Hey Guys,
I have always used CWM Rom Manager but now it only bricks the phone when installed. "Encryption Error - Factory Reset", but that does not work, have to use AP Fastboot and reinstall JellyBean. Now that I have it up again, I want a recovery solution besides Titanium Backup that will backup the entire phone, like CWM did. So, I installed SafeStrap. (Rooted with Android 4.1.2)
Now I would like to format the internal SD Card to start fresh, but when I boot to recovery in SafeStrap, Wipe does not format the internal card. The terminal window in the Wipe action shows that it cannot find block device. But, the File Manager in recovery works just fine and the backup seemed successful. When I go to Advanced, Settings, there is one setting that cannot be unchecked. "Use rm -rf instead of Format?" No, I do not want to wipe the existing partition, I want to format the entire internal SD partition, so I do indeed want Format like CWM would do. Is there a way to uncheck this box and how do you do it?
SafeStrap does have a Terminal, use at your own risk. So do I need to Format the internal SD Card by command line? Command line Syntax, please? Since this is a deadly serious operation, I would hope to get an answer and someone to confirm it, if possible. Familiar with Linux so that might help.
Anyone can help, please?
Update:
I checked out the SafeStrap Terminal. It is very, very crude, does not display much information like a Linux shell would. I can enter parted or at least the command echos to the screen, but the print command does not even show the partitions on the block device for the Internal SD Card, /dev/block/mmcblk1p25. There must be a better way...
I think you have to go to the SLOT like the ROM-SLOT-1 to do this.The stock rom slot dosent allow you to format or wipe anything.
Sent from my XT910 using xda app-developers app
Related
I recently made a mistake on my phone & got it stuck in a boot loop. I figure the easiest fix is to just wipe system & install a new ROM from the CWM Recovery Menu. My problem is I cannot access the external sd card.
When trying to navigate install zip from sdcard > choose zip from sdcard > external_sd/ it simply returns "No Files Found". I'm assuming because that's probably just a symlink.
If I go to Mounts & Storage and attempt to mount /sd-ext, I get "Error mounting SDEXT :!.
Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way, so any help would be appreciated. I'm still fairly new to the whole Android scene.
I should note that my USB Port is broken so using that is out of the question. I've already attempted twice to replace it (damn thing wont desolder), but that's a whole other bag of worms.. That I won't bother re-visiting unless it's my only option.
RayG210 said:
I recently made a mistake on my phone & got it stuck in a boot loop. I figure the easiest fix is to just wipe system & install a new ROM from the CWM Recovery Menu. My problem is I cannot access the external sd card.
When trying to navigate install zip from sdcard > choose zip from sdcard > external_sd/ it simply returns "No Files Found". I'm assuming because that's probably just a symlink.
If I go to Mounts & Storage and attempt to mount /sd-ext, I get "Error mounting SDEXT :!.
Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way, so any help would be appreciated. I'm still fairly new to the whole Android scene.
I should note that my USB Port is broken so using that is out of the question. I've already attempted twice to replace it (damn thing wont desolder), but that's a whole other bag of worms.. That I won't bother re-visiting unless it's my only option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You install a rom with cwm through the internal sd, not external; so yeah, you're going about it the wrong way.
*tear* Just what I didn't want to hear.
a little help
you could try flashing a different kernal ie siyah pr cm9 these have different versions cwm included so you might be able to access your ext sdcard just a thought.
It depends on the version of CWR you have flashed. Whenever I run ICZen the version of CWR (5 something) that Deficient Development bakes in lets you flash zips from the external SD; very convenient.
Can the OP use DroidExplorer, and transfer a rom to the internal? I've not used DroidExplorer, but have heard it talked about.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA
If there isn't a ROM on the internal SD card to install from recovery, and the current kernel version does not support install from the external SD. Then I would assume you would need to ODIN to stock.
Good luck!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium
Why can't you use something like Dropbox or Box and upload it from your PC, then download it to your phone and transfer to the sdcard of choice with a file explorer? Then flash away. In fact I just did this the other night bc I was too lazy to go to my PC and hook up my phone. I just uploaded it with my tablet and then downloaded it to my Vibrant.
Edit::: I just re-read your OP.
If I go to Mounts & Storage and attempt to mount /sd-ext, I get "Error mounting SDEXT :!.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is NOT the external sd card. SD-ext is another partition that has to be set up on the sdcard with something like Gparted or MiniTool Partition Wizard. It is for when you do not have the standard Samsung 2gb partition or the /datadata partition set up. FWIW, I have never seen this particular partition set up in the Vibrant.
