Shift is not shipped with any cd/dvd for system recovery
In case of hard drive crash, how are we gonna restore the system?
Is it possible to make system recovery disks by ourselves, just like what sony has been asking their nb buyers to do (to burn recovery disks by themselves)?
I think you could backup the restore partition to a DVD using something like Acronis Trueimage and then use Partition Magic or similar to delete the partition and extend the primary partition into this space increasing its size.
To be honest you may be as well do a full image onto another harddisk as a backup and have a suitable Acronis or similar bootdisk to allow a full image restore if the worst happens.
Recovery Partition
I have used BartPE to boot off an external USB DVD Writer.
From within BartPE you can then use Ghost to capture the ENTIRE drive.
The ***Hidden*** restore partition cannot be see by anything, not ghost, not partition magic, not acronis, it simply is not there.
My belief is that this is due to a BIOS restriction and the FN+F3 boot that does allow the restore is either.....
1. A special mode where the bios can see the hidden partition
2. The actual recovery image is on a separate flash area that we can't see.
Either way having the ghost will recover the hard drive.
I have installed both XP and Linux on the Shift and still been able to reboot, press FN+F3 and do a vista re-installation.
This makes me believe the image is on a separate flash device that only the BIOS section can see.
Hope this helps.
Blitz
My Nook Simple Touch (1.1.2) is now not working because I wiped ALL the partitions before attempting to restore a backup (which I didnt know was bad at the time)
Notes
1. I have two backups:
a) the first is 239mb which contains my ebooks and pdfs
b) the second is the boot partition (77mb) - I backed up again when when noogie was on micro SD
2. So basically (both backups) I backed up the NST without selecting the whole physical drive.
3. After a failed root, I tried to restore the backup (and seeing it fail), I decided to wipe the whole partition before attempting to restore again :crying:
4. Are there any restorable backup images that can be downloaded online? Or anything which can restore the partition table including the ROM partition with the serial address etc.
5. Please help me restore the Nook back to factory or any working state. Cos AFAIK i've bricked the device.
p.s. I have tried touchnooter and installed touchformatv2 but all I get now is a Read Forever load screen. N2Tsecurity doesnt work without the ROM partition.
Please Please Help Me Im so sad (I know this is down to carelessness on my part but I really need help)
Did you really wipe all the partitions (like write zeroes over the entire physical drive)?
Or did you just try to repartition it?
The question is whether you truly wiped out the /rom and /factory partitions.
Sometimes partitioning them correctly you can rediscover the file system.
The /rom partition is necessary, even ClockworkMod needs to be able to see it.
The /rom info is replicated in /factory/rombackup.zip
Renate's solution may work.
Also, there is a tool called testdisk available for linux that I've used to recover data and partition layouts before; I would expect that it may work a champ for situations like yours.
To use it, you would need a linux box or find a windows port and boot the NSTG or NST from the noogie disk.
Testdisk can recover deleted partitions automatically, including the all-important /rom partition.
That one's important because it contains device-specific info for your NST. It'll do it automatically, but you do need to read up on what commands to give it. You can also rebuild the table manually using fdisk (and I've done so successfully before.)
A windows file recovery utility might let you recover /rom as well (or the files from it.)
You most need the contents of /devconf, and there are lots of files there. I am not sure which ones are absolutely required.
Hi, I have a Nook Simple Touch device with a traditional problem of improper backup of 76 MB before rooting.
Now I have managed to retrieve files from the /rom partition (/devconf folder with 20 files like serial no, public key etc.) - I have them in my laptop as regular files as well as 16 MB partition image on SD card.
Would anybody be so kind to offer a full recovery method? I believe backup of somebody's full image and then overwriting the /rom partition would revive the device?
How much of your partition table is left, if any, and how familiar are you with linux?
Were it me, I might have a go at creating just the first partition - boot from noogie, connect to a linux box, and use fdisk to create the partition.
