What is the proper way to format a galaxy nexus? I want to clear everything possible and start fresh in an attempt to solve the abysmal write speeds I've been getting recently and I don't want to wind up bricking the thing in the process since I know certain partitions store the boot loader and more.
Other attempts to fix the write speed including fstrim, changing the mount command to enable trimming deleted files automatically, completely filling all free space with zeros then removing it, and none have helped yet. It gets approximately 0.10-0.15KB/s on random write with androbench, 2.0-5.5MB/s for sequencial write. I've never had anything less than 12GB free space, except when I tried filling all the free space
I want to format before reinstalling cyanogenmod and I understand there are risks involved that could brick my device so any instruction for what should and should not be touched would be greatly appreciated.
You need custom recovery installed (twrp or cwm). I have twrp. You need from recovery, for example twrp, wipe cache, dalvik cache, data and system from advanced wipe menu. After that, you should put in queue rom (which you are installing in zip format), then gapps(not all rom's need gapps, read install description for current rom) and custom kernel (not necessarily). After you just swipe on menu to proceed with installation and thats it
marko207 said:
You need custom recovery installed (twrp or cwm). I have twrp. You need from recovery, for example twrp, wipe cache, dalvik cache, data and system from advanced wipe menu. After that, you should put in queue rom (which you are installing in zip format), then gapps(not all rom's need gapps, read install description for current rom) and custom kernel (not necessarily). After you just swipe on menu to proceed with installation and thats it
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Make sure yu don't wipe "sdcard data" (there's a difference in System Data and SDCard Data). Marco207 mentioned that yu will have to wipe System Data. Rest yu may wipe anything, in fact, everything in case yu want a whole fresh ROM.
Hi,
I have i747 that has a clockworkmod recovery. How do I erase as much as possible of everything so that my phone is as clean as possible before I install a new ROM on galaxy s3?
I tried to factory reset phone, did all the 'delete/erase' options within clockworkmod recovery (except advanced section) and yet I see some residual folders from the previous installation. is there a way to completely erase wipe out everything without bricking the phone?
Thanks!
user-747 said:
Hi,
I have i747 that has a clockworkmod recovery. How do I erase as much as possible of everything so that my phone is as clean as possible before I install a new ROM on galaxy s3?
I tried to factory reset phone, did all the 'delete/erase' options within clockworkmod recovery (except advanced section) and yet I see some residual folders from the previous installation. is there a way to completely erase wipe out everything without bricking the phone?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should really flash TWRP recovery before proceeding. CWM hasn't been maintained or updated in a long time. It is likely to give you problems flashing anything new.
To completely blank a phone in TWRP I use Wipe -> Advanced Wipe -> Dalvik, Cache, System, Data. Followed by Wipe -> Format Data then type "yes" to confirm; always a good idea if you're switching between Touchwiz and AOSP in particular. That will leave you with totally blank internal storage. You'll have to flash a ROM from an external SD, or load a ROM zip over USB while booted in recovery because internal storage will be wiped clean.
It might be a good idea to look into what bootloader and modem you're running too. If you're still using CWM, you might be on pretty old firmware that isn't going to work right with newer roms. Just don't start flashing bootloaders/modems willy-nilly. Samsung made this phone kind of easy to hard brick on the newer firmwares. There's a right way to update it, if you find you have to.
jason2678 said:
You should really flash TWRP recovery before proceeding. CWM hasn't been maintained or updated in a long time. It is likely to give you problems flashing anything new.
To completely blank a phone in TWRP I use Wipe -> Advanced Wipe -> Dalvik, Cache, System, Data. Followed by Wipe -> Format Data then type "yes" to confirm; always a good idea if you're switching between Touchwiz and AOSP in particular. That will leave you with totally blank internal storage. You'll have to flash a ROM from an external SD, or load a ROM zip over USB while booted in recovery because internal storage will be wiped clean.
