Database Users

[Q] Noob question: How to boot from SD?

I tried to create a CM7 bootable SD card per the thread entitled "Size-agnostic SD Card image and CM7 installer for SD Cards. with updater."
I used WinImage to create the supposedly bootable SD card with the installer, placed it into my Nook which was fully off, and the Nook booted as usual instead of from the SD card.
Am I missing something? How do you boot from an SD card?
Is there such a thing as a boot choice menu like on my PC or is the default always to boot from the SD card?
Does the Nook have to be rooted for this to work?
Thanks
ETA: My PC shows the uSD card as nearly full, but my Nook shows the SD card as nearly empty (1.74 out of 1.84 GB available).

When you bought your Nook, did it have a blue sticker on the box? And does internal storage show 1GB or 5GB for you?
Also, you did drop an update CM7 zip file onto the imaged uSD before you tried booting off it right?

angomy said:
When you bought your Nook, did it have a blue sticker on the box? And does internal storage show 1GB or 5GB for you?
Also, you did drop an update CM7 zip file onto the imaged uSD before you tried booting off it right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No blue sticker was on the box. The internal storage shows 5GB.
Yes, I had a CM7 zip file on the imaged card. (The latest encore nightly)
Interestingly, my PC shows the uSD (2 GB) as nearly full. The Nook shows it as nearly empty (1.74 out of 1.84 available).

JowBe said:
No blue sticker was on the box. The internal storage shows 5GB.
Yes, I had a CM7 zip file on the imaged card. (The latest encore nightly)
Interestingly, my PC shows the uSD (2 GB) as nearly full. The Nook shows it as nearly empty (1.74 out of 1.84 available).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you burned the installer img, did you run WinImage as administrator? Also, when you put it in your reader it comes up as boot (drive letter in Windows, with files like uImage, uRamdisk, mlo, u-boot.bin, right?

angomy said:
When you burned the installer img, did you run WinImage as administrator? Also, when you put it in your reader it comes up as boot (drive letter in Windows, with files like uImage, uRamdisk, mlo, u-boot.bin, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I ran WinImage as administrator. And yes, it shows up in Windows explorer as boot and yes those files are there.

Could it be because my Nook operates in "factory mode," in order to skip initial registration?

You should run it and register it and setup wifi and everything first. Get the stock software working fine and dandy (its not half bad actually). Then, checkout this guide for installing CM7 onto an SD card:
http://clubnook.com/forum/showthread.php?953-Rooting-Instructions
It has worked for some rooting rookies so far and includes both windows and mac guides specific to SD cards.

JowBe said:
Could it be because my Nook operates in "factory mode," in order to skip initial registration?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure, because I ran through initial registration on stock prior to running CM7 off SD --- I used the same image (verygreen's agnostic at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000957) as you did without a hitch.
If you decide to run CM7 off internal sometime you're going to need to register the nook anyway.
You could try an alternate bootable SD (e.g., using an image from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13283643&postcount=34) to eliminate one of the two: a) your nook having issues booting from SD or b) your SD install is not set up correctly.

An update: I decided to try to create a bootable SD from another bootable image (MonsterRootPack with CWR). This time the nook wouldn't even turn on. I'm going to try to create a third bootable SD as angomy has suggested to see what happens.
I need to add that when I removed the uSD card, it booted normally.
Also, when I create the bootable SD with winimage, I get a dialog box that tells me that the format of the SD card is not right and asks me if I want to resize the image. But this happened on both the images. I don't know if this has anything to do with it.

angomy said:
You could try an alternate bootable SD (e.g., using an image from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13283643&postcount=34) to eliminate one of the two: a) your nook having issues booting from SD or b) your SD install is not set up correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I tried the CWR image in the link you gave. Same problem - no-go. Just sits there dead. I remove the uSD and it boots normally.

FWIW you do not have to boot into stock B&N at all before you setup and install to CM7 SD card. One of my NCs has never ever booted into stock ROM at all, I installed CM7 onto SD card and running off that from the moment it was unboxed.
The NC will always boot off the SD card first, so if it's booting off eMMC instead then there must be something wrong with the img that you wrote to your SD card.
Make sure that you have a freshly formatted SD card, preferably one with good small random block r/w speeds (eg Sandisk class 4 8G). Follow the instructions in verygreen's "Size Agnostic..." OP to the letter. Re-download all the files as you may have a corrupted one. Make sure to check MD5 this time. Try using Win32diskimager instead, the 0.1 version works better.
It should work. Good luck.

ebubar said:
You should run it and register it and setup wifi and everything first. Get the stock software working fine and dandy (its not half bad actually). Then, checkout this guide for installing CM7 onto an SD card:
http://clubnook.com/forum/showthread.php?953-Rooting-Instructions
It has worked for some rooting rookies so far and includes both windows and mac guides specific to SD cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link. I have given this some thought, and it doesn't seem reasonable that booting from an SD card should depend upon the state of registration of the device because the whole idea of booting from an SD card means that the content of the SD card is loaded in the place of the stock software.

