SD card issues - Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
I have a Samsung nexus S GT-19020
I had some issues booting recently so I decided to root it and put on cyanogenmod, I'm now having issues with the SD card. I can mount the card fine and view the contents however when I delete files or add them they reappear/disappear when I remount the SD card. Does anyone have any idea on what this might be? I've used adb shell to mount it and remove the files to no avail so I've ended up with a phone that can't save anything!
Thanks in advance,
Mrpinksss

First things first, make a backup. Copy any and all important files off of the phone and onto the computer, and it would be wise to copy the entire /sdcard even if there is stuff you don't think you need. If there are specific files/settings you are unsure how to backup manually feel free to ask, these may be located in /system or /data. Furthermore, i would recommend making a backup of your /efs folder (at least copy the entire folder and save it somewhere safe on the computer - be sure to get all hidden files starting with a DOT [.]), just in case if you havn't done so already.
Once this is done and anything left to worry about is behind us, try formatting the /sdcard via clockworkmod and see if that does anything. If not, post again and i'll think of some new things to try

yeah everything is backed up, I've tried to format with clockwork multiple times now with no luck. I've also tried formatting with fdisk with no luck either

Start over from the beginning and lock/unlock your bootloader which will erase/format everything. After you have everything backed up, of course, as previously mentioned.

so I tried fastboot with the stock ice cream ROM 4.0.2 which seemed to work but it won't boot and just gets stuck at the Google logo. I also locked the bootloader but when I try and unlock it I get a
FAILED (remote: Erase Fail)
thanks for your help so far!

Sounds like a busted SDCard. These are known for giving up, often quite randomly and with no warning. It is a hardware issue and generally needs Samsung to sort out the issue for you - it should be covered by warranty so long as it is still within the warranty period.

MrPinksss said:
so I tried fastboot with the stock ice cream ROM 4.0.2 which seemed to work but it won't boot and just gets stuck at the Google logo. I also locked the bootloader but when I try and unlock it I get a
FAILED (remote: Erase Fail)
thanks for your help so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Crapola, that sucks. Hmmm...
I did a search for that error message and lots of stuff came up on xda and elsewhere and i think harbb is right, your hw might be borked. Lame-o....

Well at least I got it locked and back to a stock ROM, shall take it into Vodafone.
Many thanks!

Related

A little help on flashing android screen

Hey guys,
yesterday i flashed my g1 with JF RC33 and alls fine, except by one thing: every time i turned it on, a message pop up telling that android.process.media needed to be close.
Then I did a wipe, but after this i can't turn on my phone again, it stay on the flashing android screen
What should i do?
Thanks!
it seems to be caused by a broken system file or hardware problem. could you try flashing your system again? this update.zip is signed, so something must happened during the copying process.
Simply reflash an update. I recommend you do a Nandroid backup next time. Also, make sure your SD card is in your phone when turning on. For some odd reasons, when my SD card isn't in my phone, it just hangs on the boot image. Very strange. I have Apps to SD and am running on Haykuro 5.0.2H
it looks to be an issue with your sd card, do you have apps to SD enabled or anything else with your phone that might need to access the SD card at boot? if you have apps tp SD then you need to re-push the mountd.conf and the init.rc and redo the links to your /system/sd partition. if not i would make sure that your SD card is not corrupt by formatting it again. as solomenwishing(sp) said next time you should make a nandroid backup of your phone before you mess with anything
Thanks guy.
I flash everything again and it's ok.
Now i don't know how to make the nandroid backup.
Can someone help me?
Search is your best friend here....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=459830
Well this is a sticky on this forum
okay, i had already read this before, but the only thing that i don't know for sure is this.
"Android G1 phone in recovery mode with busybox installed, including appropriate symlinks to at least tar and md5sum, as well as 'adb shell' support running as root."
My recovery image is from the JF topic "How -to- Root,Hack and flashing...."..the only thing i know is my one has the adbshell support running as root
It's ok to do this?
TKS GUYS

