
for booting parameters but fails to find it, because the card is formatted and has no os.
Creating three partitions for fat32, ext2 or ext3 or ext4 and a linux-swap and flashing any firmware results
in the phone booting up normally with out any problems.
My question is: how is it possible to change where the phone looks up for boot sectors (If I may use windows terms )

According to this wonderful post h t t p : / / python . ca / nas / log /201204 /by Neil Schemenauer's Web Log
the phone internally has two built in flash memory devices:
- NAND device (8 or 16GB)
- Flash memory for (BML or MTD schemes) used by the ROM
Now the problem might have been created by the ROM's flash memory, it ignore the NAND device
and tries to boot up from the extended memory (external sd) which results in a boot loop if it doesnt
find the OS that's looking for (in our case Android).
ANY ONE PLEASE give me any idea or hypothesis if you like, as to how to go around this problem.
A complete boot up process for the device would be very help full. I understand most Galaxy I9000 phones
are having these problems.... Lets SOLVE THIS

So I'm I the only one having this problem...... STRANGE.!!!!

One week after my first post,... No one had dared to post any idea.
It seems sda developers rarely visit the Q & A.
Any ways I managed to solve the problem, it was a faulty jumper
on the main board.
This thread is closed

I might have a similar issue....some application settings/data etc are being installed on the external card and the "external SD" folder leads to nothing (no files there - while using the emmc folder in the root directory does access the external card. So, it appears the system is messed up (but still working).
Unfortunately, I can't help you solving your problems but I found out that flashing some old stock rom (GingerBread 2.3.6 JW4 or JW7) brings things back to normal - at this stage I'm experimenting with new custom roms and as long as my external card is accessible I'm not bothered if the messed up folders....still, a neat solution would be very much appreciated.

Thank you xelaris for your post,....
In my previous post I had mentioned flashing JW4 and that didn't work.
Installing the ROM on the external_sd card with at least two partitions one ext2 or ext3 or ext4 (for data) and vfat or fat32(for usb storage)
most certainly work. But performance will be reduced dramatically as the external sd requires more time for read/write operations.

Related

[Q] part of internal sdcard gone

Hi all,
I have some trouble figuring out what's happening with my Galaxy S internal sdcard.
first, I lost part of my phone during a call. phone fell in a rebooting loop. since then ; HELL !
I followed each and every post of about 200 threads to get my phone back like (not limited too) :
- flashed 2.1 (2.2) original firmware with Odin
- flashed all existing ROMS (or almost) with .pit, pda via Odin
- all mount unmount things (now grayed in menu with no available message)
- messing around with adb fdisk, mount, format, etc
- did all possible combination of reset, hard reset, wipe, format from phone or recovery
- tried repartitioning card (with gparted once)
- formating via usb from window 7
well, you got the picture !
now the strange things are :
- phone boot ok with any ROM, now with Darky resurection 10.1
- call, gps, messaging are all ok
- no sdcard visible from within the phone or from windows, so no camera or music or any apps that needs to write to sdcard is possible
- a 2go partition exists on the 16go internal sdcard
- if external sdcard is removed, phone never boot pass logo, although I can go in recovery mode and manage to see all files on internal sdcard with adb shell
- mmcblk0p1 and mmcblk0p2 are only visible when external sdcard is in the phone so I guess the 14go partition failed once to load and system recorded external sdcard as the internal sdcard.
I need a way to put sdcards in the right place as I'm pretty sure the internal one is not fried but only lost a partition probably due to lagfix or a corrupt filesystem.
I'm no expert at all with linux OS or partitioning but I'm sure that's the way to go and I know there's a great bunch of devoted developers in here
PR
ps. I'm willing to pay if anyone can get me out of there FAST
I suspect this could be down to bootloaders, 10.1 requires ficeto JVH base right ? and that requires GB bootloaders, im not 100% sure, ive not used his roms for quite some time.
but im sure your problem lies there somewhere.
azzledazzle said:
I suspect this could be down to bootloaders, 10.1 requires ficeto JVH base right ? and that requires GB bootloaders, im not 100% sure, ive not used his roms for quite some time.
but im sure your problem lies there somewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
phone boot ok with all ROMs with any XXX base I tried so I installed 10.1
whatever the ROM, issues are all the same as mentioned above
this won't b easy
well flash back to froyo or eclair, use a 3 file firmware with pit and re-partition
then when that is successful flash this : http://sourceforge.net/projects/teamhacksung/files/galaxys/GT-I9000_FROYO_FULL_PDA.tar/download
then report back please
you dont have the I9000 M<< do you ??
azzledazzle said:
well flash back to froyo or eclair, use a 3 file firmware with pit and re-partition
then when that is successful flash this :
then report back please
you dont have the I9000 M<< do you ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok done flashing
manage to reboot phone WITHOUT external sdcard.
still don't have access to the 14go internal sdcard partition, although ROM is installed on it (maybe on the 2go partition).
external card is recognized but only with unmount option as size is indicating 00 (of 16go) so cannot use it to store anything from phone (camera, music, etc) will try a empty 8go
any idea about internal sdcard ?
few more white hairs
you didnt state whether you had the M version of the SGS, this is known for its internal sd failures.
also boot into recovery, is there any error messages ?
I have Vibrant version from Bell, GT-I9000 from about phone menu
still cannot mount external sdcard
recovery report no error so far
the bell version of the i9000 is the one that suffers from internal sd card corruption.
there have been many reports of this, i feel you could be another on the ever growing list.
Have a read of this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=905975
if that brings you no luck, i would suggest you ring bell / samsung for a repair / replacement