I can't remember what the actual Mount option is in CWR but I definately know this is NOT it. Not sure if you remember seeing it or not but when you do a Nanadroid backup, it will always skip the SD-Ext part b/c there is nothing there. This is more mainly for older phone that were running Eclair and did not have native App2sd support. It was used as a hack to force that support.
i think go to a shop get your USB port repaired and get back to STOCK if you dont have any rom on your internal sd or do a (wipe cache etc etc) so that the phone will run on the ROM's kernel
Now that I have my rooted NT the way I want it, I would like to somehow copy the whole image off onto my computer. Nandroid and Titanium Backup all seem to need a recovery ROM, and I don't think there are any for the NT.
Any ideas?
Dangerous method
jarome1 said:
Now that I have my rooted NT the way I want it, I would like to somehow copy the whole image off onto my computer. Nandroid and Titanium Backup all seem to need a recovery ROM, and I don't think there are any for the NT.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once you are rooted, AND if you have a 16GB SDcard installed:
Make sure the SDcard is NOT MOUNTED.
At the rooted command prompt, type "dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/dev/block/mmcblk1"
Immediately remove the SDcard and save it.
That's the easy part. You can restore the internal memory by issuing the same command again, but with the "0" and "1" swapped. However, doing so will replace EVERYTHING on the Nook, even the recovery partition. Consequently, it is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS to do. In particular, I have not tested it (I've done the backup but not the restore). Further, if you system is so damaged as to need this, I don't see how in most cases you'd be able to get to a rooted command prompt, and the SDcard is not bootable. If we ever get to a point where we can create bootable SDcards, then a modification of this procedure would be useful.
Of course, with an SDcard created like this, you could insert it after booting and copy over portions of a partition (after mounting the relevant partition on the SDcard), and/or possibly even who partitions.
Clearly, this is an advanced technique not intended for those unfamiliar with Linux commands, and even then, it should be tested in a safe or recoverable environment.
Hi xda,
I'm not a typical android user and this was one of my firsts in messing around with my Tab 10.1. I have GTP7500 which I recently loaded up with CM10 and it's working fine except for the camera. Leave that and what I was going to say is that I'd like to remove my entire Internal Storage ( all the downloads, music, videos ) and stuff, i.e, like formatting the sd card. I'd like to know a way to format the internal storage of my Tab without affecting the system files as I don't want to create any troubles here. So, my questions are:-
1. Whether I can delete all the stuff shown inside the internal storage from my PC directly and would it affect the system? I cannot see any format option when I connect my tab to my PC so, I was hoping if I could manually delete all the files inside the storage and then doing a factory reset from cwm and installing the rom once again?
2. Or is there any app to do this?
3. Or if it is quite simple to do it the hard way, well, entering the fastboot and wiping the whole system (Read it somewhere before) and installing all the stuff again, then please do tell me that too. Otherwise, I'd go with the easy method, i.e, just format the internal storage.
Also, what about the format /sdcard option in the mounts and storages menu in CWM? I'm using CWM 5.5.0.4.
I think doing the "format /sdcard" in CWM should do what you are looking for as I have done that in the past. I would also temporarily back up the /sdcard contents onto your computer as a precaution in case an app was depending on any folders there, but I think it should be fine.
Thanks but still...
astrojo3 said:
I think doing the "format /sdcard" in CWM should do what you are looking for as I have done that in the past. I would also temporarily back up the /sdcard contents onto your computer as a precaution in case an app was depending on any folders there, but I think it should be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply. But would it remove other stuff including the boot files and other core files of Android? I've somewhere seen similar posts and whom did the format /sdcard but they proclaimed they lost whole files and had to do bootloader and install cwm and other stuff all over again to gain access. I've already managed to do format the sd card while installing the ICS official ROM for my tab but I did that via Samsung's recovery menu, i.e, one you get when installing their official ROMs and did a factory reset which erased all my internal storage files. But the same option won't remove internal storage in cwm. So, is format /sdcard the option to do this? I'd be glad to get a clear answer.
sangeeth96 said:
Thanks for the quick reply. But would it remove other stuff including the boot files and other core files of Android? I've somewhere seen similar posts and whom did the format /sdcard but they proclaimed they lost whole files and had to do bootloader and install cwm and other stuff all over again to gain access. I've already managed to do format the sd card while installing the ICS official ROM for my tab but I did that via Samsung's recovery menu, i.e, one you get when installing their official ROMs and did a factory reset which erased all my internal storage files. But the same option won't remove internal storage in cwm. So, is format /sdcard the option to do this? I'd be glad to get a clear answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, format sdcard in CWM. It will only wipe the data stored there. Your bootloaders and ROM will remain unaffected, however I would still backup the sdcard to your computer before doing this just in case.
bkress said:
Yep, format sdcard in CWM. It will only wipe the data stored there. Your bootloaders and ROM will remain unaffected, however I would still backup the sdcard to your computer before doing this just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was wondering about this, too. Thanks for helping!
