Hi all,
i hope this hasn't been asked before. I'd like applying my magician the bigstorage hack but i've not a USB SD card reader. I could buy one, sure, but i'd prefer to save my (sadly very few) bucks.
That's what i thought:
Solution A: is it possible to use the magician itself as a card reader using Softick Card Export II? Would ntrw work the same? Is there the possibility to damage the magician/sd card???
Solution B: is it possible to run a hexadecimal editor from the magician so to edit the rom image directly on the phone without the PC?
Solution B seems difficult to me since the magician should be able to handle a 64MB or more file, and i think its 64MB ram size wouldn't be enough.
Solution A, instead, seems practical but i have the concern to damage my beloved (the magician!). I'd like to know your opinion before trying.
Bye and thanks you all,
this forum rulez!
Isidoro Russo
PS: Last question: do the ntrw reading/writing process destroy my sd card??? I think i've read something about this in a thread but can't remember which one.
I don't think it's going to work, don't know that program called softick card export, but you need to be in bootloader while you're doing it and then you can't run any programs. And I did the the bigstorage rom (with card reader) and it didn't destroy my SD-Card...
risidoro said:
Hi all,
i hope this hasn't been asked before. I'd like applying my magician the bigstorage hack but i've not a USB SD card reader. I could buy one, sure, but i'd prefer to save my (sadly very few) bucks.
That's what i thought:
Solution A: is it possible to use the magician itself as a card reader using Softick Card Export II? Would ntrw work the same? Is there the possibility to damage the magician/sd card???
Solution B: is it possible to run a hexadecimal editor from the magician so to edit the rom image directly on the phone without the PC?
Solution B seems difficult to me since the magician should be able to handle a 64MB or more file, and i think its 64MB ram size wouldn't be enough.
Solution A, instead, seems practical but i have the concern to damage my beloved (the magician!). I'd like to know your opinion before trying.
Bye and thanks you all,
this forum rulez!
Isidoro Russo
PS: Last question: do the ntrw reading/writing process destroy my sd card??? I think i've read something about this in a thread but can't remember which one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both options are not feasable.
The first option is not possible since Softick Card Export II needs the OS to be running, and your device needs to be in the bootloader mode for the image to be flashed. The second option is not possible because your magician doesn't have enough RAM to load the file...
And using ntrw will not destroy your SD-card, but it will permanently delete the files on that card!
oh oh we zijn de melk vergeten.....
But what does ntrw itself do?
I just thought it was used to read out /write the romfiles.
I probably blundered upgrading my compact:
I read the page on a site where the whole procedure (which is the Word-file in the ftp's Backuptool folder) was explained. It stated that an SD card with at least 128 MB was needed for the whole procedure.
Since I had 132 mb left on mine I thought I could use that one, which was the one with my sprite backup file and games and sorts.
But the card remains unreadable for the Compact and XP. So must I really fotmat is or is the some workaround to retreive my stuff or delete whatever romupdate or ntrw did to my sd-card.
Sorry but i don't understand why solution A should not work.
I think it could go this way:
1) activate bootloader mode and run 'romupdate.exe' to create a copy of the installed rom in the sd card. The device's S.O. is still installed even if it's not usable while in bootloader mode.
2) soft reset the device. Now the phone should exit bootloader mode and be fully functional since we've only taken a copy of its ROM and not deleted it. The device will work as usual and we can run Card ExportII
3) use Card Export II on the device and ntrw on the pc to copy the dumped ROM from the card to the pc.
4) modify the rom on the PC
5) copy the modified ROM back to the sd card using ntrw and Card Export.
6) follow the final steps required for the phone to install the rom on the sd card. Card ExportII is no more needed so it's not a problem if the phone must go to bootloader mode.
Summarizing: I need to run Card ExportII when the phone is still operative and not while it's on bootloader mode. The only step i'm not sure about is the first: i don't know if the romupdate.exe process leave the ROM on the device intact or delete it. If it remains intact (as i suspect) then is possible to soft-reset the device after the ROM dumping to run Card ExportII and copy the dumped rom to the PC.
What do u think about it? PLS, Let me know.
