Develop Bugs

[How-To] properly install Android

It is not quite self-explaining how to install Android on our Windows Mobile devices. Therefore I took some time and wrote down all the steps for people who are new to "Android".
More testers -> more experience -> more knowledge -> faster/better development.
I hope this way the forum is kept clean(er) from all kinds of questioned that have already been answered many times.
ReadMe Includes:
- Partitioning
- Device preparations
- Boot loader
- Install steps
- Fixes
- Links
- more...
If you are a developer (you create your own package) feel free to use my ReadMe for your packages (update regularly though).
to download the ReadMe click the [Android Repository] button in my signature.

It goes to a rapidshare page with 3 files, and when I click on the filename Android_README.TXT
or start download, I get the error
The file could not be found. Please check the download link.

ok thanks. i fixed it (rs bug when renaming files ^^)

How would i partition a 1GB SD Card? ie what sizes etc are the last 3 same but the unallocated is just whats left over?
I want to use a spare card rather then the one that came with my HD.

ATHiEST said:
How would i partition a 1GB SD Card? ie what sizes etc are the last 3 same but the unallocated is just whats left over?
I want to use a spare card rather then the one that came with my HD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
normally just calculate how i wrote in the readme:
whole space -768 (3* 256) and then the other 3 x 256
but in ur case i would make the swap smaller (i think its not even used at all) and the fat32 bigger; for instance:
fat32 - 384 MB
ext2 - 256 MB
ext2 - 256 MB
swap - 128 MB (rest)

To be honest the bit I find most confusing is all the different versions!

i didnt create any partitions on my card, and android works as good as it does on any, mind you i have not updated the files fo0r a month so alot might have changed

ReadMe updated!
updated a bit...

Geeba said:
To be honest the bit I find most confusing is all the different versions!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree...
i've been looking these posts here for a couple of days now and i still don't know how to do it....
especially the DualBoot thing...
is it possible to make a little bigger how-to manual?
or at least explain the versioning and the needed thing a little more?

the readme is about 50 times longer than anything else u will find about installing android anywhere else
the different versions are just like in windows mobile, theres not much to explain, its rather up to ur personal preference. doesnt take as long as flashing a wm rom, so its easy to try out more versions, especially with more sd cards.
dual boot is easy:
1. install the cab
2. open the dual boot program and make all your settings, for example: auto boot android (click on the checkbox/ratio under android logo), check auto boot checkbox and check fast boot (means 3 instead of 10 secs).
3. restart your device, DONT LAUNCH HARET because that will destroy all the dualboot settings. if you restart/shutdown the device normally, the settings will be stored and android will automatically booted at next startup (or whatever you set before)
if you have android autoboot and u want to boot wm, just QUICKLY press the wm LOGO when the dual boot screen appears.
i might include this in the readme soon, just dont have the time right now unfortunally

N!ghty said:
the readme is about 50 times longer than anything else u will find about installing android anywhere else
the different versions are just like in windows mobile, theres not much to explain, its rather up to ur personal preference. doesnt take as long as flashing a wm rom, so its easy to try out more versions, especially with more sd cards.
dual boot is easy:
1. install the cab
2. open the dual boot program and make all your settings, for example: auto boot android (click on the checkbox/ratio under android logo), check auto boot checkbox and check fast boot (means 3 instead of 10 secs).
3. restart your device, DONT LAUNCH HARET because that will destroy all the dualboot settings. if you restart/shutdown the device normally, the settings will be stored and android will automatically booted at next startup (or whatever you set before)
if you have android autoboot and u want to boot wm, just QUICKLY press the wm LOGO when the dual boot screen appears.
i might include this in the readme soon, just dont have the time right now unfortunally
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the dualboot help... i'll try that...
the first problem I have encountered yesterday when trying to put Android was SD card formating...
i downloaded the program you said and followed the instructions oh how-to and was not able to do it under Windows 7 with my 16GB SD card... does it even work for Windows 7??? is there another program I can try to do it with???
I have also dualboot on my PC with the Kubuntu being the second OS, but I'm not using it as much as Windows 7... I can try with it if you think it will work.. but first I have to download the 15GB of data from my SD card to my PC, again
I would like to put the Espresso build cause I saw that it has everything working beside the GPRS and camera...
can you tell me what should I download for my Blackstone so it works properly???
thanks alot...

