zenfone 2 (z00d) not booting

[WobLight]

Hello, a few days ago my zenfone started acting up (again), with built in applications crashing randomly and failing to boot half of the times. I always managed to fix it downloading the firmware from Asus' website and re-upgrate it, but this time it didn't worked out quite well. It now refuses to boot (sometimes gets stucked at boot, simetimes I manage to have asus screen). Booting into recovery prints `E:mount fail, change path to mount /dev/block/mmcblk1`, then errors about cache partiton not being found.
I've tried pretty much anything that would not result in data loss:

• Wiping cache doesn't report errors, but doesn't help either,
• Flashing stock boot.img and droidboot.img don't report error, but doesn't help either,
• Flashing TWRP to recovery reports success, but I still get stock recovery,
• Sideload fails coz it doesn't find expected mounts
• Adb shell doesn't work as it can't find `/system/bin/whatever`
• `adb pull /proc/partitions` returns what looks like a legit partitions list for mmcblk0 to me

Does anyone know what else I can try to rescue the data on the phone?

 

[Droidriven]

Hello, a few days ago my zenfone started acting up (again), with built in applications crashing randomly and failing to boot half of the times. I always managed to fix it downloading the firmware from Asus' website and re-upgrate it, but this time it didn't worked out quite well. It now refuses to boot (sometimes gets stucked at boot, simetimes I manage to have asus screen). Booting into recovery prints `E:mount fail, change path to mount /dev/block/mmcblk1`, then errors about cache partiton not being found.
I've tried pretty much anything that would not result in data loss:

• Wiping cache doesn't report errors, but doesn't help either,
• Flashing stock boot.img and droidboot.img don't report error, but doesn't help either,
• Flashing TWRP to recovery reports success, but I still get stock recovery,
• Sideload fails coz it doesn't find expected mounts
• Adb shell doesn't work as it can't find `/system/bin/whatever`
• `adb pull /proc/partitions` returns what looks like a legit partitions list for mmcblk0 to me

Does anyone know what else I can try to rescue the data on the phone?

When you flash TWRP and try to boot into recovery, have you tried using adb with "adb reboot" command?

Have you tried the "fastboot boot twrp.img" command"(with the TWRP file renamed to "twrp.img")? If you can get that to work, you can temporarily boot a TWRP session and then use it to make a nandroid backup.

Have you tried creating an adb backup, as described in the link below?

https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-phone-backup-unlock-root-t1420351

If you have corrupted partitions, you might not retrive anything, you might have no choice but to use an option that wipes, repartitions and flashes the device.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

 

[WobLight]

When you flash TWRP and try to boot into recovery, have you tried using adb with "adb reboot" command?

Have you tried the "fastboot boot twrp.img" command"(with the TWRP file renamed to "twrp.img")? If you can get that to work, you can temporarily boot a TWRP session and then use it to make a nandroid backup.

Have you tried creating an adb backup, as described in the link below?

https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-phone-backup-unlock-root-t1420351

If you have corrupted partitions, you might not retrive anything, you might have no choice but to use an option that wipes, repartitions and flashes the device.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

thanks for suggestions,

adb backup doesn't work. It complains about /system/bin/sh not found (looks like either the partition isn't mounted or the failed update erased it).
fastboot boot doesn't work. I was messing with boot.img before, and I found out that intel's boot.img (my zenfone is x86) is not standard format. fastboot logs `creating boot image...`, I suspect it doesn't work at all for intel's. It reports 'booting OK' but the phone doesn't reboot at all.
fastboot flash recovery twrp.img returns OK but still stock recovery...

 

[Droidriven]

thanks for suggestions,

adb backup doesn't work. It complains about /system/bin/sh not found (looks like either the partition isn't mounted or the failed update erased it).
fastboot boot doesn't work. I was messing with boot.img before, and I found out that intel's boot.img (my zenfone is x86) is not standard format. fastboot logs `creating boot image...`, I suspect it doesn't work at all for intel's. It reports 'booting OK' but the phone doesn't reboot at all.
fastboot flash recovery twrp.img returns OK but still stock recovery...

I have an intel atom tablet that I used this tool to boot TWRP then root and create nandroid backups with.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/intel-android-devices-root-temp-cwm-t2975096

There may be similar tools for your intel tablet, or maybe you can modify this tool or work out something similar.

There is another similar tool that I used on an intel based RCA Viking III tablet.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

 

[WobLight]

I have an intel atom tablet that I used this tool to boot TWRP then root and create nandroid backups with.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/intel-android-devices-root-temp-cwm-t2975096

There may be similar tools for your intel tablet, or maybe you can modify this tool or work out something similar.

There is another similar tool that I used on an intel based RCA Viking III tablet.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

It worked!!! :victory:
Thank you so much for helping me out with this, I spent over a week trying to fix/backup data, I was going to give up.

After backing up things properly I'll play with it, see if I can have it booting again (maybe not stock system ).

