[Q] In CWM but boot flash failed and scared in case I brick it - what now?

Stilez · Mar 21, 2014

Long ago, I unlocked my s5830i and installed CWM 5.x, but keeping Samsung's firmware. Long story short, I decided to try a new rom recently. I used CWM to take a backup, wiped and flashed the new rom, and used it a month, before deciding yesterday I preferred the previous rom.

So today I went into CWM, hit "restore", and it started to reflash back as normal, but after erasing the boot partition said there was an error in flashing and stopped. I tried a couple more times, same error. So I retried with my other 2 backups on the sdcard to get at least boot flashed properly, but both of those gave md5 errors. I haven't done more. Right now I have the phone showing the CWM screen, and on a charger so it can't shut down. If it truly doesn't have a valid boot partition then I am scared that any reboot or exit from CWM might leave me with an unbootable phone. Please help, as I have no idea what to do next and terrified I'll lose the device entirely or something.

Things I've tied and information that might help:

No evidence of error or issue on the sdcard itself, though I can't rule out the chance it has an issue.
The /recovery directory was previously copied via USB mass storage to my desktop, and SHA1 verified as accurate on backup. The SD card was formatted at some point. I used sha1 verification to copy /recovery back to the sdcard, today, again using USB mass storage.
The phone's been plugged into a USB2 port all day, but I'm not sure if that charges it or not, and some people say there is a 70% charge limit otherwise flashing won't wor, could that be the problem? Might my boot partition be ok after all?
No other sdcard holding device, I could borrow a Galaxy S2 from a friend and change the card then reinsert it, if needed?
adb + fastboot 1.83 + samsung USB drivers + copies of the /recovery backups are all on still the desktop if needed and all good AFAIK (if they work when at the recovery screen). Don't know if fastboot helps but I have it and it works.
Two backup subfolders on the desktop have a boot.img file in them (5,242,880 bytes). No idea why the others don't.

I don't want my phone bricked or inaccessible, and I don't want to make it worse by mistake, what can I do?

Shikharmn · Mar 21, 2014

Try this........

Stilez said:
Long ago, I unlocked my s5830i and installed CWM 5.x, but keeping Samsung's firmware. Long story short, I decided to try a new rom recently. I used CWM to take a backup, wiped and flashed the new rom, and used it a month, before deciding yesterday I preferred the previous.....................

You can try to flash the stock ROM using Odin. Download the stock ROM from:-

h t t p : / / w w w .mediafire.com/download/x22525oizrrzmr7/S5830i_XXLI1_ODDLI1_DDLI1_by_SplitFUS2 . zip

[Remove the spaces. I'm new here so I can't post URLs. Forgive the cheating]

Download Odin from:-

h t t p s : / / w w w . dropbox.com/s/44mi0ybm3i0qbvo/Odin . rar

Happy flashing!

amolgosavi · Mar 21, 2014

Go to backup and restore option in cwm and in restore go to advance restore there you restore only system and boot your mobile..if that dosnt boot your mobile then flash stock rom thru odin..
Here is the link for all your doubts.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1840645

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Tapatalk 2

Stilez · Mar 21, 2014

amolgosavi said:
Here is the link for all your doubts.
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1840645

That's a pretty good resource page. I'll look at it when I get home! Thank you!!

I have two questions before going ahead with whatever it says.

Is adb active during CWM? Can I also use that to reflash boot.img orthe system recovery, or something, because if so, I'm used to adb but so it's got the advantage it's familiar compared to odin.
If the boot partition flash did fail, and its contents are corrupted, how does it reboot after CWM? Or does it warm reboot and not use the boot partition in that case? When does it use the boot partition?

Stilez · Mar 22, 2014

Okay, made progress, almost there

Okay, I found out partly what went on, enough to fix it part way.....

Like many people, I renamed my CWM backups to be clear what they were, and CWM doesn't warn that files with spaces will fail to recover with an MD5 error. Fixed that with ADB. Second I moved from stock to CM7.2 and obviously the file system was silently updated or something (my CM7.2 /system seems to use ext4). None of my CWM backups of the original install work, they all fail. But all my backups from CM7.2 onward worked fine, so it's got to be something CWM can't do if /system was previously used on CM7.2, or something. No idea why it couldn't mount system but could restore a CM7.2 backup to it even if the file system was updated though, doesn't make sense (yet!)

I'd like to understand what actually happened, so I don't make the same mistake again, and what's the best way (now I have access to CM7.2 again) to restore my CWM backup I took before CM7.2 when I was running the stock rom?

amolgosavi · Mar 22, 2014

You can't restore your cwm backup of stock rom if you are on cm7.2

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Tapatalk 2

Stilez · Mar 22, 2014

amolgosavi said:
You can't restore your cwm backup of stock rom if you are on cm7.2

Because the device storage was converted from rfs to ext4, I guess? But it can be converted back surely.