i9000 Bootloop/Internal SD Corruption/Semi-Brick

I have an international i9000 that seems to be pretty solidly soft-bricked. I've recently moved back to Canada from the Middle East and was trying to enable to 850 band so I could use it with Bell. I was under the impression that the Bell SGS and the international SGS were basically the same hardware so I flashed (ODIN) a PDA/PHONE/CSC designed for the i9000m. At the time I was on the teamhacksung ICS.
Now, regardless of what I do I always end up in basically the same spot. After my most recent flash through Heimdall, following the first reboot I end up in 3e recovery with the following errors...
---------
E:failed to mount /sdcard (File exists)
E:copy_dbdata_media:Can't mount /sdcard
your storage not prepared yet. please use UI menu for format and reboot actions
E:format_volume: rfs format failed on /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
Data wipe failed
---------
I've been at this for 2 days and tried pretty much everything. Flashed through Odin and Heimdall as well as from recovery off an external SD. I tried 1-click de-brick. I tried to re-partition through ADB. I get various messages in ADB depending on what I'm doing. Sometimes it's I/O errors and sometimes it says "unrecognized disk label".
I can get to recovery and download so it seems like it should be solvable. My impression is that the partition table or structure on the internal SD card has been corrupted.
Sorry if there is already a thread for this with a simple answer, I've been through a ton and couldn't find anything that worked for me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm not an expert in shell but I can follow instructions. Happy to try anything at this point.
Thanks
Exactly the same issue here, so I'll just wait for a solution here.
I think I saw this problems before. Have u backed up all your data? If yes then do this 3 ways below. If you haven't backed up yet, try to do Nandroid backup from recovery mode and restore it later.
Now try this:
1. On recovery mode: wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache, in advance-wipe Dalvik cache.
2. Remove your external sd card ( put it back later if everything's fine ).
3: Set the USB debugging ON, settings-applications-development.
Hope this helps. If it does, please consider 'THANKS' button
At this point it doesn't boot into Android. It was looping for a while but now the boot animation will start, then the screen will go black and the back/options LEDs at the bottom come on. Anything on the phone is long gone after multiple wipes/flashes/etc. I'm not worried about that.
I'm pretty sure it's a problem with the partition on the internal SD. Does anyone know how to reset/repair the partition table and rebuild the partitions from ADB? Why doesn't that happen automatically when I flash from Odin/Heimdall? Isn't that the point of the "partition" toggle?
Or, could I try to convert the file system as if I were moving from a stock ROM to something like CM7 (ie...RFS to EXT4)? Would that recreate the partitions and fix this?
Thanks
Have you tried to flash a stock samsung firmware for your phone (i9000) and re partition using a 512 pit file via Odin? Have a read of the following thread below to get the latest Stock firmware for (i9000).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102881
Yep, I've tried several of these across froyo/gingerbread and always end up with an unmountable internal SD card. Just for fun I went and picked another one basically at random (JV6 2.3.3) and it flashed as normal and dumped me at recovery with the mounting sd card/storage not prepared error.
Are there really no takers on this? I keep reading that these are un-brickable if they still start up.
This might be worth a try, failing that you might have to take the phone to a Samsung repair agent.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=984140
i read about this problem before on darkyrom i think there was a way to bypass corrupt internal sd and use external one go check there its worth a try
Fallen04 said:
This might be worth a try, failing that you might have to take the phone to a Samsung repair agent.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=984140
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kiaora mate, it's a good thread to try to . Just another thread I found that may help the idea as well:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1442684&highlight=md5+sums
Hope this helps
Hi!
I had the same problem with my i9000. I have moved /data to external SD card and everything is working now (on ICS).
I have created a manual for solving this issue. Please click "helped" and/or ads, if this helped at least a bit.
www youtube com/watch?v=zdMhYYdMB08
Best regards
fteller said:
Hi!
I had the same problem with my i9000. I have moved /data to external SD card and everything is working now (on ICS).
I have created a manual for solving this issue. Please click "helped" and/or ads, if this helped at least a bit.
www youtube com/watch?v=zdMhYYdMB08
Best regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've the same problem and I've tried everything. Not I'm sure that the internal memory is broken, so I want to use the external sd as internal memory. I'm following your manual but I can't get it to work. I tell you what I've done:
1) I've formated the external sdcard with two partitions: one of 6 GB in vfat format and the other of 8GB in reiserfs. It seems to be ok.
2) I've tried to flash with odin the JVU 2.3.6 version. Here I've some questions: Shall I check re-partition? And apply the PIT file? I've tried all combinations but I still doesn't use the external memory and I get the mmcblk0p2 error...
Any help?
Here I have posted how I have solved my problem of corrupt internal memory. Look at it and I hope someone will help.
This guide install rom to SD Card, but still have question, how to repair internal memory? i`l boot`ed rom from SD Card, but cant see internal memory, use camera, etc. who need internal memory...
Maybe are any app to fix internal memory, when android boot`ed?
In most cases I have met (including Galaxy Tab P1000 and GT-i9003) with internal memory failure or corrupted memory, the only solution is to replace the chip. If you've booted your terminal and can not use the camera or see the internal storage, you have to modify the file vold.fstab according to your android version.

