[HOWTO:] Install ROM to unbootable Atlas40 without SD CARD

[Guest stoyantenev]

So, hello guys, this is my first post. Please don't blame me for my bad english, as I am from Bulgaria.. Bla Bla Bla...

Today I got into very VERY bad situation - i got my device only on bare CWM, without any ROM installed (tried the stupidest thing - tried restoring a NANDROID of CM10.1 to a device running CM11 <by KonstaT> ) and I eventualy ended up with fried microsd and an atlas40 device not booting.. So I decided to try and install the 10.1 ROM from the internal memory (YES - POSSIBLE) as I hadn't had sdcard inhand.. Well i'll write you up trough this, but: 

 

PLEASE DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK - I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU MESS SOMETHING UP, EVEN WHEN THIS PROCEDURE IS PRETTY SIMPLE!!! DO NOT BLAME ME IF YOU GET YOUR DEVICE MESSED UP!!!

 

Well this is not a big deal, but it helped Me and I hope it helps YOU in some tight situation.

 

This WILL NOT get your rom installed for everyday use, but in my case it was the life-saver! WARNING: With your ROM installed that way, you may or will experience BLUE SCREEN followed by REBOOT and some other bugs. WHEN CHOOSING ROM, CHOOSE THE SMALLEST SIZE (like 200mb of ROM) because you have a LIMITED MEMORY on you cache partition. Good Lick!

 

As you may already thought of, will be using the ADT Bundle here as our very right hand, but firstly some preparations:

 

For older version of the bundle, the ADB is located in SDK\Tools\

For newer version it's in SDK\Tools\platform-tools\

 

1: Copy your ADT folder on some easy location.(in my case D:\ADT)

2: Copy your ROM to your ADB location or even a simplest location (simply for convenience)

3: Do Wipe Cache Partition

4: Do Wipe Dalvick Cache

5: Do Wipe Data/Factory Reset

6: Do Mounts And Storage>Wipe /system (only if you messed up your /system partition like i did) :)

 

 

Step by Step:

 

1: Turn on your device in CWM mode and connect it via USB cable.

2: Open a CMD on your PC: Start>cmd (in search or run box)

3: Navigate to the ADB directory (in my case D:\ADT\SDK\platform-tools\

4: Type in  "adb shell" (without quotes)

5: Type in "mount Cache" (as this is the partition we will be using as file location) and wait 'til you get the same command returned. (matter of seconds)

6: Press Ctrl+C simultaniously (don't worry, adb is still runing in bckground)

7: Now replacing the corespondenting paths and names, enter the following (in my case) command: adb push D:\ADT\SDK\platform-tools\ROM_NAME_GOES_HERE.zip /Cache/

8: Patiently wait for the adb to push the ROM file, don't worry it's working even it doesn't show any activity.

9: Again you will have to enter the "adb shell" command.

10: Finaly enter "recovery --update_package=CACHE:ROM_NAME_GOES_HERE.zip"  (as always without the quotes) and wait until the device finishes it's work. Now don't get jumpy on me if your CWM starts acting funny, it's normal. After the last step, the device will show you the logo of the stock recovery, with a loading bar beneath it, don't worry if the bar seems hung, as it will jump quickly to the end, after a few minutes.

 

The device will automaticly reboot when finished installing.

Voala you have installed your ROM succesfully. But we are not finished yet:

11: Reboot your device into recovery mode and do Wipe Cache Partition. (so you erase the ROM image from your device)

All done.

Edited January 8, 2014 by stoyantenev

[Guest KonstaT]

CWM has sideload support. 'adb sideload zipname.zip' installs package directly from your computer.

 

Restoring any nandroid backup over any ROM doesn't 'brick' your device. Having full restorable system backups is actually the whole point of having nandroid backups at all.

[Guest aleksandar069]

Thank's... I'm also from Bulgaria...

[Guest stoyantenev]

I do agree with you, but the problem with restoring a lets say 4.1 nandroid over the 4.4 ROM does gets you the md5 error, and when you delete the content from the md5 file, you get the error 'problem writing at /system'

[Guest GizmoTheGreen]

I do agree with you, but the problem with restoring a lets say 4.1 nandroid over the 4.4 ROM does gets you the md5 error, and when you delete the content from the md5 file, you get the error 'problem writing at /system'

 

then it's not a full backup. full backup restores your phone to the exact state it was, meaning nothing from 4.4 should be left.

not sure if it automatically formats the partitions though or just overwrites the files...?

if you got an md5 error perhaps your backup was corrupted anyway?

[Guest stoyantenev]

No Sir, corrupted was not. Because after the fails i had flush fresh copy of the ROM that the nandroid was done from (doing the steps described above), and then succesfully restored the nandroid (even without doing the MD5 empty trick) so i guess that the problem is when you try to restore nandroid done from earlier version to a ROM that is newer version.. The funny thing is, that i actualy did wipe all possible partitions (cache/dalvik/clear data;factory reset) and even wiped manualy the DATA and CACHE partition (from mounts and storage menu).. IDK where the problem exactly was, i only know that i couldn't boot the device.. And the oddest thing from all is - why did my Kingston 8GB Class 10 ended up so totally fried, that even the guy from the Data Restore Service started asking me 'bout what have i done to the SD..