Ok, so before I get flamed, let me say that I did do a search and did see that there are ways to unroot the phone...however, I have what I believe to be a bit of a different case here and am just looking for info before trying any of them.
Background...(this is for a friends phone, not mine, or I would just Odin and call it good. He however does not want to loose any of his settings blah blah blah so doesnt want to go that route unless necessary)...Buddy got his first Epic and had me root it for him (One Click Root 2.5.1), that phone took a **** and had to be replaced. When he took it to Bestbuy (I think there, could be the sprint store, dont know that it matters) they hooked it up to their little file transfer machine, let it do its thing and gave him his new phone. Now, after doing that, it still shows as having Clockwork Mod installed, and you can boot into CWM, but none of the functions work, which I found out when I tried to install EC05 on his phone. I installed the zip to his sd card, rebooted into CWM and selected to install zip from sd...nothing happened...just went to a blank screen and locked up and I had to pull the battery. Rebooted the phone and it went straight to CWM without the three finger grip, I selected to just reboot the phone, lock up and battery pull required. Long story short (I know, too late for that) I tried several options and all of them resulted in a lock up and wouldn't let the phone boot normally...I was really feeling bad thinking that I had actually managed to brick his phone...last thing I tried was the advanced menu and selected to reboot recovery and luckily, that actually worked and booted me into sammys stock recovery mode and I was able to run the zip. Had to reboot several times, but it took and his phone is running well now on EC05.
So now to my question. Since CWM is obviously corrupted on his phone from that transfer and not being properly installed on this phone (I was actually blown away that it transfered in the first place) in order to correct that, do I just apply the newer CWM like its a stock phone and let it try to write over those corrupted/missing files or do I need to try to uninstall what is there first or is he going to be stuck having to Odin and take whatever losses he gets?
Thats actuarry an interesting diremma...
Does the phone show up in adb? Can you SU
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
If you are rooted still, run MyBackup Root for him and then run Odin. If you're not, run the One Click Root 2.5.5 and then use MyBackup Root.
No, its not still rooted, just showing CWM. Thanks, I will try running 2.5.5 over it. I just wasnt sure if that would cause any problems...will let you know how it goes.
I've had a similar thing happen to me when updating a kernel. Reinstalling the same CWM right over the top worked for me.
Related
Ok so I've done a bit of searching and asking on androidforums but nobody can figure out my an answer to my problem. Alright, first off originally the phone had android 1.5 but when sprint released the 2.1 update I did it. From there, I used regaws tutorial on rooting the official 2.1 release which worked great. Basically I was on a mission at this point, a mission to try out all the 2.1 based custom rims. I had been using the rom manager app for its ability to wipe and flash new roms without even rebooting to recovery. As you are probably aware, to do anything with rom manager, you have to have their clockwork mod recovery flashed, which is simple to do with this app. So one day I wiped and flashed a new rom, aloysius I think, and after it was trying to boot the new rom it gave me some error message and the installation failed. I think at this point I tried to restore my nandroid, which also didn't work, I'm guessing that you have to be using the same recovery you were using when you created the nandroid? No matter what I did from recovery I could not restore my nandroid, as a last ditch effort I did a factory wipe and then rebooted. I didn't think it would reboot at all, honestly I was way scared and thought that I had bricked the phone but after about 5 minutes it finished booting up. Now I don't understand why or how, but when it came to it was quite obvious, I was back at stock 2.1. I immediately look in the app tray for the superuser app and obviously it isn't there, I've been dealing with the phone as is for about a month. A couple of weeks ago I decided to get back to work, sat down at the computer and tried to root it again using the same exact method. After like 5 attempts I get the same problem, I get to the step where command prompt spells out "UNREVOKED" really big but I notice that instead of having a "$" like it shows in the picture I have a "#". At this point the guide instructs you to open the Superuser app on the app tray on the phone, sure enough, I don't have one. I have tried this probably like 7 times all with the same result. I've even tried to install that .6 update to patch whatever remnant of root access I have and go from there as I'm sure the fact I was rooted once and lost it has something to do with my failure. I've tried running RUU's many times as well and always wind up getting an error 171 USB connection error. I havent heard of anyone else having an issue like this. I'm not sure whether I posted this thread in the right place to really get help either so if this needs to be moved to development or whatever don't hesitate. I'd really appreciate anyone trying to figure this out as I am tired of running the slow stock rom but have exhausted virtually every option that I am aware of, PLEASE HELP ME!