[Q] CM10 and AOKP - Internal, SD card and USB storage mapping broken

I've got a Samsung Galaxy Note n7000. I've hopped around a bit, but recently I've tried to move (back) to JB based CM10 (nightly) and also AOKP (JB Milestone 1).
For both CyanogenMod and AOKP, I quickly came across the issue that most apps can't see any storage folders. This includes:
-Browser and Chrome can't save files as there's 'No storage'.
-Google Maps won't cache anything.
-The camera and gallery won't work because they can't see any storage.
-When I plug the phone in to a PC via USB, the phone is identified, but no storage folders come up, regardless as to whether I'm using MTP or MS.
-In the system settings under storage, it can see the 2GB for my app Data partition. It says there's a 32GB SD card available, but under the Internal Storage heading, clicking 'Mount SD card' flashes up something in the notification bar before looking like nothing happened. There's nothing about the internal ~10GB partition either.
However, if I go into a file browser, I can see both the internal storage mapped as /storage/sdcard0 and the SD card mapped as /storage/sdcard1. I believe this is how JB is now mapping storage now? Why is it confusing itself?
Note:
-I can see the storage in CWM without issues (although internal and SD might be reversed???).
-I can read the files fine from a file manager, so there's nothing wrong with the SD card as far as I can tell. It works fine in an SD card reader too.
-I tried AOKP first after a full wipe (factory, data, davlik), hit the issue. Tried CM10 which was the same. Tried AOKP again with a factory wipe before and after flash and it still didn't work.
I've been trying to find a solution for nearly 2 weeks now! Please help before I give up and flash back to a Samsung based ROM!
For history:
I've had the GNote unlocked for a while and I've played with a few ROMs including CM9, earlier releases on CM10 without any issues. For the past couple of months I went back to an ICS TouchWiz based ROM as I thought the only way to get an MS Exchange email email app with full device encryption was to use Samsung's.... anyway, found an app that'll do it for me without suffering the slow down of encrypting the whole phone AND putting TouchWiz on, so I thought I'd try to go back to a 'pure' ROM until I ran into the above problem... Is it because I previously had the phone fully encrypted? I can see the folders now though.... AAAARRRRGGH!
...
Just in case it was an issue that has been fixed recently.... I tried ParanoidAndroid for the Note (v2.54 10 Nov 2012)... same issue. I did a factory reset, cache wipe and davlik wipe before and after flashing. Still both internal and SD storage are mapped so the apps and System settings can't see them.
What is wrong?
Update 2...
I tried flashing the following ROMs:
-A TouchWiz based ICS ROM (Sweet v5)
-A stock based ICS ROM (CM9.1)
-A TouchWiz based Jelly Bean ROM (Rocket Bean V2)
-Re-flashing CM10 nightlies
In every case both the internal and SD storage can't be seen in System>Storage.
What have I done???? Have I somehow screwed up the formatting on both the internal and SD card, yet CWM can read it??? Any ideas?
im on a XXLS7 based rom and its in
/storage/extSdCard
/storage/sdcard0
may be you want flash a stock GB or ICS rom again using Odin and start fresh
I haven't tried Odin yet... but when I was about to, I discovered something. I installed Titanium Backup. Instead of complaining I didn't have any storage (like all other apps), it complained that my storage directory wasn't writeable...
How do I check what the permissions are? What should they be? How do I fix it?!!!
Thanks.
Hi!
I have the same issue.
I'm currently on RocketRom V3 but I had the issues with others roms before.
I have a temporally fix: using root explorer, set the permission from r/o to r/w for the folder /mnt/sdcard
