Safe SD format/Clockwork Update/reflash procedure? - Droid Incredible Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm currently on CM7 which I flashed over Nightly #38. I'm liking it, but I get some reboots and stuff, so I want to do a fresh flash after wipe.
However, I'd also really like to format my SD card to clear any bad sections on it and hopefully prevent it from getting corrupt (just as a housecleaning item). I figure I also might as well update to the latest clockwork recovery at the same time.
Could someone put down some instructions on how to do these things safely, or post a link? I'm not sure if formatting the SD card will screw with Clockwork recovery, or what order I should do things in, how to do them, etc. REALLY don't want to brick my phone in trying to do the right things!

mobilemedic20 said:
I'm currently on CM7 which I flashed over Nightly #38. I'm liking it, but I get some reboots and stuff, so I want to do a fresh flash after wipe.
However, I'd also really like to format my SD card to clear any bad sections on it and hopefully prevent it from getting corrupt (just as a housecleaning item). I figure I also might as well update to the latest clockwork recovery at the same time.
Could someone put down some instructions on how to do these things safely, or post a link? I'm not sure if formatting the SD card will screw with Clockwork recovery, or what order I should do things in, how to do them, etc. REALLY don't want to brick my phone in trying to do the right things!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 - Download ROM to SD Card.
2 - Copy the contents of your SD card to your computer, so you have a backup!! Very important!!
3 - Update to the latest CWM recovery.
4 - You can have your phone format your SD card, or if your computer has a SD card reader you can format it from your computer. I've done both, with no ill effects.
5 - After the format, boot up the phone and copy the SD card backup that you copied to your computer back to your SD card. Reboot into recovery, and flash the ROM you want to install.
Good luck!
EDIT: The one issue I did run into was when I formatted my new SD card with my computer. I copied my files over from my computer to my SD card, put the SD card into the phone, then booted it. The phone deleted (maybe reformatted...?) the contents of the SD card, and that is why making a back up is so important! I was able to just copy the files back over, and that issue was a one-and-done issue.

Thank you, but I should have been a little clearer in my OP...
I'd really like to just start from scratch with my SD card, i.e. clean it off and start from new. I will be sure to back up the current files that are on there, but there's a lot of crap I don't need and rather than sort through it all, I figure I'll just format and then add stuff back on that I find I need. How do I do that safely? Are things that MUST be present at all times for Clockwork to function, or whatever?
Also, why would I add the ROM on before formatting - won't the formatting just erase the file?

I probably was confusing here: I thought adding the ROM to the SD before formatting, you could then copy everything over off the SD card. You can certainly just d/l the ROM to your computer and copy it over that way too.
CWM needs the clockworkmod folder, which is where things live including any ROM backups you may have.
Depending on the apps you have installed, they may have created a folder. If you don't have those apps but have those folders, you can delete them if they don't contain anything you need. There are folders there that Android will create upon first boot with a freshly formatted SD card.
EDIT: I adjusted my prior post with *hopefully* steps that aren't confusing.

Related

PLEASE HELP...Can't get SD Card Swapped!!

