I manage to install custom GB rom (Darky) success.There has been confirmation that In many cases it is the faulty system partitions (caused by the suspected ICS kernel or whatever reason). In that case relocating the corrupted partition to the good areas works. 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 guide for another android device by Eldarerathis and Soundwire.
Credits and thanks to them.
Also 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!
------------------
Important Note:
As the method progress, thanks to member Hg42 custom PIT files have been made that can help re-partition automatically. This will make it much easier for those who find adb things too much to handle. Follow the Link to hg42's thread
to get the PIT file and how to flash.
The custom PIT should work in majority of cases that have partition problems. Someone may ask a question: how do I know if there are faulty blocks in the partition or not and where, in which partitions, they are. The answers to that question can be found by scanning partitions for errors, with the procedures described in the manual method below (need to go until steps 4 to find the answers). in Short: the manual method will give more control over scanning for partition errors, size and location of new partitions which can save you some more memory space, but the PIT method is easier for new users. Also, you can also combine two methods in an intuitive way to fix your brick Note.
-----------------------------------
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. Requires some basic knowledge of MS-DOS and adb (few simple commands).
3. Partitions can be delete and recreate like in a computer hdd but requires more skills.
4. If you like to recover data from your internal sdcard (photos, music, books...) you should look at Item 6 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
- download and install the attached 4pda_kernel.tar, which has the partition tools and CWM with it, although it will raise flash counter. To avoid that you can download and install the CWM_4pda_kernel.zip (also attached in the post) by putting it in sdcard and flash with your existing CWM. the 4pda_kernel is a GB based kernel. In some cases 4pda_kernel does not work (probably due to mismatch between the kernel and the rom that is still sitting there in your (semi-brick) phone), then try this safe CM9 kernel from the this link.
- You should be able to have adb driver for Note and adb.exe in you computer. The easy way is to download Note usb driver from here, then download adb folder attached in the post. Install driver you have downloaded 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. (Alternatively, if you have installed Kies, then the usb driver should already installed. Then you just need to download the adb folder provided.)
2. Set up the tools:
- Use odin to flash attached kernel .tar file.
- Then restart the phone to recovery
- Then connect to computer using usb cable.
3. Then run cmd from your computer and cd (for those new to MS-DOS: this is change directory command under DOS. You just need to do a search on how to use cd command for DOS) 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 adbCode:adb devices
then:
it should give you the sign like this: ~ #Code:adb shell
-------
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. 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.
-------
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.Code:~ # umount /cache ~ # umount /system ~ # umount /data
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:Code:~ # parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
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):Code:(parted) 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
--------------------
4. Scanning for Partition errors:
If you like to check if a partition has bad block or not you can use the tools that already come with the kernel.
For partition 11 you can check using parted which handle fat32
if it does not return any error the partition 11 is probably fine, although parted only scan area that has been used by files, it does not scan all blocks.Code:(parted) check 11
For a more thorough scan of partition 11 you can use this command (it only read partition bit by bit and no write, so it is safe):
if it freeze or run too long (more than 10 minutes), then it means you have some damage in that partition and read command failed.Code:~ # dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 of=/dev/null
For other ext4 partition (partition 7, 9, and 10) you can use the same dd command above (just need to change partition number-p11 to the respective number) or you can use e2fsck as below. The benefits of using e2fsck is that it can help repair some minor file system faults and in some case solve the problems without the need of further re-partitioning.
It is noted that e2fsck should be run after "umount" the partition using the commands in step 3 above.
For example, if you like to check partition 7, which is cache, then run:
You can do the same with 9, 10.Code:(parted) quit ~ # e2fsck -f -c –y /dev/block/mmcblk0p7
If e2fsck report bad block not found it is good Or if it does not freeze then it means it has effectively dealt with the file system corruptions. If it freezes it means the errors caused by EMMC bug and cannot be repaired. In that case you will need to do re-partitioning workaround to leave those faulty areas unused.
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.
Below are further steps to do manual re-partitioning using parted.
---------------------
5. Start dealing with partitions: Now just suppose that you have 2 faulty system partitions: factoryfs (partition 9) and datafs (partition 10), then the work-around way is below:
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 partitionsCode:~ # parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 (parted) rm 9 (parted) rm 10 (parted) rm 11
5.2. To create three new partitions from the good area:
-------------Code:(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 3322 4215 (parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 4215 6362 (parted) mkpartfs primary fat32 6362 15200 (parted) name 9 FACTORYFS (parted) name 10 DATAFS (parted) name 11 UMS
Important Note: If while creating partitions parted give some error like:
Error: Input/output error during write on /dev/block/mmcblk0
Retry/Ignore/Cancel?
that would mean the area chosen for that partition include some faulty block somewhere in that range. Then you need to select another range for the partition by changing start and end number in respective code. For example:
- after you run "(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 3322 4215" it returned "Error: Input/output error during write on /dev/block/mmcblk0
Retry/Ignore/Cancel?"
