[HOW-TO] Info and Tips for Mitigating Risks in Rooting and Flashing Custom-ROM - Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet

[Caveat emptor: adopt/follow this guide at your own risk].
Rooting and especially running a custom firmware (commonly referred to as “ROM”) on an NT unlock the NT’s full potential as a Android tablet. However these undertakings entail a significant risk: accidents or errors in the Rooting or Custom ROM Flashing process can render the NT unusable (aka “bricked”), potentially permanently. This risk can be mitigated by:
developing a basic understanding of the essence of the Rooting and ROM Flashing processes – in particular which parts of the NT storage/content get modified or replaced, and which parts do not
choosing an effective yet low risk rooting/flashing process, and most importantly,
making preparation in advance for a recovery process in the event something goes wrong: by far the most common cause of permanent bricking is not the initial bad rooting/flashing process but rather the subsequent use of unsuitable recovery (“unbrick”) procedures/tools.
NT Internal Storage (EMMC) Partitions and Associated Content (approximated partition sizes on a 16GB NT w/ 8GB allocated for user media)
/xloader (128KB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p1): first stage bootloader (MLO)
/bootloader (256KB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p2): second stage bootloader (u-boot.bin)
/recovery (15.3MB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p3): recovery process (recovery.img)
/boot (16.3MB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p4): boot process (boot.img)
/rom (49.1MB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p5): a set of 15 files containing factory installed device info (ProductID, manufactured data, etc.) and individual device data (serial no., MAC address, security encryption keys, etc.)
/bootdata (49.1MB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p6): boot control and status data (BCB, BootCnt, max17042.bin)
/factory (378.8MB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p7): backup copy of stock ROM as well as backup copy of device data in /rom partition (romdata.zip)
/system (628.6MB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p8): running copy of ROM (system and base apps)
/cache (436.2MB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p9): storage area for temporary data by system/user apps
/media (7.8GB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p10): user media content
/userdata (often referred to as /data, 5.8GB, /dev/block/mmcblk0p11): user-installed apps
For information on the roles of some of these partitions in the NT boot process: see http://omappedia.org/wiki/Bootloader_Project and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1444630.
Rooting
Rooting essentially adds a number of system files and apps to the stock ROM on the /system and /data partitions. The simplest routing method which uses CWM recovery running on bootable SDcard and which contains relatively the most current rooting content package can be found at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=31271965&postcount=240. To get a sense of what get installed into /system and other changes to the stock ROM file-system, take a peek at the two folders “data” and “system” and the "updater-script" file in the folder "META-INF\com\google\android" inside the rooting content package "update.zip" referenced in that post.
Custom-ROM Flashing
Flashing custom ROM replaces the boot.img in /boot with a copy of boot.img from custom ROM zip file and the stock ROM in /system with the custom ROM and Gapps from the custom ROM and Gapps zip files, and wipes out /data (where user-downloaded apps from Google Play store will be installed) as well as /cache. Some custom ROM builds, such as Succulent’s CM10.x or 11.x builds (which are posted on his Blog http://iamafanof.wordpress.com/) also include copy of CWM or TWRP recovery.img which replaces the stock recovery.img in the /recovery partition. To get a sense of what get installed onto the NT and where, take a peek at the folders (except for "META-INF") and the "updater-script" file in the folder "META-INF\com\google\android" inside the ROM and Gapps zip files.
A method for flashing CyanogenMod (CM) ROM using CWM or TWRP recovery running on bootable SDcard is outlined at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=51377882&postcount=163 (CM10.x ROM) and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2692403 (CM11 ROM).
An alternative to installing CyanogenMod (CM) ROM intenally on emmc is to install and run it off an SDcard, leaving the NT entirely unmodified. See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2098419 for info on how to create CM10.x SDcard images using Succulent's CM10.x builds.
Recovery from a Bad Rooting and ROM Flashing
It should be clear from the above discussion that the Rooting and custom ROM Flashing processes only involve /system, /data, (and in the case of ROM Flashing) /boot and /recovery. Thus, a logical approach for recovery is to make a backup copy of these affected partitions prior to Rooting and ROM Flashing. This approach makes even more sense since the very same CWM or TWRP recovery tool used to install the content of the Rooting/ROM/Gapps zip packages can also be used to make a backup copy of the affected partitions’ content and subsequently restoring these partitions using the content backup copy if needed. For this reason, while there are various approaches to Rooting and ROM Flashing, the most pragmatic and prudent one is to use CWM or TWRP Recovery tool running off a bootable SDcard, as this enables using the SDcard for content backup and, more importantly, using the SDcard to boot the NT and restore the backup content even when the NT becomes un-bootable on its own.