Sent from my GT-P7500 using XDA Premium HD app
The method above does work. However, if you really want to wipe the whole device completely clean, using Odin to flash stock firmware will blow it all out and make you factory-fresh in one operation.
Hi,
im quite new to rooting and custom roms.
I have rooted (ALLINONE) my device with the S3 ToolKit (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1703488)
My device had stock rom and was encrypted. I performed a factory reset from the stock rom (after a nandroid backup from the toolkit.
But the phone failed and booted into TWRP. When i try to wipe Dalvik Cache it sais failed..
I get "cannot mount internal storage" in the logs.
What sould i do?
I want to install the Paranoid Android ROM. But for now, whatever goes. Is there always an possibility to fix the phone as long as i get into the TWRP menu, or can it be permanently bricked now?
Download mode yes no ???
jje
Yes im am able to open download mode. thanks for your quick reply
Could i try to install a ROM from a external card without wiping dalvik? I was able to wipe "cache", but not factory reset or dalvik. havent tried anything else yet.
To my knowledge, you can only access encrypted data with the instance of the ROM you encrypted it with.
I would expect you'd have to decrypt fully before wiping and flashing.
I may be wrong but there is a chance there's nothing you can do to get the data back :/
Everything possibly needs to be formatted.
I just took "format data" - it worked just to confirm i was on the right track, i tried dalvik again - it worked! OH YES. going forward
Whatever doesnt kill your phone makes you stronger, or something But what should i do now..?
sponsen said:
what should i do now..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends where you want to be...
rootSU said:
It depends where you want to be...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want to flash the Paranoid Android ROM.
I have downloaded the ROM + gapps from as stated in this link: (remote the [DOT] and replace it with a real dot) tothemobile[DOT]com/install-paranoidandroid-4-2-2-jelly-bean-custom-rom-on-galaxy-s3
but im not sure what steps i should do now. The toolkit dosnt have a feature covering my situation as far as i can see (a formatted phone), since the toolkit want me to boot it as normal to start the flash procedure - if i havent misunderstood this totally
sponsen said:
I want to flash the Paranoid Android ROM.
I have downloaded the ROM + gapps from as stated in this link: (remote the [DOT] and replace it with a real dot) tothemobile[DOT]com/install-paranoidandroid-4-2-2-jelly-bean-custom-rom-on-galaxy-s3
but im not sure what steps i should do now. The toolkit dosnt have a feature covering my situation as far as i can see (a formatted phone), since the toolkit want me to boot it as normal to start the flash procedure - if i havent misunderstood this totally
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't really need the toolkit. Plus, it's really good to learn how to do things manually, in case you get in situations like this.
Sol exactly what state is the phone in?
What recovery has the phone got?
Does the phone now boot?
Is it wiped and internal storage works?
Thanks for your help - really appreciate it
Im not sure how i can describe the phones state more than i have now used "format data" in the TWRP recovery screen, the device is listing in the toolkit and im able to go into download mode. I dont have an external card for the phone now, but if its critical for the ongoing progress, ill get a hold of one.
EDIT:
When i hit "Install" in TWRP i am able to browse the internal memory. I can see:
cache
data
dev
efs
etc
external_sd
extSdCard
preload
proc
res
root
sbin
sdcard
sys
system
tmp
sponsen said:
Thanks for your help - really appreciate it
Im not sure how i can describe the phones state more than i have now used "format data" in the TWRP recovery screen, the device is listing in the toolkit and im able to go into download mode. I dont have an external card for the phone now, but if its critical for the ongoing progress, ill get a hold of one.
EDIT:
When i hit "Install" in TWRP i am able to browse the internal memory. I can see:
cache
data
dev
efs
etc
external_sd
extSdCard
preload
proc
res
root
sbin
sdcard
sys
system
tmp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a read of the "sticky roll-up thread" in general where there are guides for flashing etc
im not familiar with twrp. usually android sees /extSdCard as your removable sd. But recoveries usually use external_sd for the same location.
Essentially you put the zip on your sd and install via recovery. Have a look through those guides. I cant really help withy your recovery though as i dont know it.
