Wiping Phone Question - Droid Eris Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm selling my Droid Eris and want to wipe it so no personal information is stored on it. I'd also like to keep root and the Gingerbread ROM on it because the buyer would like 2.3. Is this possible? I'd like the phone to be so that when you turn it on, it brings you through the steps to activate your phone.
Any advice would be great.
Thanks
On a side note, thank you to everyone in this forum for all the help you've provided over the year. I truly appreciate it. I've upgraded to a Droid Incredible and I'm glad to still be a part of the Android family

Performing a "wipe data/factory reset", followed by a format of the SD card should destroy all "personal" information.
Of course, that deletes all the market apps as well - not sure if that is what you had in mind. But the baseline (system) stuff is still on the phone in /system after that wipe, and the new owner can just boot into the rooted ROM you installed and configure it the way they want. (Or you could help them).
I am 99.999% certain that the "/data" partition is completely empty when you wipe it - there is not even any "leftover" data that a forensics expert could get at, without using CIA/NSA-level techniques (extremely expensive). This is an artifact of the way that a "yaffs2" filesystem works when it is erased (and also because eraseblocks in our Nand are 128K in size).
If the formatting performed on the SD card is of a "quick/lazy" variety, there still may be information on the SD card that a forensics expert could recover, but certainly not by anyone that was a casual user. If that concerns you, you can mount the SD card on the PC and use a wiping program such as "sdelete" (Microsoft Windows Sysinternals utilities) to perform a security wipe of it.
The only thing that won't be affected by these procedures is the phone's activation status, you can only clear that if you have a stock recovery and stock ROM on the phone. Strictly speaking though, if you take the phone in to Verizon, (or maybe even call them) and have them dis-associate the phone's ESN/MEID from your plan, the activation status that is recorded on the phone will be useless.
HTH
bftb0
PS - Just read your post more carefully (about the activation part). You will need to completely unroot the phone (including having a stock recovery), and perform a factory reset to clear the activation status. Once you've done this, you will need to re-root your phone after bypassing the activation screen. This means might want to prepare ahead of time with everything you need on your SD card, unless you can get what you want via WiFi.
It's a fair bit of work to do all that. It might be easier to just leave the phone activated, and have Verizon disassociate it from their end of things - the buyer should be able to activate it after he/she has had the phone added to their account with their carrier, and then make a *228 call. (That's all the activation screen is anyway).

TL;DR if your phone is unlocked (not restricted by network) just delete what's mentioned above and flash a gingerbread ROM with root.
When you boot the phone to make sure it's working, don't go through the activation process at all. Just turn it off.
Sorted.
- Swyped from my rooted HTC Legend -

TS;DR
lol

jpzsports said:
I'd like the phone to be so that when you turn it on, it brings you through the steps to activate your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is another way to do this which is less complicated than unrooting and re-rooting if you really insist - but it only works if you have the S-OFF bootloader (v 1.49.2000) on your phone, and have gotten fastboot to work (USB drivers installed) on your PC.
Basically, it boils down to using fastboot to direct-boot a stock recovery to your phone, and then using the "factory reset" menu from within the stock recovery. Doing things this way allows the existing (custom) recovery to stay put (untouched) in flash memory, and the stock recovery will do BOTH the data wipe and the NVRAM reset that clears the phone's activation.
Prerequisites: 1.49.2000 S-OFF bootloader; fastboot program; USB Drivers installed on your PC
(1) Download the Leak-V3 PB00IMG.ZIP from this XDA post
(2) Unpack that zip file; you are interested in the "recovery.img" file.
(3) Charge your phone completely (100%), turn it off, and then re-start it in Fastboot mode (Send+End)
(4)
Code:
fastboot boot recovery.img
You will see an image with a black background, a phone, and a red triangle with an exclamation point in it. That's the splash screen of the stock recovery. To see the menu, press Vol-Up+End together. When the menu appears, the text will be in a blue/magenta color.
(5) Select the "Factory Reset / Wipe data" menu entry.
Note that when it runs, the first thing that it mentions is "Restore factory NV setting..." - that's the bit where the activation is being cleared. After that, it will do all the wipes you are familiar with in Amon_RA (or Clockworkmod). (Be patient, there is a small delay).
That's it - other than cleaning up your SD card.
Be aware that some Froyo/GB ROMs are going to be a little flaky about handling the activation - the whole business of needing to press the Menu key to get a keyboard to show up and then toggling to numeric layout to be able to generate a DTMF tone ("press 1 to activate") - are not going to be obvious to someone that is new to the phone. Unless you are planning on assisting the buyer after the sale, it's probably easier to just sell them a returned-to-stock phone.
cheers
bftb0

