URGENT: Restoring memory card !!!

[rajarshi.aich]

Members, Please help me !!!!!!
A couple of days I tried to install fingerpad. After copying the necessary files, I added some code as instructed to startup1.txt , basically to mount the installed *.so images at the startup.
When I rebooted the phone, It just loaded the vistaclock, and then hung there for indefinte time. I removed the battery after 15 mins, and took the microSD card out. Then the phone started as usual.
Now everytime I try using the memory card, the phione hangs after loading the vistaclock. It is now running alright without the memory card.
I have also tried by connecting the phone while it hung and also tried using an external card reader. But none are detecting the microSD.
I have amins extereme elite firmware in my phone.
Guys, you are my last option.
I don't want to format the SD card, as I have a lot of stuff in there.
Please help me out

[simosdj]

Does vista clock run automatically when you boot up your ming?
if so, go to the application you use for setting vista clock to run while starting your phone and then change setup not to do that.
Then put again your micro sd card.
Propably that is in conflict with the startup.txt of your mmc directory

[xetaman]

But that would not justify why an external card reader would fail to read the card...

[simosdj]

xetaman is right. My mistake . . .
You propably have to do Master reset (your ming will go back to the factory settings)
or even master clear to check if there is any progress.
Be careful, with Master clear your A1200 will loose any data saved.
Do a back up first if you finally try Master clear.

[kiwiguy]

I do not think doing a Master Clear or Master Reset will help anything - as the phone is running correctly when it does not have the SD card in it. It appears it is hanging when trying to excute the fingerpad command in the startup script.

Are you sure the card can not be read by an external reader - as you need to be able to get to the startup1.txt file somehow and either rename it - or edit it and remove that new line.

[Konig]

Is it possible to telnet into the phone? You could try doing that, then insert the memory card in, and then delete the startup scripts, or copy off all your data and then format it

[sabrod]

Did you tried to mount the card under linux?

If this can help, i have a pretty simple solution, but that would require maybe to know a minimum how to use linux...
i would, from a linux terminal (any live cd/ usb key should work, on ubuntu you need to be allowed to mount and write on the disks, with the 'sudo' before each command, on knoppix with 'sudo su' only once) .

if you only have one partition on this card, you can follow these steps, if you have more than one, you need to adapt the procedure for each parts.
So, boot linux, plug the reader and your card, then:

At first look at all the disks and partitions present and try to identify the microSD.

fdisk -l

I will consider you identified your SD card as /dev/sdmmc$ (but it could more probably be /dev/sdX).
i'll also assume you have an harddisk, or an usb drive mounted at WRITE_FOLDER ( again it should be some /media/disk_Y standart mountpoint, more probably ) with sufficient disk space to store all the microsd memory (including it's free space!).

Then dump your datas with dd, the stupid linux byte by byte copier.

dd if=/dev/sdmmc$ of=WRITE_FOLDER/backup.img

In this command, if stands for input file and of for output file.

If dd take too long, i.e. a lot more than 1 hours/gigabyte, you should maybe download ddrescue and try using it (it's basicly the same usage as dd, but it is smarter for damaged filesystems).

Then, test the resulting backup before doing anything!

mkdir SDMMC
mount -o loop -t auto WRITE_FOLDER/backup.img SDMMC/
ls -l SDMMC

if you can see the files that were present on your sd before the pb, then, you can fully erase the sd and keep the backup (the file backup.img) or the files you are browsing (the folder SDMMC) in a secure place.

then you are free to re-format it the way you want (you can use fdisk, and dosfstools).

[sabrod]

Post here the results of the first command (fdisk -l) if you are not confident, and i will repeat the steps, especially for you, so we will avoid making big mistakes this way....but it IS a kind of safe solution to try, was long to explain, but it should be fast to try...

[rajarshi.aich]

Thanks all for the advices.... I couldn't respond earlier as i read the replies from my cell...

kiwiguy's question "Are you sure the card can not be read by an external reader - as you need to be able to get to the startup1.txt file somehow and either rename it - or edit it and remove that new line." knocked me, and I borrowed a memory card from a friend, and that did the trick for me. Both of my memory card readers were damaged ( don't know why, and i never thought that both could get damaged).

Finally i deleted the fingerpad code, and everything was back to normal. There was something wrong in it. I didn't get the time to analize, but when i do, I'll post that in the fingerpad thread itself.

Thanks to all again for helping me out.

@sabrod, your procedure sounded interesting, And I'll definitely try it out, so that I can use it next time if I face some problem.

[sabrod]

Cool!
This dd command is quite good, also for harddisk, extract the so called mbr, add an offset to a binary file, you can find similarity between this and the firmware modding work, i liked to write it, for helping, and for that reason too

But if you liked it, i got two very usefull ones for you:
DANGEROUS TO TRY !! Both of them delete the memory card, or the hard disks, or anything you point to. Be sure what device to write in before!
1: very safe deletion, (you are sure no partition table or anything else linux may have created on your card remains)

dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/sdmmc

(you should point to the main device, for plain usage, not the minor devices, sdmmc$ ... numbered partitions...)
2: the restoring one:

dd if=backup.img of=/dev/sdmmc$

(understand that count for one partition, if your .img contains a backup of mutliples partitions, then again, point to the main device, not the numbered)
you can also use another drive for restoring, but i guess it's safer to re-use the same type (that just need to be tested...), but "man dd" is your friend, and might also explain this case