I know everyone is probably still reading that book I posted, but once you get to the end lol please gimme some advice, i've tried everything and don't wanna live with the phone as is for the next year....
It's a little hard to read your original post, but I'll do my best to help. From the sound of it you may still have root.
I haven't had to root on stock 2.1 install, so I'm not familiar with the new method. If you get to a bash shell or terminal prompt that is a '#' rather than a '$', you still have root.
You said that you did a factory wipe on the phone. Did you RUU or did you simply wipe through recovery? Are you still able to get to the clockwork recovery?
If you can get back to your modded recovery, you're golden. I would STRONGLY recommend you flash the newest Amon_RA. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4898505&postcount=1
If you can get that far, you should just be able to wipe and flash a new ROM.
have you tried to update your sync/drivers on your computer lately?
Sent from my Hero CDMA using XDA App
Oh well I finally got it all figured out, had to rum the ruu twice back to back whole the phone was still frozen at the bootloader. From there I finally was able to re root it.
Hey folks, I've read through all the JI6 OTA threads here and on the TMo forums and while I've seen a few people guess as to the cause of soft bricks, dosen't seem like anyone has nailed down the actual cause. I'm going to assume I'm not the only person out there with no access to a windows box to run ODIN so knowing what if anything can be done to prep my phone before accepting the OTA (that is sitting in my notification bar as we speak) would be immensely helpful.
So far the two best guesses I've seen are the existence of other update.zip files on SD and removal of bloatware, specifically Media Hub and possibly edited startup/shutdown screens.
Since I've got all these going on, I guess I'm staring down the barrel of a brick. But obviously one of these is easily rectified while the others, not so much.
Aside from those claiming bricks on vigin phones. Can we hear from those who have made mods to their rooted devices and either did or did not experience an OTA brick? I think this info will be helpful to many in sorting out what exactly is going on here.
I have black bar mod, I have naked swype, removed most t-mob app except media hub no change to start up or shut downtried to update. 50 % through it said update failed. Then rebooted fine. But I had an extra update.zip on my sd so maybe that's why. But no firmware now? Maybe I'm sol.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Mine wouldn't complete the update Rooted, most of the bloat removed, had an update on the sd. Was able to get into clockwork after the failed update and am performing a nandroid restore now.
this is great, thank you. beginning to look more like an issue with extra update.zip files than media hub. any successful OTA's with media hub removed prior to accepting the update?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I never uninstalled Media Hub. I have seen a correlation of about 5 people who had ROM manager installed and used that to install Recovery. Whether it be the installation of Recovery or a possible permissions issue with how it generates the update.zip that may have caused my issue.
just a question, why do people remove media hub? Does the application make the phone slow?
iynfynity said:
just a question, why do people remove media hub? Does the application make the phone slow?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because up until now, it was a non-functional app. I didn't remove it, I use LauncherPro so I just removed it from my drawer. I'm still not touching this update. I got my Vibrant used so I would be out of luck if it jacked my phone up and I hate using ODIN. Too much hassle when my phone runs great on Bionix 1.4 as it is.
Wife's phone was toasted by OTA. Stuck at Vibrant screen. Rooted, unlocked, she did have an update.zip, if that turns out to be the culprit. Also had some apps removed, replacement startup animations, and removed shutdown junk.
She was set for always-on WiFi, too.
My rooted Vibrant soft bricked yesterday and I had to flash stock with Odin. I had the (what seems to be infamous) update.zip, removed Kindle, Mobi TV, Avatar Icon, Gogo. I had RyanZAOneClickLagFixV1+ installed but removed it. I also had the EXT2 Tools installed. @ the time of the update I was @ work and had a full charge on the phone. I flashed back to stock last night after work, and I haven't recieved the update notificaiton again...maybe TMo crossed me off some type of "update list"?
There are also different possible symptoms.
In my case the update appeared to have completed its cycle, except the tail end of the download of the new update wnt really fast then the system rebooted. System came back up into the Black Vibrant screen. I could start 'adb logcat' and the system had SurfaceFlinger repeatedly crashing.
Attempts in Recovery Mode after this to reinstall files didn't resolve the issue, reboots would still lead to a crashing SurfaceFlinger.
2 separate users in a thread, 1 had removed Boot Animations + Sounds, I only had removed Sounds.