qtype said:
Thanks for the dualboot help... i'll try that...
the first problem I have encountered yesterday when trying to put Android was SD card formating...
i downloaded the program you said and followed the instructions oh how-to and was not able to do it under Windows 7 with my 16GB SD card... does it even work for Windows 7??? is there another program I can try to do it with???
I have also dualboot on my PC with the Kubuntu being the second OS, but I'm not using it as much as Windows 7... I can try with it if you think it will work.. but first I have to download the 15GB of data from my SD card to my PC, again
I would like to put the Espresso build cause I saw that it has everything working beside the GPRS and camera...
can you tell me what should I download for my Blackstone so it works properly???
thanks alot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like the readme says: partitioning is only needed for partitined builds, which means that android uses several partitions to store different kinds of data, for - hopefully - more speed. only glossy uses partitions, espresso doesnt.
for glossy, u can also use ubuntu (download parted magic or something similar) to create partitions.
for espresso, u just need to copy the stuff onto ur sdcard.
but thats all in the readme... i dont have time to explain in detail coz i need to study a whole ****in lot at the moment +.+

N!ghty said:
like the readme says: partitioning is only needed for partitined builds, which means that android uses several partitions to store different kinds of data, for - hopefully - more speed. only glossy uses partitions, espresso doesnt.
for glossy, u can also use ubuntu (download parted magic or something similar) to create partitions.
for espresso, u just need to copy the stuff onto ur sdcard.
but thats all in the readme... i dont have time to explain in detail coz i need to study a whole ****in lot at the moment +.+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok... thanks for the help... you helped me a lot just with the claryfication of the versions that need partitioning and the ones that don't...
i didn't know that...
good luck with studying!!!!

one more question...
I get the following message '' Failed to load file\Storage Card\zImage''
Can you help me with that????

qtype said:
one more question...
I get the following message '' Failed to load file\Storage Card\zImage''
Can you help me with that????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
meaning u dont have a zImage at all (ur probably using espresso?). so download one from here, copy files onto sd card and rename "zImage.xxxxxx" to "zImage" and ur ready to go.

N!ghty said:
meaning u dont have a zImage at all (ur probably using espresso?). so download one from here, copy files onto sd card and rename "zImage.xxxxxx" to "zImage" and ur ready to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep, I downloaded it but I didn't know that i have to rename it...
It did the trick... booting up Android
thanks for all of your help...

updated the readme, not includes DualBoot howto and some other changes...

I managed to get the WiFi working but no matter which zImage I'm using I can't get the 3G to work...
I'm I doing something wrong or did I maybe forgot to do something????

qtype said:
I managed to get the WiFi working but no matter which zImage I'm using I can't get the 3G to work...
I'm I doing something wrong or did I maybe forgot to do something????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, some details about what version you are using would be helpful. however, this is not the right channel to ask this question. i think this question has already been asked several times in other threads. try search function or read the thread for ur version, its probably a version-issue or only for your country/provider

N!ghty said:
well, some details about what version you are using would be helpful. however, this is not the right channel to ask this question. i think this question has already been asked several times in other threads. try search function or read the thread for ur version, its probably a version-issue or only for your country/provider
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry about that...I realized it later that I should ask in another thread that question...
I managed to figure it out... I just needed to manually configure my APN settings...

nand s-off question

hi peeps , ok i want to do the nand unlock (s-off)and have gone to the alpharev site i have read that you can do it via pc or you can download and flash via phone .. so i just wanted to ask if what im doing is right before i do it ..
ok so i downloaded the pb99img bravo oxygen ( i presume this is the right one as i have oxygen 2.0 rc6 ) or does that have nothing to do with it lol ... i have renamed it PB99IMG.zip.. do i now put on sd card reboot into bootloader/hboot whatever its called and flash it from there .. or am i totally wrong and need some super guidance lol
thanks for any reply's in advance

More reading, you are talking about flashing a different partition layout. Before you can do that you need to S-off. If the instructions on the AlphaRev site are not cleat to you i suggest you don't S-off until you understand what is on there.
This might get you started on how to S-off.

I would suggest using the 'CD method'. It's super, super easy and it takes just a few minutes.
It's as easy as this, and bingo you have S-OFF.
jshields said:
Or CD version
1.download Alpha Rev.iso
2.burn .iso image to CD using a iso burning software eg. Power ISO
3.boot from CD eg. Hold F12 at boot
4.press the Legendary enter
TIPS connect USB when the CD has booted
Any problems just pm me
Sent from my HTC Desire s-off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

+1 - agree with Kalavere

Kalavere said:
I would suggest using the 'CD method'. It's super, super easy and it takes just a few minutes.
It's as easy as this, and bingo you have S-OFF.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there a good free or free trial iso burner . can i use dvd+r also
sorry newbie to the desire and dont wanna brick it already lol

adz63 said:
is there a good free or free trial iso burner . can i use dvd+r also
sorry newbie to the desire and dont wanna brick it already lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nero Burnlite will suffice. And a DVD will be fine.