Hmmm okay thank you so much for the detailed responses. I really appreciate it. It seems like it's more complicating than I thought.
If I just wanted to return the phone to stock 2.1 unrooted (and avoid having to unroot, and re-root the phone, and reinstall a ROM) how would I do that?
Just get it to like brand new with steps to activate your phone on boot.
Thanks!

jpzsports said:
Hmmm okay thank you so much for the detailed responses. I really appreciate it. It seems like it's more complicating than I thought.
If I just wanted to return the phone to stock 2.1 unrooted (and avoid having to unroot, and re-root the phone, and reinstall a ROM) how would I do that?
Just get it to like brand new with steps to activate your phone on boot.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install the "FlashBack21" ROM (find it here on XDA in the dev forum). Charge your phone to 100% and use the ROM with the radio to return the phone to the July OTA stock condition.
When that completes, boot it up and then skip account setup (and any other setups) and do a
Menu -> Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset
When the phone boots next, you will see that it is asking for activation; power the phone off.
Note that you need to tell Verizon to disassociate the phone from your account prior to handing it over to the buyer; otherwise if they run the activation, the phone will just re-activate to your account.

bftb0 said:
Install the "FlashBack21" ROM (find it here on XDA in the dev forum). Charge your phone to 100% and use the ROM with the radio to return the phone to the July OTA stock condition.
When that completes, boot it up and then skip account setup (and any other setups) and do a
Menu -> Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset
When the phone boots next, you will see that it is asking for activation; power the phone off.
Note that you need to tell Verizon to disassociate the phone from your account prior to handing it over to the buyer; otherwise if they run the activation, the phone will just re-activate to your account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok sounds good to me. So I'll install the FlashBack ROM, do a factory reset, and format my SD card and it should be clean right?
What's the best way to format my SD Card?
And since I already activated a Droid Incredible, doesn't that automatically disassociate the Eris from my account? You can't have 2 active phones right?

jpzsports said:
ok sounds good to me. So I'll install the FlashBack ROM, do a factory reset, and format my SD card and it should be clean right?
What's the best way to format my SD Card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure. Or format it first (after backing it up to your PC); you can use the Amon_RA menu to format the SD card if you don't have a media slot or card reader on your PC. Won't really matter if there's one ROM file on the SD card.
The most secure way to do things is what I already discussed - format it any way you please, and then mount it to the PC and use that "sdelete" utility from Microsoft. (read the docs on how to wipe an "empty" drive). The most convenient, and probably least secure way to format it is using the phone menus - either the OS menu, or the Amon_RA format menu.
jpzsports said:
And since I already activated a Droid Incredible, doesn't that automatically disassociate the Eris from my account? You can't have 2 active phones right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that sounds right, but I would call Verizon before you ship/hand over the phone and ask them to be sure.

Thank You so much for all your help! You've been awesome!
I'm going to go ahead with this process now and hopefully everything will work out.
EDIT: It worked perfect and boots to the Activation screen. Thanks again!

