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] Migrating SD install to larger card

I am currently running CM7 on a 16gb microSD card and recently bought a 32gb card.
What is the best way to move the install to the new card without doing everything from scratch?
I assume it is possible to write an image of the 16gb card, write that image file to the 32gb card and then extend the last partition to use up the remaining free space but how would I do that exactly?
I tried to create the image using Win32DiskImager but the app froze (maybe because I was using Windows7 64bit OS?).

hramosnook said:
I am currently running CM7 on a 16gb microSD card and recently bought a 32gb card.
What is the best way to move the install to the new card without doing everything from scratch?
I assume it is possible to write an image of the 16gb card, write that image file to the 32gb card and then extend the last partition to use up the remaining free space but how would I do that exactly?
I tried to create the image using Win32DiskImager but the app froze (maybe because I was using Windows7 64bit OS?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not just windows, cuz i have the same setup. You might try a different version of win32DiskImager, and make sure every windows explorer window is closed.
Also ive heard that it becomes less stable (is that the right word???) What happens is that the random read/write speeds become kinda wonky... but its worth a try
I hope this helps

I have been using USB Image Tool to clone my microSD cards.
http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/
It seems to be more stable than Win32DiskImager.
In order to grow the 16GB partition to fill the new 32GB card I would use Gparted or Parted Magic.

If you have the capability to load 2 sd cards (since my bult in only accepts one card at a time, I use a USB card reader for the second card) I recommend using easus todo bacup software (free) and just copy from one card to the other.
The advantage to this is that you never run into image sizeing problems and you can extend the extra space to full size right in this application.
Hope this helps.

thanks for that...
martian21 said:
I have been using USB Image Tool to clone my microSD cards.
http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/
It seems to be more stable than Win32DiskImager.
In order to grow the 16GB partition to fill the new 32GB card I would use Gparted or Parted Magic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just been searching for a good way to clone for backup, and had found that tool (tab to that page open as I write). So thanks for the confirmation that that tool works. I'll give it a shot.
Win32DiskImager doesn't want to work at all - it reads and writes the image up to a max of 4gb. It says it is still reading and writing, but the image file never goes beyond 4gb. (and no, my file system is not fat32 - it is NTFS).
For backup purposes, it would be nice to have a way of making an img file that is compacted, instead of the full size of the card.
Any ideas?

martian21 said:
I have been using USB Image Tool to clone my microSD cards.
http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/
It seems to be more stable than Win32DiskImager.
In order to grow the 16GB partition to fill the new 32GB card I would use Gparted or Parted Magic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That utility is only seeing the fat32 boot partition
how do I backup/restore all partitions?
note: I can only see the boot partition in Windows but I can see all partitions using Ubuntu

legoverse said:
I've just been searching for a good way to clone for backup, and had found that tool (tab to that page open as I write). So thanks for the confirmation that that tool works. I'll give it a shot.
Win32DiskImager doesn't want to work at all - it reads and writes the image up to a max of 4gb. It says it is still reading and writing, but the image file never goes beyond 4gb. (and no, my file system is not fat32 - it is NTFS).
For backup purposes, it would be nice to have a way of making an img file that is compacted, instead of the full size of the card.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you need version 0.1 of win32diskmanager..its only version that i could get to work to restore images. I also used it to make a image of my data partition. Hooked up nook to system used nook color tools USB connection wizard. had both boot partition and data partition visible in win7. Then I made an image o the data partition. Not sure if this is best way to do it but it worked.

martian21 said:
I have been using USB Image Tool to clone my microSD cards.
http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/
It seems to be more stable than Win32DiskImager.
In order to grow the 16GB partition to fill the new 32GB card I would use Gparted or Parted Magic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was a bit of work...
I did use the USB image tool to clone the drive...
...I did have to close windows explorer to write the data to the new drive (unable to access errors)
Once I wrote the image, I attempted to resize it.
Windows wouldn't do it with native apps or a free partition editor...
Gparted wouldn't do it because the file name "CM7 SDCARD" has a space that gives linux a headache.
So I had to load it up on the windows machine to remove the space from the label...it still wouldn't resize the partition, so back to Ubuntu and Gparted.
That time it worked, and then still in Gparted I made the name CM7 SDCARD again.
Nook is happy, I am happy.

