cant modify ANY parttions - I want to totally ZAP the flash

I have a NOOK tablet 16GB that is somehow locked from modifying partitions

I have tried
the repart image , which has worked many times for me in the past
the AdamOutler Ubuntu Disk
formatting / wiping options in various versions of CWM and TWRP
fastboot erases
fastboot formats
dd'ing /zero to various partitions
parted
sgdisk
a zillion scripts

something at a low level is preventing modifications to the partitions

Im wasting far too much time on this , but I hate being beat (-:


I have a backup of rom and factory , and dd images of stock parttions so I am 100% comfortable with something that

will COMPLETELY ZAP the device


if I boot a known good CM10 image from SD card, it fails to boot , I was assuming if I could get a running android from the card, I'd have access to lots of tools... , but it just fails to tun CM10

any help appreciated.
Thanks

sagirfahmid3 said:

To completely zap the device, erase the partition table. That will leave you one, giant, unallocated space.
From there, you need to recreate all partitions from scratch.

You will not be able to boot without a bootable CWM SD, so have that handy.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Thanks for responding, Yes, I have tried multiple ways to to zap the table and it doesnt stick.

sgdisk -Z, sgdisk -z parted,
no matter what I do the partitions remain untouched.

I reboot and it still boots into an old stock OS that has a FC shortly after startup, and the internal recovery (factory) , which I can not overwrite, gives the please restart and try again message.

hmm,

I WAS able to get a CM7 SD card image to boot and run

appears to work "normally" , but Internal storage shows as "not available" in settings

sagirfahmid3 said:

You're supposed to do:

# gdisk
# o
# w
# q

That will for sure give you an empty partition table. You probably forgot to write the changes before exiting.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Hi, no, I didnt forget to "write" after the "o"


/tmp # ./gdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0
./gdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.4

Caution: invalid backup GPT header, but valid main header; regenerating
backup header from main header.
Warning! Main and backup partition tables differ! Use the 'c' and 'e' options
on the recovery & transformation menu to examine the two tables.
Warning! One or more CRCs don't match. You should repair the disk!

Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: damaged

****************************************************************************
Caution: Found protective or hybrid MBR and corrupt GPT. Using GPT, but disk
verification and recovery are STRONGLY recommended.
****************************************************************************

Command (? for help): o
o
This option deletes all partitions and creates a new protective MBR.
Proceed? (Y/N): y
y

Command (? for help): w
w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/block/mmcblk0.
Warning: The kernel is still using the old partition table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
The operation has completed successfully.
/tmp # q
/tmp #

after reboot

Command (? for help): p
p
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 31105024 sectors, 14.8 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): CE21388C-B927-4A5C-91CE-DBD1DE4AB3BC
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 30535678
Partitions will be aligned on 256-sector boundaries
Total free space is 1285 sectors (642.5 KiB)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 256 511 128.0 KiB 8300 xloader
2 512 1023 256.0 KiB 8300 bootloader
3 1024 31743 15.0 MiB 8300 recovery
4 32768 65535 16.0 MiB 8300 boot
5 65536 163839 48.0 MiB 8300 rom
6 163840 262143 48.0 MiB 8300 bootdata
7 262144 1019903 370.0 MiB 8300 factory
8 1019904 2273279 612.0 MiB 8300 system
9 2273280 3145727 426.0 MiB 8300 cache
10 3145728 5242879 1024.0 MiB 8300 media
11 5242880 30535639 12.1 GiB 8300 userdata