Develop Bugs

[How-To] properly install Android

It is not quite self-explaining how to install Android on our Windows Mobile devices. Therefore I took some time and wrote down all the steps for people who are new to "Android".
More testers -> more experience -> more knowledge -> faster/better development.
I hope this way the forum is kept clean(er) from all kinds of questioned that have already been answered many times.
ReadMe Includes:
- Partitioning
- Device preparations
- Boot loader
- Install steps
- Fixes
- Links
- more...
If you are a developer (you create your own package) feel free to use my ReadMe for your packages (update regularly though).
to download the ReadMe click the [Android Repository] button in my signature.

It goes to a rapidshare page with 3 files, and when I click on the filename Android_README.TXT
or start download, I get the error
The file could not be found. Please check the download link.

ok thanks. i fixed it (rs bug when renaming files ^^)

How would i partition a 1GB SD Card? ie what sizes etc are the last 3 same but the unallocated is just whats left over?
I want to use a spare card rather then the one that came with my HD.

ATHiEST said:
How would i partition a 1GB SD Card? ie what sizes etc are the last 3 same but the unallocated is just whats left over?
I want to use a spare card rather then the one that came with my HD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
normally just calculate how i wrote in the readme:
whole space -768 (3* 256) and then the other 3 x 256
but in ur case i would make the swap smaller (i think its not even used at all) and the fat32 bigger; for instance:
fat32 - 384 MB
ext2 - 256 MB
ext2 - 256 MB
swap - 128 MB (rest)

To be honest the bit I find most confusing is all the different versions!

i didnt create any partitions on my card, and android works as good as it does on any, mind you i have not updated the files fo0r a month so alot might have changed

ReadMe updated!
updated a bit...

Geeba said:
To be honest the bit I find most confusing is all the different versions!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree...
i've been looking these posts here for a couple of days now and i still don't know how to do it....
especially the DualBoot thing...
is it possible to make a little bigger how-to manual?
or at least explain the versioning and the needed thing a little more?

the readme is about 50 times longer than anything else u will find about installing android anywhere else
the different versions are just like in windows mobile, theres not much to explain, its rather up to ur personal preference. doesnt take as long as flashing a wm rom, so its easy to try out more versions, especially with more sd cards.
dual boot is easy:
1. install the cab
2. open the dual boot program and make all your settings, for example: auto boot android (click on the checkbox/ratio under android logo), check auto boot checkbox and check fast boot (means 3 instead of 10 secs).
3. restart your device, DONT LAUNCH HARET because that will destroy all the dualboot settings. if you restart/shutdown the device normally, the settings will be stored and android will automatically booted at next startup (or whatever you set before)
if you have android autoboot and u want to boot wm, just QUICKLY press the wm LOGO when the dual boot screen appears.
i might include this in the readme soon, just dont have the time right now unfortunally

N!ghty said:
the readme is about 50 times longer than anything else u will find about installing android anywhere else
the different versions are just like in windows mobile, theres not much to explain, its rather up to ur personal preference. doesnt take as long as flashing a wm rom, so its easy to try out more versions, especially with more sd cards.
dual boot is easy:
1. install the cab
2. open the dual boot program and make all your settings, for example: auto boot android (click on the checkbox/ratio under android logo), check auto boot checkbox and check fast boot (means 3 instead of 10 secs).
3. restart your device, DONT LAUNCH HARET because that will destroy all the dualboot settings. if you restart/shutdown the device normally, the settings will be stored and android will automatically booted at next startup (or whatever you set before)
if you have android autoboot and u want to boot wm, just QUICKLY press the wm LOGO when the dual boot screen appears.
i might include this in the readme soon, just dont have the time right now unfortunally
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the dualboot help... i'll try that...
the first problem I have encountered yesterday when trying to put Android was SD card formating...
i downloaded the program you said and followed the instructions oh how-to and was not able to do it under Windows 7 with my 16GB SD card... does it even work for Windows 7??? is there another program I can try to do it with???
I have also dualboot on my PC with the Kubuntu being the second OS, but I'm not using it as much as Windows 7... I can try with it if you think it will work.. but first I have to download the 15GB of data from my SD card to my PC, again
I would like to put the Espresso build cause I saw that it has everything working beside the GPRS and camera...
can you tell me what should I download for my Blackstone so it works properly???
thanks alot...