In case you're wondering why i don't just try myself instead of asking you, i can say that i'll try as soon as i'll have a new sd card (the one i'm using now has only 32MB). I ordered a 512MB card on ebay last friday so i'd receive it this week. I'll keep you informed on this topic.
Bye bye,
Isidoro
IT WORKED !!
Well if I’m not the first I must be close.
I can confirm your theory works beautifully 100%.
I followed my same procedure as normal found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=29266 but used card export and the Magician's SD Drive
I dumped my ROM straight into the Magician SD card drive.
Read the ROM from the Magician’s SD drive onto my PC.
I then successfully wrote the ROM back into the Magician SD drive.
Now for what ever reason I couldn’t get the Magician to Flash, it would not come up with the “Press Power to Flash……”
Now this could be for many reasons one of which is I just tried to write my original ROM back to the PDA which should of worked.
All I know is you can use the Magician CD Drive as your card reader to read/write your ROM info
Equipment needed
1 x Magician (Great PDA)
1 x SD Card (128Mb or larger)
1 x Card Export II program (I used the trial)
Plus all the other normal software needed to do Big Storage
PS I'm going to"Big Storage" my wifes MAgician tonight using this method so I'll let you know
UPDATE
Issue one,
Since you don't have a card reader you have to format the card after you dump your ROM onto it, if you don't, card export doesn't see the SD card in your Magician. To format the card inside your Magician from your PC you have to un-tick the Magician setting "Protect MBR" (what ever that stands for, & NO i haven't read the instruction, who ever does).
Issue 2 (this is a general rule for big storage)
Knowing if the write function has worked, I have witten to the SD card (inside the Magician) many time and sometimes it comes up with no error other times if states "The parameter is incorrect". To prove you have a workable file on the SD card after the write fuction of NTRW, when you remove and replace the SD card into the Magician it should ask you to reformat, if it doesn't then you have no file on the card.
IT WORKS 100%
I have dumped and flashed the Magician without a Card Reader.
Thanks for the great idea.[/b]
sure it works.
0) backup
1) dump rom
2) install cs2, now you get one more diskdrive
3) use WinHEX to open drive (F9) and select your SD (_physical_drive_)
4) now you can find and replace (twice!):
02 00 00 80 00 20 20 00 00
02 00 00 b8 01 20 20 00 00
5) bootloader mode and apply modifiedrom
ampda said:
Issue one,
Since you don't have a card reader you have to format the card after you dump your ROM onto it, if you don't, card export doesn't see the SD card in your Magician. To format the card inside your Magician from your PC you have to un-tick the Magician setting "Protect MBR" (what ever that stands for, & NO i haven't read the instruction, who ever does).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ehem, can you pls explain better this point? When I have to format and where's the Protect MBR setting?
Anyway I'm happy my way worked!!! I won't have to buy a card reader!!!
Nitrogen said:
sure it works.
0) backup
1) dump rom
2) install cs2, now you get one more diskdrive
3) use WinHEX to open drive (F9) and select your SD (_physical_drive_)
4) now you can find and replace (twice!):
02 00 00 80 00 20 20 00 00
02 00 00 b8 01 20 20 00 00
5) bootloader mode and apply modifiedrom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, your method seems even better! You edit the rom directly on the card without using ntrw to read/write on the card. I guess CS2 (point 2) is card exportII?
Your method should work with card reader too in theory, so why so many people's still using ntrw? Does the file on the sd card (when romupdate ends) is the same of the one found on the pc after ntrw?
I hope that damn* sd card (i bought on ebay) won't take too much to arrive!!! :twisted:
Bye bye,
Isidoro
Even though I have no need for this solution, due to having a few card readers, I must applaud your ingenuity. Simple answers to complex problems is the sign of pure intelligence
IT WORKS!!! IT WORKS!!!
This morning I received the sd card i'd ordered on ebay, it's a 256MB SanDisk UltraII. BTW it's a lot slower than the 16MB MMC i was using before: 0,26 and 0,08 VS 0,72 and 0,43 of the MMC (numbers are the read and write speeds measured with pocket mechanic 1.60). Is there a reason for this? The bigger the card the slower? Or simply MMCs are speedier than SDs? What do u think about it?
