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Several users have complained that they get blank screens and cannot flash new roms to their Nook Color. And sometimes they end up in a recovery bootloop where it will do nothing but boot to recovery no matter what they choose in the boot menu. Sometimes this is due to corrupted partitions on internal memory.
DizzyDen has prepared some .img files that can be burned to emmc to repair some of these issues, and they work well. But some of the files are very large and it takes a little knowledge of adb commands on the part of the users. And some users cannot get adb working on their machines. So I started investigating other solutions, and I have made some tools that work that I hope are user friendly.
Dean Gibson has a thread that describes how to repartition emmc to set the partition sizes for data and media to the user's preference. He repartitions partitions p6 (data), p7 (cache) and p8 (media). In studying his zip, I figured out how to make his tool repair partitions p4 (extended), p5 (system), p6 (data), p7 (cache), and p8 (media). And I was able to add additional commands to also repair partition p1 (boot). I asked Dean's permission to post his tools as modified by me and he agreed. Thanks Dean!
So that takes care of partitions 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Partitions 2 and 3 are very special and one must be very careful with them. Partition 2 is 'rom', which holds information that is specific to the user's device (serial number, etc.), and it is used by the system to set flags for deciding whether to boot to recovery or not and set the boot count that is used to decide whether to do a reset to factory conditions (8 failed boots). Partition 3 is 'factory' and holds the factory.zip file used by the 8 failed boot reset (if you want to learn more about the 8 failed boot reset, go to my tips thread linked in my signature). It also holds a backup of the device information in partition 2. So it is possible to repair partition 2 if partition 3 is still intact.
A few users have somehow managed to flash Nook Tablet ROMs to their Nook Colors and really messed up partition 4. (Edit: and now I know how it happened, some idiot recommended that they remove the first line of the updater script. NEVER do that! That line is a safety check to make sure you are flashing to the right device. You can also defeat the safety check by using an old CWM that has the toggle, 'disable asserts'. Never do that either.) And since partition 4 is the extended partition that holds partitions 5, 6, 7, and 8, they get messed up too. To repair those partitions along with partition 1, use CWM recovery to flash the two zips attached below. Be warned that everything in emmc media (p8) will be wiped out, so you may want to back that up first if you still can. The first zip to flash is 'NookColor-emmc-repair-partitions-1-4-5-6-7-8.zip'. It will recreate those partitions on emmc. As soon as you have sucessfully flashed that zip, you must reboot the Nook Color back to CWM so that the updated partition table is read by CWM. Then you need to flash 'NookColor-emmc-format-partitions-5-6-7-8.zip' (partitions 1 and 4 do not need formatting). It will format the newly created partitions to the correct structure. Now you can use CWM to restore an earlier nandroid backup or flash your favorite ROM (including stock, get version 1.4.3 that I have modified to be flashable with CWM here, or DizzyDen has posted some excellent 1.4.1 stock ROMs here). If you are going to flash a stock ROM, you must be sure to use the format zip or the stock ROM will not boot properly.
If you are in a recovery bootloop, the first thing I recommend trying is to use my CWM version 5.5.0.4 bootable SD that is discussed in my tips thread linked in my signature and has been modified to help get out of some kinds of recovery flag bootloops. If you are in a recovery bootloop that just hangs, it may get you out of it after exiting my CWM with the 'reboot' command in the menu. But if you are still in the loop after doing that, it may be because your device info is missing or corrupted in partition 2. It will not boot to a ROM without this info. (Specifically, it needs a file in /rom/devconf named DeviceID. It is a text file with your 16 digit serial number in it followed by a line feed, 17 bytes.) Try flashing with CWM my 'NookColor-emmc-repair-partition-2.zip' attached to this post to recreate that info. But I recommend this as a last resort, since messing with that partition is risky. That zip will recreate the partition, reset the flags and copy your device specific information from partition 3. But your partition 3 must be intact for this to work. If it is not, the zip will abort and do nothing.
Additionally, for those that do not want to use CWM, I have made a bootable SD that has an older version of TWRP here. Newer versions of TWRP will return an error message when trying to flash these zips. It also has been modified to get you out of some kinds of bootloops.
Two points of information. First, I have included a temporary copy of CWM 5.5.0.4 on the boot partition of my repair so that if tries to reboot to emmc before you put a ROM on it, it goes to CWM. It will be removed as soon as you restore a backup or flash a ROM. Second, the new partition scheme created with my zip is for the original Nook Color's 1GB data and 5GB media. If you want one of the other schemes (5GB data/1GB media or 2GB data/4GB media) go to Dean Gibson's thread and flash his zips after you have repaired your system with mine. See his thread here.
