[Q] SD card suddenly inaccessible - Galaxy S III Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi All,
Very weird problem I'm having that has made my phone pretty useless. I was happily using the 20140520 version of NovaFusion's CM 11, for a couple weeks. Suddenly (don't know what caused it), my external SD card was no longer available and the CPU was pegged at 1000Mhz. Rebooting did nothing helpful. Since, I've re-installed, installed 0529 and 0603 versions, after wiping the internal SD card completely. The problem remains, even if I don't log into google or CM accounts, so there are no settings that could be non-default!
Now, I would think there is some hardware problem, either the phone or the SD card. But the ext SD card works perfectly fine from TWRP. In fact, that's where I have the Google Aroma which I install each time.
I was able to determine that mmcqd/1 (the process that handles SD card I/O if I understand correctly) is consistently the top app, using around 25% of the CPU at all times, which explains why the CPU would be at 1000Mhz consistently as well.
And in the dmesg log I found that soon after bootup, I get this starting at the 19th second:
mmci-pl18x sdi0: error during DMA transfer!
mmc1: [MMC] DATA TIMEOUT STATUS: 8, CMD 18
mmcblk1: error -110 transferring data, sector 28713856, nr 128, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0
followed by a large number of errors of this form (continuing for about 40 seconds):
mmc1: [MMC] DATA TIMEOUT STATUS: 8, CMD 17
mmcblk1: error -110 transferring data, sector xxxxx, nr yy, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcnblk1, sector xxxxx
where xxxxx and yy are numbers which vary.
Finally, when I run:
fsck_msdos /dev/block/mmcblk1p1,
I get:
** Phase 1 - Read and Compare FATs
Attempting to allocate 3803 KB for FAT
Attempting to allocate 3803 KB for FAT
** Phase 2 - Check Cluster Chains
** Phase 3 - Checking Directories
This has been running for about a half-hour without errors (although it might be hung, not sure yet).
Totally bizarre to me. Can anybody help? Unfortunately I don't have an appropriate adaptor, so I can't try the SD card with my PC.
Many many Thanks!

JarrB said:
Finally, when I run:
fsck_msdos /dev/block/mmcblk1p1,
I get:
** Phase 1 - Read and Compare FATs
Attempting to allocate 3803 KB for FAT
Attempting to allocate 3803 KB for FAT
** Phase 2 - Check Cluster Chains
** Phase 3 - Checking Directories
This has been running for about a half-hour without errors (although it might be hung, not sure yet).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like the check never completed, just hung.

Have you tried another sd-card? Or reformat sd in recovery? Or flashed back to stock to see if problem is still there?
That's the first I should have tried, and in that order
Since it seems to work normaly in recovery maybe you can use adb to pull your files to computer, as backup, before format.
You could also try TWRP 2.7.0.1 It has some new option on repair fileformat for partitions.

tys0n said:
Have you tried another sd-card? Or reformat sd in recovery? Or flashed back to stock to see if problem is still there?
That's the first I should have tried, and in that order
Since it seems to work normaly in recovery maybe you can use adb to pull your files to computer, as backup, before format.
You could also try TWRP 2.7.0.1 It has some new option on repair fileformat for partitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, good ideas. Finally I found another SD card, and it works fine in the phone! I don't understand how TWRP can read it fine but CM can't.
I'm going out to get an adaptor so I can connect it to my computer and check it out / copy off all the stuff I need.
As for TWRP 2.7.0.1, looks like that could be useful but it doesn't seem to be available yet for this phone.

OK. this just keeps getting stranger and stranger.
I got an SD card adaptor and connected it to my windows laptop. The laptop has no problem reading it. So I ran the Drive Error Correction tool to check for errors; I had it check also for bad sectors. It ran and did not find any problems. So, bracing to reformat, I backed everything up and just for kicks I tried to boot CM with it.
Guess what? It works fine. Unbelievable. It's not the first time I tried taking it out and replacing it or leaving the phone off (even overnight).

It's still working after restoring from SD card and rebooting...
What I don't understand is how it can go from not working to working when I didn't write anything to it?
And I also don't understand how the card could have gotten into this position in the first place where CM's kernel basically hung reading the drive (each time it booted), when only CM's kernel had been writing to it since it was working. This points to some sort of rare bug in the I/O software to me. Recall that TWRP could always read it fine, and again, windows had no problem with it.
For the record, the SD card was formatted FAT32, not ExFAT.

