Need Help Unbricking Please - Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi everyone,
I was able to unlock and root my friends nexus s (tmo) and I thought I made a nandroid backup for recovery but when I choose the file there is an error. So now Im stuck in a bootloop and i have tried this option http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1447040 but I cant figure out which option to choose on Ubuntu to get it to boot on a usb stick? Can someone please help me unbrick this phone? Im sweating bullets here

You can still get into the bootloader and recovery can't you? You're not bricked. Just copy a new ROM onto the sdcard (mount it via recovery), do appropriate wipes and flash the new ROM.

bricked means flashing wrong radio for your device...and thats a bummer... luckily u didnt do this so relax nothing is broken
U didnt have to do all that coz the phone is not bricked at all... now just.go into recovery when u do this mount usb storage from recovery, transfer custom rom zip on your phone usb storage and follow instruction how to flash new rom with clean install also via recovery. If you cant get.into recovery for some reason, you can also force your nexus in recovery...just be sure to follow each and every step, also i recomend you head to nexus s hacks as you can see videos with instruction how to do all this. Just relax take.it.easy do this slow and ul fix it.
As long as u can get into recovery every bootloop is fixable, bootloop does.not.mean.bricked. its.just error that can be erased

Related

[Q] Bricked Nexus S, have clockwork recovery running

Hi guys I've been looking around and I'm a total noob at all this, but I went ahead and tried to root my Nexus S anyway.
Here's the site I used,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=878446
I don't really know what happened, but I have the little unlocked logo under google, but that google screen is all I can get. I can start it in fastboot mode, and when I click recovery it brings me to clockwork recovery page. I kinda just tried a bunch of weird things but everytime I try anything it keeps getting stuck at the google screen over and over again.
I'm really clueless.. If anyone could help me please give me your advice!
If it helps, I have clockwork version 3.0.0.0
you have to perform a nandroid restore or flash a ROM.
might as well update your recovery too.. wouldn't hurt
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=988686
rename img to recovery.img
boot into bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
go into recovery
when you finish downloading the rom/nandriod, go into mounts and storage and mount usb and put your sdcard
I'm sorry what is rom flashing or nandroid restore?
The clockwork update is confusing too.. I'd like to avoid that if possible..
Sorry looked up both of them and it looks like I actually need my phone to be working in order to do it?
I've read and it says it doesn't really help on stocked android phones?
The nadroid restore is the -backup and restore option in clockwork yes?
lanstrange said:
I'm sorry what is rom flashing or nandroid restore?
The clockwork update is confusing too.. I'd like to avoid that if possible..
Sorry looked up both of them and it looks like I actually need my phone to be working in order to do it?
I've read and it says it doesn't really help on stocked android phones?
The nadroid restore is the -backup and restore option in clockwork yes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesnt really help if you reboot the phone cause with stock rom, every reboot flashes back the stock recovery.
what you should do is follow the steps @Zephik described above ( but without rebooting the phone) and you'll be able to enter the clockwork recovery ( a modified recovery allowing you to do a backup or rom flashing...) '
rom flashing is installing a rom modified by users for a better and faster user experience.
lanstrange said:
Hi guys I've been looking around and I'm a total noob at all this, but I went ahead and tried to root my Nexus S anyway.
Here's the site I used,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=878446
I don't really know what happened, but I have the little unlocked logo under google, but that google screen is all I can get. I can start it in fastboot mode, and when I click recovery it brings me to clockwork recovery page. I kinda just tried a bunch of weird things but everytime I try anything it keeps getting stuck at the google screen over and over again.
I'm really clueless.. If anyone could help me please give me your advice!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should tell us your carrier and phone model, it might help the guys here to get you on the right recovery.
hxxp://flickr.com/photos/asuerio/5716164499/
hxxp://flickr.com/photos/asuerio/5716163423/in/photostream/
hxxp://flickr.com/photos/asuerio/5716162899/in/photostream/
hxxp://flickr.com/photos/asuerio/5722383955/
error when trying to access the sdcard by recovery: is not possible to mount the sdcard
I try to do everything to access the sdcard has this error
Have you fixed this? I have the same issue!

