yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
I agree man. Bricking a phone is the worst feeling in the world. I think a message or pop up should appear to new people on XDA when they search a specific device. The pop-up could include important info from the mod of that specific device. Only problem is that many of the old cats always say "this is a developer website, if you don't know what your doing then gtfo" but lets be honest, we all love modding and doing cool things with our phone, and XDA should be more of a community rather then a place for people to degrade others who aren't as advanced as other. Glad this thread is getting some views though. I know this isn't guaranteed to prevent a brick but it's the method I've used for the last 4x flashing back n forth from ICS.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
It is certainly possible for ODIN to brick your phone, but the particular issue with /data being unwritable most likely happened prior to the ODIN OneClick. In particular if you restored or wiped using CWM Touch fake flashed onto your running kernel, that is the scenario most people had when their /data became unwritable. For them, ODIN OneClick only came into the picture after the damage was already done, when things were going wrong and they wanted to restore back to a known state.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] I_FLY_Z3R0:
Good work on this! Would like to see it get stickied as well.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] -EViL-KoNCEPTz-:
I havent seen this mentioned anywhere yet, but i have only skimmed the threads, im wondering if running a pit file to correct the partitions going back to GB would prevent the bricks as alot of what ive seen appears the data partition is being modified for ICS and causing an error with GB. I decided to just wait til the ota drops and grab a custom rom off of it instead of risking a brick since i still have my OG evo and have been working on ICS for it anyways plus im pretty happy with the Dark ICS el29 from mijj and team nocturnal for now
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MeWarning:
Since he's already been mentioned in the replies you may want to add about jtag( Josh at mobiletechvideos.com) as a possible alternative method to repairing a brick instead of going through Sprint. Mine was hard bricked with only getting the blue led light and he brought her back.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] stonesaber:
I sent mine to him and it should be back today, but I also received a partial refund yesterday. He has stated in the thread that was first started because of this that he was unable to repair the two that he tried. Mine included. So, it's off to Sprint as soon as I get it back.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
I would mention Jtag, but I don't wanna give promotion especially when there is no guarantee it can fix a brick sammy
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Epix4G:
But this was in the beginning a development forum ....you had to have some info of knowing what you are doing .. with the noobs they don't even try to learn anything about the phone they can't be bothered to read 10 threads when they can skip that knowledge and just go flash away ics on my e4gt and who cares if I brick I will just lie and take it to sprint and have them replace my ignorant problem .... it all goes back to sense of entitlement.... these are the same people you never see on here answering any questions because they don't know anything ...
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
+1 very true, I bricked my tmobile dash when I was a kid and ever since I study my a$$ of before I attempt to flash anything, I listen to the devs and completely read through every line of the op thread, and if I have questions I'll ask them. I've always been willing to help people solve they're issue, but only if they're willing to help themselves. I'm not a developer, but noobs need to at least obtain common sense before the start flashing like a fat girl at mardi gras :p . I saw another thread this am of another brick that could have been prevented by simply reading this advice page, perhaps I did this for no reason.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
IMO most people actually do read. However we get a skewed view because the ones who successfully installed don't post a new thread saying yay, I flashed ICS successfully, or yay, I just rooted my phone. The ones that post the new threads are the ones saying I just bricked my phone, sometimes not even understanding what that means since in their eyes not booting equals brick.

There are so many people with this phone though that if just 5% don't read before doing things it will seem like a lot of people don't read, despite 95% being careful. 5% of 100 users is just 5 "brick" posts. 5% of 1000000 users could be 50,000 posts.

I am obviously just making up the numbers to illustrate a point and don't claim any accuracy. This is just my opinion based on maintaining the Auto Root thread where I do actually see people posting success stories.

While there are good percentage of bricks from newbies, ironically, quite a few are also from experienced users who are coming from other platforms where things were done differently. While many newbies are naturally a little cautious in the beginning, if you have experience on other Android phones, that may give you confidence to skim instructions rather than reading them through. Also you might be used to tools from your past platform which aren't that well tested on Epic 4G Touch.

Until the last month I've actually never seen so many people pushing ROM Manager as their tool of choice. I just chalk it up to all the Evo users coming off their 2yr contracts and jumping to Samsung.

Then you have the excitement over ICS and people not realizing that Intl GS2 is not the same thing as Epic 4G Touch. People got tempted by the Apple.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] stonesaber:
Very true. In my case, I had ran all the ICS roms available successfully before my brick. In that case, one momentary lack of attention and that's all it took. I was running a GB rom using the touch recovery and forgot to load up rogue recovery before going back to ICS or vise versa, I can't remember which way I did it (was awhile ago). Either way, I simply had that lapse and resulted in brickage.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
Good point sf, I think the main issue I have with noobs is when resources are available they don't seem to use them anyway.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Biker1:
Really informative read.

