Tutorial: How to unbrick/unroot Nook Simple Touch Glowlight

Search This thread
By:
Advanced…
D

drnchauhan

New member
Dec 30, 2013
1
0
NST backup image

Thank you ipedro3 for this guide that many people are having some success with.

I have a NST and was wondering whether anyone has provided you with a NST backup image? As I am one of many who have not created a proper backup and would love to try your solution for my now bricked nook simple touch.

drnchauhan
 
O

OssumPossum

New member
Jan 30, 2014
2
0
Hey guys,

I was having the same problem as a lot of you: despite everything else seeming restored, my internal storage wasn't accessible over USB. Under device info, the nook also told me the storage was "not available".

Well I found the problem! I don't know exactly how it got there, but there was a small (~1mb) unformatted area on the disk. Somehow this was stopping the nook from recognizing internal storage (i.e., the NOOK partition).

The trick is, these little areas don't show up on any of the windows partition software I'd been using (EaseUS, MiniTool)! They do however show up on the Linux tool Gparted.

If you're a linux noob like me, you can get Gparted running pretty quickly by following these instructions: h t t p :// gparted.org/liveusb . p h p (without spaces). All you need is a usb drive to fit the .iso (173mb). Once you have the tool running, you'll need your nook attached with Noogie running off the sd card to access the partition table. Assuming your problem is the same, you can just modify the size of one of the last three partitions (NOOK, cache, userdata) to absorb the unused space. Voila! While you're at it you can give yourself some more space in the side loading partition (NOOK) if you'd like. I got userdata and cache down to 100mb apiece and now I have 1gb for side loading!

Hopefully this makes sense. I just spent 4 days trying everything possible to get this working again and I don't want anyone else stuck on the same problem, so let me know if you need more detail.
 
Renate

Renate

Recognized Contributor / Inactive Recognized Dev
Feb 3, 2012
6,660
2,914
Boston
www.temblast.com
Nexus 7 (2013)
Moto G Power (2021)
Mmm, was this mystery 1M at the end of all the partitions?

A 2GB NAND memory could be any size from a bit less than 2,000,000,000 bytes to a full 2^31 bytes.
A device manufacturer can't rely on the exact size.
When they make a disk image they come up with a safe size and just write that to all the devices irrespective of the exact size.
My NST is showing 1,957,616,640 bytes.
It has 16,777,216 bytes at the end unused.

You probably had some problem with your internal storage that re-partioning fixed.
 
O

OssumPossum

New member
Jan 30, 2014
2
0
Renate NST said:
Mmm, was this mystery 1M at the end of all the partitions?

A 2GB NAND memory could be any size from a bit less than 2,000,000,000 bytes to a full 2^31 bytes.
A device manufacturer can't rely on the exact size.
When they make a disk image they come up with a safe size and just write that to all the devices irrespective of the exact size.
My NST is showing 1,957,616,640 bytes.
It has 16,777,216 bytes at the end unused.

You probably had some problem with your internal storage that re-partioning fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yes, I think the problem started when I originally messed with the partitioning with a windows partition manager. Should've just gone for Gparted.

Also, I wanted to add that there were also some unnecessary LBA flags---one on the entire extended partition, one on the NOOK partition. Removing them may have been part of the problem as well.
 
H

hittrans

Member
Jul 17, 2012
6
0
OssumPossum said:
Yes, I think the problem started when I originally messed with the partitioning with a windows partition manager. Should've just gone for Gparted.

Also, I wanted to add that there were also some unnecessary LBA flags---one on the entire extended partition, one on the NOOK partition. Removing them may have been part of the problem as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I had the same problem (internal storage not available), I have tried both removing the extra 1mb space and LBA flag, in two steps.
It turns out it is the LBA flag causing the problem -- I do not know how to remove it using mini partition tool so using Gparted finished the job.

Another problem is that I can't use Gparted to resize nook partition to 1GB, so I used mini partition tool to resize.