The remaining partitions of the NT – namely: /xloader, /bootloader, /rom, /factory, and /media – are not involved and should not be affected at all by Rooting and ROM Flashing. Hence there is absolutely no reason to use any “unbrick” process/tool that would flash/reformat/repartition/wipe/zero-out any one of these partitions – unless it has been determined with certainty that these partitions have been irreversibly corrupted. In particular the two partitions /rom and /factory which contain factory-installed individual device data must never be reformatted/wiped/zeroed-out without first backing up their content in a restorable form -- therefore refrain from using any “unbrick” tool that reformat/overwrite/wipe these two partitions without first backing up and subsequently restoring their content.
Making a Bootable Recovery SDcard
There are two approaches to making a bootable SDcard with Recovery tool for Rooting and ROM Flashing: using a pre-made SDcard image (download, unzip and write the image to the SDcard using a disk-image writer program), and creating the SDcard from scratch. The first approach is convenient, while the second although a bit more time-consuming (and potentially frustrating) provides the flexibility in customizing the card: e.g., selecting particular version of Recovery tool (i.e., for its features, or its compatibility with the particular ROM release), sizing the SDcard boot partition to provide adequate space for backing up current ROM).
The TI OMAP processor used by the NT is very fussy about the cylinder/head/sector geometry of its “boot disk” (i.e., the SDcard in this case) – see http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/SD/MMC_format_for_OMAP3_boot for more info). Fortunately its requirements can be met using many disk-partition management tools such as MiniToolPartition or EASEUS Partition Master simply by selecting the approriate menu options in creating the boot partition: cylinder aligned, primary/FAT32 with partition ID type 0x0C and with LBA and Active flags set.
Next the boot partition needs to contain a specific set of boot files: MLO, u-boot.bin and boot.img and/or flashing_boot.img (aka Cyanoboot); these can be found in SD_boot.zip compiled by Succulent and posted at http://iamafanof.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/how-to-guide-bootable-cm7cm9cm10-sdcard-for-nook-tablet/). I have also found that it helps to first copy MLO (to the freshly made boot partition) before copying the other files, since it appears that the NT OMAP processor only scans the first couple of entries in the partition looking for this file (see http://www2.sakoman.com/OMAP/preparing-a-bootable-sd-card.html and http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.embedded.openbricks.scm/515).
In my experience, the two most common symptoms of failed SD boot and their likely causes are:
The NT boots straight to stock -- most likely the boot partition's type and/or flags are not correctly set, or the NT cannot find the MLO in the boot partition (see comment re: the ordering in file copying above).
The NT screen stays dark for several minutes then eventually boots to stock -- most likely the MLO or u-boot.bin are corrupted. Check the exact size of these two files in bytes, they should be respectively 38,356 and 179,812.
Also, it should be noted that many NTs will boot off a SD card only from the power-off state and upon insertion of a powered USB cable.
To complete the making of the Recovery SDcard, download a recovery program .img file for sdcard (such as cwm_6012_sd.img or twrp_2220_sd.img from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1640958), rename it to recovery.img, and copy it to the SDcard boot partition.
Info/Tools for Restoring to Stock
For situations with absence of a working DYI backup copy, attempts can still be made to restore the NT to stock.
Restore to Stock ROM from Rooted Stock ROM (NT with intact stock Recovery and /factory partition): consider using the “8 failed boots” method documented at http://nookdevs.com/NookColor/RestoreToStock (it was written for the Nook Color but should be applicable to the Nook Tablet as well).
Restore to Stock ROM from Custom ROM:
A good source for resource/tool for restoring to stock is Succulent's repository at https://github.com/succulent/acclaim_recovery_sdcard; see its README file for an annotated index/description of the resource/tools and usage instructions. Another potential recovery tool is the repart.img described at http://raywaldo.com/2012/06/how-to-un-brick-a-nook-tablet-8gb-or-16gb/.
HOW-TO Guides for Installing CyanogenMod on Nook Tablet
Installing CM11 Internally on Nook Tablet
Installing CM10.x Internally on Nook Tablet
Updating NT Internal Emmc to CM11 from CM10.x
Building a CM10.1 (JB 4.2.x) SD card for Nook Tablet