[SOLVED] Help HTC Desire S - have I bricked it

I have a desire S, Which is S-Off through revoltionary and rooted! But i don't have a nandroid backup and my phone will no longer boot up. what can i do? I've tried to do a factory reset in recovery mode but that doesnt work.
How can i flash a stock rom on it to get it back to normal, i think its bricked... can someone help me?
1st of all i suggest you download a custom rom from the development section here.
then flash that via recovery. then hopefully your phone will load up into the new rom.
after you confirm this to me i will help you further to get back to stock rom
Thanks for the reply.
I did what you said, i tried to install a custom rom in recovery but it ends up aborting after a while, i dont think i can get any rom to work now, its not looking good
Fingers crossed
See this thread
Attempt the commands that are shown within the first #1 of it and you should be able to determine whether or not you have a fried eMMC chip.
See links in my signature for adb & fastboot drivers and the thread you need to see.
What recovery are you using? and what rom are you trying to flash?
I suggest downloading this rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1048203
Once you have done this follow these steps below to the letter
1. Boot into recovery
2. Format System (not wipe option but format option !!!)
3. Format Data
4. Format Cache
5. Wipe Data/Factory reset (1st option in wipe/format menu)
6. Wipe Dalvik Cache
7. Now install zip from sd card and flash the rom
8. Reboot
It was the Saga LBC mod that i was trying to install but it didn't work, nothing works that i try. i've formatted my sd card nom. basicly ive screwed everything up i've got no back ups of any rom and i cant get anything working
pumpernickel77 said:
It was the Aage LBC mod that i was trying to install but it didn't work, nothing works that i try. i've formatted my sd card nom. basicly ive screwed everything up i've got no back ups of any rom and i cant get anything working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you give me a step by step explanation of what you are doing and what messages/error messages you are getting at each stage?
I will try to help you the best i can. But i need to try to understand what the main issue is 1st. Don't worry just yet!
pumpernickel77 said:
It was the Saga LBC mod that i was trying to install but it didn't work, nothing works that i try. i've formatted my sd card nom. basicly ive screwed everything up i've got no back ups of any rom and i cant get anything working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to give specifics and preferably screen pictures....(if possible) did you try the commands from the thread that I posted above, or what happens when you attempted the commands layed out by Eclipse_Driod above?
The more you tell us, the more we have to work with!?
I'm sorry but I dont know how to do the command thing, i'm a newbie when it comed to that I've basicly got a desire s that wont boot up and a SD card with nothing on, i think i need to somehow put a recovery image on my phone before i can install a rom
Is there any way i can install a recovery image to the sd card from the pc, that will then allow me to install a rom?
pumpernickel77 said:
I'm sorry but I dont know how to do the command thing, i'm a neebie when it comed to that I've basicly got a desire s that wont boot up and a SD card with nothing on, i think i need to somehow put a recovery image on my phone before i can install a rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that you already have a fully working recovery on your device, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to flash LBC ROM in the first place....so I suspect that the problem is else where....(possibly damaged eMMC chip) but unless you help us, by running the commands and testing this we are un-able to confirm this for you.
You can find the adb and fastboot commands as a link in my signature simply download and then put these on you PC and run the commands that were in the thread I posted earlier (thats also in my sig Fried eMMC?)
Although I also believe that if you're able to get to S-OFF then you're able to enter the commands from your PC that will enable you to flash a recovery onto your device.
See this post where I've previously instructed some one else how to do just this.
Any questions then just and try to take screen captures or cut 'n' pastes of all errors encountered.
Good luck
pumpernickel77 said:
I'm sorry but I dont know how to do the command thing, i'm a neebie when it comed to that I've basicly got a desire s that wont boot up and a SD card with nothing on, i think i need to somehow put a recovery image on my phone before i can install a rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does it not even boot into recovery?
you need to hold down the volume down button and keep it held down while you power on the device. This will make it boot into recovery mode.