I just got a 32GB Micro SD Card for my evo and I am trying to replace my current 8gb card. I was previously running MIUI 11.26 and using clockworkmod recovery. I followed these steps because I couldn't find anything Evo specific:
http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/15/ho...-android-when-using-swap-hero-and-or-apps2sd/
when trying to format and reapply the rom i was using i received this error msg:
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0) (No such file or directory)
Now I don't know where to go from there. I previously had a 16GB card fry because apparently i didn't take the correct steps to get it working properly, i do not want that to happen again. Can ANYONE give me specific instructions for swapping my SD Card for my Evo?? If so I would GREATLY appreciate it!!!
And yes...this is probably rather "noob-ish" and I DID already search the forums for any help and couldn't find what i was looking for. Again any help is appreciated
Thanks!!
just copy all files from your 8g card to the 32g card pop it in the evn and you are good to go, nothing special required. Unless you are using apps to sd, then the easiest way s to put all apps back on the phone, then after switching to the new sd put them all back on the sd.
ifly4vamerica said:
just copy all files from your 8g card to the 32g card pop it in the evn and you are good to go, nothing special required. Unless you are using apps to sd, then the easiest way s to put all apps back on the phone, then after switching to the new sd put them all back on the sd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I tried that and kept getting an error msg. I think there are specific steps for partitioning etc I just don't know them.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
sorry if i'm misinformed but the evo has 2.2/apps2sd built in and 2.2 partitions the sd card on reboot. The article u linked i believe is for devices with 2.1 or ealier and a modded apps2sd . I have swapped many different cards and have not had to do anything that special.
Here are my steps:
1. go into settings manage applications and pull all apps back to phone.
2. copy all files/pics/vids/whatever u want to keep to computer.
3. power off, swap out sd cards, power back on.
4. phone should boot and partition sd or whatever.
5. use astro file manager and if it shows directory for sd, asec, secure then everything is good and u can move apps back to sd.
6. hook phone to sd and move all your kept files from old sd to new sd
I have seen your problem happen with a bad sd card, where did you get the 32g card. You may want to test it and see if it is actually a 32g.
Supersonic Sent
flight01 said:
sorry if i'm misinformed but the evo has 2.2/apps2sd built in and 2.2 partitions the sd card on reboot. The article u linked i believe is for devices with 2.1 or ealier and a modded apps2sd . I have swapped many different cards and have not had to do anything that special.
Here are my steps:
1. go into settings manage applications and pull all apps back to phone.
2. copy all files/pics/vids/whatever u want to keep to computer.
3. power off, swap out sd cards, power back on.
4. phone should boot and partition sd or whatever.
5. use astro file manager and if it shows directory for sd, asec, secure then everything is good and u can move apps back to sd.
6. hook phone to sd and move all your kept files from old sd to new sd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response...just a question before i go forward with it, when i replace the card and reboot the phone, is it automatically going to boot up w/ the rom i was using before replacing the card?
Edit: Tried these steps and got stuck in bootloop for MIUI (rom i had flashed previously). Even tried to put the initial PC36IMG file on the sd card and flash it through recovery, nothing! It searched for it then says it directory cannot be found. I've put the 32gb card in my card reader on my computer and it comes up just fine, I can add files to it, format it etc and everything works, any other suggestions...this is becoming highly frustrating! Again any help is definitely welcomed!
So i still cannot seem to get this working, and I've tried doing a lot of different things and nothing is working for me, I have tried to install some sort of file manager program (astro) but it doesn't recognize my sd card, yet my phone shows it as mounted and with plenty of space available. I do not know what else to do...can ANYONE help me?
i had a similiar problem recently. For christmas I received a new sd card. At fist it didn't recognize my card. I tried to format it using my PC but I then went to my recovery (Amon RA) and clicked on the Partition SD card option.
After I partitioned, I turned on USB-MS toggle and put all my files back into the phone (including my rom zip).
I disabled USB-MS toggle, and then wiped data/factory reset, cache, dalvik-cache
Flashed zip from sdcard and violoa. It works!
try that one out.
kakashi_s1 said:
i had a similiar problem recently. For christmas I received a new sd card. At fist it didn't recognize my card. I tried to format it using my PC but I then went to my recovery (Amon RA) and clicked on the Partition SD card option.
After I partitioned, I turned on USB-MS toggle and put all my files back into the phone (including my rom zip).
I disabled USB-MS toggle, and then wiped data/factory reset, cache, dalvik-cache
Flashed zip from sdcard and violoa. It works!
try that one out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to try that and see if it works, i just went back to Amon Ra today from clockwork. Thanks!
kakashi_s1 said:
i had a similiar problem recently. For christmas I received a new sd card. At fist it didn't recognize my card. I tried to format it using my PC but I then went to my recovery (Amon RA) and clicked on the Partition SD card option.
After I partitioned, I turned on USB-MS toggle and put all my files back into the phone (including my rom zip).
I disabled USB-MS toggle, and then wiped data/factory reset, cache, dalvik-cache
Flashed zip from sdcard and violoa. It works!
try that one out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how would i partition a 8 GB micro sd card with AmonRA?

