Hi.
I mistakenly flashed my Android Galaxy On5 (using Odin's "AP" option) with one of the Exynos files. I saw something about "userdata" and knew immediately I had made a mistake, even though I did not load anything in the Odin "userdata" option. Why I did this probably isn't relevant, but I'm happy to provide more detail.
My question, however, is a simple one: Having done this, is it still possible to recover the user data that is no longer visible on the phone? When I reboot the phone without TWRP, it looks like it has been factory reset.
The phone is rooted, and I can see the device shares with "df". I can't see any secondary SD card based on the information I found about it sitting on top of where the SIM card is installed. I have done plenty of computer data recoveries from hard disk.. But every tool I have downloaded online for the Android seems to be polluted with malware, and I even reimaged my desktop because of all the crap I've tried.
Do you have a recommended tool for this that isn't some horrible marketing ploy? Minitool, Dr.Fone, FonePaw, and Kingoroot were all unsuccessful.
Also, if the data resides on an internal SD card, how is it formatted? I assume it is not a typical EXT or NTFS file system. Can you tell me which device I should be trying to recover from? It looks like /dev/block/mmcblk0p21.
If the internal storage is inaccessible, another thought I had was to do a block copy (with dd) onto a separate SD card, but I am unsure of whether this would provide a copy of the overwritten data, or would it actually reduce my chances of recovery.
The phone is a Samsung Galaxy On5 (SM-G550T).
Much of the data is non-critical, but some of it is unfortunately irreplaceable. Again, I'm really looking for a "yes" or "no" here, either data recovery is possible or not. And of course any suggestions on how to do it are greatly appreciated. The time it took to flash was almost instantaneous, but I also realize that flash drives are different from spinning drives in terms of how data is written and stored.
Thank you.
libertine5 said:
Hi.
I mistakenly flashed my Android Galaxy On5 (using Odin's "AP" option) with one of the Exynos files. I saw something about "userdata" and knew immediately I had made a mistake, even though I did not load anything in the Odin "userdata" option. Why I did this probably isn't relevant, but I'm happy to provide more detail.
My question, however, is a simple one: Having done this, is it still possible to recover the user data that is no longer visible on the phone? When I reboot the phone without TWRP, it looks like it has been factory reset.
The phone is rooted, and I can see the device shares with "df". I can't see any secondary SD card based on the information I found about it sitting on top of where the SIM card is installed. I have done plenty of computer data recoveries from hard disk.. But every tool I have downloaded online for the Android seems to be polluted with malware, and I even reimaged my desktop because of all the crap I've tried.
Do you have a recommended tool for this that isn't some horrible marketing ploy? Minitool, Dr.Fone, FonePaw, and Kingoroot were all unsuccessful.
Also, if the data resides on an internal SD card, how is it formatted? I assume it is not a typical EXT or NTFS file system. Can you tell me which device I should be trying to recover from? It looks like /dev/block/mmcblk0p21.
If the internal storage is inaccessible, another thought I had was to do a block copy (with dd) onto a separate SD card, but I am unsure of whether this would provide a copy of the overwritten data, or would it actually reduce my chances of recovery.
The phone is a Samsung Galaxy On5 (SM-G550T).
Much of the data is non-critical, but some of it is unfortunately irreplaceable. Again, I'm really looking for a "yes" or "no" here, either data recovery is possible or not. And of course any suggestions on how to do it are greatly appreciated. The time it took to flash was almost instantaneous, but I also realize that flash drives are different from spinning drives in terms of how data is written and stored.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you haven't any advice on how to do it, just a simple "yes" or "no" as to whether a recovery is possible would be greatly appreciated. There must be a few forum readers out there who know the answer to that question. Anyone? Bueller?
libertine5 said:
If you haven't any advice on how to do it, just a simple "yes" or "no" as to whether a recovery is possible would be greatly appreciated. There must be a few forum readers out there who know the answer to that question. Anyone? Bueller?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you wiped out userdata, that means all your data is gone. I know for computers, deleting data doesn't necessary delete the data, but rather makes the space unallocated, meaning new data can be written over it. Not 100% sure if they have something similar for Android. If you have google synced with your account, you can recover most of your data that way, otherwise you might be out of luck.
