Home Android GuidesAndroid Guide: How To Create a Gold Card
01
May

Android Guide: How To Create a Gold Card

Written by Rachid Otsmane-Elhaou. Posted in Android Guides

A GoldCard is a special SD card that allows you to flash your phone with a new ROM. This is required as part of the process of rooting your HTC Desire amongst other devices. If you need a new sdcard for your goldcard you can pick up a really cheap 2GB one for less than £5 in supermarkets such as Tesco!

So lets jump straight into the guide:

  1. Format your spare microSD card to FAT32 format.
  2. Put the microSD card in your phone and turn it on, once turned on attach your phone to your PC.
  3. Download an app called GoldCard Helper from the market. Use this to get your mmc cards long number by following the app instructions.
  4. Download the Android SDK
  5. Unzip the sdk to any folder you like (eg My Documents). 
  6. Go to start menu > select run and type cmd followed by pressing Enter. 
  7. Replacing with the address you unzipped the file to, type >cd android-sdk-windowstools. eg cd C:UsersHomeDocumentsandroid-sdk-windowstools 
  8. Type >adb shell cat /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:*/cid and press Enter. You should get a very long number which looks like this: 532600bd227d9c0347329407514d5402. 
  9. Go to this page, paste in your number and click Submit. Copy this new number. 
  10. Visit this page, enter the new copied number and create your goldcard image, which will be e-mailed to you.
  11. Save the file attached in the email to your PC.
  12. Download and open the HxD Hex Editor, available for download here (“Run as Administrator” under Vista and win 7).
  13. Go to the Extra menu and select Open Disk. Under physical disk, select Removable Disk (your microSD card), uncheck Open as Read only and click OK. Note that you should select physical disk NOT the logical disk. This is important!
  14. Go to the Extra menu again and select Open Disk Image. Open the goldcard image that you received by email.
  15. Press OK when prompted for Sector Size (selecting 512 (Hard disks/Floppy disks)) and click OK.
  16. You should now have two tabs – one is your removable disk, the other is your goldcard image.
  17. Click on the goldcard image tab. Go to the Edit menu, choose Select All then select the Edit menu again and select Copy.
  18. Click on the Removable Disk tab. Highlight offset (line) 00000000 to offset (line) 00000170 (including the 00000170 line), then click on the Edit menu and select Paste Write.
  19. Click on the File menu and select Save, accepting the warning.

And there you have your new GoldCard. You are now ready to continue onto rooting your phone!

Rachid Otsmane-Elhaou

Rachid Otsmane-Elhaou (26) is a Business Analyst by day, but his real passion is technology, and in particular android (how can you not love the little green guy?). Rachid runs the Droid-Den website, that came about with a mission to help and inform android users about the great device(s) they have in their grasp.

Find me on Twitter (Le3ky) and Google+.

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  • Alvinchong99

    “Download and open the HxD Hex Editor, available for download here “….Sorry but here is not linked. I want to make sure I get the right editor. Pls advise on location. Thank you

  • http://www.droid-den.com Rachid

    Sorry about that, I have attached the link to the article now: http://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD

  • Me

    This whole process is somewhat easier with the “GoldCard Helper” application on the market. This app directly gives you the number that you can enter on the http://psas.revskills.de/?q=goldcard page. No need to install the Android SDK.

  • http://www.droid-den.com Rachid

    thanks, makes life a bit easier :)

  • Kenk

    No line 00000170 on Removable disc – there is a line 00000176! Hope that’s what you mean.

  • Kenk

    My mistake – drop down box indicated I was looking at ‘decimal’ not ‘hex’ Apologies for my haste.

  • Steve

    Step 9 is not required in your updated instructions. Just directly use the number provided by GoldCard Helper on the PSAS website (no need to reverse it).

  • http://www.droid-den.com Rachid

    Missed that one, cheers

  • Playdoh72

    There IS a 00000170 line on my removable disk.

  • Neilqpr

    I do step 17 then click the removable disk tab and it wont let me Paste write. The Paste Write option is not highlighted (available)????

  • Ismayl Msed

    my htc desire have some problem and can’t pass the first white screen, which mean that it can’t be synchronized whith my PC. So how can I create my GOLCARD.