But after a while (fews minutes), it turn back to r/o, I don't know who/why.
Same here. Thought it was me!
Started when I switched to jb leak.
Says storage us full when I try to open camera,etc, even though it's not true
Sent from the man hiding in your attic.....
Ok, I found an fix that works for me
It looks that I had a bad file/folder/whatever on my internal storage, so the system put /sdcard (internal memory) on read only as it notice the bad thing.
Formating sdcard or emmc from cwm didn't work, full wipe neither, formatting internal from android settings neither, but I manage to mount internal SD on my computer using mass strorage (UsB switcher is included on Rocket V3 to switch from MTP to Mass storage)
Once mounted in Windows, I did a full format (fat32) of the internal memory, and so far it works!
I re-formatted my SD card in a memory card reader. I've put it back in the phone and now when I plug my phone in to my PC and select USB mass storage, the SD card comes up in Windows and I can write to it! Woot!
At the moment I still can't write to my internal storage (which means most apps still complain). It appears as a drive in Windows via USB, but I can't open it. I'll try Feyris' RocketRom suggestion later.
Any guess as to why this has happened? Anything to do with the fact I had full-device encryption on the phone before????
Is there any way to sawp the card location as on im on jb its taking external card as internal default location..As i am having class 4 sdcard so itz slowing down the system
Feyris said:
Ok, I found an fix that works for me
It looks that I had a bad file/folder/whatever on my internal storage, so the system put /sdcard (internal memory) on read only as it notice the bad thing.
Formating sdcard or emmc from cwm didn't work, full wipe neither, formatting internal from android settings neither, but I manage to mount internal SD on my computer using mass strorage (UsB switcher is included on Rocket V3 to switch from MTP to Mass storage)
Once mounted in Windows, I did a full format (fat32) of the internal memory, and so far it works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I put my Rocket V3 into the mac with usb switcher it mounts two drives. Both, however, are part of the internal SD card. It does not mount the proper external sd card. One is titled sdcard of the drives just called sdcard, the other is called storage (which has folders sdcard0, extSdCard, and usbstorageA-F). Should I format them both? Do I need to recopy all the files back onto the sdcard before booting up again?
Thanks!
Edit: I was either totally confused (most likely) or somehow I managed to fix my issue (less likely)...so I am ok now.
Internal Storage Mount
So I am having a similar issue.
I have an Evo 4g LTE running CM10 (cm-cfX-20120904-OFFICIAL-jewel)
I tried upgrading to the 11-13 build from get.cm site. I factory reset, wiped delvik, installed .zip from external sd card, installed gapps (gapps-jb-20121011-signed) wiped delvik again, rebooted, everything came up like it should, but I had no mobile data connection. All of my settings said unknown. So I rolled back to the (cm-cfX-20120904-OFFICIAL-jewel) build. Everything was working fine again, except I went open CWM v 5.8.3.5 from my app drawer and noticed message "you need sd card to run clockworkmod" so I went to sys settings > storage > internal storage (not mounted > mount storage and it attempts to read the data, but then does nothing. No error message or anything. I can't get my computer (windows 7) to read my internal storage so I can't format (which I have already done before)
I'm getting really frustrated as I have searched everywhere for the fix and have found nothing. If anyone has any idea I would greatly appreciate it.