I believe that the case is resloved!
To users experiencing that wipes/factory reset fails on a device that have/had encrypted data, you must "format data" and then mount a SD card with the desired ROM and gapps. If you dont have the option of a external SD - i dont know what you have to do - but im sure the internet do
My partner's phone has suddenly decided of its own accord that it wants to reformat the internal memory, presumably due to some sort of unrecoverable data corruption. The message that came up informing us of that was something along the lines of "Phone memory is damaged. The data partition is damaged, you should restore your phone to factory settings. Doing so will delete all your data" and then a single button saying "Restore phone to factory settings". (I say something along the lines because that is a translation from the actual Spanish message that comes up)
So, she has a bunch of data that she would prefer not to lose (mostly backed up, but some apps not, and photos missing for last month or so of our daughter - usual story).
So I have been hunting around to see if it would be possible, and mostly what I have found isn't too optimistic. I did however find the following link that did seem somewhat promising:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994705
So it is for the Nexus and the title refers to internal data, but then also refers to SD cards, but the process does seem to refer to internal data. I have a bunch of questions about the process in the context of an S3:
1. Anyone think this process is transferable to the S3? If so what is the equivalent data partition name? For the Nexus it appears to be /dev/block/mmcblk0p12. Would that be the same for the S3?
2. I am going to have to root this device first unfortunately (meaning I am going to have to write to the internal memory ahead of doing the RAW dump, obviously not ideal, but I see no way round it). Is the process described here (root only option):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2046439
appropriate, or am I going to need to somehow find out what version my partner was on (not 100% sure but I think it was 4.1.2) and adjust accordingly?
3. Do I have to have a fully working version before I can install busybox, or is that something that can be put in place using CWM?
4. Likewise do I have to have a fully working version before I can get ADB working or can I get ADB to work with CWM? I have found a couple of threads that suggest ADB works natively with CWM and others that suggest not.
5. I know how to turn on USB debugging if I can get into setttings of a normal Android system, but how do I do that without a working version, can that be done via CWM?
I guess basically I want to know what would be the minimal set of steps that I can run through to get Busybox installed on the phone, (presumably rooted) and talking ADB to my PC. I say minimal set of steps becuase the less writing I do, the more data might be salvagable.
I am surprised that there isn't some bootstrap version that can't just pull off the existing data and allow you to manipulate it elsewhere (which is what the process I have put the link to seems to do) but it seems much more involved than just a bootstrap.
Be gentle with me - I am just a noob!
bobalucci said:
So, she has a bunch of data that she would prefer not to lose (mostly backed up, but some apps not, and photos missing for last month or so of our daughter - usual story).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if its only that I would do it a bit more simpler:
for app data: make a nandroid backup and after the reformat you can use nandroid manager to restore your apps and their data (if you simply restore the damaged data partition as a nandroid backup the problem could accur again). but maybe if the apps and data are damaged because of the damaged data partition they could maybe not be restored.
for photos etc. you can flash philz touch and then follow the steps in the main thread of philz touch on how to put the aroma.zip onto an external sd card (just search for aroma in the thread, you'll find it). aroma is like a file browser with root priviliges which can be executed through recovery. with that you can copy your photos onto the external sd card
btw. I am not sure if the standard factory reset wipes the internal sd cards data. if you only format your data partition photos etc. shouldn't be affected (for example through philz recovery you can just format data partition).
Data Recovery from sick galaxy s3 (installing custom recovery)
Thanks for that... that makes sense... any way I can get the custom recovery onto the phone without having already reformatted the data partition? All the methods I have seen for installing a custom recovery require normal access to the phone... and I don't have that at the moment - just to a screen that tells me that it will reformat the data partition - and I don't want to do that if I can avoid it - as it will modify the data I am trying to save.
Darkened_Sky said:
if its only that I would do it a bit more simpler:
for app data: make a nandroid backup and after the reformat you can use nandroid manager to restore your apps and their data (if you simply restore the damaged data partition as a nandroid backup the problem could accur again). but maybe if the apps and data are damaged because of the damaged data partition they could maybe not be restored.
for photos etc. you can flash philz touch and then follow the steps in the main thread of philz touch on how to put the aroma.zip onto an external sd card (just search for aroma in the thread, you'll find it). aroma is like a file browser with root priviliges which can be executed through recovery. with that you can copy your photos onto the external sd card
btw. I am not sure if the standard factory reset wipes the internal sd cards data. if you only format your data partition photos etc. shouldn't be affected (for example through philz recovery you can just format data partition).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Data recovery sticky ???
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2344125