But before you can do that i would advise you take the sd card out of the phone, connect it to your computer with a card reader and copy over the lbc mod rom.zip file straight onto the card, then put it back into the phone.
then turn the phone off and boot into recover as mentioned above and select install rom from sd card and select the zip file you transferred over.
after it has installed reboot phone by selecting the "reboot" option in the recovery mode.
all should now be well.
report back how this goes
and don't forget to hit that thanks button
Thanks for your patience.. I'm going to try and explain in full what i've done
I got S-off on my Desire S using "Revoluntionary" (after watching how to do it on YouTube) and after domwloading ClockWorkMod from market place I sucessfully installed Saga LBC ver 5.3. Everything was fine i was very pleased. I had a back up of the old stock ROM saved on my SD card which i did through Clockworkmod too.
Then this morning I got a update message from clockworkmod saying ver6.0 was available to download so i did. My phone never turned back on again I could get into recovery mode but nothing would work (wipe data, factory reset, Even tryin to install the old backed up rom didn;t work) it just kept freezing.
So i took my sd card out and plugged it into the pc to try to look for anothr rom to try out, thats when i ended up formattig the SD card (god knows why) So now ive got no backup, no clockworkmod, no nothing on my SD card...Am I screwed??
Thanks for your patience.. I'm going to try and explain in full what i've done
I got S-off on my Desire S using "Revoluntionary" (after watching how to do it on YouTube) and after domwloading ClockWorkMod from market place I sucessfully installed Saga LBC ver 5.3. Everything was fine i was very pleased. I had a back up of the old stock ROM saved on my SD card which i did through Clockworkmod too.
Then this morning I got a update message from clockworkmod saying ver6.0 was available to download so i did. My phone never turned back on again I could get into recovery mode but nothing would work (wipe data, factory reset, Even tryin to install the old backed up rom didn;t work) it just kept freezing.
So i took my sd card out and plugged it into the pc to try to look for anothr rom to try out, thats when i ended up formattig the SD card (god knows why) So now ive got no backup, no clockworkmod, no nothing on my SD card...Am I screwed??
from what you have told me u still have clockwordmod recovery as it is on the phone itself. not the sd card. So you are ok there. What i need you to do next it to see if you are able to boot into recovery?
if you can then try again to format data, system and cache.
then try installing a rom from your sd card.
if it is still freezing while trying to perform a format then look back at bens previous posts about using adb through your pc to find out if your emmc chip is damaged
I can boot into recovery no probs there, but when i format data, system and cache it goes so far and then aborts
Ive just tried to install the LBC rom again i renames it PG88IMG ind it asked me to install so i did. It says 'update in progress' and the bar on the right starts to fill up but it stops near the top and eventually aborts
right, the only thing i can think of to try next is following the same method you said you followed to s-off through revolutionary.
it will say you are already s-off or something but click proceed anyway. and make sure from there that you type "y" when it asks if you want it to install clockworkmod recovery. as this will reinstall a fresh recovery image for you.
this is the only thing i can think of.
let me know how it goes
did you look at my post#11 above...
The second half of it contains instructions on how you can flash a new recovery image......from your PC.
Ive just tried to do the s-off again the way i did before but i can only go as far as the part when i connect my phone and open the revolutionary programme and it doesn't detect my phone
Ok, it looks like the last option to try is flashing a new recovery image manually.
For this you will need to download and install adb. which can be found here
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/what-is-adb-and-how-to-install-it-android/
along with instructions of how to set it up and use it.
after you have done this you will need to download this
http://download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-saga.img
which is the latest clockworkmod recovery for your phone. and rename it to recovery.img
then copy the recovery image to a convenient location on your computer, preferably with a short path. We will be placing it on the C Drive directly (not in any folder) and using that in the next steps.
Power your device off and reboot it in fastboot mode. (holding volume down whilst pressing power on button) then select "fastboot" from the list of options you get.
Connect your device to your computer via USB and wait till you see ‘fastboot USB’ on the screen.
Launch Command Prompt and type the following command:
fastboot flash recovery c:\recovery.img
Wait for the process to finish and reboot your device once it’s done.