Related

Internal SD card failing after 2.2 Rogers update?

Im having issues with the internal SD card after the update. So is Dennishwc
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=10484065&postcount=1057
Via Windows 7 64 "Error 0x80070057:The parameter is incorrect 'for file copy and 'The file is too large for the destination file system' when I try to make a folders.
When I try to format in Windows, it shows capacity only as 2.19GB rather than 13gb or whatever it should be. Same occurs on a Win XP laptop I tried, but explanation of the errors are more general but seem to be the same.
Seems it might be this issue that 2.2 caused for the SGS Vibrant ?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=860328
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=846384
Could just be the SD card failing unrelated to the update, but I have no idea. Seems I can copy to an external SD, and then copy via the phone to the internal SD. Odd.
I have tried format via Windows, which resulted in 2.19gb size, but phone reboot reset it to 13gb. Format via phone did not resolve either.
Any fix that will work? or is it borked.
I'll repost my question here.
Did you try the "format internal-sd" from CWM recovery ?
No, Im new-ish to Android so I dont know all the apps to use yet, but have done phone hacking for years on Palm and iOS.
Seems CWM Recovery is a desktop app? I will try when Im off work.
rye&ginger said:
No, Im new-ish to Android so I dont know all the apps to use yet, but have done phone hacking for years on Palm and iOS.
Seems CWM Recovery is a desktop app? I will try when Im off work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download Rom Manager from the market and run it. Click on install clockworkmod recovery. Then you can reboot into recovery. Please see the clockworkmod thread for more info
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
Don't forget to root first. I had a pain rooting this JL1. I spent 20 minutes playing with JL1 and I couldn't stand the lagginess. I'm sure lagfix would've helped, but I just went to a custom ROM instead.
Tried superoneclick only once and I'm rooted even went as far as unlocking it. Also, my phone isn't affected by the sd card bug. I can transfer files bigger than 2.19 Gb and it's showing the full size in Windows. Froyo runs flawless so far even though it's still not clear whether it's official or not.
Hmm, that's an odd one indeed.
Curious - I took a look at the 2 threads that Rye pointed out and one seems to be about external sd issues and the other about the mounting issues with 2.2 vibrant kernels. Doesn't seem like the problem you are having is either one of those... Could be but didn't seem that way upon review.
Did you happen to try and restore any backup after upgrading to 2.2 or anything? Can't imagine what would cause it but seems like it's getting mounted strangely or something... Surprised that a format internal sd wouldn't fix it in recovery...
Second question - what Samsung drivers / driver pack are you using on your Windows 7 x64 install? Wondering if the driver is failing to recognize the file system type and is causing Windows to treat it as a file system that shouldn't accept a file larger than 2+GB...
I havent noticed any problems with the size of the file. What happened with mine is that i transfered a couple of movies (about 3 or so) and then transfered about 4 gigs of music. halfway through the music it started giving me the error. after that, even transferring individual mp3 or pictures would result in an error. The internal sd card showed up on my computer as having 8gig free. after that i ran the check disk (by right clicking, going to properties then tools). my computer found errors and corrected them. after that, the internal sd card showed up as only having like less than a hundred mb left
Riker2k, not sure if the drivers for Windows are the issue. I think I installed some drivers called SGH-i897_Captivate_USB_Drivers_5_02_0_2 that I got from the Samsung website, but I also just installed Kies to get the 2.2 update.
On the XP laptop, I was just using mass storage so it must have been generic drivers that were already on it.
To be clear, its usually shows as correct size in Windows explorer, but when I go to the format utility in Windows, it shows 2.19gb.
Im about to do the CWM recovery format and will post the results.
If you are using the Rogers 2.2 update with no kernel modifications then the CWM will not work for you.
The Froyo kernel from Samsung comes with Recovery 3e which RomManager can not replace for 2e as 3e requires digitally signed packages.
consider (i have not tried):
- root device
- adb shell
- su
- backup any files you need on /sdcard to /sdcard/external_sd
- use the format commands to re-format /sdcard
-- probably mkfs.vfat or the like.
rye&ginger said:
