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[Q] Lost files after Factory Reset in HBOOT, Can i recover them?

Good day,
I recently flashed a new version of jellybean to my HTC one x. I was going to follow the regular method i use (wipe data, clear cache, push boot.img to device, flash rom, flash google apps), however, before i flashed, i realized my sd card was corrupt. So i used this method (which worked for me previously and was posted on an external website):
Download a recovery tool, extract recovery img, push with adb fastboot to device, factory reset on hboot, device restarts and fixes corrupts sectors in sd, reboot, push twrp.img to device, restart in recovery, and now you can reflash.
to fix it.
The method asked me to use the "factory reset" option on HBOOT and i did. (I also did this the last time i flashed a rom, with no problems)
However, this time, after hitting that option, i went into TWRP to flash zip and i saw absolutely no files or folders in my sd card. However, i could still mount the sd card and transfer files. But apparently, all my previous files (music, pictures, video etc) were deleted.
Is there anyway i could restore these old files?
Thank you.

Nope, you quite thoroughly wiped everything with that approach.

akumaukpo said:
Good day,
I recently flashed a new version of jellybean to my HTC one x. I was going to follow the regular method i use (wipe data, clear cache, push boot.img to device, flash rom, flash google apps), however, before i flashed, i realized my sd card was corrupt. So i used this method (which worked for me previously and was posted on an external website):
Download a recovery tool, extract recovery img, push with adb fastboot to device, factory reset on hboot, device restarts and fixes corrupts sectors in sd, reboot, push twrp.img to device, restart in recovery, and now you can reflash.
to fix it.
The method asked me to use the "factory reset" option on HBOOT and i did. (I also did this the last time i flashed a rom, with no problems)
However, this time, after hitting that option, i went into TWRP to flash zip and i saw absolutely no files or folders in my sd card. However, i could still mount the sd card and transfer files. But apparently, all my previous files (music, pictures, video etc) were deleted.
Is there anyway i could restore these old files?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you could google some data recovery software. i would avoid writing to the sd card though until you do.
i dont have any suggestions personally, i think i used one before that came with ultimate bootcd... it may not have though.
theres no easy way. and i warn you, it takes a while.
---------- Post added at 09:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------
iElvis said:
Nope, you quite thoroughly wiped everything with that approach.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm? does it overwrite the data?? i would assume like any other hard drive the data is still technically "there" until overwritten... no?

exad said:
hmmm? does it overwrite the data?? i would assume like any other hard drive the data is still technically "there" until overwritten... no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how completely a factory reset in bootloader corrupts the sdcard (and remember this is flash memory, not a hard drive). Presumably something is still there but I think you're unlikely to be able to recover music or video files in useable format no matter what data recovery software you use, if it's even useable in this case.

iElvis said:
I'm not sure how completely a factory reset in bootloader corrupts the sdcard (and remember this is flash memory, not a hard drive). Presumably something is still there but I think you're unlikely to be able to recover music or video files in useable format no matter what data recovery software you use, if it's even useable in this case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah yeah i didnt take the corruption into account. under normal circumstances though flash memory should be recoverable all the same.

This happened to me. I tried recovering my invaluable photos with many different programs.. Found squat. It essentially writes 0 to every sector "permanently" deleting things from the average user. If the same was done on a hard drive, some *may* be recoverable by professionals. But in this case you aren't going to get much recovered, if at all.
Sent from my Nexus 4

if you never did the sd card repair you might of recovered something. now i doubt it, you could try Ontrack EasyRecovery which is one of the best recovery apps, also try GetDataBack, and Recuva. those are the only recovery apps i use, try all possible recovery methods in those apps the vary in results so dont give up with a single scan. make sure not to write to sdcard again. you most likely will need to do some sorta raw scan since you killed you partition so programs wont be able to use it i believe.

Accidentally clicked 'FACTORY RESET' in HBOOT

I accidentally hit the FACTORY RESET option in HBOOT, and it seems the phone just rebooted into TWRP without doing anything. However it seems my SDcard is now empty and unformatted. Earlier I had two "Internal SDcard" options in TWRP\Mount but now I just have one, and if I try to click on Mount USB storage, the removable disk appears as an unformatted disk on my PC. Is there any to fix this? Is the SD gone for good or can I recover the data?

