[HOW-TO] Repartitioning the NC back to 1GB/data, 5GB/media

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DeanGibson

DeanGibson

Senior Member
Apr 30, 2011
530
364
Seattle, WA
Please do not quote this message. When information in this message changes, I can change this message, but not the quoted copies.

As many of you know, the newer Nook Colors come with a partitioning that allows 5GB of space (/data -- ext3 partition) for apps and B&N books/etc, and 1GB of space (/media -- FAT32 patition) for user side-loaded content. The older Nooks had the reverse: 1GB for /data, and 5GB for /media.

I first documented a manual process for reverting the newer B&N partitioning back to the old partitioning, here: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=13971291&postcount=110 Upon several requests, I have automated it here: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=14047474&postcount=129

Someone in that thread requested that I repost the information here, so that it could be "pinned". Therefore, I have reproduced and expanded that information here (I now regard the above thread as dead for this purpose).

Caveats:
  • You must have ClockworkRecovery installed on the Nook Color, or on a bootable SD card which accesses the Nook.
  • You must backup everything you wish to save, or archive it on the B&N site, because this will clear all your data on the device:
    • /data partition (0p6)
    • /cache partition (0p7)
    • /media partition (0p8)
  • The following partitions will not be touched:
    • /boot partition (0p1)
    • /rom (configuration) partition (0p2)
    • (hidden) recovery partition (0p3)
    • /system (whichever operating system you have) partition (0p5)
  • If you have added additional partitions (eg, via "internal dual boot": http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=959461 -- unlikely, given an existing 5GB/data partition), you must uninstall/remove them first.
  • The usual non-warranties apply.
The following are installed in the usual manner using ClockworkRecovery installs.
  1. Download and copy to an SDcard, ONE of the following repartitioning install packages:
  2. Also download and copy to an SDcard, the following install package: http://www.mailpen.com/download/nook/reformatData-v1.zip
  3. Boot into ClockworkRecovery with the above SDcard inserted in the Nook Color.
  4. Install the repartition package from the SDcard, to repartition /data (0p6), /cache (0p7), and /media (0p8).
  5. Mandatory REBOOT into ClockworkRecovery.
  6. Install the reformat package from the SDcard, to reformat (and clear) /data (0p6), /cache (0p7), and /media (0p8).
  7. If you backed up the B&N "/data" partition, then you should be able to restore and continue without reregistering, but don't count on it (you may have to reregister).
 
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limaunion

Senior Member
May 23, 2011
133
16
Hi DeanGibson, so you're basically indicating that by following this guide I won't have any problem rooting the new NC currently being sold?

I ask this because by reading different threads previously I had the impression that it's wasn't very clear if there would be issues or not with the new models.

I'm planning to buy a new one and this can make a big difference (going to another tablet brand or buying a new NC) if I'm confident that I'd be able to root it.

Thanks in advance.
 
T

TubeShaped

Senior Member
Oct 24, 2010
301
30
Biel
Imho this should be made sticky in order to avoid confusion of new NC owners. Also it has been reported to work great. I will rely on this as soon as my NC finally gets delivered. Cheers!

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
 
DeanGibson

DeanGibson

Senior Member
Apr 30, 2011
530
364
Seattle, WA
Read carefully ...

limaunion said:
Hi DeanGibson, so you're basically indicating that by following this guide I won't have any problem rooting the new NC currently being sold?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The above repartitioning does not root the NC. In fact, you must have either:
  • rooted the NC first, and then installed "RomManager" (which requires root privileges and includes ClockworkRecovery) before doing the repartitioning; or
  • have an external SDcard which accomplishes the same thing.
This thread does not document that process; there are many other threads that do so.

The process I document is designed for the new models.
 
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DeanGibson

DeanGibson

Senior Member
Apr 30, 2011
530
364
Seattle, WA
Taosaur

Taosaur

Senior Member
May 4, 2011
836
190
Ohiopolis
taosaur.blogspot.com
Well, having dealt with customer service (or tech support, actually), I suppose I would take the store employee's word over the alleged phone conversation :/ Pretty sure I saw someone on XDA saying they'd heard the same thing from a store employee, but again it's all what-ifs and hearsay--I haven't seen anyone say, "I went to B&N and they repartitioned my device," or "I went to B&N and they would not repartition my device."
 
V

vellos

New member
Sep 21, 2010
2
2
I can confirm this method has worked for me on my NC. I also did a restore of my ManualNooter'd backup after running the second formatter zip. B&N settings menus shows that the available sideload storage is at 5.23GB.

I'm going to see if I can now properly load a Cyanogen build onto my NC's eMMC that will actually fully boot now.

Thanks a ton!

Edit: It took! I just got Cyanogen to flash to the eMMC for the first time successfully since I first got my Nook. Clockwork is also no longer complaining about dealing with /data any longer either. Kudos!
 