Thanks for posting.

I have yet to install an ICS ROM.

I was thinking to try CM9, but was holding off.

I may just stick with EL29, at least for now.

But if I change my mind, your post will definitely help ;)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
No problem, glad I could help. CM9 looks great I was debating on installing but i'm a little reluctant just because the things I've heard of bricking, I think I'll wait untill it's a little more stable or turns beta. EL29 is great, I've been using FB27 and I love it, very few bugs just need some speed hacks and tweak like the sensor
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] iniz94:
I'm holding off on flashing a new ICS ROM after I hard bricked my phone and had to get it replaced. I think one of the problems was that there were a lot of threads about bricking, but nothing linked them. I believe I was the only person to brick my phone through Blazer's ICS alpha... it happened the same way people did it from CM9 though. I'm also not blaming anyone but I would encourage people to beware of CWM Touch in general because it doesn't exactly seem stable and there's no benefits of that over like Rogue Stock or Gunslinger. I didn't read those threads though because I never thought they would apply to my problem. But thanks to this thread, a definite correlation is made and people eager to use ICS can read it. For now though I'm staying cautious until ICS official comes out.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
Ya, I feel sorry for the people who were first to discover these things would brick the E4GT. I was lucky because I never use features a lot of others use and I read a ton of facts before flashing anything (not saying you didn't). How did you brick yours?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] iniz94:
Blazer released his Alpha ICS ROM for VIPs so I went ahead and tried it. I made a Nandroid for GB just in case something messed up. The instructions said flash CWM Touch after flashing ICS so that's what I did. Everything worked for like the first 20 minutes... I was having fun with Face Unlock and everything. But then all of a sudden I was locked out of my phone - the Face Unlock prompt wouldn't even show and it would say my PIN was incorrect. So I naturally freaked out and tried to restore GB...and yeah you know the rest. It got stuck so like 30 minutes later I pulled the battery. I tried Odining back to EL29 but then I would get stuck at Data.img.

I really really want to try an ICS ROM but now I'm nervous that I'll brick again :/
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
It's CWM touch man it's a murderer of phones ha, I love ICS though but I would never flash cwm touch even if it said to
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
Pass this on for all the idiots that keep bricking.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] stonesaber:
Classy....
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
I'm talking about the people who keep bricking even though this info is provided for them, you bricked your prior to any knowledge of this info ;)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Rucker-S:
I have a question,What makes phones react differently to certain flashing methods? for example, I've have been successfully flashing ICS Roms left and right(knocks on wood) but if someone else tried my method for flashing there is a possibility of them bricking but why? and I'm not talking about using cwm touch or anything else just using a certain set steps to flashing.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Biker1:
Human error................

All things being equal, if one follows the same exact steps, in the same exact sequence of someone who has had a successful flash/installation, I would think that those people would also have success.

Sometimes people say they did A, B, and C, and had a failure or a brick, and that they followed the directions to a 'T,' but may have inadvertently, without knowing, did something different.

I don't know if a device with its 'own mind' exists, and if so, if it would make a difference if the same exact steps were followed, if that device would have a failure.

Smartphones are electrical devices. And I have read where a certain app or theme 'plays nice' with one device, and not another. That just may be attributed to a certain app already installed, or a certain setting having a conflict with the Theme and/or app.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Maxed22a:
Very possible.......I own the sgh-t989 and put cwm touch on it about a month ago...had a vibrant before the Hercules. Vibrant was truly hard to destroy.. dropped in because I destroyed his e4gt..I'm talking to a guy in queens right now who used to help me with iphones way back when..I watched him write a baseband from scratch....just a laptop screen filled with 0 and 1's. Weird..anyway I'm talking to him about the problem. He has the sprint variant so he's intrested. Not making any crazy promise but this dude is not from earth...he's a code robot..will post back if hes got something for me..
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
Yup, every phone is different in the sense of what you've done to it, unless the factory did something incorrect then most likely it was the error the person that caused a brick. Just remember to always follow instructions and never flash anything your not sure of, if you wish to flash something that has not been done yet, try to wait until someone else has tried it before you, and wait even longer to make sure they're is no issue going back to stock or previous rom, modem, radio, bootloader, kernel, etc....
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] zarthan:
You might try a Sprint Store with an in house repair department. My local store will attempt to restore a bricked phone. The store manager is quite willing to talk rooting and discuss the different ROMs. He said that since Sprint was a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance they stood by the open nature of the OS. YMMV
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Basically true...

In a nutshell it is true - and I say this as a DB dev. But in my world the DB is usually running on one single machine and everyone accesses it; a smartphone, like a PC has its own hardware components. Each component *should* last the same amount of time and behave exactly the same in the exact same conditions, but it may not.