Finally got around to spending a few hours on this yesterday to try to fix my 'missing' internal storage...
As suggested by nokiamodeln91 (cheers mate), I used Odin to go back to a stock ROM. Steps:
-Did a CWM backup of my current my current favourite ROM (I also used Titanium and SMS backup, but didn't need it in the end).
-Found an appropriate Samsung factory ROM. I went back to 2.3.6 as it's supposed to be safer. (For the n7000, make sure you choose an early one and not 'L' series or it's harder to root.)
-Used Odin to write the factory ROM. Note I only wrote the ROM, I didn't flash the modem, PIT, etc.
-Confirmed that I could see both my internal storage and my SD card (and also confirmed that a factory fresh install from Samsung looks and feels as ugly as I remembered).
-Used an 'update' hack to give me root.
-Installed CWM again.
-Simply restored my CWM backup of my favourite ROM...
In reality I went down several dead-ends... but I eventually got it all working again.
Guigsy said:
Finally got around to spending a few hours on this yesterday to try to fix my 'missing' internal storage...
As suggested by nokiamodeln91 (cheers mate), I used Odin to go back to a stock ROM. Steps:
-Did a CWM backup of my current my current favourite ROM (I also used Titanium and SMS backup, but didn't need it in the end).
-Found an appropriate Samsung factory ROM. I went back to 2.3.6 as it's supposed to be safer. (For the n7000, make sure you choose an early one and not 'L' series or it's harder to root.)
-Used Odin to write the factory ROM. Note I only wrote the ROM, I didn't flash the modem, PIT, etc.
-Confirmed that I could see both my internal storage and my SD card (and also confirmed that a factory fresh install from Samsung looks and feels as ugly as I remembered).
-Used an 'update' hack to give me root.
-Installed CWM again.
-Simply restored my CWM backup of my favourite ROM...
In reality I went down several dead-ends... but I eventually got it all working again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude! you are insane...Got my S2 4.1.2 working, thanks to you.. tried for 3 days back to back until i stumbled on your solution.
Thanks so much.
A BIG Thanks to Guigsy & nokiamodeln91
Long story short is I broke the screen to my GNote 2 which is on its way to Samsung for repair (A little under US$200 round trip). When I removed the battery to get the emie number there was "goo" oozing out the back from the screen I suspect.
Anyway, turned on my GNote 1, which hasn't seen the light of day since last October and booted to discover that it wasn't working right. I tinkered for quite an embarrassingly long time to where I found myself in the same situation as others here. No write access to the internal storage on my CWM rooted GNote.
Although I had a nand backup, I ended up using ODIN to flash LT4 Germany, lost root as a result. went back in to Download mode and used ODIN to install PhilZ-cwm6-XXLT4-OXA-5.00.5.tar the exact same way, booted into CWM recovery and flashed PhilZ-cwm6-XXLT4-OXA-5.00.5-sigend.zip and was good to go. Issue definitely resolved.
I did not have root after installing the PhilZ-cwm6-XXLT4-OXA-5.00.5.tar via ODIN but I was able to enter CWM recovery where I then installed the ZIP version. As I had fixed my issues I was able to copy over the ZIP version to my Ext SD card B4 going into recovery mode (Yup, one of the symptoms for me was not being able to copy to the external SD card when the phone was connected to my PC either).
Rebooted signed in and was quickly synching my apps, settings etc. I would have felt comfortable using the nand backup I had originally but since this solution brought me up a few versions of Android, I just did a fresh setup.
Had it not been for XDA and our friends here, I would have formatted, factory reset and who knows what else trying to fix this.
Thanks much,
Claude H.