Quite a few people had Stock Roms + Root, but some with Root didn't have any issues. Only correlation was with Titanium + Rom Manager, which a lot of people would have installed since it's listed in the Tips and Tricks thread. Titanium shouldn't do anything to the system unless you generate a backup Update.zip or install LZO support busybox.
One guess is that ROM Manager and Titanium can create a update.zip file that doesn't have the proper permissions. An OTA update that attempts to overwrite this file may get confused. Simply removing the file in advance may alleviate this issue. Another issue is ROM Manager installs ROM Recovery, which may change how the OTA perceives the phone.
Bionix 1.4...
I was running Bionix 1.4 KK OC/UV yesterday morning... Was a little dumbfounded when I received the update message from Tmo. Figured it wouldn't show w/ modded handset. Delayed install until I could read everything on here about it. Tried installing over Bionix last night just to see, and had no joy. I had removed all crapware, mediahub included. Hit 50%, said flash failed, rebooted and was back to my homescreen in no time. No ill effects to phone except being denied upgrade.
So I Odined back to Stock JFD FW (and wiped device for S&G), rooted, and updated from JI6 tar posted. Flashed perfectly, no ill effects as I've noticed. Reception is improved (for me anyway), and GPS functions similar to Bionix... No real incentive for update, but was curious.
I see Bionix 1.7 updated so it was all for nothing.
Now to play with other stuff...
Cheers
My girl friends phone bricked the other night from the OTA, it's rooted(update.zip) and has the bloatware uninstalled, nothing else like lagfix/roms on it etc.
T-Moible is sending her a replacement phone, which im pretty surprised about. Now since we have to send the old phone back so they can check for damage or anything that would void the warrenty.
We get to keep the external SD card(Avatar), now im sure there is a pretty good chance they will find that its been rooted. So we would have to pay $400 they said if its voided.
Now I can't get this phone to boot into download mode or even mount it, so what should I do? I know about ODIN but have never used it, can it mount the phone?
I got the soft brick and had to flash back to stock via Odin and then I flashed the JI6 tar file from the forum. All is working fine now.
I had root but no update.zip file on the sdcard root, had removed startup an shutdown sounds, had used both ROM Manager and Titanium (with LZO compression turned on), and had removed bloatware including the non-functioning Media Hub.
Next time I'll flash back to stock before doing an OTA update.
I am rooted have Titanium backup, ROM Manager, and clockwork mod. I also had an update.zip but I think it was from OCLF not from another source. My update went fine and I'm running without any problems on the new update.
PepeLasNoches said:
My girl friends phone bricked the other night from the OTA, it's rooted(update.zip) and has the bloatware uninstalled, nothing else like lagfix/roms on it etc.
T-Moible is sending her a replacement phone, which im pretty surprised about. Now since we have to send the old phone back so they can check for damage or anything that would void the warrenty.
We get to keep the external SD card(Avatar), now im sure there is a pretty good chance they will find that its been rooted. So we would have to pay $400 they said if its voided.
Now I can't get this phone to boot into download mode or even mount it, so what should I do? I know about ODIN but have never used it, can it mount the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Woo, got it unbricked! finally got into download mode and ODIN saved the day.
this video was helpful for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnY7P14JSWQ
^ODIN walkthrough
paxton said:
I'm going to assume I'm not the only person out there with no access to a windows box to run ODIN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a cross platform tool being developed called 'Heimdall'. It is currently a command line tool and is in beta. however people are successfully flashing their phones using it. It is obviously not a 'one click' solution, so you will have to go find the proper files and type out the command.
It can be found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=755265#
If you are the type of person with access to both a windows machine and a linux machine, I suggest you check this out. Testers are needed. Of course you can test if you don't have windows, but it's nice to have Odin as a back up. ;-) just incase....
-p
I had a failed update twice using Odin. It wasn't until I went back to stock T959JFD for the second time and deleted update.zip and all clockwork back ups that it finally worked. Runs perfect with no issues.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Was rooted with OCLF, Captive camera, gps fix, rom manager, titanium backup and add removal. Removed the OCLF and unrooted, ran the update, looked like it got to 100% (not sure cause I looked away and then back at it right before reboot) but said update failed. Got stuck at the vibrant screen blah blah. I'm pretty sure I had an update.zip on the sd, but not 100% on that. After pushing the update with ODIN I have noticed my phone lagging quite a bit.... Thoughts?