youbecha said:
<snip...>
So I had to load it up on the windows machine to remove the space from the label...it still wouldn't resize the partition, so back to Ubuntu and Gparted.
That time it worked, and then still in Gparted I made the name CM7 SDCARD again.
Nook is happy, I am happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Linux rocks...I wish Windows would just go away.

[Q] Help with partitioning SD Card

Hello first I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that has put time and effort into making the Nookie what it is today....but I have a noob question.
I recently got a 16gb micro SD and can successfully get the 0.6.8 Nookie to run on my nook color, my problems start when I try to "recover" my other 13gb's. Before I get burned and tossed aside I have checked
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=922324&page=92
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=883175&highlight=partition&page=103
and about 5 other pages and they all say the same thing..use EASEUS, grab the slide bar and voila. It appears to work but when I install it in the NC it either becomes very unstable or just boots to the NC as if the SD card was not there.
Anyone have any ideas?

Jeep_Lover said:
Hello first I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that has put time and effort into making the Nookie what it is today....but I have a noob question.
I recently got a 16gb micro SD and can successfully get the 0.6.8 Nookie to run on my nook color, my problems start when I try to "recover" my other 13gb's. Before I get burned and tossed aside I have checked
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=922324&page=92
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=883175&highlight=partition&page=103
and about 5 other pages and they all say the same thing..use EASEUS, grab the slide bar and voila. It appears to work but when I install it in the NC it either becomes very unstable or just boots to the NC as if the SD card was not there.
Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Lexar Bootit ....a free utility...to format and flip the bit that says its a removeable drive, then your windows pc drive management can see and format it as full capacity fat32.

Hey thanks for the tip, unfortunately it won't work. I forgot to mention that I followed this tutorial ..... and updated my driver (saved my original Windows just in case) to a hitachi driver and now I can switch my SD memory card forth "removable" to "logical" and back when needed. Once I get it as a logical drive I was EASEUS to increase the size of partition 4 (SD Card)..but again no dice!!!
Seeing that I am a noob I can't post the link to the tutorial but I'll say it worked like a charm and when I want to go back to the original I just need to "roll back" the driver.

Well, a couple of things:
Are you using a Sandisk card? Sandisk class 2 and 4 cards have been found much more stable than most others for running a ROM from SD, and problems with SD installs often go back to the card.
Any particular reason you went with Nookie Froyo? It has pretty much fallen out of use since the NC's stock OS was updated to Froyo in May. If you want an SD install, there's a simpler, size-agnostic method for CM7, which is also a more robust and capable OS and a more advanced version of Android (Gingerbread 2.3.4 rather than Froyo 2.2). I would recommend CM7.1 RC1, or if you're adventurous, Nightly 136.

Taosaur said:
Well, a couple of things:
Are you using a Sandisk card? Sandisk class 2 and 4 cards have been found much more stable than most others for running a ROM from SD, and problems with SD installs often go back to the card.
Any particular reason you went with Nookie Froyo? It has pretty much fallen out of use since the NC's stock OS was updated to Froyo in May. If you want an SD install, there's a simpler, size-agnostic method for CM7, which is also a more robust and capable OS and a more advanced version of Android (Gingerbread 2.3.4 rather than Froyo 2.2). I would recommend CM7.1 RC1, or if you're adventurous, Nightly 136.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info unfortunately I am using a 16gb PNY, class 4 and at $15 I couldn't pass it up...looks like I should have done some more reading first. Really I have no clue why I am using the Nookie, my wife said said that was the one she wanted. I think she just likes saying "Nookie", but I'll give the CM7 a go and see what trouble I can get into.
thanks again...