robot8 said:
FWIW you do not have to boot into stock B&N at all before you setup and install to CM7 SD card. One of my NCs has never ever booted into stock ROM at all, I installed CM7 onto SD card and running off that from the moment it was unboxed.
The NC will always boot off the SD card first, so if it's booting off eMMC instead then there must be something wrong with the img that you wrote to your SD card.
Make sure that you have a freshly formatted SD card, preferably one with good small random block r/w speeds (eg Sandisk class 4 8G). Follow the instructions in verygreen's "Size Agnostic..." OP to the letter. Re-download all the files as you may have a corrupted one. Make sure to check MD5 this time. Try using Win32diskimager instead, the 0.1 version works better.
It should work. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Yes, I just replied to another poster that I didn't think that the state of registration of the device should matter since the whole purpose of a bootable SD card is to load the contents of the SD in place of the stock.
I have followed the instructions in verygreen's thread to the letter - several times. Also, I have tried to make other bootable SDs without success. But that's a good idea about trying Win32diskimager. Also, I will try a Sandisk class 4 card SD as soon as I can get to a store.
I do have a question. When I format the SD card what "allocation unit size" should I be using? (formatting through Windows) The default is 32 kb.

PROBLEM SOLVED!
Thanks to everyone for trying to help me figure this out. The winning idea belongs to robot8.
When I switched from using WinImage to using Win32diskimager, it worked immediately. I am now running CM7 on my Nook Color! Took forever and a day to boot though.

Congrats!
Re: allocation unit size, do you mean cluster size? Depends on how big the FAT32 partition is --- larger clusters used means more actual space used but too large a size can reduce access speed. Generally Windows defaults to suggested 4k for up to 8GB, 8GB-16GB = 8k, 16-32GB = 16k, and 32+ = 32kb.
Also the first boot is the longest --- shouldn't take as long after that. Welcome to CM7 - I don't regret installing it over stock after waffling for weeks on whether or not I'd use stock at some point -- CM7 is just too much faster with too many more options and tweaks for my impatience to deal with stock Froyo.

THANK YOU OP!
I had the same issue, tried 20x various ways, 2 different computers, 2 different SD readers, and it was WinImage that wasnt working correctly. Win32DiskImager solved it.
Thanks.

JowBe said:
PROBLEM SOLVED!
Thanks to everyone for trying to help me figure this out. The winning idea belongs to robot8.
When I switched from using WinImage to using Win32diskimager, it worked immediately. I am now running CM7 on my Nook Color! Took forever and a day to boot though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much! This finally got it to work for me too. Loving my new Android tablet

FWIW, WinImage does not work. Maybe it used to work, but it does not now. I posted about this a few days ago here.

[Q] Problems with dual boot Phiremod/HC update, expanding sd card etc.

Can anyone help me out with updating the dual boot Phiremod/HC install?
My pc is a Windows 7 64-bit and I'm having absolutely no luck expanding the sd card to use the full 8GB.
Windows 7 and Easeus don't see the partitions, and Gparted does, but won't let me expand to include the free space (listed as unallocated).
I finally managed to mount the sd card via ADB, and have copied the phiremod update zip there, but when I try to install it, I get an error (bad) and after a restart, the file has vanished from the partition.
I'm very new at this, but can usually follow detailed instructions.

Here's what I did to update to 6.3:
Insert SD Card into my computer's card reader
Download EASUS Partition Manager (also using W7 64-bit)
Take the SD Card partition (#6 I believe) and extend it using the unallocated space left (mine was about 6Gb left on my 8Gb card)
Run the job in the partition manager
Throw SD Card and boot into Phiremod 6.2
connect to computer via USB and copy the 6.3 update to the SD Card
reboot in recovery, clear cache and dalvik cache (under advanced)
flash the 6.3 update zip
Mine hung at the android... screen for about 10min then I did a hard reboot and it fired up and has been working fine.
I was getting gmail force closes until I wiped cache and dalvik cache so I added that step in before flashing.
Let me know how it goes!

Ummm.... yeah, what he said above.
Thanks "toosurreal01"
It's great when a community like this helps each other out.
-Racks

toosurreal01 said:
Here's what I did to update to 6.3:
Insert SD Card into my computer's card reader
Download EASUS Partition Manager (also using W7 64-bit)
Take the SD Card partition (#6 I believe) and extend it using the unallocated space left (mine was about 6Gb left on my 8Gb card)
Let me know how it goes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the step by step instructions, but for me the buck stops at trying to extend the partition. Easus only sees the boot partition. Gparted shows all the partitions, but won't extend the sd partition. It looks like it should work (lets me drag the extender thingy), but when I apply the action, it reverts back to the original, with no error message. Just doesn't do it.
Should I start over and reformat the card?