Run a Ruu and your phone should be fine again (dont forget to relock your bootloader)
I think your data you wiped is hopelessy gone..
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

I made a nandroid luckily, but I just realised that the problem is due to the sdcard not actually being able to mount. It says
E:unable to mount '/sdcard'
I'm using TWRP 2.5, maybe I will try with 2.3.1.0.
EDIT: Okay that didn't help. If I run a RUU won't it erase my SD card? I don't want to lose what's on there, is there any way to fix it and be able to mount it again?

Bottom line: I need the data on my SD... is there any way to recover it?

djsubtronic said:
Bottom line: I need the data on my SD... is there any way to recover it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No its gone sorry and no need for ruu just flash stock recovery and factory reset again.

Ten years of data just destroyed within the blink of an eye.
FML.

reformat the sd card and use recovery tools (google for them). most of your stuff will be easily brought back from the dead.

speedfreak007 said:
reformat the sd card and use recovery tools (google for them). most of your stuff will be easily brought back from the dead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did. It seems everything on the card was nuked. I tried about ten different recommended apps, none of them could find a single file even with deep searches.

djsubtronic said:
Ten years of data just destroyed within the blink of an eye.
FML.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry for your loss. Now, not to be a douche, but 10 years? Have you traveled through time with your One S?

Fruktsallad said:
I'm sorry for your loss. Now, not to be a douche, but 10 years? Have you traveled through time with your One S?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It easily could have been downloaded data. I'm really sorry to hear about your loss, but always keep a copy of your SD card on your PC, no matter what.

djsubtronic said:
I accidentally hit the FACTORY RESET option in HBOOT, and it seems the phone just rebooted into TWRP without doing anything. However it seems my SDcard is now empty and unformatted. Earlier I had two "Internal SDcard" options in TWRP\Mount but now I just have one, and if I try to click on Mount USB storage, the removable disk appears as an unformatted disk on my PC. Is there any to fix this? Is the SD gone for good or can I recover the data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
before going through the trouble of an RUU, if you can see the unformatted disk from your computer just try formatting it there into a FAT32 partition like you would any other drive. This has worked for folks successfully. But as for data recovery....

Dang that sucks... was there some sort of confirmation before starting the wipe? I've always been paranoid that I might fat finger it randomly and it just wipes without some kind of second check

Reflash the recovery img from fastboot then boot into recovery, you should be able to mount sd

Zero help to anyone, but I did exactly the same thing myself and had to mount the SD card in recovery and format.
It hurts!!

Well it's official. All my data is forever gone. And no there was no notification, I hit "FACTORY RESET", and it just paused for a second then rebooted into TWRP with my SD instantly destroyed. I tried every possible trick in the book. The problem for me wasn't just getting it to mount and work again, I could have done that in 20 seconds. The problem was to try and get it back WITH all my data, which I failed.
In the end, I made a RAW disk image backup of the sd card partition which for some bizarre reason ended up with a file that was 6 MB in size instead of 10 GB... I knew my data had somehow got nuked. I decided to just reformat it (Quick Format) as FAT32 on the PC, then I ran a host of data recovery programs, even those that were specialised in finding stuff from formatted drives. None of them could even find ONE file. But after format I was able to use it as normal.
I have really no clue how the entire drive was nuked within a fraction of a second, even all the data on it, but it is what it is.
On the bright side, for some reason my phone seems MUCH faster now, especially when installing apps, and the battery seems to last noticeably longer too.

djsubtronic said:
Well it's official. All my data is forever gone. And no there was no notification, I hit "FACTORY RESET", and it just paused for a second then rebooted into TWRP with my SD instantly destroyed. I tried every possible trick in the book. The problem for me wasn't just getting it to mount and work again, I could have done that in 20 seconds. The problem was to try and get it back WITH all my data, which I failed.
In the end, I made a RAW disk image backup of the sd card partition which for some bizarre reason ended up with a file that was 6 MB in size instead of 10 GB... I knew my data had somehow got nuked. I decided to just reformat it (Quick Format) as FAT32 on the PC, then I ran a host of data recovery programs, even those that were specialised in finding stuff from formatted drives. None of them could even find ONE file. But after format I was able to use it as normal.
I have really no clue how the entire drive was nuked within a fraction of a second, even all the data on it, but it is what it is.
On the bright side, for some reason my phone seems MUCH faster now, especially when installing apps, and the battery seems to last noticeably longer too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. Maybe I should do it too lol.
You should automatically upload your photos or files somewhere. Mine upload to Dropbox so if anything bad happens, nothing too bad can go wrong.