qtype said:
Thanks for the dualboot help... i'll try that...
the first problem I have encountered yesterday when trying to put Android was SD card formating...
i downloaded the program you said and followed the instructions oh how-to and was not able to do it under Windows 7 with my 16GB SD card... does it even work for Windows 7??? is there another program I can try to do it with???
I have also dualboot on my PC with the Kubuntu being the second OS, but I'm not using it as much as Windows 7... I can try with it if you think it will work.. but first I have to download the 15GB of data from my SD card to my PC, again
I would like to put the Espresso build cause I saw that it has everything working beside the GPRS and camera...
can you tell me what should I download for my Blackstone so it works properly???
thanks alot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like the readme says: partitioning is only needed for partitined builds, which means that android uses several partitions to store different kinds of data, for - hopefully - more speed. only glossy uses partitions, espresso doesnt.
for glossy, u can also use ubuntu (download parted magic or something similar) to create partitions.
for espresso, u just need to copy the stuff onto ur sdcard.
but thats all in the readme... i dont have time to explain in detail coz i need to study a whole ****in lot at the moment +.+

N!ghty said:
like the readme says: partitioning is only needed for partitined builds, which means that android uses several partitions to store different kinds of data, for - hopefully - more speed. only glossy uses partitions, espresso doesnt.
for glossy, u can also use ubuntu (download parted magic or something similar) to create partitions.
for espresso, u just need to copy the stuff onto ur sdcard.
but thats all in the readme... i dont have time to explain in detail coz i need to study a whole ****in lot at the moment +.+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok... thanks for the help... you helped me a lot just with the claryfication of the versions that need partitioning and the ones that don't...
i didn't know that...
good luck with studying!!!!

one more question...
I get the following message '' Failed to load file\Storage Card\zImage''
Can you help me with that????

qtype said:
one more question...
I get the following message '' Failed to load file\Storage Card\zImage''
Can you help me with that????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
meaning u dont have a zImage at all (ur probably using espresso?). so download one from here, copy files onto sd card and rename "zImage.xxxxxx" to "zImage" and ur ready to go.

N!ghty said:
meaning u dont have a zImage at all (ur probably using espresso?). so download one from here, copy files onto sd card and rename "zImage.xxxxxx" to "zImage" and ur ready to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep, I downloaded it but I didn't know that i have to rename it...
It did the trick... booting up Android
thanks for all of your help...

updated the readme, not includes DualBoot howto and some other changes...

I managed to get the WiFi working but no matter which zImage I'm using I can't get the 3G to work...
I'm I doing something wrong or did I maybe forgot to do something????

qtype said:
I managed to get the WiFi working but no matter which zImage I'm using I can't get the 3G to work...
I'm I doing something wrong or did I maybe forgot to do something????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, some details about what version you are using would be helpful. however, this is not the right channel to ask this question. i think this question has already been asked several times in other threads. try search function or read the thread for ur version, its probably a version-issue or only for your country/provider

N!ghty said:
well, some details about what version you are using would be helpful. however, this is not the right channel to ask this question. i think this question has already been asked several times in other threads. try search function or read the thread for ur version, its probably a version-issue or only for your country/provider
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry about that...I realized it later that I should ask in another thread that question...
I managed to figure it out... I just needed to manually configure my APN settings...

