[Nook Color Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Nora D:
Solved

Sorry for the double post. Need to separate this from the wall o text above. Problem is solved and since I never did find a spelled out definite answer while I was reading the last 2 days, I want to post it here where someone who might be looking in the future might easily find it.

To reiterate the problem concisely for those who don't have time for the diatribe above:

My device is a Green dot Nook Color:

* Running a stable Manual Nooter 5.08.20 over a Stock B&N 1.4.2 ROM, and using > This < method to block OTA Updates - basically use a SQLite Editor for Andriod to modify the fota mode in the nook's registry.

I recently started getting the Low Memory message asking me to please archive some of my apps to SD. Am about to go on a long trip abroad and I not only needed what apps I had but also need a couple more. Solution: Repartition the Data and Media partitions.

Full backups: have a whole slew of backed up NC B&N Update zips, Flashable updates created by several awesome people here, and step-by step Nan Backups of every single time I have re-rooted my device after a B&N Update - signed and registered stock configs, roots and final images, and finally a whole store of dated backups of my Tibu backups off of my SD card.

So, I repartition following steps exactly.

* At first reboot, CWR freezes on load. This makes me thing something went horribly wrong.

* Reboot again, everything seems to Format fine, reboot into Nook

* Unlike most people, my nook has reverted to an unregistered stock 1.4.1, no root.

* Flash my latest Nan-backup of my rooted NC, doesn't take properly and B&N is a mess because (duh) I didn't register it before flashing - But I shouldn't have needed to because all of those settings were in my Nan Backup. Okayyyy... weird.

* Flash back to a Registered stock NC nan backup of 1.4.2 since that was the last version I used. I was able to DL books and read them, and could DL apps - but my apps couldn't install at all and there were a couple of new B&N Apps that were stuck in a DL/Install loop too. Hm.

* Flash an earlier root Nan over that. Now my Nook can't download anything, I get an error message that it cannot execute. Lovely.

* Bash around in this fashion trying to make it work, occasionally trying different partition schemes in the process, while reading every thread I can find on the subject of what issues I'm having.

I begin to suspect that my partitions might be all messed up, especially considering the original freeze from CWR, but have no real way to check that and don't want to give up, so I post in the instruction thread and later here to see if anyone has any guidance or knows what this is.

A whole slew of people have endorsed this method and had no problems.

A few people had some problems, but only one user has reported exactly my problem off of the exact build I was running, no less. (1st link is that user's first post and 2nd is the page where her posts begin). However, that thread ended with no real answer - or so I thought.

At once point before the issue ended with no further response from the poster with the issues, Leapinlar (who had been assisting her, or at least trying to) tells her that if his Partition Repair didn't solve anything, then it likely wasn't the problem. If she cannot get her B&N Apps to DL & Install, then it's most likely the version of the B&N Stock that she is on and she needs to flash to the most recent - he even points her to a signed CWR Flashable one that he created for 1.4.3. She argues that can't be the issue - and I get that, because the apps installed and worked before in 1.4.1 right? So why all of a not now simply because she's back on 1.4.1 again?

I don't know why B&N would have made it so that you can't install any older apps on your device even though they installed on older ROM versions, forcing people to move up to 1.4.3, but it appears to me that this is exactly the case and Leapinlar is once again correct.

Took me a long time to internalize that and have it click. After running his Partition Repair with the same results as her, I left it on a registered 1.4.1 Stock, put the NC down and stepped away for a while to do other things. when I came back I was fixated on what Leapinlar said about flashing to a newer version of B&N Stock. So I did. And when that didn't really fix it I flashed up to the next ans last version, 1.4.3.

Hallelujah, problem solved!

For my own apps to download, I had to wait for a couple of new ones sent to Nooks from B&N for version 1.4.3 to download and install - and they were not able to do that on earlier versions. I propose that their inability to install was what was blocking my other apps. but it could be that the others were also made version specific once B&N stopped making NCs in favor of HD's and the Tablet, and released the final update.

Regardless, that is the final answer. If you are on MN and repartition, and then find when you boot you are taken to unregistered stock, and upon registering you can access your books but your apps will not install after downloading and you have a couple of new ones that seem stuck at dlownload and install, all you need to do is Update your NC to the final release, 1.4.3, and the re-root. I think you will need to re-root from scratch, unless maybe your last root backup was from 1.4.3 - which mine was not.

Next dilemma: Stick with root or start running a CM ROM from SD...