I'd then try doing a
dd if=single.partition.backup.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p1
(writing my boot backup to the partition I just created) and see if that file wasn't enough to bootstrap the other partitions. Depending on how you created the backup, you may have the boot flag set and the partition table stored; so long as you haven't actually put data on the other partitions yet, it may be possible to at least trigger the onboard restore.
These are values that work on the glow, and I believe on the touch as well:
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 2000 MB, 2000683008 bytes
128 heads, 32 sectors/track, 954 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4096 * 512 = 2097152 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 * 1 38 77808 c Win95 FAT32 (LB
A)
Of the partitions, I still have:
- boot (I believe it is somewhat corrupted, but this I can restore from the backup)
- NOOK (FAT32) - should be OK, I see files in it;
- cache (Ext3)
- data (Ext3) - seems to be corrupted
Missing: factory (Ext2); one untitled partition and one unallocated segment.
Backup was created with Roadkil's DiskImage, with a source being the locigal drive (original boot partition).
I'm not good at Linux, but I know how to create partitions using Windows tools.
OK, I can try to recreate the boot partition and the rom partition, and restore the backup to it, then I'll see what happens.
Disk configuration for NST is different from the NSTG:
Cylinters: 238 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63
Nook is resurected!
Yes, I have managed to revive the Nook Simple Touch who had survived deletion of all partitions and restore of just the boot partition!
You will need for this:
- an micro SD card and card reader;
- Noogie;
- Minitool Partition Wizard (or other partition management software, if you like and it can do partition recovery and copying);
- ClockworkMod (sd_2gb_clockwork-rc2.zip)
- Alpha-FormatTouch-2.zip - to be copied onto ClockworkMod SD card;
The principle is this:
- first of all, do a PROPER backup of your device - backup ENTIRE PHYSICAL DISK (2 GB) into the image file.
- Using Minitool Partition Wizard, do a partition recovery operation - you should find all your deleted partitions - but do not apply changes yet!. However, due to improper restore of logical disk to a physical disk, the disk config info probably became corrupted and disk size appears to be 78MB, so you won't be able really restore the partitions. So, using Minitool Partition Wizard, do a copy of the recovered partitions one by one onto the SD card - and start with the most important rom partition. From Partion Wizard, you should be able, using Explore function, to check if the partition has all necessary files (20) like serial no, public key, mac address etc.
- from SD card, you can create a backup image of each partition on your hard disk.
- after you have copies of all necessary partitions (boot, rom, nook are vital; others are optional), you need to do a wipe on the NOOK disk to delete all partitions and the disk to obtain the original size of 2 GB.
- on an empty disk after wipe, you have to restore the partitions in the order:
1. restore, by copying using Minitool Partition Wizard, the boot partition (78 MB, FAT32, Primary, set it Active)
2. restore, by copying using Minitool Partition Wizard, the rom partition (16 MB, FAT32, Primary)
3. create manually new partition factory (190 MB, Ext2, Primary)
4. create manually new partition (no label) (288 MB, Ext2, Logical)
5. copy from backup partition NOOK (240 MB, FAT32, Logical)
6. create manually new partition cache (Ext3, 240 MB, Logical)
7. create manually new partition data (Ext3, 801 MB, Logical).
Then, boot the Nook from ClockWorkMod SD card, and format /system, /cache, /data partitions;
afterwards, install from zip card - Alpha-FormatTouch-2.zip.
And, hopefully, your Nook will be alive again!
(Now, I'm sure, you won't forget to do a proper backup of your working Nook :fingers-crossed
Yes, you save my nook. Thanks to your method i could revived my /rom.
but all is not done for me . i have a UK NST Glow and the glow is not working. I would like to update to firmware1.2 and may be this glow will function again. But When i plug the usb, windows cann see the drive but i don't have access to it. i have the message "please insert disc in F: drive"
wow wow wow . At last i successed to update to FW 1.2 for my almost bricked UK NSTGL. Now i have a US NSTGL but nevermind. now time to backup correctly.
but i'm not sure your method is fully working. I had to make a partition table with renater script "nookparted.sh" and then use roustabout's comment "dd if=boot.img of=....". and after that i put update 1.2.