Problem with "fullproof" card

So for the past week or so ive been trying to root my incredible to no avail... ive used every method posted and none work..
The two cards i tried are the 2gb card that came with my droid incredible.. formatted Fat32 1024 byte size with nothing on the card, and it didnt work on ANY method.. so then i tried my transcend 8gb class 6 card that was previously formatted to Fat32 awile ago and had a bunch of stuff on it, and nothing worked with that one either..
So then i said screw this, i went out and bought the holy card that supposidly has a 100% success rate... the Kingston 4gb class 4 card.. put that bad boy in and it dosent work either! what the hell can i do... the Kingston is brand new.. nothing on it, formatted Fat32 1024 byte size

did you format it in the phone?
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

I formatted it via my PC.. Windows7 i used the format tool in My Computer... i didnt do quick format either i did the full format Fat32 1024 byte size

format it in your phone once and give it a few tries
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

is this done in recovery or Hboot or what?

while phone is fully booted. menu > settings > sdcard and phone storage
scroll down to the bottom
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Just formatted the card via phone then went back into recovery and tried and no go.. ive tried it about 35 times now with this *100% successrate card* and gotten zero, also keep in mind that the design of this particular card makes it impossible to click in and out in rapid succession, it keeps getting stuck like the stock verison 2gb card does while my transcend 8gb has no problems clicking rapidly

my guess is you are doing something wrong or something is not set up right
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

invisiblek said:
my guess is you are doing something wrong or something is not set up right
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish that was the case but i have no problem using ADB in any setting, the drivers are definately set up right as i can use ADB fine while in android and i can even get an adb reboot recovery out of it before the phones fully booted up normally as in binnys method

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8mheIkQ-1o
dunno if u saw that yet, thats the video i made the night they got root
i have a kingston 4gb class 4 and thats the method i did there
this method works 100% of the time for me too

yeah. been trying that method for an hour just as in the video and its been 0% for me lol

There is no sdcard that is going to make the method foolproof. You need to reduce your variables. Windows driver scheme can become a mess very, very quickly. I recommend booting your PC with a Linux LiveCD like Linux Mint 9 Isadora or Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. They're both free and both distros recognize the DI out of the box. I've attached the ./loop.sh that I've used successful to bring up the adb error you're looking for--just rename the file before you run it from linux terminal. Navigate your browser in linux and download the Linux Android SDK ho ~/Downloads, and once you do, extract it to ~/Downloads. Then, to be ultra-safe, use these commands:
Code:
*open terminal*
cd ~/Downloads/ # assuming you d/l'd my file/SDK file to your home Downloads folder in Linux
cd android-linux-sdk_86/tools
sudo ./android
# this will trigger the SDK installer, just tell it to fetch all packages, then close it
rename loop.sh.txt loop.sh
chmod a+x loop.sh
sudo ./loop.sh
# you'll get an infinite loop with "adb: device not found"
At that point, pop the back cover off your DI, power it down, connect the USB cable, boot into bootloader, eject the SDcard, making sure your terminal window is visible: select Recovery menu, then start counting from the boot vibrate. Count to seven seconds (as in: one-one-thousand, two-on-thousand ...), then insert the card exactly on 7 or when the white screen scanline flickers, whichever comes first.
Hint: I like to do this with the terminal window kinda small with a maximized "Computer" Nautilus file explorer window up in the background, showing all devices. You'll notice with this view that your android devices appear, in bootloader, disappear on recovery reboot, then reappear when recovery/black triangle screen is done loading. If you've missed the timing window and the card wasn't inserted right, you'll see those two volumes pop-up, but your adb shell error message won't have changed--and you know to pull the battery and start over. If the message does change when when the drives appear: success! You can "up vol-power" and continue with whatever rooting method you like, provided you know the slight (good) differences using linux introduces versus Windows.
Good luck, you only have to do this right once, then Unrevoked2 locks it in place!

Dude, it took me forever. In the end it was finding the right time to insert the SD card for me. I would start out with it in then right before I selected recovery I would pop it out and then I would push it back in as close to the same time as the 2nd "mount tone" as I could. I have only had success with class 6 cards but both an 8 gig and the infamous 2 gig PNDY card have worked for me. I also had a prob with getting the adb shell to work after a did the push payload witch turned out to be a bad download of the "tools folder". re-downloaded it with the phone still in recovery and it was smooth sailing from there.
Don't get discouraged and have a lot og free time when you start trying the next time.