Hope can help anyone else.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

W
New Nook Glowlight Plus
Replies
792
Views
297K
B
broreader
E
Hacking the new Nook GlowLight
Replies
595
Views
171K
Renate
Renate
W
Nook Simple Touch -> Nook Multi Touch [Screensaver Locking Issue Explanation Added]
Replies
128
Views
142K
A
aiamuzz
W
Nook Glowlight 3
Replies
239
Views
82K
C
cde198
J
Guide/HowTo/Tips'nTricks - The perfect Nook Simple Touch Setup w/ battery optimizati
Replies
86
Views
87K
nmyshkin
nmyshkin

Top Liked Posts

24 Hours All time
  • There are no posts matching your filters.
  • 8
    I
    ipedro3
    TUTORIAL: How to unbrick/unroot Nook Simple Touch Glowlight​

    First at all, sorry for my english errors, I´m from Brazil and I read in english much better then I write.
    And, considering what I´ve learned here, I´ll try to retribute with this post. So, please, disconsider my errors.

    In my first day with NSTG, I´ve bricked the device when I try to unroot when I formated all partitions (with MiniTool) and write my backup file.
    The problem was: I made a wrong backup file, which have only 76mb! So, at this point, I needed to recover formated partitions/data.

    Some people was affraid to share their backup image beacuse it contains personal informations about the Nook. In fact, the ROM partition contains all nook info.

    My conclusion was, I need to recover my ROM partiton (with all nook info) and get a image to overwite with ROM. This is my solution for bricked nook or to return to stock parameters (unroot). If you formated your NSTG accidentaly or want to unroot, this will work for you.



    What it does:
    Recover accidentaly formated NSTG or Unroot for those don´t have backup file.


    What you will need
    (I can´t post external links)
    • Download Nook Simple Touch Glowlight Image (without Rom partition): goo.gl/W4OYy (280.74mb)
    • Download Tools Pack: goo.gl/6ulSC (15.13mb)
    • This pack contains: (if you already have, don´t need to download)
      -MiniTool Partition Wizard
      -WinImage
      -Roadkil.Net - Roadkil's Disk Image​
    • Download noggie.img (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1577494)
    • Download 7-Zip if you don´t have how to decompress .7z files (google it)
    • 2 SD´s Cards (or at least 1 SD card)


    Instrutions
    I presume you downloaded all files above, unzip in a directory.
    Do a backup of your Nook even if it is partial bricked!!! http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1142983
    Warning: ignore this step may brick your device permanently.

    -Recovering Partitions of a NSTG Accidentaly Formated:
    1. Write noogie.img in a SD Card with WinImage (run as Administrator)
    2. Insert SD in Nook and Boot ("Root Forever")
    3. Open as Administrator MiniTool Partition Wizard.
    4. Select Nook drive and click in "Partition Recovery Wizard".
    5. Do a copy of "rom" partition to another SD card (or format noogie card and paste rom)
    6. Click in "Apply" (top bar in the left) and wait complete the modifications

    -Writing the image:
    1. Open DiskImager, in "Write Image" tab select the Phisical Disk with 1.86Gb and Target file: NSTG-backup-norom.img
    2. Click in START and wait until complete.

    -Writing the "rom" partition
    This step will put the personal information back in NSTG. Your NSTG must have to booted with noogie (showing "Root Forever") and the SD with "rom" partition attached in card reader.

    Open MiniTool Partition Wizard.
    1. Copy from SD "rom" partition to the second space in nook disk (in the unlocated espace between "boot" and "factory" partitions)
    02noroma.png


    If you have some size problem to paste the partition in this unlocated space, try to first resize the rom partition to 15mb and the paste (I did this and works).

    2. Apply all changes.

    Finishing

    At this point you will have a working device, but you can do a hard reset just in case (power on with two side buttons pressed).
    Or, restore to factory (8 boots).

    Good Luck.
    View
    1
    Renate
    Renate
    cukem10 said:
    The Available Storage shows "Not available" instead of the storage of the partition.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse
    You may have trashed the /media partition.
    You can check and/or fix that with noogie and PartitionMagic.
    You can check and/or fix that with ADB shell.
    View

New posts