Riker2k, not sure if the drivers for Windows are the issue. I think I installed some drivers called SGH-i897_Captivate_USB_Drivers_5_02_0_2 that I got from the Samsung website, but I also just installed Kies to get the 2.2 update.
On the XP laptop, I was just using mass storage so it must have been generic drivers that were already on it.
To be clear, its usually shows as correct size in Windows explorer, but when I go to the format utility in Windows, it shows 2.19GB.
Im about to do the CWM recovery format and will post the results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, really not sure if the drivers are a problem or not. When I checked mine, running the Rogers 2.2, it shows the same as what yours does in the format utility - 2.19GB. That is odd because it seems to set the filesystem type as FAT32 which can easily handle the 13.0GB size of the volume. The properties in Windows show 13.0GB w/ about 11.0GB on my disk that is available...
Regardless, I would be hesitant to format or repair that disk within Windows. Who knows if there is something within Android that is put there as a translation layer that maybe Windows isn't seeing / reading correctly through the driver, etc. I'm sure someone does know but I'm not that guy so if anyone call fill in the details...
And, after just testing on my own system... bang, same issue trying to copy a 900MB file to it... Hmm, this just got interesting.
Going to check a couple of other things, will post result.
I had this exact same issue. The only fix for it that I could find was to do a complete restore of the stock rom. Oh well, nice to have a fresh phone.
Hmm, this is not a fun problem.
Just tested formatting the volume - from within the running phone only, mind you - and the result is strange. After copying everything from my SD card to my computer, with no issues, I unmounted the USB, formatted the card through the settings / sd card storage menu / format internal sd card. Took about 30 seconds after which point I reconnected the device, windows picked it up and I mounted it, recopied about 2GB worth of data to the card with no issues at all. Added an additional 500MB file to it with no issues. Disconnected the device from within windows using the safe removal tray tool, turned off usb connection on the device and then unplugged it. Remount the usb device and windows sees it no issues but I can't copy a single item or create a folder on it. Exact same errors as what Rye described and I encountered the first time.
So, seems like after a fresh format the sd card can be mounted in windows, ONCE, and then all hell breaks loose.
Why??? Will keep testing but looking like I need to move back to my previous di11igaf's ROM. Can't work like this...
Interested in what you find, Rye.
Oh btw, i am able to transfer files with no problems if i connect to the pc in media player mode. I have problems when i am in mass storage and kies connect modes
Riker2k, good stuff. I have no news, Im stuck where I am unless I swap the kernel it seems as I cant use CMW Recovery to format.
This is over my head, so I will for now probably just do a format, load up the card via Windows, and then use the external card to slowly add items when I want to and transfer over to the internal through the handheld. Ghetto. Either our Sd cards will get worse and die, or more people will have issues and it will get patched I guess?
Dennishwc, I will try media player mode but I think it did nothing when I connected that way the other day. I didnt mess with it much though. I need mass storage to use iSyncr app though, but there is a wi-fi add-on that may help me avoid that.
Well I just tried the format and dump a lot of stuff via Windows idea, and it only did about 2.2gb before the error stopped the fun. It did this twice, so this is is EXACTLY at the 2.19gb capacity that Windows is seeing in the format utility. So, I do have some news.
Again, this is over my head as to what to do next.
Has anyone tried moving files over via adb and see if you hit a 2.19GB limit?
I am having the same issue when copy files while connected in USB Mass Storage Mode (consistent).
On the plus side, I also tried connecting in USB Kies Mode, and I have yet to see this error. Copying is slower; but, it seems to work.
This could be a workaround for folks getting the error in Mass Storage Mode.
I am running Rogers 2.2 (all stock) and rooted with SuperOneClick.
i'm having the exact same problem. if i pick "mass storage" i can't copy anything over hte internal sd card, but if i use "media play" option, i can do it without any problem. i guess that's a temporary solution
i'm having the same problem, though the size and free space of the internal storage shows up correctly in my system.
i can also copy files no problem to the external SD when in mass storage mode.