Related

[Q] Help with Eris and Evil Eris

I'm having a little trouble and I'm sincerely hoping you'll help. I've tried flashing my Eris using the file, "Evil_Tazz_3.zip" and my Eris is now bricked and stuck in a bootloop. All it will do is show an animation of the sketchy letters ANDROID falling down the screen and then a smoky light following close behind it reveling the Droid itself. And it'll repeat this animation rapidly about 100 times before freezing and then restarting the whole process all over. To be frank it pisses me off because it always seems that I'm the only one who has trouble with this stuff.
My Eris is rooted and it does allow me to access the recovery screen. What am I supposed to do?
Anyways, thanks for your time.
Best Regards -Joseph Bergen
jbergen said:
I'm having a little trouble and I'm sincerely hoping you'll help. I've tried flashing my Eris using the file, "Evil_Tazz_3.zip" and my Eris is now bricked and stuck in a bootloop. All it will do is show an animation of the sketchy letters ANDROID falling down the screen and then a smoky light following close behind it reveling the Droid itself. And it'll repeat this animation rapidly about 100 times before freezing and then restarting the whole process all over. To be frank it pisses me off because it always seems that I'm the only one who has trouble with this stuff.
My Eris is rooted and it does allow me to access the recovery screen. What am I supposed to do?
Anyways, thanks for your time.
Best Regards -Joseph Bergen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whatever you do, DO NOT DO ANYTHING ELSE UNTIL BTFB0 responds to your plea for help.
Do not just start trying different solutions, DO NOT FLASH ANY RUU, if you know what that is. BTFB0 is the guy who can get your phone unbricked if anyone can. He is the expert, I won't pretend to be able to duplicate his knowledge in this area.
Be patient until he has a chance to see this. You don't have to PM him, I'm sure he'll respond when he has a chance here in public. He will ask specific questions about what version of bootloader you have, 1.47 or 1.49, and you might as well find out if it's S=OFF or S=ON.
Also, do you have Amon RA recovery on your phone and can you get to it?
Have you tried flashing anything else since your phone has gotten stuck in this boot loop? If not and you can get into recovery still, then simply wipe data, wipe dalvik, and try flashing again. Don't worry you're phone doesn't sound bricked, just like you got a bad download or an error when flashing the rom. I would probably try a different rom or at least re-download the one you want to use.
It may still be wise to wait for BTFB0 to get here and offer some more advice as I am sure he has more knowledge in this area than me. But I do feel confident that he will say the same thing as I have.
Well, the OP merely said that he is having trouble with a specific ROM; he didn't mention failures during flashing; so, his problem could be as simple as having failed to "wipe" before flashing his ROM.
jbergen:
If you can boot into a custom recovery, your phone is not "bricked". It's not even soft-bricked; it's just not booting into the main OS correctly.
Providing as much detail as you can is helpful to people that are offering help to you; in particular, the following pieces of information:
- What recovery is on your phone? (Amon_RA, Clockwork? What version #?)
- When you are flashing the ROM file with your recovery, do you notice any "E:" messages?
An "E:" at the beginning of a line on the screen means that an error occurred!
- Are you having this same trouble on more than one ROM, or is this the only ROM you have tried since you rooted?
- What method did you use to root the phone?
- Did you use the "Wipe data/factory reset" menu item before you flashed the ROM file?
- Did you make any Nandroid backups that you still have on your SD card? If yes, did you attempt to restore one? What was the result? (BTW, every rooted phone user should be making Nandroid backups before they flash ROMs - no exceptions.)
- Do you have a media card slot or USB card reader device that will allow you to copy a different ROM file onto your SD card? -OR-
- Do you know how to "mount" the SD card onto the PC when your recovery is booted? (On Amon_RA, it is called "Toggle MS-USB" or something like that; it's also in the Clockwork menu somewhere too)
Given the information you have provided, there are any number of things that could be going on. I would suggest downloading a different ROM to your PC (let's say the stock HTC Eris March 2011 ROM), and then transferring it to your SD card. Then,
- Verify the exact size of the file and/or MD5 signatures of the file (if the developer provided it).
- make sure your phone is well charged
- perform a "Wipe data/factory reset" from the recovery menu
- Flash the ROM file from the recovery menu - and pay attention to the screen to see if there are any `E:' errors
- If there are errors, there is no point in attempting to boot the phone
- If there are no errors, boot the phone.
- Report your results here - and answer the questions that I asked.

[Q] Touch off miserably

I was on 1.2.6 and decided that it was time to update to 1.5.7 since GingerBlur was out. I went back and decided to go to 1.2.6 SBF reflash to root, to 1.5.7 update, to root. Then I install the recovery ROM. Booted into there, made a backup on my SD card, changed my internal SD card (for Ubtunu, is that where it went wrong, had my SD card in and I think it was mounted). I exited the recovery adn was greeted with "Failed to boot 1. Launching RDS mode". I went into RDS and reflashed to 1.2.6. It did it's business and came back, but when I set up my motorblur, I realized something was off. The touchscreen was literally off by about 4-5CM. Click next required me to hit my search key, OFF the screen. If I was typing on the screen, I would have to go below that letter. The back key no longer works since it acts like a 'screen' touch if you will.
What's going on?! Already tried another reflash 1.2.6 again. Going to try 1.5.6.
If it doesn't work, I'm just going to take it back to AT&T and get it exchanged.
I was just about to start a new thread for this EXACT same problem...if anyone can help it would be great. I tried data wipe through android recovery mode but it didn't help. I was going to try to format the internal sd card but other than that i've got no idea. Anyone?
Did either of you try re-flashing? If it started with a flash first step to fixing is re-flashing.
Dennis's troubleshooting guide
1) ensure the gripe is a gripe
2) step back two steps and redo what you just did.
3) remove any mods and try again
4) verify on another device that it is/is not reproducable.
5) read the manual (not applicable to troubleshooting hardware on maany phones, though ifixit has some good guides)
6) take it to an expert.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
_Dennis_ said:
Did either of you try re-flashing? If it started with a flash first step to fixing is re-flashing.
Dennis's troubleshooting guide
1) ensure the gripe is a gripe
2) step back two steps and redo what you just did.
3) remove any mods and try again
4) verify on another device that it is/is not reproducable.
5) read the manual (not applicable to troubleshooting hardware on maany phones, though ifixit has some good guides)
6) take it to an expert.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reflashing is a no go...same problem
Edit: Okay...was able to re-install Tenfar's CWM. Going to try to format my internal SD and wipe everything, then reflash. I'll update with results...
No go...still the same problem. Also tried formatting the internal memory through the Settings app...didn't help. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Anyone? The phone is pretty much unusable in this state...would really appreciate any input
chbearsrock said:
Anyone? The phone is pretty much unusable in this state...would really appreciate any input
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just an idea... have you tried:
1) Flashing 1.2.6, pre-root, 1.5.7, post-root
2) Installing Tenfar (not sure how, with your screen like that, maybe there is a shell command that lets you install via adb)
3) Using Tenfar to clear pretty much EVERYTHING (i.e., re-format, clear caches, all that jazz)
4) Re-do step 1
Well, an update: Went to the ATT store and got it exchanged. I'm pretty sure they really don't like me anymore. Haha.
As for the fix chbeaesrock posted, if he were to make a mistake he has to restate his device since he has no home button.
Check this thread out nosit1:
See if it matches the issue u have:
https://supportforums.motorola.com/message/362154/
Which part of the screen were u having issues with? the whole screen?