cwm cant mount /system and /data

Hey guys I need your help
I've been using cm7 for a couple of weeks now. I havnt had problems until today.
I flashed build 32 over and for some reason it wasn't booting up. It was on the splash screen for a while (it usually does that and when I take battery out and restart it boots) so then I took the battery out. Next thing I know is that my phone is stuck on the mytouch screen... I went to recovery and when it booted into cwm 3. I got a error saying it couldn't open system/recovery/log or something like that... it still went to cwm and I checked the mounts and it said /system and /data wasn't mounted. I clicked it to mount and it gave me an error saying it couldn't ... therefore it wouldn't let me install cm7 or do a wipe... is there anything I can do to fix this? It seems to be that the nand. Is corrupted or something...
I think, based on your description, that pulling the battery at the particular instant caused the secondary problem.
A "factory reset" reformats /data and /cache. But not /system. You can do that manually from the mounts and storage menu, then either restore a nandroid backup or install cm7 and gapps.
HTC Glacier running CM7 #33
Hmm I font think its just two directories... I think my whole internal storage is messed up. I tried using the reformat option from cwm but no luck
Time to discover what you might be able to accomplish with Fastboot and a USB cable.
HTC Glacier running CM7 #33
I think a lot of people are having problems with clockwork 3 in the nexus forums, and more specifically with it screwing up partitions. I was luck just to lose my ext position on my sd...
Reformat and reflash seems to be the easiest fix...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
i dont know how to repartition the phone storage :/
i tried doing it off cwm and it wouldn't let me... is there anyway to do this through adb? i think adb is working...
Reformat the whole card, and then try to repartition. This will write your data, so back up first...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
how do i do that? o_o through cwm? i tried formating everything including system data cache... and i dont know how to repartition through cwm. cwm is the only thing i can get to right now :/
Sorry, looks like the only option in clockwork is to partition. Can you not do it from your pc?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
yeah it gives me error when i try to do :
fastboot erase system -w :/ is there anything else?
guys... ((((( am i totally effed up? i couldn't find anything i could do.. no matter what i did, the /system and /data would NOT mount... so i cant format it
I have never tried this, but you might consider it.
In this thread is a method to return your phone to stock -- it uses the bootloader's ability to repartition and reformat everything somewhat automatically, using a file called PD15IMG.ZIP from the SD card's root folder.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=11011692&highlight=pd15img.zip#post11011692
There's a link in the thread to the .zip file -- look to post signatures. Put the file on an SD card (with another phone, or camera, or Micro-SD to SD adapter, etc.) and boot into the bootloader with that file on the SD card.
I do not know if you can rename the .zip it to update.zip and force it to flash with Fastboot's update command, because the PD15IMG.ZIP is a specific thing this phone's bootloader looks for. As stated, I have never tried this, and do not recommend this. It might work, or, it might cause more damage. Putting the file on an SD card without Fastboot will be safer.
You could try to boot your phone into fastboot,
and then type
fastboot erase -w system
Your phone wont boot after that, but you should be able to flash a new rom from clockwork.
ive tried both the pd15img.zip method. it says "partition update fail"
and i also tried the "fastboot erase system -w" and it did not work.. it says that it can't be done. i also tried to format /system through adb and cwm, and both says it can't because it must be mounted before
From your description, it seems to me that the internal flash memory has a damaged partition table -- easy enough to repair if this were a hard drive you could remove and take to a linux system somewhere. But it's a phone, and a bit of flash memory that can't be removed.
Flashboot has an "erase <partition>" command. I don't know what it does, since it's not well documented. Does it reformat an existing partition? Or does it remove the partition from the partition table? There is no commensurate "create <partition>" command, so perhaps it recreates an empty partition. But I tend to doubt it.
I would think such work might be done from an engineering bootloader or engineering recovery system -- one available to HTC service technicians, for example.
Since you're not getting a great deal of help in the MT4G subforum, you might post your question in the top level Questions and Answers forum.
Sorry I'm not much help with this.
One last thought. The bootloader itself has a Factory Reset. That might do it. Might not. But like chicken soup, it probably couldn't hurt. Boot into the bootloader (volume down while powering up), select BOOTLOADER with the volume control and then the power button, then select FACTORY RESET. Perhaps it will do something positive.
eh.. i couldnt do anything. i tried all options. its like impossible to reformat or repartition the drive..
i actually called up insurance and they'll be sending me a new mytouch 4g..
we have just told them that it doesnt go past the mytouch screen.. would they figure out that it is rooted? i mean.. choosing recovery from the bootloader menu takes it right into cwm lol
Just flash the stock recovery back via fastboot...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
ive tried
dumbkkid said:
ive tried
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are sending the fastboot commands while in the bootloader right? I would imagine you are but I just want to make sure.