Can't mount internal SD Card after installing Albinoman887's 1/12/14 KitKat Rom

So I have installed several versions of this ROM since it began, however when I upgraded to 1-12-14, all went well except my internal SDcard will not be recognized. This means I can't use the camera or Titanium Backup, etc. However, I can see and use the external sd card w/o any issue. Upon every boot I get the icon saying that I need to format SDcard0, but it never completes, only soft reboots and the icon is gone until the next full reboot. I flashbooted boot.img twice after doing a FULL wipe. I have tried reinstalling 3 times doing FULL wipes every time, still get the same. When I boot into recovery and try to wipe SDcard, I get an error saying
can't mount /dev/block/mmcb1k0p36 (Invalid argument)
Error mounting /internal_sdcard/!
Skipping format
I have also just tried the new 1-15-14 build and get the same results. I have fastbooted the boot.img each time. Please help. I have installed many ROMs on this device before w/o ever an issue. What did I do wrong and how do I fix it? TIA!
Reboot recovery
Mount USB storage...
Plug phone into computer...
Let windows format corrupt partition...
Profit
Sent from my Vivid 4G using Tapatalk
Just putting another method which worked for me (one time issue and fix, so it's a crap-shoot). I don't have the luxury of connecting to a computer via usb for anything except charging.
-properly flash a sufficiently different ROM (I had kitkat, so I flashed ICS)
-start ROM up, check if fixed (mine was not)
IF NOT FIXED, CONTINUE
-mount the SD card in your recovery (mine is WCX recovery)
-reboot your phone into the ROM
This method worked for me. I saw in a different forum that when this happens it's usually because a file that describes the partitions gets corrupted and that because ICS and GB partition the SD cards and internal storage in a different way than Jellybean or Kitkat, that flashing a different ROM (if problem is on ICS/GB, then flash KK/JB, and vice versa) will force an overwrite of the file in question.
This is not as easy as rignfool's method, and once my charge port arrives in the post, I will abandon this method and use Windows to repair the partition like a sane person
Also, it seems like all my media on the internal storage has been wiped, but wutevr :/
Might want to try a newer build where that bug is fixed.
http://www.chronic-buildbox.com/nightly/holiday/
Yuskow said:
Might want to try a newer build where that bug is fixed.
http://www.chronic-buildbox.com/nightly/holiday/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this is directed at me, this happened after I installed the March 17th or 18th nightly (put a new one on every once and a while). And to be completely fair, I had accidentally selected factory reset in hboot (thought it was highlighting recovery, boy was I pissed).
The problem (or so I've read) with installing another kitkat/jellybean ROM is that the SD card is mounted the same (/storage/sdcard0, and external SD is only /storage/sdcard1) as opposed to ICS/GB (I only remember that you access external SD through /sdcard/ext_sdcard or something to that extent). Only when the SD cards will be mounted at differing locations will the system re-write the files specifying mount points.

