Related
Hey all! So, a couple weeks back, I flashed a BETA ICS ROM onto my Inspire (Desire HD). Being my normal ignorant, and noob-like self, I completely ignored the fact that the thread said "DEVS ONLY!"
Well, flash forward a couple of weeks, and my Inspire is all but bricked. The ROM did not have mobile data yet, did not have a connection to the micro-SD card, and it was not touchscreen ready yet. I have tried ADB, but to no-avail, my file system knowledge and overall lack of knowledge put me quite a predicament.
I have flashed many ROMs before, but I sincerely messed up big time on this try. So, would any of you be able to help me find a cure for this important issue? Is the fix really simple and easy, and I am just a bonehead?
Thanks!
Not sure what your issue is. You never clearly stated. Does the phone not boot? Stuck in the splash screen? you want to flash a new rom?
marsdta said:
Not sure what your issue is. You never clearly stated. Does the phone not boot? Stuck in the splash screen? you want to flash a new rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oops, sorry! My problem is that my phone is stuck on the developer ROM, and I would like to fix it somehow. So, yes, I would like to get another ROM, but I have to remove this one first. The phone itself works great, but with no wi-fi, mobile data, and no touchscreen support, it is hard to live with.
Your nowhere near bricked. Going to ask the basics. Did you make a backup before hand? Did you have another rom on your SD card.?
If you answered yes to either then simply boot into recovery and flash the rom/ backup. You mentioned flashing roms before so I left out the steps.
If you answered no then you have two options. You can mount the SD card from within cwr. So download a rom on your PC. Mount the sd card, then flash away. Or take out SD card and use an adapter/other phone to transfer a new rom.
I was not smart enough to back up onto a computer, but I did back up onto the SD card. The only problem with this is that the ROM, and my computer, will not recognize that there is in fact an SD card inserted into the phone. So, in other words, it's like not having an SD card at all.
CWR will still read the sd card. Trust me. boot into CWR and restore your backup. And you be good as gold
Thanks! But, what exactly does CWR stand for? Haha, I'm not the most knowledgeable on the topic of Android, but is it like Clock Work Mod?
iTookTheByte said:
Thanks! But, what exactly does CWR stand for? Haha, I'm not the most knowledgeable on the topic of Android, but is it like Clock Work Mod?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah. CWR stands clockworkmod recovery
Okay, in that case, I'm not sure. All of my old files (CM7, CWM, etc.) were on the SD card, and it is unreachable. I have tried to boot into CWR, but it just gives me a black screen. I feel like this thing is just unable to be fixed!
its fixable. just the black screen in CWR is an obstacle. worst case is you have flash an ruu and start over with the whole rooting. i remember reading about the black screen in CWR give me a few minutes to find them to see what to do next
Okay! Thanks a bunch!
Pull the battery and put back in
Press and hold vol-down
Press power and bootloader will start
Select recovery using vol keys and press power
If you have a backup (you really should, and and if you don't consider this experience a learning one), restore it by selecting the backup / restore option
If no backup, goto mounts and select as storage, plug usb into pc and copy your favorite Rom over, then select back and flash from zip, select the zip and you should all be back up
But please, please I'm all for people learning and experimenting, but might be worth reading some of the basics guides and notes on roms before flashing the next one. Oh, and if I forgot to mention.... Do a backup before flashing ANYTHING saves heartache later, the enjoy
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA App
THANK YOU! I remember this now! Thanks everyone
Your welcome, after all, we all have to learn sometime
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA App
ok i couldn't find the specific thread i was looking for. i remember it being stickied but couldnt find it. did find something that might be usefull but it depends on if you have access to an sd card adapter or other phone to transfer the file needed to reflash CWR. If not i would suggest trying to see if flashing an ruu to help.
edit- I'm confused now. thought you said that when you boot into recovery all you get is a black screen?