Did you try downgrading? I had no much for a week then I downgraded ands got it on the very first try. Good luck
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

I tried for DAYS to get this to work... I searched every android forum on the net for tricks... I gave up... I got pissed and started again... gave up again... and finally like magic I found the right combination of bull**** trickery to make it work.
How I did it:
1. Turn off the phone normally
2. Remove sd card (I used the 2g card that Verizon sent)
3 Boot up into recovery with the Vol- /Power button method (sd card out)
4. Let the phone do it's thing
5. Run loop.bat
6. The trick here- When you press the power button to select recovery have the sd ready to go in (sitting in the slot but not clicked into mounted position)... then when you hear the second usb "ding" push it in as fast as you can- almost simultaneously with the "ding".
This got me into the error message in about two tries (after possibly hundreds of failed attempts using other methods)- after that it's pretty much downhill.
No guarantees, but it worked for me and quite a few other frustrated souls.
Keep the faith- root is definitely worth the headache

Edit: Disregard. I didn't see that rynosaur had already posted detailed steps above.
Windows needs to see the device as too many different things during the different stages (i.e. HBOOT, Recovery, Fully booted). I did it under Linux and didn't have to worry about that. If you have a Linux partition or a Linux Live Distro, try it there. The commands are basically the same except you need to preceed the adb commands with ./ as in ./adb reboot recovery

DobbsianYeti said:
I tried for DAYS to get this to work... I searched every android forum on the net for tricks... I gave up... I got pissed and started again... gave up again... and finally like magic I found the right combination of bull**** trickery to make it work.
How I did it:
1. Turn off the phone normally
2. Remove sd card (I used the 2g card that Verizon sent)
3 Boot up into recovery with the Vol- /Power button method (sd card out)
4. Let the phone do it's thing
5. Run loop.bat
6. The trick here- When you press the power button to select recovery have the sd ready to go in (sitting in the slot but not clicked into mounted position)... then when you hear the second usb "ding" push it in as fast as you can- almost simultaneously with the "ding".
This got me into the error message in about two tries (after possibly hundreds of failed attempts using other methods)- after that it's pretty much downhill.
No guarantees, but it worked for me and quite a few other frustrated souls.
Keep the faith- root is definitely worth the headache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the sdcard usb ding timing is key

So heres what happened, my first Kingston 4gig card didnt work after like 40 tries, so i said screw this and returned it, and then i went somewere else and picked up a second 4gb kingston
Went home, put it in my phone, rebooted recovery and got it to work instantly... got the recovery flashed... removed cityid.. pushed the update.zip and su and superuser all on my phone
however my phone would NOT chmod no matter what i did.. i tried everything, i copied and pasted the directions exactly as on the screen and it would never work, when i got to the last line that starts of 1n - or something like that it would say permission denied even though i was in su...
So anyway i said maybe it had worked, so i rebooted the phone.. i saw that superuser.apk was in my app drawer as an installed app.. then i went into terminal emulator and typed in "su" and it said permission denied.. the root didnt stick because the stupid Chmod did not work for me...
Oh and to top it off guess what else happens? Obviously when i try to go back into recovery it DOES NOT work... tried it about 35 times again now and it wont go back in whatsoever after doing it the first time.. also for me in recovery my second usb ding happens MANY seconds into the black screen.. if you start counting right when you press the power button for recovery and the white screen turns to black at like 5 seconds.. my second usb ding dosent happen until like 10 seconds... deep in the black screen

Joe92T said:
Oh and to top it off guess what else happens? Obviously when i try to go back into recovery it DOES NOT work... tried it about 35 times again now and it wont go back in whatsoever after doing it the first time.. also for me in recovery my second usb ding happens MANY seconds into the black screen.. if you start counting right when you press the power button for recovery and the white screen turns to black at like 5 seconds.. my second usb ding dosent happen until like 10 seconds... deep in the black screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the difference now? Look at the root directory of the card. There's files there now. You need to re-format the card. The most effective formatting I (and others) have found is a split 2gig ext4 partition (linux fs), followed by a fat32 @ 1024k block allocation, long format. As soon as Android boots, it starts writing your card.

