[Guide]How to revive your bricked Gnote

Guide for repartition workaround to fix super-brick Note

uggies said:

I was on Offical leaked Taiwan version of ICS, then i decided to move to XXLPY version of ICS. I went to CMW to full wipe data, but for some reason, my note froze during wiping data...

I have waited long enough, but it was stuck. With no choice, I removed the battery then tried to boot, but it was stuck on the first screen.

From then on, I have tried to recover my note using various Offical ROMs, the taiwan leak, German leak and even old GB ROM, but I am stuck at Factoryfs...

I am pretty sure Ive tried everything, put PIT and not put PIT, Kernel, etc...

For some reason, Kernel can be installed just fine, but when it comes to ROMs, it stucks at this screen.

View attachment 1069879

Please, any help is appreciated

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

There has been confirmation that In many cases it is the faulty system partitions (caused by wipe using the buggy ICS stock kernel or other reasons). In that case re-partition workaround will help revive your brick phone. The first one who has applied the method successfully is "Drnull" for another similar device (epic4g).

So for those who would like to use this solution follow the guide below which I developed based on the hints from Drnull and a re-partition guide for Kindle Fire by Eldarerathis and Soundwire.
Credits and thanks to them.

Big thanks to: Prabhu1980, Matiasg85, Uggies, Bodivas, As i9000, Alekhkhanna, Travis82 and others who have provided precious tools, troubleshoot solutions, advice and support for making this guide more complete and easy to use! Also Special thanks to Lyriquidperfection for his great PIT Magic and Hg42 for his custom PIT method!
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I. Case Classification and solution when there is no recovery mode:

1. Case A. If you can enter recovery: then use scanning tool to find where the damage is. Should use hg42 scanners or use the procedures described in the manual method below (Go until steps 4 to find the answers). The scanning can guide you to find the most suitable strategy for re-partition. After scanning you can use the most suitable custom pit files from the set of custom pit files in hg42's thread or use the method in this guide or a combination of both in an intuitive way to revive your brick Note. .

2. Case B. If you only have download mod, no recovery: if you flash using odin and it gets stuck at factoryfs or datafs repeatedly and you have made wipe/factory reset using ICS stock kernel, then you certainly have emmc brick. You can try to flash some kernel attached in this guide to see if can enter recovery. IF yes, then go back to Case A. If not you can use a blind method using the custom pit files below. Try one by one. The one from 2.0 should work for you. If not then from 2.1 to 2.5, one of those should work.

2.0. Custom pit that works for most cases of emmc brick
2.1. Custom pit option 1
2.2. Custom pit option 2
2.3. Custom pit option 3
2.4. Custom pit option 4
2.5. Custom pit option 5
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II. Manual re-partition
Notes for using Manual repartition:
1. For those who can get SS warranty service to fix it for free then you should go there, and do not need to try repartition.
2. know how to run command prompt (MS-DOS) from window.
3. Partitions can be delete and recreate like in a computer hdd and it is reversible: you can do and redo again and again and can also go back to original scheme by flashing original PIT file.
4. If you like to recover data from your internal sdcard (photos, music, books...) you should look at Item 9 near the end of the guide.
5. And do not try to hold me responsible if you mess things up further than your current state in your phone.

1. The tools:
- Download the screen shot of the Note’s partitions for your reference information
- Install USB driver: You should be able to have adb driver for Note. If not, then download Note usb driver from here.
- Prepare adb folder: download adb folder from Here and extract adb folder to c: driver of your computer, you will have the tools folder which has adb.exe in it. You should now have adb working for your Note.
- Install custom recovery so that you can get into recovery and connect adb.
+ if you have installed GB rom (as part of the unbrick process) then download and install the attached 4pda_kernel.tar from Here.
It will raise flash counter but you can reset later using Triangleaway by Chainfire.
+ If you were ICS rom: then download and flash Speemod kernel for ICS Here., using odin.
+ If you were on JB rom then download and flash Speedmod kernel for JB from Here.


2. Set up the tools:
- after flashing one of the suitable kernel from above you should now be able to enter recovery.
- Then restart the phone to recovery (Using three buttons).
- Then connect to computer using usb cable.