i used ImgBurn..
you can use CD or DVD

ok i installed imgburn ... sorry for all questions but if ya dont ask ya dont find out
do i write image file to disk
or files folders to disk ??
then once done reboot pc and hold f12 , then something will come up like when you go into recovery /factory reset . then choose the file etc and send to usb ?????

you write the .ISO image to CD.
the download is immediately above the MD5 sum on the alpharev site.
check the MD5 sums as well before burning it.

adz63 said:
then once done reboot pc and hold f12 , then something will come up like when you go into recovery /factory reset . then choose the file etc and send to usb ?????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will give you a set of options, if you have a USB plugged in it will ask if you want to boot from that if you have an OS installed on it (I have Linux on a USB drive). Then it will ask you if you want to boot from CD, or the hard drive. Obviously you want to boot from the CD, it will load Linux, and auto install S-OFF to your phone.

thanks chaps for your help , i have successfully s -offed , thanks for all the info and help

adz63 said:
thanks chaps for your help , i have successfully s -offed , thanks for all the info and help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome. I'd suggest changing HBOOT table now. You can shuffle around the NAND and increase the space for installable apps, you can get anything from ~150 meg to ~350 megs depending on the OS installed.

lol whats hboot table ??? i only have apps with widgets saved to internal memory and i have a 750mb partition on my sd for apps

adz63 said:
lol whats hboot table ??? i only have apps with widgets saved to internal memory and i have a 750mb partition on my sd for apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It allocates the system, cache and data partitions. By default a Sense ROM uses about 280megs of the internal ROM, and in contrast the Oxygen ROM I use uses about ~65Mbs, so you have ~210Mbs of unused space that can't be written to. The new HBOOT tables reconfigure the space so you can use the unneeded System space as Data which will give you an extra ~210Mbs for apps.
When I installed the Oxygen RC's I deleted my EXT3 partition on my SD card and just piled the apps on over to the phone.

oh ok mate . thanks but i really dont think im ever going to have millions of apps so im quite happy with just putting widget apps to internal and other to sd .. it will do for me as its not to technical lol
anyway thanks for all the help today take it easy chap

adz63 said:
oh ok mate . thanks but i really dont think im ever going to have millions of apps so im quite happy with just putting widget apps to internal and other to sd .. it will do for me as its not to technical lol
anyway thanks for all the help today take it easy chap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, no worries. I just love to tinker.

Kalavere said:
It allocates the system, cache and data partitions. By default a Sense ROM uses about 280megs of the internal ROM, and in contrast the Oxygen ROM I use uses about ~65Mbs, so you have ~210Mbs of unused space that can't be written to. The new HBOOT tables reconfigure the space so you can use the unneeded System space as Data which will give you an extra ~210Mbs for apps.
When I installed the Oxygen RC's I deleted my EXT3 partition on my SD card and just piled the apps on over to the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was just reading over this again so does that mean for eg : on titanium backup it says at bottom internal 154mb (free 88mb) if i was to do this table thing would it then say internal 364 mb as its going to add approx 210mb and then free would be 276mb or something along those lines lol, or is it kind of like where you partition the sd its unseen but still using it ?

adz63 said:
i was just reading over this again so does that mean for eg : on titanium backup it says at bottom internal 154mb (free 88mb) if i was to do this table thing would it then say internal 364 mb as its going to add approx 210mb and then free would be 276mb or something along those lines lol, or is it kind of like where you partition the sd its unseen but still using it ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the one, I have 354mbs when looking at internal memory in Titanium.

If you were to change the hboot table for oxygen say . Would it brick ph if I flashed a sense rom without changing the hboot back? Or does it change the table to suite?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

firstin said:
If you were to change the hboot table for oxygen say . Would it brick ph if I flashed a sense rom without changing the hboot back? Or does it change the table to suite?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will need to change the table back, it only gives you 90 something Mbs for Oxygen, and Sense is a good 250Mbs. It won't brick the device but you won't have a working OS I would guess as it would fail to load. As long as you had a nandroid of the AOSP ROM you could just restore, otherwise you'd have to factory reset to get it working again.