It might be a good idea to look into what bootloader and modem you're running too. If you're still using CWM, you might be on pretty old firmware that isn't going to work right with newer roms. Just don't start flashing bootloaders/modems willy-nilly. Samsung made this phone kind of easy to hard brick on the newer firmwares. There's a right way to update it, if you find you have to.
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Thanks so much for providing such a detailed answer!! You make many very good points!!
Just to reflect on those...
1) Yes, CWM recovery has not been updated for about 2-3 years. I have 6.0.4.7 version. Where do I check how stale it really is? I tried googling for CWM recovery and saw tons of links with everyone talking about CWM but ZERO sites with actual CWM .zip or .img file
2) I did 'adb bugreport' and was able to find information on my bootloader and a modem:
Bootloader: I747UCUEMJB
Radio: I747UCUEMJB
I am not too sure for what I would need to use this information for though
3) when completely blanking the phone (doing all those wipe/erase actions you mentioned), would that erase the recovery as well or is recovery is kept on a some other partition that never gets touched
4) When installing TWRP over CWM, would TWRP override CWM or install side to side along with CWM?
Thanks!
The will need to run an updated bootloader and modem before installing the latest custom roms.
user-747 said:
2) I did 'adb bugreport' and was able to find information on my bootloader and a modem:
Bootloader: I747UCUEMJB
Radio: I747UCUEMJB
I am not too sure for what I would need to use this information for though
3) when completely blanking the phone (doing all those wipe/erase actions you mentioned), would that erase the recovery as well or is recovery is kept on a some other partition that never gets touched
4) When installing TWRP over CWM, would TWRP override CWM or install side to side along with CWM?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3 - Those wipes will just blank /system, /data and other partitions that would affect a rom. More critical areas like bootloader, modem, and recovery will remain untouched and intact.
4 - TWRP will overwrite CWM in the /recovery partition. They can't coexist.
2 - If you're comfortable with Odin, this thread might be the easiest and safest way to get updated. The Odin tar will get you up to NE4 firmware that should work with all the newest roms. Before modding, you could check for updates a few times in that stock rom. There should be two, one from NE4 to NJ1, and one NJ1 to NJ2. NJ2 is the newest and almost certainly last update for the i747.
If you don't like using Odin, there are recovery flashable zips to update the firmware for i747 too. You just have to be very careful how you go about it or you can brick the phone.
audit13 said:
The will need to run an updated bootloader and modem before installing the latest custom roms.
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Click to collapse
I was able to install the most recent octos just a few days ago with my stale configuration: old bootloader and old cwm recovery. My phone i747 currently has nougat.
When you speak of 'latest roms' what exactly do you have in mind?
jason2678 said:
3 - Those wipes will just blank /system, /data and other partitions that would affect a rom. More critical areas like bootloader, modem, and recovery will remain untouched and intact.
4 - TWRP will overwrite CWM in the /recovery partition. They can't coexist.
2 - If you're comfortable with Odin, this thread might be the easiest and safest way to get updated. The Odin tar will get you up to NE4 firmware that should work with all the newest roms. Before modding, you could check for updates a few times in that stock rom. There should be two, one from NE4 to NJ1, and one NJ1 to NJ2. NJ2 is the newest and almost certainly last update for the i747.
If you don't like using Odin, there are recovery flashable zips to update the firmware for i747 too. You just have to be very careful how you go about it or you can brick the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am actually quite familiar with Odin. I used to root i747 with it. Then I wanted to update to the latest official rom and ironically soft-bricked the phone to the point where it was dead...nothing worked at all. If I remember correctly I wrote i9305 Rom to i747 phone. Then I found out that during boot the phone internally still scans through sd card and was able to take advantage of that to install recovery and consequently cyanogenmod os. I remember tons of Adb done. Since then the phone regained all functionality and now works very smooth with freshly installed octos. However, I see I am missing some hard drive space ie unusually large usage by octos. This makes me wonder if the 'bad original partition + bootloader +modem' are still in there but not invoked for some reason and the explanation behind my what appears to be successful installs is working os, etc are written to a separate partition which is now invoked. Is this hypothesis legit or not real? Is it at all possible that my cwm somehow is installed on a partition that is delete-able or that cannot be a possibility and all recovery goes into write-protected space?