Recover data from internal memory?

Hey!
A friend of mine recently got her S2 bricked due to a faulty OTA update. She was prompted to install ICS, even though the network operator's branded version is not to be released for another week or so (2 weeks after the stock release).
Now the device won't start, and customer support says she needs to hand it over to reset the phone. Although this fixes the phone, she would like to keep her pictures etc. that is saved in the phones internal memory.
Is it possible to mount the /data partition (or /user or whatever) to a Windows PC, and recover the files? I do believe the phone can boot in recovery, and I am moderately experienced with using ADB.
Optionally, is it possible to "abort" the update, and reset the phone to it's previous state? I was thinking to wipe the cache partition, but i'd love your input on this matter!
--excubated
You could try flashing a GB rom via Odin. Or if you can, flash CWM recovery and mount the internal card (its sd_card, I think). Otherwise, I haven't a clue.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Try Recuva
jje
JJEgan said:
Try Recuva
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recuva is for deleted files (which also doesn't work too well on flash memory).
If she's got a custom recovery like ClockworkMod, skip to step 2.
Step. 1) download and install ClockworkMod recovery onto the device.
Step. 2) boot into CWM.
Step. 3) Go to Mounts and Storage.
Step. 4) Select Mount USB Storage.
Step. 5) Download (the .zip version) and extract the Android SDK.
Step. 6) Open a command prompt (CTRL+R, type cmd, hit enter).
Step. 7) CD to where ever you extracted to the SDK, like say C:\Android_SDK
Step. 8) CD to \platform-tools
Step. 9) In the command prompt, enter:
adb pull /sdcard/DCIM DCIM\
That should pull the camera folder. If there's photos outside that folder, try adb pull /sdcard SDCARD\
If you're looking to delete the photos, go back into Mounts and Storage, and hit format /sdcard.
But, if you can, as stated above, try flashing to a Gingerbread ROM and copying over like normal. A lot less hassle than the above.
screamworks.
Try It
excubated said:
Hey!
A friend of mine recently got her S2 bricked due to a faulty OTA update. She was prompted to install ICS, even though the network operator's branded version is not to be released for another week or so (2 weeks after the stock release).
Now the device won't start, and customer support says she needs to hand it over to reset the phone. Although this fixes the phone, she would like to keep her pictures etc. that is saved in the phones internal memory.
Is it possible to mount the /data partition (or /user or whatever) to a Windows PC, and recover the files? I do believe the phone can boot in recovery, and I am moderately experienced with using ADB.
Optionally, is it possible to "abort" the update, and reset the phone to it's previous state? I was thinking to wipe the cache partition, but i'd love your input on this matter!
--excubated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try using different ROM of any other country but of same Model no. (e.g. GT-I9100) in the downloading mode throug ODIN3. And formatting Cache partition will not change anything, but speed up the phone. firmware up gradation will not wipe your phone internal memory.
Hope it works for you....
Thanks for your answers so far, but I do believe flashing over any recovery or firmware will void the warranty on the device? She's not very eager to venture into the realm of warrantylessness, unfortunately ..
If whe was, she'd have had the MIUI ICS experience from the day it was launched Need to keep everything stock, and if there is no way to retrieve the files without voiding the warranty, she'd rather send it in and lose all her data..
screamworks said:
adb pull /sdcard/DCIM DCIM\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't I enter the normal recovery's terminal with adb shell? From there I mean to remember it is possible to mount and pull whatever I want..
Even without installing a custom recovery (CMW), the SGSII will allow you to go in to either Download Mode or Recovery mode. And I believe you should be able enter either mode even if the phone isn't booting up successfully (from a failed upgrade).
To enter recovery mode, you press and hold the Up Volume, Home Key and Power buttons.
To enter Download mode, you press and hold the Down Volume, Home Key and Power buttons.
You should be able to find the latest official/stock Gingerbread ROM in the forums here, and then you use Odin to install the GB ROM (from Download mode). This won't increase the count of "unofficial" Roms on the phone and shouldn't void the warranty.
While Odin is often referred to as a means to flash a custom ROM, it's not limited to only that. And the same for recovery mode. Most posts reference the CMW recovery that allows you to change to custom kernels and update "unofficial" packages on a rooted phone.
But you should still be able to revert back to a GB-based ROM and not void any warranty.
[if you boot the phone in to the official Samsung Download mode, it will display a message on the screen about the number of non-Samsung ROMs have been installed on the phone, and you should not see any number, or maybe "Zero"... I can't check to be sure because I forgot my phone in the office when leaving work today After you downgrade to GB, you can verify that the number is still blank or "Zero" by going back in to Download mode after you're sure the GB install was successful (it's not destructive to go in to Download mode just to view the counter. just power it off (as long as you're in the middle of pushing code to the phone ) and then reboot]
I'm not as experienced as a lot of the folks on the site, but everything I've outlined above I've done at least a few times on my phone (to custom ROMs, back to official, even resetting/clearing the "counter", and I've always been able to recovery from a "bad install").
I hope that helps,
Hey,
I am currently trying to help my best friends dad out. He dropped his GS2 during his holiday. Now the lcd is dead. The digitizer is not broken and seems to be working, as I get a feedback from the lockscreen when I tap on it, but I am having a small suspicion, that one half of the digitizer doesn't work anymore. The phone has a pin lock screen, it is not rooted and developer options are not turned on.
Is there any way to get access to the internal storage, and recover files from there? (He wants the pictures back he made on holiday )
Btw: I haven't owned any Samsung smartphone yet and I don't know how the recovery stuff works there so if there is a solution for this problem I would really appreciate a step by step tutorial. I have knowledge about rooting, flashing and stuff, so if it would be a solution to root the phone, I could do that, as my best friends dad doesn't want to repair the device anyways.
Greetings
Bl4ckX
Nobody any idea? :/
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

