Hey guys, i'm running CWM recovery v6.0.4.7. In the recovery, i see many partitions under 'Mounts and storage' like:-
/boot
/system
/cache
/data
/persist
/firmware
/sns
/data and /data/media (/sd card)
Would someone care to explain what's inside these partitions and what are the risks if i format them ? Also can someone explain which all partitions are changed when i flash a ROM/kernel etc ?? Thankyou :good:
Hi there,
This thread here ( [REF] CWM - Clockworkmode menu options & Partitions– GENERAL KNOWLEDGE) gives you a lot of the information you are looking for. Though this is in the S2 section the principles are all the same so you can ask questions in that thread.
NO hope there
That thread was last updated in May. And i only want to know about /persist, /firmware, /sns more importantly, which i searched everywhere but could'nt find. Any help would be appreciated
SpaceMonkeyK9 said:
That thread was last updated in May. And i only want to know about /persist, /firmware, /sns more importantly, which i searched everywhere but could'nt find. Any help would be appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest asking in the thread linked above.
Also asking here may be useful: Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
Please keep in mind also that the partitions you are talking about are extremely important to the device, messing with these areas could lead to irreversible damage.
Yes i do understand that these partitions are vital for the proper functioning of my phone. But i would love to know which all partitions are changed when i flash a ROM. For eg: I formatted /boot partition once, but flashing a custom ROM immediately restored the necessary files and i was up and running again. Only later did i discover while reading a post that /boot partition consisted of the kernel and the RAMDISK, which is included in every ROM zip file.
Thank you and thread closed!
Related
Here's the scenario: say you try out encryption on a ROM, either because your employer makes you or because you want the extra security. What happens when you can root your phone, like we can (easily) with the S3, and you want to flash a different ROM? The problem you will find yourself in very quickly is that you cannot do a successful wipe. You can't format an encrypted /data in CWM or any other recovery. If you cannot format /data, you can't flash a ROM - it fails, because /data is encrypted, and it cannot proceed. It turns out none of the recoveries can format an encrypted /data. You also cannot reverse encryption once you've done it. You're stuck, all because you flipped the switch on encryption.
I found myself in this problem as others have in many other forums (like this one for the GNex) (and another one, more detailed).
I also tried, admittedly somewhat out of desperation, the soft-brick instructions here. That didn't work because Nand Erase All fails. You can flash on top, and luckily you can use your same password to decrypt your /data (which I did) but you're still not going to have a clean ROM. Dirty flashes = lots of problems down the road.
I finally found a simple way to do this and wanted to save anyone else the trouble of digging. You can do it using CWM and adb and a few commands. Credit goes Shawn Webb's blog and utkanos on FreeNode's irc at #cyanogenmod.
Here is how to do this on our Verizon S3:
In CWM, wipe cache
adb shell
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
mount /data
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media
If adb doesn't work in CWM, reboot recovery. You might need to create /data/media after mounting /data in order to do the last step, which I opted not to do. I hope this saves someone else a few hours of frustration, and I also hope that someday one of our recoveries can handle formatting encrypted data. Until then... I'm just not using encryption, period. There already is a lot of documentation against it, and this is one more reason in my book.
Thanks for this. I fell into the same scenario yesterday but after reading a lot of helpful posts from people like yourself I have managed to solve the issue. Basically I found two ways of doing it, one is as you have suggested and the other is by just replacing the custom recovery with the stock recovery. The SGS3 toolkit available on XDA made the 2nd option just slightly simpler for me and by spending less than 10 mins (excluding time for backups and downloads) the issue was resolved.
Just to share this option to save others from the headache of looking for a solution:
1) Get the toolkit
2) Install drivers as recommended and follow instructions to choose the build, or closest build, for your S3
3) Restore stock recovery with toolkit via ODIN (follow instructions)
4) After rebooting, go into Android and reset to factory settings, this would bring you to the stock recovery and wipe
5) Restore custom recovery with toolkit via ODIN (follow instructions)
6) Restore your system (luckily for me I had a nandroid backup before I encrypted)
Note: I did "lose" my internal sdcard files (pictures/documents). But I backed that up on my external sdcard before starting the process. My sdcard was not encrypted.
kitleon said:
Thanks for this. I fell into the same scenario yesterday but after reading a lot of helpful posts from people like yourself I have managed to solve the issue. Basically I found two ways of doing it, one is as you have suggested and the other is by just replacing the custom recovery with the stock recovery. The SGS3 toolkit available on XDA made the 2nd option just slightly simpler for me and by spending less than 10 mins (excluding time for backups and downloads) the issue was resolved.