It wouldn't hurt. Only thing you would lose are apps you've installed.
You could always use Titanium Backup for that though.
If you do reformat make sure you do a full format and not a "quick" one so no data is still lingering on the card.
Let us know how it goes!

siskiou said:
Thanks for the step by step instructions, but for me the buck stops at trying to extend the partition. Easus only sees the boot partition. Gparted shows all the partitions, but won't extend the sd partition. It looks like it should work (lets me drag the extender thingy), but when I apply the action, it reverts back to the original, with no error message. Just doesn't do it.
Should I start over and reformat the card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a shot in the dark. But did you unmount the partitions first before applyin your changes in EAsus?

racks11479 said:
Just a shot in the dark. But did you unmount the partitions first before applyin your changes in EAsus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, no, I don't think so.
How would I do that? Card in Nook, or in PC?
Again, Easus only shows the boot partition, and nothing else.

siskiou said:
Hm, no, I don't think so.
How would I do that? Card in Nook, or in PC?
Again, Easus only shows the boot partition, and nothing else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant gparted. Sorry. Did u unmount the partition before attempting to extend it?
And when doing so. Please don't do it while card is in nook. Only when its in PC directly with a nmicrosd card reader
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

racks11479 said:
I meant gparted. Sorry. Did u unmount the partition before attempting to extend it?
And when doing so. Please don't do it while card is in nook. Only when its in PC directly with a nmicrosd card reader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, do I need a usb micro sd card reader?
I only have a regular size sd card adapter for it.
And no, I didn't unmount the partition. I checked earlier, but there is no such option in the gparted menu, and I don't have much advanced partitioning knowledge.
A google search didn't help much.
Would appreciate if you could tell me how to do this!

siskiou said:
Ah, do I need a usb micro sd card reader?
I only have a regular size sd card adapter for it.
And no, I didn't unmount the partition. I checked earlier, but there is no such option in the gparted menu, and I don't have much advanced partitioning knowledge.
A google search didn't help much.
Would appreciate if you could tell me how to do this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is preferred to use a micro sdcard reader. I assume you are using a Linux box or live CD with gparted. But there should definitely be a n option for you to unmount the partition. You will not be able to make any changes to mounted partitions.
Right click over the partition that you want to work with. It should give you a menu. And unmount should be one of the options.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

racks11479 said:
Right click over the partition that you want to work with. It should give you a menu. And unmount should be one of the options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all your help!
I'm using a live cd on a Win 7 pc, and there is definitely no unmount option in the right click menu when I boot into gparted. Not even a greyed out one.
I'll try and burn another cd and see if that changes things.

siskiou said:
Thanks for all your help!
I'm using a live cd on a Win 7 pc, and there is definitely no unmount option in the right click menu when I boot into gparted. Not even a greyed out one.
I'll try and burn another cd and see if that changes things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is very strange. There should always be an umoint option for partitions if gparyed recoginizes the drive. Hmmmm.... which version of Ubuntu are you using?
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

I downloaded the Gparted live version 0.8.1-3.iso.

siskiou said:
I downloaded the Gparted live version 0.8.1-3.iso.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. Then there shouldn't be an issue. :/
It might just be an issue with your card reader.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

Thanks again. I'll report back in once I get a usb card reader!

racks11479 said:
It might just be an issue with your card reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got a card reader and Easeus and Win 7 Disk Management can now see all the partitions.
No luck expanding the sd partition, though. The action seems to happen, but then everything reverts back to what it was originally.
No mount/unmount option anywhere to be found, not with Easeus, nor with Gparted or Win 7.
I'm out of ideas at this point and will reformat the card and start over.
Edited to add: Aaand I'm now having trouble doing *that*, too.
Tried it on the pc: no go.
Tried it on the Nook: it claimed the card was sucessfully formatted in about 1 sec, and then got stuck on that notice.
Waited 5 minutes, still stuck. Turned it off and back on, and Nook booted into Phiremod.
Any ideas how I can reformat this demon card?
Edited to add: Am now using a low level formatting tool and get "format error occurred at offset ...". The program is still running and seems to be formatting the rest of the card.
Does this sound like the sd card is damaged?

A couple other options for you to try:
SD Formatter 3.0 - Made specifically to format SD cards - http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
Partition Wizard - This is the software I used to extend the SD Card partition. Really simple to use - http://download.cnet.com/Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition/3000-2094_4-10962200.html?tag=mncol;7
I would try formatting the SD card, reinstalling the dualboot image, the using Partition Wizard to extend the SD card partition.
As far as updating, I haven't tried the newest update the when I updated from 6.1 to 6.2 I plugged my Nook into my computer, dropped the update file onto the Nook's internal memory, then moved it to the SD card with the Root Explorer app.
Hope any of that helps. Good luck!

kwyrt said:
A couple other options for you to try:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I will give those a try, since everything was still on the card after the low level format.
Who knew that reformatting would be such a problem!
Did you have to unmount the sd partition, before extending it?

I extended the partition with Partition Wizard immediately after burning the dual boot image. Never messed with mounting or unmounting anything. I'm a little new to this myself really. Why would you need to mount the SD card partition?

