Updating your CM7 dual boot microSD card

Alright, so you have a CyanogenMod CM7 dual boot card. You either built it using my tutorial, bought a card from me or Googled the instructions but here you are and here we go.

The process I present will continue to work for the foreseeable future. So while your files names may change, the instructions will stay the same.

Before we begin – This process is an update. After we’re done your data should still be there. Now I caution you that bad things can happen, not to your NOOKcolor that’s still fine but the microSD card could be horked up so backups prior to doing something like this are recommended. A great app to look at is TitaniumBackup. It can be found in the Android Market [here] or on your NOOKcolor. It’s not the most user friendly app in the world,but there are dozens of great tutorials on how to use it.

Step 1: Plug your CM7 dual boot microSD card into your PC

You may need an adapter, but you need to be able to read it on your PC. Not plugged in via USB cord. Technically with the right tools you may be able to download the update files directly to your NOOKcolor but for the sake of simplicity I’m going to provide directions assuming you can place your microSD card into your PC with an adapter of some sort.

Step 2: Identify your CM7 microSD card on your PC

In “My Computer” you are going to want to find a drive labeled “boot”. In this image it’s the H drive. It isn’t uncommon for some PC’s to call their C: drive “boot”. So make sure you are seeing the following files:

MLO
u-boot.bin (or it may just say u-boot if you don’t have file extensions being displayed)
uImage

If you are seeing those in the root of the drive then chances are pretty good that you’ve got the right drive. Remember this drive letter. Heck, grab a piece of paper and jot it down. I’ll wait. Seriously. I’ll wait. Go ahead.

Step 3: Download the version of CM7 you want to update to

MOST of the CM7 cards I shipped, in fact I’d say all prior to December were using the release candidate CM7.1.0 image. Since then the final release of CM7.1.0 has been released and it brings some added functionality. The most obvious to me, since I’m writing tutorials is the ability to take screenshots. There are certainly more additions but nothing that has jumped out at me as a MUST update, like when they added Bluetooth support. In any case, some folks want to have the latest and greatest version.

You can use a nightly if you’d like but I’m going to stick with the Stable release of CM7. As of writing the most stable release of CM7 for NOOKcolor is: 7.1.0.

Click on the top most link from this page [ here ]. The screenshot above shows the most recent filename is update-cm7.1.0-encore-signed.zip.

If you are prompted for a download location you can tell it to save right to the root of your “boot” drive letter you just identified in Step 2. If not, just move it from the download directory to the root of your boot drive. DO NOT OPEN THE ZIP FILE. Your microSD card should now look similar to this. You may have different folders than I do, that’s fine. Your icons may look different, that’s alright too. What’s important is called out below.

Step 4: Safely Remove the microSD card

In Windows 7, you can do what I’ve detailed below. Highlight your microSD card named boot by clicking once on it. Then click Eject along your tool bar. Alternatively you can also right click on the microSD card drive and choose Eject. If you absolutely cannot find a way to eject the media from your computer you can also just restart your computer. You’ll achieve the same effect.

After you’ve ejected it you can remove the microSD card from the computer.

Step 5: Install the microSD into the NOOKcolor and access your boot menu

If you purchased a card from me you may have a boot timer that says press any button to access the boot menu. Or something to that effect. If you built from my directions, you’ll have a green cyanogenmod badge that pops up. In any case, you need to access the boot menu of your device.

If you purchased your card from me, press any button within 5 seconds to access this menu.

If you built your own card and have the green Cyanogenmod badge when you first turn on your device, you need to press and hold down the N button as soon as that Cyanogenmod badge pops on your screen. You can let go when it says entering boot menu.

Your goal is the following menu:

Step 6: Change the boot settings and boot

The default Boot Menu settings are Boot Device: eMMC and Boot Mode: normal.

We need to change the Boot Menu settings to Boot Device: SD and Boot Mode: Recovery.

If your NOOKcolor is using the same defaults as mine was the keystrokes are as follows.

Press the N button to change eMMC to SD
Press the Volume Down button to go to the next option
Press the N button to change normal to recovery
Press the Volume Down button
Press the Volume Down button again to boot

The Recovery mode is going to find the CM7 ZIP file you downloaded and extract it over top of the older CM7 files. You’ll see a lot of “inflating:” messages that indicate the zip file is being extracted and updating your existing install of CM7.

Step 7: Turn on your updated NOOKcolor and celebrate

That’s it. Well done. The NOOKcolor probably shut itself off after the update. Fire it back up and play with the new update.

If this helped you, or if I’ve helped you in the past, I’d like to ask you to consider making a donation. If you’re not interested, no biggie. Forget I mentioned it. =)