And while we are in this topic, what are the obvious advantages of a newer boot loader if I can still install whatever custom roms?
user-747 said:
I was able to install the most recent octos just a few days ago with my stale configuration: old bootloader and old cwm recovery. My phone i747 currently has nougat.
When you speak of 'latest roms' what exactly do you have in mind?
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Sometimes, a phone will not display the correct imei with the latest custom ROM unless the phone is running the most recent bootloader and modem for the particular phone.
audit13 said:
Sometimes, a phone will not display the correct imei with the latest custom ROM unless the phone is running the most recent bootloader and modem for the particular phone.
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Click to collapse
Thanks! Good to know.
I think this phone only has a 12 GB data partition. About 1.5 GB is reserved for /system, another 1 GB for /cache, and there are a host of other partitions. That's some of your used space. The rest could be cruft from old installs left over in userdata that a standard wipe of /data didn't get unless you format internal storage.
If what you have is working for you, then I wouldn't touch bootloader and modem.
jason2678 said:
You should really flash TWRP recovery before proceeding. CWM hasn't been maintained or updated in a long time. It is likely to give you problems flashing anything new.
To completely blank a phone in TWRP I use Wipe -> Advanced Wipe -> Dalvik, Cache, System, Data. Followed by Wipe -> Format Data then type "yes" to confirm; always a good idea if you're switching between Touchwiz and AOSP in particular. That will leave you with totally blank internal storage. You'll have to flash a ROM from an external SD, or load a ROM zip over USB while booted in recovery because internal storage will be wiped clean.
It might be a good idea to look into what bootloader and modem you're running too. If you're still using CWM, you might be on pretty old firmware that isn't going to work right with newer roms. Just don't start flashing bootloaders/modems willy-nilly. Samsung made this phone kind of easy to hard brick on the newer firmwares. There's a right way to update it, if you find you have to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jason2678 said:
I think this phone only has a 12 GB data partition. About 1.5 GB is reserved for /system, another 1 GB for /cache, and there are a host of other partitions. That's some of your used space. The rest could be cruft from old installs left over in userdata that a standard wipe of /data didn't get unless you format internal storage.
If what you have is working for you, then I wouldn't touch bootloader and modem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the insight!
I went ahead and updated by recovery to TWRP via Odin just a few minutes ago...
I see Under Advanced Wipe another option for Wipe -> Advanced Wipe -> Internal Storage. Should I also wipe out internal storage? What is it for anyway? Whats the difference between 'internal storage' and 'system'?
user-747 said:
Thanks for the insight!
I went ahead and updated by recovery to TWRP via Odin just a few minutes ago...
I see Under Advanced Wipe another option for Wipe -> Advanced Wipe -> Internal Storage. Should I also wipe out internal storage? What is it for anyway? Whats the difference between 'internal storage' and 'system'?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I'm not 100% sure what the Internal Storage wipe does under Advanced Wipe, and I don't feel like making then restoring a backup right now just to test it . I never use it. If I had to guess, I bet it wipes /data and possibly a few other partitions without preserving user files in /data/media/0, see below, but don't know that. It certainly won't blank the whole internal storage; some areas like recovery, modem, and aboot are far too important and won't be touched.
Here's what I can tell you. Doing Wipe -> Advanced Wipe -> system, data, cache, dalvik is typically good enough for flashing a new rom (switching from Touchwiz to AOSP can require some additional care), some would even say overkill the way rom installers are scripted today, but old habits die hard. However, Advanced Wipe -> Data will wipe /data without wiping /data/media. Since android got multi-user support, files reported to be in /sdcard are actually stored in /data/media/0 for the primary user, so that means that downloads, pictures, user app files and things like that can be left behind by just wiping data since /data/media is left untouched. It is useful if you don't want to shuffle your files off then back on the device to flash something new or if you're using a device without an external SD and have a rom zip stored on device in /sdcard, but it leaves stuff behind if you're looking for a clean start.