Sent from my Rooted Samsung Vibrant using XDA App
I was having some pretty serious problems with Bionix 1.7 (couldn't download from market, unusably bad GPS, etc), which I thought I had successfully flashed yesterday afternoon. I decided to use Clockwork Mod to restore a backup I made before I flashed Bionix. This hung up for quite a while (upwards of 20 minutes) so I figured something had gone wrong. I held the power button until the screen turned off, and that put me right into Android Recovery, where I get the options to reboot (puts me right back there), reinstall packages (puts me into Clockwork Mod, which I'll get to in a second) or delete user data / cache, which I haven't messed with.
If I go into Clockwork Mod, I can tell it to try to restore one of my previous backups again, but it hangs up indefinitely (upwards of several hours) at "Restoring data..." (with either immvbsd.lck or .pc_syncstream below that). I can also still see the Bionix .zip on my SD card, but when I tell Clockwork Mod to install that .zip it gets this far:
Formatting DATA:...
Copying files...
E:Failure at line 81:
copy_dir PACKAGE:data DATA:
Installation aborted.
Ideas?
Okay, so apparently, the problem may have been that I didn't disable the Voodoo lagfix before I flashed back to my old ROM. I figured you only had to disable the lagfix if you were upgrading, not flashing back. So, I used ADB to push a disable-lagfix file to /sdcard/voodoo and rebooted. I heard Linda say that my file system converted back to RFS, and my phone went back to recovery. From here, I tried two things:
1. Attempted to flash back to a previous Nandroid backup. No matter what backup I pick (and I have several), they all complete successfully. However, when I choose to reboot my phone, it boots into recovery.
2. Attempted to install Bionix 1.7 though Clockwork. It appears to install successfully and gives me an "Installation complete." message, but puts me right back in recovery. Rebooting the phone from here puts me back into recovery again.
Since I'm on a mac right now, I'm really avoiding having to get on a Windows machine just to use ODIN, but I will if that's my only way out. Any alternatives?
opiomorph said:
Okay, so apparently, the problem may have been that I didn't disable the Voodoo lagfix before I flashed back to my old ROM. I figured you only had to disable the lagfix if you were upgrading, not flashing back. So, I used ADB to push a disable-lagfix file to /sdcard/voodoo and rebooted. I heard Linda say that my file system converted back to RFS, and my phone went back to recovery. From here, I tried two things:
1. Attempted to flash back to a previous Nandroid backup. No matter what backup I pick (and I have several), they all complete successfully. However, when I choose to reboot my phone, it boots into recovery.
2. Attempted to install Bionix 1.7 though Clockwork. It appears to install successfully and gives me an "Installation complete." message, but puts me right back in recovery. Rebooting the phone from here puts me back into recovery again.
Since I'm on a mac right now, I'm really avoiding having to get on a Windows machine just to use ODIN, but I will if that's my only way out. Any alternatives?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately it sounds indeed like you need to use ODIN to flash and re-partition your phone's file system. You're going to need to make sure you use the stock rom (JFD) to do this, other wise you'll be stuck in the recovery loop yet again with a different error message.
So far as being on a Mac goes, I've heard that some people have luck using ODIN through the newer version of parallels. Or you could of course just boot camp your machine if you happen to have a copy of Windows laying around. Parallels sounds like it might be the easier solution if you don't want to go through th hastle of installing a full blown windows load.
Just my .02 cents!
cathardicnotion said:
Unfortunately it sounds indeed like you need to use ODIN to flash and re-partition your phone's file system. You're going to need to make sure you use the stock rom (JFD) to do this, other wise you'll be stuck in the recovery loop yet again with a different error message.
So far as being on a Mac goes, I've heard that some people have luck using ODIN through the newer version of parallels. Or you could of course just boot camp your machine if you happen to have a copy of Windows laying around. Parallels sounds like it might be the easier solution if you don't want to go through th hastle of installing a full blown windows load.
Just my .02 cents!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using ODIN worked. Thanks for the reassurance. :3
I'm a relative newbie and not very tech-oriented, and I appear to have screwed up big time. I'd appreciate any help that can be offered. To cut to the chase, when I attempt to boot up my Fascinate, it gets stuck indefinitely on the Samsung logo.