djsubtronic said:
In the end, I made a RAW disk image backup of the sd card partition which for some bizarre reason ended up with a file that was 6 MB in size instead of 10 GB... I knew my data had somehow got nuked. I decided to just reformat it (Quick Format) as FAT32 on the PC, then I ran a host of data recovery programs, even those that were specialised in finding stuff from formatted drives. None of them could even find ONE file. But after format I was able to use it as normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's hard to do recover because normal format recovery might not work but you can try the old ver of Easy Recovery Pro 6.x(I don't know why but the lastest ver seems removed RAW recovery) and use the RAW recovery, it usually could find some stuffs. You can also try out Diskgenius.

[SOLVED] Completely format system data cache partitions[making all zeroes]

I know the obvious ans would be to use 4ext superwipe.
What I want is like re-writing those partitions with all memory locations set to zeroes. The 4ext full wipe only works like quick format in windows desktop.
Any ideas how to do it?
____________________
Solved. See post 17 for details.

pushpann said:
I know the obvious ans would be to use 4ext superwipe.
What I want is like re-writing those partitions with all memory locations set to zeroes. The 4ext full wipe only works like quick format in windows desktop.
Any ideas how to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had to search a bit, but found an article that explains how to do this. It links to 3 apps (havn't tested myself, just remember there's no going back), from the description the first one only works on SD card, the second one might (it does not mention which partitions it formats), and the last one seems to be removed.
I did not read the whole article, but I suggest you do that before doing anything.
Good luck.

pushpann said:
I know the obvious ans would be to use 4ext superwipe.
What I want is like re-writing those partitions with all memory locations set to zeroes. The 4ext full wipe only works like quick format in windows desktop.
Any ideas how to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
A RUU will reset everything back to stock, and fix any partition issues.
Is that what you are after?

malybru said:
Hi,
A RUU will reset everything back to stock, and fix any partition issues.
Is that what you are after?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As he said, he wants it to be completely formatted, meaning no data can be recovered, which is like a hard full wipe - no way to restore.
RUU does format the data partition, but it only removes records of files, and the data itself is still available and possible to read (until new files will be written over it).

No! I dont want to get involved with RUU stuff.. I just want to completely wipe my phone.. Like complete formatting of the USB drives. All system and data partitions set to zeroes.
In simple words, if you do quick formating on pendrives, you can restore (some or all data before format, depends on what you've put on the drive after format ) using some Data Recovery tools.
What i believe is that recovery just wipes the memory addresses, without putting zeroes on all the memory locations. have been googling for this for almost a week, haven't got any clue yet!

pushpann said:
I know the obvious ans would be to use 4ext superwipe.
What I want is like re-writing those partitions with all memory locations set to zeroes. The 4ext full wipe only works like quick format in windows desktop.
Any ideas how to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would do it this way (this is something I came up with, and if it screws up anything, you are responsible) :
Write a script that reformat your nand rom and then dumps (creates) a huge file containing zeroes. Then reformat using 4ext and repartition.
I am curious, why exactly do you want to do this? The lack of results from Google would suggest that this is not something people would normally do.
JAM THAT THANKS BUTTON.
Happy to help.

I assume you're not going to use the phone after?
If you aren't going to use the phone after, one word. Sledgehammer.
If you are keeping the phone; create a file on the partition filled with rubbish (linux has a command for this). Make sure it fills the entire partition and then run mkfs.ext4 /dev/block/partition. Repeat a dozen times or create a script to do it for you.
It's easier than erasing the whole NAND disk and partitioning it. Mainly because you'll wipe the recovery partition and create an expensive paperweight. Which brings me back to sledgehammer.
Sent from my HTC

pushpann said:
No! I dont want to get involved with RUU stuff.. I just want to completely wipe my phone.. Like complete formatting of the USB drives. All system and data partitions set to zeroes.
In simple words, if you do quick formating on pendrives, you can restore (some or all data before format, depends on what you've put on the drive after format ) using some Data Recovery tools.
What i believe is that recovery just wipes the memory addresses, without putting zeroes on all the memory locations. have been googling for this for almost a week, haven't got any clue yet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my first commented I linked to an article which gives two ways to wipe your phone (set to zeroes and all). Here are the two apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kovit.p.forevergone
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.ethz.infsyssec.sddroid
Try those to see if they format the Data partition.

