[Q] Help with formated EFS partition

javigoile · May 13, 2014

Hey, messed up my phone and could really use some help:

I own a Galaxy Note (GT-N7000). Suddenly the IMEI went null/null and baseband unknown. Tried many things to recover from this but nothing seemed to work. I left the phone with the latest stock rom (Jellybean 4.1.2)

I then installed EFS Professional (rooting the phone first and installing BusyBox) and could connect to the phone with EFS Pro. I tried doing baseband and IEMI repair, and though the log showed it had successfully restores from .bak files in /efs partition, IMEI and baseband were still null.

So then I totally screwed it, hitting the "format EFS partition" by mistake (it was 3am by then) and didn't make a backup first. The phone wouldn't boot, so I flashed the latest stock rom again and now it continually loops when showing the Samsung logo when I turn it on. I can turn it on in download mode and recovery mode. When on recovery mode, it says /efs partition not found so I guess that makes sense.

The question here would be: is there any way I can fix it without sending it to service? Some options that sound possible:

- Flash the phone with some other custom ROM that would repartition the whole phone, thus creating an /efs partition again
- Use some nice software to recover the /efs partition

I'm sure that if a service can fix it, there should be a way I could do it as well.

I know my IMEI number (it's in the sticker on the back of the phone) so there should be a way to restore it into de efs partition, right?

Thank you all and forgive me if I've made some noob comment on this post...just doing my best

Lgrootnoob · May 13, 2014

javigoile said:
Hey, messed up my phone and could really use some help:

I own a Galaxy Note (GT-N7000). Suddenly the IMEI went null/null and baseband unknown. Tried many things to recover from this but nothing seemed to work. I left the phone with the latest stock rom (Jellybean 4.1.2)

I then installed EFS Professional (rooting the phone first and installing BusyBox) and could connect to the phone with EFS Pro. I tried doing baseband and IEMI repair, and though the log showed it had successfully restores from .bak files in /efs partition, IMEI and baseband were still null.

So then I totally screwed it, hitting the "format EFS partition" by mistake (it was 3am by then) and didn't make a backup first. The phone wouldn't boot, so I flashed the latest stock rom again and now it continually loops when showing the Samsung logo when I turn it on. I can turn it on in download mode and recovery mode. When on recovery mode, it says /efs partition not found so I guess that makes sense.

The question here would be: is there any way I can fix it without sending it to service? Some options that sound possible:

- Flash the phone with some other custom ROM that would repartition the whole phone, thus creating an /efs partition again
- Use some nice software to recover the /efs partition

I'm sure that if a service can fix it, there should be a way I could do it as well.

I know my IMEI number (it's in the sticker on the back of the phone) so there should be a way to restore it into de efs partition, right?

Thank you all and forgive me if I've made some noob comment on this post...just doing my best

something like a stock odin flash would fix it: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2261598 as long as it flashes a pit file

then once that works, see if efs pro will let you manually set the imei.

if not, then make sure you are stock, and make sure you use triangle away or something and then send it in.

javigoile · May 13, 2014

Lgrootnoob said:
something like a stock odin flash would fix it: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2261598 as long as it flashes a pit file

then once that works, see if efs pro will let you manually set the imei.

if not, then make sure you are stock, and make sure you use triangle away or something and then send it in.

Thanks for the help! I'm downloading the AT&T stock rom from the thread you provided and will let you know how it works after flashing it

es0tericcha0s · May 13, 2014

javigoile said:
Thanks for the help! I'm downloading the AT&T stock rom from the thread you provided and will let you know how it works after flashing it

Whoaaaa You should STOP ASAP! You can't flash the AT&T firmware via Odin since you have the international version.

javigoile · May 13, 2014

es0tericcha0s said:
Whoaaaa You should STOP ASAP! You can't flash the AT&T firmware via Odin since you have the international version.

I'm from Argentina, this phone is from Movistar carrier. Right now I have the latest stock rom from Movistar flashed, but the rom available does not have any PIT file, so I can't get my efs partition restored and the phone does not boot in normal mode (only download and recovery mode).

As far as I can remember, any phone that works with AT&T in the US works just fine in Argentina with Movistar. I've brought some iPhones from AT&T (not unlocked) and they worked without a problem.

I believe that I have the international version, but what could happen if I flashed the AT&T stock rom?

Thanks!

es0tericcha0s · May 13, 2014

javigoile said:
I'm from Argentina, this phone is from Movistar carrier. Right now I have the latest stock rom from Movistar flashed, but the rom available does not have any PIT file, so I can't get my efs partition restored and the phone does not boot in normal mode (only download and recovery mode).

As far as I can remember, any phone that works with AT&T in the US works just fine in Argentina with Movistar. I've brought some iPhones from AT&T (not unlocked) and they worked without a problem.

I believe that I have the international version, but what could happen if I flashed the AT&T stock rom?

Thanks!

It's either going to fail at trying to install the modem and do nothing, or it'll make it worse. In no way is it going to help anything.

You should be able to find your firmware here:

http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/

javigoile · May 14, 2014

Thanks. I had already downloaded the Movistar stock rom from Sammobile and this time I tried flashing it (using Odin) together with the PIT file and though it said something in the result log about using pit file for mapping, result was the same...still stuck with a bad efs partition that makes the booting loop again and again...

Any thoughts? How can I fix my efs partition? Any help is much appreciated.

es0tericcha0s · May 14, 2014

Not sure there would be much more to do on your own without the official backup without special tools like SPT, Octopus Box, SRS, etc, but those cost more than the phone, so would have to find a shop that has the equipment and is also competent at using them. Many of the major software tools have repos with files like you need and the correct way to load them. I'd love to have one for my shop, but requests to fix stuff like this don't come often enough to justify the expense when there are more pressing matters...

On another forum they were saying that you can use the efs backup from another clean phone because it does not actually contain the IMEI, so if you could find one of those... I tried to download a couple for you yesterday to test but they either failed to open correctly or didn't pass the md5 validity check in Odin, which is why I didn't repost.

Lgrootnoob · May 14, 2014

I didnt mean flash the rom I linked. That was an example. sorry guys.

javigoile · May 15, 2014

Lgrootnoob said:
I didnt mean flash the rom I linked. That was an example. sorry guys.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

I'm still working on restoring the /efs partition, even with a null IMEI, at least to be able to use the phone with wi-fi for other purposes (if I can't find someone to flash a good efs.img and restore the IMEI completely).

Right now it's still a brick. Will post update soon.

Thank you all!

Lgrootnoob · May 16, 2014

javigoile said:
Desperate times call for desperate measures

I'm still working on restoring the /efs partition, even with a null IMEI, at least to be able to use the phone with wi-fi for other purposes (if I can't find someone to flash a good efs.img and restore the IMEI completely).

Right now it's still a brick. Will post update soon.

Thank you all!

I found some links.
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1724415
http://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13564
http://imadn2008.blogspot.com/2013/01/fix-boot-loop-for-samsung-galaxy-note.html

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[Q] Help with formated EFS partition

javigoile

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javigoile

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es0tericcha0s

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javigoile

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