rynosaur said:
What's the difference now? Look at the root directory of the card. There's files there now. You need to re-format the card. The most effective formatting I (and others) have found is a split 2gig ext4 partition (linux fs), followed by a fat32 @ 1024k block allocation, long format. As soon as Android boots, it starts writing your card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can i format it like that using windows? The easy format tool you find when right clicking on the drive under my computer dosent have those functions

Partition

Can someone help please!
Trying to partition a 16GB memory card but can't!
I have used rom manager clicked partition set it up for 512 and 0 but when it reboots every time I get the android error logo thing.
Can someone help?!
Jake

stothy862 said:
Can someone help please!
Trying to partition a 16GB memory card but can't!
I have used rom manager clicked partition set it up for 512 and 0 but when it reboots every time I get the android error logo thing.
Can someone help?!
Jake
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i assume you have clockworkmod recovery flashed? rom manager did the same to me with froyo, i assume you know how to push a recovery from a command prompt? when you get the recovery error (After reboot) use the recovery-windows.bat command to push this recovery to your device and use that one to partition ur sd card

Thank's for the help but how do I do that? I haven't got a clue mate :/

stothy862 said:
Thank's for the help but how do I do that? I haven't got a clue mate :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right unpack the rar and copy to the root of your c drive, when rom manager reboots to partiton ur sd card and u get that error picture, connect your fone to ur pc, then open a command prompt as admin, type in the command prompt, cd c:/pushfiles_windows/pushfiles, then just type in recovery-windows.bat and your device shold show a recovery screen where u can partiton ur sd card

I get right to the end and get device not found :/
EDIT: Forget that did it in normal mode (not admin) and got it! Thanks

stothy862 said:
I get right to the end and get device not found :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol ok try this:
go here and download this recovery image - http://rapidshare.com/files/410520770/recovery-RA-desire-v1.7.0.1-R5.img
then go to www.unrevoked.com/recovery and download the recovery flasher, when you unpack the recovery flasher and that, look in one of the menu options at the top, one will let you choose a custom recovery, pick the .img u just downloaded and flash it, that one will let you partition ur sd card, if you dont like it you can always flash back

AndroHero said:
lol ok try this:
go here and download this recovery image - http://rapidshare.com/files/410520770/recovery-RA-desire-v1.7.0.1-R5.img
then go to www.unrevoked.com/recovery and download the recovery flasher, when you unpack the recovery flasher and that, look in one of the menu options at the top, one will let you choose a custom recovery, pick the .img u just downloaded and flash it, that one will let you partition ur sd card, if you dont like it you can always flash back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forget that! Thanks anyway! I got there in the end (see edit above!) thanks mate!

stothy862 said:
Forget that! Thanks anyway! I got there in the end (see edit above!) thanks mate!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry my bird was chattin down my ear while i was typin, took me like 10 mins to write da reply neva seen ur post lol

Ok quick help again! I apear to be stuck on the load screen. Help?!
Edit: And again forget that it just took forever!
Thanks again!

stothy862 said:
Ok quick help again! I apear to be stuck on the load screen. Help?!
Edit: And again forget that it just took forever!
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you have apps2sd it will take a little time to load after you partiton your sd card, it only because the dalvik vm has to rebuild the dalvik cache on your sd card

If it's just partitioning you wanted to know about. Try partition magic live cd, works great for a fat 32 and ext 3/4, and swap partition.
Easily found on downloads.cnet
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Huge problem no drive to transfer no android

Hey guys I got this huge problem...
I was getting lots of errors in the normal usage of my htc, after some updates.
So then i decided to use a custom ROM and it started ok but then crashed and rebooted.
After that I wiped the info from the sd card, but accidentaly erased all of it.
So now I just stay in the HTC screen, not able to transfer files into the sd card, the phone can start still in the clockworkmod window but I dont know how to turn the storage on.
Can you help me here? I just need to transfer files to the sd card, and it doedn't let me.
Windows 7 x64, it says k drive removable disk, drivers installed but its grayed out and won't let me open it. says it is not ready.
And when you click it it says please insert a disk in drive K:
what can i do?

In clockwork, click mounts and storage, then click mount usb storage, does that help?
Will it let you format the storage? If so that will be good enough for you to copy a rom across
If it doest, flashing an Ruu will definitely put everything back to how it was.