N00b in need of help. Lock Bootloader?!

Hi,
I've posted a thread or two on here but I cant get any proper help or instructions to help me out
Basically, my phone has its boot loader unlocked (lock symbol shows up) and I have tried all methods to lock it but nothing works.
I cant boot the phone into recovery, and drivers arent very coperative either
I need help! ... I'm planning on selling my phone ,so need to restore it asap.
The problem started when I first bought the phone, it wouldnt update or reboot, so I tried a one click root, it unlocked the bootloader and everything looked fine. UNTIL, an OTA update came along, I applied it, but when my phone came to restart it was stuck on the google logo. I cant even update anymore
Pleease could someone help this n00b out? Really appreciated
Thanks!
Read. No seriously, these forums are chockful of help threads and guides on how to root your phone, install a custom recovery, fix your phone when it's stuck.
Since you want to go back to stock, I'll give you a hint...
1) Unlock bootloader using fastboot (DONE!)
2) Flash custom recovery using fastboot
3) Wipe data/factory reset in custom recovery
4) Install Gingerbread 2.3.6 in custom recovery
5) Lock bootloader using fastboot
Edit: If you're having trouble getting your phone to be recognized in fastboot mode, use the PDANet drivers for Windows. Usually that does it.
Thanks for the reply.
Trust me, I've read around this forum a lot! I've tried the drivers with PDA net but still nothing works. The drivers (adb I think) aren't recognised so can't get anywhere.
I get easily lost with the guides. I don't think they're newbie friendly. I .e. where am I supposed to type 'fastboot oem lock'?
Btw I have no custom rom installed ( I don't think) and when I downloaded the root checker from the market, my phone is recognised as not being rooted (even though I can't apply updates :/ )
I think main thing is that my phone isn't recognised in fastboot mode....
soulja786 said:
Thanks for the reply.
Trust me, I've read around this forum a lot! I've tried the drivers with PDA net but still nothing works. The drivers (adb I think) aren't recognised so can't get anywhere.
I get easily lost with the guides. I don't think they're newbie friendly. I .e. where am I supposed to type 'fastboot oem lock'?
Btw I have no custom rom installed ( I don't think) and when I downloaded the root checker from the market, my phone is recognised as not being rooted (even though I can't apply updates :/ )
I think main thing is that my phone isn't recognised in fastboot mode....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Learn about fastboot here
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Fastboot
For the drivers, you can watch the video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4AHucGBZHMQ
The guides are as noob friendly as they can be.
Thanks a lot for your help! I owe u polobunny , I can now lock the bootloader BUT, Ive rooted my device with 'twrp' and want to flash a ICS ROM. Which ROM would you reccomend and to install it do I add the rom to SD card and install from twrp interface? Or is it more complicated than that ?
Thankss
soulja786 said:
Thanks a lot for your help! I owe u polobunny , I can now lock the bootloader BUT, Ive rooted my device with 'twrp' and want to flash a ICS ROM. Which ROM would you reccomend and to install it do I add the rom to SD card and install from twrp interface? Or is it more complicated than that ?
Thankss
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Installing the Rom should be the same regardless of recovery. Yes put the rom on the SD card and flash away.
Thanks but do I need to wipe data/restore or can I just flash?
soulja786 said:
Thanks but do I need to wipe data/restore or can I just flash?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh boy, you do need to read my friend.
In recovery (twerp, twink, Clockwork, whatever) back up your current set up. Then... I suggest you wipe data/factory reset, then wipe dalvik and cache yes. I do it 3 times on Clockwork just to be sure. The cleaner you get it the less problems you will incur. I always wipe fresh unless instructed specifically to do otherwise.
Flash your Rom, gapps, kernel and enjoy.

[Q] Wiped and not working HTC One S [s4]