[Q] Writing to interal sdcard flash (/mnt/sdcard) galaxy s i9000 not possibe

Hello !
I have a big problem with my galaxy s.
Since January i am working with my JPY firmware quiete fine. On sunday the phone rebooted without anything done by me. Afterwards my homescreen was empty.
Most of my apps are not working now. So i have done a wipe. Nothing, the same. Interesting is, that all my data was still on the device. Then i try to format the internal sd. Not working, no error message. When I delete all files and deinstalled all apps, everthing was gone. After a reboot all data is back on the internal sd as before.
OK then i tried to flash different 1 and 3 file firmware versions with odin(also with repartitioning). But no version is really working and i never get to the homescreen. So I flashed the JPY back. Then everything is like before my first steps. All data is on the phone, i can not delete anything.
I tried do delete the storage also with recovery mode. Nothing.
I tried with adb (android sdk), deleted all files in /mnt/sdcard. After a remount all data appears back.
What can i do to get my phone working ? I have found no possibility so far.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Frederik
Fred001 said:
Hello !
I have a big problem with my galaxy s.
Since January i am working with my JPY firmware quiete fine. On sunday the phone rebooted without anything done by me. Afterwards my homescreen was empty.
Most of my apps are not working now. So i have done a wipe. Nothing, the same. Interesting is, that all my data was still on the device. Then i try to format the internal sd. Not working, no error message. When I delete all files and deinstalled all apps, everthing was gone. After a reboot all data is back on the internal sd as before.
OK then i tried to flash different 1 and 3 file firmware versions with odin(also with repartitioning). But no version is really working and i never get to the homescreen. So I flashed the JPY back. Then everything is like before my first steps. All data is on the phone, i can not delete anything.
I tried do delete the storage also with recovery mode. Nothing.
I tried with adb (android sdk), deleted all files in /mnt/sdcard. After a remount all data appears back.
What can i do to get my phone working ? I have found no possibility so far.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Frederik
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try to update it using kies or if u have latest version then try flash your device using odn flasher
Thanks for your help harmandeep45. But all this is already done. I worked on this issue little longer and can say that there is some unrepairable problem with the internal sd. I can not delete any partition neither with adb (parted /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 rm). When I do a print everything is there. I am able to mount and unmount the partitions. No problem. But it is not possible to reorganize them. Even if i write on the sdcard partition, after a remount it is as before the write. Maybe the flash memory is broken. Does anybody had the same issue? I already tried the things written in this post, but without luck : http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-845708.html
I have the same problem, i had installed another firmware on my sgs and start throwing me program errors I had before in my other firmware and when it comes to memory I saw that the folders that were there had not cleared and when I trying to delete the folders and files reappeared.
Ok, what i have tested is to flash different firmware versions. Nothing worked. I used the debug console adb to log in and tried to delete the partitions from /dev/block/mmcblk0 with parted. Nothing happens. I am not able to delete them. I don't want to send the phone to the samsung service, because there is important company data on it, like emails, banking, ebay, etc. I tried to mount it in Linux as usb memory device and used gpartet to create new partitions and overwrite all with dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1, but after reboot everything was like before. Is there any other possibility to delete the flash???
Fred001 said:
Ok, what i have tested is to flash different firmware versions. Nothing worked. I used the debug console adb to log in and tried to delete the partitions from /dev/block/mmcblk0 with parted. Nothing happens. I am not able to delete them. I don't want to send the phone to the samsung service, because there is important company data on it, like emails, banking, ebay, etc. I tried to mount it in Linux as usb memory device and used gpartet to create new partitions and overwrite all with dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1, but after reboot everything was like before. Is there any other possibility to delete the flash???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have to flash it with jtag box riff, but I doubt you have one, you have to find a place where they have the box

