I've done a very silly thing and fear I may have bricked my phone
A little while ago my phone's USB connection kicked the bucket and in a rather foolish attempt to get rid of everything I re-formatted the lot and now have a completely non-functioning phone
I have a Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000) and had "ClockworkMod Revovery v2.5.1.3" installed with a "Voodoo Lagfix" when things started to go a little funky. Wanting to remove any trace of hackery before sending the phone back for warranty I booted into recovery mode and reformatted every partition I could, one after the other, only to discover that not only did this not remove the hacked boot-loader but it completely rendered my phone unusable! Now, without any image installed and not having a functioning USB connection I've been unable to flash a working ROM back again.
I do, however, still have a working ClockworkMod Recovery and have noted there is an option to "mount /sd-ext" and I am hoping there may be a way to sneak an image on to the phone through the external SD then use "choose zip from sdcard" to re image the phone. Anyone know if this is possible, and if so, would someone care to guide me through the process??
I came across this thread: Can I flash roms from external SD
Where the response was: "Yes, you can, just mount it from the CWM Recovery and you're set." which gives me hope but I'm not able to get there alone.
I have tried mounting the external SD card but get the message:
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p2
(File exists)
Error mounting SDEXT:!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
You can copy rom on sd card, and flash in recovery mod
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
thanhhai8888 said:
You can copy rom on sd card, and flash in recovery mod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that, I'm just not quite sure how to do it.
As I said I'm not able to mount the external SD card at the moment and even then I'm not quite sure what to do. If I do manage to mount it will it then be possible to navigate to the extranal SD with the "install zip from sdcard"?
In the mean time I have come across this nice looking tutorial for flashing to ICS but it says "Copy the downloaded ROM to your phone’s internal SD card (not microSD card)" which for me, sadly, is not an option :,-(
By the way, I'm not particularly fussed wich version of Android I managed to flash, I just want to be able to use my phone again.
Hmmm,
After more digging I've come to understand more about what I have done...
It would appear that what I did was foolishly reformat my system partition with out having another ROM to replace it - but it seems I may well have narrowly avoided formatting the boot partition.
Since doing this I have come across this extremely good advice:
Take extreme care with this option as formatting any of these partitions will result in losing all data on them, especially the boot and system partitions. Formatting the system partition will remove your ROM and leave your phone without an operating system while wiping the boot partition may brick your phone unless you restore or flash another one before rebooting your device.If only I'd read that before
I've also come to realize the "sd-ext" is not the external SD card at all and is in fact a kind of "extra" partition used especially for flashing ROMs.
So my problem gets deeper...
Is there any possible way to flash a ROM onto a phone with a formatted system partition and no working USB connection?
If there is, I'd dearly like to know how.
You can buy a micro usb card reader to transfer the ROM from your PC to your sd card then flashing it using CWM.
Kerumen said:
You can buy a micro usb card reader to transfer the ROM from your PC to your sd card then flashing it using CWM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to be so darft but I can't work out how to flash from the external SD.
- By external I mean the removable micro SD card which is actually inside the phone.
I have another phone with which I can put the image on to the micro SD card, I'm just not sure what to do with it once I have it there.
I must be missing something pretty obvious because several people have said "just use CWM to flash from the SD card" but to be honest I just can't work out how to do it :s
I can get the image onto the micro SD card fine, the problem is that once I have the micro SD card with the new image on it in my 'bricked' phone I can't find how to get access to it with CWM?
if you can enter on cwm (home+vol up) you can flash all by your sd card, download a rom for your galaxy s, prefer for the official ones, put the zip on your sdcard, put your phone on cwm and select "install zip from external sd". i hope this help.
Idk if galaxy s have usb otg, but if have you can mount external usb in cwm.
and if you stay without understanding how to do it with cwm, go to galaxy s xda area:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=656
i hope you will find a good tutorial in there.
good luck
Hmm, just read a comment some where randomly on the internet:
"Depend on your CWM version, v5 install from external SD card by default. But you can select install from internal SD card too."
Perhaps "install from external SD card" is not supported in my version of CWM (v2.5.1.3 on a Samsung Galaxy S).
Maybe I should go ask about it in the SGS specific section.
dreanmer said:
and if you stay without understanding how to do it with cwm, go to galaxy s xda area:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=656
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hehe, took the works right out of my mouth.
Thanks.
You essentially NEED adb access to push a rom to internal, as your phone's CWM version doesn't support external-sd card. Can you get ahold of another working cable? This would be the best route.