Here's what I did to screw it up. I rooted my phone when I first got it last year and did a lagfix. It unrooted with the update to JD05. Yesterday I attempted to root it again using two different 1-click methods, neither of which worked. I then followed the instructions in the "Modified CWMrecovery for Odin" thread, not having it work until finally succeeding in getting root using CWM Red. The phone rebooted and was rooted, and everything seemed fine, so I used Rom Manager to Boot to Recovery. This did something strange--it took 15 minutes to get to the recovery screen, with a digital voice periodically telling me how much longer it would take. When I got to the recovery screen the first thing I did was to perform a backup. I think this effort to be safe did me in, because the phone must have already been screwed up then and I think I backed up the screw-up.
I then attempted to reboot and since then all efforts get me stuck on the Samsung logo. I've tried almost all options from the Recovery screen: reboot system now, apply sdcard update.zip, wipe date/factory reset, wipe cache partition, install zip from ascard, and restore. All bring the same locked up phone.
I'd appreciate any ideas to bring my Fascinate back to life!
First off the only way to get to red CWM is to install a voodoo 5 kernel. I'm thinking the voodoo kernel and the one click lag fix don't play well together. I'm sure someone else will step in with more info however I would start by looking for a thred called how to completely remove voodoo. Then try odin to restore. Good luck.
Edit. I read your post again and not sure if u did one click lag fix or just an older voodoo kernel. Either way same result u have to disable voodoo 4 and one click to install voodoo 5. Odin it. The voice u hear was the voodoo kernel converting your system to ext4 if this was the first time you've heard this I think your first lag fix may have been the one click.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Yes this happed to me too. If i take it to the Verizon store will they know my phone is rooted and moded? i need help ASAP
Search the forums on how to properly removed the voodoo lag fix. Then you need to reflash dj05. Voodoo doesn't really do much except for show you a higher quadrant score and limit to what roms/themes you can install. Same thing happened to me. Just do a quick search, I think its in the development section. The easiest way to remove it is with and. Hope this is somewhat helpful.
so fresh and so superclean.
Don't bring it to verizon because you would be defrauding them for your mistake. see if you can access your sd card through the computer and put either a file or folder in the voodoo folder called disable_lagfix and try booting again. If that doesn't help (it is probably too late for that) then you need to flash back to stock through odin. find the thread in development on how to do that. Good luck. Your phone is not broken. Breathe.
Sent from my sch-i500 using dl09 supah clean
Here is the ODIN back to stock if you don't want to bother with removing Voodoo. That should fix your phone with or without Voodoo. It's always worked for me.
THANKS SO MUCH its back to normal i cant thank you enough
Many thanks for all of the help.
Hi guys. I seem to have outdone myself and am now stuck with a phone that plain refuses to boot any more. Let me give you some history so you get the full story.
Not long after I got my U8800 (18 months ago, 'ish) I decided to change my ROM to MIUI because I wanted to get rid of Froyo and Huawei were being incredibly slow to update officially. I did this with minimal troubles and ran it for a long time, updating etc. as needed to be done. Then along came ICS ports and I admit it, I had to fiddle once more...
I downloaded Aurora and read up in here on how to get it on my phone. It seemed before I did anything I needed to set my phone back to the defaults I had and this involved installing Froyo then the latest stock ROM for the U8800. I did all this without hassle and then tried to get the ICS on.
I don't know if it was me, bad reading, something built into the new stock ROM or what, but I could not get the ICS ROM on my phone no matter what I tried. It seemed to have issues deciding if it was rooted or not, it said it was but then failed to work when I needed it to, plus CWM Recovery completely failed to work for me and I just kept getting the stock recovery when trying to boot into it. ROM Manager was also being a pain and kept insisting my phone was a U8160 when previously it had worked as a U8800 (I may have flashed to the U8160 and having thought this I assumed this was my mistake).
I tried various methods of getting to my cust_ folders and manually changing the recovery.img but everything I tried ran into the same "is it or isn't it rooted" problem.
At this point I gave up and stayed with the official stock ROM from Huawei for a bit.
Two days ago I decided I couldn't hack the defaults any more, my phone was slower and I missed the MIUI way of doing things. I decided to have another go!
Ok, we are up to date, thanks for reading so far if you have.
I decided to try getting to the recovery.img again by doing the pink screen and connecting to my PC, problem was when I did this nothing ever showed on my PC, so I looked for other methods.
