First of all... I wanted to start this post off by saying yes, I know I'm an idiot.
Now that that's out of the way....
A few weeks ago, I got so excited to flash a custom ROM, that somehow when I ran TWRP and backed up my system to the external SD card, I also wiped my external SD card. Because I'm an idiot. I don't know how or why it happened really. I just know it did.
I had previously saved EVERYTHING to my external SD card, thinking that was the safest place for the data... and now the past two years of my life documented in photographs are gone.
I have tweaked out on running custom phone software since the days of the original Razr and flashing Alltel firmware on it... and this is the first major screw up I've ever done.
Now... does TWRP back up that data somewhere, somehow? Or is it just system data/apps that get backed up? If TWRP didn't save it somewhere, is there possibly somewhere that the contents of my external SD card were MOVED upon installation of the custom ROM?
ircphoenix said:
A few weeks ago, I got so excited to flash a custom ROM, that somehow when I ran TWRP and backed up my system to the external SD card, I also wiped my external SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should never store your sole backup copy on the same device as is being backed up as you probably realize now.
Anyway, it's not clear from your post if you were storing a redundant copy of your backup on your external SD card or if you had configured TWRP to use your external SD card as the primary folder and therefore sole backup copy. The default location is usually /data/media/0/TWRP. Try a search for TWRP folders using a root aware file browser. With any luck you will find a backup on your internal SD card.
If not, then the only way to recover would be to try a data recovery program on your external SD card. Unless you do Google /cloud backups as well?
.
Recuva does most of the work well, and there is an option to restore the directory structure too if you poke around in the settings. Puran File Recovery works where Recuva did not in recovering some images and videos.
Both I have tried after an accidental format of the SD card from the phone settings.
They are both free desktop software.
Important to take not not to copy any files over to the affected card, or even your recovered files as well. Only do so when you are sure you have recovered all that you can onto a desktop folder.
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
fffft said:
Anyway, it's not clear from your post if you were storing a redundant copy of your backup on your external SD card or if you had configured TWRP to use your external SD card as the primary folder and therefore sole backup copy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The second scenario is what I believe I did. And I think when it created the backup, it wiped the external SD to suit it's needs. Problem being that the Nandroid backup wanted 6 gigs ish of space, and I had 4.5 or so remaining on the internal SD.... don't know what stuff I had on there... but *shrug*
Markuzy said:
Recuva does most of the work well, and there is an option to restore the directory structure too if you poke around in the settings. Puran File Recovery works where Recuva did not in recovering some images and videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the tip. I will try both of these. I think the nandroid backup wrote over the areas on the SD where the pictures were stored. You'd think it would pick the empty space before the occupied space... but I guess since it wiped it clean prior to backing up, it was ALL empty space. *sigh*
Thank you both very much for your help.
Related
Good evening.
I made a nanroid backup under the assumption that it backed up everything. (including files on SD) is this a correct to assume?
After parting the sd card for App2sd I discovered my photos were gone. I went to run recovery and recovered but no picture files...
Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. It wiped out all my other backups that were stored on SD.
dailypush said:
Good evening.
I made a nanroid backup under the assumption that it backed up everything. (including files on SD) is this a correct to assume?
After parting the sd card for App2sd I discovered my photos were gone. I went to run recovery and recovered but no picture files...
Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. It wiped out all my other backups that were stored on SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not good to assume. Lesson learned.... Partitioning, not parting, will erase EVERYthing on what you are partitioning. Sorry bro, they are gone. Im not sure if a partition will overwrite the old data, or just delete the record of it. If it's the latter of the two i would get that SD card into a disk utility program asap. Every time something new is written to the card though the less likely you are to get any of the data back.
So now you know...
1. nandroid only backs up the phone itself.
2. you should backup your sd card to your computer
3. dont assume
and last but not least...
4. if you have never done anything like this, make sure you read ALL the steps first...
Oh boy. Yes those are gone. Nandroid only backs up the phone image to the sd card, not the phone image + the sd card itself. Formatting erases everything like he said. Assumptions are always good to make.