Far_SighT said:
I would do it this way (this is something I came up with, and if it screws up anything, you are responsible) :
Write a script that reformat your nand rom and then dumps (creates) a huge file containing zeroes. Then reformat using 4ext and repartition.
I am curious, why exactly do you want to do this? The lack of results from Google would suggest that this is not something people would normally do.
JAM THAT THANKS BUTTON.
Happy to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm.. My phone has become very laggy.. No matter what ROM flash, what firmware I flash.
DennisBold said:
I assume you're not going to use the phone after?
If you aren't going to use the phone after, one word. Sledgehammer.
If you are keeping the phone; create a file on the partition filled with rubbish (linux has a command for this). Make sure it fills the entire partition and then run mkfs.ext4 /dev/block/partition. Repeat a dozen times or create a script to do it for you.
It's easier than erasing the whole NAND disk and partitioning it. Mainly because you'll wipe the recovery partition and create an expensive paperweight. Which brings me back to sledgehammer.
Sent from my HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By hearing what you say, i kinda feel little scared to do these steps. Anyway thanks for the suggestion..
astar26 said:
On my first commented I linked to an article which gives two ways to wipe your phone (set to zeroes and all). Here are the two apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kovit.p.forevergone
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.ethz.infsyssec.sddroid
Try those to see if they format the Data partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those apps dont work.. By internal data they mean internal sdcard not system or data partition.
BTW just saw this app called lagfix. It says it will discard the unused blocks, but doesnot work on my phone.. Has anyone tried it? For me it's saying trim on system,data and cache not supported! DAMN

DennisBold said:
I assume you're not going to use the phone after?
If you aren't going to use the phone after, one word. Sledgehammer.
If you are keeping the phone; create a file on the partition filled with rubbish (linux has a command for this). Make sure it fills the entire partition and then run mkfs.ext4 /dev/block/partition. Repeat a dozen times or create a script to do it for you.
It's easier than erasing the whole NAND disk and partitioning it. Mainly because you'll wipe the recovery partition and create an expensive paperweight. Which brings me back to sledgehammer.
Sent from my HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I had similar thoughts. I was going for repartition becasue then the whole of nandroid can be wiped in one go.
To clean the phone, sledgehammer / mowing the device with a car (or both, one after the other) are the best methods.
Here's one more idea. Create a pseudo nandroid backup with all of your nandroid partitions(/system /data /cache etc) filled with garbage/zeroes. Then restore that. And bam, the nandroid is hard formatted (after a quick format of course).
Like always, it's your phone. I am not responsible for anything that you do to it.
JAM THAT THANKS BUTTON.
Happy to Help.

pushpann said:
Hmm.. My phone has become very laggy.. No matter what ROM flash, what firmware I flash.
By hearing what you say, i kinda feel little scared to do these steps. Anyway thanks for the suggestion..
Those apps dont work.. By internal data they mean internal sdcard not system or data partition.
BTW just saw this app called lagfix. It says it will discard the unused blocks, but doesnot work on my phone.. Has anyone tried it? For me it's saying trim on system,data and cache not supported! DAMN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it yesterday, it's meant for certain devices that did not use the TRIM command like they should (Many Nexus 7 tablets were slowed down by this issue), but it seems the Sensation does not need it (or at least our kernels do not support the command).
What seems as the only way to do so is to create many blank files and delete them (like many already said). you can create a large file and copy it a few times to the Data partition, which will fill it, and then delete it. using a normal file manager will work (or you can use "adb push" command to push the file a couple of times).