Just to share this option to save others from the headache of looking for a solution:
1) Get the toolkit
2) Install drivers as recommended and follow instructions to choose the build, or closest build, for your S3
3) Restore stock recovery with toolkit via ODIN (follow instructions)
4) After rebooting, go into Android and reset to factory settings, this would bring you to the stock recovery and wipe
5) Restore custom recovery with toolkit via ODIN (follow instructions)
6) Restore your system (luckily for me I had a nandroid backup before I encrypted)
Note: I did "lose" my internal sdcard files (pictures/documents). But I backed that up on my external sdcard before starting the process. My sdcard was not encrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just saved my month. Drop me a message if I can get you a beer via paypal for this.
Cheers!
THANKS!
olm3ca said:
Here's the scenario: say you try out encryption on a ROM, either because your employer makes you or because you want the extra security. What happens when you can root your phone, like we can (easily) with the S3, and you want to flash a different ROM? The problem you will find yourself in very quickly is that you cannot do a successful wipe. You can't format an encrypted /data in CWM or any other recovery. If you cannot format /data, you can't flash a ROM - it fails, because /data is encrypted, and it cannot proceed. It turns out none of the recoveries can format an encrypted /data. You also cannot reverse encryption once you've done it. You're stuck, all because you flipped the switch on encryption.
I found myself in this problem as others have in many other forums (like this one for the GNex) (and another one, more detailed).
I also tried, admittedly somewhat out of desperation, the soft-brick instructions here. That didn't work because Nand Erase All fails. You can flash on top, and luckily you can use your same password to decrypt your /data (which I did) but you're still not going to have a clean ROM. Dirty flashes = lots of problems down the road.
I finally found a simple way to do this and wanted to save anyone else the trouble of digging. You can do it using CWM and adb and a few commands. Credit goes Shawn Webb's blog and utkanos on FreeNode's irc at #cyanogenmod.
Here is how to do this on our Verizon S3:
In CWM, wipe cache
adb shell
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
mount /data
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media
If adb doesn't work in CWM, reboot recovery. You might need to create /data/media after mounting /data in order to do the last step, which I opted not to do. I hope this saves someone else a few hours of frustration, and I also hope that someday one of our recoveries can handle formatting encrypted data. Until then... I'm just not using encryption, period. There already is a lot of documentation against it, and this is one more reason in my book.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to say thanks very much for this. I'd tried the method of reloading the stock ROM as described by a previous poster, but this way worked.
I did run into a small issue I was wondering if you could shed some light on. When I entered "mount /data", I got the following:
Code:
~ # mount /data
mount: mounting /dev/block/mmcblk0p37 on /data failed: Invalid argument
I bullied ahead and entered the last line "mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media" and got this:
Code:
~ # mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media
mount: mounting /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 on /data/media failed: No such file or directory
However after doing this, I was able to perform a complete wipe of /data using CWM and load a new ROM without issue.
I'd curious to know what might be causing these Invald argument responses.
My Device: HTC One (GSM)
Thanks again! :laugh:
olm3ca said:
Here is how to do this on our Verizon S3:
In CWM, wipe cache
adb shell
mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
mount /data
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/media
If adb doesn't work in CWM, reboot recovery. You might need to create /data/media after mounting /data in order to do the last step, which I opted not to do. I hope this saves someone else a few hours of frustration, and I also hope that someday one of our recoveries can handle formatting encrypted data. Until then... I'm just not using encryption, period. There already is a lot of documentation against it, and this is one more reason in my book.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm trying to follow your instructions but fail at finding out my mount points.
Sorry for the noob question, but who do I find out what the mount points of internal and external SD card are on my device (Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini International 4G)? I found this post
stackoverflow. /questions/6824463/how-to-get-all-the-mount-point-information-for-android-device
which seems to include the answer but I don't know what tool / software they use. I'm no programmer.
My phone is encrypted and doesn't turn on, it doesn't accept my password saying it's wrong, though I know it's correct. OS is Cyanogenmod 10.1 stable. Booting into CWM v6.0.3.7 is possible though.