It was parting
No...it was partitioning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning
I was having problems with Taboonay 2.2, so I decided to wipe everything and try LightSpeed. First, I backed up all my apps with Titanium and moved the backups onto my external sd. Then, I did a full backup in CWM, just to be safe. Then I did a system wipe and formatted /system, /data and... /sdcard.
Yes, I got a little trigger happy there. Momentarily forgot that /sdcard is not the same in CWM as on the Acer roms (i.e. it's the external memory in CWM vs the internal in the rom).
After cursing myself loudly, I realized that a format that takes 2 seconds to do must not be a full format. I.e. The FAT table is gone along with file and directory information, but the files themselves should still be there.
As I'm a linux user, I installed TestDisk and was able to fully recover all my files. Moral of the story: Don't be dumb and format your backups, but if you do, don't panic. Just don't write anything else to the disk/card and you'll be able to recover your data.
fasteddy86 said:
I was having problems with Taboonay 2.2, so I decided to wipe everything and try LightSpeed. First, I backed up all my apps with Titanium and moved the backups onto my external sd. Then, I did a full backup in CWM, just to be safe. Then I did a system wipe and formatted /system, /data and... /sdcard.
Yes, I got a little trigger happy there. Momentarily forgot that /sdcard is not the same in CWM as on the Acer roms (i.e. it's the external memory in CWM vs the internal in the rom).
After cursing myself loudly, I realized that a format that takes 2 seconds to do must not be a full format. I.e. The FAT table is gone along with file and directory information, but the files themselves should still be there.
As I'm a linux user, I installed TestDisk and was able to fully recover all my files. Moral of the story: Don't be dumb and format your backups, but if you do, don't panic. Just don't write anything else to the disk/card and you'll be able to recover your data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once I was installing rom on my phone (in the early days) so I put the zip file on the sd card, wiped everything, and to make sure I was getting a completely clean install, formatted the sd card. Of course, this meant that I had also removed all of my CWM backups and the ROM I was going to flash! Duh...
This is why you transfer your CWM & Ti backups to your PC for safe keeping, you will never have this problem again.
fasteddy86 said:
I was having problems with Taboonay 2.2, so I decided to wipe everything and try LightSpeed. First, I backed up all my apps with Titanium and moved the backups onto my external sd. Then, I did a full backup in CWM, just to be safe. Then I did a system wipe and formatted /system, /data and... /sdcard.
Yes, I got a little trigger happy there. Momentarily forgot that /sdcard is not the same in CWM as on the Acer roms (i.e. it's the external memory in CWM vs the internal in the rom).
After cursing myself loudly, I realized that a format that takes 2 seconds to do must not be a full format. I.e. The FAT table is gone along with file and directory information, but the files themselves should still be there.
As I'm a linux user, I installed TestDisk and was able to fully recover all my files. Moral of the story: Don't be dumb and format your backups, but if you do, don't panic. Just don't write anything else to the disk/card and you'll be able to recover your data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
STOP! You haven't overwritten your sdcard yet, have you? Put it in a usb card reader, connect it to your PC and download Recuva. It will scan and restore deleted files (even after a format). It works very will with sdcards.
Euclid's Brother said:
STOP! You haven't overwritten your sdcard yet, have you? Put it in a usb card reader, connect it to your PC and download Recuva. It will scan and restore deleted files (even after a format). It works very will with sdcards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is what he did, just read the post.
Lol.. guess i got a little trigger happy too and didn't read the whole thing. Glad he was able to recover
Recuva can't even see my sd card now. It is just grayed out now. Guess it is time for a new one now. Glad you got your fixed.
I tried a search but couldn't "hit the nail on the head". I have a rooted N7, stock rom, TWRP recovery, and SuperSU. I am using ROM Toolbox Pro for App and Nandroid Backup. I know this saves the app/nandroid files to the internal "sd card". My concern is when I unlocked my N7 it wiped completely my sd data and all. How safe is the SD Card data on the N7? Lets just say I screwed something up and had to reset to factory or flash a new ROM, will the SD Card data still be on the device? or was it only the unlocking that does a complete wipe?