I'm adding a little extra information about emmc partition structure for those interested. With any MBR disk there can be a maximum of four primary partitions. So to have more than four partitions the last primary partition is created as an extended partition so multiple logical partitions can be made inside it. The emmc structure is: p1 (boot, fat, primary), p2 (rom, fat, primary), p3 (factory, ext3, primary), p4 (extended, going from end of p3 to end of the disk), p5 (system, ext2, logical, inside the extended), p6 (data, ext3, logical, inside the extended), p7 (cache, ext3, logical, inside the extended) and p8 (media, fat, logical, inside the extended).
You save my nook color
Thank you so much. My serial number and other information were recovered successfully. Without those information I could not boot into any rom. If you cannot boot into ROM after following the first 2 steps, try recover partition 2. It works for me.
:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:
Thanks
My nook has been stuck in a "will not boot" state for about a week. I could run CWM and cyanoboot, but when ever I tried to boot CM I would get stuck at the "loading..." screen. I tried loading both CM7 & CM9 but neither one would boot.
I ran both repair scripts, reloaded CM7.1 and success!
Thanks Leapinlar! :good:
THANK YOU!!!!!!
Right from my 1st install I couldn't get the bar at the bottom of the screen, which made using the Kindle app more than a little difficult. This finally cleared everything off so I could start with a clean slate, and BINGO! I know have the bottom bar on all the screens. I assume when I go in to the Kindle app it will be ok now also (I just have to format a 16gb microSD and put in the Nook Color 1st).
I can't thank you enough!!!!
Ugh! Tried this method too, and I still cannot get the nook to boot into CWR or CWM. I tried the 8 boots thing too, but I don't know if I ever did it right because I have cyanogen mod installed on emmc. Not sure how to repair the partition if I cannot even boot into anything that allows me to flash the zip to the chip. I thought it may be the sd, but the sd cards work on my other nook. I have now basically dissembled my nook color trying to find any other solution I wish I knew what happened in the first place.
czarofthefrozentundra said:
Ugh! Tried this method too, and I still cannot get the nook to boot into CWR or CWM. I tried the 8 boots thing too, but I don't know if I ever did it right because I have cyanogen mod installed on emmc. Not sure how to repair the partition if I cannot even boot into anything that allows me to flash the zip to the chip. I thought it may be the sd, but the sd cards work on my other nook. I have now basically dissembled my nook color trying to find any other solution I wish I knew what happened in the first place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try my version of the CWM bootable SD card? It is on my tips thread and has been modified to boot in certain types of recovery bootloops. Unless you get CWM running you cannot flash things to internal memory. And depending on where in the boot process it hangs, you may not be able to get adb working to put things there either. And the 8 failed boots will not work unless you have stock recovery still on emmc.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
leapinlar said:
Did you try my version of the CWM bootable SD card? It is on my tips thread and has been modified to boot in certain types of recovery bootloops. Unless you get CWM running you cannot flash things to internal memory. And depending on where in the boot process it hangs, you may not be able to get adb working to put things there either. And the 8 failed boots will not work unless you have stock recovery still on emmc.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. Tried the card. I believe I replaced the emmc with cyanogenmod back in the day. Starts, goes to loading, turns black, then done. Cannot do anything after that. Bummer, sounds like it is actually toast.
czarofthefrozentundra said:
Yup. Tried the card. I believe I replaced the emmc with cyanogenmod back in the day. Starts, goes to loading, turns black, then done. Cannot do anything after that. Bummer, sounds like it is actually toast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get adb working while it is sitting there black, you can push the stock recovery files to partition one. Then you may be able to do the 8 failed boots. You can extract the stock recovery files from my zip in my tips thread.
leapinlar said:
If you can get adb working while it is sitting there black, you can push the stock recovery files to partition one. Then you may be able to do the 8 failed boots. You can extract the stock recovery files from my zip in my tips thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worth a shot. Have nothing more to lose other than time. Maybe adb will work with you card in it. It didn't work with everything else I tried.
OMG OMG thank you soooo much for this thread , you saved my reading addict self from going insane ......
You've done a great job on collecting all of these useful things, especially for those who are stuck with their Nook Color boot looping. (I was once that guy) Dean helped me out with his data zips as well way back! Thanks for all this! :good: :victory:
Much thanks, leapinlar. Restored a nandroid with TWRP that was corrupted and lost my boot partition. I used your first 2 repair zips and I'm back in business. Your many contributions are greatly appreciated.
Mike T
OMG! Thank you so much for putting this up! Back at the beginning of the year I was having problems with my NC not going into USB Mode and only showing a black arrow when trying to load books and following this finally fixed it. Great write-up and instructions, thanks for the hard work.
I've been trying to restore my NOOK for about 2 weeks and this post has gotten me the farthest but i'm stuck at the point where my nook will start up, the "Read Forever" splash screen will come up and then it attempts to recover the system since i see an greenish Android screen come up for a second and then i get an error screen saying "Install Failed" with an image of a nook with an exclamation point in it's screen. I'm assuming i've really messed the nook up but here is where I am.