Taosaur...I was able to get the CM7 mod up and running in no time flat. Now the wife wants me to see if I can get bluetooth working.

You said "I was able to get the CM7 mod up and running ...." so I assume you got your problem fixed. That's good.
About bluetooth.
1. Turn off Wifi
2. Power off NC
3. Power on NC
4. Turn on bluetooth
5. Turn on wifi

votinh said:
You said "I was able to get the CM7 mod up and running ...." so I assume you got your problem fixed. That's good.
About bluetooth.
1. Turn off Wifi
2. Power off NC
3. Power on NC
4. Turn on bluetooth
5. Turn on wifi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I had to do the above the first time I turned on bluetooth, but haven't had any trouble toggling it on and off since then. Just open notifications (that broken-circle-and-arrow button on the status bar) and you have toggles there for Wifi, bluetooth, and a couple other things.

@ Taosaur,
I've seen your signature indicate you are running nb136, any change or improvement (both slightly and/or significant) over the previous ones?

Jeep_Lover said:
Thanks for the info unfortunately I am using a 16gb PNY, class 4 and at $15 I couldn't pass it up...looks like I should have done some more reading first. Really I have no clue why I am using the Nookie, my wife said said that was the one she wanted. I think she just likes saying "Nookie", but I'll give the CM7 a go and see what trouble I can get into.
thanks again...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn! My wife never says "nookie".

votinh said:
@ Taosaur,
I've seen your signature indicate you are running nb136, any change or improvement (both slightly and/or significant) over the previous ones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't done much but read and browse a little since I flashed it, but I haven't noticed any difference from 7.1 RC1, which wasn't really any different from Nightly 102 I had before that. I mostly just flashed this time for the integrated OC/Tweaks kernel, without the video/lag problems that were reported in 132-134.

Thanks for an update, m8

maybe someone can help me, i'm about to loose my mind here trying to figure this out. i'm using a Sandisk class 4 16gb card running CM7 with the OC kernal.Did all of this using the size agnostic install method. everything is working fine but i can't for the life of me figure out how to access the rest of the space on my SD, when i insert the sd card into my PC it just shows up as the 115mb partition. i've tried using EASeus, the lexar bootit, and some other partition tool with no luck. with Easeus i select the 13gb FAT32 partition and make it active and thats it right? does it need to be logical? and which partition am i resizing?

Dr. Light said:
maybe someone can help me, i'm about to loose my mind here trying to figure this out. i'm using a Sandisk class 4 16gb card running CM7 with the OC kernal.Did all of this using the size agnostic install method. everything is working fine but i can't for the life of me figure out how to access the rest of the space on my SD, when i insert the sd card into my PC it just shows up as the 115mb partition. i've tried using EASeus, the lexar bootit, and some other partition tool with no luck. with Easeus i select the 13gb FAT32 partition and make it active and thats it right? does it need to be logical? and which partition am i resizing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None of the above. Windows will only recognize the first partition on a SD card, and when you make a SD bootable, that first partition will be the boot partition. To access the larger storage partition, connect your NC with CM7 running to the PC over USB. Open notifications on the NC, tap through "USB connected" to the USB screen, and "Turn on USB storage." Windows will now detect two storage drives, NookColor (the system partition, where apps install) and SDcard (the large storage partition).
The only time you'll want to remove the card from the NC and plug it into your PC is when you want to put on a new cm...zip update file to flash a new ROM.

I used the size agnostic install method with a 16gb PNY calss 4 SD and after all the steps were completed I was showing 13.8gb free for my SD card when I looked at in on the NC. Not believing my eyes I pulled it out and looked at it with EASUS and it showed partition 4 as 13.8gb (utilizing all the cards remaining space). I then downloaded a few things and added a few books for my wife and the space shrank to 13.4gb. As stated above your computer wont show it.
In short have you looked on the NC under "Storage" (I think that is were I found it) and verified you don't have the full capacity already?
Also there is another method I needed to use when I was messing with an earlier version (Nookie) that allowed me to see an SD card as a "Local Device" so windows would let me see all partitions on the hard drive. I can't post a link until I have more posts but email me and I can send you the link if interested.