Anyway lets talk about the bigstorage!
First i tried with my method (well i don't pretend to be the inventor, i say 'my' to avoid repeating all the steps).
All went as expected till the moment to ntrw write myrom.nb1 back to my sd card. I tried several times but without success. Everytime, after ten minutes, ntrw ended without any error but the sd card was empy and formatted (while there shouldn't have been any filesystem on it). Don't know how ampda did it but i gave up after 4 or 5 tries.
Then it was the moment to try out Nitrogen's way and, wow! it worked flawlessly!!!
Nitrogen's method not only does not require any sd card reader (that was my concern) but does not even require any ntrw operation!!!
This means that u can apply your bigstorage hack in less than 5 minutes (the time to romupdate the ROM on your sd card and edit it)!!! No card reader, no ntrw, no dos prompt, no delays, no risks to burn your card out.
It's absolutely great!!!
But it comes at a price, you need to buy WinHex (the demo version cannot save your changes). Card ExportII trial, on the contrary, can be used without problem (but i suggest to buy this wonderful program!).
Hey, now i'm a bigstorage owner too!
Bye bye
Well thats great news, glad it worked for you. I must admit it did take some doing to get the file on the SD card. I'll try the other method tonight on mine (I like to test things) and see how it goes. You shold of asked me about WinHEX before you bought it.
next step could be ppc program for patching thouse 4 bytes on SD without even connecting to standalone PC...
shamus said:
next step could be ppc program for patching thouse 4 bytes on SD without even connecting to standalone PC...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually i think it would be possible if a skilled ppc programmer made a program to change them! Who knows? Maybe in the future...
Bye bye,
Isidoro
Nitrogen
how can i read the nb1 file from sd if sd is no readable on windows???thanks
capellone85 said:
Nitrogen
how can i read the nb1 file from sd if sd is no readable on windows???thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope Nitrogen won't complain if i answer your question.
After the romupdate, the sd card won't contain any filesystem so, as u said, neither windows nor the magician will be able to read it.
Anyway, WinHex's F9 (and only it as far as i know) give you access to both logical drives (that is drives with a filesystem) and physical drive (direct access to the raw data even without filesystem).
You have to: connect your magician to windows with card export enabled, cancel Windows' request to format the removable unit (that's your sd card), open WinHex, press F9, select Removable Media under Physical_Drive tab. Et voilà! You'll have your nb1 rom backup available.
Just a drawback: the search function (to locate 02 00 00 80 00 20 20 etc hex string) will be very slow.
Summarizing: WinHex let you access raw data on an unformatted disk drive! Great!!!
Bye bye,
Isidoro
OMG..i got scared
Well i did it, and got scared, after the process had finished i got "Download Failed, Checksum Failed", ok i thougght, i will just reset and try again, so i reset and OUCH, it wouldn't load, just locked on the Qtek screen. then about 10-15 minutes later it loaded windows. I crapped myself. lol.
But i am now useing a BIGStorage, with 112, installed with NO SD Card! YAY
also if ya dont wanna buy WinHEX, then try FlexHex, its a 30 day trial and you can save without purchasing... Lots of goodness to be had by all.
Dahquim
@dahquim: All that happened to you because you're a lazy bastard too sluggard to read one of the thousands post carefully and thoroughly which mentions all your "findings" as being normal - some even give a decent explanation for them.
But whom am I telling this... you're not the one who's readings threads.
This method works perfectly with zero issues. The instructions were spot on - can't thank everyone enough. Funny that dahquim got so close but didn't even realize it. LOL.
guess i'll shut up then.....
dahquim
risidoro said:
capellone85 said:
Nitrogen
how can i read the nb1 file from sd if sd is no readable on windows???thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to: connect your magician to windows with card export enabled, cancel Windows' request to format the removable unit (that's your sd card), open WinHex, press F9, select Removable Media under Physical_Drive tab. Et voilà! You'll have your nb1 rom backup available.