I've reformatted the partitions using your 1-4,5,6,7,8 zip
Rebooted to recovery
Formatted partiions 5,6,7,8 with your zip
Flashed your 1.4.3 stock rom
At this point I can't get any further since it appears something else is wrong and i didn't want to attempt the reformatting of partition 2 without asking if there is anything else i should try. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
jmiklus01 said:
I've been trying to restore my NOOK for about 2 weeks and this post has gotten me the farthest but i'm stuck at the point where my nook will start up, the "Read Forever" splash screen will come up and then it attempts to recover the system since i see an greenish Android screen come up for a second and then i get an error screen saying "Install Failed" with an image of a nook with an exclamation point in it's screen. I'm assuming i've really messed the nook up but here is where I am.
I've reformatted the partitions using your 1-4,5,6,7,8 zip
Rebooted to recovery
Formatted partiions 5,6,7,8 with your zip
Flashed your 1.4.3 stock rom
At this point I can't get any further since it appears something else is wrong and i didn't want to attempt the reformatting of partition 2 without asking if there is anything else i should try. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do the partition 2 repair. That is what is messed up and causing the reboot.
Sent from my Nook HD+ using Tapatalk
leapinlar said:
Do the partition 2 repair. That is what is messed up and causing the reboot.
Sent from my Nook HD+ using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried the partition2 zip and received an error trying to mount the factory partition. Status 7 was the error code. Is there a way to fix this?
jmiklus01 said:
I've tried the partition2 zip and received an error trying to mount the factory partition. Status 7 was the error code. Is there a way to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, that is really bad news. That means your partition 3 is corrupted and there is no way to retrieve your device info, like serial number, etc. PM me and maybe I can help you get it partly working, but much of the device info is lost if that partition is truly corrupted.
Sent from my BNTV600 using Tapatalk
Restore NC back to stock
View attachment 1500490
leapinlar said:
Oh, that is really bad news. That means your partition 3 is corrupted and there is no way to retrieve your device info, like serial number, etc. PM me and maybe I can help you get it partly working, but much of the device info is lost if that partition is truly corrupted.
Sent from my BNTV600 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been trying to restore my daughter NC back to stock for couple months now and no success.
I did flash the P 1-4-5-6-7-8.zip and got this message after reboot:
"CWM-based Recovery v5.5.0.4
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/command
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/log
E: Can't open /cache/recovery/log
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E: Can't open /cache/recovery/last_log
during the reboot, there is a menu option to hit "n" for reboot mode option. when i hit "n" it gives me (attachment).
but it won't let me move up or down to select except for the 1st option
Help would be very appreciated
big64dave said:
View attachment 1500490
I've been trying to restore my daughter NC back to stock for couple months now and no success.
I did flash the P 1-4-5-6-7-8.zip and got this message after reboot:
"CWM-based Recovery v5.5.0.4
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/command
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/log
E: Can't open /cache/recovery/log
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E: Can't open /cache/recovery/last_log
during the reboot, there is a menu option to hit "n" for reboot mode option. when i hit "n" it gives me (attachment).
but it won't let me move up or down to select except for the 1st option
Help would be very appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
During reboot it should automatically go to CWM because everything else is wiped. The boot menu only lets you make the first choice because that is all that is there, everything else is wiped. You need to continue to use the CWM to flash the format zip next. Then you can flash a ROM. If the CWM that pops up is not working, use the bootable CWM SD.
leapinlar said:
During reboot it should automatically go to CWM because everything else is wiped. The boot menu only lets you make the first choice because that is all that is there, everything else is wiped. You need to continue to use the CWM to flash the format zip next. Then you can flash a ROM. If the CWM that pops up is not working, use the bootable CWM SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for replied, the Nook just stock on loading and it won't let me do anything except for power up and down
My Galaxy Note N7000 was on the Jelly Bean 4.1.2 LM5 (HK) firmware with "PhilZ-cwm6-ZSLM5-OZS-4.35-signed.zip" installed.
Phone internal memory was repartitioned to 10.9GB for /system and 2 GB for /data since I store most of my files on the microSD card anyway.
The phone was working nicely although I did experience a boot loop problem when I first flashed it because I changed the phone ID with Titanium Backup, so I did a wipe to get out of the boot loop.
But today in my haste to pull the SIM card out of the phone I forgot to completely shutdown my phone before pulling the battery out, and as expected the boot loop returned.
Searched around xda and it seems that everyone's solution is to wipe the phone to factory default.
The problem was that I haven't backed up my phone for quite a while and I wasn't willing to wipe the phone again and lose all of my data if I can avoid it. :crying:
So after fiddling with the phone, at recovery I noticed that it wasn't able to mount the /data partition, so I fired up adb shell and tried to mount it manually by using "mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 /data" but it spouted out an IO error.