Taosaur said:
None of the above. Windows will only recognize the first partition on a SD card, and when you make a SD bootable, that first partition will be the boot partition. To access the larger storage partition, connect your NC with CM7 running to the PC over USB. Open notifications on the NC, tap through "USB connected" to the USB screen, and "Turn on USB storage." Windows will now detect two storage drives, NookColor (the system partition, where apps install) and SDcard (the large storage partition).
The only time you'll want to remove the card from the NC and plug it into your PC is when you want to put on a new cm...zip update file to flash a new ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, well that got me some where. i connected nook to PC, turn on storage mode and it shows E/F drive. click either one and it says "Please insert disk into removable disk E/F" so then i turn off debugging and the nook color internal memory pops up as drive F, while clicking on drive E gives me the same error as above. any ideas? btw i'm on Windows 7 64bit, do i need any kind of special drivers or anything?

It is because windows will only allow you to manipulate the first partition on an SD card...even if it "sees" the other partition as another card it will not do anything with it. EASEUS will show you all the partitions on the SD.
The only way I got Windows to see all the partitions and do anything with them was to change my driver via the "Hitachi fix" If you google Hitachi driver SD card you will find it. I used this site and even though it is long it did exactly as advertised and now I install this driver when I need to format just the partition of an SD card and then "roll back" the driver when I'm done. It tricks windows into thinking it is a local device instead of removable. www/1src/com\forums\showthread.php?t=133718
change / to .
\ = /
I can't post a link as I'm still a noob...

Jeep_Lover said:
It is because windows will only allow you to manipulate the first partition on an SD card...even if it "sees" the other partition as another card it will not do anything with it. EASEUS will show you all the partitions on the SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S/he really doesn't need Windows to do anything with those other partitions--I suspect messing with them was where s/he went wrong in the first place.
Dr. Light said:
thanks, well that got me some where. i connected nook to PC, turn on storage mode and it shows E/F drive. click either one and it says "Please insert disk into removable disk E/F" so then i turn off debugging and the nook color internal memory pops up as drive F, while clicking on drive E gives me the same error as above. any ideas? btw i'm on Windows 7 64bit, do i need any kind of special drivers or anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suggest you start over, because you probably damaged your install when you were messing with the partitions earlier. I'm also using Win7x64, and no, I didn't need any special drivers. Delete all partitions except "SDcard" in EASEUS, expand that partition to the whole card, then write verygreen's image to the card again and re-install. At that point, you should be able to access storage over USB from CM7 without turning off debugging or taking any other special steps other than "Turn on USB storage."

Taosaur said:
S/he really doesn't need Windows to do anything with those other partitions--I suspect messing with them was where s/he went wrong in the first place.
I suggest you start over, because you probably damaged your install when you were messing with the partitions earlier. I'm also using Win7x64, and no, I didn't need any special drivers. Delete all partitions except "SDcard" in EASEUS, expand that partition to the whole card, then write verygreen's image to the card again and re-install. At that point, you should be able to access storage over USB from CM7 without turning off debugging or taking any other special steps other than "Turn on USB storage."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
alright i'll give it a shot when i get home from work. is the verygreen image the same one found in the CM7 size agnostic SD thread?
"http://crimea.edu/~green/nook/generic-sdcard-v1.3.img.gz"
and when i delete all partitions except for "SDCARD" do i need to make that partition logical or active or anything?
again thanks for your help.

Dr. Light said:
alright i'll give it a shot when i get home from work. is the verygreen image the same one found in the CM7 size agnostic SD thread?
"http://crimea.edu/~green/nook/generic-sdcard-v1.3.img.gz"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, verygreen is the author of that thread and image.
Dr. Light said:
and when i delete all partitions except for "SDCARD" do i need to make that partition logical or active or anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, in fact you might be able to write the image without messing around in EASEUS at all--I'm just not sure if WinImage (or whatever) would write to the whole card or just one partition. I know if you tried to format it, Windows would only format the boot partition.