Noob here that recently spent a weekend rooting my phone and loading roms.... Had issues with every rom I tried just getting stuck in a bootloop until I tried the new Decks Reloaded Rom build Clyde_44. I really liked the rom at first but am now finding that there are a few small issues.... I'm having many issues with making and receiving calls. Then today I tried to mount my sd card from my computer so that I could load my music back onto my phone and the menu I had that asked if I wanted to charge, sync, use as usb mass storage etc. isn't there instead it shows the old screen with the android guy and asks if I want to mount as usb storage when I click the button to do that the rom reloads but it never mounts, or sometimes it looks like it is going to mount but it doesn't. I've tried turning on usb debugging but that doesn't seem to help. I'm running kernal 2.6.38.8 Mason G. I can't remember at the moment what recovery system I have because I also tried a few different recoveries out as well. Anyhow I'm hoping someone can help me get to the bottom of this since I can't post to the developer's thread on this one.
tonyabluejeans said:
Noob here that recently spent a weekend rooting my phone and loading roms.... Had issues with every rom I tried just getting stuck in a bootloop until I tried the new Decks Reloaded Rom build Clyde_44. I really liked the rom at first but am now finding that there are a few small issues.... I'm having many issues with making and receiving calls. Then today I tried to mount my sd card from my computer so that I could load my music back onto my phone and the menu I had that asked if I wanted to charge, sync, use as usb mass storage etc. isn't there instead it shows the old screen with the android guy and asks if I want to mount as usb storage when I click the button to do that the rom reloads but it never mounts, or sometimes it looks like it is going to mount but it doesn't. I've tried turning on usb debugging but that doesn't seem to help. I'm running kernal 2.6.38.8 Mason G. I can't remember at the moment what recovery system I have because I also tried a few different recoveries out as well. Anyhow I'm hoping someone can help me get to the bottom of this since I can't post to the developer's thread on this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this version. (http://goo.im/devs/jamieG/ReLoaded/Decks_ReLoaded_44_Mag_RLS.zip)
You can download Boot Manager Lite from the Play Store and when it loads grant it superuser permissions. When you plug your usb in again, it will come up with a notification. Click it and hit mount usb. Allow it superuser permissions again. That should fix it. If not, try fixing permissions. You can do that through ROM Manager or recovery mode in the advanced tab. I hope this helps.
Sent from me AlterRom Reduxed EVO 4G using DCS Premium
Thanks guys.... I'll try the version you posted and see if that helps. It seems that the Reloaded rom is getting more and more unstable for me so I'm not sure what's going on. The phone is rebooting itself, getting stuck on the white htc screen, more phone call issues and so on. I might even try a different rom all together. Can I push the file you listed to my phone using adb since I won't be able to mount the card and drop it on there?
tonyabluejeans said:
Noob here that recently spent a weekend rooting my phone and loading roms.... Had issues with every rom I tried just getting stuck in a bootloop until I tried the new Decks Reloaded Rom build Clyde_44. I really liked the rom at first but am now finding that there are a few small issues.... I'm having many issues with making and receiving calls. Then today I tried to mount my sd card from my computer so that I could load my music back onto my phone and the menu I had that asked if I wanted to charge, sync, use as usb mass storage etc. isn't there instead it shows the old screen with the android guy and asks if I want to mount as usb storage when I click the button to do that the rom reloads but it never mounts, or sometimes it looks like it is going to mount but it doesn't. I've tried turning on usb debugging but that doesn't seem to help. I'm running kernal 2.6.38.8 Mason G. I can't remember at the moment what recovery system I have because I also tried a few different recoveries out as well. Anyhow I'm hoping someone can help me get to the bottom of this since I can't post to the developer's thread on this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had the same problem with my USB mass storage not being able to connect and fixing the permissions with a regular rom manager did the trick for me, all thanks to this thread.
Also you might wanna try this ROM http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1732569
I use it as my daily, really like it. it has a few flaws but its the best one I've used so far.
If I'm posting this in the wrong place I apologize in advance. I'm also a bit freaked out since my phone seems to be kaput right now, but I have faith this is fixable. I need some of you professionals to give me your advice on how to go about fixing this.