[Q] Please help I been stuck in clockwork screen for hours

I originally reformatted my SD card and i must of mess some other things up. I am using clockwork and I also formatted the internal data "i think" ......I can boot into clockwork but that's all i can do. It doesn't see any zips on my sd card "fat 32 16 gig" I don't know what to do. If i reboot the phone it just goes into fastboot and from fast boot i can get to recovery but want recognize anything of my zips. I don't know what to do to get my phone back working??? Please help
Ok evidently there are suppose to be certain files on my SD? I stuck a old SD i use to have in my EVO and i can see my zips now!
If you formatted your sd card and didn't keep a backup of any working rom, you will have to start fresh with a fresh rom install. Just push the new rom onto your sd card from your computer.
not sure if you know this or not cuz it sounds like you don't, but if you format something you completely erase anything that was there. as in if you reformatted your sdcard you erased all data on it, including any zip files that where previously there.
t3project said:
not sure if you know this or not cuz it sounds like you don't, but if you format something you completely erase anything that was there. as in if you reformatted your sdcard you erased all data on it, including any zip files that where previously there.[/QUOT
Yes formatting erases every thing which brings me to think either there is some type of file on the micro sd that i need or after formatting it became corrupted. I had 2 cards. I use the 16 gig all the time. I formatted it and put ROM zips to flash. Clockwork cant see them...I put in a 8 gig i use to have in phone and then add zips to it and i can see them all along with other folders....So like i said i dont know if the card is corrupted after the format or if i need some type of file structure with certain files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is nothing on your sdcard that your phone needs to boot.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Dumb Q - Is it safe to delete .zip after flashing?

As the title says really....
I've flashed a new radio and ROM, and now the zips are taking up space on my memory card.
Is it safe to delete the zip files now?
Yes, it's fine ! However I keep them on there in case of an emergency.
It's safe to delete them. What sort of emergencies could happen? You'd keep the files on your SD card if something could happen while you're away from your PC and ain't flashing anything.
I guess if you flash on the spot alot, or want to, you'd better keep those zips on your card. That or make constant backups and delete them when you make another, which can be more annoying and more space involved
in my opinions, you can delete it only if you have at least 1 nandroid backup via cwm.
but actually, in case you dont have any nandroid backup, cant boot and you also dont have the rom zip file to flash (so you can't flash anything):
1. you can take out your sd card, use card reader and put it to your pc.
2. copy the zip file to your sd card,
3. put it (sd card) back to your phone
4. walla, you have your rom zip file again.
but i think 200+mb of rom zip file is not a big deal to store in your sd card, right?
yeah, test the phone for some time and make a nand backup. Then you could delete the zip files if you like. I keep them on my SD card (32GB) so no need of the space.

[Q] no OS and ROM zip files corrupted on external SD!