Apparently, my phone was stuck in the bootloop because it wasn't able to mount the /data partition because of a file system error which happened because of the unclean shutdown/battery pull.
Figuring that my data is toast anyway if I wiped the phone to get past the bootloop, I experimented with these commands :
Code:
adb shell
umount /data
e2fsck -y /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
e2fsck reported that the journal was corrupted and there was a gazillion of 'multiply-claimed block' errors on the partition, but finally after an hour it finished but with some note that there's is still some error in the lost+found null node something.
I tried to mount the /data partition with Touch Recovery again and it worked, so I restarted and it gets past the boot screen and all my data are still intact.
I am now flashing the new UBLSF and PhilZ new kernel with bootloop fix, I hope that gets rid of the bootloop problem for good.
This seems similar to the problem and solution posted here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2040107
Hope my experience is useful to others who experience similar problem
Thank you. Really helpful.
Enviado desde mi BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps usando Tapatalk 2
this also happen when the battery is completely empty and the phone perform unclean shutdown this is why you must stop using your phone at 1% battery to prevent this stupid bootloop
zerenx said:
But today in my haste to pull the SIM card out of the phone I forgot to completely shutdown my phone before pulling the battery out, and as expected the boot loop returned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that too, then I fixed data partition, yet since that incident. It happens several times that I find my phone shut (even though the battery is full), then the phone is boot looping. I can't understand the reason for this.
Hi, yesterday my phone suddenly restart few times before stuck at the samsung boot animation. Until today my GNote unable to get pass the boot animation. Is there any way to fix this without data wipe because I didn't expect this would happen so I haven't backup my data yet. I'm using samsung latest official Jelly Bean. Non rooted. Last activity before it happen, playing games & update few apps in play store. This is the first time I post in this forum. Sorry if there's any mistake I've made.
Can you connect your phone to the PC? And try to use the phone while keeping it plugged in to charge. How old is your battery? If you can conncet to the PC, you can take a copy of your data.
I can copy files from sdcard. But not from internal storage. And I actually need to backup my sms, call log, etc.. which need to able to boot the phone. battery is almost 1 year already.
Can you use the phone while keeping it plugged in? There must be an issue with some app, maybe after updating it, any app you suspect?
I no longer can use the phone since it stuck at samsung boot animation there. And I can't really remember which apps I was updating.
thank you! this worked for me. so glad i didnt need to spend half a day reloading everything!
i didnt even need to go to adb. i used the console from CWM
you should mention that one needs to mount the volumes of interest first in order to discover the /dev/block name (and then umount). a la http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2165870
FYI:
i WAS able to mount /data with cwm utility. but when i tried e2fsck -n, it threw a lot of complaints, so i did it again with a -y, and it rebooted fine.
i also tried browsing around /data with Aroma from CWM. some data/* i could view, but it froze when i tried to look in the delvik folder.
is there a more convenient utility to fsck the whole system everything?
you said, "now flashing the new UBLSF and PhilZ new kernel with bootloop fix". i have PhilZ-cwm6-XXLT4-OXA-x.xx.x-signed.zip. so is there a better cwm i should use to prevent future bootloop?
what is UBLSF?
gnormal said:
thank you! this worked for me. so glad i didnt need to spend half a day reloading everything!
i didnt even need to go to adb. i used the console from CWM
you should mention that one needs to mount the volumes of interest first in order to discover the /dev/block name (and then umount). a la http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2165870
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad that helps.
At my device, the /data partition is always located at the /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 so I didn't think it was necessary to mention it. Of course, if you repartition your device then the block might change but I guess you should be advanced enough when you've been playing with the partition.
gnormal said:
you said, "now flashing the new UBLSF and PhilZ new kernel with bootloop fix". i have PhilZ-cwm6-XXLT4-OXA-x.xx.x-signed.zip. so is there a better cwm i should use to prevent future bootloop?
what is UBLSF?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UBLSF refers to official Samsung firmware Jelly Bean 4.1.2 for Trinidad and Tobago (N7000UBLSF_N7000UUBLSF_TTT).
But no, even that firmware isn't immune to the bootloop, I still experienced one bootloop with UBLSF firmware.
Thankfully I have this thread so I was able to recover my data intact in just a few moments, would've forgot the steps without this thread. :laugh:
It works!
zerenx said:
So after fiddling with the phone, at recovery I noticed that it wasn't able to mount the /data partition, so I fired up adb shell and tried to mount it manually by using "mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 /data" but it spouted out an IO error.
Apparently, my phone was stuck in the bootloop because it wasn't able to mount the /data partition because of a file system error which happened because of the unclean shutdown/battery pull.