Okay here we go...
I have in the past rooted my phone without any major issues by just reading this awesome site. I recently used "SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_NoData" to root my phone using the one click method and everything was working fine. I realize now that I should have backed up all of my user data on the phone prior to updating to ICS from Gingerbread.
So, I think I made a newbie mistake by actually using Titanium Backup Pro (updated to latest version) to restore 1 file called wallpaper from the date 03/2012 (March 2012) which was when my phone was using Gingerbread 2.3.4 I think. I remember hitting the restore button and getting an option to restore only the data, so I chose this and a notification said, "Reboot phone for changes to take effect". Once the phone rebooted I unlock the screen and see the wallpaper I had from earlier this year. Now, I think the main problem is that I'm now using Ice Cream Sandwhich 4.0.4 and restoring the wallpaper from Gingerbread 2.3.4 has caused some underlying issues which is causing my phone to constantly reboot.
I went to the Sprint store and explained the issue and the Sprint representative said my phone needed to be reset because it seems to be glitching out. I informed him that I had files on my phone that I wanted to try to backup to my computer before I completely wipe the phone. Now, I'm home and I'm trying to get my phone to pop up in Windows 7 x64. I keep getting USB connection errors while connecting my phone to my PC because the phone keeps constantly rebooting while the drivers are trying to install then as soon as the phone reboots the driver installation fails.
USB Device Not Recognized
SAMSUNG Mobile MTP Device failed installation
So I've tried uninstalling Samsung Kies and the USB drivers and then re-installing them and rebooting. Still no joy because my phone keeps constantly rebooting. It is never going to complete installing because the phone is completely unstable at this point in time. Further research led me to updating the MTP from Microsoft. After installing this I rebooted. Problem is I'm still getting connection issues while trying to connect my Epic 4G Touch to my PC because the drivers are not able to install because of the constant reboots, even though they were installed previously. This is how I was able to root my phone to begin with.
So basically what I'm trying to do is backup my files on my phone to my computer (which it now may be too late) before I just completely reflash a fresh ROM (Full Restore on FI27) and start over from scratch.
I had the idea of actually reapplying "SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_NoData" to hopefully reset the kernel so I could backup my phone to my computer. This hasn't resulted in any changes whatsoever either. I'm completely stumped and would really appreciate some wisdom here.
I hope all of this makes sense and I hope someone out there is nice enough to take a little time to point me in the right direction.
I have just placed the phone in download mode with the idea of re-downloading "SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Kernel" and USB drivers have been installed successfully.
Nice to see this thread is getting some views, but no one has any advice to give me?
What files on your phone do you need?
I just got the Phone to show up in Windows Explorer by plugging in the USB cable right when the Yellow 4G came up and I was browsing the phone and I noticed the SD Card was not showing up, but before long the phone rebooted and I'm still trying to access the phone but the damn thing keeps rebooting constantly.
I'm just trying to backup photos I don't have backed up anywhere else. Other than that I'm hoping I can do a full restore using "SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore" and that will at least get my phone back to operating normally right?
Just go into the recovery menu and do a factory reset. It won't format your SD card.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
m4xwellmurd3r thanks for the advice.
I got impatient and went ahead and flashed "SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore" and my phone is back to operating normally. My SD card is still intact as well! What is really surprising is the fact that the pictures that were on my phone are still there. I don't understand, I obviously did something wrong. Also no longer having USB connection issues so that is a big relief as well!
Of course all the applications I had installed are no longer present, but why are my pictures still intact after using a Rooted Restore.
I want to completely wipe my phone and then create a backup with Titanium Backup and call it Stock_Version#. Then after I root the phone and get everything setup the way I like it I want to create another backup called something else. Is this the correct way to go about doing this?
