Glo Memory Upgrade Mod Guide (With Pictures)

[KevinShort]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Well it looks like the cloning and extension went fine, as far as I can tell.
The problem is that sometime along the way I broke the touchscreen function.
It doesn't work with either Micro card in it. I might have messed it up trying to use
it out of the case. I seems to be working normally otherwise, just poking the screen
does nothing.

Luck;
Ken

That doesn't sound good. Did you do anything that might obstruct the IR LEDs?

[Ken Maltby]

I'll check that before I go too far taking it apart, thanks.

Luck;
Ken

[delph]

Originally Posted by tshering

Somehow connected question: Is it be possible to run a script in order to write an image of the recovery partition (or the whole sd-card) to an external sd-card.

I used the information here when I was upgrading my Kobo Glo's internal SD: How to make a backup image of an USB stick or SD card

I adjusted the file name to reflect that it was for my Kobo. Instead of sdb-xbuntu.image.bz2 as show in the example, mine is sdc-kobo.image.bz2.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by delph

I used the information here when I was upgrading my Kobo Glo's internal SD: How to make a backup image of an USB stick or SD card

I adjusted the file name to reflect that it was for my Kobo. Instead of sdb-xbuntu.image.bz2 as show in the example, mine is sdc-kobo.image.bz2.

I am not sure whether you did what I was hoping for, namely to run the script on the reader, rather then on PC. But, thank you for the link.

I would like to mention that met67 did it, and shares his code with us (link).

[Weessies]

Worked like a charm on my brand new Kobo mini Thanx!
(W7/64bit andicidu 16gb class 10 micro sd, with image writing speed of 5mb/s)

[vugtitan]

These two tools are standalone and require no installation:
For ripping images from the SD Card:
http://www.vconsole.com/client/?page=page&id=28
"Flash Drive Image Creator"

For writing images to the SD Card:
http://www.vconsole.com/client/?page=page&id=29
"Flash Drive Image Writer"


these two tools are useless as i tried it and for the drop down menu it is impossible to select the sd card.

nothing comes up and you cannot write the removable drive letter to the drop down menu or navigate to it.

tried it many times.


i used eventually used this instead to read and restore the image.

http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by vugtitan

These two tools are standalone and require no installation:
For ripping images from the SD Card:
http://www.vconsole.com/client/?page=page&id=28
"Flash Drive Image Creator"

For writing images to the SD Card:
http://www.vconsole.com/client/?page=page&id=29
"Flash Drive Image Writer"


these two tools are useless as i tried it and for the drop down menu it is impossible to select the sd card.

nothing comes up and you cannot write the removable drive letter to the drop down menu or navigate to it.

tried it many times.


i used eventually used this instead to read and restore the image.

http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/

I used those two a number of times, although the files appear as:
"USB Duplicator Image Creator.exe" and
"USB Duplicator Image Writer.exe"
they run with administrator privileges, of course.

It sees my jetBook Lite as "K:Linux ebook USB Device 101.00MB"
for the internal flash memory, and "L:Linux ebook USB Device 3.76GB"
for the 4GB SD card I have inserted into the jetBook.

The other one you found looks good to.

Luck;
Ken

[Thok]

Gergith,

this is brilliant stuff, so cool, good job! I have just pried open my Kobo Glo (production date 12/2012), bought in Germany, and found it sports a 4GB MicroSD, too. It looks as if the usable partition size is 1.5GB.

Anyway, after a first look inside I closed it again but will swap the MicroSD for a 16GB during the weekend and see if there is unused space on the 4GB. And, yes, I understood that I am not to format anything on the original MicroSD.

Does anybody have a clue if there is a swap partition on the MicroSD? I'll try and work out the procedure for Linux and if any of you are interested I'll post it here.

Cheers,

Thorsten

[Ken Maltby]

The MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition v7.8 shows the factory 4GB card as:

Partition | Capacity | Used | Unused | File System
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*: | 9.50MB | 0B | 9.50 | unallocated

:rootfs | 256.00MB | 160.89MB | 95.11MB | Ext4

:recoveryfs | 256.00MB | 160.94MB | 95.06MB | Ext4

:KOBOeReader | 3.18GB | 6.36MB | 3.18GB | FAT32

It is an SD after all, so that explains the "unallocated" space at the beginning.
I used it a little before I removed the card so the fat32 partion will depend on
use.

