Aura H2O Accident: now wipe my data

A.T.E. · 12-25-2019, 12:43 PM

Hi,

My Aura H2O fell about one floor down on a stairway. In spite that it had a hard cover protection and that there is no visible damage on it, it does not work anymore.

I hoped that some internal component got disconnected by the hit. no luck: even inside, no visible damage, no disconnected parts... The device is dead, so I bought another one.

Now, I wanted to do two things:
1. Give it for free to some hobbyist, in case anyone is interested (*)
2. Wipe my data first. And here comes my question: I disassembled the e-reader, so I could extract the micro SD card. It contains two ext3 partitions of about 268 MB each. They appear to be the same. I suppose that one is the one that boots (booted, in my case) the operating system, while the other one might be a recovery one in case the first gets corrupted. Then there is the FAT32 partition with the books.

Questions:

Where are my WIFI, Kobo account, Pocket account, data stored? I would like to erase that, but, if possible, I would like not to erase the operating system, in case someone would want to reuse the SD card.
I see that the FAT32 partition contains some hidden folders:

.adobe-digital-editions
.kobo
.kobo-images

which contain some sub-folders...

Anyone can give me some hints?

On the other hand, if someone repairs it and puts an empty SD card in it, would there be a way make it work?

(*) there is no sign of life: no led when pushing the on/off switch, and no USB drive gets activated when connected to the computer. My impression is that something on the motherboard is damaged, but so the battery and the screen must be still ok.

davidfor · 12-25-2019, 06:48 PM

The FAT32 partition is the data partition. Formatting that will remove all of your data. There shouldn't be anything in the other partitions that is sensitive.

Before doing that, you should check all the cables are connected properly. And reinsert the SD card. The drop could have shaken one of the cables out.

frostschutz · 12-26-2019, 06:08 AM

Wifi info is stored on the root partition (partition 1, in /etc/wpa_supplicant/).

Second partition is recovery firmware and should not be modified.

Third partition is user data. To prevent data recovery by forensic expert, you'd have to overwrite the third partition entirely (quick format is not enough).

Quote:

(*) there is no sign of life: no led when pushing the on/off switch, and no USB drive gets activated when connected to the computer. My impression is that something on the motherboard is damaged, but so the battery and the screen must be still ok.

That's super unfortunate. Did you try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery? Or the reset button (pinhole next to external sd slot/usb port)? Sometimes it crashes in a way even holding the power button won't reset, and then you either have to forcibly power cycle or wait ages for the battery to run compeltely dry.

Usually it#s the display that breaks, but then (with microsd card present) you should still see power LED lighting up.

A.T.E. · 12-28-2019, 06:18 AM

I had tried to disconnect and reconnect all the cables and the SD card, I had tried the reset button, but it still would not work. When pressing the power button, there is no power led, which makes me think that the damage is somewhere in the motherboard circuits.

Anyway, thanks for the replies, and should somebody want my non-working Kobo Aura H2O (first generation) with a Fintie cover, please send me a private message.

frostschutz · 12-28-2019, 10:15 AM

I already have three of them, so I'll pass. And I couldn't do anything with it except perhaps test if your mainboard works in one of my H2O so as to completely rule out battery, sd card, display as possible culprits... sometimes things just break

Better luck with your new reader!

12-25-2019, 12:43 PM	#1
A.T.E. Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Switzerland Device: Kobo Clara HD, Kobo Aura H2O, Sony PRS-300, FBReader	Accident: now wipe my data Hi, My Aura H2O fell about one floor down on a stairway. In spite that it had a hard cover protection and that there is no visible damage on it, it does not work anymore. I hoped that some internal component got disconnected by the hit. no luck: even inside, no visible damage, no disconnected parts... The device is dead, so I bought another one. Now, I wanted to do two things: 1. Give it for free to some hobbyist, in case anyone is interested () 2. Wipe my data first. And here comes my question: I disassembled the e-reader, so I could extract the micro SD card. It contains two ext3 partitions of about 268 MB each. They appear to be the same. I suppose that one is the one that boots (booted, in my case) the operating system, while the other one might be a recovery one in case the first gets corrupted. Then there is the FAT32 partition with the books. Questions: Where are my WIFI, Kobo account, Pocket account, data stored? I would like to erase that, but, if possible, I would like not to erase the operating system, in case someone would want to reuse the SD card. I see that the FAT32 partition contains some hidden folders: .adobe-digital-editions .kobo .kobo-images which contain some sub-folders... Anyone can give me some hints? On the other hand, if someone repairs it and puts an empty SD card in it, would there be a way make it work? () there is no sign of life: no led when pushing the on/off switch, and no USB drive gets activated when connected to the computer. My impression is that something on the motherboard is damaged, but so the battery and the screen must be still ok.

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12-25-2019, 06:48 PM	#2
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,906 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	The FAT32 partition is the data partition. Formatting that will remove all of your data. There shouldn't be anything in the other partitions that is sensitive. Before doing that, you should check all the cables are connected properly. And reinsert the SD card. The drop could have shaken one of the cables out.

12-28-2019, 06:18 AM	#4
A.T.E. Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Switzerland Device: Kobo Clara HD, Kobo Aura H2O, Sony PRS-300, FBReader	I had tried to disconnect and reconnect all the cables and the SD card, I had tried the reset button, but it still would not work. When pressing the power button, there is no power led, which makes me think that the damage is somewhere in the motherboard circuits. Anyway, thanks for the replies, and should somebody want my non-working Kobo Aura H2O (first generation) with a Fintie cover, please send me a private message.

12-28-2019, 10:15 AM	#5
frostschutz Linux User Posts: 2,279 Karma: 6123806 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Heidelberg, Germany Device: none	I already have three of them, so I'll pass. And I couldn't do anything with it except perhaps test if your mainboard works in one of my H2O so as to completely rule out battery, sd card, display as possible culprits... sometimes things just break Better luck with your new reader!