Figuring that my data is toast anyway if I wiped the phone to get past the bootloop, I experimented with these commands :
Code:
adb shell
umount /data
e2fsck -y /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
e2fsck reported that the journal was corrupted and there was a gazillion of 'multiply-claimed block' errors on the partition, but finally after an hour it finished but with some note that there's is still some error in the lost+found null node something.
I tried to mount the /data partition with Touch Recovery again and it worked, so I restarted and it gets past the boot screen and all my data are still intact.
Hope my experience is useful to others who experience similar problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thank you from the bottom of my heart! You saved my data!
I was experiencing problems with the Note (rooted, CWM recovery, Philz kernel) and space on the internal memory, so I wiped the Cache and Dalvik partitions (I've done that many a times to be casual about it). The phone restarted thereafter, but went dead all of a sudden, forcing me to do a hard reset. It went into a boot loop, and I could not revive it.
Luckily, I found this thread, and after looking through various other links, I was able to download ADB (without the SDK). Somehow, I could not get ADB to see the device in the download mode (vol down + middle button + power), but it was visible in the recovery mode (vol up + power + middle). [Edit: I ended up taking the necessary steps in Recovery mode after all].
I had been able to mount /data from CWM Touch recovery, but when I tried to backup, the process had been exiting on reaching the /data folder. So I checked the unmounted volume as you had indicated, and it did find some errors! I checked all the other unmounted volumes for good measure, and they turned out to have no errors. (Actually, as I didn't know which block device referred to each of them, I checked with the 'mount' command both before and after mounting/unmounting them from Touch recovery )
The phone restarted after fixing the /data partition, booted up, but hanged after mounting the memory cards and establishing a connection. I had to do a few hard and soft restarts after that, but nothing has been corrupted. It is stable right now on airplane mode, and I'm backing up data via KIES. I think I'll do a factory reset later and restart from scratch.
In summation, your trick worked, and it should be recommended as the first thing one tries. Thanks again!
I have this problem
terminator_5505 said:
this also happen when the battery is completely empty and the phone perform unclean shutdown this is why you must stop using your phone at 1% battery to prevent this stupid bootloop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi !
I have this problem with my Note and couldn't find a topic explaining how to get out of this loop (in this particular case).
Do you know one or what to do?
I'm JB (I don't know my baseband but it's the official one I got OTA in France, couldn't find it on sammobile). I didn't do anything since the update a few month ago.
I still have the download mode and the recovery menu
Can I wipe securely on JB?
I have retired my original Note N7000 and moved on to Note 3 N9005, so my memory might be a bit rusty.
If you have all original firmware on your Note, I think it would be safer to first flash in PhilZ's safe kernel (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1901191) on the device before wiping to avoid the brick bug.
You can then do the wipe from the recovery menu.
If you have some data you need to recover from the device, maybe you can give the method described in the original post to check for filesystem errors and have your Note out of the bootloop.
Good luck.
thanks a lot Mannn :good:
you just save me from reinstalling from scratch
Question: I want to wipe everything from my HD+ and start completely fresh. What is safe to wipe and how do I do it in TWPR or CWM? A "factory reset" isn't good enough. It leaves old data around. But I've read too many stories about bricking a device by formatting /data using CWM.
Background: I've been running CM 10.2.1 for a few weeks now. Given what Jon Lee posted about Google and security, I thought I'd try a clean install of CM 10.2.1 without installing gapps, just to see what that's like. (And what services don't run.)
So I did the usual "factory reset" from TWRP and reinstalled CM 10.2.1. To my surprise, when I booted, the latest version of Google Play was still showing on the launcher!
I had used Link2SD to integrate the latest version of Google Play with the OEM system app. So apparently, that this was not wiped. And of course, internal media data is not wiped (not by TWRP, anyway) in a factory reset. But I thought /system was.
The TWRP FAQ has a page about wiping. It says
Depending on your device and its configuration, you may have options for wiping internal storage, external storage, sd-ext, android_secure, and/or an option for formatting data. There's almost no reason that you would ever need to use these items. These options are there for convenience. For instance, if you're getting ready to sell your device, then it's a good idea to wipe everything on the device so that the new owner doesn't get your private data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But they don't tell you which to select.
TWRP makes it confusing by offering to 1) wipe data, 2) internal storage, 3) SDcard or 4) SDcard data in Advanced Wipe. Which is it for wiping your media stuff?
From what I've read, "internal storage" should be the same as "SDcard." So why both? And how is "SDcard data" distinct from those two?
To make matters worse, in the Nook I thought there was an additional element of confusion because the Nook doesn't call the internal SDcard memory what everyone else calls it.
So let's say I am selling my HD+. Would I select all of the above and still be able to install a ROM clean?
Or would I brick?