[Q] Need help mounting /system and /data from external SD. Internal SD is dead :/

Hello,
I figure someone here might be able to help since most of where I found information regarding my issue came from this subforum. My phone is i897 (Captivate), but I think it should be similar; I posted there as well but no luck .
I normally can get by pretty well, and I have done numerous searches before posting for help. This time I have really run into a brick wall, and I really need help here.
Basically, I did something really stupid where I did not know that the phone had been booting off a external SD (my mom gave it back to me like that). Actually, I suspected that it did because the phone would have not booted without the card, however, I could flash my phone even if I removed the external SD card (as if the internal SD were there, but it wasn't), but it had always required me to insert the card back in for it to reboot from a flash. So I thought maybe internal SD was fine.
Originally, I had a Samsung 8gb class 6, but I wanted to change it to a 32gb class 10 ( to help the OS run smoother IF it were running on external SD). This is where I made a great mistake; I formatted the 32gb card and made 3 partitions. The first one is in FAT32 of 24 gb, 2nd is in EXT4 4gb, 3rd is the rest in EXT 4 as well. The original setup that was working had about 5.5gb in FAT32 and about 1.88gb of EXT(not sure which). The mistake was that I also formatted the 8gb card as well. In chronological order, these were what has happened:
1. I did a Odin stock reset to 2.3.5 with CWM injected
2. Installed Corn Kernel
3. Formatted both external SDs and repartition as mentioned above
4. At this point, I didn't know there was an issue. CWM sees the external SD and I tried to install CM 10.3 since I read in one of the threads that JB has a weird file systems and it needed to be installed twice to fix sdcard0 and sdcard1
5. CM10.3 installed kernel, and failed afterward since there was no /system and /data. At this point, I have Neat Kernel installed and lost bootloader along with fastboot and cannot access download mode.
6. I have tried to change EXT4 to EXT3 or EXT2 to see if there would be any luck in file system recognition, but no luck
7. The only way I can connect to the phone was through ADB, and verified that my internal SD card was dead because mmcblk0 was not there when I removed external SD
8. I tried to mount mmcblk0p1 (4gb EXT4 partition) and mmcblk0p2 as /system and /data, but I had been getting an error
9. I tried to use USB mount in TWRP, but no additional drive showed up (confirmed dead internal SD)
9. I tried to look for vold.fstabs but /system does not exist. The only *.fstabs file founds were in /etc file (not /system/etc) and is, for example, aries.fstabs
I know for the fact that it can be done because the phone was working before, but I really don't have enough linux knowledge or the what the phone looks at in chronological order in order to figure out how to remedy this. I would really appreciate if someone can guide me to a right direction. Thank you.
Below are major references I have gone through (not including youtube videos, etc..):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2057004
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1897918
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2057004
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2199215
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30415128#post30415128
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=31017954&postcount=5335
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=911228
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1463756
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1241574
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=845708&page=2
PMrjn83 said:
Hello,
I figure someone here might be able to help since most of where I found information regarding my issue came from this subforum. My phone is i897 (Captivate), but I think it should be similar; I posted there as well but no luck .
I normally can get by pretty well, and I have done numerous searches before posting for help. This time I have really run into a brick wall, and I really need help here.
Basically, I did something really stupid where I did not know that the phone had been booting off a external SD (my mom gave it back to me like that). Actually, I suspected that it did because the phone would have not booted without the card, however, I could flash my phone even if I removed the external SD card (as if the internal SD were there, but it wasn't), but it had always required me to insert the card back in for it to reboot from a flash. So I thought maybe internal SD was fine.