3. Then run cmd from your computer and cd (change directory) to the folder that has adb.exe in your computer.
Then run,

it should give you some number then it means your device is connect in adb
then:
it should give you the sign like this: ~ #
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Note: In case adb shell it only gives this sign $ (after you have installed the 4pda_kernel) then it showed there is a mismatch of that kernel with the rom that is sitting on your (semi-brick) Note and it does not give full root. In that case you should download and install this CM9 based safe kernel from this links which should help you to get full adb root access with this sign ~ #. It is a zip file and need to be install from CWM (not odin) by copy it to external sdcard or internal sdcard (by mount usb storage to PC or adb push.
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Then run (noted that umount is without N):
If one of those "umount /" commands return "invalid argument" just ignore it and continue with next steps.
This is to unmount cache, systemfs and datafs partitions.

Note: it is easier to copy and paste (right click mouse) the code to CMD windown to save time and avoid typing error.
Then run the parted.
if it aska you to fix something just choose yes. It should give you bellow:

parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
GNU Parted 1.8.8.1.179-aef3
Using /dev/block/mmcblk0
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted)
Then run:
It will give you a picture of your Note’s partitions as in the screen shots I have attached. (text version is below):
print
print
Model: MMC VYL00M (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 15.8GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 4194kB 25.2MB 21.0MB ext4 EFS
2 25.2MB 26.5MB 1311kB SBL1
3 27.3MB 28.6MB 1311kB SBL2
4 29.4MB 37.7MB 8389kB PARAM
5 37.7MB 46.1MB 8389kB KERNEL
6 46.1MB 54.5MB 8389kB RECOVERY
7 54.5MB 264MB 210MB ext4 CACHE
8 264MB 281MB 16.8MB MODEM
9 281MB 1174MB 893MB ext4 FACTORYFS
10 1174MB 3322MB 2147MB ext4 DATAFS
11 3322MB 15.2GB 11.9GB fat32 UMS
12 15.2GB 15.8GB 537MB ext4 HIDDEN

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4. Scanning for Partition errors:
4.1. Use DD:
Do to a thorough scan of partitions (block damage) you can use DD command below one by one (it only read partition block by block and no write, so it is totally safe).
Damage is mostly found in partition 7, 9, 10, 11. You can use dd to check other partition from 1 to 6 as well.
Scan partition 7 and 9 will be quick (less than a minute) partition 10 take about 3 minutes and 11 about 5-7 minutes.
- If it return in and outs and partition size then they are fine (no faulty blocks)
- If it freezes (or run too long more than 10 minutes), or return something like "read/write I/O error" then it means you have some damage in that respective partition and read command failed. In this case should restart CMD/adb and run the test again for the partition that give I/O error to make sure the error is permanent and result of test is reliable.

4.2. There is also anther scan tool to double check if there are partitions faults: that is e2fsck. It comes with 4_pda and CM9 kernel given. The added benefit is that it can also repair minor memory block damage.
This tool can only be used for ext4 partition (7, 9,10) and it need to be used after "umount /cache"... steps in point 3. It is suggested that before attempting with re-partition you should first try to use this tool to scan and fix the damaged block. The command is below:
The results of e2fsck scanning can be as below:
- If there is no faulty block e2fsck will report: "no bad block found". then good!
- If it freezes then it has encountered emmc bug damaged and cannot fix: In this case will definitely need re-partition.
- If it report encountered some damaged block and has fixed the damage: In this case you can try to go back to install rom. If it work, that is great. If still get stuck as before then you will need to do re-partition.

Guide for the most suitable re-partition scheme after scanning partitions (read carefully for the best result):

1. In case you do not find bad blocks in the above 4 partitions, the problem is certainly not related to partitions fault. Then you should explore other unbrick methods, using Heimdall to flash instead of odin for example.

2. In case there are fault in both partition 9 and 10 then follow steps in point from 5.1 to 5.3 below. applying this scheme of re-partition should work in most cases!.