I didn't think I had to, but racks11479 mentioned it as a possible solution in this thread, so I thought I'd ask.
None of the programs had any success in reformatting my card, so I returned it to the store and got a replacement.
Now I'm very ambivalent about trying again and possibly messing up another card.
Can anyone here think of anything that I might have done (or should have done) to cause the card to act this way?
And if anyone feels like posting a baby step guide for someone like me, I'd very much appreciate it!
Edited to add: I just found the following
*********
It also will produce a multi partition removable disk for which windows will not allow you to re-partition. If you want to get back to "normal" disk you can reformat it with Hewlett-Packard Company's HPUSBFW.exe
***********
Also, I used an old 2GB card to reformat my NC (went fabulously easy) and then reformatted that and tried a CM7 rom, which worked, but was way too slow. This reformatted again, without any problems, so I'm not sure if the above statement (regarding bootable sd cards) is correct or not.
And if anyone feels like posting a baby step guide for someone like me, I'd very much appreciate it!

[Q] [CWM 3.2.0.1] can't boot from MicroSD card (Nook Color)

Problem: ClockworkMod not booting from MicroSD card
What I'm trying to do: Dual-boot CyanogenMod 7 with the stock Nook Color with Cyanogen 7 on a MicroSD card, but without rooting the Nook Color.
What I've done so far:
1. Downloaded ClockworkMod 3.2.0.1 from download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-3.2.0.1-encore.img
2. Downloaded Win32DiskImager from launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/trunk/0.3/+download/win32diskimager-RELEASE-0.3-r27-binary.zip
3. Using Win32DiskImager, flashed ClockworkMod onto the MicroSD card.
4. Ejected MicroSD card.
5. Inserted MicroSD card into Nook Color (which is turned off)
6. Connected Nook Color to PC via USB cable
7. Powered on Nook Color
8. Watched as standard Nook Color boots. Nothing at all displays related to ClockworkMod.
Other troubleshooting thus far
a. I've gone back to step 3, used Windows 7 to just format the SD card to ensure it was blank, and then started with Step 3 again.
b. I've ensured the MicroSD card is set properly into the Nook Color.
c. I've tried holding down the power key on the Nook Color (no effect).
d. Searched these forums via its Search function, and searched via Google (most references use ClockworkMod 3.0.2.8, which a few posts mention does not work on the "blue dot" version of Nook Color.
Misc:
MicroSD card: SanDisk Type-2 4GB
Nook Color (the "blue-dot" version that starts with a 1GB partition for side-loading)
PC: Windows 7 64-bit, built-in SD card reader/writer
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Ynglaur said:
Problem: ClockworkMod not booting from MicroSD card
What I'm trying to do: Dual-boot CyanogenMod 7 with the stock Nook Color with Cyanogen 7 on a MicroSD card, but without rooting the Nook Color.
--- SNIP ---
Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If all you're trying to do is setup a bootable SD card with CM7 on it, and retain the ability to also boot to the stock Nook ROM, try this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000957

Based on "What I'm trying to do" and "What I've done so far", you are heading to the completely wrong direction.
A good thing is you had not been able to get into CwM Recovery, otherwise, you made a mess of your NC.
Just stop "what you've done so far" and follow the link that shumash provided above.

shumash said:
If all you're trying to do is setup a bootable SD card with CM7 on it, and retain the ability to also boot to the stock Nook ROM, try this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000957
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, you don't need clockwork mod for an SD card install. Follow the directions in my signature (adds some details that verygreen leaves out).

Installing image for CM7
I have a nook color that was purchased just a week ago and had 1.4.0 firmware on it. I had updated it to 1.4.1 before noticing that this particular firmware blocked the nook from being hacked. I had read in one of the threads how to revert back to 1.4.0, adding acclaim.zip file to the sd card would do the trick. I tried this and when my nook went to sleep, nothing. I ended up using the nook-complete-restore-1.0.1.zip with a clockworkmod recovery file and followed steps provided in other threads. Then I was stuck at the "n" screen and could not get any further. With an additional 8 Factory resets and doing the complete restore a second time I was able to get back to what I believe is factory. The difference is, out of the box I had 1.4.0 and now I have 1.3.0. I believe this is fine.
I am wanting to put CM7 with google apps on my nook. I have read a thread that suggested putting an agnostic size image file and when used, my 16gb sd card went down to >200 mb. What is a good image file to use for my card or what am I doing wrong? I am using Win32DiskImager to write my images. I have tried generic-sdcard.img for both 1.1 and 1.3 and the above still happens. I loose over 14gb of space.
I have downloaded the following to use once I have figured out what image to use. update-cm-7.1.0-encore-signed.zip for my CM7 and gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip for my google apps.
Thanks for all the hard work that is put into making our nook experience the best!!!

dhed73 said:
[...] The difference is, out of the box I had 1.4.0 and now I have 1.3.0. I believe this is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're installing CM anyhow, the version of B&N running is not important, correct.
I am wanting to put CM7 with google apps on my nook. I have read a thread that suggested putting an agnostic size image file and when used, my 16gb sd card went down to >200 mb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Going by that name, you were doing a CM install to SD. If you'd completed that process, it would have made use of the rest of your SD card.
What is a good image file to use for my card or what am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you trying to:
1. Root stock (doesn't sound like it)
2. Install CM to SD for dual boot
3. Install CM to eMMC
I have downloaded the following to use once I have figured out what image to use. update-cm-7.1.0-encore-signed.zip for my CM7 and gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip for my google apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to check out CM 7.2 RC0 Mirage (search here). It incorporated all of the fixes and some optimizations up through CM n253.