Thing O Doom said:
You essentially NEED adb access to push a rom to internal, as your phone's CWM version doesn't support external-sd card. Can you get ahold of another working cable? This would be the best route.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'm pretty certain it's the phones USB socket that is the problem though. It stopped responding to USB after a camping trip I went on and since then, even when it had a working ROM, I was unable to mount it as external storage. I have tried several cables and a couple of different computers and while it charges fine I was unable to get it to 'connect' as such. I have also checked the main cable I've been using with a different device and the cable worked as expected. When I started to get desperate I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and I even took the phone completely apart to sprayed the port with electrical contact cleaner but alas, it was to no avail.
I'm affraid i'm going to have to resolve this one sans USB
Why don't you buy a new cable ? An USB cable is always useful for daily use..
Kerumen said:
Why don't you buy a new cable ? An USB cable is always useful for daily use..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit: Oops just realised I'd made the same post twice
I'm cretin the cable is fine.
Related
I've seen this error elsewhere, but no solution. I'm running PRIME 1.4, want to upgrade to 1.6.
- I used the nvflash method. I re-did this, obviously that didn't work.
- I tried formatting the SD card via Windows and via CWM (which didn't work, because it couldn't mount it...duh). Used the default FAT32 settings to format. For others, this seemed to be the fix.
- I CAN read the SD card on the tablet once booted up regularly. I can also mount the storage on my PC.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
So I tried a different sdcard (8GB, if it matters). No issues. No idea why this worked, so I guess the mystery is unsolved.
chicagoepicuser said:
So I tried a different sdcard (8GB, if it matters). No issues. No idea why this worked, so I guess the mystery is unsolved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably partition of your sdcard. Try reformatting it to another format like NTFS or something?
chicagoepicuser said:
I've seen this error elsewhere, but no solution. I'm running PRIME 1.4, want to upgrade to 1.6.
- I used the nvflash method. I re-did this, obviously that didn't work.
- I tried formatting the SD card via Windows and via CWM (which didn't work, because it couldn't mount it...duh). Used the default FAT32 settings to format. For others, this seemed to be the fix.
- I CAN read the SD card on the tablet once booted up regularly. I can also mount the storage on my PC.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact, CWM can't real actual SDcard (dock slot), it read the MicroSD only (the tablet slot)
Try putting the zip at the root of the MicroSD, and launch CWM
For me it´s doing the same - can´t mount SD card. I have microSD card that I have formated into FAT/FAT32/NTFS - nothing worked. I try to put it into SD card adapter and nothing too...
Can someone tell us please, where is the problem??? I have root, flashed cwm 3.0.2.8, standart ROM...
monkasko said:
For me it´s doing the same - can´t mount SD card. I have microSD card that I have formated into FAT/FAT32/NTFS - nothing worked. I try to put it into SD card adapter and nothing too...
Can someone tell us please, where is the problem??? I have root, flashed cwm 3.0.2.8, standart ROM...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MicroSD needs to be formated into FAT32 and only this format
If you read the post above yours, you would have also seen that the SDcard slot on the dock DOES NOT WORK in CWM
bud77 said:
In fact, CWM can't real actual SDcard (dock slot), it read the MicroSD only (the tablet slot)
Try putting the zip at the root of the MicroSD, and launch CWM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, did this. I wasn't messing around with the dock, just the microSD in the tablet itself. And yes, the .zip was in the root directory--though it's not like I was able to get this far. I was not even able to see the root directory, at all.
chicagoepicuser said:
Yes, did this. I wasn't messing around with the dock, just the microSD in the tablet itself. And yes, the .zip was in the root directory--though it's not like I was able to get this far. I was not even able to see the root directory, at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plug it in while android is running, and check if the MicroSD is seen in /removable/MicroSD
If, yes, that's pretty weird. If not, try another MicroSD
I had the mounting issue as well. But I formatted my micro SD card with SD Formatter (I am not allowed to post URL as a new user ), then it can be mounted.
myode is right, use SD Formatter 3.0 will fix your problem.
It use low-level format, where windows format don't.
I came across (i can't remember where exactly) some people swear that by formatting the microsd card in a android phone, the card no longer exhibit abnormal behaviour in the tf101.
Hi people!
I have seen many people have a problem with the above mentioned error in CWM. Although there are any threads on the topic, none of them are really clear (and often speculate) the method to fix it. And there is a lot of confusion regarding the "sdcard" in the i9003. This is my attempt to clarify and provide a reasonable fix (which worked for my Class 10, 16GB Micro SD (SDHC)).
It goes like this:
-> Boot into CWM recovery
-> Choose any options pertaining to the external sd card (such as backup, restore or install file from .zip)
-> The command returns with an error about how it can't mount "sdcard".