In one week i have learn so much with my broken backup.
Hello, new here so hope it's ok to hijack this thread slightly, seems the original issue has been solved and I think my problem is similar although I'm way out of my depth here... I've managed to brick my nook, and although I took a backup which is AFAIK correctly sized 1.86gb I can't restore it. I've tried putting noogie and cmw on the sd card but it's refusing to boot, I suspect I nonced the partition table up and can't even get the nook to register when I plug it in to the PC now. I suspect is obvious I'm a dumb noob but if anyone could help point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated
welcome to the brave new world of the "bricked forever" and endless nights.
Nobody blames you since everybody and their mothers seem to fall into the trap even if they are told to make a good backup.
i had read so much threads to resurect my nook that i don't exactly know how i made it through, but here are some indications:
Here are the objectives:
1) make a correct backup of your bricked nook: -> you can make after all stupid commands and you 'll come back to this point.
2) you'll have to resurect your /rom or your rombackup.zip (inside factory).
3) have the correct partition of your nook
4) reinstall the rom
for 2) this thread gives a way to get back your /rom. read carefully even roustabout's comment can really help
for 3) thanks to Renate NST in this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1805936&highlight=to+stock and her script "nookpart.sh" i could have a correct size for my partition. (method with wizard partition gives wrong cylinders alignement). read all of this thread it is really rich.
for 4) if you reach that point that should be easy.
Thanks for the welcome and the reply jjinkou2.
I'm guessing I need to work on the nook through a PC. I've currently got 2 PCs, one running window 7 and one on vista, I'm mainly working on the W7 machine. When I plug the nook in to it, a device briefly shows up as the h: drive in My computer but then immediately disappears and so I can't actually access it yet. I note that roustabout mentions working in Linux, if I had a Linux machine available would it be easier to get it to recognize the nook?
Edit: Just tried plugging the nook into my vista machine (which it has not been used on before) and the Found New Hardware window briefly pops up but then vanishes and I get a message on the taskbar: Device driver software was not successfully installed - OMAO3630 Device unplugged. Is there a fix for this pelase?
Some easy instructions here http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/BN_Nook_Simple_Touch/Installing_ADB
you'll need to install android sdk and check usb install in the extra.
Search for a file named "ADB + Fastboot + Drivers.zip" in the forum to easily have the adb.
With windows the usbdriver can be tricky to install. i had to use usbdview (look for it in google) and uninstall all B&N mass storage and OMAP3630.
The driver for usb inside the previous zip might not work also. i found one in the forum but can't find it right now.
Edit
found the usb driver that worked for me
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1125094
Excellent, thanks very much! Not entirely sure how I managed it but I managed to get to a point where I could use the method shown by budriunas and my nook is now working again, albeit with an older firmware and the glow light isn't working but at least it's not bricked! Now just to get the light working and then root the damn thing without killing it....
budriunas said:
Yes, I have managed to revive the Nook Simple Touch who had survived deletion of all partitions and restore of just the boot partition!
You will need for this:
- an micro SD card and card reader;
- Noogie;
- Minitool Partition Wizard (or other partition management software, if you like and it can do partition recovery and copying);
- ClockworkMod (sd_2gb_clockwork-rc2.zip)
- Alpha-FormatTouch-2.zip - to be copied onto ClockworkMod SD card;
The principle is this:
- first of all, do a PROPER backup of your device - backup ENTIRE PHYSICAL DISK (2 GB) into the image file.
- Using Minitool Partition Wizard, do a partition recovery operation - you should find all your deleted partitions - but do not apply changes yet!. However, due to improper restore of logical disk to a physical disk, the disk config info probably became corrupted and disk size appears to be 78MB, so you won't be able really restore the partitions. So, using Minitool Partition Wizard, do a copy of the recovered partitions one by one onto the SD card - and start with the most important rom partition. From Partion Wizard, you should be able, using Explore function, to check if the partition has all necessary files (20) like serial no, public key, mac address etc.
- from SD card, you can create a backup image of each partition on your hard disk.