Mount sd card in cwm
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

You will need CWM 5.8.4.0 or newer.

Won't let me do anything you suggested.
results:
mount usb storage: E: Unable to open ums lunfile (No such file or directory)
formatting does work, it formats all cache, data, sdcard and system properly.
mount /sdcard gives the same result as usb storage.
and its version 5.8.2.7
Thanks, I hope something else could be done =S

Use this latest CWM Recovery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=24738635&postcount=1
5.8.2.7 is outdated version.

Wish I could, now the battery is dead as well, I'm leaving it to recharge during the night, I hope it works.
Thanks a lot guys, and I wish someone has another solution =S I'm getting desperate here

H170k121 said:
Wish I could, now the battery is dead as well, I'm leaving it to recharge during the night, I hope it works.
Thanks a lot guys, and I wish someone has another solution =S I'm getting desperate here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need another solution, you need cwm 5.8.4.0 or newer as posted above.

BenPope said:
You don't need another solution, you need cwm 5.8.4.0 or newer as posted above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but as I just said... it won't let me charge the phone, so installing that now is not possible, I already tried, I'm now trying to charge it but since the version I have installed is bugged it won't allow charge to go into the battery. that's why I asked for another solution, not that it was wrong.
Sorry if I didn't make myself clear, after I manage to charge it I think I can go from installing the clockwork then mounting the sd and finally flashing the RUU as sugested, but right now I can't even charge the phone.

There was a thread in this section somewhere with a solution to force the phone to charge (I think it was a script using adb which would force the phone to keep rebooting so it would charge a tiny bit each time until hours later it got to a reasonable charge), but you'll need to search because I can't find it at the minute. It was from a few months ago...
Edit: Here is someone talking about doing it manually, I'll see if I can find the other post I was thinking of: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=25133176&postcount=33
Edit 2: Here it is: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1658084

hopscotchjunkie said:
There was a thread in this section somewhere with a solution to force the phone to charge (I think it was a script using adb which would force the phone to keep rebooting so it would charge a tiny bit each time until hours later it got to a reasonable charge), but you'll need to search because I can't find it at the minute. It was from a few months ago...
Edit: Here is someone talking about doing it manually, I'll see if I can find the other post I was thinking of: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=25133176&postcount=33
Edit 2: Here it is: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1658084
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great help man! It's working now.
I saw that thread before I remember but tried it and it didn't work, combine the 2 and it does work. I just needed to make it turn on with the manual stuff and then use the batch file, now its charging a bit. Hope it charges enough to flash it.
Thanks a lot man!

[Q]SD Card/Partion [Solved]

Ok, so I went to do a backup today and got an error and noticed not enough space to backup. I plugged it into my PC and it showed that I only had 1.5 gb of free space out of a possible 13.3 gb. So I started looking for a folder/file that was taking up room on the "sd card" and could not find anything out of the ordinary. So I downloaded an app from the play store called storage analyzer and it is showing 6.4 gb of free space in storage/emulated/0. Is there something I am missing with this? All my other phones had a physical SD card and I could just clean it up if I had issues. I am a bit nervous formatting the SD card on my GN so can someone shed some light on why there would be such a discrepancy between what my PC, Recovery, and an analyzer app would see or the best way to format/clean my SD card. Any tips/help/advice will be greatly appreciated.

The same problem i had a while ago. The thing is that your data that is missing is in /sdcard/emulated/ (my recovery was only doing backups there) and your phone while booted reads only /sdcard/emulated/0 . At least that was my problem. Try reflashing the whole phone again. That means backup of sdcard reflashing to newest recovery, wipe all including sdcard and install from sideload whatever rom you want.
It did the trick for me.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

KekeJr said:
The same problem i had a while ago. The thing is that your data that is missing is in /sdcard/emulated/ (my recovery was only doing backups there) and your phone while booted reads only /sdcard/emulated/0 . At least that was my problem. Try reflashing the whole phone again. That means backup of sdcard reflashing to newest recovery, wipe all including sdcard and install from sideload whatever rom you want.
It did the trick for me.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply, glad to know that I am not crazy or alone. :silly:
I may give this a try soon, I would like to give some of the 4.4 roms a try but want to get my storage lined out before I try one.

