Kindle Paperwhite (1G) bricked. Flash drive almost full.

[iliketrains]

Hi.

I stupidly scanned a couple of comics and used Kindle Comic Converter to make a ~150MB .mobi file, and copied it to the documents folder. NOT THE ROOT FOLDER.

I used the USE_ALT_FONTS fonts workaround, and had version 4.3.9
installed. my kindle was non-jailbroken.

I was quite aware of the toll that fonts have on my kindle, so I had only 4 extra fonts installed. I had ~60 .mobi books, ~10 .azw3, and a 600MB PDF (which was just pictures, and ran fine). Also, I was messing with it, and had ~30 12MB .mobi files (comics converted with KCC).

After copying over the ~150 MB mobi file, I deleted all other comics, so that I had ~200 MB free space. I restarted my kindle, and it has since been stuck on the circular loading animation of the boy under the tree. I have charged it fully quite a few times, and it keeps loading (the bar never appears) until it discharges.

My computer recognizes my kindle as

"Kindle Internal Storage USB Device" in device manager, and in My Computer simply as "Removable Disk". The format option does not work, and disabling and re-enabling it has not helped.

My kindle heats up to a considerable degree, and the lower right-hand corner of the kindle seems to emit a weird beeping noise.

Also, none of my books were faulty, and had been used on the same device in the past. The large .mobi file works fine on my computer.

Is there any way I can delete those books? I can not access the drive using traditional methods. (Win 8.1 x64)

TL;DR: Filled my kindle PW so that it is stuck at the initial tree screen. Unable to access drive, unable to modify drive. Any suggestions?


UPDATE: After 34 hours of constant charging and preventing overheating, my kindle started normally. My kindle was wiped clean (??) but was not factory reset, and had only the kindle user's guide. I then Factory Reset my Kindle, following eschwartz and knc1's suggestions, and now it works fine.

WOO-HOO!

[Doitsu]

Have you tried to restart the Paperwhite?

[knc1]

"the format command ..." ??
What in the world are you even thinking about?
You will probably just make things worse.

That sounds like the indexer is having problems, see:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=237083

Since it is running continuously, keep it on external power, see same thread - about allowing the battery to fully discharge while it is running.
That can be death to its internal flash chip.

Try to keep it cool if possible - it will run faster and maybe fix itself sooner, see same thread.

It sounds to me like you need to use the 'do factory restore' using the USB flag file.
That will, among other things, reformat your USB visible user storeage.
Sorry, I don't recall its required spelling nor have a link handy.

[eschwartz]

Create the empty file

{userstore}/DO_FACTORY_RESTORE

Make sure Windows is not hiding file extensions, and that there is not a file extension.


EDIT: Tutorial Factory reset K5 using file

[knc1]

Hey - I almost had the filename correct !

Thanks for adding the link I couldn't find.

[eschwartz]

TBH I didn't have the link handy -- so I googled "kindle factory restore with file site:mobileread.com"

[iliketrains]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Create the empty file

{userstore}/DO_FACTORY_RESTORE

Make sure Windows is not hiding file extensions, and that there is not a file extension.


EDIT: Tutorial Factory reset K5 using file

I seem not to have access to the Kindle's flash drive even upon rebooting.

[eschwartz]

It is possible that it only appears for a second or two -- you'd need to be fast!

As I recall Geekmaster once had that happen and fixed it with a bash loop.

In a batch script try:

:loop
type NUL > E:\\DO_FACTORY_RESTORE
goto loop

It will constantly attempt to create an empty file with the right name on Drive E.

[iliketrains]

Originally Posted by knc1

"the format command ..." ??
What in the world are you even thinking about?
You will probably just make things worse.

That sounds like the indexer is having problems, see:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=237083

Since it is running continuously, keep it on external power, see same thread - about allowing the battery to fully discharge while it is running.
That can be death to its internal flash chip.

Try to keep it cool if possible - it will run faster and maybe fix itself sooner, see same thread.

It sounds to me like you need to use the 'do factory restore' using the USB flag file.
That will, among other things, reformat your USB visible user storeage.
Sorry, I don't recall its required spelling nor have a link handy.

It is true, the indexer was indexing books. After ~34 hours, it finally completed its work and now my PW works, but all my docs are gone (??). I factory reset it and now it works well. Thank You!

[iliketrains]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

It is possible that it only appears for a second or two -- you'd need to be fast!

As I recall Geekmaster once had that happen and fixed it with a bash loop.

In a batch script try:

:loop
type NUL > E:\\DO_FACTORY_RESTORE
goto loop

It will constantly attempt to create an empty file with the right name on Drive E.

I was unable to gain acccess to the drive for quite some time, and then after ~34 hours my PW started, but all my docs were gone (??). Then I Factory Reset it, following your suggestions, and now it works fine.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by iliketrains

It is true, the indexer was indexing books. After ~34 hours, it finally completed its work and now my PW works, but all my docs are gone (??). I factory reset it and now it works well. Thank You!

Usually, the indexer gets the blame and historically, deserves it.

But the above added descriptive information tells me that you just had (hardware based) file system errors, and the Kindle was trying to recover the failing backing store (eMMC).

The Kindle's start-up (POST ? on a device that never powers off?) process checks for file system errors and will reformat a bad file system (hence the missing content).

When the file system errors are hardware failures, the failing hardware blocks have to be taken out of service (put on an internal, hardware, "bad block list").

Which causes the whole reformat and test sequence to restart (as it should, it must).

And the Kindles use a rather slow eMMC chip, not an SSD - - so depending on the damage, this sequence could take a few days.
34 hours is a short period for such a self recovery.

- - - - -

Hint: Start saving for a new Kindle now -
this one will not be around in usable shape much longer.

[iliketrains]

Originally Posted by knc1

Usually, the indexer gets the blame and historically, deserves it.

But the above added descriptive information tells me that you just had (hardware based) file system errors, and the Kindle was trying to recover the failing backing store (eMMC).

The Kindle's start-up (POST ? on a device that never powers off?) process checks for file system errors and will reformat a bad file system (hence the missing content).

When the file system errors are hardware failures, the failing hardware blocks have to be taken out of service (put on an internal, hardware, "bad block list").

Which causes the whole reformat and test sequence to restart (as it should, it must).

And the Kindles use a rather slow eMMC chip, not an SSD - - so depending on the damage, this sequence could take a few days.
34 hours is a short period for such a self recovery.

- - - - -

Hint: Start saving for a new Kindle now -
this one will not be around in usable shape much longer.

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

The only reason I have not yet upgraded is because the latest firmware (and devices) feature features that I do not use, and seem not to support the USE_ALT_FONTS workaround.

[eschwartz]

You can jailbreak and use the fonts hack. Of course jailbreaking these days usually requires hardware modding...

[knc1]

Originally Posted by iliketrains

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

The only reason I have not yet upgraded is because the latest firmware (and devices) feature features that I do not use, and seem not to support the USE_ALT_FONTS workaround.

Perhaps I was wrong to write "new", better if I had written "another".

I.E: Get another PW1 - avoid the 5.6.x hassles.