Because none of your storage gets wiped by factory resets. Resets only affect the rom portion of your phone not storage. Glad you got it working
By the way rooted restore already wiped everything on your phone and rooted it so you're good to go
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
m4xwellmurd3r said:
Because none of your storage gets wiped by factory resets. Resets only affect the rom portion of your phone not storage. Glad you got it working
By the way rooted restore already wiped everything on your phone and rooted it so you're good to go
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? Okay, so I shouldn't see any empty folders for apps I no longer use?
I swear everytime I start looking at the folders in my phone I see things I don't recognize and it just bothers me. This is one reason I wanted to reset my phone and start over fresh.
Also is there a good tutorial for using Titanium Backup?
Any folders made on the SD card and internal storage will remain since factory resets won't touch the data, even if the app is gone
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
So when you install an app just to test it out then you un-install it remnants of that app are still left behind. This I have to say I don't like. There has to be a better way to keep the file structure free from accumulating garbage. Is there a better way or not?
Ci2e said:
So when you install an app just to test it out then you un-install it remnants of that app are still left behind. This I have to say I don't like. There has to be a better way to keep the file structure free from accumulating garbage. Is there a better way or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could always delete the /data contents for the APK but not if it's in android.secure.... you won't know what is what in there.
@garwynn - What is the difference between SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore.exe, and SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore_v2.exe?
Also I want to completely reset my phone now that I have everything backed up to my PC that I care about. So do I need to do a factory reset on the phone and then flash one of the files above?
The plan is to get a fresh start and use Titanium Backup like I should have been doing from the start!
Ci2e said:
@garwynn - What is the difference between SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore.exe, and SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore_v2.exe?
Also I want to completely reset my phone now that I have everything backed up to my PC that I care about. So do I need to do a factory reset on the phone and then flash one of the files above?
The plan is to get a fresh start and use Titanium Backup like I should have been doing from the start!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Copied from the v2 thread.
garwynn said:
...What's the difference? Flash order.
Normally our one clicks don't have the same order as Sextape's leak.
Version #2 is a test of using the same order and so far so good for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great I can't find that thread at all, can you give me some linkage?
MoHoGalore can you answer my second question?
Ci2e said:
That's great I can't find that thread at all, can you give me some linkage?
MoHoGalore can you answer my second question?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Click the tiny arrow beside Garwynn's name in the quote I posted. It'll take you to that thread i copied it from.
No, you do not need to factory reset when you use an Odin one click.
I just got done using an Odin One Click -> SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore.exe, all my data was left intact. Are you sure you know what you're talking about?
Ci2e said:
I just got done using an Odin One Click -> SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore.exe, all my data was left intact. Are you sure you know what you're talking about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol. So your google account settings remained? You didn't have to setup anything?? If that's the case, either it was the no data version or it didn't flash.
And if you're taking about formatting the usb storage, like blues said in the other thread you asked, it doesn't format it.
But feel free to get other opinions.
:edit: And the only way I'd ever suggest to "factory reset" from the privacy menu, would be to use a gb build. But don't take my word for it, read the brick bug thread.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
I'm just getting confused here I think your right. So basically if I do a factory reset via the settings menu, that will reset everything but keep the same model FI27. Then all I'll need to do is reflash the SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore.exe, right?
Ci2e said:
I'm just getting confused here I think your right. So basically if I do a factory reset via the settings menu, that will reset everything but keep the same model FI27. Then all I'll need to do is reflash the SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore.exe, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my edit above. I'll never suggest using that option with an ics build at this time.
Now, having said that, i have done it but with the brick bug, that choice is yours.
What i try to do is just format the drives (both internal and external) when connected to my laptop then power off, then use a one click.
Safe method - use a gb one click, factory reset via privacy option in settings and format usb, then use the fi27 one click.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
Okay tell me I understand this correctly.
Format both internal/external drives via settings > privacy > Factory data reset (this does not touch the SD Card, right?) while USB cable connected.
Power off phone and boot into download mode, then flash a "Stock Gingerbread Rom" (matching the model #, will it still be FI27 or not?) then at this point if I'm still on FI27 all I'll need to do is reflash "SPH-D710_FI27_CL1127689_Rooted_Restore" to regain root.
