[Nook HD, HD+ General] DrWu:
I'm trying to load CWM (or any decent custom ROM) on a refurbed Nook HD BNTV400 I bought specifically to run a custom ROM on but I haven't been able to get it to boot from the SD card. I started out using PeteInSequim's 2014 process as detailed in the "tutorial for beginners" because both my objectives and my Android skill sets as pretty low-level, especially tablet versions. I faithfully followed the process from the OP in the interests of time economy and not getting lost in the weeds in the 21 pages of this thread that follow. But when I couldn't get my device to boot using the method(s) described in that post I waded in deeper and, predictably, got overwhelmed with the details.

So I took a different tack. I figured that the last information offered probably would lead to the most functional tablet so I made an effort to start at the end and read backwards to find the beginning of the process that the thread ends with but that was beyond me, too.

As for my experience level, I previously have (towel) rooted an LG phone and (TWRP) flashed a recovery ROM to it, I have (king) rooted a Samsung phone and later flashed a custom ROM to it (using Odin). And I have used and have basic familiarity with ADB but that's about it. And this is my first experience of any sort with the tablet versions of Android, so PeteInSequim's guide seemed ideal.

On to the details. I'm using an 8gb Class 4 PNY card, which I prepped both under Linux (GParted) and with Windows (MiniTool Partition Wizard) as per PeteInSequim's PDF guide. I tried booting 10+ times with the Linux-prepared card and at least 10 more with the Windows-prepped card and in no case did it appear to make any effort to boot from the card.

I

did

check and the SD card is mounting and the files on it are accessible once the tablet has booted. The files I'm using are:

1) NookHD-bootable-CWM-6046-for-emmc-BOOTFILES-rev0-(07.13.14).rar, files and extracted and copied to SD card, MLO binary being the first file copied and at that point the only file on the SD card.

2) NookHD-CWM-6046-for-internal-memory-rev0-(07-13-14).zip, copied intact to SD card

and 3) cm_hummingbird-ota-MOB31K.161125.zip, copied intact to SD card

And that's it. Insert card, power on, and ... nothing.

Now to my questions.

Firstly, is there any way I can know whether the tablet's failure to boot is the fault of the device or the fault of an improperly constructed/configured SD card? Or is either simply the more likely?

Is there anything I can do differently in the preparation of the SD card that might improve my results? (I also have other larger and 'faster' SD cards I might use)

I don't particularly care for the factory interface so I don't think simply rooting will lead to a satisfactory result. I'm not married to CWM but I would like a ROM that offers more complete Android functionality but without a lot of glitches, and something that doesn't invite Google to give me a colonoscopy. One of my objectives in my previous Android modding was to remove as many Google apps as possible, so with that in mind this time around I had intended to skip loading any GApps packages, but if I'm overlooking some material reason I should rethink that, please let me know.

And if you have suggestions for alternate procedures or ROMs, I'd be eager to hear it.