[Q] Help w/CM7 sd card install on new NC

Hello, Just got a refurbished NC with version 1.2 (read forever). Works great from stock system, but I'm trying to install CM7 on SanDisk 8gb card via post directions on:
[ROM][CM7] [v1.3] Size-agnostic SD Card image and CM7 installer for SD Cards
I've tried the 2 latest stable updates 7.1.0 and 7.0.3 and everything seems to install fine with the last lines saying "all steps complete...flushing caches...shutting down"
When I restart, it goes to the last 20 or so lines of the install and shuts down again (same messages at the end...all steps etc) I've redownloaded both the green 1.3 installer image and the stable roms. When I tried a "nightly" the install stopped on a line saying "looking for file starting with update..." or something like that and it sat there until I held the power button for a looong time.
I did try searching for a solution but couldn't find one like this problem. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong or not doing? Thanks
One thought...the 8gb card doesn't show what class... it only says Sandisk Micro HC

Are you certain you are dropping the CM7 files on the root of the boot partition on the SD?

You seem to describe doing it right but we need step-by-step how you get it done in order to maybe figure out where the culprit is.
I would suggest RECREATE the bootable uSD first.
Note: redownload the image file if needed.

Thanks for replying. Here's what I've done:
formatted 8gb micro via windows 7
downloaded image installer 1.3 via xda
downloaded winimage
restored sd card from image (generic...)
I saw boot disk w/4 files
downloaded latest stable cm7 and copied directly (zipped)to boot partition on sd
inserted sd in NC
it loaded and started updating for about 60 secs like mentioned above
it automatically shut down
When I restart NC, there is a quick white screen it goes to loading and redoes the last 20-30 lines of update and shuts down again. The lines go by so quick I can't read it (or more accurately remember them)
I've redownloaded both install image and stable updates with same results. When I tried downloading a niightly, the installer stopped midway with last line saying something like...looking for file starting with update...
Any help is appreciated

I have the same device as you (refurb NC 1.2 from the recent dailysteals sale) and did the exact things that you did except use win32diskimager instead of winimage, and it installed the cm7 nightly 240 without any issues. It's only afterward that I ran into trouble, trying to install gapps (read about it here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1332441)
same device, same procedure, different results.

You might want to re-download cm7 zip file... you can use 7-zip or winrar to "Test archive" to see if it is corrupt before copying it to the boot partition of the uSD.

Like jh mentioned, I would give win32diskimager a try, there were many reported of winimage didn't work well.
Search for the win32diskimager, older version is better for some reason, 0.15 or something. If you can't find, let me know, I'll host the file.
Again, redownload all files, make sure no hiccup in the middle of downloading process.
What you did was correct, just to let you know.

Work-around works---next question
update!
I took out the micro 2gb sandisk from my phone and tried it again doing the normal install. It works! So, next question. Can I make an image of the 2gb sd and restore it on the 8gb sd and via some procedure maximize the rest of the sd?
Any ideas why 8gb didn't work in first place? I had done a full format via windows explorer before trying the first time. Even tried formatting via NC and still no luck. The 8gb was being used in my rooted Eris phone with no problems.

By any chance you got the counterfeit one? the 8GB

not counterfeit...I think...because when fully formatted it was 7.4+ gb

Found another 8gb sandisk micro and used it. Worked perfectly. I should have tried that first and saved a whole lot of time and energy! Thanks to all that chimed in with suggestions.

hmthomas said:
Found another 8gb sandisk micro and used it. Worked perfectly. I should have tried that first and saved a whole lot of time and energy! Thanks to all that chimed in with suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to use at least a class 4 card and that still works pretty pokey. I have my nook overclocked and running on internal and it is almost as fast as a stock Atrix
Sent from my NookColor using xda premium