Just a drawback: the search function (to locate 02 00 00 80 00 20 20 etc hex string) will be very slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear Isidoro
okay I did all till the search and I didn't find the string in the file, (02 00 00 80 00 20 20) also I have one more question, what should I substitute instead of that string?
sorry I'm new to these things in Jam.
Thanks for replying
My USB Mini port seems to be damaged. I can charge the phone but when i connect it to my PC, the orange light lits and the phone gets charged but it is not found by my pc. So pls let me know how can i upgrade to wm 6.1 through sd card flash.
The solution is:
U need
ntrw ftp://xda:[email protected]/Magician/Tools/Backup_tools1/ntrw.exe
wm6.1 nb1 file http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=02c513f13b6fba677f7ec40ada4772a6e04e75f6e8ebb871
If the 1st method doesnot work then u need the backup of existing rom Click here to know how to back up ur exsiting rom http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=BackupExistingRom
the hex editor http://www.hhdsoftware.com/Download/free-hex-editor-neo.exe
Method 1:
write to the sd card using
ntrw write Cotulla6.1.O3.nb1 F:
F: is ur sd card drive
There will be an error saying parameter incorrect. dont worry. Insert the card into the phone and enter the bootloader( Power+Camera+ SOft reset). A message will come asking you to press power button to flash. Press the power button and wait for complete flashing. in the end there will be a error that checksum failed . dont worry and do soft reset. Hurray u now have wm6.1 on ur magician.
Method 2:
If this doesn't work try this.( U should have a backup copy of ur old rom nb1 file.)
copy the first 416 bytes of ur old rom to the 416 bytes of the rom downloaded using hex editor
write the new rom to the sd card and install as in method 1.
It's not possible to install my rom via SD card.
Sorry, it designed for RUU flashing only.
I was wondering this myself...
Are you sure, Cotulla, that following this procedure would fail with your ROM?
Please someone try and if sucessful pls upload the .nb1 file so that i can write it to SD card and flash it through SD card. Thank you in adavnce
I can dump my ROM for you if you're willing to test to flash it.
please. i will try on my o2. thanks
Here it comes: click. Password is xda-developers.com.
the file appears to be too small only 23 mb . coutulla's rom was somewhere around 50 mb. will this work. i will try tomorrow as i am outside & donot have pc access
That's because of compression, the file itself is 63.7 MB.
I was planning to try this as well, but I don't have a memory card at the moment.
Keep us posted and good luck
As MusikMonk stated, this file is compressed and crypted with 7z. Haven't you heard of 7z yet? It's about time!
I doubt it will brick your Magician, since it's not overwriting the bootloader. Thus you can always flash you beloved old ROM.
While writing the file to the memeory card i am getting this as output.
NTRW v2.00
Removeable media
Cylinders: 0:120
TracksPerCylinder: 255
SectorsPerTrack: 63
BytesPerSector: 512
bufsize is 65536
WriteFile(): Cotulla6.1.03.nb1 -- the Parameter is incorrect
When i put the memmory card in my PDA and enter the bootloader mode only the screen with Serial and v.1.02 is there and there is no option to install press power button.
You must have done something wrong when filling your SD card.
I get that "press power to flash" message.
I hope someone will eventually try to flash that file... otherwise I made a lot of effort for nothing :-(
So does it work or not???
I used 1 GB Memory card. The Problem Might be because of than. Pls Letme know what memory card u used. Shold I used 64/128 MD card instead of 1 GB. Pls Help
64MB is a few bytes too small, 128MB is sufficient. I used a 256MB card... maybe the boot loader is unable to read much bigger cards... if my 16 GB card were empty I could give it a try... ;-)
I tried to copy the Cotulla.nb1 file on my SD-card, but it doesn't work. I used a 2gb and 128mb card...
I copied the ntrw.exe and the Cotulla.nb1-file to c://user/username. Then I write "ntrw write Cotulla.nb1 j:" in the black DOS-Window and press enter. j: is my SD-card.
Now there appeare some lines of text and I can wait about 3 minutes until there comes something about a wrong parameter...
But as I understand it, this should be no problem.