Far_SighT said:
Yeah, I had similar thoughts. I was going for repartition becasue then the whole of nandroid can be wiped in one go.
To clean the phone, sledgehammer / mowing the device with a car (or both, one after the other) are the best methods.
Here's one more idea. Create a pseudo nandroid backup with all of your nandroid partitions(/system /data /cache etc) filled with garbage/zeroes. Then restore that. And bam, the nandroid is hard formatted (after a quick format of course).
Like always, it's your phone. I am not responsible for anything that you do to it.
JAM THAT THANKS BUTTON.
Happy to Help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You sure it does complete format while restoring nandroid? BTW i still am not sure how to fill system and data partitions with zeroes or garbage! Anyway thanks for the heads up

pushpann said:
You sure it does complete format while restoring nandroid? BTW i still am not sure how to fill system and data partitions with zeroes or garbage! Anyway thanks for the heads up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't have to worry about formatting empty space. No one ever, except possibly computer forensics is going to want information from an empty phone. They have access to browsing history from Google, call records from your mobile provider and ban access details from your banks. They wouldn't need your phone. There are things that make it hard for the average person. Including mounting the NAND disk in a way that it can be opened like a normal disk drive, and then running the tools to restore data. If someone really wanted data it's possible but they will not go through all that for 500MB of bank details, porn or whatever people do with phones these days. If you're trying to hinder the police because you did something wrong, then you should just stop.
Theoretically it can be done through an android device but cross compiling tools to recover data is long and tedious to do. There is nothing so important that someone would spend hours creating tools for an Android device to restore data that may already be irrevocably gone. Not to mention the learning curve for new software. If you are worried, burn the device and buy something new. That is the general rule for sensitive data. Make sure it's gone before you move on.
It's safe to click "Format all partitions" and then erase your SD card and give your phone away.
If it helps, install Android on top. Choose something big. Most of your application data is stored on your SDCard FYI.
Lastly, if it's lag you are trying to fix. Go backwards with Android not forwards. JellyBean demands more than ICS and ICS demands more than GingerBread. Having the latest OS doesn't work for everyone. For example, Windows 8.1 doesn't work for me because there's no fastboot support without huge editing of system drivers. The same is true in Android. GingerBread stability may be more important than ICS or JB features, or JellyBean features may be more important. However don't expect lag free 4.2 or 4.3, our devices may work with it, but they were never intended to go above 4.1(Ville C2 updates stop there too I think) due to hardware limitations. Others may argue differently, but you should question the effort they're (including me) putting in with kernel and device tree upgrades. It's amazing work nonetheless but it basically shouldn't have to be done if the device were supported. Buy a new device if you want the latest and greatest. My Sensation has become a trophy for me to the amazing things you can do with one of HTCs first dual core phones. I don't expect it to work without some kinks and bugs or even fatal flaws but I still respect it for having running Sense 3.0 to 5.0 (yes I've tried it).
Sorry for the rant. I'm a little bit grumpy, but hope it helps explains why you can mostly erase and install a new version of android then throw the device away and be relatively safe.
There's probably going to be someone who reads all of this and thinks I'm crazy, to that guy or girl. Thanks for reading all of it!
Sent from my HTC