ThePhantom97 said:
Thank you for the reply, glad to know that I am not crazy or alone. :silly:
I may give this a try soon, I would like to give some of the 4.4 roms a try but want to get my storage lined out before I try one.
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Click to collapse
Alright, more help needed. Damn its been too long since I have used ADB and I am using an new laptop so bear with me. Also I have searched for several hours on this and just not coming up with a solution. Ok, I managed to get TWRP v. 2.6.3.2 installed on my GN via fastboot. And my goal is to format/wipe my SD card and sideload a 4.4.2 rom. I have a good understanding of the process and have found several videos on the subject. Now here is where my problems begin. First off I have Android SDK installed and have the google drivers installed and I have downloaded the drivers from Samsung again on this laptop. I have backed up my SD card and am ready to begin, but I wanted to verify I could open sideload in TWRP and now the frustrations start. When I try to open sideload under "Advanced" I get the following text:
"Updating partition details...
Starting ADB sideload feature..."
And nothing else happens, even after waiting several minutes, and this happened on v. 2.6.3.1 and that is why I updated to the newest version of TWRP. I have a feeling it has something to do with the drivers but I have not figured out which drivers are needed with TRWP. Is it the Samsung drivers or the Google drivers from SDK. I have unistalled the drivers via Device Manager and let windows install the drivers automatically, and I have uninstalled and re-installed manually using the Google USB drivers. So if anyone has ran into this or knows how to assist me I would greatly appreciate the help. Also keep in mind that I am not a complete noob when it comes to my android phones, but I am a bit out of practice. I am just having some issues locating an answer via these forums and many other searches.
Also, if I format my SD card would it be possible to push a rom to my phone via ADB? I am willing to try an alternate method just want to be able to install a 4.4 rom after formatting my SD card. Anyway any assistance would be awesome at this point. Thanks for reading my long explanation.

One of the other issues was that when I started sideload in TWRP and then typed ADB devices in terminal no devices were present (why I thought could be a driver issue). However, for some weird reason beyond my understanding it is working fine today. I plugged in my phone to begin my trials again today and tada it works, I typed "adb devices" in terminal and now it shows up with a sideload status and I am able to sideload a rom. Sometimes I hate computers/electronics and I chose a career in them.

ThePhantom97 said:
One of the other issues was that when I started sideload in TWRP and then typed ADB devices in terminal no devices were present (why I thought could be a driver issue). However, for some weird reason beyond my understanding it is working fine today. I plugged in my phone to begin my trials again today and tada it works, I typed "adb devices" in terminal and now it shows up with a sideload status and I am able to sideload a rom. Sometimes I hate computers/electronics and I chose a career in them.
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Most probably you did not have the proper drivers for fastboot installed since i had the exact same problem on Win 8.1 x64 . Now i hope you got your phone fixed. Be just very careful when it comes to /factory partition as that one holds your IMEI and if you erase that only a backup will save you or some mobile service. I know i have to fix mine since i formatted that and did not do a backup before

KekeJr said:
Most probably you did not have the proper drivers for fastboot installed since i had the exact same problem on Win 8.1 x64 . Now i hope you got your phone fixed. Be just very careful when it comes to /factory partition as that one holds your IMEI and if you erase that only a backup will save you or some mobile service. I know i have to fix mine since i formatted that and did not do a backup before
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I know what you mean, I am so nervous when it comes to erasing/deleting/formatting with all the that is why I spend a lot of time reading up and researching and hitting up the folks here at XDA before I commit to something. I have been addicted to android and flashing all the cool roms uploaded by all the great devs around here. I would not know how I would spend my time if this place wasn't here...lol. But yes, I was able to wipe/format my internal SD card and side load a rom and get most of my storage space back. I have came to the conclusion that the actual rom takes up some of the internal storage because after formatting the internal storage and flashed a rom and gapps there was 1.5gb used. I did not move a single file into the storage, but there was still that much used.