Now, there are a few thing that you have to be mindful of:
1) The "sdcard" mentioned in CWM for the i9003 is actually the external sd card.
- It is done this way so that everything works with the external sd and not with the internal 2GB sd that is present on our phone.
2) The internal sd is referred to as "sd-ext".
3) This pertains to the CWM of our phone. After booting into Android, it is back to "normal".
I tried to do a format in Windows 7's default formatting tool with FAT32, exFAT and NTFS (just eliminate the possibilities) with "default allocation size". It didn't work. Even choosing a larger allocation size did not work.
The Fix:
-> The optimal recommended filesystem for an android SD Card is FAT32.
-> Using the "SD Formatter" (version 3.1 as of this writing) from the SD Association ended up solving my problems.
-> The download link, for Windows (A MAC version is also available), from their site is here. You have to click "I Accept" and accept the terms of the EULA (but who really reads those things anyway ) ?
-> Use a card reader (using your phone is not recommended), make sure you have selected the right card and that you have backed-up all the data on your card (incase you didn't know - formatting erases all your data!).
-> I chose "Quick format" under options and made sure "Format Size Adjustment" was off (These are available under "options").
-> It's done in a few minutes, and it works GREAT! :-D
Cheers people! Hope this clears up some stuff!
This thread deserves to be made a sticky thread...
Moderators please make sure to consider this
Btw - nice job dude you explained it all very well!
Tapashocked via my gt-I9003 with a random keyboard of my choice !
Finally solution came..it works like a charm...thank you so much Bro..
I was bugged by the same problem a few moths ago....
I solved it by Going to Settings > SD card ad phone storage >SD CARD> Umount sd card > Format SD card....
@Lord: thanks mate!
@Symdroid: your welcome! Glad to have helped!
@Neojith: Yeah that usually works, but for some odd reason it didn't work for me last time.
Also, this works without fail even if your SD card is unrecognizable (or comes up as corrupt/damaged) in Android but is detected on the computer.
Sent from my GT-I9003 using XDA App
Man i dont hav any card reader....why cant i do this while it's inside the phone? :-(
Give it a shot... It may work (but be sure you're formatting the right card)!
I recommended a card reader as it is faster, and in most cases the card wasn't detectable by Android but was detectable using a card reader.
Sent from my GT-I9003 using XDA App
Got cranium ROM 3.1 and its not working on my phone. It shows the drive in the PC but i cannot access it. But the phone still reads whats on the SD card. It works well before with kPE...
kudos Erahgon, it worked!
FYI I didnt even use a card reader, used the phone itself (too lazy to search for a reader at home)
Srry guys, was outta town for a few days!
@vadexlux: Good to hear that it works from your phone as well!
@lbraddx : If it's not accessible even in Windows, your card is probably corrupted. Do a quick format in Windows, then use a data recovery software to recover your files. After that, format using the method in the first post, and remember to back-up your files.
Sent from my GT-I9003 using XDA App
Erahgon said:
Hi people!
I have seen many people have a problem with the above mentioned error in CWM. Although there are any threads on the topic, none of them are really clear (and often speculate) the method to fix it. And there is a lot of confusion regarding the "sdcard" in the i9003. This is my attempt to clarify and provide a reasonable fix (which worked for my Class 10, 16GB Micro SD (SDHC)).
It goes like this:
-> Boot into CWM recovery
-> Choose any options pertaining to the external sd card (such as backup, restore or install file from .zip)
-> The command returns with an error about how it can't mount "sdcard".
Now, there are a few thing that you have to be mindful of:
1) The "sdcard" mentioned in CWM for the i9003 is actually the external sd card.
- It is done this way so that everything works with the external sd and not with the internal 2GB sd that is present on our phone.
2) The internal sd is referred to as "sd-ext".
3) This pertains to the CWM of our phone. After booting into Android, it is back to "normal".
I tried to do a format in Windows 7's default formatting tool with FAT32, exFAT and NTFS (just eliminate the possibilities) with "default allocation size". It didn't work. Even choosing a larger allocation size did not work.
The Fix:
-> The optimal recommended filesystem for an android SD Card is FAT32.
-> Using the "SD Formatter" (version 3.1 as of this writing) from the SD Association ended up solving my problems.
-> The download link, for Windows (A MAC version is also available), from their site is here. You have to click "I Accept" and accept the terms of the EULA (but who really reads those things anyway ) ?
-> Use a card reader (using your phone is not recommended), make sure you have selected the right card and that you have backed-up all the data on your card (incase you didn't know - formatting erases all your data!).
-> I chose "Quick format" under options and made sure "Format Size Adjustment" was off (These are available under "options").