[Q] Having trouble creating bootable sd card

Hi xda, my nook won't boot up at all after I tried to restore to stock from autonooter 1.01. I read as many threads as I could and tried to make a bootable sd from leapinLar's tips page. The stock recovery with cwr and without. I used winimage and win32. With winImage I get an error "reading from file". win32 seems to write the file but it doesn't boot up the nook. When I try and open the sd with windows to see if anything is on the sd it says "not formatted would you like to format it now". I downloaded file, unzipped, then wrote to sd. I must be doing something wrong creating the sd but I can't find any info as to what. Thanks for any help

Stjpa said:
Hi xda, my nook won't boot up at all after I tried to restore to stock from autonooter 1.01. I read as many threads as I could and tried to make a bootable sd from leapinLar's tips page. The stock recovery with cwr and without. I used winimage and win32. With winImage I get an error "reading from file". win32 seems to write the file but it doesn't boot up the nook. When I try and open the sd with windows to see if anything is on the sd it says "not formatted would you like to format it now". I downloaded file, unzipped, then wrote to sd. I must be doing something wrong creating the sd but I can't find any info as to what. Thanks for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you unzipping the right file? You said something about with stock recovery and without. Those are not image files that can be burned. When you unzip my image zip file, you should end up with a 300MB .img file. That is what you burn with win32diskimager. And take the card out of the PC and put it back in before you try to look at it. And be sure to use an external card reader, not one built into your PC.
Sent from my Nook HD+ using Tapatalk

Thanks Leapinlar. I downloaded your nook color emmc stock recovery zip with and without the cwr. I am using external sd reader. I downloaded and tried cwm-6.0.1.2 bootable sd zip and tried that in the nook and nothing happens. Also tried the 5.5.0.4 version too. I removed the card reader and reinserted it in the pc and when I click on the drive letter it ask me if I want to format it. I used win32diskimager and it said write successful, so I put it in the nook and then plugged nook into computer with the stock usb cable and nothing happens. If I hold the power button down the pc does ding as if when you plug in an external device. I'm either trying to burn the wrong file or I'm not making the bootable. Thank you for your help.

Stjpa said:
Thanks Leapinlar. I downloaded your nook color emmc stock recovery zip with and without the cwr. I am using external sd reader. I downloaded and tried cwm-6.0.1.2 bootable sd zip and tried that in the nook and nothing happens. Also tried the 5.5.0.4 version too. I removed the card reader and reinserted it in the pc and when I click on the drive letter it ask me if I want to format it. I used win32diskimager and it said write successful, so I put it in the nook and then plugged nook into computer with the stock usb cable and nothing happens. If I hold the power button down the pc does ding as if when you plug in an external device. I'm either trying to burn the wrong file or I'm not making the bootable. Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't say, but you are unzipping those image files before you burn them, right? Should be 300MB .img file. Other than that just look at my A10 tip in my tips thread and follow exactly.
Sent from my Nook HD+ using Tapatalk

leapinlar said:
You don't say, but you are unzipping those image files before you burn them, right? Should be 300MB .img file. Other than that just look at my A10 tip in my tips thread and follow exactly.
Sent from my Nook HD+ using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I did unzip the image file before I burned it. I ended up finding a cwr zip that was for a 4 gig card, probably an older way of doing it, and that worked for some reason. I did use your stock 1.4.3 zip though and all seems well. Your tips page is great, thank you, you're very helpful now I can play around and brick it again with some other stuff.