[Q] g2x reboot loop

Hi techie friends,
My unrooted g2x is stuck in a reboot loop. Before I do a hard reset (power/volume down), I would like to retrieve my photos, which are stored in the internal memory. Is there a way? [Here is what I tried so far: I tried a soft reset (battery out) with no success. I connected the g2x to my PC but it is invisible. I tried holding just the volume down key and got a "s/w upgrade, please wait while upgrading..." screen. Is there any hope to retrieve my photos? I googled the issue and found nothing useful.] Thank you in advance for trying to help me! Catherine
Im having the same issue on a friends G2X... nobody has the answer?
hmmmmm, this is an interesting one. the very first thing i would do is get that phone backed up. you will need to flash a custom recovery(clockwork mod) in order to make a backup. search the development section. once you have a backup on your sdcard, i'd copy it to my pc. thinking.......
from recovery, you can try "fix permissions".
reboot. if that doesn't work, go back to recovery>advanced>wipe dalvik cache. reboot. if that doesn't work, try recovery again>mounts and storage and mount everything listed. see if the drives open up under "my computer" on your pc. for me, that last option doesn't work. but it could just be my pc or my recovery version.
or, you could flash any rom you want, and then mount the phone to your pc. then try running a data recovery program on the internal sdcard.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
forget the link i posted above. it seems it has trouble reading the internal sd. but i'm running get data back right now. it seems like it's working fine. if these pictures are absolutely worth saving, you might have to dish out some cash for a data recovery app. but always use a trial version first to make sure it works. and once you flash a new rom, keep the phone off until you are ready to run a recovery app. the less that gets written to the drive, the better your chances for retrieving those pics.
or, you can try this... https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hexamob.hexamobrecoverypro&feature=search_result . you'll need to be rooted and have superuser app on your phone. but this looks like the cheapest alternative. i have never used it though. reviews look good though.
I'm pretty sure a hard reset doesn't touch anything located on the sdcard. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it should only format the 1GB partition where the android system is installed and apps are stored. You will basically be starting with a fresh install, but should still have anything stored on your sdcard still intact.
G2X CM7
Hmmm,
Can't you just mount the internal memory via the latest Clockwork Recovery which is as I recall 4.0.0.2?
It worked the last time (the same option with the same trouble) on my Vibrant 3G
phburks said:
I'm pretty sure a hard reset doesn't touch anything located on the sdcard. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it should only format the 1GB partition where the android system is installed and apps are stored. You will basically be starting with a fresh install, but should still have anything stored on your sdcard still intact.
G2X CM7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, you are right. HR will not erase the SD content and I also think that it will leave the the internal NANDs partition intact. But I dont know where the pics in this case are stored.
Correct if I'm wrong.
Antigen said:
Actually, you are right. HR will not erase the SD content and I also think that it will leave the the internal NANDs partition intact. But I dont know where the pics in this case are stored.
Correct if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Camera pics are stored under DCIM on the sdcard. Really any user created content/files (pics, music, videos, documents, etc) are on the memory card and shouldn't be touched by a hard reset. So I think youre in the clear if that's the route you go.
G2X CM7

[Q] Soft Bricked tab, no custom recovery and no way of selecting USB debugging option