I know that on a desk top computer if you want to start bare metal, you format the hard drive, wiping everything, and install onto that. But judging from what Succulent wrote in his blog about recovering from an EMMC crash, you can't start totally clean with Android. Apparently, Android needs some preexisting files on the "drive" in order to install. (Like the devconf folder, which contains your MAC and your serial number.)
[Am I understanding him correctly? He was talking about recovering from a tablet wrecked by the EMMC brick bug. Perhaps no /data partition at all, as he offers a script to rebuild/expand that partition?]
I have read stories of people bricking their tablets by formatting /data from CWM. I don't understand why that should brick it. Why couldn't you boot into recovery? How can the /data partition affect the /recovery partition?
So - has anybody done a complete wipe on their Nook HD+? Please explain, for those of us who are obsessive compulsive, exactly how you do it.
To wipe your device with CWM go to mounts and storage and format /system, /cache and 'data and datamedia'. A normal factory reset only wipes /cache and the portion of /data that does not hold your media files. It does not wipe /system. Usually the ROM install does that, but the install script has a feature that saves gapps if you are installing the same version of the ROM (eg, CM11 over CM11). So to get rid of everything, including media files and gapps, do what I said in the first sentence. Of course after formatting /system you must put a ROM back on it for it to boot.
And it is not /data formatting that is the brick problem, it is formatting the /bootdata partition. They are different things. Don't format that.
And succulent was talking about /rom partition which is different yet that needs to be left alone. That is where the devconf folder is. It contains things you need to keep.
If you want to understand the partition structure of the HD/HD+ go to my HD/HD+ Tips thread linked in my signature and read item 16.
And please read my PM to you about removing those assert removal instructions from my dummies thread.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app
Best Answer
leapinlar said:
To wipe your device with CWM go to mounts and storage and format /system, /cache and 'data and datamedia'. A normal factory reset only wipes /cache and the portion of /data that does not hold your media files. It does not wipe /system. Usually the ROM install does that, but the install script has a feature that saves gapps if you are installing the same version of the ROM (eg, CM11 over CM11). So to get rid of everything, including media files and gapps, do what I said in the first sentence. Of course after formatting /system you must put a ROM back on it for it to boot.
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Thanks for the thorough answer. And explanations. I always find it easier to remember something when I understand the reason for it. So I didn't know before that the install scripts keep gapps.(But that's what I was deducing.)
I know to stay away from /rom and /boot. Hopefully, TWRP would not let one format those in their numerous choices for Advanced Wipe.
From what you've written before in one of your other threads, I know that you're not a fan of TWRP. So I still don't know what the similar commands are in TWRP for a total clean. But for now I can delete /system in TWRP and do the reinstall without gapps. When I'm ready for a total wipe, I'll revert to CWM.
Can we trade /factory for /swap?
leapinlar said:
If you want to understand the partition structure of the HD/HD+ go to my HD/HD+ Tips thread linked in my signature and read item 16.
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Read it. (And made an image of my factory partition. And then moved it to my extSDcard for safer keeping.)
So, the Nook HD+ partition structure is a bit different from the stock Android partition stuff I had found on the web.
So, for those of us running a custom ROM, I presume the factory image doesn't do us much good anymore. Will the HD+ automagically restore after 8 failed boots?
If not (or even if it will), is there a way to take that 448MB in the /factory image partition and use them for, say, a /swap partition instead? I think an xda developer is doing something like this for the Galaxy Tab 2, where he's using some memory that Samsung uses for animations and uses them for ZRam instead. Since I've backed up the factory image, and since I already have your factory 2.0.2 ROM, I really don't need the image any more. Seems like wasted space.
PMikeP said:
Read it. (And made an image of my factory partition. And then moved it to my extSDcard for safer keeping.)
So, the Nook HD+ partition structure is a bit different from the stock Android partition stuff I had found on the web.
So, for those of us running a custom ROM, I presume the factory image doesn't do us much good anymore. Will the HD+ automagically restore after 8 failed boots?
If not (or even if it will), is there a way to take that 448MB in the /factory image partition and use them for, say, a /swap partition instead? I think an xda developer is doing something like this for the Galaxy Tab 2, where he's using some memory that Samsung uses for animations and uses them for ZRam instead. Since I've backed up the factory image, and since I already have your factory 2.0.2 ROM, I really don't need the image any more. Seems like wasted space.
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You can play with the partitions all you want. Just don't ask me to help you fix it. You don't seem to heed my warnings anyway.
But other users be warned that factory partition has vital backup information there (it has more than just the factory zip there) and if you lose it, your device is as good as a paperweight. That is why I recommended all users back that partition up. Not for the factory zip, but for the backup files there. The device has other safety backup routines other than just restoring the stock ROM. An example is, I told you and succulent told you that devconf has vital files all ROMs need in /rom. Well, /factory has a backup of /rom there and if the device discovers /rom is messed up, it tries to repair itself. No /factory and no repair. Paperweight!
