Missing internal flash memory and SD card does not mount

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Some time ago I installed a custom firmware (YAR28) on my Archos 7HT. This worke
d fine for a while, until some day when I switched it on it showed the initial s
tartup screen, and after that all my installed apps were gone. So I re-installed
the stock firmware from Archos. But then I found out I could no longer access t
he sd-card. It was not mounted when I inserted it. But when I connected the devi
ce to my PC using USB it did show up as drive F: and G:. I could access F:, whic
h was obviously my sd-card, but G: (which should be the internal flash) could no
t be accessed, and Windows even asked if this should be formatted.
When I open the Files on my tablet, and select 'SD Card' it gives the 'SD card i
s unmounted' error. And when I select 'Internal Memory' it is completely empty.
So it looks like the file system is still working, but the internal flash part s
omehow is no longer accessible.
I have a feeling that some low level setting has changed and that I could someho
w solve it if I could get access to the underlying Linux system, but I do not ha
ve a clue how to proceed.
storage archos-gen8
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edited Mar 24 '13 at 12:02
Izzy
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asked Feb 25 '12 at 14:32
Cees Meijer
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1 Answer
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up vote 2 down vote accepted
Indeed the internal filesystem somehow got damaged. To fix this you need access
to the filesystem itself, which can be done using ADB. (Android Debugging Bridge
) Instructions for connecting to the Archos Tablets using ADB can be found here:
http://www.archos.com/support/support_tech/updates_adb.html?country=er&lang=en
Although the description is complete this still sometimes can be hard. You might
have to restart your computer a few times, but eventually it is possible.
Open a command window in the directory containing the ADB.exe program (it is in
the 'platform-tools' directory under the androis-sdk-windows folder)
Type:
ADB SHELL
If the connection is OK, it will start a server and after e few seconds show the
'$' prompt. this means you are connected to the tablet and have direct access t
o the linux shell. If you type 'ls' you will see a list of folders that contain
the operating system and all supporting files that make your tablet work.
Now navigate to the folder containing the Flash file system by typing:
cd ./dev/block/vold
If you now type 'ls' again you should see three or four folders that have number
ed names. One of them is '31:8'. This is the folder that points to the internal
flash. Now we can fix our problem by recreating the MS-DOS (FAT32) file system o
n this partition. Type the following:
mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/block/vold/31:8/
This will fix the FAT32 filesystem. Now leave the shell by typing 'exit', discon
nect the USB and restart your tablet. On my system this made internal storage re
-appear, and after that it also mounted the sd-card. Problem solved.
Many thanks to this post on SlateDroid that contained the answer.