- after you have copies of all necessary partitions (boot, rom, nook are vital; others are optional), you need to do a wipe on the NOOK disk to delete all partitions and the disk to obtain the original size of 2 GB.
- on an empty disk after wipe, you have to restore the partitions in the order:
1. restore, by copying using Minitool Partition Wizard, the boot partition (78 MB, FAT32, Primary, set it Active)
2. restore, by copying using Minitool Partition Wizard, the rom partition (16 MB, FAT32, Primary)
3. create manually new partition factory (190 MB, Ext2, Primary)
4. create manually new partition (no label) (288 MB, Ext2, Logical)
5. copy from backup partition NOOK (240 MB, FAT32, Logical)
6. create manually new partition cache (Ext3, 240 MB, Logical)
7. create manually new partition data (Ext3, 801 MB, Logical).
Then, boot the Nook from ClockWorkMod SD card, and format /system, /cache, /data partitions;
afterwards, install from zip card - Alpha-FormatTouch-2.zip.
And, hopefully, your Nook will be alive again!
(Now, I'm sure, you won't forget to do a proper backup of your working Nook :fingers-crossed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much. My nook is back. I described my work in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34746242#post34746242.
jjinkou2 said:
wow wow wow . At last i successed to update to FW 1.2 for my almost bricked UK NSTGL. Now i have a US NSTGL but nevermind. now time to backup correctly.
but i'm not sure your method is fully working. I had to make a partition table with renater script "nookparted.sh" and then use roustabout's comment "dd if=boot.img of=....". and after that i put update 1.2.
In one week i have learn so much with my broken backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how did you do a partition table?? i have run nookpart.sh but i still get the problem : "When i plug the usb, windows cann see the drive but i don't have access to it. i have the message "please insert disc in F: drive"
nookpart.sh will partition the internal memory exactly like it was.
This is important if you actually still have valid data but the partition table was destroyed.
If partitions are not looking correctly they may need to be formatted.
Don't be too quick to repartition/reformat until you know what the situation is.
i have used nookpart.sh but still no good, here is the result when i execute nookpart.sh. Everything works except internal storage not mounted correctly i think, i want to update to 1.2
edit: see my thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48015536#post48015536 for more details
So I just bought a new Lenovo Lynx and I noticed that even though it has a 64GB drive, the C drive is only 48GB. Upon my investigation, I found that there are 3 partitions labeled as "Recovery". The total space adds up to about 9GB. See attachement.
My question is: Can I remove them and if so, what's the best way to do so?
The largest recovery partition has the actual .WIM factory install image. Windows has a separate recovery partition for its own recovery use (when you select advanced boot options). I forget what the 3rd one is for.
You can remove them, but you will have to create your own recovery routine beforehand, because both the Lenovo and Windows recovery routines will fail w/o the partitions present.
Suggest leaving them in place for the first month of use, as if an issue arises that require support, the main troubleshooting step would be to reset to factory install. If that's not available, support will be problematic.
Suggest installing Acronis True Image 2014 free trial, and make a bootable USB from it (the boot image isn't affected by the trialware). Reset your system to factory install. To keep it "virgin," don't start up Windows after the reset.
Use TrueImage USB to back up the restored partition to external USB storage. To verify, restore from the just-made backup copy, and start up Windows. If the backup is good, the restore should be good, and your system should start up properly. (If the restore fails, then do another factory reset using the Lenovo method.) You now have your own factory install backup.
To claim the space, simplest is to delete the two recovery partitions after the main partition, then expand the main partition using Win's Disk Manager. To reclaim the 1GB partition would require a wipe and repartition of the drive.
PS: The 64GB drive is actually 59.6GB (64 / 1.024^3).
So just to be sure, I can install Windows 8.1 Pro from a USB just like any other PC but I have to make sure not to touch the EFI partition?
Don't have to download and install stuffs that you'll only use once. You can just use windows search and look for a way to create a recovery disk. It'll even ask if you want to delete the existing recovery partition at the end.
