Mike Southby

I have been asked by a few people how to make a goldcard using a Mac, but as I do not have access to one at the moment I have not been able to produce a guide however thanks to Johnny and some research using Google you’ll be pleased to know that I have now produced a guide.

Caveat:  I have not been able to test this myself as currently I do not have a Mac to test with; however I have read various comments confirming that this method works.  Please post a comment to let me know how you get on.

PLEASE backup the entire contents of your microSD before proceeding, in one of the first steps you’ll need to reformat.  I will not be accountable for anyone neglecting to do this and loosing data – you have been warned!

So, to create a goldcard using Mac OSX, simple do the following:

• Backup the data on your microSD
• Click Menu on your mobile
• Go to Settings and then SD & Phone Storage
• Click Unmount SD card
• Click Format SD card

We now need to know the microSD cards CID number, using this method; we can find it by going to the market and downloading ASTRO File Manager.  Once you have downloaded and installed it, do the following:

• Open ASTRO File Manager
• Navigate to sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:82d1 (you’ll find that 82d1 will be different on your device)
• Long press on the CID file
• Select Open As and then Text
• Select File Editor
• You’ll be given a long number, make a note of this

Next we need this long number in order to create your goldcard image; this can be done by using a simple tool found on this page:

• Copy the number carefully into the data field and hit Submit
• Make a note of the new number

Next to create the actual goldcard image by going to this page:

• Enter the number from above into the SD Card Serial (CID) field
• Enter the other details and hit Generate Goldcard
• Check your email and save the attached goldcard image file to your user directory

Connect your Desire to your Mac and do the following:

• Pull down the notification bar and press Charge Only (if you have previously changed the default option this may be different, i.e. HTC Sync)
• Select the Disk Drive option and hit Done
• On your Mac, open Terminal which can be found by clicking through Applications>Utilities>Terminal (or your Linux Terminal)
• Type the following:
  diskutil list
• You should be able to see your microSD card; you can recognise it from its size and by the fact that its type is DOS_FAT_32.  You need to make a note of the Identifier for example disk2s1
• Now you need to unmount the microSD, assuming your Identifier was disk2s1 (change the value ‘2’  based on the number you got after the word ‘disk’) enter the following:
  diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

Finally, to create your individual goldcard do the following:

• Open Terminal once again and type the following:
  sudo dd bs=512 if=~/goldcard.img of=/dev/disk2
  (remembering to change the ‘2’ if appropriate)
• You’ll need to enter your password when prompted (or if using Linux, the password for root)

That’s it, goldcard created!