Related
Hi techie friends,
My unrooted g2x is stuck in a reboot loop. Before I do a hard reset (power/volume down), I would like to retrieve my photos, which are stored in the internal memory. Is there a way? [Here is what I tried so far: I tried a soft reset (battery out) with no success. I connected the g2x to my PC but it is invisible. I tried holding just the volume down key and got a "s/w upgrade, please wait while upgrading..." screen. Is there any hope to retrieve my photos? I googled the issue and found nothing useful.] Thank you in advance for trying to help me! Catherine
Im having the same issue on a friends G2X... nobody has the answer?
hmmmmm, this is an interesting one. the very first thing i would do is get that phone backed up. you will need to flash a custom recovery(clockwork mod) in order to make a backup. search the development section. once you have a backup on your sdcard, i'd copy it to my pc. thinking.......
from recovery, you can try "fix permissions".
reboot. if that doesn't work, go back to recovery>advanced>wipe dalvik cache. reboot. if that doesn't work, try recovery again>mounts and storage and mount everything listed. see if the drives open up under "my computer" on your pc. for me, that last option doesn't work. but it could just be my pc or my recovery version.
or, you could flash any rom you want, and then mount the phone to your pc. then try running a data recovery program on the internal sdcard.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
forget the link i posted above. it seems it has trouble reading the internal sd. but i'm running get data back right now. it seems like it's working fine. if these pictures are absolutely worth saving, you might have to dish out some cash for a data recovery app. but always use a trial version first to make sure it works. and once you flash a new rom, keep the phone off until you are ready to run a recovery app. the less that gets written to the drive, the better your chances for retrieving those pics.
or, you can try this... https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hexamob.hexamobrecoverypro&feature=search_result . you'll need to be rooted and have superuser app on your phone. but this looks like the cheapest alternative. i have never used it though. reviews look good though.
I'm pretty sure a hard reset doesn't touch anything located on the sdcard. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it should only format the 1GB partition where the android system is installed and apps are stored. You will basically be starting with a fresh install, but should still have anything stored on your sdcard still intact.
G2X CM7
Hmmm,
Can't you just mount the internal memory via the latest Clockwork Recovery which is as I recall 4.0.0.2?
It worked the last time (the same option with the same trouble) on my Vibrant 3G
phburks said:
I'm pretty sure a hard reset doesn't touch anything located on the sdcard. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it should only format the 1GB partition where the android system is installed and apps are stored. You will basically be starting with a fresh install, but should still have anything stored on your sdcard still intact.
G2X CM7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, you are right. HR will not erase the SD content and I also think that it will leave the the internal NANDs partition intact. But I dont know where the pics in this case are stored.
Correct if I'm wrong.
Antigen said:
Actually, you are right. HR will not erase the SD content and I also think that it will leave the the internal NANDs partition intact. But I dont know where the pics in this case are stored.
Correct if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Camera pics are stored under DCIM on the sdcard. Really any user created content/files (pics, music, videos, documents, etc) are on the memory card and shouldn't be touched by a hard reset. So I think youre in the clear if that's the route you go.
G2X CM7
Gentlemen
I have found multiple threads covering the aspects of this scenario, but none with a clear conclusion. It might be there, but then i haven't found them.
Long story short, I have been asked to assist with doing data recovery on a Note 10.1 . There is no external SD card, and there is no backup. I´m looking for a small 8kb key file, which was lost during a data crash of another application.
So fare, the task of running a data recovery util on the filesystem (On Track or similar) have been impossible , due to the fact that the device is not rooted, and attatching it as a mass storage device dosent seem to be possible.
From what i found, it´s only possible to get mass storage to work, if the device is rooted, and even so, it will only be the SD card which is accessible
So my questions are:
Is it possible , in anyway to get access to the filesystem, so i can do a scan for lost data?
Has anybody else had luck with retrieving lost data on souch a device?
Thanks in advance
S3 but basics are the same .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45672474
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994705
JJEgan said:
S3 but basics are the same .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45672474
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994705
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brilliant. This information is so much better then what i found so fare. Thanks!
Hello xda community,
I unlocked the bootloader of my friend's Xperia Z3 D6603 earlier and didn't expect a factory reset so no backup of his pictures (and some game saves) exist.
In theory they data should still be there, so using this tutorial http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...-internal-memory-data-recovery-yes-t1994705 I should be able to recover what can be recovered.
The problem is this requires a rooted device which it isn't yet.
My main question is: Is this way to root http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3/development/root-stock-kernel-twrp-v01-test-28-09-t2889794 the one that causes the least damage to the data I want to recover?
Another smaller question would be if there are any tricks to preserve the data (e.g. using sectors that had no data) while installing the tools to root and to recover?
Would really appreciate your help to salvage this situation
I don't know why it was an unexpected loss of data, it says it will happen right there on the sony website
In order to root, you should just flash a kernel.