I appreciate everyone's help.
Stephan
Hi everybody,
so I've got the following problem:
Some of the partitions on my HTC Sensation seem to be FUBAR thanks to my stupid ass trying to wipe /data, /cache and /system with this damn TWRP recovery instead of 4eXT, which is, in my opinion and experience, a gazillion times better. Don't ask me why I tried TWRP in the first place - long story short, the aforementioned partitions can't be mounted (and thus, not formatted either) anymore.
What I can still do is access the device via fastboot (bootloader is HBOOT 1.27, unlocked, S-ON) and flash recoveries like 4eXT and TWRP and, with them, even somehow kernels (namely, SultanXDA's 2.0.2 kernel; at least the AROMA installer says there are no problems) as well as mount an external SD card (even with second and third partitions), but /data, /cache and /system just won't mount for the hell of it.
Do you guys have any idea how I could fix my phone, or is it bricked for good?
I also read somewhere that you can install the entire OS on the SD card, circumventing internal memory altogether, but the guides I found on that are sketchy at best.
I also have a second (working) HTC Sensation here too, if that helps (as in extracting the internal memory and dumping it on the other, but alas, the target device is S-ON...).
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
zylix42 said:
Hi everybody,
so I've got the following problem:
Some of the partitions on my HTC Sensation seem to be FUBAR thanks to my stupid ass trying to wipe /data, /cache and /system with this damn TWRP recovery instead of 4eXT, which is, in my opinion and experience, a gazillion times better. Don't ask me why I tried TWRP in the first place - long story short, the aforementioned partitions can't be mounted (and thus, not formatted either) anymore.
What I can still do is access the device via fastboot (bootloader is HBOOT 1.27, unlocked, S-ON) and flash recoveries like 4eXT and TWRP and, with them, even somehow kernels (namely, SultanXDA's 2.0.2 kernel; at least the AROMA installer says there are no problems) as well as mount an external SD card (even with second and third partitions), but /data, /cache and /system just won't mount for the hell of it.
Do you guys have any idea how I could fix my phone, or is it bricked for good?
I also read somewhere that you can install the entire OS on the SD card, circumventing internal memory altogether, but the guides I found on that are sketchy at best.
I also have a second (working) HTC Sensation here too, if that helps (as in extracting the internal memory and dumping it on the other, but alas, the target device is S-ON...).
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-sensation/help/recovering-data-mount-issues-t2859588
rzr86 said:
Read this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-sensation/help/recovering-data-mount-issues-t2859588
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did that already. Didn't help, or otherwise I wouldn't come asking again
did you fix it ??
I have a Cubot ZORRO 001. I have updated firmware from 001.06 to 001.09. I formated /data, /system and /cache. Should I have formated /boot too? Because phne now randomly reboots (mostly when I install/update apps), even when watching youtube.
Familotel said:
I have a Cubot ZORRO 001. I have updated firmware from 001.06 to 001.09. I formated /data, /system and /cache. Should I have formated /boot too? Because phne now randomly reboots (mostly when I install/update apps), even when watching youtube.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
looks like this thread, that you have already posted in, is the best place to ask for answers.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/cubot-zorro-review-t3005394
Or Because there is not a specific forum for your device, you can Start you own thread in Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
Hi,Guys i need some help!
My system and data partition format is MTD yyaffs2.I want to format it to ext4
I used many ext4 formatter but nothing worked!Those are only for either RFS or bml
please guide me or give me an updater script that will format my partition from mtd to ext4
Hi,
This is not a Q&A forum. It is more to guide NEW users to the best place on the site for their problem .
Please read the OPENING THREAD and the Second one , too.
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Darth
Senior Moderator
Hello, I am interested to know if it is possible to successfully shrink /data partition in twrp recovery and make it accessible as an sd card in the rom, also if it is possible to make it survive an internal storage wipe. I would like to use that as a partition for backup files and flashable zips. Is it possible to complete the procedure without having to lose internal storage?
hi buddy, this is 2018, i guess you query was valid if you had made same post in 2010.. secondly /data partition is unified with /sdcard so your question is not valid at this date
Ok, I see, well thanks for the help anyways, cheers, the devs may delete this thread now.