[Q] Encryption prevents custom ROMs being used

OK so let me start off with, great site. I have read a ton of information.
First: Siyah 4.3.3 (Latest) Kernel which now has been put to AJK v1.48s
ROM; SHOstock3 v2.5.9
PreMod Settings: SGS2 AT&T SGH-i777. Started with GB > AT&T OTA (KIES) 4.0.3 > AT&T OTA WIFI 4.0.4 (caused huge freaking headaches with battery, charging, turn off the phone loop, battery draining, etc.)
Issues:
Original Issue posted in this thread (viewing Single Post) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=39350619&postcount=18
Creepy offered something to try. That never worked as all I was able to do was download mode or stare at the Samsung Galaxy S2 Splash Screen. Well, I took to his download repository and other links and used his One-Click Recovery to stock GB Rom to make part of my phone usable, using this link here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=18859438&postcount=199
While it is Gingerbread at least my phone is usable. I want to try his STOCK ICS method but that mentions the eMMC super-brick bug.
So this is what I have tried so far. I have tried installing Siyah 4.3.3 nomswap for my kernel using Mobil-Odin Lite. That works but it never reboots or actually says finished. What it does do is stay at the wicked purple splash with the yin yang symbol. I left it like that last night until I woke up this morning and it never changed. So I rebooted the phone and the Kernel is on there. I reboot into recovery so that I can install SHOstock3 v2.5.9. That goes off flawlessly except here the last few times it won't reboot when I go to the GO BACK. It sticks and doesn't do anything. Rebooting shows the SHOstock3 Engine Boot Animation. Once it stops it goes to ask me for the encryption password. Well I put in my password (was the same one to the unlock screen) and it reboots and you see the nifty Samsung animation logo and then goes to the Samsung Galaxy S2 Animation Logo and then just stays there. It really pisses me off.
So after all that I finally put a new Kernel on there,AJK 1,48s. Pretty cool it loads up and then reboots. Well AJK shows up after the light-blue bar fills up and then goes black and the 4 touch sensitive row keys are lit up for a bit before going dark but the phone is still on. So I rebooted to recovery (CWM now with the Kernel) fixed tweaks, went to advanced and saw all sorts of options. Tried clearing caches for ROM 2 and restarting,no effect. I removed ROM 2 and went through reboot and nothing. Restored ROM 2 and nothing. Re installed SHOstock3 v2.5.9. Did the same thing after install and not backing out when I hit GO BACK. Rebooted, same scenario that happened before with requiring password. Entering password does the same thing with a reboot and then staying on Samsung Splash Screen. If I Don't enter the password and reboot,same thing happens. So after being irritated and pissed off I ran Creepy's One-Click Fix again and paid attention to the phone and noticed it mentioned not being able to access the AT&T section or partition or something like that. So while part of my phone works under normal circumstances I want to figure out how to remove that encryption part of the phone and get full access (even though full memory and space are shown under Windows 7 and the files on the phone). The password I put on there isn't taking and I don't know if using PC methods for removing encryption (which could take awhile I know) needs to be employed (and if so which methods) or if that part is just screwed and I can't put on any other kernels or custom ROMs. Perhaps tell me where I messed up. Should I try swapping the ROMs from Advanced setting in CWM Recovery? Can I try a different ROM (kernel didn't seem to help)? I have done several factory resets dalvik cache wipes cache wipes formats,etc. and it is still there. I can say that before the whole encryption debacle (even though I was encrypted I did get in my phone after encrypting it) my pin unlock for my SIM wouldn't work and I actually SIM locked my phone. Had to go to AT&T and get a new SIM and was up and running. I put a 4 digit pin lock for the SIM (it let me do it) and when I went to unlock it after a reboot, it wanted an 8 pin for the PUK and wouldn't take what I put. I tried to change the PIN but to no avail. Once that happened I guess it snowballed. Any help is appreciated. I have searched and tried some things that looked to match my issue but none have totally helped. I do have ADB set up on my wife's laptop which I use to restore my phone to GB Stock ROM. I haven't been able to reboot the phone into Bootloader to do any fastboot commands as when I tried to do it the commands just sent the phone into normal reboot (though adb reboot recovery does boot to recovery). I Haven't tried booting to the bootloader using the new Kernel though so I will wait for confirmation or additional information before I try. Thanks guys.
Eagle
Couple of comments. Siyah 4.3.3 (and ajk) kernels are for 4.x ICS and JB so that explains why your stock Gingerbread system would not flash after you installed it. If you flash back to stock Gingerbread again, and then flash a custom kernel, use a kernel that is compatible with Gingerbread if you want to boot the system.
After doing a little research, it seems that a wipe data/factory reset will not clear the encryption, but a format data will. This information is not from a Samsung forum; it's from the Droid DNA forum. I'm thinking that the same thing may apply to the I777. See the thread here.
It might be worth a try anyway. Flash stock plus root Gingerbread, install mobile odin or mobile odin lite, and use it to flash Siyah 2.6.14. Boot into recovery and go to the Mounts and Storage section. There you can format data, (and all the other partitions, separately.)
creepyncrawly said:
Couple of comments. Siyah 4.3.3 (and ajk) kernels are for 4.x ICS and JB so that explains why your stock Gingerbread system would not flash after you installed it. If you flash back to stock Gingerbread again, and then flash a custom kernel, use a kernel that is compatible with Gingerbread if you want to boot the system.