DennisBold said:
You shouldn't have to worry about formatting empty space. No one ever, except possibly computer forensics is going to want information from an empty phone. They have access to browsing history from Google, call records from your mobile provider and ban access details from your banks. They wouldn't need your phone. There are things that make it hard for the average person. Including mounting the NAND disk in a way that it can be opened like a normal disk drive, and then running the tools to restore data. If someone really wanted data it's possible but they will not go through all that for 500MB of bank details, porn or whatever people do with phones these days. If you're trying to hinder the police because you did something wrong, then you should just stop.
Theoretically it can be done through an android device but cross compiling tools to recover data is long and tedious to do. There is nothing so important that someone would spend hours creating tools for an Android device to restore data that may already be irrevocably gone. Not to mention the learning curve for new software. If you are worried, burn the device and buy something new. That is the general rule for sensitive data. Make sure it's gone before you move on.
It's safe to click "Format all partitions" and then erase your SD card and give your phone away.
If it helps, install Android on top. Choose something big. Most of your application data is stored on your SDCard FYI.
Lastly, if it's lag you are trying to fix. Go backwards with Android not forwards. JellyBean demands more than ICS and ICS demands more than GingerBread. Having the latest OS doesn't work for everyone. For example, Windows 8.1 doesn't work for me because there's no fastboot support without huge editing of system drivers. The same is true in Android. GingerBread stability may be more important than ICS or JB features, or JellyBean features may be more important. However don't expect lag free 4.2 or 4.3, our devices may work with it, but they were never intended to go above 4.1(Ville C2 updates stop there too I think) due to hardware limitations. Others may argue differently, but you should question the effort they're (including me) putting in with kernel and device tree upgrades. It's amazing work nonetheless but it basically shouldn't have to be done if the device were supported. Buy a new device if you want the latest and greatest. My Sensation has become a trophy for me to the amazing things you can do with one of HTCs first dual core phones. I don't expect it to work without some kinks and bugs or even fatal flaws but I still respect it for having running Sense 3.0 to 5.0 (yes I've tried it).
Sorry for the rant. I'm a little bit grumpy, but hope it helps explains why you can mostly erase and install a new version of android then throw the device away and be relatively safe.
There's probably going to be someone who reads all of this and thinks I'm crazy, to that guy or girl. Thanks for reading all of it!
Sent from my HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont wanna sell my phone and I know that my data isnt that valueable that anyone will try to read my data with hard efforts. My sensation used to perform awesome 2-3 months back, and now that I must have quick formatted my system and data partitions more than 1500 times, i think a full wipe may do some help for those nag n lag issues.
And about going back to GB? Man, Everyone feels GB is sad after using ICS/JB. If my phone doesnot stop lagging every second after I format these partitions, i think its time for a new phone!
Anyway thanks for such a detailed reply

pushpann said:
I dont wanna sell my phone and I know that my data isnt that valueable that anyone will try to read my data with hard efforts. My sensation used to perform awesome 2-3 months back, and now that I must have quick formatted my system and data partitions more than 1500 times, i think a full wipe may do some help for those nag n lag issues.
And about going back to GB? Man, Everyone feels GB is sad after using ICS/JB. If my phone doesnot stop lagging every second after I format these partitions, i think its time for a new phone!
Anyway thanks for such a detailed reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The lag isn't from formatting. You can try ARHD ICS if you want. Or probably Sense 4+ with 4.1.2 but anything above that might not work out great.
Sent from my HTC

pushpann said:
I dont wanna sell my phone and I know that my data isnt that valueable that anyone will try to read my data with hard efforts. My sensation used to perform awesome 2-3 months back, and now that I must have quick formatted my system and data partitions more than 1500 times, i think a full wipe may do some help for those nag n lag issues.
And about going back to GB? Man, Everyone feels GB is sad after using ICS/JB. If my phone doesnot stop lagging every second after I format these partitions, i think its time for a new phone!
Anyway thanks for such a detailed reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How old is your Sensation? I could well be that your nand is dying. In that case, repartition your phone and make /system and /data from parts seldom used (like /cache).
If you want data security, full encryption will keep noobs away.

Thanks for the replies guys!
Today i actually did the zeroing of the partitions with Nandroid method.. I download an app called dummy file creator and it created dummy files(files with zeroes all over it. after searching in internet it seemed legit method of fully zeroing out the memory locations) in data partition untill it ran out of memory. Then i copied those files to system partition too manually till it also became full(I had to do this manually because the app didnt support creating dummy files in system partition) and made nandroid of data and system separately then did almost a dozen time 4ext format and restoring the nandroid. Finally i formatted all the partitions and installed Codename Lungo ROM(CM10.1).
HELL YEAH! it feels FASTer. Not sure if its gonna last long.

pushpann said:
Thanks for the replies guys!
Today i actually did the zeroing of the partitions with Nandroid method.. I download an app called dummy file creator and it created dummy files(files with zeroes all over it. after searching in internet it seemed legit method of fully zeroing out the memory locations) in data partition untill it ran out of memory. Then i copied those files to system partition too manually till it also became full(I had to do this manually because the app didnt support creating dummy files in system partition) and made nandroid of data and system separately then did almost a dozen time 4ext format and restoring the nandroid. Finally i formatted all the partitions and installed Codename Lungo ROM(CM10.1).
HELL YEAH! it feels FASTer. Not sure if its gonna last long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just found something and wanted to add - for future reference - Android Tuner seems to be able to make the TRIM operation on all partitions on our sensation, in a much easier way.