If so, surely a key part of "recovery" is to be able to recover old backups. Seems a bit weak to say it can't restore unless the filing system is working and unchanged (I appreciate you're explaining how it is, but don't you agree it just seems very weak to have that issue when a different rom often uses a different fs and at least 3 or 4 are common).

Presumably a way exists to convert the storage back to rfs, just not built into recovery. Any ideas what would be needed to return to my stock backup? I'd really like to avoid odin + stock flash + re-root if possible as it's simply a fs format change and I still get nervous of rooting in case of error

amolgosavi · Mar 22, 2014

I dont know much about it...

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Tapatalk 2

Hitesh2626 · Mar 22, 2014

Stilez said:
Because the device storage was converted from rfs to ext4, I guess? But it can be converted back surely.

If so, surely a key part of "recovery" is to be able to recover old backups. Seems a bit weak to say it can't restore unless the filing system is working and unchanged (I appreciate you're explaining how it is, but don't you agree it just seems very weak to have that issue when a different rom often uses a different fs and at least 3 or 4 are common).

Presumably a way exists to convert the storage back to rfs, just not built into recovery. Any ideas what would be needed to return to my stock backup? I'd really like to avoid odin + stock flash + re-root if possible as it's simply a fs format change and I still get nervous of rooting in case of error

Go to XDA search for MultiFormator
and Download it and Flash it in CWM , Aroma will startup now Choose your System to be changed like RFS to ExT4 or EXT4 to RFS
For stock base Rom restoration Select RFS ,After process completes do wipe data ,wipe cache ,dalvik in CWM and then hit restore , your phone will boot up with your backup.

amolgosavi · Mar 22, 2014

Stilez said:
Long ago, I unlocked my s5830i and installed CWM 5.x, but keeping Samsung's firmware. Long story short, I decided to try a new rom recently. I used CWM to take a backup, wiped and flashed the new rom, and used it a month, before deciding yesterday I preferred the previous rom.

So today I went into CWM, hit "restore", and it started to reflash back as normal, but after erasing the boot partition said there was an error in flashing and stopped. I tried a couple more times, same error. So I retried with my other 2 backups on the sdcard to get at least boot flashed properly, but both of those gave md5 errors. I haven't done more. Right now I have the phone showing the CWM screen, and on a charger so it can't shut down. If it truly doesn't have a valid boot partition then I am scared that any reboot or exit from CWM might leave me with an unbootable phone. Please help, as I have no idea what to do next and terrified I'll lose the device entirely or something.

Things I've tied and information that might help:

No evidence of error or issue on the sdcard itself, though I can't rule out the chance it has an issue.

The /recovery directory was previously copied via USB mass storage to my desktop, and SHA1 verified as accurate on backup. The SD card was formatted at some point. I used sha1 verification to copy /recovery back to the sdcard, today, again using USB mass storage.

The phone's been plugged into a USB2 port all day, but I'm not sure if that charges it or not, and some people say there is a 70% charge limit otherwise flashing won't wor, could that be the problem? Might my boot partition be ok after all?

No other sdcard holding device, I could borrow a Galaxy S2 from a friend and change the card then reinsert it, if needed?

adb + fastboot 1.83 + samsung USB drivers + copies of the /recovery backups are all on still the desktop if needed and all good AFAIK (if they work when at the recovery screen). Don't know if fastboot helps but I have it and it works.

Two backup subfolders on the desktop have a boot.img file in them (5,242,880 bytes). No idea why the others don't.

I don't want my phone bricked or inaccessible, and I don't want to make it worse by mistake, what can I do?

Flash stock rom from odin..
Go to this link

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1840645

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Tapatalk 2

Envy-X · Mar 23, 2014

@Stilez if you made your backup on temporary cwm then restore with that cwm. Cm7 kernel's inbuilt cwm is different.

NightRaven49 · Mar 23, 2014

But it would be best to flash stock ROM via Odin then restoring that backup.

Sent because I <3 Aerith

Stilez · Mar 23, 2014

Hitesh2626 said:
Go to XDA search for MultiFormator
and Download it and Flash it in CWM , Aroma will startup now Choose your System to be changed like RFS to ExT4 or EXT4 to RFS
For stock base Rom restoration Select RFS ,After process completes do wipe data ,wipe cache ,dalvik in CWM and then hit restore , your phone will boot up with your backup.

Wow. Just exactly what I was after - thank you! Worked brilliantly.

Stilez · Mar 23, 2014

NightRaven49 said:
But it would be best to flash stock ROM via Odin then restoring that backup.

Probably yes

I might do that anyway seeing as the CM7.2 kernel is still lingering and boot flash is fail. But at least I can switch back and forth between my original rom (which mostly does work) and cm7.2 if I need to.

Interesting point on the side - my original CWM (5.0.2.6) worked but the one installed with cm7.2 didn't, any idea why?)

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[Q] In CWM but boot flash failed and scared in case I brick it - what now?

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