[kwlug-disc] [Android] I have a very expensive paperweight

[Keefer Rourke]

So tonight I learned a very expensive lesson. Never EVER do anything
without extensively reading the documentation. And never mix up `fastboot
erase` with `fastboot format`.

I was trying to format the system and userdata partitions on my Moto G from
the command line (in preparation for the reflashing a custom ROM), and
ended up deleting those partitions entirely. As a result, my phone only
boots to recovery and bootloader modes, and I get memory errors when ever I
try to send some data to the device (since there is no where to put it, I
presume). Amateur mistake.

It seems that someone has managed to grab the stock firmware (with all the
images for each partition) and has uploaded them to the internet on
possibly the worst file host ever, with no mirrors. This file host
selfishly limits the download speeds to people who don't pay their
ridiculous $15 per month, and is preventing me from solving my problem in a
timely manner. Hopefully I can use the firmware archive, if it ever
downloads, to fix my phone, but I'm kind of guessing at this process since
it doesn't seem to be well documented in many places on the internet.

I'm using this as a lesson to learn a bit more about the workings of
Android though, since I have the intention to recover my phone back to a
usable state. Has anyone gone through anything similar with corrupted
memory on their devices, or dealt with restoring to stock firmware on
non-Nexus devices? Any advice?

Cheers,
Keefer
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