3. In case there are faulty in partition 9 only, then can follow steps in point 7 to save some more space.

4. In case there are faulty in partition 10 only, then can follow steps in point 7 to save some more space.

5. In case there are faulty blocks in Cache partition, then follow point 5.4

6. In case there are faulty in partition 11: go to point 8 .
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5. Re-partition workaround for case of faulty in partitions 9 and 10::
5.1 remove partitions to get rid of the faulty ones and make space available for new ones:
That will remove three partitions factoryfs (9), datafs (10) and UMS (11) so as to make rooms for new partitions

5.2. To create three new partitions from the good area:

Notes: You can also use custom pit provided in 2.0 to re-partition in this case.
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5.3. Convert format for 9 and 10: The above steps have created three new partitions. However, for 9 and 10 the format is ext2 and now need to be converted to ext4.

The easiest way is to go back to CWM in your phone. Then, go into mounts and storage menu and choose format /system and format /data. It will convert file system of partition 9 and 10 to ext4 automatically for you.

If the above steps are successful then check:

Note: after printed partition and they look fine, then should check again the partition using dd command to scan partitions 9, 10, 11 as in the step 4 to make sure that newly created partition are fault-free. If they continue to report faulty block then you will need to do re-partition again and create new partitions in the new range (by changing start and end number of partitions).
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Dealing with Cache partition:
5.4. It is very, very unlikely that Cache is also faulty but in case there is you can follow steps below to deal with it.
First should remove and recreate with same size and location:
Then recreate it:
Then you can go into CWM and format /cache, it will convert file system to ext4.

In case parted give I/O error then you can try to reduce the size of cache to 128MB, choose the start and end number somewhere in the space from 54.5MB to 264MB.

6. Suggestions for rom installations:
It is recommend to use a custom GB rom (Darky GB, CheckRom GB, and Rocket GB...)they are old but very good roms. Dowload links and instructions for installation can be found in this link. Custom ICS roms (such as Rocket ICS, CleaNote ICS...) are also good. They can be found from the same link for GB rom provided or from the Note development sections. Using CM9 ICS such as Nightlies is recommended since it is safe and very lightweight (less than 140 MB) so it is quick to download.

Note: Flash custom rom by CWM (load rom.zip from computer to internal or external sdcard and flash) seem to be a better way than using odin and is recommended but you can try both.

7. Guide for some cases of only one partition have faulty blocks:

7.1. In case you scan partition and identify that there are damage only in partition 9 (factoryfs) then you can remove 9, 10, and 11 and then start making partition from 1174 MB:
Then go into CWM to format system and data. Then you can install rom.

7.2. In case you identify that there is faulty blocks in partition 10 only (datafs) then you can remove 10 and 11 only (leave 9 alone) and start making partition 10 from 3322 mb:

Then go into CWM and format data. and you can install rom.

It is also known that the hidden partition (partition 12) is not needed for normal use and install of roms. So you can delete it and enlarge the UMS partition (to 15800mb) and you will have a larger sdcard to use.

It is also noted that the size of datafs partition does not need to be exact 2147 mb so you can create it with the size of 2000 mb or smaller or bigger as you wish.

Still the size of factoryfs partition has to be correct so that odin will accept it when flash.

8. In the case of damage in partition 11 (UMS) this often also go with damage in partition 9 and 10. In this case I have worked out 5 options of partition scheme. You need to try from one to 5. One of those should work for you.
You can also use one of the custom Pit files provided at 2.1 to 2.5 above.

Option 1:
After done, reboot into recovery format system, format data. Then you can proceed with install stock or custom rom.

If it get errors when create partition or CWM get stuck during format then you need to try the next option of partition scheme as below.

Option 2:
Option 3:
Option 4:
Option 5:


9. Notes on recovering files from brick phone: For recovering data from internal sdcard, there are few ways below:
- You can try to install aroma file manager under CWM recovery using file from here. It works under recovery environment and allow you to copy files from internal sdcard to external sdcard.