So i soft bricked my device while trying to install the latest 4.0.1 image. I tried hard wiping the device and wipe cache partion from Stock Recovery but didn't help, still wouldn't boot. I tried installing the image in Stock Recovery from Apply Update From External SD Card, but i got a few errors first "E:Failed to map file Operation aborted", i took a look at the file and it had about 1.67gb extra in "Userdata" i tried deleting that file and reinstalling from external sd card but then i got "E:footer is wrong" "E:signature verification failed" Operation Aborted.
Now i'm trying to install update from ADB (Surprisingly if i have the tab connected and im in Apply Update from ADB the tab is recognized in ADB
Code:
adb devices
serial # sideload and i have updated the drivers) But if i try to flash the recovery file 4.0.1 (provided from the developers site [cant post links]) "i just get waiting for device"
Anyone know how to get around this issue in ADB or properly install from external sd card without getting errors?
(Alternative read to my problem posted in the Nvidia Forums 98% sure i soft bricked my device [cant post links]
Did you ever find a fix? I'm having a similar problem.
Try to use fastboot restore everything.
I can't get it to connect to fastboot. When it loads the boot loader and I try to select fastboot protocol it fails.
Wow this thing sucks! I'm really appreciating my Samsung with Odin right now! So I finally got it to connect to fastboot (don't ask me how, I don't know) unlocked the bootloader and flashed twrp. Now it won't flash supersu in adb sideload so I put it on an SD card (which now magically mounts and works now) and flashed the zip in recovery but it says at the very end of the process while trying to update the partitions that it can't mount the data and system partitions so I'm not sure if I'm actually getting root or not and if so if it's permanent I have no way to tell. I think this is because they have been accidentally wiped. Do you think it is safe to try to flash a rom in recovery from external sd card? And if so which one? I have no idea which version bootloader, kernel, or os is or was on this device...
Update: I think I may start a new thread in the Q&A/Help section so that I can try to get a vast concensus. Thanks!
rom fiend said:
Wow this thing sucks! I'm really appreciating my Samsung with Odin right now! So I finally got it to connect to fastboot (don't ask me how, I don't know) unlocked the bootloader and flashed twrp. Now it won't flash supersu in adb sideload so I put it on an SD card (which now magically mounts and works now) and flashed the zip in recovery but it says at the very end of the process while trying to update the partitions that it can't mount the data and system partitions so I'm not sure if I'm actually getting root or not and if so if it's permanent I have no way to tell. I think this is because they have been accidentally wiped. Do you think it is safe to try to flash a rom in recovery from external sd card? And if so which one? I have no idea which version bootloader, kernel, or os is or was on this device...
Update: I think I may start a new thread in the Q&A/Help section so that I can try to get a vast concensus. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes flash a ROM in recovery.
Try Resurrection Remix. It'll resurrect your device
Just tried flashing bliss 6.2 and it won't get past the nvidia screen. It says it flashes successfully but I still get a bunch of "can't mount such and such partition" errors during the flash sequence. Not sure what to do, I can post pics if you guys want.
If you got/can get TWRP on there now, the advanced wipe menu will allow you to check /data for errors. As for /system, wipe it. If you get errors that e2fsck can't fix in your TWRP log, you'll have to put on your data recovery hat on. If it's that important to you, my advice is to adb pull the right file under /dev/block. You won't get a block device, you'll get an exact image of your data partition. Once it's fully pulled (it'll be 10 GB or more on a 16GB device), make a copy of it first thing, and use data recovery tools (testdisk, or if you really know what you're doing, debugfs). If you don't have anything valuable on /data (remember that any backups you took from recovery go in /data/media by default), just format that and be done with it.
Pray that there are no errors after you format everything, because that usually means your NAND is toast.
If your errors are hardware ones, you're royally screwed. Same thing happened to my Nexus 7 2013 model a year ago. Only way to use it is to flash a modified kernel that will use an attached USB drive exclusively as storage. If the NAND is toast inside the boot partiti,try replacing recovery, otherwise, you have to tether boot it (fastboot boot) every time you want to run it, unless you have the guts to try repartitioning the NAND (unlike on PCs, messing up there is an instabrick).
Since the Shield Tablet can use SD cards, you're better off. No USB drive needed.

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