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app
leapinlar said:
You can play with the partitions all you want. Just don't ask me to help you fix it. You don't seem to heed my warnings anyway.
But other users be warned that factory partition has vital backup information there (it has more than just the factory zip there) and if you lose it, your device is as good as a paperweight. That is why I recommended all users back that partition up. Not for the factory zip, but for the backup files there. The device has other safety backup routines other than just restoring the stock ROM. An example is, I told you and succulent told you that devconf has vital files all ROMs need in /rom. Well, /factory has a backup of /rom there and if the device discovers /rom is messed up, it tries to repair itself. No /factory and no repair. Paperweight!
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Thanks for the quick response.
I am sorry that I seem to have gotten on your bad side. I did what you asked and moved my previous comment out of your thread. And I warned everyone that you don't think it's a good procedure.
And I did heed your warning. I made a backup of the factory partition and even moved the copy to my ext SD card for safer keeping. Especially since we were talking about wiping the sdcard. (Unless you're trying to say that storing the /factory img on the ext SD card is a bad idea because I won't be able to get it back to the internal SDcard if/when I need it.)
As for the devconf files, they're in the /rom partition. I don't understand how using the /factory partition for a /swap is going to ruin the /rom partition.
From what you're saying, the HD+ still has a "safety routine" built in, even when running custom recovery and a custom ROM? Does that mean that its safety routine is hard coded somewhere? Or part of the /rom code itself? How does the HD+ know to look in /factory when its running a non-factory OS? Does CM tell it to do that?
You're the expert. I'm just guessing here. If the /factory partition were used as a /swap, and if the system turned into a paperweight because it needed the /factory image later someday, then couldn't one go into recovery and copy the /factory partition back over, per your instructions? As a minimum, couldn't one use succulent's emmc recovery procedure to get back to factory status?
I'd be willing to trade that off for more performance.
How does one know when the HD+ goes into this safety routine? Does it tell you? Or is it transparent to the user? It would be interesting to know how often that happens. Does the safety routine then repair the /rom partition once booted if it detects a problem in /rom?
PMikeP said:
Thanks for the quick response.
I am sorry that I seem to have gotten on your bad side. I did what you asked and moved my previous comment out of your thread. And I warned everyone that you don't think it's a good procedure.
And I did heed your warning. I made a backup of the factory partition and even moved the copy to my ext SD card for safer keeping. Especially since we were talking about wiping the sdcard. (Unless you're trying to say that storing the /factory img on the ext SD card is a bad idea because I won't be able to get it back to the internal SDcard if/when I need it.)
As for the devconf files, they're in the /rom partition. I don't understand how using the /factory partition for a /swap is going to ruin the /rom partition.
From what you're saying, the HD+ still has a "safety routine" built in, even when running custom recovery and a custom ROM? Does that mean that its safety routine is hard coded somewhere? Or part of the /rom code itself? How does the HD+ know to look in /factory when its running a non-factory OS? Does CM tell it to do that?
You're the expert. I'm just guessing here. If the /factory partition were used as a /swap, and if the system turned into a paperweight because it needed the /factory image later someday, then couldn't one go into recovery and copy the /factory partition back over, per your instructions? As a minimum, couldn't one use succulent's emmc recovery procedure to get back to factory status?
I'd be willing to trade that off for more performance.
How does one know when the HD+ goes into this safety routine? Does it tell you? Or is it transparent to the user? It would be interesting to know how often that happens. Does the safety routine then repair the /rom partition once booted if it detects a problem in /rom?
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If you want to know more how the automatic repairs work, go to my Nook Color Tips thread linked in my signature and read item A12. The partition numbers are different but the repair process works exactly the same way on the HD/HD+, including the need for stock recovery to be installed. There are two ways to get your device automatically repaired if you have CM and CWM/TWRP recovery installed on internal memory. One is to flash stock recovery back per my item 5 in my HD/HD+ CWM thread, and the second is to flash the plain stock zip from item 6 there. That puts stock recovery back. Then it can repair /rom if need be.
And there is no real drawback of removing the factory.zip file from /factory partition since it is basically the same as a plain stock zip I have published. But the other files there are vital and should not be touched.
You got on my bad side by publishing that assert removal procedure on the help forum after I asked you to remove it from my thread. I don't want to make it easy for any user to do that as I consider it dangerous for noobs to do. See my response to your posting of that procedure.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app
leapinlar said:
You got on my bad side by publishing that assert removal procedure on the help forum after I asked you to remove it from my thread. I don't want to make it easy for any user to do that as I consider it dangerous for noobs to do.
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Thanks for letting me know. Later last night, I saw a post of yours on the Nook Color (I think it was) where you thought that anyone who would remove the updater-script safety check was an "idiot."