I am wanting to install CM to SD for dual boot. I have completed the process for adding the image to my card. The problem is that, after adding the image I now have 115mb on my 16gb card. If, I go ahead and install to my SD card will the space on the card be opened up or do I have to do something else?

dhed73 said:
I am wanting to install CM to SD for dual boot. I have completed the process for adding the image to my card. The problem is that, after adding the image I now have 115mb on my 16gb card. If, I go ahead and install to my SD card will the space on the card be opened up or do I have to do something else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're getting that 115mb number from your PC card reader on Windows, that's misleading because that's just the size of the boot partition. There are other partitions on the card that take up space and are formatted to be used by CM7. Boot into CM7 on the SD card and see how much space you've got on the /sdcard partition. It should be many gb.
To see how the card is partitioned and the sizes in Windows, get Easeus Partition Master. It's free. If the last partition (the 4th) isn't fully allocated, use Easeus to do it. Don't resize any of the other partitions until you really know what you're doing.

shumash said:
If you're getting that 115mb number from your PC card reader on Windows, that's misleading because that's just the size of the boot partition. There are other partitions on the card that take up space and are formatted to be used by CM7. Boot into CM7 on the SD card and see how much space you've got on the /sdcard partition. It should be many gb.
To see how the card is partitioned and the sizes in Windows, get Easeus Partition Master. It's free. If the last partition (the 4th) isn't fully allocated, use Easeus to do it. Don't resize any of the other partitions until you really know what you're doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a issue with downloading cm7 on a sd card ive followed all the steps and boot it and it downloads and restarts and seems to be working but the touch screen isnt working. My nook is version 1.3 any help would be appreciated.

lesdavid said:
I have a issue with downloading cm7 on a sd card ive followed all the steps and boot it and it downloads and restarts and seems to be working but the touch screen isnt working. My nook is version 1.3 any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem when I had to restore my nook color. I ran the program, in my case the nook system restore file, a second time. After I had done this, my touch screen was back working.
---------- Post added at 07:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:48 PM ----------
shumash said:
If you're getting that 115mb number from your PC card reader on Windows, that's misleading because that's just the size of the boot partition. There are other partitions on the card that take up space and are formatted to be used by CM7. Boot into CM7 on the SD card and see how much space you've got on the /sdcard partition. It should be many gb.
To see how the card is partitioned and the sizes in Windows, get Easeus Partition Master. It's free. If the last partition (the 4th) isn't fully allocated, use Easeus to do it. Don't resize any of the other partitions until you really know what you're doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
shumash,
Thanks..... after downloading the easeus partition file I found that you were correct and I had 14gb left over. I had a hard time booting into recovery for the google app file but, it finally happened. I am up and running and want to thank everyone for the help.

gallahad2000 said:
Agreed, you don't need clockwork mod for an SD card install. Follow the directions in my signature (adds some details that verygreen leaves out).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks. The instructions in your signature worked perfectly. Just curious: is there a freeware image-making software app that doesn't expire after 30 days?

[Q] External SD - Tab no see it.....SOLUTION FOUND SEE OP

UPDATE well it looks as though I have found a solution to my woes. I made several attempts of formatting the 2gb card in my laptop to no avail. I tried my old captivate that it originally came out of and the cappy had troubles reading it. I then stuck it in my evo and it registered instant, so I did asdcard format on my evo and then finally the tablet registers the card. In case this helps anyone else
First off someone please enlighten me on the tabs use and the way it mounts the external SD, I read somewhere that it only uses it for media files such as music books and pics. I have an 8GB that belongs in my EVO, and a 2gb that I had for my captivate I was hoping to use in my Tab for now.
Here's my story, maybe someone can shed a little light here: My tab was purchased with Stock 3.1, I was getting annoyed by the constant update request so I went ahead and rooted and installed CWM without incident, then I decided to install the Stock rooted update from here, however when I insert my SD cards they say they are unavailable. So I stick my 2gb in my laptop format to fat32 (should this be different?, typically it works in every other device I own) It still won't read, I did exactly as others point out in other threads but still I am stumped as to how the card is made available to the OS ? Now in a fit of frustration I pulled my 8gb out of my evo put the 2gb in and wham there it is, I put the 3.2 download on the 8gb popped it in tab entered CWM and flashed the update, I don't know if the 2gb is mountable in CWM I will try tonight but the 8gb was mountable through CWM however my 8gb also was not available to Android even after the update.
So what the heck is the use of the external SD and how is it used?