[Q] Android Revolution - basic question

Hello
Please forgive any non-tech language.
Please help - my recently-ex-boyfriend hacked my new phone and it now has Android Revolution on it.
I keep running out of space even though I don't have much on it - and looking at the storage in Settings, it seems that Android Revolution (542 MB) and Flash Boot (4.83MB) is taking up some of the space that I could do with freeing up.
Can I just delete them? Will everything still work?
I assume this is the case but could do with confirmation just in case it does anything to the phone that I can't undo.
He would help, but I don't like to ask.
So I'm relying on you guys - as he asked for help here when he messed up the hack in the first place!
Thanks in advance.
E

ecjl88 said:
Hello
Please forgive any non-tech language.
Please help - my recently-ex-boyfriend hacked my new phone and it now has Android Revolution on it.
I keep running out of space even though I don't have much on it - and looking at the storage in Settings, it seems that Android Revolution (542 MB) and Flash Boot (4.83MB) is taking up some of the space that I could do with freeing up.
Can I just delete them? Will everything still work?
I assume this is the case but could do with confirmation just in case it does anything to the phone that I can't undo.
He would help, but I don't like to ask.
So I'm relying on you guys - as he asked for help here when he messed up the hack in the first place!
Thanks in advance.
E
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you just want to delete the rom from your storage then yeah go ahead...but just transfer it over to your pc just incase though for future reference...if everything is working for you then yeah go and delete it.

Thanks
While I've got your attention - can I manually update SuperSU? It's telling me I need to but I don't know what it is/does.
Thanks - I may be a frequent visitor until I work out what I'm doing!
E

ecjl88 said:
While I've got your attention - can I manually update SuperSU? It's telling me I need to but I don't know what it is/does.
Thanks - I may be a frequent visitor until I work out what I'm doing!
E
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is what gives you the root. So yeah update that through the market..
And welcome

There may be another reason why you don't have so much space. There are a few threads on here about the disk losing a whole bunch of it's 25GB for different reasons. the .lost folder being one of them.

Aargh, really?
Yes, it does seem bonkers to me. I've gone through and deleted music I don't listen to. I only have one or two episodes of t.v. on there and it's saying 'no space' all the time. Is there anything I can do without roping him back in?
How do I diagnose what the space problem is? What will I see in .Lost?
And then what do I do to fix it?
You're going to regret helping me as I am a real novice...
Thanks so much!
E

Grab an app called "Titanium Backup" from the market, besides its utility as a backup tool it will give you visual and numeric summaries of how much space you have left on your System, Internal storage and SD card. Where is it saying that you are running out of space though?
If it is displaying that message when you are trying to install apps then it is likely that the market is a little broken, this can be fixed easily with titanium backup (you just clear all the market "links" and then use an option called "Market Doctor" to restore the correct links. (I remember reading that this can be a permissions problem too and using the "fix permissions" option from Clockwork can also fix, I haven't tried it although it cant do any harm)
From the sounds of it your SD card should have a ton of free space...

I assume this is on your internal sdcard? Or RAM? Where your applications go? If its your ram, then delete some of the applications you have installed. If its your internal SD card then try deleting the application data that applications download automatically. Download https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.thedarken.sdm SD Maid system cleaner, it essentially does what I previously proposed for you.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Ummmm
I think it's the internal SD card.
Specifically: I am using ADownloader and whenever I try to download something now it says there is no space (despite frantic deleting on my part).
And I have a calendar app which this morning was telling me it couldn't update data as there was no space on the device.
I'll try what you suggest and if there is an error message, I'll make a note and let you know exactly what it says.
Thanks, again.
E

ecjl88 said:
I think it's the internal SD card.
Specifically: I am using ADownloader and whenever I try to download something now it says there is no space (despite frantic deleting on my part).
And I have a calendar app which this morning was telling me it couldn't update data as there was no space on the device.
I'll try what you suggest and if there is an error message, I'll make a note and let you know exactly what it says.
Thanks, again.
E
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download astro file manager and select SD usage and that will tell you whats using your space up.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Stuart, storage is not RAM.
As I said earlier it sounds like your internal storage is full. Please give figures of capacity&used for:
Internal Storage
ROM
SDCARD

okay...
25.85 G capacity
25.06 G used
Free 791.81 M
13.42 G is music which is surely not much and 9% is Adownloader.
Help!
What next?
E

Installed Titanium Backup but it says:
"could not acquire root privileges.
Please verify that you ROM is rooted and incluces BusyBox and try again.
This attempt was made using the "/system/xbin/su" command."
I thought that Android Revolution meant that he had rooted it??
(if that's the right vocabulary I'm using....).
E

Ah except that under the error message it says:
System ROM 1.32GB (518 MB free)
Internal 2.26 GB (426 MB Free)
SD card 27.1 GB (830 MB free)
Does that help?
E