Sent from my U9200
bountygiver said:
Don't have to download and install stuffs that you'll only use once. You can just use windows search and look for a way to create a recovery disk. It'll even ask if you want to delete the existing recovery partition at the end.
Sent from my U9200
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! That made the space usable by creating a new drive from the old recovery partition. When I try to use a partition tool to merge the 2 partitions, they tell me it can't be done. Is the best way to go about this just reinstalling windows and editing the partitions during the installation?
The point of "installing stuff" is not just to extract the recovery image, but also to have your own backup solution. There is a reason the Win8.x image backup is hard to find--because it's deprecated. It's also very limited. Having your own solution avoids the vagaries of Windows quirks. Some OEM recovery also depends on a particular partitioning scheme, and would fail if that scheme has been altered.
Then again, I understand that people don't take data integrity seriously, until after a crash. It's pretty stupid to nuke the recovery partition when prompted, BEFORE VERIFYING that the USB recovery key works. That's why you see the laments of some peeps here, begging for factory images that they FUBAR'ed.
Well, something nasty happened and I couldn't get the tablet to boot. Here are the steps I tried:
Startup Repair
Command Prompt > sfc
PC Refresh
PC Reset
And finally... Created a bootable USB with Windows 8.1 Pro and reinstalled Windows.
I now have only 2 partitions... 1 recovery and one primary.
Thanks everybody for your help.
Hello, I recently had to send in my laptop to get a speaker fixed and was told to make a backup, as the laptop would be reset, I made a system image tested it before I sent it in, it restored fine, but now that I got it back I was no longer able to restore it, it gave me the message "To restore this computer. Windows needs to format the drive that the Windows recovery Environment is currently running on. To continue with the restore, shut down this computer and boot it from a windows installation disk or a system repair disc and then try to restore again." Now the problem is I have tried this, I got hp to send me a recovery disk, but there is no option to restore the system image, it goes straight to resetting the computer it does not have the advance startup options. I have made my own recovery disk using the windows 8 tool and tried, that has the advanced startup options but gives me the same message when in try to restore it. I also have a system image of when i first got the laptop back from them, but i could not restore that either. I have tired near everything ( I just don't want to type out everything I did) any help would be appreciated, If you need anymore details just ask.
Is there at least some way to make a better recovery media, or a windows 8 installation usb? Theres gotta be a way because I know when I tested my image it restored before i sent it in perfectly
What device did you put the recovery image on?
By the way, it's very common and easy to put the recovery tools on a bootable flashdrive; it's included on the install media, so just follow the steps for making a bootable install image on a flashdrive.
GoodDayToDie said:
What device did you put the recovery image on?
By the way, it's very common and easy to put the recovery tools on a bootable flashdrive; it's included on the install media, so just follow the steps for making a bootable install image on a flashdrive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its on one partition of an external hard drive I have, and is what you are talking about above available for win 8.1? Lately I've tried looking for a windows 8.1 iso to make a bootable drive from but cant seem to find one that works. Also thank you for your help
... Huh. If it's on an external drive, then the error you're getting doesn't make a lot of sense anyhow. (But then, I guess you knew that.)
Creating a bootable flash drive is easy. You can either use one of a handful of tools, or just do it manually using diskpart on the command line. Wipe the drive, make sure it's using MBR, create one partition, mark that partition Active, format it FAT32. Then just copy (literally, you can use Explorer for this step if you want) the entire contents of the boot media, such as the DVD, onto your flashdrive. If you don't have a DVD drive to boot from for this part, you can mount the ISO or use 7-Zip to extract the contents of the .ISO file system.
If you *do* have a DVD drive or other bootable media, it should certainly be possible to enter the recovery environment for your OS. The actual steps to restore your backup from there, though, are less clear to me; I've never used the Win8 recovery tools.
I can't find a working iso for windows 8.1, but I noticed that the recovery media I have has the bootx64.efi set up in a weird way which is probably why its not booting into the options I need to restore the image. I tried to make one on a separate USB combining the two I have with the factores image but the boot and efi folders from the other that gives me the options but that would not show up at all to boot into
Thanks for your help, should I mark this as solved