[Bounty] $125 if someone can make me a Nookie Froyo SD image that works with 16gb

I am absolutely pulling my hair out here. I have 3 16GB sd cards - 2 16gb ridata class 6, and one patriot class 4.
No matter what I do, I cannot get any of them to work with Froyo. ONLY my 16gb cards fail - I have various other 4 and 8gb cards floating around that work 100% fine.
With this image, I can boot the first time, run the makepart.sh command (which gives a "too many cylinders on disk error), and reboot fine again. When I go to finish formatting the SD card partition using formatpart.sh, it completes the process but never reboots - it just gets stuck on the Android... text in the bottom corner of the screen.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=922324
With these images, both 6.6 and 5.9, I can boot initially just fine but the sd card is only seen as 884mb. When I expand the partition to take up the rest of the free space (about 14gb) using EASEUS partition manager, I can boot fine next time but get literally hundreds of force closes to the point where I can't do anything. I've tried everything - creating new partitions as both logical and primary, resizing existing partitions, formatting from terminal and windows 7 x64, etc, etc.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=883175
So I've had it. If someone can make me a flashable and bootable SD card image (preferably 6.6, but 5.9 works too) that simply works with the 16GB cards (so I can actually utilize the extra space) and includes the below I will paypal them $125.
-Google Apps
-Market
-Camera and Voice apps removed
-Dropbox added
-Mount/System added (if the app does not take up the full screen force close it once)
-Nook Reader
-Phone and TelephonyProvider removed
-SetupWizard renamed (Can't get it to work. Go into Setting>Accounts & sync to add gmail account after your wireless has been setup)
-Flash installed and updated
-Default Launcher removed
-Zeam added
-Button Savior
-Angry Birds
-Astro File Manager
-Gingerbread keyboard
I basically want a version of the customized Nookie, but with Angry birds, astro, and button savior instead of softkeys (I can't stand softkeys).
To clarify, it only has to work with 16GB cards to get the $125. If it can work with 4 and/or 8GB size cards too, I'll add another $50.
Thanks for looking.
$500 if someone can de-expand my snookie "wife" from 16GB to 2GB and isolate her to sit in her fixed emcc and cook me up some gingerbread. lol. and yes i have used the search function already.
Edit: I did my own research and came to this, I did not create it but I read that some people are using it on 16gb SD cards and it works perfectly. So I decided to put it here.
Updated 2/6 new version! Pandora, YouTube, MP3's all play now. Flash might work w/o choppiness now too(?) - let us know.
Installing Nookie Froyo custom Android 2.2 ROM to boot off of an SD card:
The first thing you're going to need is a micro-SD card:
*at least 2GB in size
*at least 4GB is recommended, in order to have several GB's of storage on the SD Card partition (what Android reads as actual SD card storage)
*Class 6 or 10 is preferred
*Class 4 may be fine, 2 will likely be slow
Be aware that some companies claim to be offering a higher-class card than they really are (as there's no independent third-party that monitors the Class specification). So researching the brand you're considering is recommended.
You'll also need an SD card reader
If you have an Android phone, you may also be able to use it by placing the SD in your phone, selecting Mount as USB Drive on your phone, and proceeding from there.
First, download the latest version of Nookie
Unzip the .gz file (Winrar, 7zip, etc. Should work for that) so that you have an .img file that you're working with.
If you're on a PC, you're going to want to get a program called Win32DiskImager.
If you're on a Mac or Linux machine, you'll want dd.
Connect the SD card to your computer.
For PC Users:
open Win32DiskImager, select (using the button with the dots) the image file for Nookie that you downloaded, then select the drive of your SD Card (be very careful you're choosing your SD Card drive and not another!), then choose Write Image. *After a few minutes, you're all done!
For Mac Users (instructions credit nookdevs.com)
Open a terminal window.
Find which drive the sd card is mapped to: type in the terminal this:
diskutil list
Be very careful to identify the SD card and not your hard disk. Be VERY careful.
Now unmount that drive typing this:
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk#
(My computer is was disk2 replace # with your number.)
The computer should say:*Unmount of all volumes on disk was successful
dd if=NameOfNookieFroYoImage of=/dev/disk# bs=1m
Again, replace # with the number of your card. Everything needed should copy right over to the card.
RUNNING NOOKIE:
Simply insert your Nookie Froyo SD card into your nook and power on. As long as your SD card is in your NOOKcolor when you power it on or reboot, it will boot into Nookie Froyo. Everything that would normally be on an Android phone or tablet's internal memory (plus what would normally be on an SD card) is all going to be on your SD (this is why we recommended a card of 4GB or more).
One of the first things you'll notice is that there aren't any Google apps installed. You'll need to do this yourself (I would have loved to include them, but there are legalities, yadda yadda...).
ADB Installation of Google Apps:
1. You'll need to have adb (Android Debug Bridge) installed on your computer. This link explains in relatively easy terms how to get this going . . .http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=502010
Basically, you'll want to install the Android SDK and become familiar with the location of the directory it was installed in.
If you want to make it easy, move the 'Tools' directory (inside the SDK directory) onto c:/ . . . (or whatever your main hard drive's letter is) then, to get there, you'll simply type cd c:/tools
2. Having installed the SDK for adb access to your nook, now download the google apps files, and unzip the file so that it extracts the folder called 'system' into the 'Tools' directory in the SDK folder you downloaded.
3. Now you'll open a command prompt in Windows (start menu>run>type 'cmd') and navigate to the correct folder (cd [folder directory's path]). On Mac, this would be done via Terminal.
4. Now, with your NOOKcolor connected to your computer's USB port, type the following (of course, hit enter after each line):
adb shell mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 /system
adb push [here, enter the path to your SDK tools folder]\system system/
adb reboot
5. Now your NC will reboot. When it boots, you'll have Market, Gmail, Google Maps, and many more Google apps.
* If you're getting a "device not found" error when running adb, first, reboot your Nook and your computer and see if it changes.
If that fails, download and unzip this file, open install.exe, and follow the on-screen prompts (this will install drivers so your computer will recognize the nook).
If that doesn't work, try opening the Super User app on your nook and then issuing the commands.
If that still doesn't work, refer to the steps in this thread, repeating if necessary.
One of the first things to do:
Before you start, one of the most important things to remember with the current version of nookie is to turn the screen off/on (do this each time you boot your nook). There's some serious touchscreen lag by default, and this is the very simple solution to make it go away. Nothing fancy, just put the screen to sleep for a sec, and when you turn it back on, it'll be plenty responsive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a comment a user posted regarding the 16gb SD cards
I bought a class 10 16GB from Wintek, a brand I've never heard of and not only was the card unbearably slow -- so massive lag a points, it ended up corrupting itself... Anyways, I put in a 16 GB class 4 Kingston I have and not only is it faster than the supposed class 10 -- rarely any lag, I've not had any problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source: (all credit for creating the rom)
Android Central
Edit 2: Since you also wanted to delete any signs of cell phone options, use this theme.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=944278
Hope this helps
So... since someone did end up "fixing" your problem, although not directly in response to your thread, are they going to get a nice surprise?
Chirp....Chirp....Chirp....Chirp...
(Just Kiding)
"computerpro", have you looked to see if the FAT is FAT16 or FAT32? Pretty sure a 14G FAT16 isn't going to fly.
khaytsus said:
"computerpro", have you looked to see if the FAT is FAT16 or FAT32? Pretty sure a 14G FAT16 isn't going to fly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's Fat32. I'll try that solution posted above when I get home from class, but brian said he is working on an update that should work with all cards and it should be out today. What's weird is that I can even boot with a 10GB partition with 4gb unallocated space. IT's just once I get up in the 12-14gb partition size range when things start corrupting themselves. And again, what's weird is that this happens across different brand and class cards. They are not defective. I am convinced it has something to do with the too many cylinder error I get while running makepart.sh
We shall see!