I am backing up my ROM Toolbox backups with FolderSync to my Google Drive for extra redundancy. Just curious if I tried a new ROM or did a factory reset would my backup data from the SD card still be there? I don't think the toolbox backs up app data that is stored on the sd card correct? Also, does Nandroid only backup system/ROM information? the file is a lot smaller than expected (I have my 16GB nearly maxed out with only 2GB free, hence the OTG storage)
Ok I guess that's a jumble of a few questions blurred together, hope it's intelligible enough I'm mainly wondering how safe is my data on the "SD Card" during a flash/factory reset.
Also what is the difference between the following, are they all the same, just different paths?
/storage/sdcard0
mount/sdcard
/sdcard
No one knows?
Is there another forum, group, or website I should post this inquiry?
Hi Folks
Just recently brought a 64GB SDXC card for my S4.
with only a measly 9gb free space on the internal memory I brought the SD card to move items such as my nandroid and titanium backups as well as photos and other media.
I managed to move the nandroid backups ok however I also run a daily Titanium backup which still writes to the local memory. I have changed the path to point to a folder on the SD card but it fails to write to this area.
At this moment in time I dont want move Apps to SD just the other bits as this will allow me to recover about 3/4GB of space.
Does anyone know how I can force titanium backup to move or write new files to the SD card location?
Thanks
Follow this link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2524277 to make your card writable, then copy your Titanium backup folder over, and run the Titanium to set the default backup location.
I'm trying to do the same by enable RW permission for the externalSD but ended corrupted my system/etc/permissions/platform.xml. Appreciate if anyone can send me the file.
Thanks.
engowen said:
I'm trying to do the same by enable RW permission for the externalSD but ended corrupted my system/etc/permissions/platform.xml. Appreciate if anyone can send me the file.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got the file from the previous link. Thanks.
I was recommended a app to download called FolderMount which would do this for me, I have to say since I have used this it found an issue with my SD card and fixed it automatically, then pointed Titanium back to the SD card and it now works fine..
Something to consider..
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
k2828 said:
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As stated many many times. The only recovery you can use is TWRP. Your sdcard shows 0 mb because it became part of your internal storage. So reflash TWRP and try again.
after flashing cwm i did nothing but booting once the rom and notice that everything was wipped and then flash twrp.
the result is i cant axcess my sdcard as the rom sais that the sdcard needs to prepared.
so my question is, can i recover the data on the sd card?
Not if you're at the point where the card needs to be prepared. What you should have done if you wanted to decrypt the MicroSD, is pulled the data off both card and internal storage, then gone into Settings > Storage & USB and converted the card to portable storage.
One thing. With CWM running, did you have any nandroid backups? If you did, you likely will have to reinstall CWM to free up the internal storage reserved for the nandroid backups. CWM by default allocates space for its nandroid backups that cannot be touched by the system or TWRP. Once you do that, you can then reinstall TWRP.
OK THX. I just created a image of the SD card.maybe in the future there will be a toop to decrypt such SD cards. For the future:
Is the SD card lost everytime i update the Rom build?
Is the SD card lost Ehen i change the Rom to another Android 6 Rom?
What do i have to do when updating to a Newer build oft the same rom,vor change to another Android 6 rom? Pull everything from bouth cards? Really? Thats a pain in the ass even with a uhs 1 SD card.
Whats the best way for backing up the data, so i can cop them back without trouble? Maybe ADB?
Whats about changin the recovery? Thats a nogo i think and whats about updating twrp?
What is a absolut nogo? What i ahouldnt do to f*** up the card again?
So many questions, but I'm going to answer just the last two, as their answer covers every other question in your post.
What is an absolute no go? What shouldn't I do to f*** up the card again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer to this is so easy it's astounding. The answer is to not combine the card with the internal storage. Here's why. If you switch ROMs regularly in order to try them out, every single time you combine the storage the card has to be prepared for use, which means all data on it gets wiped. If you do a clean install of your current ROM and combine the storage, all data on the card is wiped. The reason the card gets wiped is because Android 6.x creates a virtual volume which spans both internal storage and the MicroSD. In order to ensure the data is secure Android encrypts the volume. This encryption is part of the reason Google throws up a warning to restore the card if you pull it out of the device.