pushpann said:
Thanks for the replies guys!
Today i actually did the zeroing of the partitions with Nandroid method.. I download an app called dummy file creator and it created dummy files(files with zeroes all over it. after searching in internet it seemed legit method of fully zeroing out the memory locations) in data partition untill it ran out of memory. Then i copied those files to system partition too manually till it also became full(I had to do this manually because the app didnt support creating dummy files in system partition) and made nandroid of data and system separately then did almost a dozen time 4ext format and restoring the nandroid. Finally i formatted all the partitions and installed Codename Lungo ROM(CM10.1).
HELL YEAH! it feels FASTer. Not sure if its gonna last long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you guide me? i want to do that but i'm noob . how did you do that? pls help me

BSHD666 said:
Can you guide me? i want to do that but i'm noob . how did you do that? pls help me
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hehe you found it:good:

[Q] Android L not reporting the correct amount of storage space

I clean-flashed the stock release version of Android L that just came out, and I noticed that my phone doesn't detect the correct amount of storage on the device. This is a 32GB Nexus 5, yet the storage page in Settings only lists 12.55GB of total space (screenshot). Windows (10) also lists only 12.5GB of total space (screenshot). What's wrong here?

vaindil said:
I clean-flashed the stock release version of Android L that just came out, and I noticed that my phone doesn't detect the correct amount of storage on the device. This is a 32GB Nexus 5, yet the storage page in Settings only lists 12.55GB of total space (screenshot). Windows (10) also lists only 12.5GB of total space (screenshot). What's wrong here?
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If flashing userdata results in your device's internal storage being downgraded to 16GB according to the OS, just do a full wipe in recovery, that should fix it. This is a bug caused by the userdata.img file being distributed by Google.
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What a launch for the N5!

RVDigital said:
What a launch for the N5!
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So... I have to completely wipe my phone and start from scratch AGAIN?

vaindil said:
So... I have to completely wipe my phone and start from scratch AGAIN?
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Apologies, that quote assumes everyone knows what a Full Wipe is (that's not sarcasm, its a silly assumption). Wipe the data partition in recovery is what is being suggested here. In some recoveries, a full wipe is data and cache.
I will tell you that doing this in TWRP didn't solve the problem. I ultimately just formated via fastboot, as follows.
Code:
fastboot format userdata

RVDigital said:
Apologies, that quote assumes everyone knows what a Full Wipe is (that's not sarcasm, its a silly assumption). Wipe the data partition in recovery is what is being suggested here. In some recoveries, a full wipe is data and cache.
I will tell you that doing this in TWRP didn't solve the problem. I ultimately just formated via fastboot, as follows.
Code:
fastboot format userdata
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Is there a way I can back up the contents of userdata then restore them back once the partition is the correct size? I'll go through the process of reinstalling everything again if I have to, but I'd really like to avoid that if at all possible. Can I MTP to it from TWRP?

vaindil said:
Is there a way I can back up the contents of userdata then restore them back once the partition is the correct size? I'll go through the process of reinstalling everything again if I have to, but I'd really like to avoid that if at all possible. Can I MTP to it from TWRP?
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Why not do a TWRP Backup of /data then restore it when you're finished?

I will say I was having the same issue, and I couldn't create a nandroid backup via CWM. Backs up boot image OK. Backs up recovery image OK. Backs up system OK. "Runs out of" storage space when backing up data. GRRR. SD card space free: 0 MB. False!
Wiped data partition in CWM. Started setup again. STILL 16GB.
Formatted using the Minimal ADB and Fastboot tool found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790
(Code: fastboot format userdata)
Rebooted
THAT worked!!! I am just raging that I spent ~8 hours setting up and customizing everything last night, down to the last email account and icon and NOW it's all gone.

