[Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet] finndo:
I'll put the question first for those not wanting to read the details.

I cannot get into CWM (internal) on my 16GB nook tablet. I can boot to CWM (external), but nothing works. When I try to activate ANY menu option, it takes me to a blank screen with the CWM hat logo in the background. Pressing power returns me to the main menu. Not even "reboot device" works. Can someone help? (I want to do a backup before i flash a JB Rom (internal), and to flash a JB Rom)

Now the long part:

I purchased and rooted my NT in December 2011 (about the 21st) using the snowball root (incase you are not familiar, as I don't see any post about it now, it was a modified zerg root borrowed from Albert's root method that with one menu option allowed rooting, recovery, and removal of certain nook apps and the addition of your choice of three launchers). I used it successfully on three nooks within a month or so, but this is the only one I did the complete nook removal option to.

Root works fine, but debug does not. When I run the NT hidden settings app to turn on debug mode, the developer options are listed twice (one compete set followed by another), this did not happen until after rooting, before they were only listed once. The bottom set was correctly checked to allow debug mode, and its how I rooted; however titanium backup says debug is not enabled every time I load it. (No complaints from RTB Pro) So I go into the developer settings and found two sets, the top one not checked... When I check it I get the pop-up warning, if I uncheck the bottom one, then debug does not work, if I check the bottom one I don't get the pop-up warning. With both checked, adb works, otherwise it does not. It had been this was since December 2011, and has not really prevented me from doing anything, although as the pop-up warns somethings may not work (converting apps to/from system, merging system app updates, restoring system app backups) and cause titanium to hang, but after a manual force close of titanium, most of the time the change was successfully completed.

Now, moving on one day I was being up my phone and thought "I can't remember the last time I did a nandroid of my nook" so I used RTB to reboot into recovery, the nook booted right back up into android, no errors, no different screen than a normal boot (with the nook --> hack logo, which incidentally takes about 12 minutes to boot every time, not sure if that is normal). So I tried an adb reboot recovery, but adb said no devices were attached. I went back into NT hidden settings and due enough debug was unchecked on the top, but still checked on the bottom (I've learned it lose it every reboot), do I rechecked it, got the pop-up, and went on my way. Adb reboot recovery also restarted my nook back into the OS, not into CWM.

I started to think that I may never have installed CWM, so I checked the root package I downloaded and viewed the script, first thing it does its copy the recovery image to the device, even before rooting, then installs it right after rebooting, post root hack. I thought maybe the posh was bad flash, so I searched XDA, downloaded a newer CWM, and manually adb pushed it to the phone and dd it per the instructions in the XDA thread. Reboot recovery, still nothing.

Please note I CAN get the factory reset screen to show up, but really don't want to try it without a backup, as I've been using my nook like this for 12 months and only have a titanium backup of the apps.

So I made a CWM SD from the NT thread here on XDA and booted to it :-/ intending on flashing 6.0.12 CWM to the internal emmc, the recovery on the SD was 5 something and none of the menu options worked, as mentioned above pressing power while any are selected gives a new screen with the background image, but no options. Pressing power again takes me to the main screen (same thing when selecting reboot device).

So I found a newer CWM SD package on XDA and swapped them out, this time a newer version 5.5.x, no change in how it works, so downloaded 6.0.12 and renamed the recovery image file and booted the SD. Small change this time (beyond the new version number and the option to power off, which also does nothing), when pressing the power button to select a menu option, the screen refreshes, but continues to display the same menu choices for all options in the menu.

I have also tried pushing each of these recovery images to the device and using adb to dd them to the recovery partition. Three nook will only boot the SD clockwork image.

Yes I made sure to select internal images for dd to the nook and external images for the SD.

So last night I installed nook tab recovery flasher, it said it successfully installed, before I clicked yes to allow it root access... the pressed the reboot recovery button, no good. So I downloaded and installed goo manager from the market and had it flash TWRP, same thing, reboot recovery ignores it.

Now to repeat my question, anyone have any clue how I can get recovery working spp I can make a nandroid and flash a JB Rom? (I know I can make a backup using adb, and Iam pulling one now, but I am wanting a recovery (that works) on my nook.)

Also, I am willing to try an adb push install of the Rom, I think I can make it work (although Ihave never tried it, on any device, I might be able to do it without further help), but I do not see how a new Rom will make any difference on my recovery situation and if I screw up, it would be comforting to know I had a working recovery at least.