[INTRO] So you bought a NOOKcolor, now what? (aka - A Complete Idiots Guide)

J515OP

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jan 6, 2011
5,172
899
Hello,
I own a NC since yesterday and am very happy about it. I'm now thinking of rooting it, so I can add apps... because I'm living in Germany and can't use the B&N store and the apps..
The article about rooting says, I will have to add my credit card information to my B&N account even when I'm going to root it. Do I really have to do that? I'm using my Nook right now without the credit card information because I'm not having an american billing adress...
I'm a little confused right now. o_O

Hi Lessa, congratulations on you new Nook. You will not have to enter your credit card information or have a B&N account. Since you don't have access to the B&N Market and Apps, I would suggest you go with a custom ROM such as CM7 rather than rooting the Nook. Rooting the Nook unlocks features of the Android system whithin the B&N software but going with a custom ROM will give you full Android tablet features not tied to B&N.

Using a custom ROM is fairly straight forward and if you make a back up before you start you can always return to your stock B&N Nook at any time. Basic steps are:

1. Create a bootable ClockWork Mod Recovery (CWR) SD card (http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...msd-v3-0-1-0-higher-ext3-ext4-compatible.html)

2. Download the ROM of your choosing and put the zip file on the SD card. Do not unzip the file. (ROM threads can be found in the Nook Technical section)

3. Power the Nook down and insert the bootable CWR SD card. Power on which will boot you into recovery. Make a nandroid backup of your stock Nook. Clear your caches and data and flash the new ROM. (Details on these procedures here http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...m-manager-nandroid-backup-custom-kernels.html)

Read through the instructions in each of these threads until you have a good idea of the steps and what you are supposed to do then follow them exactly.

JP
 

lsoderquist

Member
Sep 30, 2011
3
0
So I just bought a nook color and it was already rooted so I wanted to restore it back to stock. I tried to unroot it with the clockworkmod system already on the SD card and it didn't work. Now my Nook won't turn on at all, just a blank screen. I tried to clear the SD card and rewrite clockworkmod recovery on the SD card and get the error message not enough space on disk, so I bought a brand new SD card and still get the same error message...what is going on???
 

J515OP

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jan 6, 2011
5,172
899
So I just bought a nook color and it was already rooted so I wanted to restore it back to stock. I tried to unroot it with the clockworkmod system already on the SD card and it didn't work. Now my Nook won't turn on at all, just a blank screen. I tried to clear the SD card and rewrite clockworkmod recovery on the SD card and get the error message not enough space on disk, so I bought a brand new SD card and still get the same error message...what is going on???

To help us assess the issue, are you familiar with the process of burning an image to a card or is this your first attempt?

First make sure the bootable ClosckworkMod Recovery (CWR) image you are trying to burn is size agnostic or equaly to or less than the size of your card. Usually you have to unpack the image after downloading it. Then you burn the image to your card usining a program like Win32diskimager. If you hae already burned the image once and it didn't work you may need to reformat the card using a disk paritioner to recover the full space of the card or insert it into a working nook and format. A quick format just using the PC will not recover the necessary space on the card.

JP
 

lsoderquist

Member
Sep 30, 2011
3
0
I've burned images to an SD card before. The SD card I'm using is completely empty, it's brand new. I downloaded win32diskimager and when I use that program and try to write CWR onto the SD card it gives me the error that there is no space on the disk. Also, I have a 4gb SD card and that is the CWR file I downloaded.
 

ILikeMe1337

Member
Feb 28, 2012
2
0
Hi everyone, I just bought a Nook Color with the intention of running CM7 on it, I thought this wouldn't be too hard to do using this guide but I've gotten stuck at the autonooter step. Out of the box my firmware is 1.2.0, but I see there is no autonooter for that firmware, do I have to use the manual nooter for 1.2.0? Am I better off updating my firmware to 1.4.1 and using the Manual Nooter for that firmware version? Or (if it's not difficult) downgrading to 1.1.1?

My goal is to run CM7 from the Nook Color's internal memory if that's easy to do but I'll settle for running it off the microSD if I have to do it that way.

I'm confused so if anyone can point me to an easy way to do this that would be awesome, thank you.
 

Temetka

Member
Oct 10, 2011
23
0
ILikeMe1337 said:
Hi everyone, I just bought a Nook Color with the intention of running CM7 on it, I thought this wouldn't be too hard to do using this guide but I've gotten stuck at the autonooter step. Out of the box my firmware is 1.2.0, but I see there is no autonooter for that firmware, do I have to use the manual nooter for 1.2.0? Am I better off updating my firmware to 1.4.1 and using the Manual Nooter for that firmware version? Or (if it's not difficult) downgrading to 1.1.1?

My goal is to run CM7 from the Nook Color's internal memory if that's easy to do but I'll settle for running it off the micro SD if I have to do it that way.

I'm confused so if anyone can point me to an easy way to do this that would be awesome, thank you.

If your goal is to remove the stock os and run cm7, then there is no reason to root anything. The guys over at the XDA forum have some very nice walkthroughs for creating a boot able clockwork mod SD card which you then use to format the internal storage and install cm7. I for instance am running ICS (CM9) from my internal storage and it is running very smoothly. Let me know if you need more help.
 

ILikeMe1337

Member
Feb 28, 2012
2
0
Thank You the replies, I ended up finding this you tube video:


That worked and got me a bootable microSD card with CM7 on it.

I'll see if I can get CM7 installed on my internal memory, for now I think I might just stick with the bootable microSD method but yeah it does suck not having access to my internal memory.

I do have some other questions:

With google asking for my registration info for backup and recovery does that mean if I erase my MicroSD (Side question: Can I just erase it by formating it in Windows as fat32 or is there another, better way to do it?) and create a bootable CM9 (When it is not in Alpha anymore, I'm not going to do it right now) and I use it to 'recover' does it put all my settings and apps on the new install (I have to re-download each item individually though right?)? If it does what's the point in using Titanium backup?

Is there a way to buy apps without a credit card? For example when I buy things from Xbox Live, I go to Best Buy, purchase a points card with cash and put in the code to add the points to my Xbox, I do this to control what I spend on DLC, is there anything like that for the Android Market?
 
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J515OP

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jan 6, 2011
5,172
899
You can't always just format your card with the Windows formatter (because it is lame and will only format the boot partition) but you can with a third party one such as Easus. The easiest option is to use the Nook or another device like a camera. Booting into the stock Nook unmounting the SD card and formatting will set it back to factory fresh. Once CM7 is on internal you can use a third party formatter or as mentioned many cameras have this feature built in. Just insert the card into the camera (may need SD adapter if not micro SD) find the little format hole and stick a pin in it or find it in the camera menu. So there are many ways.

When booting with the SD card any backups you do are also on the card. If you want to restore from those backups you first need to copy them off the card then format it. Once you have a new card you can download the Titanium Backup app and then put the restore file on there and restore apps and data.

You might be able to do something like that through PayPal. For sure you can if you get Amazon gift cards and then use those at the Amazon App Store.
 
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