- then press "c" and "enter".
- Then create partition in the next block range below:
Continue to move up until parted is happy with the block range chosen. (You need to make some calculation of partition size, the start and end block for the code above, follow the example given).Code:(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 4215 5108 (parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 5108 7255 (parted) mkpartfs primary fat32 7255 15200
Once done, with the creation of partitions above, then move on with 5.3.
-------------
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:
------------Code:~ # parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 (parted) print
Optional:
5.4. It is very unlikely that Cache is also faulty but if you think it is a problem. So for the first time you should not touch Cache. But then if you suspect the Cache partition then below is the way to do it.
Then recreate it:Code:(parted) rm 7
Then you can go into CWM and format /cache, it will convert file system to ext4.Code:(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 54.5 264 (parted) name 7 CACHE
In case there is faulty area in Cache area, 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.
If everything works: Then go to cwm and try to mount your sdcard (or usb storage) to PC then copy rom.zip file to it and then flash using CWM. In many cases CWM see sdcard as internal sdcard, so you need to make sure to check both sdcard and internal sdcard.
It is recommend to use a custom GB rom (Darky, CheckRom, Litening, Rocket, Xtralite GB...they are old and may not easy to fine) or better use a CM9 rom (Paranoid Android, and many others from development section) which is easy to find and good.
Note: Flash rom by CWM (load rom.zip from computer to internal or external sdcard and flash) seem to be a better way since most members reported they cannot flash rom via odin a least for the first time after recovered using the manual re-partition method. Some member reported they can flash with odin. Just remember not to put any PIT file and do not tick re-partition when flash with odin.
6. 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.
7. More notes:
It is now appear that people may have faulty blocks in different area somewhere in all 4 partitions above including factoryfs, datafs, ums and cache but internal sdcard USM is often have less chance of being faulty.
Also if you have done it successfully with the above steps and have created partitions from 3322mb up, then you can try to go back to explore the areas which belong to the former factoryfs and datafs partitions (from 281mb to 3322mb) to see if you can use some space in there for factoryfs partition or some part for the datafs partition. In that case you may also save some more space for your sdcard (UMS partition).
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.
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: More than 30 members have reported successfully revised their Notes after fixing partitions problems using manual methods. A few more dozen has made it using custom PIT file by Hg42. Re-partition have revised many super-bricks Notes!.
If you can revive your Note please share with us so that we can share your good feeling
And press thanks if you find this guide useful. Thanks.
but from here.. is it possible for me to upgrade to ICS? because, everytime i try to flash ICS stock rom, still stuck at flashing Factoryfs.IMG in ODIN. can someone guide me.. thank u in advance.
You sir are my savour and HERO, I used your method and am now not only unbricked, yet booting up kingdroids ROMThere has been confirmation that In many cases
Update of progress: More than 30 members have reported successfully revised their Notes after fixing partitions problems using manual methods. A few more dozen has made it using custom PIT file by Hg42. Re-partition have revised many super-bricks Notes!
If you can revive your Note please share with us so that we can share your good feeling
And press thanks if you find this guide useful. Thanks.
I did everything and with help from the riff jtag and your tutorial, i resurrect my note from a super hard brick (from not even turn on, from no boot, from no samsung logo, from no download mode, from no recovery mode, for no pc recognition, from anything, completely resurrected from the death)... Now im running ics with only 8 gb of storage since i used the patched PIT, but thats not such a big problem (is it possible to regain some gigas?), the main issue is that i have no signal (doesnt recognize the sim card) and strangely i dont have a unlock screen (the first page you swipe to enter to the main pages) and when i turn my phone off it doesnt ask me , it just turns off! And ALSO when i factory reset it doesnt show the configuration screens (where you for the first time select the wifi, the backup, the samsung accounts, the user name...and when the android robot tells you welcome.. etc!) I have flashed a lot of stocks official roms and nothing seems to fix this, everythings else seems to work as usual! but i need to fix those issues!
i will try to flash some modems, Mmm.... another problema is this: E: failed to mount /efs (invalid argument) E:check_selective_file:Cant amount /efs
i dont have the efs partition , can i install this in some way? i need those files, whay can i do? i dont have the EFS thats why i dont have signal imei and anything from the phone
Thanks for your help !! but Ive never seen a stock rom with EFS, i mean i dont know but... could you please give me a link to try them? i guess that woul help a lot! because i tried everythimg, a lot of stock roms and modems and no luck :/
i really need help with this.... i need my phone back
XXKL8 has efs.i really need help with this.... i need my phone back
dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p1 of=/sdcard/efs.imgWow, thank you so much!!!! i really apreciate this a lot! now, i have to revive my phone again with the riff jtag, because i super hardbricked it again trying some other things since i didnt found something helpfull like this! I have only one little question, since i dont even have the EFS folder, i dont have the efs partition (my phone does not show any IMEI number when i dial the imei number *#272*IMEI#) i dont have nothing about my phone because i dont have any EFS files! THIS IS THE ERROR I GET:
You can only see efs partition using adb/parted but not "mount" it in recovery.