While on the below thread .. I eventually ended up making my TWRP to format my data, system, cache, as well as internal storage!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=46522379&postcount=364
Now it is all gone. successfully.
Note, when i formatted the internal storage - it did ask me to restart to update the partition tables. I did that. I warned me that there is no OS. I went ahead and restarted in recovery. I could browse using TWRP->advanced->file manager and see the zips on external sd card.
I had gapps and rom zip files copied on external SD card. When I try to flash those in TWRP, it throws an error - E: unable to open zip file!
Now I can not flash any of those! there is no OS also on the phone! I suspect that the external SD card is corrupt! I have good zip files on my computer (it has no working sd card reader).
Is there any way, i can transfer these zip files from my computer to phone's internal storage from where i can flash them?
please help!
rohit.bhosale said:
While on the below thread .. I eventually ended up making my TWRP to format my data, system, cache, as well as internal storage!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=46522379&postcount=364
Now it is all gone. successfully.
Note, when i formatted the internal storage - it did ask me to restart to update the partition tables. I did that. I warned me that there is no OS. I went ahead and restarted in recovery. I could browse using TWRP->advanced->file manager and see the zips on external sd card.
I had gapps and rom zip files copied on external SD card. When I try to flash those in TWRP, it throws an error - E: unable to open zip file!
Now I can not flash any of those! there is no OS also on the phone! I suspect that the external SD card is corrupt! I have good zip files on my computer (it has no working sd card reader).
Is there any way, i can transfer these zip files from my computer to phone's internal storage from where i can flash them?
please help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no way to effectively access internal SD without having been mounted first.
But there are two ways you can do this.
1. Take the MicroSD Card and insert into the PC via Card Readers.Then copy the zip files there. Properly eject the card from PC then insert it into the phone. Now TWRP will recognize the files and flash them. If it still does not then its a bad download so download again. Also while there, get the MD5 values as well for your zip files. This allows the recovery to validate the files. If you still have errors then roll back TWRP to version 2.5.0.0
2. Put phone in download mode. Use Odin on PC to flash one of the rooted stock roms. After that, proceed to re-download on phone and try again.
P.S. - I typically never let Recovery to format my external card. Then the file system issues start popping up.
EDIT - I noticed from your other post that your PC does not have a working SD Card Slot. In that case, you could put the card in another phone and then copy the files to this sd card and then use that way.
Perseus71 said:
There's no way to effectively access internal SD without having been mounted first.
But there are two ways you can do this.
1. Take the MicroSD Card and insert into the PC via Card Readers.Then copy the zip files there. Properly eject the card from PC then insert it into the phone. Now TWRP will recognize the files and flash them. If it still does not then its a bad download so download again. Also while there, get the MD5 values as well for your zip files. This allows the recovery to validate the files. If you still have errors then roll back TWRP to version 2.5.0.0
2. Put phone in download mode. Use Odin on PC to flash one of the rooted stock roms. After that, proceed to re-download on phone and try again.
P.S. - I typically never let Recovery to format my external card. Then the file system issues start popping up.
EDIT - I noticed from your other post that your PC does not have a working SD Card Slot. In that case, you could put the card in another phone and then copy the files to this sd card and then use that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I flash CM or MIUI ROM using odin? I am trying to search the forums but unable to find anything! odin needs a tar file and all these roms come with zip file! What do I do?
You can't unless the dev specifically made an Odin flashable version, which they never do. Flash the stock root66 firmware with odin.
You can't access the internal storage simply because it's not there anymore. When you chose to format data, it completely wiped out the /data partition. Your internal sd is really located at /data/media, but until you can reboot, this won't be recreated.
I doubt the external sd is corrupt or you would've seen issues before your wiping frenzy. But you can use adb while in recovery to connect the phone to your computer. Search for adb sdk install guide, or similar.
Best option now is to try Odin flashing the root66 firmware.
Oh, and you probably know by now, but never format system! This should only be a last resort type thing imo. Never understood why people recommend it for things like prepping for a Rom flash. The Rom will format system during install anyway.
Sent from my SGH-T999V using Tapatalk 4
I used this
http://apcmag.com/how-to-unroot-your-galaxy-s3-and-flash-it-back-to-stock-rom.htm
and got the stock rom back. appeared like that was the only way to get back to running system. Now it's alright.
to my surprise, following problems disappeared.
1. The SD card no more automatically ejects!
2. battery lasts longer!
3. no random reboots at all!
never thought .. i would feel good getting back to stock rom !
Isn't that exactly what we were telling you to do in the first place though? Use odin to flash stock/root66 firmware? I think you just took the long way is all. I also have all that firmware hosted so people could download it much faster than by using sammobile or samsung-updates hotfile downloads.
Either way though, glad you got it running again!
Just posting so others know if they come across this in the future.
Sent from my SGH-T999N using Tapatalk
yes guru! you said it.
I tried adb route too ... but for some reason it never detected my device. I tried removing, installing drivers, getting sdk and all. then tried the odin route.
Now will stay with this rom for some days ... before I get back to MIUI ... want to see it working ... for some reason it was continuously making my phone reboot! now that it is a clean slate, i hope this time, it will work!
fingers crossed!
If you want to try adb again for anything in the future, there's a different driver pkg that would probably help there. Adb universal drivers. Theyre in my driver repo with the rest if you ever need them.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
just copy the zip file on your phone storage
ROM zip files corrupted on external SD!
i think just change your sd card
and its work for you
this happen because of croupted sd card
I have same problem when flash the rom through tarp it shown zip file is currupt. Any one help me I tried more method but I failed every time
ashiqpm14 said:
I have same problem when flash the rom through tarp it shown zip file is currupt. Any one help me I tried more method but I failed every time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this
http://apcmag.com/how-to-unroot-your...-stock-rom.htm
and got the stock rom back. appeared like that was the only way to get back to running system.
Did you try this?