This is for the Kobo Aura HD.

Luck;
Ken

[Ken Maltby]

I got my Aura HD working again and it is using an 8GB class 10 card that I cloned
from the factory 4GB card. I used the Tools I mentioned in post #52 to make the
clone and MiniTool Partition Wizard to extend the storage partition. (I got the tools
by following another poster's "How To".)

Luck;
Ken

[Gergith]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I got my Aura HD working again and it is using an 8GB class 10 card that I cloned
from the factory 4GB card. I used the Tools I mentioned in post #52 to make the
clone and MiniTool Partition Wizard to extend the storage partition. (I got the tools
by following another poster's "How To".)

Luck;
Ken

Well you answered my question/curiosity which makes me VERY happy! Looks like I might upgrade to an Aura and pass on my Glo to my lady friend

I was curious if they'd get rid of the internal SD slot!

[Gergith]

Originally Posted by Thok

Gergith,

this is brilliant stuff, so cool, good job! I have just pried open my Kobo Glo (production date 12/2012), bought in Germany, and found it sports a 4GB MicroSD, too. It looks as if the usable partition size is 1.5GB.

Anyway, after a first look inside I closed it again but will swap the MicroSD for a 16GB during the weekend and see if there is unused space on the 4GB. And, yes, I understood that I am not to format anything on the original MicroSD.

Does anybody have a clue if there is a swap partition on the MicroSD? I'll try and work out the procedure for Linux and if any of you are interested I'll post it here.

Cheers,

Thorsten

The 4gig card should be formated/ghosted as if it was a 2 gig card. Apparently they switched to 4 gig cards but keep cloning them as if they are the 2 gig card.

So if you want, you're able to increase the size of KOBOeReader partition while leaving the rootFS and RecoveryFS partitions intact.

I, personally, felt it was safer to NEVER write to the stock 2gig (4 gig in your case). And ONLY copy it to the 16 gig, THEN resize the partition on the 16gig one.

That way if ANYTHING goes wrong, you still have a PERFECTLY original stock 2gig (4gig) sd card, that you can put back in and pretend you never hacked it

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Gergith

The 4gig card should be formated/ghosted as if it was a 2 gig card. Apparently they switched to 4 gig cards but keep cloning them as if they are the 2 gig card.

So if you want, you're able to increase the size of KOBOeReader partition while leaving the rootFS and RecoveryFS partitions intact.

I, personally, felt it was safer to NEVER write to the stock 2gig (4 gig in your case). And ONLY copy it to the 16 gig, THEN resize the partition on the 16gig one.

That way if ANYTHING goes wrong, you still have a PERFECTLY original stock 2gig (4gig) sd card, that you can put back in and pretend you never hacked it

That's the process in Windows. First you make an image file on your PC by
reading the whole disk/card using the "USB Duplicator Image Writer.exe".
Then you can put the untouched "stock"/original card away as it is no longer
needed.

Then you use the "USB Duplicator Image Writer.exe" program to write that
image file to a new MicroSD card of your choosing. You can have the card
formatted before the write. Then you just use a Partition Manager to extend
the FAT32 partition over any space left on the SD card. (Not the first 10MB
unallocated, at the start, that's for making it an SD card, and needs to remain
there.)

The original factory card is never written to, and remains unchanged.

One thing that you will see in Windows but not in Linux is that Windows will ask to
format the original/factory card. You don't let it of course. The tools have no problem
reading the card, just as it is.

Luck;
Ken

[aceflor]

It works perfectly fine with a Kobo mini, thanks a lot !

[Herman2604]

Although i acknowledge that its cool to do , and i prob will after my warrenty has expired i still would like to ask if this memory is faster then inserting a external Sdcard?
So besides getting more total memory are there other benefits then just because it can be done (although thats not a bad reason )

greetz Herman