Ok, i will try this... it gonna take me some time to try it, cause i have to sold my phone motherboard wit the riff and then resurrect it (it takes a lot of hours to do it :/ ).. i will post my results here at the time i finish everything! I have a question, why do i lose my EFS when i apply the custom PIT patch? why does it happen? Is it any way to prevent this when i resurrect the phone? I guess this is not normal (losing EFS when applying patched PIT) i lost 3 or 4 Gigas, does it has something to do with it?
There has been confirmation that In many cases it is the faulty system partitions (caused by the suspected ICS kernel or whatever reason). In that case relocating the corrupted partition to the good areas works. 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 guide for another android device by Eldarerathis and Soundwire.
Credits and thanks to them.
Also 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!
------------------
Important Note:
As the method progress, thanks to member Hg42 custom PIT files have been made that can help re-partition automatically. This will make it much easier for those who find adb things too much to handle. Follow the Link to hg42's thread
to get the PIT file and how to flash.
The custom PIT should work in majority of cases that have partition problems. Someone may ask a question: how do I know if there are faulty blocks in the partition or not and where, in which partitions, they are. The answers to that question can be found by scanning partitions for errors, with the procedures described in the manual method below (need to go until steps 4 to find the answers). in Short: the manual method will give more control over scanning for partition errors, size and location of new partitions which can save you some more memory space, but the PIT method is easier for new users. Also, you can also combine two methods in an intuitive way to fix your brick Note.
-----------------------------------
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. Requires some basic knowledge of MS-DOS and adb (few simple commands).
3. Partitions can be delete and recreate like in a computer hdd but requires more skills.
4. If you like to recover data from your internal sdcard (photos, music, books...) you should look at Item 6 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
- download and install the attached 4pda_kernel.tar, which has the partition tools and CWM with it, although it will raise flash counter. To avoid that you can download and install the CWM_4pda_kernel.zip (also attached in the post) by putting it in sdcard and flash with your existing CWM. the 4pda_kernel is a GB based kernel. In some cases 4pda_kernel does not work (probably due to mismatch between the kernel and the rom that is still sitting there in your (semi-brick) phone), then try this safe CM9 kernel from the this link.
- You should be able to have adb driver for Note and adb.exe in you computer. The easy way is to download Note usb driver from here, then download adb folder attached in the post. Install driver you have downloaded 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. (Alternatively, if you have installed Kies, then the usb driver should already installed. Then you just need to download the adb folder provided.)
2. Set up the tools:
- Use odin to flash attached kernel .tar file.
- Then restart the phone to recovery
- Then connect to computer using usb cable.
3. Then run cmd from your computer and cd (for those new to MS-DOS: this is change directory command under DOS. You just need to do a search on how to use cd command for DOS) 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 adbCode:adb devices
then:
it should give you the sign like this: ~ #Code:adb shell
-------
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. 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.
-------
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.Code:~ # umount /cache ~ # umount /system ~ # umount /data
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:Code:~ # parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
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):Code:(parted) 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
--------------------
4. Scanning for Partition errors:
If you like to check if a partition has bad block or not you can use the tools that already come with the kernel.
For partition 11 you can check using parted which handle fat32
if it does not return any error the partition 11 is probably fine, although parted only scan area that has been used by files, it does not scan all blocks.Code:(parted) check 11
For a more thorough scan of partition 11 you can use this command (it only read partition bit by bit and no write, so it is safe):
if it freeze or run too long (more than 10 minutes), then it means you have some damage in that partition and read command failed.Code:~ # dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 of=/dev/null
For other ext4 partition (partition 7, 9, and 10) you can use the same dd command above (just need to change partition number-p11 to the respective number) or you can use e2fsck as below. The benefits of using e2fsck is that it can help repair some minor file system faults and in some case solve the problems without the need of further re-partitioning.
It is noted that e2fsck should be run after "umount" the partition using the commands in step 3 above.