In order to preserve data in the future, back it up to your PC
PS, you may have lost more than you thought, if you did not root BEOFRE you unlocked you have also lost your friends DRM keys and so you can say goodbye to decent pictures in low light and other DRM functions
Seems like I f***ed up on multiple fronts…
Managed to get a dump of the SD card yesterday, but there doesn't really seem to be anything left to salvage.(Which I don't understand, why would they overwrite the SD card when they could just reallocate the space?)
Neither did I know about the DRM, but there seem to be ways to circumvent the lack of those, will look into that later.
Well, thanks for the help and the heads up.
Komasa said:
Seems like I f***ed up on multiple frontsâ?¦
Managed to get a dump of the SD card yesterday, but there doesn't really seem to be anything left to salvage.(Which I don't understand, why would they overwrite the SD card when they could just reallocate the space?)
Neither did I know about the DRM, but there seem to be ways to circumvent the lack of those, will look into that later.
Well, thanks for the help and the heads up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your sd card should not have been touched. Only internal storage and the data partition.
Yes, there is a thread about returning functionality of drm functions, is not 100%, but better than nothing
Flash storage doesn't work the same way hard drives do. Often, when you delete something, it's gone forever "zeroed out" by the flash controller.
This shouldn't be the case with SD card, though, and it shouldn't have even been touched when unlocking. Aren't you confusing the "internal" SD card (phone storage) with an external one?
The question:
Is it actually possible recovering your data on an android device after flashing it with a Stock ROM?
The reason:
The whole story is about to be told, and you know that you don't have to read it.
I went through a few days of hell (and apparently it's a waste of time) in learning how to get back my photos.
1. Lenovo Vibe P1 (16GB internal memory) with 64GB SD card, no root.
A lot of space and a lot of photos. "Job" Gallery, Personal Gallery, "Fun" Gallery.
I decided to keep my photos organized and moved my "Job" Gallery to my SD card, as well as all other files, that I wouldn't miss much if they would get lost, as it often happens with SD cards, I believe.
"Job" Gallery is what I sometimes have to show to people by actually giving them my phone.
In order to keep my Personal Gallery away from anyone I simply moved it into an internal memory Folder with a "." in it's name (Hidden or System Folder is what Android calls them).
2. Personal photos lost.
One of the popular "Cleaning\Boosting" Apps or Android itself (not sure by now) decides to give me an advice to wipe my "Photos Cache", which is what I did, sadly.
It turned out that it deleted my personal photos from the Hidden Folder.
3. Failed Recovery.
Downloading "Data Recovery" apps did not help much since most of them wanted a Rooted device.
And those that could work without Root some why just wouldn't locate anything from my Hidden Folder.
4. Failed Rooting = dead SDcard.
I already knew about how hard it is to root my device, not to mention that going Android6.0 made it even harder, so I never wanted to take that risk.
Now I sort of a had to try, since most of the data I really cared about was lost.
Downloading rooting apps and trying them out somehow killed my SDcard.
5. Failed SDcard Recovery = dead CardReader, dying HardDrive.
While using some Data Recovery software on my PC with SDcard plugged via CardReader, something apparently went wrong and my HardDrive started having one of those dying sounds.
It still worked though, so I could spend some time browsing the recovered SDcard data.
Sadly, those files where unreadable, probably because the recovery software was trial, so it made all of them "Unreadable Before You Pay", hard to tell by now.
I decided to try another Recovery Tool, ignoring the HardDrive issue for now, but my CardReader or the SDcard or both appeared to be dead.
6. Bricking the Vibe.
After spending some time doing backups of my dying HardDrive data, I returned to Rooting my smartphone, but by "manual" methods this time.
Trying all of those scary weird methods while actually learning all the stuff about "flashing" led me into bricking my device.
7. Failed Rooted Recovery.
Somehow, by following few guides, I finally managed to do everything correct (I hope).
I mean, unlocking bootloader by fastboot, gaining temporary root by ADB, flashing TWRP recovery and Stock ROM by QFIL, installing SuperSU, and actually rooting the device.
Right after, I downloaded a bunch of recovery apps to try again, but all of the photos and pictures, found by scanning, were useless.
Even those results before rooting were much better.
8. Failed RAW Recovery.
Surfing different forums, led me to a guide about using PC recovery tools on an Android RAW image.
While surfing, I have already tried about five PC-Android recovery tools and they didn't help much, but I decided to try it anyway.
By using BusyBox, Cygwin, NetCat, ADB, VhdxTool, I made a RAW image of my internal memory partition, converted it into a VHD and mounted it for scanning.
After using about 25-30 recovery tools I did not find any of those desired lost photos.