- If that does not work, you can follow the guide until step 4, then in step 5 remove only partition 9 and 10 and leave partition 11 alone. Then try to create a full size partition 9 (factoryfs) with about 800MB and a very small size (100mb) partition 10 (datafs) and fit these two partitions within the remaining good area in the range from 281mb to 3322mb. Then you can install a custom rom and get it working to copy files to your PC. After that you can remove partition 11 to make full size partition 9 and 10 with steps as in the guide.

- Also you can adb shell, then list directory and files in internal sdcard (~ # ls /sdcard ...etc) and then adb pull files from internal sdcard to your PC one by one.

If you like to know more about using parted, go to the documentation page here:
http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/html_mono/parted.html

Update of progress: As rough figures, more than 100 users have reported successfully revised their Notes after fixing partitions problems using either manual/adb methods or custom PIT file method from Hg42 or combined both. Re-partition have revised many super-bricks Notes! .

If you can revive your Note please share your success with us so that we can share your good feeling !

And press thanks if you find this guide useful. Thanks.

I was on Offical leaked Taiwan version of ICS, then i decided to move to XXLPY version of ICS. I went to CMW to full wipe data, but for some reason, my note froze during data wiping...

I have waited long enough, but it was froze. With no choice, I removed the battery then tried to boot, but it was stuck on the first screen.

From then on, I have tried to recover my note using various Offical ROMs, the taiwan leak, German leak and even old GB ROMs, but I am stuck at Factoryfs...

I am pretty sure Ive tried everything, add PIT and not add PIT, Kernel, etc...

For some reason, Kernel can be flashed just fine, but when it comes to ROMs, it stucks at this screen.



Please, any help is appreciated

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was my situation 3 days ago, but i managed to get it back to life from this post by Forest1971:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=26285877&postcount=12

Thank you Forest1971 for this great guide

DamBadz said:

Hi forest1971 first thx for your help and sorry for my bad english i gonna check post 12 in this topic? That collect?

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Yes in post 12.

Also Matiasg85, Uggies and other people in the forum can also help.

Goodluck

---------- Post added at 01:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:01 AM ----------

feny_lf said:

Wow!!!! My note back to me now!!! Great thanks to xda guys, especially to Forest, as i9000, and hg42 (refer to his post at the same time) .....

after solving the ext4 problem, I used cwm to flash darkyrom_note_3.4.1, successful!!!
Thanks, again.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Wow. I love every time to see that kind of report .

thanks you too. But remember to press some thanks to me and others too! . Thanks

rizdroid said:

I'm not bricked, but I have to thank Uggies for creating this thread, forest1971 for sharing his knowledge and for his dedication/patience, and all the users who have been reporting their progress.

I've learned a lot in here. The info found in this thread is not only useful for Note. Definitely, it's a must read/follow thread.

Thx!

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Thanks for nice comments !

Yes. I guess it is useful partition tools for all android devices.

cheers

---------- Post added at 09:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 AM ----------

shkippo said:

forest1971 said:

I am very happy too to see you get your Note back working again. Congratulation!

The speed of 1.5 MB per second is not too slow.

cheers,

thanks you very much from the bottom of my heart

i did like you told me (parted) print to check if its ext2 or ext4 so its ext4

pleaze check my screenshot and told me if everything is correct now bcz i checked my internel phone storage its 798 mb only b4 it was about 2 gb

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Yes it looks fine.

Also the internal storage (datafs partition) is now only 850mb which I think is quite sufficient. It is good that now you still have a large sdcard partition of more than 11GB, so you did not loose any useful space.

In case your internal data partition fill-up and not enough for installing more applications (which I doubt will be the case for most users) you can go back and change the size again (taking the space from UMS partition).

About slow data transfer: my phone also have similar slow data transfer even though I have not messed with it's partitions. So I am not sure why yet.

cheers

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

mimotata said:

thanks uggies for the guide

yesterday i had hard-brick but was fixed by adb shell with this guide
i deleted 4 partitons FACTORYFS,DATAFS,UMS and CACHE and i recreated them again i'm over the moon and alive again

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

It is forest1971 who wrote the guide and you should be thankful to him

Also, I am very happy to hear that your note have been unbricked ! Life is good again yay?

Forest, you have got quite a few successors today havent ya ?

Cheers mate