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X

xdavisitor

New member
May 24, 2011
3
1
I have an unopened 2011 series, blue-dotted nook. Several hours ago, after reading the post about repartitioning at the store, I went to the Barnes and Noble where it was purchased and was assured, emphatically, that the Nook CANNOT be repartitioned at the store to the older partition scheme.

Off I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a 2010 series Nook (no blue dot). Wal-Mart had some of both series in stock.

One of the Nooks must be returned. I'm actually buying the Nook to play around with rooting, but have never rooted a Nook. So I guess starting with the old partitioning would be wiser for a beginner? I can't actually open it to verify what's on the 2010 series Nook for another week (gift).
 
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themerchant

Member
Oct 15, 2010
25
4
xdavisitor said:
I have an unopened 2011 series, blue-dotted nook. Several hours ago, after reading the post about repartitioning at the store, I went to the Barnes and Noble where it was purchased and was assured, emphatically, that the Nook CANNOT be repartitioned at the store to the older partition scheme.

Off I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a 2010 series Nook (no blue dot). Wal-Mart had some of both series in stock.

One of the Nooks must be returned. I'm actually buying the Nook to play around with rooting, but have never rooted a Nook. So I guess starting with the old partitioning would be wiser for a beginner? I can't actually open it to verify what's on the 2010 series Nook for another week (gift).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

rooting (emmc) the original partition NookColor is very simple to do . BTW both versions can run on SD roms.
 
X

xdavisitor

New member
May 24, 2011
3
1
Thank you, Merchant -- I'll definitely start with SD rom method, keeping the original partition Nook for my second foray.
 
D

darthnerd

Member
Aug 9, 2007
9
0
dear all.. for this step..
"You must have ClockworkRecovery installed on the Nook, or on an SD card which accesses the Nook."

just follow this thread?
h t t p://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=896682

anyway, thanks dean for the effort!
 
wpbear

wpbear

Senior Member
Nov 27, 2006
1,750
78
Columbus, GA
darthnerd said:
dear all.. for this step..
"You must have ClockworkRecovery installed on the Nook, or on an SD card which accesses the Nook."

just follow this thread?
h t t p://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=896682

anyway, thanks dean for the effort!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Copied this from "eyeballer"

1. Download a CWM 3.0.2.8 sdcard image from this thread (credit: to cmstlist and DizzyDen). You really only need the 1gb image for this guide, no matter what the size of your card is. A smaller image will burn faster, and when you're done with the guide you can reformat the card anyway.

2. Extract the clockworkmod .img (if you can't open the file use 7zip)and burn to sdcard in Windows PC using win32diskimager (free) or winimage (shareware).
 
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darthnerd

Member
Aug 9, 2007
9
0
wpbear said:
Copied this from "eyeballer"

1. Download a CWM 3.0.2.8 sdcard image from this thread (credit: to cmstlist and DizzyDen). You really only need the 1gb image for this guide, no matter what the size of your card is. A smaller image will burn faster, and when you're done with the guide you can reformat the card anyway.

2. Extract the clockworkmod .img (if you can't open the file use 7zip)and burn to sdcard in Windows PC using win32diskimager (free) or winimage (shareware).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

thanks for the info man!:D

So I presume that i will use 1gb_clockwork-3.0.2.8.rar since I am using a 1gb card?
 
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    DeanGibson
    DeanGibson
    Please do not quote this message. When information in this message changes, I can change this message, but not the quoted copies.

    As many of you know, the newer Nook Colors come with a partitioning that allows 5GB of space (/data -- ext3 partition) for apps and B&N books/etc, and 1GB of space (/media -- FAT32 patition) for user side-loaded content. The older Nooks had the reverse: 1GB for /data, and 5GB for /media.

    I first documented a manual process for reverting the newer B&N partitioning back to the old partitioning, here: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=13971291&postcount=110 Upon several requests, I have automated it here: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=14047474&postcount=129

    Someone in that thread requested that I repost the information here, so that it could be "pinned". Therefore, I have reproduced and expanded that information here (I now regard the above thread as dead for this purpose).