Scanning results on jpegs are pretty much the same for each tool.
Thank you for reading if you decided to do so anyway.
I also found others who did try to recover their precious data, like I did (after flashing and going through all the problems with rooting and getting a RAW file).
It seems like they all failed as well, so the question is - is it actually possible?
I know it's much easier with an HDD, since I know that those mansions usually keep ghosts for years, while Android totally exhausted and after all, killed me.
I really need help with this, since I see no more ways to try. If you have any advice, please share.
P.S. I'm sorry for my english, not native.
XDA Visitor said:
The question:
Is it actually possible recovering your data on an android device after flashing it with a Stock ROM?
The reason:
The whole story is about to be told, and you know that you don't have to read it.
I went through a few days of hell (and apparently it's a waste of time) in learning how to get back my photos.
1. Lenovo Vibe P1 (16GB internal memory) with 64GB SD card, no root.
A lot of space and a lot of photos. "Job" Gallery, Personal Gallery, "Fun" Gallery.
I decided to keep my photos organized and moved my "Job" Gallery to my SD card, as well as all other files, that I wouldn't miss much if they would get lost, as it often happens with SD cards, I believe.
"Job" Gallery is what I sometimes have to show to people by actually giving them my phone.
In order to keep my Personal Gallery away from anyone I simply moved it into an internal memory Folder with a "." in it's name (Hidden or System Folder is what Android calls them).
2. Personal photos lost.
One of the popular "Cleaning\Boosting" Apps or Android itself (not sure by now) decides to give me an advice to wipe my "Photos Cache", which is what I did, sadly.
It turned out that it deleted my personal photos from the Hidden Folder.
3. Failed Recovery.
Downloading "Data Recovery" apps did not help much since most of them wanted a Rooted device.
And those that could work without Root some why just wouldn't locate anything from my Hidden Folder.
4. Failed Rooting = dead SDcard.
I already knew about how hard it is to root my device, not to mention that going Android6.0 made it even harder, so I never wanted to take that risk.
Now I sort of a had to try, since most of the data I really cared about was lost.
Downloading rooting apps and trying them out somehow killed my SDcard.
5. Failed SDcard Recovery = dead CardReader, dying HardDrive.
While using some Data Recovery software on my PC with SDcard plugged via CardReader, something apparently went wrong and my HardDrive started having one of those dying sounds.
It still worked though, so I could spend some time browsing the recovered SDcard data.
Sadly, those files where unreadable, probably because the recovery software was trial, so it made all of them "Unreadable Before You Pay", hard to tell by now.
I decided to try another Recovery Tool, ignoring the HardDrive issue for now, but my CardReader or the SDcard or both appeared to be dead.
6. Bricking the Vibe.
After spending some time doing backups of my dying HardDrive data, I returned to Rooting my smartphone, but by "manual" methods this time.
Trying all of those scary weird methods while actually learning all the stuff about "flashing" led me into bricking my device.
7. Failed Rooted Recovery.
Somehow, by following few guides, I finally managed to do everything correct (I hope).
I mean, unlocking bootloader by fastboot, gaining temporary root by ADB, flashing TWRP recovery and Stock ROM by QFIL, installing SuperSU, and actually rooting the device.
Right after, I downloaded a bunch of recovery apps to try again, but all of the photos and pictures, found by scanning, were useless.
Even those results before rooting were much better.
8. Failed RAW Recovery.
Surfing different forums, led me to a guide about using PC recovery tools on an Android RAW image.
While surfing, I have already tried about five PC-Android recovery tools and they didn't help much, but I decided to try it anyway.
By using BusyBox, Cygwin, NetCat, ADB, VhdxTool, I made a RAW image of my internal memory partition, converted it into a VHD and mounted it for scanning.
After using about 25-30 recovery tools I did not find any of those desired lost photos.
Scanning results on jpegs are pretty much the same for each tool.
Thank you for reading if you decided to do so anyway.
I also found others who did try to recover their precious data, like I did (after flashing and going through all the problems with rooting and getting a RAW file).
It seems like they all failed as well, so the question is - is it actually possible?
I know it's much easier with an HDD, since I know that those mansions usually keep ghosts for years, while Android totally exhausted and after all, killed me.
I really need help with this, since I see no more ways to try. If you have any advice, please share.
P.S. I'm sorry for my english, not native.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greetings,
Thank you for using XDA Assist.
Please have a look at the P1 homepage:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/vibe-p1
If you create an XDA account, you can ask your question to the experts here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/vibe-p1/help
Good luck and welcome to XDA!
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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