[Q] I messed up my phone

Hi, everyone, I am new here and I am really in need of help...
My handset is n7100. My previous rom is AllianceROM 4.1.2. I tried to flash phoenix rom v16. After that I have a problem with external sd card space. I think that might be due to abnormally working Extsd2internalsd mod. Because I can see a folder named sdcard0.
After that, I restored to AllianceROM but the problem came up, the external sd card is always reset after I reboot my phone. Everytime I reboot my phone, my extsd card seems to be reset. That means no matter what files or folders I moved into extSD before reboot, I will lose them after reboot, what I will have on the card is always 6 folders: android, data, DCIM, LOST.DIR, Movie, and titanium backup files. All other zip files I tried to put in the card (I tried to re-flash a rom) will be lost after reboot, no matter nomal reboot or reboot into Philz recovery. It is quite strange to me and I really don't know how to do this because I cannot flash anything from external sd....I also tried format extsd and reset to factory, didnt work, I also tried to remove the mod according to thread about the mod(extsd2internalsd) and my etc/init.d folder is empty....
Any thoughts would be welcome and thank you all for helping me out
rikku1983 said:
Hi, everyone, I am new here and I am really in need of help...
My handset is n7100. My previous rom is AllianceROM 4.1.2. I tried to flash phoenix rom v16. After that I have a problem with external sd card space. I think that might be due to abnormally working Extsd2internalsd mod. Because I can see a folder named sdcard0.
After that, I restored to AllianceROM but the problem came up, the external sd card is always reset after I reboot my phone. Everytime I reboot my phone, my extsd card seems to be reset. That means no matter what files or folders I moved into extSD before reboot, I will lose them after reboot, what I will have on the card is always 6 folders: android, data, DCIM, LOST.DIR, Movie, and titanium backup files. All other zip files I tried to put in the card (I tried to re-flash a rom) will be lost after reboot, no matter nomal reboot or reboot into Philz recovery. It is quite strange to me and I really don't know how to do this because I cannot flash anything from external sd....I also tried format extsd and reset to factory, didnt work, I also tried to remove the mod according to thread about the mod(extsd2internalsd) and my etc/init.d folder is empty....
Any thoughts would be welcome and thank you all for helping me out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the first thing you should do is try a second sd card to see if the problem persists... maybe yours is somehow faulty... secondly ... are you sure you got the sd card path right? try going to the root folder through a file manager... then go into storage or sdcard...it varies...inside that folder youll see a number of storage folders...check to see if any one of them is your ext sd card folder? maybe it resets everything because it really didnt get copied...really hope it works...good luck

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