Clara Help with a suddenly dead Clara HD

[Sahd]

Hi All,

I'm new here and found this site whilst searching for solutions to fix a dead Clara HD. I've checked the internal SD card and it is completely empty - as if the OS has been wiped somehow.

My device went flat a couple of nights ago and when I came to charge it the next morning the screen showed an outline image of the reader with an exclamation mark within it and a circular 'replay' icon in a button below.

When I plugged it in to charge the image changed to 3 dots and a 'recycle' icon. The screen would occasionally refresh and go blank but would always return to the 3 dots and the icon.

I've no idea what has happened aside from is seemingly wiping itself and Kobo customer service have been really unhelpful.

I've requested a firmware image on here but I'm not totally sure that will help as there aren't any OS folders on the SD card.

Has this happened to anyone else, and if so were you able to fix it?

I'd really like the Clara back up and running as it's been a brilliant device for me to read from.

Thanks in advance

[DNSB]

The image will create 3 partitions plus a chunk of blank space when written to your uSD card. One item to note is that you have to remove the µSD card from your Clara HD and mount on your computer. If you are using Windows, it will whine about the card since 2 of the 3 partitions are Linux EXT4 partitions. Do not format the card as Windows suggests. The partition that is exposed when you connect your Clara HD to your computer over USB is a FAT32 partition which Windows can read.

The instructions refer you to the Memory Upgrade Mod Guide (With Pictures) thread.

[Sahd]

Thanks David, I'm on Mac though and try as I might the restoring of the image to the SD card keeps fighting me! I'll dig out a different SD just in case the original one is faulty.

[DNSB]

What program are you using to copy the image to the µSD card? I have had a couple of people who used Balena Etcher sucessfully.

[Sahd]

I'm trying Disk Utility (within my OS) and Carbon Copy.
Just having a go with a spare card to see if the original are failed.
Finger crossed!

[Sahd]

No joy yet sadly - it didn't even power with the new card. Hmmmm

[Sahd]

No joy at all sadly - I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong but I can't seem to get the Clara to fire up and stick. It either doesn't power on at all with a 23GB class 10 card or it gets stuck in the 3 dot / recycle icon and nothing happens.
Have you come across this before from other folk at all? It seems so out of the blue for the thing to completely die like this.

[Quoth]

Sounds like ISO not properly copied to SD card.
You do need a tool to copy an ISO as is, or else it's very complicated.

[Sahd]

Thanks - I'm not familiar with what ISO stands for?
I've got the disk image - have correctly put it onto a couple of different cards but without success. What is ISO? Thanks

[Quoth]

A disk image is similar or the same as an ISO file. Same program on Linux (USB Image Writer) copies either. I mount the microSD card via a USB card reader on workstation, though laptop has a built-in card reader.

Traditionally an ISO made a boot CD.

It's the same principle. So disk managers or file copying usually don't work. You need a program that replaces existing microSD partition and format (They are shipped as FAT32 or exFAT) with the image file.

Carbon Copy I know was a DOS & Windows remote access program.
Mac OS seems to have Carbon Copy Cloner, but I think it might only be for copying MacOS.

A search suggests this works on Mac to copy .img or .iso files to an SD Card (or probably a USB memory stick).
https://etcher.balena.io/

I've not used a Mac since OS9!

Linux comes with such tools and there are many options for Windows.

[Sahd]

Thank you, that's really helpful.
Gosh, I remember OS9!

I'll take a look at that app and feedback on here. 🙌🏻

[Sahd]

Success!

I found that using the following code in Terminal (within the Mac OS) did the trick:

sudo dd if=/Users/USER-NAME/Downloads/clara_hd.img of=/dev/rdisk4 bs=1m

(USER-NAME is your account name on you Mac & clara_hd.img being the disc image)

Hopefully this is helpful for other Mac users who find themselves in a similar situation ����

[Quoth]

Yes, that's the UNIX/Linux brute force method.

Glad you sorted.

Somewhat off topic. I was having difficulty creating a bootable Win10 USB stick because MS has made their ISO need a special tool.
I'd tried the recommended tool and it failed to boot properly; drivers not found by Win install. So I downloaded the https://etcher.balena.io/ deb for Linux and ran it.
"This seems to be a special Windows ISO, won't work". But it gave a link to an old tool and I found the new version and was able to write the Win10 ISO to USB stick on Linux. No windows PCs to run the MS tool! I had a spare laptop with dead keyboard, which had Linux. But I knew it had come with Win7 and BIOS licence key for Win 10. So now automatically licenced Win10 pro with small external USB keyboard. I do have a Win10 VM on linux, but some things can't work on a VM.

Edit
The recommended Linux tool for Win10 iso was Ventoy, but didn't work. woeUSB-ng does (Mint 21.2, Mate desktop) https://github.com/WoeUSB/WoeUSB-ng
Everything other than current Windows ISOs works with the default "USB Image Writer". Inc Kobo SD cards in a USB card reader.

[Sahd]

Thanks

[peregil]

Hi. After a long period of time not being used, when started the Clara, the screen was flickering, so I can't read nothing at all. I tried to shut off using the menu but it was impossible because screen was alternating between an open book and the main menu.

After that, I long press the power button to shut it off but it never restart. I can see the white light when press the button but nothing happens.

So I'm in the process of unbrick it. I have the SD card extracted and the filesystem seems ok. I'll try to flash a new image.

PD: Congratulations for get it alive. Enjoy.