fsck_msdos running at every boot. Normal?

Hi again,
I've recently flashed the Paranoid Android 1.98 ROM and am very happy with it (note to the interested: although the kernel for PA doesn't use datadata, my phone works great and lag-free. I had amazing lag problems with Slim Bean, and the datadata thing was cited as the reason. So that's not the case).
Anyway, every time I start the phone, the OS takes a fairly long time (45s-1m or so) scanning the internal SD card and "searching for errors". Nothing works until this scan is done. Is that normal? I didn't have this under CM7 or CM9.
Thanks
sm72
I can't tell if it us normal or not. But having some experience with Linux I guess the start up scripts do the usual filesystem scan. This is normal!
But a healthy filesystem shouldn't need that much time to scan. So either the fstab has a wrong filesystem type for the sd mount point or the fs is dirty and doesn't got fixed for whatever reason. If it's the latter then insert the card into the PC. Windows should prompt you for a scan and repair. That should fix any errors of the fs.
If windows doesn't find anything or doesn't even prompt you for a scan it might be the other reason. Usually the card seems formatted as fat32 which - I think - isn't handled by msdos but the vfat driver. But your best bet is to contact the Rom developer and ask for help I guess.
Hi, thanks for the reply.
It's the internal SD card, so I can't stick it in a PC, unfortunately. I backed up the card, formatted and restored the data yesterday -- no change.
OK, I'll try to get in touch with the PA people, although I think they're no longer supporting SGS, so I might just be SOL.
Thanks
sm72

[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] 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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