-> It's done in a few minutes, and it works GREAT! :-D
Cheers people! Hope this clears up some stuff!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used above method but still failed..i flashed another CWM also failed. is there any other way?
please help me my phone is dead for a week now
Can you access the card from your phone? Can you access it from your computer?
What are the specs. of the SD card?
Erahgon said:
Can you access the card from your phone? Can you access it from your computer?
What are the specs. of the SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cannot access from the phone. but when i flash with odin there is part saying 'error can't mount sdcard-skipped wipe data' but when i check the sd card from my pc its empty and i lost all my file in sd.
here another weird thing, you said the 'sdcard' in CWM is the external sd. I can't mount 'sdcard' but I can mount 'sd-ext'; when i took out my sdcard then I can't mount 'sd-ext'. so I think in my case 'sd-ext' is my sdcard. thanks for replying though. can you figure out my problem?
iming88 said:
cannot access from the phone. but when i flash with odin there is part saying 'error can't mount sdcard-skipped wipe data' but when i check the sd card from my pc its empty and i lost all my file in sd.
here another weird thing, you said the 'sdcard' in CWM is the external sd. I can't mount 'sdcard' but I can mount 'sd-ext'; when i took out my sdcard then I can't mount 'sd-ext'. so I think in my case 'sd-ext' is my sdcard. thanks for replying though. can you figure out my problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing with ODIN? What were you flashing with ODIN? When you flash with ODIN it doesn't do anything to the external-sd card.
Have you done an internal-external sd swap? If so, and you want to flash a new firmware using ODIN, you must re-partition (i.e. Use the latona pit file) and then proceed with the flash. After the flash, you may once again swap the external and internal sd cards. I haven't tried this, so this is just my best guess. If this doesn't work, try using your old vold.fstab file (read this thread for more details).
Erahgon said:
Flashing with ODIN? What were you flashing with ODIN? When you flash with ODIN it doesn't do anything to the external-sd card.
Have you done an internal-external sd swap? If so, and you want to flash a new firmware using ODIN, you must re-partition (i.e. Use the latona pit file) and then proceed with the flash. After the flash, you may once again swap the external and internal sd cards. I haven't tried this, so this is just my best guess. If this doesn't work, try using your old vold.fstab file (read this thread for more details).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
still no luck
Fascinate owner here. Had the same issue with CWM red (3.x) and Green (4.x).
All I did was reformat the card in Android. You have to unmount it in Settings > SD Card. Then simply Format. All your data will be erased but CWM will be able to read your card again.
WOW... I have THAT trouble too (on a I9100!), read this (googled) post and think.. "hmmm.... all other works fine with the ext. SD-Card... that can't be the fix..."
BUT i test the fix and OMG!... Now all CWM troubles gone! PERFECT!
Thank you very very much! I love the XDA community! *smak* ;-)
Is there any way to do the same for the internal sdcard coz my external sdcard reads fine but internal phone memory as well as internal sdcard are corrupted!
WOW
hi dude..its works like..hapi man!!!Thanks alot!
Relaxasaurus said:
Fascinate owner here. Had the same issue with CWM red (3.x) and Green (4.x).
All I did was reformat the card in Android. You have to unmount it in Settings > SD Card. Then simply Format. All your data will be erased but CWM will be able to read your card again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been seaching for this problem, and I was lucky enough to come across your post. After formating my SD card within android, the problem is solved, and now I can backup to and restore from my external SD card. I am using Galaxy Tab 2.
Thank you!!
My SD was acting a fool (after deleting many ROMs, it still said I had 73MB free). Nothing I did would change it so I decided to format the card. I used Disk Utility (on Mac) and formatted for FAT32. After I did that, my phone said it was in a format it couldn't recognize, so I formatted it from the phone itself. Now, when I enter recovery and attempt to install zip from sdcard, then choose zip from sdcard, it says "E:Can't mount /sdcard". I don't really know what to do, as I formatted it from my phone. I figured that was sure fire but I guess not so much. I tried to find what format I need the SD card in to work properly but I couldn't find anything.
Can someone help me out?
Fat32 is correct for the phone. Do you have a usb reader for the sdhc microsdcard or one of those sdcards that let the microsd card fit in to read it from the pc?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Reboot in recovery, if it says it can't mount it... pop out the sd from your phone and pop it right back in and see if it works. No need to mess with mount points for it either.
Also, did you check if your lost.dir folder is taking up space? Sometimes that thing can get big.