I think you might have an issue with your ROM,
I use my external SD for my titanium backups and other files I want to keep portable. I have used the SD card through my PC via USB and directly by putting into the PC's card reader.
Have you tried using a file manager? I use File Manager HD and the external card shows up as Storage on the left bar.
As for the filesystem, I think I may have originally formatted as FAT but I have also pulled my SD out of my Blackberry and used it to install Honeylicious through CWM,
All in all I dont think you should be having the issues that you are having...
Good luck

If it won't mount in CWM you need to format it in your android phone, that fixed it for me. Once it is formatted correctly you'll see a notification that an SD card is installed. Also my PC wouldn't see it until I put a custom rom on. Also to store items on it you can use a file manager to move things to and from it.
~Sent from my Droid SuperCharge~

>DARKMAN< said:
If it won't mount in CWM you need to format it in your android phone, that fixed it for me. Once it is formatted correctly you'll see a notification that an SD card is installed. Also my PC wouldn't see it until I put a custom rom on. Also to store items on it you can use a file manager to move things to and from it.
~Sent from my Droid SuperCharge~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 8gb card did mount in CWM but would not mount in the OS, or when it would I would get it was unavailable or sometimes even empy when I know there is only about 1 gb free space, I did not test the 2gb in CWM mainly because it was late and I needed to go to bed, but I will try tonight. The 8gb is the one I updated to rooted 3.2 with, I still need to go to 3.2.1 ? Is there a rooted Stock 3.2.1 floating around I really havent looked much into it yet

I have noticed that getting the iconia to read some sd cards is like tossing dice..Most people who have this issue says one card works perfect in every device but not in the iconia.. Some say the card will work sometimes and not others .. Some say the card works in cwm and not with file manager..
The issue here i think is that you have two CARDS THAT ARE FUSSY ABOUT mating with the iconia. OR Your rom .i would read the threads in the rom you are using.. IF still nothing that sounds like your issue ask the DEV about this.. If STILL No luck you can either try to buy a new diffrent card or flash a new rom to try and Diag. this issue..
Good luck..

Silly question
Is your microSD formatted FAT32?
If it is anything else, your unit may have trouble reading it depending on what ROM you are using - Not all ROM's are capable of reading NTFS or other file systems.
Sometimes, microSD's freak out as well, and the only way to get it back to normal is to format it in a Symbian phone (Nokia)
Also, make sure you are using the correct mount point for the card - /mnt/external_sd - Root Explorer and other apps like it can get there.
Other than that, you may just have a bad microSD, I have had many of them die for seemingly no reason.

Help Rooting My new nook color 1.4.1

Hello XDA fourms, i have just today bought a nook color. I have been researching rooting it so i can read my manga and comics on it. I have decided to root it through a micro sd 4gb card so that if i want to use my nook regularly i can. now the problem is i can not understand half the things people say to do to achieve rooting my Nook color. can any one help me or redirect me to an easy place to teach me how to do this?

That's exactly how I started out. You can find instructions on the "[ROM][CM7] [v1.3] Size-agnostic SD Card image and CM7 installer for SD Cards." thread in the "Nook Color Android Development" forum. I'm no Android expert, being more a console Linux & C/Forth kind of guy, but it worked for me.
Since I spent most of my time in stock and only had a few apps I actually used on the card, I ended up rooting the stock nook with a manual nooter to install those apps in the Nook Color stock home page ... but using the SD card install for a month was quite useful in working out whether I wanted to root the stock B&N firmware or install a CM7 firmware instead.

ok so i tried to make an sd card out of my 4 gb but it didnt work so i decided to reformate it and now it only has 117 mb! wth? im so confused...

Tom32090 said:
ok so i tried to make an sd card out of my 4 gb but it didnt work so i decided to reformate it and now it only has 117 mb! wth? im so confused...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when you write the image to the SD card the partition is 117mbs. windows can only see that partition (there is actually 4 on the card after the image is written) that's why when you hit reformat it reformatted it to 117mbs. boot your nook up into stock form with the SD card in it, then go into your settings and hit "unmount SD card" then hit "reformat". That'll get you back to 4gbs.

ok great! ill try that thank you very much! but now how do i get it rooted?

If you "want to root it through a micro sd 4gb card so that if i want to use my nook regularly i can" ... you aren't really rooting the device, you are just making an SD card that will boot up its own system and leave the stock system in the built-in flash alone. Then if the card is pulled out (or replaced with a non-bootable SD card), the bootloader skips the SD card and boots from the internal flash.
If you are using a Windows box, as nook711 explained, the regular Windows format will not change existing SD partitions, so it will just format one relatively small partition on the SD card. To reformat back to a single clean SD partition on the Windows side, google for Panasonic SDFormatter.
As far as how to get that card to work as an SD-boot card ~ its hard to say, since you didn't say what went wrong the first time you tried it: which imager program did you use? did you power the Nook down all the way before rebooting it? Did it hang, or did it fail to boot and start up as a stock Nook Color?
Unless of course I misread you: if you want to root it using a SD card in a way that allows it to also be used as a regular Nook ~ that is, the third party apps show up in what looks like a regular B&N Home page ~ that is a manual noot you want to do. The instructions for doing a manual noot are in the "[NC][1.2][1.3] ManualNooter 4.6.16" thread. However, those are instructions for a 1.2 or 1.3 version. Instead of using the manualnooter file described in the opening post, skip ahead to page 175, and look for GMPOWER's post #1745. The "LINK" downloads a manualnooter file that seems to work for a stock Nook Color 1.4.1 ~ at least, that's the one I've used and now I have what looks like a stock Nook Color, except with Crackle, Crunchyroll, YouTube, OpenIntents and DolphinMini apps showing up on the B&N home pages.