Hey guys.
I am somewhat a noob. I bought a brand new 8gb nook color from wallmart on black friday. I heard about how you can put CM onto the sd card and boot from that without altering the device itself. I have tried for HOURS to do this. I have looked up COUNTLESS walk throughs and done everything they say, done alternations, and used different cards ranging from 2gb sandisk (class 1?) to 32 gb sandisk this is a class 4. I've used winimage and burned the image to the card, then dragged over cyanogenmod and done this task in countless different ways. Every time I shut down the nook, put in the card, then re-boot, the nook does NOT boot from the card. It boots normal, then I can actually browse the card after it boots up. I have done it EXACTLY how it says here and read tutorials so its not a question of whether or not I have followed standard proceedure. My firmware version is 1.4.3. Ive searched online to this and to no avail. My sister bought the exact same one at the exact same time and it does not boot the sd either. I have done about 8 straight hours of research on this guys, so I'm no pro but I have a basic understanding of how it works now. My questions are this:
1: Did Barns and Noble put restrictions on the newest nook color or on the newest software version? And if so is there a way around this?
and
2: If NOT, is there an alternate way/installation onto the card that I can do (such as an image pre loaded with CM etc.) that I might be able to try instead of the conventional way?
Thanks guys! Sorry for the uber long post : S

ronin8knight said:
Hey guys.
I am somewhat a noob. I bought a brand new 8gb nook color from wallmart on black friday. I heard about how you can put CM onto the sd card and boot from that without altering the device itself. I have tried for HOURS to do this. I have looked up COUNTLESS walk throughs and done everything they say, done alternations, and used different cards ranging from 2gb sandisk (class 1?) to 32 gb sandisk this is a class 4. I've used winimage and burned the image to the card, then dragged over cyanogenmod and done this task in countless different ways. Every time I shut down the nook, put in the card, then re-boot, the nook does NOT boot from the card. It boots normal, then I can actually browse the card after it boots up. I have done it EXACTLY how it says here and read tutorials so its not a question of whether or not I have followed standard proceedure. My firmware version is 1.4.3. Ive searched online to this and to no avail. My sister bought the exact same one at the exact same time and it does not boot the sd either. I have done about 8 straight hours of research on this guys, so I'm no pro but I have a basic understanding of how it works now. My questions are this:
1: Did Barns and Noble put restrictions on the newest nook color or on the newest software version? And if so is there a way around this?
and
2: If NOT, is there an alternate way/installation onto the card that I can do (such as an image pre loaded with CM etc.) that I might be able to try instead of the conventional way?
Thanks guys! Sorry for the uber long post : S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No nothing was done by B&N. It is how you are burning the card. It will not boot in the nook unless burned perfectly. Look at my tips thread linked in my signature and read items A9 and A10.
There not any easy was not to use a bootable recovery card. Just keep trying, using different software, different cards, different PC s, different card readers.
Sent from my Nook HD+ using Tapatalk

ronin8knight said:
Hey guys.
I am somewhat a noob. I bought a brand new 8gb nook color from wallmart on black friday. I heard about how you can put CM onto the sd card and boot from that without altering the device itself. I have tried for HOURS to do this. I have looked up COUNTLESS walk throughs and done everything they say, done alternations, and used different cards ranging from 2gb sandisk (class 1?) to 32 gb sandisk this is a class 4. I've used winimage and burned the image to the card, then dragged over cyanogenmod and done this task in countless different ways. Every time I shut down the nook, put in the card, then re-boot, the nook does NOT boot from the card. It boots normal, then I can actually browse the card after it boots up. I have done it EXACTLY how it says here and read tutorials so its not a question of whether or not I have followed standard proceedure. My firmware version is 1.4.3. Ive searched online to this and to no avail. My sister bought the exact same one at the exact same time and it does not boot the sd either. I have done about 8 straight hours of research on this guys, so I'm no pro but I have a basic understanding of how it works now. My questions are this:
1: Did Barns and Noble put restrictions on the newest nook color or on the newest software version? And if so is there a way around this?
and
2: If NOT, is there an alternate way/installation onto the card that I can do (such as an image pre loaded with CM etc.) that I might be able to try instead of the conventional way?
Thanks guys! Sorry for the uber long post : S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use win32diskimager instead and use an external card writer. The image is approximately 300mb with the Rev5 file. Then copy the CM10 and 2021011 GApps zips to SD card. Insert in Nook Color. Wait for setup to finish and shut down. Start Nook. Enjoy.