After doing a little research, it seems that a wipe data/factory reset will not clear the encryption, but a format data will. This information is not from a Samsung forum; it's from the Droid DNA forum. I'm thinking that the same thing may apply to the I777. See the thread here.
It might be worth a try anyway. Flash stock plus root Gingerbread, install mobile odin or mobile odin lite, and use it to flash Siyah 2.6.14. Boot into recovery and go to the Mounts and Storage section. There you can format data, (and all the other partitions, separately.)
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Click to collapse
Thank you so much creepy. I will give that a try later and see how it goes. I hope the information I gave actually gives enough info. I know folks usually want enough. Ill post back my findings.
Eagle
quick follow up and what I tried
creepyncrawly said:
Couple of comments. Siyah 4.3.3 (and ajk) kernels are for 4.x ICS and JB so that explains why your stock Gingerbread system would not flash after you installed it. If you flash back to stock Gingerbread again, and then flash a custom kernel, use a kernel that is compatible with Gingerbread if you want to boot the system.
After doing a little research, it seems that a wipe data/factory reset will not clear the encryption, but a format data will. This information is not from a Samsung forum; it's from the Droid DNA forum. I'm thinking that the same thing may apply to the I777. See the thread here.
It might be worth a try anyway. Flash stock plus root Gingerbread, install mobile odin or mobile odin lite, and use it to flash Siyah 2.6.14. Boot into recovery and go to the Mounts and Storage section. There you can format data, (and all the other partitions, separately.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Creepy, I have a quick follow up and want to tell you what I have tried.
So I had already used Kies to move to AT&T v 4.0.4 ICS on my phone when I read your post. Rather than flashback again to GB I went ahead and put Siyah 4.3.3 on my phone. Went great, rebooted and installed quick and everything. Well I rebooted into recovery and went to mounts and storage and formatted the data and all that there and even formatted the secondrom data and all that. Did it a couple times to make sure everything was clean and good to go. Even put AJKs kernel on there after I ran the cleanrom script and it went flawlessly. I did factory resets and wipes and all that and installed SHOstock3 v2.5.9 and started up great. Well it got past the animation and the damn Password for encryption popped up. Well I put the wrong password in and it rebooted without the SAMSUNG screen and went through the boot ani and back to the password for encryption screen. I put the right password in, it reboots and you see the Samsung logo flash quickly and then it sticks on the Samsung Galaxy S2 Splash screen. I don't know what is holding it up from going forward unless when I messed up the first go around and it deleted everything if it didn't take out the bootload command or what have you. So I don't know if this idea will work but I am going to flashback to GB and put the siyah version on there that you linked and see if that will work.
One tihng, when Iencrypted the device the first go round, I onlydid the used data and area not the whole thing. Is this affecting it somehow? Any other ideas to try? I figured a full data format would remove the encryption but it never pops up saying all encryption will be removed. What I need is access to that area of the phone if I could just mount it on the computer. Is it possible after formatting the data, or before, that I should mount internal USB, DATA, etc and try another format/wipe or at least mount them to see if they can be used? Thanks for the help. For anyone else viewing this post (which actually is a lot) any help or ideas are appreciated. I am thinking I may need to format everything and get ahold of Samsung to see if they will reset my phone for me. I just wonder if the PIN lock on my SIM card that got locked when it wouldn't take my PIN didn't mess something up as well.
Eagle
WarEagleUS said:
Hey Creepy, I have a quick follow up and want to tell you what I have tried.
So I had already used Kies to move to AT&T v 4.0.4 ICS on my phone when I read your post. Rather than flashback again to GB I went ahead and put Siyah 4.3.3 on my phone. Went great, rebooted and installed quick and everything. Well I rebooted into recovery and went to mounts and storage and formatted the data and all that there and even formatted the secondrom data and all that. Did it a couple times to make sure everything was clean and good to go. Even put AJKs kernel on there after I ran the cleanrom script and it went flawlessly. I did factory resets and wipes and all that and installed SHOstock3 v2.5.9 and started up great. Well it got past the animation and the damn Password for encryption popped up. Well I put the wrong password in and it rebooted without the SAMSUNG screen and went through the boot ani and back to the password for encryption screen. I put the right password in, it reboots and you see the Samsung logo flash quickly and then it sticks on the Samsung Galaxy S2 Splash screen. I don't know what is holding it up from going forward unless when I messed up the first go around and it deleted everything if it didn't take out the bootload command or what have you. So I don't know if this idea will work but I am going to flashback to GB and put the siyah version on there that you linked and see if that will work.
One tihng, when Iencrypted the device the first go round, I onlydid the used data and area not the whole thing. Is this affecting it somehow? Any other ideas to try? I figured a full data format would remove the encryption but it never pops up saying all encryption will be removed. What I need is access to that area of the phone if I could just mount it on the computer. Is it possible after formatting the data, or before, that I should mount internal USB, DATA, etc and try another format/wipe or at least mount them to see if they can be used? Thanks for the help. For anyone else viewing this post (which actually is a lot) any help or ideas are appreciated. I am thinking I may need to format everything and get ahold of Samsung to see if they will reset my phone for me. I just wonder if the PIN lock on my SIM card that got locked when it wouldn't take my PIN didn't mess something up as well.