If after doing a factory reset and flashing a stock gingerbread rom I may have to wait for updates to be pushed to my phone, or not?
Well I finally made the leap back to Android from iOS (Had a Nexus One & S back in the day) and got an S3 that I went about rooting yesterday. After finally getting it rooted and adding CWM, I flashed the nightly build of CM10, and that's when it all went downhill. The phone was taking forever to boot, and as a fairly impatient person, I led to my own doom. I rebooted into CWM thinking that an erase and reinstall would do the trick. The kicker, I literally formatted every option as far as formatting goes... Don't ask. Clearly didn't think about what I was doing. At this point when attempting to boot the phone, it shows Samsung for a sec, then black. I can still access CWM, but when I attempt mounting anything, my Mac (Yes, don't judge) does not see it. I do have access to a PC if needed, I just need to get this phone working again, preferably with a custom ROM. Someone, anyone.. Help this poor idiot.
Adnando said:
Well I finally made the leap back to Android from iOS (Had a Nexus One & S back in the day) and got an S3 that I went about rooting yesterday. After finally getting it rooted and adding CWM, I flashed the nightly build of CM10, and that's when it all went downhill. The phone was taking forever to boot, and as a fairly impatient person, I led to my own doom. I rebooted into CWM thinking that an erase and reinstall would do the trick. The kicker, I literally formatted every option as far as formatting goes... Don't ask. Clearly didn't think about what I was doing. At this point when attempting to boot the phone, it shows Samsung for a sec, then black. I can still access CWM, but when I attempt mounting anything, my Mac (Yes, don't judge) does not see it. I do have access to a PC if needed, I just need to get this phone working again, preferably with a custom ROM. Someone, anyone.. Help this poor idiot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best advice I can give you is to not worry about ROM or root right now. Best bet is to get on the PC and ODIN back to stock. Once you're back up and running, then root to your hearts content.
I've found (the hard way) that this phone is hard bricked very easily. You don't want to do that, just start fresh.
From this link you can get a stock jellybean rom with root injected into and flash it through odin. But as with anything read carefully.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426
If you have a MicroSD card, you can shove a rom inside there and install it by launching into Recovery mode. Works for me everytime.
laserlight959 said:
If you have a MicroSD card, you can shove a rom inside there and install it by launching into Recovery mode. Works for me everytime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Came to say the same. If you can still boot into recovery then just insert sdcard with a rom and flash. Then make a backup so it doesn't happen again lol.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Hi guys,
I've got a bit of a problem. My phone is stuck in a boot loop, which is a problem I've dealt with before, with help from these threads.
But this time I'm really stuck. I can't access the HBoot screen like I normally can, by holding down the volume up and power off buttons simultaneously.
I am using (racks memory) I think it's the War something mod of Cyanogen 7 I believe. I installed it 5 months ago and it's been working fine. This is not a new or recent install!
The phone does suffer from low memory issues a lot, as do all Wildfire S's. I have managed to get around that previously by moving apps to the SD card or linking to it or making user apps into system apps. I was in the middle of chatting on whatsapp when suddenly the phoned just blipped and died on me.. then it went into the boot loop. It's never happened before and my suspicion is that it ran out of memory or something.
I've tried removing the battery and leaving it out for some time, no luck. I've tried restarting without the SD card and Sim card. No luck. I've tried connecting it to my laptop... no luck. All the usual tricks just aren't working.
I have TiBu installed and my most recent back up was less than 4 weeks ago. I also did a Nandroid system backup a few months ago, so I should be able to restore ok, I just can't access the HBoot screen.
The other weird thing is, when I left the loading screen going round long enough, like in the time it would normally have booted.. suddenly the sound of my new emails popping up plays... and today, even tho it was on the load screen, it made clicking sounds like when I activate apps when my finger touched the screen. It's almost like the phone has started up as normal, but the load screen just won't go away and underneath it all is normal.