So it makes me wonder - could the data.img issues actually be pointing to a bigger bug? Either in the hardware design or a certain combination of programs which cause the machine (binary) code to instruct the hardware to do something it doesn't like? Not to lessen the plight of those who have bricked but it is troubleshooting issues such as this that make debugging interesting. I've learned a lot more by debugging similar technical issues than in general support of my programs.

i really wish I had more time to get in and start doing Android dev and troubleshooting. Since I don't I'll throw a few ideas out there just in case:

1) Can this be re-created on a virtual E4GT? (Assuming the E4GT can be easily virtualized, disregard if not.)

2) Is there any debugging logs on imaging that could be dumped and possibly find out more?

3) For those already bricked at data.img, is there a way to debug it while doing the recovery? (Either capture everything done or interactively debug)

And yes, phone n00bs do read this. I'm proof of that as I just jumped to this from an Opt S this week. Rooted thanks to sfhub's EL29 ODIN and am still learning getting around the stock ROM, but will probably try EL29 ROMs first in a few weeks and then maybe look at ICS closer to OTA release time. If it comes soon enough could always just go OTA....
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dr. Fed:
First of all, thanks. Anyhow, I agree. I'd like to add that, for those who do read these threads extensively, there is a significant amount of conflicting advice out there. I don't know much (noob here), but I know that you shouldn't believe everything you read. Read, read, verify, read some more.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] fuhrer24:
never had a problem

using odin to go back to GB, and using qbking77 videos at first, i never had any problems thank god
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] stonesaber:
Well, after getting my replacement from Sprint yesterday, I'm staying away from ICS for now. I'm plenty happy with GB roms for the time being. I'll use my photon for all my ICS needs for now.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] ioos:
I'm ****ing retarded.

FC06 Rogue => AKOP => Nothin' but blue led.

How are you guys getting replacements? Through insurance or warranty?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] stonesaber:
I bought mine second hand through swappa and had no insurance. I disclosed this to the Sprint rep that helped me and he warrantied mine with no problems. $35.00 and had it the next day.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] darkfire2024:
Hello, a very scared newb here,

Just to clarify, if I am on a ics leak, (Calks v1 tweaked rom FC06) can I use the repacked cwm rogue kernel to flash to another ics leak rom like Blend FC06?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] 2high714:
thanks guys

:cool: thanks guys im still on stock but glad i saw dis :D
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dchibro:
I would not do this if you want to be extra careful. Odin back to a GB ROM like EL29, flash the EL29 (or whatever GB base you choose to flash back to) kernel + CWM repack, then flash your next ICS ROM. Flashing anything using CWM while on an ICS kernel is dangerous right now. Granted, I've done it a couple times, and others have done it successfully far more times than a couple. But there does seem to be a risk when data is formatted, so if you want to play it safe, Odin back to a GB kernel + CWM and do your flashing from there.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] phtht:
thank you

thank you............
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] BootOne:
Quick! Quick! How do I know if i have bricked it?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Most common i believe is boot loop, but by fixing will cause Odin to get stuck at data.img.

If not sure you may want to wait before going any further.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
If you feel like you want to throw the phone on the ground or use it as a doorstop, then you know you have bricked it.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Just curious, sfhub... Most of the discussion is for already bricked. But what if they are still before the data.img issue? Is there any known way to recover safely yet?

Also for myself as I considering trying FC07. But that means me doing EL29 + Rogue first if I understand correctly...

Thanks!
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] BootOne:
I answered my own question, and indeed my poor phone, named Jimbo (so I don't feel as weird talking to him) has the "Blue-Light Special" and is now deceased. If anyone has the power to spread this around the Beats Audio area:

CM9 for the E4GT as of now is not compatible with Beats Audio, flash packages fail, and pushing the files to the system causes an immediate spiral to the horror that is the Blue-Light Special.

Sprint will be expecting me after school tomorrow, at which point I will redeem my insurance and carry-on flashing to my heart's content.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
If you are asking what to do if the phone is not well, but you don't have the issue with data partititon hoarked, just use the pre-rooted OneClick in my signature:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=23478866&postcount=869
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] info[]box1:
I'm very new to the ET4G Dev. I'm running rooted stock FC-07 ice cream with stock recovery. I need cwm recovery can I just Odin the EL-26 stock CWM tar ? If I understand correctly I have to Odin that recovery after everytime I install a ICS ROM.?
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] sfhub:
You can use odin.

I would suggest the auto root sticky or mobile odin though, as they won't trigger the yellow triangle nor will they increase your odin flash count.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dchibro:
No. CWM is custom recovery, and Odin is a tool you use to flash TAR files from your PC. You would be flashing that file using Odin, and the recovery on your phone at the time doesn't matter. I personally think you should use Odin to flash a full EL26 TAR first though, then flash the stock EL26+stockCWM (non-Rogue in this case).

