I won't be creating any new topics about N289, and just share my story of resurrecting N289 here instead. My N289 didn't see books at all, like it was empty.
- Requested image for N289 under https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=355778
- Carefully opened ebook as described here under step 1 - https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=209122 (surprisingly it wasn't glued, so all came up easy)
- Disconnected battery, found microSD on "motherboard", ejected it.
- On PC pushed the image to microSD via https://rufus.ie/en/. I didn't bother making image from existing microsSD (cloning) since it didn't work already anyway.
- Inserted microSD back to reader, connected battery.
- Powered on (it took ~3 minutes) and I've got welcome screen and user guide which clearly indicated that books are visible now
Thanks a lot to @DNSB
and @MaTeng