BruceMcF said:
If you "want to root it through a micro sd 4gb card so that if i want to use my nook regularly i can" ... you aren't really rooting the device, you are just making an SD card that will boot up its own system and leave the stock system in the built-in flash alone. Then if the card is pulled out (or replaced with a non-bootable SD card), the bootloader skips the SD card and boots from the internal flash
If you are using a Windows box, as nook711 explained, the regular Windows format will not change existing SD partitions, so it will just format one relatively small partition on the SD card. To reformat back to a single clean SD partition on the Windows side, google for Panasonic SDFormatter.
As far as how to get that card to work as an SD-boot card ~ its hard to say, since you didn't say what went wrong the first time you tried it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so what happen on my first try was i used winimage to write the genertic sd card file on to it. i than put update-cm-7.1.0-encore-signed.zip on the card. my nook was off and i turned it on. it did not boot from the sd card. i have not tried holding the n button to see if that worked yet. i do have the sd card formatted and i have already formatted the card back to 4 gb. Next i was going to do the same steps but try and hold the n button
update:so i tried the N button but it didnt boot the sd card... i just dont know what im doing wrong!?

if it did not boot from the sdcard then I would suspect that the image did not write to the sdcard correctly. the nook will automatically look at the sdcard boot first.
did you unzip the image file before writing it to the card?
did you write the image as admin in the winimage?
After writing the image to the sdcard remove it from your computer and then plug it back in the computer, if it wrote correctly it should now say "boot"

"my nook was off and i turned it on. it did not boot from the sd card"
It only boots if it is turned on from a powerdown. If it just went to sleep to save the battery, and a quick tap of the power button can wake it up, its not powered down, its only sleeping.
When its awake, hold the power button, wait for the "do you want to turn it off completely" dialog, keep holding the power button, and it will turn off. That is a complete power down. Then put in the bootable SD-card, and hold the power button until it turns on ~ it ought to boot off the card instead of off the Nook internal flash.
Like any Android device, it will take a while to go from the boot screen to the home screen on the first power-up, but you'll see the skaterboy droid in a couple of minutes and know that its grinding through the process of setting up the CM7 system.
And regarding the CM7 update file ~ looking in my PC file system, that's the same CM7 update file I used.

nook711 said:
After writing the image to the sdcard remove it from your computer and then plug it back in the computer, if it wrote correctly it should now say "boot"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it does say "boot" but it still does not work
BruceMcF said:
"my nook was off and i turned it on. it did not boot from the sd card"
It only boots if it is turned on from a powerdown. If it just went to sleep to save the battery, and a quick tap of the power button can wake it up, its not powered down, its only sleeping.
When its awake, hold the power button, wait for the "do you want to turn it off completely" dialog, keep holding the power button, and it will turn off. That is a complete power down. Then put in the bootable SD-card, and hold the power button until it turns on ~ it ought to boot off the card instead of off the Nook internal flash.
Like any Android device, it will take a while to go from the boot screen to the home screen on the first power-up, but you'll see the skaterboy droid in a couple of minutes and know that its grinding through the process of setting up the CM7 system.
And regarding the CM7 update file ~ looking in my PC file system, that's the same CM7 update file I used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i did shut it off and than turned it on but is still does not work?

i have also been looking at video on youtube. but every single one tells me something different. so far the one i found that seems to be the closest to what im trying to do is this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4nenR-mNo0 but even so i feel like the more i watch the more confused i get

There are only three things that come to my mind:
(1) What is the make and class of the microSD card? That's not from personal experience, but it shows up in multiple HowTo guides, both here and on other sites. I used a Kingston Class 4 8gb microSD card, but the preference seems to be for SanDisk Class 4.
(2) A generic image is likely to work best if its written onto a "like new" fully formatted SD card ~ I have seen a few YouTube clips of various rooting efforts where formatting it with the Panasonic SDFormatter Windows executable succeeded after the prior effort had failed.
Edit: the YouTube clip you posted is the first one where I saw advice to use the Panasonic SDFormatter. However, other than that, I mostly followed the xda How-To.
I'd note that even though the the CrashTechDummies YouTube clip is from April, 2011, they are using a HowTo guide for a image that is older than the "size-agnostic" image in the "Size-agnostic" How To guide, so they have to do several things by hand that are handled automatically by the "Size-agnostic" image.
(3) What is your hardware for writing SD images? USB-port card writers sometimes need to be safe-unmounted with the USB unmount tool before popped out. I've run into that before in a different context.
If its not one of those, then I got nothing, sorry. The part between copying the CM7 file onto the generic image and seeing the CM7 droid skaterboy "just worked" for me.