Originally, I had a Samsung 8gb class 6, but I wanted to change it to a 32gb class 10 ( to help the OS run smoother IF it were running on external SD). This is where I made a great mistake; I formatted the 32gb card and made 3 partitions. The first one is in FAT32 of 24 gb, 2nd is in EXT4 4gb, 3rd is the rest in EXT 4 as well. The original setup that was working had about 5.5gb in FAT32 and about 1.88gb of EXT(not sure which). The mistake was that I also formatted the 8gb card as well. In chronological order, these were what has happened:
1. I did a Odin stock reset to 2.3.5 with CWM injected
2. Installed Corn Kernel
3. Formatted both external SDs and repartition as mentioned above
4. At this point, I didn't know there was an issue. CWM sees the external SD and I tried to install CM 10.3 since I read in one of the threads that JB has a weird file systems and it needed to be installed twice to fix sdcard0 and sdcard1
5. CM10.3 installed kernel, and failed afterward since there was no /system and /data. At this point, I have Neat Kernel installed and lost bootloader along with fastboot and cannot access download mode.
6. I have tried to change EXT4 to EXT3 or EXT2 to see if there would be any luck in file system recognition, but no luck
7. The only way I can connect to the phone was through ADB, and verified that my internal SD card was dead because mmcblk0 was not there when I removed external SD
8. I tried to mount mmcblk0p1 (4gb EXT4 partition) and mmcblk0p2 as /system and /data, but I had been getting an error
9. I tried to use USB mount in TWRP, but no additional drive showed up (confirmed dead internal SD)
9. I tried to look for vold.fstabs but /system does not exist. The only *.fstabs file founds were in /etc file (not /system/etc) and is, for example, aries.fstabs
I know for the fact that it can be done because the phone was working before, but I really don't have enough linux knowledge or the what the phone looks at in chronological order in order to figure out how to remedy this. I would really appreciate if someone can guide me to a right direction. Thank you.
Below are major references I have gone through (not including youtube videos, etc..):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2057004
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1897918
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2057004
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2199215
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30415128#post30415128
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=31017954&postcount=5335
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=911228
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1463756
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1241574
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=845708&page=2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you looked over this guide ? or this ?
Höhenheim said:
Have you looked over this guide ? or this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'll try when I get home to my desktop. For some reason, my laptop does not recognize the phone through adb. It shows "SGH-i897" in device manager with an exclamation mark. And yes, I have tried quite a few drivers, etc... :/
I might need to try this...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1761968
Höhenheim said:
Have you looked over this guide ? or this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just had a chance to look at it more thoroughly. The biggest problem for me is that my phone does not have an OS, and it's on semaphore kernel where I cannot access download mode nor fastboot. I have tried to install gingerbread kernel to try to recover download mode/fastboot (speedmods), but I kept running into error 0. I have also tried to modify the su.binary, but that didn't work :/. Any idea how to start? Thanks.
PMrjn83 said:
I just had a chance to look at it more thoroughly. The biggest problem for me is that my phone does not have an OS, and it's on semaphore kernel where I cannot access download mode nor fastboot. I have tried to install gingerbread kernel to try to recover download mode/fastboot (speedmods), but I kept running into error 0. I have also tried to modify the su.binary, but that didn't work :/. Any idea how to start? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on your earlier comments on the partitions failing to mount, you should format: system, data, datadata, cache.
gsstudios said:
Based on your earlier comments on the partitions failing to mount, you should format: system, data, datadata, cache.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I tried. If it doesn't mount at all, how can you format?

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