[Q] Looks like my internal SD card had gone bad

HoberShort

Member
Feb 18, 2011
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About two weeks ago, I installed the teamhacksung ICS ROM. Three or four days later, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see it doing what looked like the boot animation (the rainbow of cards flipping over in a circle) at a very, very dim brightness. I let it run for a few minutes before battery-pulling. It came back with a screen saying "Encryption unsuccessful", saying I've lost the data on my phone. Hitting the reset button on-screen would reboot to a black screen and hang.

Alright, whatever. I'll reflash my rom or go to a Nandroid backup.

Except when I get in to CWM, it can't mount my sdcard ("Error: can't mount /sdcard/") and I can't mount it on my computer. I can flash all manner of ROMs via Odin/Heimdall, but none of them can mount the sdcard (also sometimes seen as "Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (File exists)" in recovery) and therefore can't boot.

None of the stock ROMs will boot (I assume because they can't find /sdcard and /data). Running KB2 with the Onix kernel added, I can boot and get a phone with no storage space, system, internal or external (with external SD card inserted).

I can get in with adb shell and poke around. There is no /dev/block/mmcblk0 device, much less partition 1 (p1) on it. There is /dev/block/stl1 through stl13, which seems to be where the phone is running off of. Result of running mount:

Code:
# mount
mount
rootfs / rootfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sys /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/block/stl6 /mnt/.lfs j4fs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/block/stl9 /system rfs ro,relatime,vfat,log_off,check=no,gid/uid/rwx,iochar
set=utf8 0 0
/dev/block/stl10 /dbdata rfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/r
wx,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/block/stl11 /cache rfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/rw
x,iocharset=utf8 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/stl3 /efs rfs rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/rwx,
iocharset=utf8 0 0
Notice no mounts for /sdcard or /data . I also have compared `mount` before and after inserting the sdcard, and `ls -r /dev` to see if anything changed when I inserted it, and there's no difference. In the SD card screen in options, internal and external sd card show as unavailable, as does the system space.

So, I'm not sure if that encryption unsuccessful message was just a misdiagnosis or true (I didn't tell it to do any encryption).

I have flashed a dozen different ROMs with Odin, and they all either do this (or don't boot, I assume because they can't handle not having /data). This isn't a ROM problem. I ended up flashing a lot when I was installing the ICS ROM (I screwed up), so my current working theory is that doing all that put a lot of wear on the internal sd card, which failed shortly thereafter.

I'd be okay with doing a switcheroo to make the phone see the external sd card as the internal and running that way (like a normal Android phone), but like I said above, inserting the external SD card doesn't register any change in the OS.

At this point, I'm out of ideas.
 

ameedi600

Senior Member
Oct 12, 2010
688
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Sorry to tell you this but the Samsung vibrant had the same problem a long time ago and it was proved unfixable at the time but it could have changed. Or didbu try odining back to stock with repartition checked. If Odin doesn't work then use hemindall one click or ask adamoutler for help.

Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
 
Last edited:

HoberShort

Member
Feb 18, 2011
10
2
0
Ah, yeah. I refer to Odin in my post, but I've been using a mix of it and Heimdall, whichever works for what I'm flashing. The KB2 that will actually get the phone to boot is a Heimdall one-click from AdamOutler. Good stuff.

Also, can anyone post the output of `mount` from their working Captivate? I'm curious where the sdcard and /data are "normally" mounted.
 
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raz123

Senior Member
Oct 25, 2010
223
46
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Exact same situation as OP here, except that my internal SD card had received very little usage.

Now it appears completely dead/nonexistent to the OS.

This has to be a software issue.
 

apbthe3

Senior Member
Mar 4, 2011
231
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Exact same situation as OP here, except that my internal SD card had received very little usage.

Now it appears completely dead/nonexistent to the OS.

This has to be a software issue.
It is a software issue, read the link above yours for details and the workaround. It may suck, but it sucks less than not having a working phone :(
 

HoberShort

Member
Feb 18, 2011
10
2
0
I ended up being unable to use cgugino's method because I'd had a hardware failure that prevented recovery (or Android, for that matter) from seeing either the internal or external SD cards. So obviously I couldn't use the external as a workaround.

I ended up sending it to Samsung, who replaced some components (PBA, which the forums suggest is the main circuit board) and now it's working again. I'm out $70, but my phone is back to working.
 

jcjcc

Senior Member
Sep 13, 2010
90
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Same problem (boot animation at very dim brightness, reboot, Encryption Unsuccessful) but internal SD died even though I didn't hit the reset phone button.

Sad to see all the Vibrant and Galaxy Tab threads on this problem have come to the conclusion that our devices are unsalvagable (without hardware replacement).
 

cgugino

Member
Aug 31, 2009
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jcjcc

Senior Member
Sep 13, 2010
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Thanks. Yup, I've seen it, but it's still going to be a hassle from now on flashing roms (and I want some of the stuff that was on my internal SD card).

Pretty weird that it's only started happening to us (Captivate users) since ICS-- and if the cause of this is ever discovered and fixed in CM9 we might be able to recover our internal SD cards.

But if this is never solved, CM9 would eventually go to release and this would keep happening to people, wouldn't it?

Or it's possible that it has nothing to do with ICS, but I think the odds are absolutely against that (at the least, ICS boosts the likelihood of this failure).
 

Ben F

New member
Jan 3, 2012
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Hi, I have this same problem and tried cgugino's work around. But after changing the vold.fstab file, when I try to reboot my phone, I gets stuck in the boot animation screen. I have reset my phone and tried this multiple times with no success. Any ideas/ tips?

Thanks, Ben