I've never had anything quite like this happen before and I've been without my phone for 3 days now, so came here in desperation for some inspiration! hehe.
I am probably going to buy a new HTC phone with a large system memory cos altho I dearly love my Wildfire S, the low memory has caused me nothing but problems since I first bought it, and I have wasted hours and hours on it, trying to get around the problems caused by it. But until then, I need to get my contacts and messages back and continue to use it for now. I would also ideally like to keep it going and give it to my sister perhaps who doesn't have a smart phone. She won't need as many apps as I do, so it would likely suit her, or maybe my Mum.
Any help anyone can give would be massively appreciated. Thanks guys!
Can't access HBoot!
Hey is anyone out there? I know lots of people get stuck in boot loops and there's a million threads of support for that, but this is different. I can't access the recovery system either. I have clockwork mod on it and normally you can get into that fine. Trying to find help on this problem is really tough cos I have to wade through all the noob threads for standard easy fix boot loops. If anyone could help me on this I'd be extremely grateful.
This might be all I can offer but two things come to mind. The first is you said volume up its volume down to get into the bootloader. The other is to search in the wildfire forum regarding whatsapp. Recently I read a post about a guy who's phone crashed from whatsapp. I don't remember how he recovered you have to search on it; unfortunately the second time he couldn't recover.
Good luck
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
Thank you!
MiCeltic said:
This might be all I can offer but two things come to mind. The first is you said volume up its volume down to get into the bootloader. The other is to search in the wildfire forum regarding whatsapp. Recently I read a post about a guy who's phone crashed from whatsapp. I don't remember how he recovered you have to search on it; unfortunately the second time he couldn't recover.
Good luck
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for this... I'm willing to grasp at any thread at the moment. I did try the volume down option too but no dice there... but the whatsapp thread sounds promising, so I'm going to follow that up right now. It's after 4am and I've been sitting here working on this for hours and hours and at my wits end, so thank you! Fingers crossed!
Accessed HBoot!
Update:
Ok, I couldn't find the thread about whatsapp that was referred to above, but I have just tried accessing the recovery menu, using the volume down and power key, after first removing the sim card, but leaving the sd card in place. Suddenly that seemed to work! The menu came up!
I tried accessing it again with the sim card back in, and it refuses to come up again as before. So that at least is one issue resolved.
Now I'm having trouble mounting my SD card, which it says can't be mounted. I know the backups and recovery files are on the the SD card, but it just doesn't seem to see them there.
I wiped the dalvik cache in case that was causing any problems and it doesn't seem to have resolved this current issue so far. I'm going to keep trying other options as see how I get on, but I least wanted to share the solution to one of the problems my thread raised.
Further Update
I couldn't remember the name of my mod in the first post.. it was the WildChild mod.
After getting my phone into HBoot by removing the sim but keeping the SD card in, I found I was unable to mount the SD card. I researched this problem and some suggest the card may be corrupted.
I have checked the card on an external reader plugged into my PC and it read perfectly fine, and I managed to copy every bit of data on it across to the computer with ease. Others however found that after a reformat it eliminated any problems with mounting.. so that is what I am going to do and then try and restore the copy of the data I saved to the PC back onto the SD card.
Attempting now to reboot normally with the sim back in and the SD card removed this time produced a very desirable result. My phone started back up, albeit without the normal operating system. I was able to connect to wi-fi and my network and see a missed call voice mail message symbol. There are however no apps at all as yet and no background screen. I should mention that the phone did ask me to allow SuperUser permissions again.. I should also mention that I foolishly tried to Fix Permissions in CWM which then sat for a long time, eventually I removed the battery cos I thought it wasn't gonna do anything.. this is a big no no I now find out from the threads and I may have buggered it up a bit. I don't know.
My saga continues anyhow, and although I've not had much support on this, it might still be helpful for others to read and follow should whatsapp crashed their phone too and mess with their SD card somehow.
Another Update - Making Progress!