 

[Droidriven]

It worked!!! :victory:
Thank you so much for helping me out with this, I spent over a week trying to fix/backup data, I was going to give up.

After backing up things properly I'll play with it, see if I can have it booting again (maybe not stock system ).

Be careful, this tool is built to work on a lot of different devices with different hardware and different partitioning, the differences in partitions means that it cannot create or restore nandroid backups on all devices that the tool can boot on. Some intel devices that this tool works on can create and restore nandroid backups, some can't, it just depends on how the device is partitioned. It can also be used to flash ROMs on some devices but not on others.

This tool can boot a temporary recovery session on a lot of devices but not all of them can use all of the features in the recovery that it boots.

This difference in partitioning means that trying to restore a backup or flash a ROM can break some devices because the partitioning isn't right. So just be warned, you will be exposing your device to a certain amount of risk if you try using all of the features in the temporary recovery session.

Also, this tool was designed to boot a temporary recovery session on intel devices that have a locked bootloader, this recovery session can not flash ROMs on intel devices that have a locked bootloader, it can only be used to flash devices that have an unlocked bootloader. If your bootloader is locked, you'll brick your device if you attempt flashing a ROM on your device using this recovery session.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

 

[WobLight]

Be careful, this tool is built to work on a lot of different devices with different hardware and different partitioning, the differences in partitions means that it cannot create or restore nandroid backups on all devices that the tool can boot on. Some intel devices that this tool works on can create and restore nandroid backups, some can't, it just depends on how the device is partitioned. It can also be used to flash ROMs on some devices but not on others.

This tool can boot a temporary recovery session on a lot of devices but not all of them can use all of the features in the recovery that it boots.

This difference in partitioning means that trying to restore a backup or flash a ROM can break some devices because the partitioning isn't right. So just be warned, you will be exposing your device to a certain amount of risk if you try using all of the features in the temporary recovery session.

Also, this tool was designed to boot a temporary recovery session on intel devices that have a locked bootloader, this recovery session can not flash ROMs on intel devices that have a locked bootloader, it can only be used to flash devices that have an unlocked bootloader. If your bootloader is locked, you'll brick your device if you attempt flashing a ROM on your device using this recovery session.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

Thank for your concern, I've backed up contents of the sdcard and data partition (other partitions fails to mount) to an external SD. Ofc sdcard contents are just copy/pasted, as for data partition I've checked and looks like I can open the twrp archives from linux. I'm gonna try to clone the whole mmcblk0 before trying anything weird tho .

 

[Droidriven]

Thank for your concern, I've backed up contents of the sdcard and data partition (other partitions fails to mount) to an external SD. Ofc sdcard contents are just copy/pasted, as for data partition I've checked and looks like I can open the twrp archives from linux. I'm gonna try to clone the whole mmcblk0 before trying anything weird tho .

You might can modify the tool itself or the TWRP .img that is built into the tool to modify it to work with the way that your device is partitioned, that way it mounts, reads and writes those partitions correctly.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

 

[WobLight]

You might can modify the tool itself or the TWRP .img that is built into the tool to modify it to work with the way that your device is partitioned, that way it mounts, reads and writes those partitions correctly.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

I've tried to use the twrp for z00d I have previously downloaded, I have to do some tweaking to make it boot. Even tho it looks like a newer version, console is crashing and partitions won't work anyway. Since stock recovery fails to mount cache I guess there's corruption somewhere on the device. I might have found the stock partitions.tbl, but if I manage to clone mmcblk0 to an external sd, I can perhaps mess with the image with linux and confirm whether is there's corruption.

 

[Droidriven]

I've tried to use the twrp for z00d I have previously downloaded, I have to do some tweaking to make it boot. Even tho it looks like a newer version, console is crashing and partitions won't work anyway. Since stock recovery fails to mount cache I guess there's corruption somewhere on the device. I might have found the stock partitions.tbl, but if I manage to clone mmcblk0 to an external sd, I can perhaps mess with the image with linux and confirm whether is there's corruption.

Here is another tool that I used on an intel based RCA tablet, it might can be adapted to be used on your device if you know or can find out where the tool can be modified to work on your device.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/general/guide-rca-voyager-rct6873w42-unlock-t3582973

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

 

[WobLight]

Here is another tool that I used on an intel based RCA tablet, it might can be adapted to be used on your device if you know or can find out where the tool can be modified to work on your device.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/general/guide-rca-voyager-rct6873w42-unlock-t3582973

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

Hello, I've tried a few more stuff today, by the looks of it, the device silently fails to write anything.
I've tried to use adb push to flash a fixed image to /dev/block/mmcblk0, tried fastboot flash, tried dd from the recovery, even tho it reports ok, nothing is actually written on the device. I've tried to rename a file in data (which does mount), but after unmounting/remounting the partition the file still have the old name.
Maybe I can try loading a system on the external sd instead, but that's it.

Thanks again for your help, I was able to recover the data which was actually my priority.

EDIT: partition command also fails