Could have been a bad flash, try to flash it again. I know I had a problem when I bought a new sd card. You can also try to flash it from a different phone. Otherwise, if you have access to a pc, I can tell you how to format it from the command line, which is, in my opinion, better to do if you're having a problem with the quick format that the phone does.
ericalanMICHAEL said:
My SD was acting a fool (after deleting many ROMs, it still said I had 73MB free). Nothing I did would change it so I decided to format the card. I used Disk Utility (on Mac) and formatted for FAT32. After I did that, my phone said it was in a format it couldn't recognize, so I formatted it from the phone itself. Now, when I enter recovery and attempt to install zip from sdcard, then choose zip from sdcard, it says "E:Can't mount /sdcard". I don't really know what to do, as I formatted it from my phone. I figured that was sure fire but I guess not so much. I tried to find what format I need the SD card in to work properly but I couldn't find anything.
Can someone help me out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like what i did one day when i wanted to wipe everything so i did including formatting my SD card through recovery. so it left me with nothing on my phone including a bootable rom! lol. if this is the case with you. Here is what i had to do. Download a new rom to my PC then plug my phone into my PC via USB/ Boot into recovery/ Mount storage/ Mount SD card/ Copy the Rom to SD card then Flash the Rom. Not too sure if this helps, I hope it does, again it sounds like the same problem i had.
Sometimes SD cards break...for some reason they will just stop working, probably due to manufacturing techniques. My old 256mb card went bad, I just tossed it yesterday as a matter of fact. it had no name brand. I still have a 4gb pny that works perfectly and a SanDisk 32gb which also works great. If you do have to get a new SD card, I would recommend getting the highest class you can afford highest out the right now I believe is C10. That will increase your transfer speeds....both of my current cards are class4 and it can take a little bit of time to transfer gigs of data between the phone and computer. If you have any other device that can accept the "card" put it in there and check if it can send and receive data/ format to proper disk size, if not then your card is broken.
Once you go class 10 you don't look back lol
Loving my Lexar 32gb class 10 microsd.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
I was going to post this in the AOKP rom page but i figured it'd get seen more here and maybe its not even a problem related to the rom. I recently installed the AOKP rom located here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1831858. everything was great the first day then i started getting random reboots and losing my data. So I flashed a back up and still got the same problems. I lost my data yesterday, fixed that by manually changing the APN settings and everything was fine other than still getting random reboots. today I went to take a picture and it says "no external storage". I opened root explorer and I can access my EXTERNAL SD card but not the INTERNAL. I tried to mount in via the setting, storage menu and it wont mount. Also tried mounting in CWM recovery, no dice.
Is this a hardware problem or something software related? Anyway to get my stuff back or is it gone? I thought about trying to format it through recovery but how can I do that if it wont mount? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'm about to go through and install a "clean" copy of this ROM hopefully. Or I might try another ROM I know works like it should.
Installed a new Rom. Everything works perfect so far but still can't access my internal sd card. Any tricks how to get this back or do I need to just turn it in for warranty?
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Warranty may be your best solution, you'll have to revert to stock using kies/odin which may on it's own fix your issue.
Are you also receiving the "Blank USB storage or has unsupported file system" error?
I have been battling this issue for a friend of mine (I own only the I9300) and I believe I have somewhat of a fix. It will allow you to use an external SD card.
If you can use / access the external SD card on your phone then disregard this message.
If you can't access any of the storage, including the external SD card try following this short tutorial I made:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=31464589&postcount=22
devz3r0 said:
Are you also receiving the "Blank USB storage or has unsupported file system" error?
I have been battling this issue for a friend of mine (I own only the I9300) and I believe I have somewhat of a fix. It will allow you to use an external SD card.
If you can use / access the external SD card on your phone then disregard this message.
If you can't access any of the storage, including the external SD card try following this short tutorial I made:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=31464589&postcount=22
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im still able to use my external sd card. I can read and write to it from both phone and pc.
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
The internal SD card is essentially part of the motherboard. If it's corrupted, you have no choice but to warranty the phone out. Kishke's right in that restoring to stock might be your last, best chance.
I backed up my storage and formatted storage from CWM to clean things up. When I went to mount USB storage to transfer zips of the ROM I want to use my computer doesn't see it. I tried with the SD card formatted as vfat and exfat. I'm fully rooted and all that. All firmwares are the latest version.
Can I get the two easiest options for putting a ROM back on here so I can use my darn phone? I'm not comfortable with adb. Thanks!
you can use another phone to put the rom on thru the sd card. and then put the sd card back on your phone and re flash it
dinkleberg said:
you can use another phone to put the rom on thru the sd card. and then put the sd card back on your phone and re flash it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. Not today I can't. I'm searching as I find time but it's a busy day today and going without my phone is like running going without pants.