For example, if you like to check partition 7, which is cache, then run:
You can do the same with 9, 10.Code:(parted) quit ~ # e2fsck -f -c –y /dev/block/mmcblk0p7
If e2fsck report bad block not found it is good Or if it does not freeze then it means it has effectively dealt with the file system corruptions. If it freezes it means the errors caused by EMMC bug and cannot be repaired. In that case you will need to do re-partitioning workaround to leave those faulty areas unused.
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.
Below are further steps to do manual re-partitioning using parted.
---------------------
5. Start dealing with partitions: Now just suppose that you have 2 faulty system partitions: factoryfs (partition 9) and datafs (partition 10), then the work-around way is below:
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 partitionsCode:~ # parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 (parted) rm 9 (parted) rm 10 (parted) rm 11
5.2. To create three new partitions from the good area:
-------------Code:(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 3322 4215 (parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 4215 6362 (parted) mkpartfs primary fat32 6362 15200 (parted) name 9 FACTORYFS (parted) name 10 DATAFS (parted) name 11 UMS
Important Note: If while creating partitions parted give some error like:
Error: Input/output error during write on /dev/block/mmcblk0
Retry/Ignore/Cancel?
that would mean the area chosen for that partition include some faulty block somewhere in that range. Then you need to select another range for the partition by changing start and end number in respective code. For example:
- after you run "(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 3322 4215" it returned "Error: Input/output error during write on /dev/block/mmcblk0
Retry/Ignore/Cancel?"
- then press "c" and "enter".
- Then create partition in the next block range below:
Continue to move up until parted is happy with the block range chosen. (You need to make some calculation of partition size, the start and end block for the code above, follow the example given).Code:(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 4215 5108 (parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 5108 7255 (parted) mkpartfs primary fat32 7255 15200
Once done, with the creation of partitions above, then move on with 5.3.
-------------
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:
------------Code:~ # parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 (parted) print
Optional:
5.4. It is very unlikely that Cache is also faulty but if you think it is a problem. So for the first time you should not touch Cache. But then if you suspect the Cache partition then below is the way to do it.
Then recreate it:Code:(parted) rm 7
Then you can go into CWM and format /cache, it will convert file system to ext4.Code:(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 54.5 264 (parted) name 7 CACHE
In case there is faulty area in Cache area, 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.
If everything works: Then go to cwm and try to mount your sdcard (or usb storage) to PC then copy rom.zip file to it and then flash using CWM. In many cases CWM see sdcard as internal sdcard, so you need to make sure to check both sdcard and internal sdcard.
It is recommend to use a custom GB rom (Darky, CheckRom, Litening, Rocket, Xtralite GB...they are old and may not easy to fine) or better use a CM9 rom (Paranoid Android, and many others from development section) which is easy to find and good.
Note: Flash rom by CWM (load rom.zip from computer to internal or external sdcard and flash) seem to be a better way since most members reported they cannot flash rom via odin a least for the first time after recovered using the manual re-partition method. Some member reported they can flash with odin. Just remember not to put any PIT file and do not tick re-partition when flash with odin.
6. 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.
7. More notes:
It is now appear that people may have faulty blocks in different area somewhere in all 4 partitions above including factoryfs, datafs, ums and cache but internal sdcard USM is often have less chance of being faulty.
Also if you have done it successfully with the above steps and have created partitions from 3322mb up, then you can try to go back to explore the areas which belong to the former factoryfs and datafs partitions (from 281mb to 3322mb) to see if you can use some space in there for factoryfs partition or some part for the datafs partition. In that case you may also save some more space for your sdcard (UMS partition).
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.
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: More than 30 members have reported successfully revised their Notes after fixing partitions problems using manual methods. A few more dozen has made it using custom PIT file by Hg42. Re-partition have revised many super-bricks Notes!
If you can revive your Note please share with us so that we can share your good feeling
And press thanks if you find this guide useful. Thanks.
loosing efs has nothing to do with the patched PITs.
Its weird, but the phone doesnt freezes, and when i install a GB stock rom, it gives me errors (the ones i wrote in my last post, but when i restart the phone it boots ok and it enters normally, but it doesnt have signal ,it has no imei, no sim , unknown and no service, but wifi and eerything else works perfect! the thing is that i dont know how i lost the efs partition ,and i dont know why it doesnt recovers with the stock roms, i tried latest ICS roms and nothing seems to work, my phone is now super hard bricked (it was accidentaly, by flashing a PIT and a kernel at the same time, that was my mistake) and i couldnt resurrect it yet, but im working on it, because its completely dead! when i resurrect it i will try to flash the efs files with odin! ***(E: failed to mount /efs (invalid argument) E:check_selective_file:Cant amount /efs E:multi_csc:Cant mount/ efs Multi-csc applied failed)** it doesnt freezes, but i guess the procces is incomplete and it fails to install those files, the efs ones.