To completely blank /data pick Wipe -> Format Data and TWRP will format /data and leave nothing behind, not even /data/media like the normal Advanced Wipe -> Data preserves. Just make sure you're prepared for the phone storage to be blank. You'll have to flash from external SD or push files from a computer over usb. TWRP does automatically start up mtp and adb shortly after booting if you need to push files over usb.
/system is a partition of special reserved space just for the rom and system apps and not user files. It is usually mounted read only when booted up normally to keep us from messing anything important up. I hope this helps and doesn't just muddy the waters more.
jason2678 said:
Honestly I'm not 100% sure what the Internal Storage wipe does under Advanced Wipe, and I don't feel like making then restoring a backup right now just to test it . I never use it. If I had to guess, I bet it wipes /data and possibly a few other partitions without preserving user files in /data/media/0, see below, but don't know that. It certainly won't blank the whole internal storage; some areas like recovery, modem, and aboot are far too important and won't be touched.
Here's what I can tell you. Doing Wipe -> Advanced Wipe -> system, data, cache, dalvik is typically good enough for flashing a new rom (switching from Touchwiz to AOSP can require some additional care), some would even say overkill the way rom installers are scripted today, but old habits die hard. However, Advanced Wipe -> Data will wipe /data without wiping /data/media. Since android got multi-user support, files reported to be in /sdcard are actually stored in /data/media/0 for the primary user, so that means that downloads, pictures, user app files and things like that can be left behind by just wiping data since /data/media is left untouched. It is useful if you don't want to shuffle your files off then back on the device to flash something new or if you're using a device without an external SD and have a rom zip stored on device in /sdcard, but it leaves stuff behind if you're looking for a clean start.
To completely blank /data pick Wipe -> Format Data and TWRP will format /data and leave nothing behind, not even /data/media like the normal Advanced Wipe -> Data preserves. Just make sure you're prepared for the phone storage to be blank. You'll have to flash from external SD or push files from a computer over usb. TWRP does automatically start up mtp and adb shortly after booting if you need to push files over usb.
/system is a partition of special reserved space just for the rom and system apps and not user files. It is usually mounted read only when booted up normally to keep us from messing anything important up. I hope this helps and doesn't just muddy the waters more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I will try to do wipe and reinstall Rom tonight and will update this thread. While we are in this topic, when flashing twrp via Odin in phone's download mode, I noticed that it says: Qualcomm secureboot: enabled. Does this mean my bootloader is locked?
user-747 said:
Thanks!
I will try to do wipe and reinstall Rom tonight and will update this thread. While we are in this topic, when flashing twrp via Odin in phone's download mode, I noticed that it says: Qualcomm secureboot: enabled. Does this mean my bootloader is locked?
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Click to collapse
No, the i747 never had a locked bootloader. You couldn't boot unsigned stuff like CWM, TWRP, or octos if it did.
jason2678 said:
No, the i747 never had a locked bootloader. You couldn't boot unsigned stuff like CWM, TWRP, or octos if it did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
user-747 said:
Thanks!
I will try to do wipe and reinstall Rom tonight and will update this thread. While we are in this topic, when flashing twrp via Odin in phone's download mode, I noticed that it says: Qualcomm secureboot: enabled. Does this mean my bootloader is locked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went ahead and did all the wipes and formats you recommend and all worked like a charm. OctOs installed like a charm, my disk space is regained, gapps are working, IMEI is good. so far I cannt find anyting that does not work. Thank you @jason2678 for your valuable feedback on my questions!!
I looked through many threads, posts, websites, and tutorials, but none of them say how to literally wipe my device completely (it could be that it's not possible), what I want to do is completely remove literally everything so that it's like a brand new hard drive without even any files in it.