Good day everyone,
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I am in desperate need of your help. I recently purchased a HTC One S from an online store they told me it was new never used locked phone. Turns out phone was rooted, 4g does not work, and it could not recognize e drive, (internal sd card)
After reading the all in one i re-rooted it and install the teamwin version of recovery.
Now i never had any back ups or any factory files. as i got the phone rooted with software that did not work. My phone now has no rom and i cannot install from adb sideloader, or an other means. I am new to this and cannot seem to figure out how to get my phone back to even stock un-rooted etc. I tried multiple forums and download links but nothing.
i was able to install vipers rom at one point but despite several attempts to reinstall. recovery does not see files loaded. which i can see on my mac or pc.
the other strange thing i notice is that at the top in fastboot mode i sometimes see unlocked in pink only and other times i see both unlocked and tampered. when its unlock only none of my computers recognize connection.
I also tried boot.img for flash. The furthest my screen no goes is the htc logo, then goes black.
Please help, even to just point me in rite direction to have this resolved.
the boot.img, did you flash it via fastboot? (fastboot flash boot boot.img)
And, one question that comes to mind... they sold you a device as new, yet it wasnt.. Why didnt you return it?
Goatshocker said:
the boot.img, did you flash it via fastboot? (fastboot flash boot boot.img)
And, one question that comes to mind... they sold you a device as new, yet it wasnt.. Why didnt you return it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I tried several times loading the boot.img via fastboot.
As far as returning the device i trashed the mailing box but kept original packaging so no return address. I called the company which i made the purchase from "N1wireless" several times and sent several emails to them. They have yet to reply or answer any of my calls. Which is why I am so frustrated.
mnitllc said:
Yes I tried several times loading the boot.img via fastboot.
As far as returning the device i trashed the mailing box but kept original packaging so no return address. I called the company which i made the purchase from "N1wireless" several times and sent several emails to them. They have yet to reply or answer any of my calls. Which is why I am so frustrated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Boot into recovery, select mount > mount usb storage. From pc move the Rom.zip to your sd card which should now be showing on your pc. After it is moved to your phone select unmount then press home button in twrp recovery. Then install the Rom. After install open up adb and type adb reboot bootloader then press enter. Now fastboot flash the boot img from inside the Rom.zip on your computer. After that reboot your phone and report back
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
bochocinco23 said:
Boot into recovery, select mount > mount usb storage. From pc move the Rom.zip to your sd card which should now be showing on your pc. After it is moved to your phone select unmount then press home button in twrp recovery. Then install the Rom. After install open up adb and type adb reboot bootloader then press enter. Now fastboot flash the boot img from inside the Rom.zip on your computer. After that reboot your phone and report back
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for the reply, thats just the thing I cannot in recovery install any rom loaded to sd card. It fails. I tried reinstalling the recovery and it still not reading my sd card.
So my guess is i need a new twrc or how to do it from my mac, as now when i try on my pc it is failing as-well. Once I get the recovery to work I will try your other suggestions as I think it will work based on the steps you mentioned.
I am trying to figure out how to use terminal to reinstall recovery. any suggestions or links will be greatly appreciated.:good:
you install recoveries through fastboot, fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
Goatshocker said:
you install recoveries through fastboot, fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I reinstalled recovery several times now and it wont recognize the sd card. is there another recovery i can download and use? Also is there any instructions for a newby to use terminal to re-boot, everything from scratch. Meaning if the phone is completely blank except the fast boot and a recovery manager no backups or stock kernel etc. what is the format to be used in order for the computer and recovery to recognize the sd card?
I think I need a good recovery rom like cmod if there is one for the htc one s or the stock one if someone has it.
hi i had that problem
mnitllc said:
I reinstalled recovery several times now and it wont recognize the sd card. is there another recovery i can download and use? Also is there any instructions for a newby to use terminal to re-boot, everything from scratch. Meaning if the phone is completely blank except the fast boot and a recovery manager no backups or stock kernel etc. what is the format to be used in order for the computer and recovery to recognize the sd card?
I think I need a good recovery rom like cmod if there is one for the htc one s or the stock one if someone has it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had that problem the sd card would not be seen by my laptop and the phone would not boot at all if you plug in the phone to your go to start and then computer right click on your c drive go to manage and see if you can see it there if so try to format it and then reboot the phone if it works you can then install cwm as a recovery system then you can put what rom you wont on it i am use in zenRom 1.05 and to me its the best coz it like the htc rom that the phone come with if that don`t work let me know coz i have more tricks to try i hope this helps you out.
Theres only TWRP and CWM for the S afaik, and CWM sucks. TWRP is the one to use.
I had a similar problem a few days ago, luckily there's not such a bad solution.
1) Pick a custom ROM you want to install from the HTC One S developer forums (I went with Trickdroid) and download the ROM/boot image.
2) Then download and flash the stock recovery here: http://www.4shared.com/file/1UuxTh0k/stock_recovery.html
3) Boot into bootloader, clear storage and then reset to factory defaults.
4) Flash TWRP
5) Reboot into recovery, sdcard should now be mounted/visible
Then push the ROM to your sdcard with adb or mount USB storage and flash it/flash the boot image and you should be sorted.
Edit: Here's where I got the solution from btw (post #8):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630459
Hope that helped!
violentlighting said:
I had a similar problem a few days ago, luckily there's not such a bad solution.
1) Pick a custom ROM you want to install from the HTC One S developer forums (I went with Trickdroid) and download the ROM/boot image.
2) Then download and flash the stock recovery here: http://www.4shared.com/file/1UuxTh0k/stock_recovery.html
3) Boot into bootloader, clear storage and then reset to factory defaults.
4) Flash TWRP
5) Reboot into recovery, sdcard should now be mounted/visible
Then push the ROM to your sdcard with adb or mount USB storage and flash it/flash the boot image and you should be sorted.
Edit: Here's where I got the solution from btw (post #8):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630459
Hope that helped!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
got it. will try it asap.
I could not get the stock recovery via that link you provided. If there is another link to the stock I would appreciate it. I had to flash it wit cwm twice then reflash with twrc to get it to identify the sd card. i had tried the viper rom but my 4g and wifi doesnt work. Will try trickmod hopefully that works with no more issues
violentlighting said:
I had a similar problem a few days ago, luckily there's not such a bad solution.
1) Pick a custom ROM you want to install from the HTC One S developer forums (I went with Trickdroid) and download the ROM/boot image.
2) Then download and flash the stock recovery here: http://www.4shared.com/file/1UuxTh0k/stock_recovery.html
3) Boot into bootloader, clear storage and then reset to factory defaults.
4) Flash TWRP
5) Reboot into recovery, sdcard should now be mounted/visible
Then push the ROM to your sdcard with adb or mount USB storage and flash it/flash the boot image and you should be sorted.
Edit: Here's where I got the solution from btw (post #8):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630459
Hope that helped!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey thanks allot for your suggestions. I made some progress. It kinda worked. However I my wifi and data connections no good. I tried the 9.1 update and then tried the tweaks.
Do you know if it is possible to get stock kernel and stock rome to undo changes on device?