Although I personally think EL29 ROM + EL29 Kernel+RogueCWM repack is just fine for everything except CM9. Darchstar and SH seem to think using a non-Rogue CWM kernel repack is the best way to go when working with CM9.

Honestly, its your phone bro and you can do whatever you want, but I wouldn't be messing around with the ICS leaks or CM9 right now unless you have a good understanding of this stuff. Learning on GB builds is fine, as the chance to brick is virtually zero. Learning on the ICS leaks or CM9 is asking for a headache.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
So, let me make sure I have this right, at least based on everything I have read:

ICS (particularly Linux 3 kernel) + Non-ODIN partitioning solution currently is bad news.

GB + any partitioning solution (CWM, CWMT, ODIN, MODIN) - G2G

ICS + ODIN - GTG.

If so then it would seem as long as I stay with stock ROMs that can be flashed by ODIN OC then I might be willing to try FC07 + Rooted as I can always go back to EL29 + Rooted.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] Dchibro:
Well to clarify, CWM doesn't do any partitioning. CWM only formats/wipes partitions. Partitioning is only done in Odin, when a PIT (Partition Information Table) file is used while flashing.

The brick problem appears to be occurring when you wipe/format data using CWM while on a ICS kernel. The problem seems to be more pervasive when formatting data using Temp CWM via ROM Manager, Touch CWM, and when on experimental CM9. This last one (CM9) may be a placebo, as it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. CM9 is the ROM, and when formatting with a Rogue CWM repack for example, I would think brick frequency would be the same as with a Samsung ICS leak. But from my observations, hard brick events seem to happen much more often when people are working with a CM9 build. I don't know what it is about CM9 but I just see more brick reports coming from that area.

So ...

GB to anything else via CWM that involves a data format = FINE

ICS to anything else via CWM that involves a data format = Potential Hard Brick

ICS to anything else via Odin = FINE

I'll be operating by this simple set of guidelines until this **** gets figured out or magically goes away.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
@Dchibro,

Thanks for cross-posting this on another thread. Hopefully this post will keep it near the top so that people read this and avoid bricking.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] az18zz:
How do yu install cwm recovery on your phone?

xXHELLBoy91Xx
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Installing CWM

To get it on the first time you'll need to use ODIN. The process starts here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1433101

The instructions say to flash stock+rooted first and then flash the CWM repack.

Won't recommend installing an ICS CWM repack for now - again, latest builds have removed it altogether.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Bump (in lieu of sticky)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] monkeybone12:
This sure would make a great sticky. Thanks for the resources!

Read this when I first got my Epic. Glad I did. I was too used to fishing whatever I wanted on my old Evo with the handy "pc36img" ass saving file on my SD card at all times.

This Epic is nuts. Thanks to the Devs for twisting this device into what it is now.

:)
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MJHawaii:
AnWhats working for me.

My daily driver is calks 2.9 2, rogue gunslinger kernal and I have been flashing ics builds like calks, goodness, AOKP, and venum through rogue CWM. I have used ROM Mangler to get back from builds without CWM, not very smart but no issues to restore my nandroid back to calks 2.9.2. Like I said no issues and I always have a USB download jig ready. I have Odin with Sfhubs one click twice no issues. So thats my experience BRICK FREE. I always read the OP no matter how much I think I know and I always know its always a risk no matter what you do or who you are. in cases where im on cwm recovery and cannot see my backups I have done full wipes always and flashed my daily then went into that rogue recovery to restore my nandroid to clarify. Aloha
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
Glad I can help, I compiled this over experience and watching others mistakes, if it's one thing I've learned, let other people test new things out and don't ever be the guinea pig.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
Good job man, just remember that a jig won't save a hard brick so be careful, it's good to have one but they only work with soft bricks.
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] dspain28:
Get Odin lol u can fix anything with that
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] MJHawaii:
No your right dl jigs do only work with s bricks they also take care of yellow triangles the main thing is that I always flash ics from my daily without issues. The risk is there though with all these bricks but I think alot has to do with flash happy people so excited about ics (over rated) that they think everything is full wipe and install and its not,.....as we have seen. Btw Odin is not a fix all it does fail on ocassion but I use it and swear by it....knowing the risks. Like they say the only one responsible for bricking your device is YOU
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] stonesaber:
Not even odin works for this
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] garwynn:
Thanks to the mods who got this stickied! :D
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] xST4T1K:
Nice! just realized this was stickied. I'll update it to fit today's standards when I can
[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] crw11:
E4G hardbrick options

I've hardbricked two E4Gs myself in exactly these scenarios. Coming back from CM9 to GB and getting into a dead-end with Odin. I wrote the first one off to bad luck and got a refurb "Sorry, it just died", but when the second one happened within a week, I figured I better find a different option. Just got the second one back from JTAG at MobileTechVideos - working great! Whew.