[HowTo]THE guide to restoring your Milestone 2

[Moody]

This is my tutorial on restoring the Milestone 2. It is more advanced than the other ones out there so I thought hey, let's tell the community. If you don't understand something please reply in this thread and don't PM me.

1. Install RSD Lite 4.9
2. Download and extract The right SBF restore file
3. Plug in your phone. Power it off and hold CAMERA + VOL DOWN
4. On the PC launch RSD Lite, Click on the [...] to the right of filename, browse for the .sbf file you have just extracted.
5. Click on Start
6. In normal cases the phone should boot up now. If you are SURE it doesn't, which is when it tells you to boot up the phone manually follow the next steps.

7. Unplug the phone and pull out the battery.
8. Slide out your keyboard and hold the X button, insert your battery and power it up while still holding the X button.
9. A screen with an exclamation mark pops up, press the @ button on the keyboard to open the recovery menu.
10. Use either the arrows on the keyboard or the VOL UP / VOL DOWN buttons to navigate up and down. Go down to wipe data/factory reset.
11. It will hang at some times but in the end it will say it's done. Hop over to reboot system now and reboot.

Congrats, if the problem was software-based, your phone will boot now!

 

[[email protected]]

What if the process doesn't even start? I put my phone in the bootloader mode, plug it in, start up RSD Lite, searh for the sbf on the disk, hit start and then the image starts to unpack from the sbf. So far so good, but when it comes to flashing that image to phone I get an error saying flash failed (in fact it didn' do literally anything to the phone) and displaying info that the phone got a reboot command but didn't respond to it. I tried doing this from booted up android but no luck whatsoever. When I get back home I'll update the post with an error code, maybe you can tell me how the hell I can get my phone to flash sbf seamlessly.

Sent from my Milestone 2

 

[Moody]

What if the process doesn't even start? I put my phone in the bootloader mode, plug it in, start up RSD Lite, searh for the sbf on the disk, hit start and then the image starts to unpack from the sbf. So far so good, but when it comes to flashing that image to phone I get an error saying flash failed (in fact it didn' do literally anything to the phone) and displaying info that the phone got a reboot command but didn't respond to it. I tried doing this from booted up android but no luck whatsoever. When I get back home I'll update the post with an error code, maybe you can tell me how the hell I can get my phone to flash sbf seamlessly.

Sent from my Milestone 2

I know it's a bit extreme to do, but it might help for you. Try installing ubuntu or wubi, then use sbf_flash on ubuntu. It takes some time, but if you REALLY need to SBF you should give it a try. Usage is:
chmod 777 sbf_flash
./sbf_flash /path/to/sbf/file

 

[[email protected]]

I have no knowledge of ubuntu, but I stomped on the same advice as you have mentioned, before. But I didn't quite understand it clearly. I happened to have a ubuntu live 'cd' on my usb flash drive, I have the needed sbf from the links found in the topic of this forum, but is it all that I need, or am I missing something? Is that command you mentioned is everything I need to run?

Sent from my Milestone 2

 

[Moody]

I have no knowledge of ubuntu, but I stomped on the same advice as you have mentioned, before. But I didn't quite understand it clearly. I happened to have a ubuntu live 'cd' on my usb flash drive, I have the needed sbf from the links found in the topic of this forum, but is it all that I need, or am I missing something? Is that command you mentioned is everything I need to run?

Sent from my Milestone 2

You first need to download sbf_flash and extract it to your user directory (the one with downloads, desktop folders). Then open up terminal and execute those commands

 

[mandrsn1]

What firmware is that file?

I have a copy of MILS2_U6_2.2.19_SIGNED_USAMILESTONE2B1B80VF00B.0R_USXMILE20VFAU_P032_A012_M005_HWp2a_Service1FF.sbf.gz , but don't know if it would be good to flash.

 

[w0ndersp00n]

Your firmware is for the Vodafone Australia Milestone 2.

The one in Mikevhl's post is the UK Firmware.