Next update on this...
I removed the SD card and put it in an external reader again on my PC.
Then I installed the free program Mini Tool Partition Wizard Home Edition and selected MiniTool Partion Wizard rather than the Power Data Recovery.
The Wizard allowed me to see the hidden partition on my drive. I understand now why it has always had trouble reading and writing to the SD card in the Ext section that was hidden. This should have been an EXT-2 or EXT-4 format partition I think, and mine is an EXT-3.
Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know much about these things and just learn as I go and by experiementing.
I had hoped to back up the hidden data in the partition but I was unsuccessful. Instead I found the Rebuild MBR (Master Boot Record) option and applied that to the entire SD card.
I then put it back in my phone, again without the Sim, and went into HBoot and recovery. I then went to my advanced back up and restore section and now the SD card is mountable and readable! I didn't have to wipe it or reformat!
I found my most recent up date which was the end of August... I wish I'd done them monthly, but oh well not too bad... and selected it and chose to Restore Boot.
Once it had completed I tried to reboot, but no dice. I put the sim card back in.. still didn't work... BUT I was now able to get into recovery again, this time without removing the Sim!
So inching along slowly here with this but making progress.
Next I plan to restore boot again, this time with the Sim card in.. and try and restart.. if that fails, I will go back into advanced recovery and try to also Restore System, and lastly restore SD-ext and see if each of those options repairs whatever damage that stupid Whatsapp did to my phone! I hope the little solution to various problems I've had are of some use to someone else here. Now wish me luck!
Wow, you were busy last night while most of the western world slept . I'm guessing if I posted at 11:10 PM and you said it was 4:00 AM, that your in the London timeline. I thought a little bit more, later, and I think that person's post I read fixed his phone by eventually getting into recovery and restoring, which as I remember worked that one time, until he reinstalled and used Whatsapp again some time later (it was at the insistence of a girl that used it). Whatsapp has, like 300 million users, but it does seem to give some people serious problems, and that's why I think most people are hesitant to try and help. They don't want to make things worse, since there are those instances of totally bricking a phone...but as long as a person can get into recovery, it's not bricked!
Interesting...I have done the, "fix mbr" in PCs many times, but I think you've taken it to new levels using it in phones! At least I don't remember reading anything much about someone doing it (in phones) before and it's brilliant, IMHO. You really did a great job sharing what you've done and I hope you get it fixed. I clicked a, "Thanks" for a good post follow up.
Insert standard disclaimer here: I'm not telling you to do anything, or what will or won't work, but sooner or later you're gonna have to restore that backup, but it's your choice on what to do; and, it sure seems like you know what you're doing, especially having made a backup to work from. I can appreciate the way you've gone piece by piece in your restore efforts to try and find where the problem occurred. The nice thing about the Wild Child ROM is it all works, and incidentally I think the developer uses ext2 for his extended SD card partition! It sounds like you reformatted to ext2 or ext4 from ext3, so the only thing there now is what came from restoring that backup piece in Clockwork; therefore, there's nothing that would be lost that isn't already; and, you backed up everything else on the SD card. So I don't want you to brick your phone either, but I'm wondering about wiping the cache and then the dalvik-cache, and then restoring your whole Nandroid backup?! I think your Whatsapp contacts are saved and so if the phone boots to a working condition you could just uninstall Whatsapp right away, boot into recovery and wipe cache and dalvik-cache again just to be safe, and then decide what to do about using Whatsapp again. As long as you can get into recovery, ultimately you could wipe, wipe, wipe and reinstall Wild Child to start all over if nothing else works.
On the other hand maybe you've already got this whole mess straightened out, if not, I'll again wish you - Good luck!
Solved!
So I next wiped the cache partition 3 times, as someone on another thread said sometimes it takes more than one go to clear it all properly for some reason.
I also wiped the dalvik cache again a couple more times. Then I went back to my back up and restored system. Then I tried to boot my baby back up.