BruceMcF said:
There are only three things that come to my mind:
(1) What is the make and class of the microSD card? That's not from personal experience, but it shows up in multiple HowTo guides, both here and on other sites. I used a Kingston Class 4 8gb microSD card, but the preference seems to be for SanDisk Class 4.
(2) A generic image is likely to work best if its written onto a "like new" fully formatted SD card ~ I have seen a few YouTube clips of various rooting efforts where formatting it with the Panasonic SDFormatter Windows executable succeeded after the prior effort had failed.
(3) What is your hardware for writing SD images? USB-port card writers sometimes need to be safe-unmounted with the USB unmount tool before popped out. I've run into that before in a different context.
If its not one of those, then I got nothing, sorry. The part between copying the CM7 file onto the generic image and seeing the CM7 droid skaterboy "just worked" for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok i reformatted it with Panasonic reformat and i am using a 4 gbsandisk micro sd and it has a 2 with a circle around it

Tom32090 said:
i have also been looking at video on youtube. but every single one tells me something different. so far the one i found that seems to be the closest to what im trying to do is this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4nenR-mNo0 but even so i feel like the more i watch the more confused i get
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there's lots of ways to get to the end result, don't get confused we will help you through the process.
Now that being said:
This was my process
* reformat your SD card again using the stock nook
* download "windisk32 image writer" (easier I think then winimage)
* download "verygreens, genenric 1.3image.zip"
* unzip the image.zip to your desktop (using 7zip)
* open windisk32, click the blue folder and find the image file on your desktop for generic 1.3
* select your corresponding drive to your sdcard hit write
*when finished remove sdcard and reinsert it into computer
* download (cm7.1 or cm7.2)
* open up " my computer" on windows
* drag "cm7.1 or 7.2" to the corresponding drive for sdcard (should say boot)
* when finished right click hit eject when safe to do so remove sdcard
* insert sdcard into fully powered down nook
* turn nook on (after a few it should go to a little Linux penguin) and install scripts should be running
* when it's done it'll power off
* wait a few minutes and turn the nook on, should boot into cm7 but first you should see the android riding a skateboard.
*while that's working download the gapps file
after you set up cm7 for the first time, shut it down.
* remove sdcard and reinsert it into your computer
* open up "my computer" and drag the gapps file to the sdcard drive
* when finished hit eject and reinsert the card into the nook and while holding the "n" power up the nook (should see the little Linux penguin again)
* when its finished it should power down againbthen just turn it on and set up Google
hope this helps
** again this is just what works for me and I have successfully done several different nook for friends, family and myself.

uh is there any way you could supply some links ? i mean i think i have alot of these things but iv been gathering it from doing reaserch so i justwant to make sure i have the right files

Tom32090 said:
uh is there any way you could supply some links ? i mean i think i have alot of these things but iv been gathering it from doing reaserch so i justwant to make sure i have the right files
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
verygreens image:
forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12240928&postcount=1
windisk32:
www.askvg.com/win32-disk-imager-write-any-bootable-image-to-usb-drive-in-windows/
7zip:
download.cnet.com/7-Zip/3000-2250_4-10045185.html

nook711 said:
there's lots of ways to get to the end result, don't get confused we will help you through the process.
Now that being said:
This was my process
x reformat your SD card again using the stock nook
x download "windisk32 image writer" (easier I think then winimage)
xdownload "verygreens, genenric 1.3image.zip"
xunzip the image.zip to your desktop (using 7zip)
xopen windisk32, click the blue folder and find the image file on your desktop for generic 1.3
xselect your corresponding drive to your sdcard hit write
xwhen finished remove sdcard and reinsert it into computer
x download (cm7.1 or cm7.2)
x open up " my computer" on windows
xdrag "cm7.1 or 7.2" to the corresponding drive for sdcard (should say boot)
xwhen finished right click hit eject when safe to do so remove sdcard
xinsert sdcard into fully powered down nook
xturn nook on (after a few it should go to a little Linux penguin) and install scripts should be running
x when it's done it'll power off
* wait a few minutes and turn the nook on, should boot into cm7 but first you should see the android riding a skateboard.
*while that's working download the gapps file
after you set up cm7 for the first time, shut it down.
* remove sdcard and reinsert it into your computer
* open up "my computer" and drag the gapps file to the sdcard drive
* when finished hit eject and reinsert the card into the nook and while holding the "n" power up the nook (should see the little Linux penguin again)
* when its finished it should power down againbthen just turn it on and set up Google
hope this helps
** again this is just what works for me and I have successfully done several different nook for friends, family and myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so i have gotten up to the part where it shutdown and i have no restarted it yet. I downloaded the gapps and now i have another question. if i want to open up the memory on the sd card that isnt being used willl it mess anything up? the video talks about using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.2 and i just dont want to mess up anything iv already down

Tom32090 said:
Ok so i have gotten up to the part where it shutdown and i have no restarted it yet. I downloaded the gapps and now i have another question. if i want to open up the memory on the sd card that isnt being used willl it mess anything up? the video talks about using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.2 and i just dont want to mess up anything iv already down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the unseen portion of the sdcard in windows will be seen in your nook

nook711 said:
the unseen portion of the sdcard in windows will be seen in your nook
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok so if i want to put thing on the card how would i do it? would my computer pick up the unused memory?

Tom32090 said:
ok so if i want to put thing on the card how would i do it? would my computer pick up the unused memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can use the nook as a mass USB storage device. while on the nook plug the cord into your nook and then the USB side into your computer. the computer should pick it up as USB mass storage and show 2 drives, 1 for nook color and the other for sdcard. once connected you can put whatever you want on it.