 

[[email protected]]

I know it's a bit extreme to do, but it might help for you. Try installing ubuntu or wubi, then use sbf_flash on ubuntu. It takes some time, but if you REALLY need to SBF you should give it a try. Usage is:
chmod 777 sbf_flash
./sbf_flash /path/to/sbf/file

Thanks for your advice, I managed to flash the sbf under ubuntu Now at least I know the way to do it 100%-proof

 

[brenopapito]

I did a "format system" in the CMW as I have recovered by this method?

 

[brenopapito]

I did a "format system" in the CMW as I have recovered by this method?

YES IT WORKS!

But I had to hold CAMERA + VOL UP before plugging in the usb.

 

[cobo_]

Is there a way to restore to the factory default ROM, but still keep my SMS'es/Text messages?
I'm not sure if an MMS issue I'm having is related to the ROM I'm using (Argen2Stone) so want to put the official one back on, but keep all my recent SMS'es...(and preferably all installed apps, etc etc., but SMS'es most important).

 

[agent008my]

Is there a way to restore to the factory default ROM, but still keep my SMS'es/Text messages?
I'm not sure if an MMS issue I'm having is related to the ROM I'm using (Argen2Stone) so want to put the official one back on, but keep all my recent SMS'es...(and preferably all installed apps, etc etc., but SMS'es most important).

you can back up your text messages using SMS Backup & Restore (available for free from the market place). save the backup file to your SD card, and once your ROM is restored, you can restore your messages using the restore button on that same program. (of course you need to reinstall SMS Backup & Restore in order to be able to restore the previously backed up file)

 

[DeadSix17]

Is there a way to restore to the factory default ROM, but still keep my SMS'es/Text messages?
I'm not sure if an MMS issue I'm having is related to the ROM I'm using (Argen2Stone) so want to put the official one back on, but keep all my recent SMS'es...(and preferably all installed apps, etc etc., but SMS'es most important).

You could try to make a nandroid backup, flash another SBF and restore just data of the nandroid backup

 

[handsomeboy1702]

Is there a way to restore to the factory default ROM, but still keep my SMS'es/Text messages?
I'm not sure if an MMS issue I'm having is related to the ROM I'm using (Argen2Stone) so want to put the official one back on, but keep all my recent SMS'es...(and preferably all installed apps, etc etc., but SMS'es most important).

or use titanium backup

 

[Moody]

Sbf flashes do not wipe /data. Therefore you could just sbf restore and all apps and text messages will be kept.

 

[handsomeboy1702]

i used sbf_flash in opensuse. it detected my phone as droid x. everything was done. it said rebooting. but my phone didn't reboot. i only see a gray screen. what can i do now?

 

[Moody]

i used sbf_flash in opensuse. it detected my phone as droid x. everything was done. it said rebooting. but my phone didn't reboot. i only see a gray screen. what can i do now?

I use SBF_flash too on Ubuntu. Try pulling your battery and booting up. If it doesn't work, try booting up by holding VOL DOWN+CAM to get into bootloader mode and start over

 

[handsomeboy1702]

I use SBF_flash too on Ubuntu. Try pulling your battery and booting up. If it doesn't work, try booting up by holding VOL DOWN+CAM to get into bootloader mode and start over

i'd tried it again and again without success. then i finally managed to flash it using windows 7 with this little trick http://goo.gl/QeH5n

 

[cobo_]

Thanks guys, I'll give 'em a try and see how it goes

 

[cobo_]

Thanks to agent008my, DeadSix17, handsomeboy1702 and Mikevhl for the helpful suggestions and info

I ended up trying a restore from CWM (backed-up first!) of my very first backup prior to any ROMs etc and just restoring the system only.
This seems to have worked a treat! As I now have the stock ROM and all my apps/sms'es/phone logs etc still in place before I did the system-only restore!

Exactly what I wanted and so easy!

Many thanks guys and huge thanks to the CWM peoples as that thing is amazing.