I was falling asleep at this time but I remember the phone partially recovered. But most of the apps were broken. I had low memory issues too, so I uninstalled a few apps, managed to restore some individual apps or update them, and log in long enough to send messages to contacts with my email so I wouldn't lose them.
Then I fell asleep with the phone in my hand haha.. when I woke up I immediately continued with it and finally worked my way back to whatsapp being the last app I wanted to deal with. I managed to get into it and send some messages.
Then I did a full nandroid restore on everything.
The phone returned to it's state as of 2 months ago when I last did a nandroid back up. But some of my TiBu apps were backed up more recently. So I manually restored those and things were mostly back to how they were before and I am fairly happy with the low loss of data.
Whatsapp was working fine for a while.. but then it started having problems. It first had all my contacts there... then it lost their names but kept their numbers, then it lost all the old messages and right now I'm in the middle of trying to restore everything again and it's stuck on a restoration. I did a full uninstall of the app, restored the back-up, then it tried to update, but it always fails and now it's just hanging. So it definitely appears that whatsapp is one of the major causes of problems on my phone.
It was also one of the largest apps I had on there. Wildchild is an awesome rom, it only lacked video really and I installed a codec and player for that and got it working again, despite the guys on the Wildchild thread saying they didn't think it was possible. Yes I had trouble with it sometimes, but most of my trouble stems back to the low memory issues and the fact I broke all my apps up by spreading parts of them over the SD card, internal storage as user apps and system memory. That's a Wildfire S problem, not the fault of the Rom.
Anyway, I've made note of all the important numbers and will be buying a larger capacity HTC phone this week. Not sure which yet, but possibly a Sensation or Sensation XE, depending on my budget.
Thanks for your support MiCeltic. Yes I'm in London hehe. And I hadn't read anything about using MBR on a phone, but it was the SD card which had the problem and that certainly fixed it without having to wipe all my data.
I think what I have here is multiple layers of problems.. and I'm really pleased that after 3 days effort I managed to get past most of them. Once I get my new phone and transfer the contacts, I will have to think twice about using whatsapp.. it's my favourite app of all tho, so it will be hard to part with. This phone has many bugs.. I will completely erase it and reflash it when I get time and either keep it as a back up and maybe gift it to my sister or mum as I said before.
:good:
Last update
OK this is my past update on this... Whatsapp had one last surprise in store for me.
After it started messing up my phone again. I gave it one last chance. I completely removed it from the phone and installed it as new from the GooglePlay store. Then when I loaded it, it found the backed up Titanium BackUp messages and restored those.. then when I opened the app, it also had restored all my most recent messages, up to the day before it crashed the whole phone. I was amazed. They must have been stored on the server or something.. I think they sit there for 3 weeks. So I'm likely only missing one weeks worth of messages at most, about 4 weeks ago! Ha! Brilliant. I'm not doing a Nandroid backup cos everything is stable again and I hope to have no more troubles until it comes time to transfer all the date to the new handset... that's gonna take a while cos I will have to learn how to gain the boot mod rights all over again and maybe even flash a custom rom as the stock is sure to be loaded with bloatware. Still.. if it has a 1GB internal memory it shouldn't slow the phone down too much.. not compared to the tiny 150MB this little baby has!
If someone wants to close this thread now, feel free.
Cheers. :good:
You inspired me to read a little more last night and I did see where some people found a fix by uninstalling and then installing new (not from backup), then restoring their contacts. Seems like you've proved that point! Interestingly I read that ALL of your contacts are stored on the Whatsapp server, not just your contacts that have Whatsapp (Remember those permissions you accept when you install an app!). As I said, there are 300 million users, obviously not everyone has the problems, so hopefully it will work for you now and on your new phone, which after reading your posts I know you will make a back up of immediately and again after rooting...AND definitely before installing Whatsapp ! ! ! You might even find your next phone easier to root as a lot of them don't need an update of the bootloader on htcdev for the first step when unlocking and/or many can gain Soff!
Glad you got it working and now all's right with the world...well for now