Restoring after deploying WoA
Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2019 6:58 pm
Ok, I bought a Lumia 950 XL specifically to run Windows 10 ARM on the device. At first, I didn't care if I had Windows 10 Mobile on the device because I had a QI enabled wireless charger. I figured I could carry that around with me, especially because I don't intend to use it as a primary device. After a few days of using it, I came to the conclusion that it is not at all optimal to use this phone primarily with Windows 10 ARM. The phone runs HOT and I'm afraid I'm going to burn the device up. Battery only lasts about 3 hours before you need to charge and unfortunately the phone on idle consumes more power than the wireless charger can provide. Windows must go to sleep before it will begin charging and it takes longer than charging on Windows 10 Mobile.
This thread is a tutorial for those of you who blew away Windows 10 Mobile using WoADeployer without backing up Windows 10 Mobile first like me. It happens, I know. But, luckily if you've successfully deployed Windows 10 ARM, you already have everything you need to flash Window 10 Mobile. So lets get started.
Boot your phone to the boot menu where you can select Windows 10 to boot or boot into the recovery menu. Don't select anything yet though. Plug your cable into your PC and then plug that into your phone. Open WPInternals to the "Info" page. On your phone, push and hold Volume Down and Power for at least 10 seconds or three phone vibrations. Release both buttons. The phone will display a red screen with a "rewind" symbol. WPInterals will detect your device at this point.
In WPInternals, select "Flash" on the left side. In the right side, under "Flash Original FFU", select "Select FFU to flash to the phone...". Navigate to the following place on your computer:
C:\ProgramData\WPInternals\Repository\DMN\Repository\
Where "DMN" will be the Device Model Number (in my case, RM-1085). Keep in mind that the ProgramData folder is a hidden folder. You will need to adjust Windows file and folder view settings in order to find it. While you are adjusting those view settings, also enable the "show file extensions" setting too! Inside the Repository folder will be four files. Two of them we do not care about at all. The other two will have .ffu extensions. Either will work for your device and will get you Windows 10 Mobile back. Select either of these files but not both at once. When you get back to WPInternals, select "Flash FFU Image". Your device will begin rebooting automatically and the flashing process will begin. When it is complete, you will end up at the Windows 10 Mobile setup screen on your device.
If you intend to go back and redeploy Windows 10 ARM, create a backup of Windows 10 Mobile using WPInternals. It is much faster to restore than flashing the FFU files. Likewise, back these FFU files up to multiple places as they can be reused to fix a bricked device. I haven't redeployed Windows 10 ARM as a dual boot solution yet, but I'm almost certain that after doing these steps you will have to unlock the bootloader again.
Edit: You WILL have to run through the bootloader unlock process again. I've just confirmed that.
I hope this helps someone get back to Windows 10 Mobile that accidentally or purposely blew away Windows 10 Mobile with Woadeployer. I'll try and get screenshots as well as photos of the phone during this process to add to the post and make it a bit easier to follow for everyone.
This thread is a tutorial for those of you who blew away Windows 10 Mobile using WoADeployer without backing up Windows 10 Mobile first like me. It happens, I know. But, luckily if you've successfully deployed Windows 10 ARM, you already have everything you need to flash Window 10 Mobile. So lets get started.
Boot your phone to the boot menu where you can select Windows 10 to boot or boot into the recovery menu. Don't select anything yet though. Plug your cable into your PC and then plug that into your phone. Open WPInternals to the "Info" page. On your phone, push and hold Volume Down and Power for at least 10 seconds or three phone vibrations. Release both buttons. The phone will display a red screen with a "rewind" symbol. WPInterals will detect your device at this point.
In WPInternals, select "Flash" on the left side. In the right side, under "Flash Original FFU", select "Select FFU to flash to the phone...". Navigate to the following place on your computer:
C:\ProgramData\WPInternals\Repository\DMN\Repository\
Where "DMN" will be the Device Model Number (in my case, RM-1085). Keep in mind that the ProgramData folder is a hidden folder. You will need to adjust Windows file and folder view settings in order to find it. While you are adjusting those view settings, also enable the "show file extensions" setting too! Inside the Repository folder will be four files. Two of them we do not care about at all. The other two will have .ffu extensions. Either will work for your device and will get you Windows 10 Mobile back. Select either of these files but not both at once. When you get back to WPInternals, select "Flash FFU Image". Your device will begin rebooting automatically and the flashing process will begin. When it is complete, you will end up at the Windows 10 Mobile setup screen on your device.
If you intend to go back and redeploy Windows 10 ARM, create a backup of Windows 10 Mobile using WPInternals. It is much faster to restore than flashing the FFU files. Likewise, back these FFU files up to multiple places as they can be reused to fix a bricked device. I haven't redeployed Windows 10 ARM as a dual boot solution yet, but I'm almost certain that after doing these steps you will have to unlock the bootloader again.
Edit: You WILL have to run through the bootloader unlock process again. I've just confirmed that.
I hope this helps someone get back to Windows 10 Mobile that accidentally or purposely blew away Windows 10 Mobile with Woadeployer. I'll try and get screenshots as well as photos of the phone during this process to add to the post and make it a bit easier to follow for everyone.