By not combining the storage, you avoid the encryption problems, but you do have to deal with the issue of apps not seeing the MicroSD card. Unless an app with this issue is no longer being updated, this problem will resolve itself. Developers have to adapt to the new setup.
The encryption also impacts performance, though on my tests with it I didn't notice anything. The one thing it will do is impact the ability to perform backups. In my tests, the encryption prevented TWRP from doing anything useful, meaning no ability to install flashable zips or updated TWRP recovery images from the storage and no ability to do nandroid backups. TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD. TWRP's developers will need to adapt to this and custom ROM developers will have to recommend that users not combine storage.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
So many questions, but I'm going to answer just the last two, as their answer covers every other question in your post.
The answer to this is so easy it's astounding. The answer is to not combine the card with the internal storage. Here's why. If you switch ROMs regularly in order to try them out, every single time you combine the storage the card has to be prepared for use, which means all data on it gets wiped. If you do a clean install of your current ROM and combine the storage, all data on the card is wiped. The reason the card gets wiped is because Android 6.x creates a virtual volume which spans both internal storage and the MicroSD. In order to ensure the data is secure Android encrypts the volume. This encryption is part of the reason Google throws up a warning to restore the card if you pull it out of the device.
By not combining the storage, you avoid the encryption problems, but you do have to deal with the issue of apps not seeing the MicroSD card. Unless an app with this issue is no longer being updated, this problem will resolve itself. Developers have to adapt to the new setup.
The encryption also impacts performance, though on my tests with it I didn't notice anything. The one thing it will do is impact the ability to perform backups. In my tests, the encryption prevented TWRP from doing anything useful, meaning no ability to install flashable zips or updated TWRP recovery images from the storage and no ability to do nandroid backups. TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD. TWRP's developers will need to adapt to this and custom ROM developers will have to recommend that users not combine storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx for your very detailed answere. but whats about when i am using i.e. kushan rom build 07.12.2015 and i update to kushan rom build 11.12.2015. will the sd card have to be prepared to use also? and what about when i update twrp to a marshmellow support twrp. di i need prepare the sd card then again?
TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the point where my trouble began. as so as the sd card is prepared as internal you cant even see files of the real internal storage. flashing zips you can still do with adb sideload. another question could we backup the internal flash inlcuding prepared sd card with this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1818321
?
If yes, is there also a way to restore the backup made?
To make things crystal clear, once the card is set for portable storage you will not have to reconfigure the card again unless you choose to combine the storage. Upgrading a ROM to a newer version will generate a message in the notification bar that you have to prepare the card, but you simply select the portable storage option and the notification goes away. Upgrading TWRP doesn't require doing anything to storage.
Should you choose to combine storage, upgrading a ROM may cost you whatever is on both the internal storage and microSD. Upgrading TWRP with combined storage would require you to flash it using Odin, because you wouldn't be able to copy the TWRP image to the device storage.
Backing up the internal storage doesn't require anything more than a copy operation from the S4 to the PC, so no special tools should be required. That applies regardless of whether the storage is combined or separate. However, for best results with TWRP, the storage should not be combined.
Sorry for reviving this old thread, but I've the same issue.
I flashed a new rom without getting the decryption code or backing anything up(No NANDs, no sd backup). Is there still currently no way to retrieve the files that are encrypted on this SD?
I've done exactly the same, I'm hoping theres a way to decrypt it.
k2828 said:
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you found solution to decrypt the Sdcard.
I was facing this problem for almost 1 year I need only sdcard not data in it but I am unable to format it due to encryption but any device able to read the data and copy from that.
Even I can play Music out that SD card
Unless you're immortal, you're not decrypting the MicroSD card via brute force. Currently, the amount of time required to find the decryption key is longer than the current age of the universe.
If looking to simply format an existing card, use SDFormatter from http://www.sdcard.org.