RVDigital said:
Why not do a TWRP Backup of /data then restore it when you're finished?
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Ah, I thought a nandroid backup was a full partition backup, so doing that would just restore the entire partition with the incorrect size. I took a TWRP backup of data, wiped data, then restored the nandroid backup and all is well. Thank you!

twpr backup from a nexus to another nexus

Hi guys,
I own a Nexus 5 16gb with purenexus 6.01 I'm buying another 32gb and to speed things up I would like to transfer the Nandroid backup of the first on thesecond.it can do? there would be stability problems?
i will use the 32gb as main phone and the 16gb for "home experiments" about rom, kernels and another...
thank you

It is possible to restotre it, but HELL DONT EVER RESTORE EFS!!!! it will mess up the imei and you will loose conectivity

aciupapa said:
It is possible to restotre it, but HELL DONT EVER RESTORE EFS!!!! it will mess up the imei and you will loose conectivity
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of course, just boot, system and data (cache?).
I'm just afraid that in the boot.img is saved some serial number [phone, or a wifi mac address] that do not meet on the other device, can lead to malfunctions or brick

Luca TIR said:
of course, just boot, system and data (cache?).
I'm just afraid that in the boot.img is saved some serial number [phone, or a wifi mac address] that do not meet on the other device, can lead to malfunctions or brick
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I have been restoring all of my partitions with twrp for a long time, no problems. TeamWin had informed users that restoring the EFS partition on a specific device (nexus 5x, 6, don't remember exactly) would brick the device. But restoring your 16gb backup to a 32gb device might have other problems such as not seeing your entire memory.
Judging by the fact that if you flash your 32gb nexus 5 with the google factory image then you have to manually "wipe data/factory reset" via recovery to get it to recognize 32gb (or else it says you have only 16, small heart attack there), then that means that the memory capacity is defined somewhere in the software (obviously). Also, the partitions would be of different sizes. You'd have no problem transferring backups between identical devices, though when you have a different memory storage, you need to reinstall everything.
Hardware information such as MAC adresses are not saved anywhere, they are retrieved at runtime. Consider that you can even change a MAC address on the fly and the device would have no problem with it as long as you turn it off and on again (ifconfig wlan0 down && ifconfig wlan0 up) (as far as the OS is concerned, because you can't truly change it, I think it's hardware defined). Same goes for IMEI etc. But the flash memory consists of many partitions that need to be of specific size. If you restore a partition with different size than it's original one, you might soft brick it.
In conclusion, no, don't transfer your backup. Unlock the device, flash recovery, flash zips, setup your device again...

chrisk44 said:
I have been restoring all of my partitions with twrp for a long time, no problems. TeamWin had informed users that restoring the EFS partition on a specific device (nexus 5x, 6, don't remember exactly) would brick the device. But restoring your 16gb backup to a 32gb device might have other problems such as not seeing your entire memory.
Judging by the fact that if you flash your 32gb nexus 5 with the google factory image then you have to manually "wipe data/factory reset" via recovery to get it to recognize 32gb (or else it says you have only 16, small heart attack there), then that means that the memory capacity is defined somewhere in the software (obviously). Also, the partitions would be of different sizes. You'd have no problem transferring backups between identical devices, though when you have a different memory storage, you need to reinstall everything.
Hardware information such as MAC adresses are not saved anywhere, they are retrieved at runtime. Consider that you can even change a MAC address on the fly and the device would have no problem with it as long as you turn it off and on again (ifconfig wlan0 down && ifconfig wlan0 up) (as far as the OS is concerned, because you can't truly change it, I think it's hardware defined). Same goes for IMEI etc. But the flash memory consists of many partitions that need to be of specific size. If you restore a partition with different size than it's original one, you might soft brick it.
In conclusion, no, don't transfer your backup. Unlock the device, flash recovery, flash zips, setup your device again...
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clear, precise and convincing ... you're right .especially different partitioning and memory size did not convince me, you have confirmed to me. I try suffered some rom nougat when I get the device
p.s.:no small heart attack please, i'm an ambulance driver :laugh: (really)
many thanks

The emulated sdcard is not backed up by twrp anyway. I would just adb pull that partition and then push all the files back on the knew device. Data and system should be fine with twrp.

(apparently) it's working!!!
Today, I received the "twin"
just out of curiosity I tried to restore the backup on the 16gb and 32gb [purenexus 6.01] and all seems to work.but I have yet to test it.
Now I go to work tomorrow I put the sim card and use it normally to confirm that everything is ok.
p.s.:the data on the free / busy sd internal memory are righteous