Eagle
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should I try TWRP instead of CWM and if so where should I grab it from?
Status Update
So this is what I have tried so far as of this moment.
I reflashed using your Stock + Root Gingerbread ROM.
Wiped DATA and everything in recovery menu several times.
Used Kernel Wipe and ROM Nuke for extra cleaning power.
Reinstalled the Kernel AJK and SHOstock3 ROM
Haven't installed any themes though I had Johns Blue and Villians Poison Base Theme (I believe that is what it is) on there when this all went down. Should I put them back on there?
Password still pops up. So what it looks like is that unless I stick with the unencrypted portion of the phone, I am screwed with any custom ROMs as the correct password has the phone restart and then stick at the Samsung Galaxy S2 Splash Screen. Apparently I still cannot access that area of the phones memory to wipe it at all no matter what I do. I need to access it somehow. Really driving me crazy and thinking I may need to talk with AT&T(as Samsung told me to earlier this morning lol) and see what they can do.
One thing I do notice is when I use your stock root program it actually removes the encryption or decrypts the section of the phone for the stock ROM to go on the phone which is cool.
Eagle
Any other things to try from anyone is greatly appreciated.
Been away all day. Sorry, I can't offer any other suggestions, but I have no experience with encryption. As you said, what you need to know is where the encryption is stored in memory so you can wipe or format that and restore it to original. If you can get to the right person, probably not level 1 tech support, then maybe you can find out. Somebody somewhere knows the answer to this.
would restoring my original EFS before this whole process help or is the encryption section totally blocked off?
WarEagleUS said:
would restoring my original EFS before this whole process help or is the encryption section totally blocked off?
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I have no idea whether the encryption is stored there. What kind of efs backup did you take?
creepyncrawly said:
Been away all day. Sorry, I can't offer any other suggestions, but I have no experience with encryption. As you said, what you need to know is where the encryption is stored in memory so you can wipe or format that and restore it to original. If you can get to the right person, probably not level 1 tech support, then maybe you can find out. Somebody somewhere knows the answer to this.
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Click to collapse
Thx bro. yeah I need to run some forensic tools and see if I can mount the whole phone system on my PC and run the tools.
creepyncrawly said:
I have no idea whether the encryption is stored there. What kind of efs backup did you take?
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Click to collapse
a full efs backup. I made two or three actuakky using advanced efs, nitrality, and recovery.
WarEagleUS said:
a full efs backup. I made two or three actuakky using advanced efs, nitrality, and recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A little research indicates that there is quite a bit of stuff stored in efs besides carrier specific data. So maybe encryption could be in there. Of those tools, nitrality for sure and maybe advanced efs should be able to restore the entire efs partition. If you are comfortable with the risk - a damaged efs would render the phone useless - then you might try this to see if it clears up the encryption issue. BTW, you should learn how to back up the efs partition yourself using terminal and linux commands.
creepyncrawly said:
A little research indicates that there is quite a bit of stuff stored in efs besides carrier specific data. So maybe encryption could be in there. Of those tools, nitrality for sure and maybe advanced efs should be able to restore the entire efs partition. If you are comfortable with the risk - a damaged efs would render the phone useless - then you might try this to see if it clears up the encryption issue. BTW, you should learn how to back up the efs partition yourself using terminal and linux commands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I should have used ADB to do that from the get go. I should have used the wife's laptop like I started to instead of my WIN 8 machine has it seems to be finicky with Android SDK (the portion at least needed to run ADB). Linux commands really aren't much different than terminal and I have done both. I was actually trying to get fastboot commands to work but my bootloader wasn't cooperating and for the life of me I couldn't find how to unlock it. I may try restoring that EFS. If nothing else I would love to be able to format that EFS and replace it with my original copy though as you said a damaged EFS may actually cause issues (who knows if it is damaged). I do know that I am fixing to chat with AT&T support. I hope I don't have to drive down to Hoover, AL to the repair facility. I would rather them send me a phone and send this one back. I am on stock 4.0.4 ICS from AT&T and any root that may be on there (though I doubt there is now) I can remove and what not
Thanks for the advice and insight Creepy. I know you tried like hell to get me an answer but in doing research on here with other problems I found out some useful information going forward my friend.
Eagle
Well, looks like I will be getting a special early upgrade and the wife will as well. I will be keeping this phone, however, to mess with this and see if I cannot get this problem fixed. Thanks Creepy so much. I appreciate your research and help more than you know. If possible I would love to keep this thread open for a while just in case I figure this out and fix the issue. It may take me a week or so but I will get back to messing with it again.
A side note. You don't need the whole sdk to get adb. You can download just the files you need from my signature.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium

Noobs first bricked phone.....

Hi,
So heres the deal, I got a HTC One M9 rooted running TWRP. I was trying to factory reset phone and wiped Dalvik Cache, cache, data, and internal storage(If somebody can tell me what i did wrong there, that be great). Once phone booted i got messages like System UI, HTC sense, Easy access service, and Package access helper have all stopped. And my navigation button and notification bar are gone. So I figured that I got to flash stock rom but I can't access phone though ADB. Keeping getting device offline or unauthorized. I can't get RSA key fingerprint window to pop up to allow pc to connect. Tried revoking authorization. kill and start server and nothing. Is there a way bypass to connect to pc? If I flash a custom rom like viper will if fix those problems? TWRP never let me create a nandroid backup and always failed when I tried. Any help towards getting phone to working order is greatly appreciated.Thanks!
If you are trying to factory reset, you just need to swipe on the bottom of the Reset menu instead of going into Advanced wipe. My guess is that when you wiped the internal storage, something freaked out. As far as fixing everything, yes, you can just flash another rom or you would need to use the RUU to return to complete stock and start over. Rom would be much easier though. Even if you had done a nandroid, it would be gone if it was on the internal storage since you wiped it. You can load the rom to the phone in recovery. MTP SHOULD work, or at least adb should. If it doesn't, you might have driver issues. Or you can load one on an SD card and go that route. Matter of preference really.

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