    Caveats:
    • You must have ClockworkRecovery installed on the Nook Color, or on a bootable SD card which accesses the Nook.
    • You must backup everything you wish to save, or archive it on the B&N site, because this will clear all your data on the device:
      • /data partition (0p6)
      • /cache partition (0p7)
      • /media partition (0p8)
    • The following partitions will not be touched:
      • /boot partition (0p1)
      • /rom (configuration) partition (0p2)
      • (hidden) recovery partition (0p3)
      • /system (whichever operating system you have) partition (0p5)
    • If you have added additional partitions (eg, via "internal dual boot": http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=959461 -- unlikely, given an existing 5GB/data partition), you must uninstall/remove them first.
    • The usual non-warranties apply.
    The following are installed in the usual manner using ClockworkRecovery installs.
    1. Download and copy to an SDcard, ONE of the following repartitioning install packages:
    2. Also download and copy to an SDcard, the following install package: http://www.mailpen.com/download/nook/reformatData-v1.zip
    3. Boot into ClockworkRecovery with the above SDcard inserted in the Nook Color.
    4. Install the repartition package from the SDcard, to repartition /data (0p6), /cache (0p7), and /media (0p8).
    5. Mandatory REBOOT into ClockworkRecovery.
    6. Install the reformat package from the SDcard, to reformat (and clear) /data (0p6), /cache (0p7), and /media (0p8).
    7. If you backed up the B&N "/data" partition, then you should be able to restore and continue without reregistering, but don't count on it (you may have to reregister).
    View
    2
    leapinlar
    leapinlar
    les02jen17 said:
    Please forgive me for being off topic. I was just wondering what are the requirements to build a cwm-flashable zip that can modify the partitions? I would like to do it on my phone (It's called a Cherry Mobile Flare, a Karbonn A9+ mobile clone). It's just that the /data partition of that said phone is just 512MB, whereas the whole internal memory is 4GB. I'd like to be able to do it. Can you please teach me how? :(
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    You need to be careful using this technique on other phones. The Nook Color uses a dos style partition table (MBR) and many phones use a GPT partition table. So what Dean and I do with the fdisk tool works but may not on another phone. You need to do some research as to how that phone is partitioned. There are tools available to let you partition GPT phones, but takes some knowledge. If you find out, let me know and I might be able to point you in the right direction.

    Sent from my HD+ running CM10 on SD with XDA Premium

    ---------- Post added at 08:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:11 PM ----------
    martian21 said:
    I've just been using my Nook as an e-reader for the past year or so however I've recently upgraded my camera and have decided to dedicate my Nook to my camera bag since it can control my DSLR and I can mount SD cards to it with an adapter.

    I've updated to Jelly Bean however I'm having trouble with my /etc/vold.fstab file. Previously I modified my Nook's partition table to remove the /emmc (mmc8) partition and increase the /data partition to use the recovered space. Original post is here. Obviously this comes with the side effect of not being able to mount the now non-existent /emmc partition. On Gingerbread ROMs I could easily remedy the issue by simply commenting out the line to mount /emmc in /etc/vold.fstab as follows:

    ..........

    However when I comment out the line for mounting /emmc on Jelly Bean ROMs I end in a boot loop. Going with the stock vold.fstab it boots fine but I get the warning "Damaged SD card" (as expected).

    Does anyone have any idea why this doesn't work and it there is any way to successfully tell it not to mount /emmc?

    Martian21
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    I have noticed the same thing on my Nook HD+. Emmc media on that device is handled much differently that the Color and I was trying to modify the vold.fstab for CM10 on that. When I commented it out, it bootlooped. And since the HD+ emmc media cannot be mounted with vold when enabled, it gives the damaged SD message. The developer (our verygreen of Nook Color fame) fixed our emmc mounting issue in the initialization code. But commenting out the emmc vold line still produces a bootloop. So I don't know what your solution is. Maybe mount emmc with the same device as sdcard?

    Sent from my HD+ running CM10 on SD with XDA Premium
    View
    2
    V
    vellos
    khaytsus said:
    I can't fathom why anyone would intentionally revert the partitioning... Do any of you guys actually use the /media storage? 1G is way more than enough for books, and more space in /data is good if you play lots of games.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    The newer partition scheme was absolutely preventing me from installing ROMs on the eMMC. They'd flash, but they wouldn't boot. Sure, I could install and boot Cyanogen off a MicroSD card, but then I've tied up my MicroSD slot (since the root filesystem is now on it), and lost potential storage space.

    The biggest killer for me with that was that the solution I used wouldn't let me boot into Clockwork to do backups/restores. All I could do was trigger a script that would flash and then remove any ZIPs that matched either the Cyanogen or gapps filename format. Not really acceptable for me, because I'm paranoid and love my backups.

    Now I can install Cyanogen the same way I install it on my Eris, recovery works like it should, and everything else is right in the world.
    View
    2
    DeanGibson
    DeanGibson
    Back to the future

    kan555 said:
    ... How can I repartition it to 5GB/Data and 1GB/media? Please please help. Thanks a million!
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse
    For the repartitioning step in the original post, use:

    http://www.mailpen.com/download/repartition5GBdata-v1.zip

    Then do the reformat as well, as described in the original post.
    View
    2
    DeanGibson
    DeanGibson
    mailpen.com is still available !!!

    al4d said:
    The links in post #1 seem to be dead. Mailpen.com is unavailable.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    mailpen.com is indeed still available; 1.5 years after my initial post, it still gets over 100 downloads a week. Are you running software that blocks "suspect" web sites? Someone in the same netblock, but with a different IP address than the server, was caught spamming, and some "clever" anti-virus software thinks the whole IP address range is suspect.
    View

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