Okay, so I'm an idiot. But I am free to be an idiot and start my own thread in the Help forum, right? Just as you are free to respond there as you did. That's what makes the forum go 'round.
PMikeP said:
Thanks for letting me know. Later last night, I saw a post of yours on the Nook Color (I think it was) where you thought that anyone who would remove the updater-script safety check was an "idiot."
Okay, so I'm an idiot. But it's my right to be an idiot and my right to start my own thread in the Help forum, right? Just as it's your right to respond there as you did. That's what makes the forum go 'round.
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As I recall, I did not say the person that removed the assert was an idiot, it was the person who recommended it that I said was an idiot. The user was a noob and knew no better. He was trying to flash a Nook Tablet ROM to his Nook Color and the assert kept failing (doing what it was designed to do). The idiot was the one that told him just to remove the assert. He did that and bricked his Nook Color.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app
I'm panicking very much right now.
I did a big, big stupid and accidentally wiped my entire /data partition, including /sdcard (!!) in TWRP 3.0.4.1 while attempting to change the filesystem of my /data partition from F2FS to EXT4. I did a full backup of my phone, including /data partition (but excluding /data/media/0/ which is the location for /sdcard of course) on my phone prior to attempting to change the filesystem.
I didn't think that this would also wipe /sdcard, and ALL MY FILES INCLUDING MY BACKUP...
I'm frantically searching through Google as we speak for guides to clone these formatted sectors over USB (I'd imagine using ADB shell) to a PC and use Windows file or partition recovery tools to try and save every, if not most files.
Please lend me your knowledge and links to fixing this issue, Android community. <3
In older Android versions the /sdcard partition was it's own partition, which is why I didn't think of copying all my files over to a PC before making changes to /data.
well, when you wipe data from any partition in twrp it sort of resets all space to be overwritten. The data that is marked for overwrite doesn't remain when you full wipe. Since you changed the file system, the data was removed and overwritten by the wipe with blank space.... i hope you had at least some of it backed up on your pc. I never use those apps personally, i always hard backup all my things with a drag and drop onto my pc. I highly recommend it, saves you a disaster. Im very sorry.... i hope you didnt lose anything really important.
OcazPrime said:
well, when you wipe data from any partition in twrp it sort of resets all space to be overwritten. The data that is marked for overwrite doesn't remain when you full wipe. Since you changed the file system, the data was removed and overwritten by the wipe with blank space.... i hope you had at least some of it backed up on your pc. I never use those apps personally, i always hard backup all my things with a drag and drop onto my pc. I highly recommend it, saves you a disaster. Im very sorry.... i hope you didnt lose anything really important.
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Heh, that's exactly what happened. I'm gonna attempt this guide: https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...de-internal-memory-data-recovery-yes-t1994705
Basically try to use "dd" to make a RAW copy of "dev/block/dm-0" which according to the mount command I ran in TWRP's terminal shell, is what block /data is used on OnePlus 3T (OOS 4.1.3).
Wish me luck.
Long story short, I've been trying to get into my internal storage via TWRP but its saying that there are 0MB in the internal storage and that there is nothing in the sdcard folder
I've tried formatting it, hasn't worked
I've tried changing the format to FAT and then back to EXT4
then after that didn't work i tried the same but with EXT2 , it showed the amount of storage but still didn't let me see what was inside of the sdcard folder, whenever i'd go in there its just completely empty
Can I please have some help with this, I've been stuck on this for a couple hours now
Ouch! Please don't say that you just formatted userdata (/data).
You've just killed all your data on your phone.
No, I'm not that experienced with TWRP and I don't know which versions under which circumstances it can mount userdata.
I use custom recoveries and just presume that I can't mount userdata in them.
In the normal system (which mounts and decrypts) I use normal tools to sync or backup.
Renate said:
Ouch! Please don't say that you just formatted userdata (/data).
You've just killed all your data on your phone.
No, I'm not that experienced with TWRP and I don't know which versions under which circumstances it can mount userdata.
I use custom recoveries and just presume that I can't mount userdata in them.
In the normal system (which mounts and decrypts) I use normal tools to sync or backup.
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I didn't format data it self i meant that i factory reset it, sorry i should of been a lot more clear on that
Oh, ok.
Well, in any case, if it's encrypted you need to mount it not with a simple "mount" command but something fancier using dm.
They don't try to make it easy to do.
Unless you're destroyed your system and you're trying to recover your data, whatever you're trying to do is best done in the normal system.
never mind i found a fix for it
well not really a fix just a way around it
thanks for the help ^^
SoftieIsVibing said:
never mind i found a fix for it
well not really a fix just a way around it
thanks for the help ^^
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I had the same issue so I flashed a raw firmware after taking full system backup. Now TWRP is working fine.