But the problem is when I try to take a look on the SD-card, there comes a window, that says that I must format the card. I cant open it... When I take out the card from the card reader and put it inside again, I can see what is inside on the card. But there is only one folder with the size of only about 130kb and no ROM...
My OS is Vista.
What am I doing wrong???
Magician boot loader does not expect any file system on the SD card, thus ntrw writes the OS directly to the first sectors of your card. When you insert this card now anywhere Windows does not find any file system and recommends to format. That is correct (as long as don't answer yes) and shows writing WM6.1 was successful (given your card is big enough and failure free).
To make clear: you shouldn't be to browse that card in Explorer when you wrote WM6.1 on it.
Ok but if I put the card out of the reader und back again I can browse the card and there is nothing except of an 130kb small folder...
And if I put the card into my magician on bootloader, nothing happens...
What could be the reason for that?
I tried with 256 MB memory card I am gettin gthe same message while writing to card.
NTRW v2.00
Removeable media
Cylinders: 0:120
TracksPerCylinder: 255
SectorsPerTrack: 63
BytesPerSector: 512
bufsize is 65536
WriteFile(): Cotulla6.1.03.nb1 -- the Parameter is incorrect
And when I enter the bootloader mode with the card Inserted I get the message:
SD Download
==========
Sections=1
Not allow
update!
But with the same SD card when i write my old ROM( whic i had backed up) I get no error and when I insert the card and enter Bootloader mode I get the message :
SD Download
==========
Sections=1
Press Power to Flash
This means that there is some problem with the nb1 file . So kindly someone try it and post the results
one more thing. The backup.nb1 which i backed up from my sd card is 243 mb big. So i feel that the nb1 file which U extract from your card should also of around the same size and not 65 MB. Correct me if i am wrong.
I tried to extract nb1 file after writing ur rom to my sd card. it is also 243 mb big.
hi guys,
i wanna know that, i have a micro sd card of 16 GB and its not working when i connect it to computer its saying to format it and when i format it, it says "windows was unable to format", when the format dialog box appear, in the capacity bar there is only 30 mb ?
when i format it with sd formatter it says its write protected
Firstly, are you using MicroSD/SD adapter? if yes, check out the Write protect switch on the side of the adapter. unlock it. this might be the reason why "Write protect".
Secondly, it's very likely your MicroSD is a used one. Already have some partitions on it.
Refer to this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/SD_card_partitioning first.
You might get better idea of how to fix it.
In the morning, I received Damaged SD card error message read "SD card is damaged. Try reformatting it." when I attempted to share some pictures on my phone through Facebook. When I clicked in, Android reminded me that "Format SD card? All data on your card will be lost". I didn’t format the card as there were so many important files including hundreds of pictures.
I tried to put the card in cardreader and connected to PC to run below command:
chkdsk /x /f D:
And got the below results:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is 56A7-5C9F
Windows is verifying files and folders...
\mtklog\aee_exp\temp\db.UO5009\SYS_INTERRUPTS first allocation unit is not vali
d. The entry will be truncated.
\mtklog\aee_exp\temp\db.UO5009\SYS_ANDROID_LOG first allocation unit is not val
id. The entry will be truncated.
Please...Please help me...
rakeshsharma7 said:
In the morning, I received Damaged SD card error message read "SD card is damaged. Try reformatting it." when I attempted to share some pictures on my phone through Facebook. When I clicked in, Android reminded me that "Format SD card? All data on your card will be lost". I didn’t format the card as there were so many important files including hundreds of pictures.
I tried to put the card in cardreader and connected to PC to run below command:
chkdsk /x /f D:
And got the below results:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is 56A7-5C9F
Windows is verifying files and folders...
\mtklog\aee_exp\temp\db.UO5009\SYS_INTERRUPTS first allocation unit is not vali
d. The entry will be truncated.
\mtklog\aee_exp\temp\db.UO5009\SYS_ANDROID_LOG first allocation unit is not val
id. The entry will be truncated.
Please...Please help me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
You may try posting your query here Ask any Q noobfriendly with all relevant info, the experts there maybe able to assist you.
-Vatsal