I uninstalled ROM Manager, because it still insisted I had the wrong phone and found the app, Root Explorer, it worked! Wish I'd have found it weeks ago. I instantly had access to the folders I needed and could mount them etc to overwrite/backup my recovery.img and as I was a little worried about the rooting thing again, despite Root Explorer working I though what harm can it do to overwrite the boot.img too. I did both by copying the originals to my SD Card and pasting the new ones that I had previously placed on my SD Card through the USB connection. I used the files recommended here: http://android.modaco.com/topic/340...-and-then-some-for-the-huawei-u8800-ideos-x5/ and here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14870348
I rebooted the phone and again failed to get into CWM Recovery, just the default Android one.
I then hunted down another recovery and found this: http://www.androidxpert.com/2011/08...k-work-mod-recovery-on-huawei-u8800-ideos-x5/
It worked! I could finally get into CWM Recovery and figured I was home free.
Not so
I then downloaded the same stockwell MIUI I had used previously as I knew that worked, his latest stable version, and dropped the zip on my SD Card. Went to install it and found that CWM Recovery refused to mount my SD Card (16 gig sandisc). Tried a couple more times because I had issues with this card before and then the card ended up corrupted or something because it just refused to work now on anything I had. This was fairly major because I had backed up to this SD Card and forgot to take the backup off and into my PC for safer storage... I know... I do have the back up of recovery and boot.img though on my PC.
It was at this point I noticed I had a boot loop but could still get into CWM Recovery.
Not panicking too much, I tried my old 4gig SD Card, it mounted! I copied the MIUI Rom across to this card, booted into recovery and selected it. It stated it was installing etc but seemed to go pretty quickly. It said it was done so I rebooted as is the norm. Boot Loop. Damnit! Tried this a couple more times, made sure I once again wiped cache, dalvik etc, all of the things it states to do on the ultimate guides etc. Nothing.
Again, still not panicking I thought, fine, I will go back to stock rom. Downloaded the correct one, dropped dload into root, booted using vol + and - and up comes the unpacking screen. Trouble is it refuses to unpack. I quickly look on the net and find that some say if you take the battery out and connect just using the USB it will install it that way, maybe it does for them but it doesn't for me, it just boot loops again.
I am now at my wits end.
I have the feeling its something to do with my changing of the boot.img and I have the original should it be that but I cannot access the insides of my phone through Windows to change anything, plus of course I can't boot the phone due to the loop to change it back using Root Explorer (otherwise it would work anyway).
Is there anything you guys can help me with?
I can install Linux if needed, I read that it lets you view the phones file system better compared to Windows and with my slight knowledge of Linux Id quite expect this but even so, I am not sure what to do.
Any advice/solutions are extremely welcome.
Sorry for the long post, figured I should give as much info as possible.
So what was the latest Huawei official firmware you had on your phone?
What version of CWM are you trying to use?
What version of the huawei official rom did you have on the phone when you tried to install aurora?
What was the last huawei stock rom you tried to install?
Try and get a 2.2 froyo stock rom and flash it using the vol+and- method. This should hopefully get your pink screen back and access to recovery and boot.img. You can then use any recovery earlier then 5.0.2.6 and install stockwells miui.
It sounds like you have a Gingerbread based official rom flashed which you would have needed to flash aurora and are dropping bits into it like boot.img, roms and recoveries which are for froyo.
If this is the case and you can still get into recovery, I would try flash another rom like sbasils miui or wipe everything and format /system and then flash aurora again.
Ok, not sure what changed but, I figured whilst I wait for a reply I may as well keep playing and try to fix it myself still. So I stick my battery back in, was out all night, plug it in the USB as I wasn't sure what juice it had left and turn it on with vol + and - down for that one last try at the default install.
It starts unpacking!
I have no idea what changed, I did nothing different bar having left the battery out all night. Can it have had something in the residual memory?
Anyway, short version. Installed the default froyo, updated to the beta gingerbread (stock and latest).
Back up everything to internal storage this time, just incase and went to superclick to see if I could root it again, it did so. Used Root Explorer to copy CWM Recovery.img over, backed up it all again using CWM to internal, rebooted, worked.
At this point I got silly again and having it all backed up a few ways now decided to try Aurora again, 2.4 this time. It works.
Again, no idea what changed but its going again and after an initial mess with the SC Card again, that works too now.
Sorry to have wasted any ones time with this, though I still really appreciate the reply even if it seems to have fixed itself.
I just wish I was sure what fixed it so It could help others who have the same issue, unfortunately I don't
great stuff, seems upgrades are just a bit hit and miss on this phone. glad it all worked out.