[Q] AT&T HTC One X Softbricked-CMmod

I believe I have bricked my phone. I was running a rooted HTC One X AT&T with an odex Jellybean/HTC Sense 4+ ROM. I wanted to test out a Cyanogenmod. Big mistake. I tried to flash it from TWRP recovery, after backing up my previous ROM, however, it was stuck in an endless boot loop. I took advice from some people online and reflashed it/ wiped caches/dalvik cache etc... When I realized it would not work unless I fastbooted it myself using USB debugging I tried to reinstall the old ROM, of course, after wiping the Cyanogenmod. Long story short there was no backup even though I backed up the phone! I now have no ROM and everything on my system is gone! My SD card folder only has a TWRP recovery and I can't install any .zip files. TWRP isn't even allowing me to mount my SD card so putting any files are out of the question. I believe, however, that usb debugging was on the whole time (is it on if on the boot loader it says fastboot usb when I plug in a USB?). Is there anyway to fix this?? I'm really screwed if I can't and please don't direct me to another thread because I need personalized help. I'm doing this on a mac by the way so anyone who knows how to use the terminal would help a lot. I can get access to windows though if needed. Just please help.
Have you tried to flash the boot.img from the zip file in fastboot?
Do you know what a brick is? When your phone does NOTHING... Similar to a brick.
What happened to you is you didn't flash the boot.img through fastboot, which caused your first problem, the bootloop..
Second thing you did incorrect was perform a factory reset in boot loader... Which completely wipes your SD card and corrupts it, and which just so happened to contain your backup no worries, easily fixable...
Download a rom on your computer. While its downloading, enter recovery and choose mount. Navigate to my computer and right click the removable storage option. Choose format. Once its done, drag rom onto phone.. Flash rom in twrp.
Extract rom on your computer, grab the boot.img and flash with fastboot.
Fastboot flash boot boot.img
Reboot phone and profit
EDIT: sorry but I hastily skimmed through your post... Those are half-assed instructions for windows, I have no clue what to do on a mac
Sent from my One X using Tapatalk 2
What he said. Toolkits are easily found too

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