  • http://www.droid-den.com Rachid

    Have a look at the newer guide I have written on this site, you don’t need a goldcard for that.

  • jgh

    no paste write available???

  • Ismayl Msed

    can you please send me the link, I can’t find it

  • http://twitter.com/cdeepak Deepak Kumar

    Hi Rachid,

    the steps look crystal clear. am wondering whether i can follow all the steps on a Ubuntu machine also, as i have ubuntu setup at home.

  • http://startupmeme.com Sardar Mohkim Khan

    Can’t find that newer guide.. have HTC Desire Hboot 0.75

  • Louiemail

    i have no paste write option in removable disk???

  • Dan James

    Kinda worked. I used dd to write to the SD card. I say kinda – because the partition didn’t break after I wrote the img file to the disk, but I couldn’t run software updates either :(

  • Twisted2far

    Gracias Hombre.
    Worked like Charm..

  • Serdar

    gold card generator web page is not usefull nowadays.or do ı have problem?

  • http://anex-unnecessaryblogage.blogspot.com/ Anex

    If your phone has internal memory and SD card be sure that you have the correct CID. The option I was given to copy/paste (using the menu button) copied the code for the internal memory on my phone and NOT the SD card. The application does not tell you which is which.

    Best bet would be to use Gold Card Helper first withOUT the SD card and take note of the CID, then again WITH so you can be sure you are using the right one.

    (In my case I need the gold card for an old phone with no network that I dont want to have to put my info into for the marketplace, so Im using my new phone for the gold card helper).

  • http://anex-unnecessaryblogage.blogspot.com/ Anex

    Bah useless in the end. My only Sd card refuses to be gold carded. So annoying.

  • http://anex-unnecessaryblogage.blogspot.com/ Anex

    Picked up another SD card today, same issue. After hex editing the drive/card asks to be reformatted.

    I’m using the gold card helper, but Im really wondering if my luck is THAT bad or if it is an issue with the CID I have.

  • Steinar

    >>I SPENT HOURS OF FRUSTRATING SOLUTIONS UNTIL I FOUND THIS ONE THAT WORKED(for me)<<
    -This seems to solve the damaged SD card error. PLEASE add this to the article courtesy of 'TheCurryFace'

    When reformatting the card, Windows will place the DOS boot record at sector 0 and the MBR after the DOS boot record. The SD Card user module is not capable of working when the DOS boot record is placed in Sector-0.

    To fix this issue, follow the steps below.

    (1) Download Panasonics SDFormatter V2.0 (free utility)

    (2) Insert SD card into Windows PC

    (3) Format the SD card with the Panasonic utility, SDFormatter V2.0, using the following options.
    - Format Type: Quick
    - Format Size Adjustment: Off

    (4) Eject the SD Card (**This is an Important Step**)

    (5) Re-insert the SD card

    (6) Format the SD card using Windows Explorer
    - Right click on the SD card and select format
    - Set file system to FAT
    - Do not select Quick Format

    (7) Eject the SD Card

    (8) NOW You can proceed through the steps as normal and hex edit using the PSAS image without fear of the dialog box "Please format this drive". =D
    In the above method, the Panasonic SDFormatter utility places the MBR in Sector-0 and Dos Boot Record following the MBR. With both the boot records intact, Windows will not alter the position of the boot records and will only initialize the FAT tables during formatting.

  • bliss

    Why to format card before?
    mmc number depends on this formatting?

  • Suyash Malla

    do we need to make gold card to root an unlocked and unbranded htc desire (gsm) (amoled) running android froyo?? please help..

  • Christopher Downing

    I’ve tried this several times but I can’t seem to be able to use the SD card after doing these steps. My PC asks me to re-format it (despite formatting it before creating the gold card) which in turn means I have to re-start the process!If I don’t do this, the SD card can not be opened and is not recognised by my phone…Can anyone help resolve this issue?

  • haider s

    Thanks created new Gold card !

  • brandje

    after done this whole method above, my sd card is terrible slow, a couple of kB transferrate… HELP?

  • Ksk6261

    wWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW I really appreciate that.
    I made it Thanks a LOT

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