'Factory Reset' doesn't remove everything because android still boots after a factory reset and android wouldn't be able to boot if there were no files on the device. TWRP doesn't remove everything either because how is twrp running, and I can still see the androids root directories in twrps file manager (TWRP does tell me that there's no OS installed, but then why is there still a functioning file system with actual files in them).
I want to completely wipe everything so that any future roms I download will have no way to be affected by any old kernels/roms/apps that I have installed in the past. I want to clean install android on top of a literally empty phone hard drive. If this isn't possible then what's the closest to that that I can get? Cuz I tried various roms and I had bugs that persisted between multiple roms even though other people said that they didn't have these issues.
In case you're wondering: I'm currently running LineageOS 15.1, oreo 8.1
Your best bet it to wipe using stock image. Reinstall TWRP and wipe system, cache and data before installing new ROM
I agree with the advice given by Vanschtezla.
Also, if you would completely wipe all data on the phone's storage then that would also wipe the partition table. The storage area is divided into partitions which are mounted to for example /system /data and /cache when your phone boots.
Also there is no real need to "wipe everything" as you say as that could brick your phone. If you just boot TWRP and wipe using "Factory reset" and additionally: System then everything should be clean enough to install a new ROM. Depending on the ROM it will wipe the System partition anyway.
Kernels reside in the system partition so when you wipe System, any Kernel is gone
Pre installed (system) Apps sit in the System partition so wipe System and they are gone
User Apps sit in the data partition so wipe data (that is included in the Factory reset) and they're gone
All in all I think you're expecting issues that simply do not exist. Especially if you just follow the instructions of the (custom) ROM you want to install.
THANK YOU!
peterpv said:
I agree with the advice given by Vanschtezla.
Kernels reside in the system partition so when you wipe System, any Kernel is gone
Pre installed (system) Apps sit in the System partition so wipe System and they are gone
User Apps sit in the data partition so wipe data (that is included in the Factory reset) and they're gone
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Click to collapse
This is exactly what I was looking for! Why don't any "How to wipe your phone" guides say these things (even the ones that get more technical don't mention what exactly gets deleted for each wipe option, which is why from your perspective it was probably very weird to read my question).
Hello so I tried installing lineageos. I used twrp 3.3.1, i opened it up from fastboot. I formatted data, Wiped, Dalvik cache, system, data. Then I moved the zip file from lineage os from pc, i tried flashing it and It ended up giving me error 1. I gave up on this. I wiped the whole thing again and tried backing up with backup I took before all that. It's giving me out partition not found. Im currently still in twrp mode. What do I do?
Lineage
Fanshi said:
Hello so I tried installing lineageos. I used twrp 3.3.1, i opened it up from fastboot. I formatted data, Wiped, Dalvik cache, system, data. Then I moved the zip file from lineage os from pc, i tried flashing it and It ended up giving me error 1. I gave up on this. I wiped the whole thing again and tried backing up with backup I took before all that. It's giving me out partition not found. Im currently still in twrp mode. What do I do?
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Click to collapse
I am braain I read everything, when you install a Roms you must also have the gapps (open Gapps App site) then look you have to know armeabi7a which is your processor and click, then choose the size of the Gapps (I choose the nano) and then download i think you use pc? downloaded no extract put it in SDmicro, you have also downloaded the Rom Laneage put it together with Gapps so you have in the download folder in SD two zip. The rom stock that you backed up and tried to restore did not restart because you have to put back the original stock firmware, you understand why you have to do it all over again, then another thing you do back up just for the old stock and then in TWRP go to Wipe click and make cache, date, Dalvik, done system slides and again says done and go in the zip first the ROM flash has to say successful operation, then flash the Gapps and then it returns in the Wipe button click and go in Dalvik / Cache and then restart ok in boot. Remember if you want to put the Rom back in stock the Xiaomi firmware cancels Laneage you always have to start over it does so. By?