Can you take a few screen shots of the SD usage? I should have a good understanding of what needs to be deleted. Or you can wipe your SD card and transfer your music over once that's done?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Okay I've done some searching and it seems that the best thing you can do is make a copy of your SD card on to your PC and then wipe it and transfer the data back. This seems to be a problem, but will most likely be fixed with a future update.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I am trying to take screen shots as per the instructions but need a signal to get the auto-upload to work so that I can get them from phone onto here.
But, in summary, most of the 25 GB is music (67.9%).
E

Hi. Sorry, but how do I transfer the contents of the SD onto my computer?
I can connect using the cable and then... just drag and drop all the files?
And then... what do I do to wipe it on the phone and restore it?
Told you I was a non-teccie person!
Thanks,
E

Yup just drag and drop. Go to storage and then erase phone storage.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Can't access SD Card on PC since RamExpander installation

Hi!
I recently installed the RamExtender application for my One V so it could run games more fluently.
However, right after installing it and creating a "ram-swapping" partition, my SD Card would not show up anymore in "My Computer" tab. I can only see my phone storage and the H: letter (usually the SD Card) is there but when I click on it, it says "Please Insert a disk into removable disk".
Please see the picture attached to the thread so you can see what's actually happening. The SD Card is not corrupted since my games still work and I can browse its files in ASTRO file manager... HTC Sync Manager won't sync either.
Any ideas how to fix it? I still want to put music and custom APKs in my SD Card!!
Thank you very much everyone

First of all, NEVER use these kinds of apps
if you're ROOTED, flash the Turbo Boost MOD
just delete the swap file u created from the SD card and you should be okay !

Seraz007 said:
First of all, NEVER use these kinds of apps
if you're ROOTED, flash the Turbo Boost MOD
just delete the swap file u created from the SD card and you should be okay !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much! Well I did uninstall the app and deleted the .swap file left behind by the app, but still the SD Card won't mount on Windows because it seems Ram Expander is not fully uninstalled
What other file/directory should I be looking for? How to be sure it's fully deleted?
Thanks again!

alpha8768 said:
Thank you very much! Well I did uninstall the app and deleted the .swap file left behind by the app, but still the SD Card won't mount on Windows because it seems Ram Expander is not fully uninstalled
What other file/directory should I be looking for? How to be sure it's fully deleted?
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well after deleting the swap file should have worked(it worked for me before)
umm try installing the app and then Removing SWAP FILE from the APP itself

alpha8768 said:
Thank you very much! Well I did uninstall the app and deleted the .swap file left behind by the app, but still the SD Card won't mount on Windows because it seems Ram Expander is not fully uninstalled
What other file/directory should I be looking for? How to be sure it's fully deleted?
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best and final way is to make factory reset, wiping everything, including SD card....
Then just install everything from scratch and you'll have working hov...

Seraz007 said:
well after deleting the swap file should have worked(it worked for me before)
umm try installing the app and then Removing SWAP FILE from the APP itself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I reinstalled the App in order to try it but there is no option to remove the swap file in it I'll try to contact the dev by Email and see what I can do...
*UPDATE* The dev says he's not avaible to provide me support. Contacting another user who used this app before.
bratusm said:
The best and final way is to make factory reset, wiping everything, including SD card....
Then just install everything from scratch and you'll have working hov...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*Cut my life into pieces. This is my last resort* -Lyrics from Papa Roach. And here comes the awesome guitar rift!
Hope this will not be necessary. As a newbie in the Android ecosystem (I come from Windows Phone 7.8 lol), I had a real hard time rooting/unlocking my bootloader and installing the new kernel+rom...

U can do 1 thing.....
Use es file explorer and in the menu click on manager then choose SD card analyst.....
Once it stops scanning check 4 swap file if present delete it and reboot....
Hope it solves the issue
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2

[Q] Data recovery on Xperia S (rooted)

Hi all,
Just wanted to start by saying, big thanks to DooMLoRD and the rest of the xda-developers forum for providing me the tools to get root access to a friends phone, who has recently accidentally deleted all their photos and videos. If we are successful, I'll definitely be suggesting that they make a donation to Doom for his epic contributions
I'm trying to help them recover the lost media. I know that typically performing data recovery on a phone requires root access, so I have gone ahead and done this. On with...
My question:
I've got an Xperia S running Jellybean (4.1.2) which is rooted. However attempting to use my data recovery tools on the phone, the device is not shown as a storage device. As you may well be aware, the S does not come with external storage. The S also has the 'mass storage mode' removed. Nice one Sony, give professionals another reason to avoid your products in the future...
I don't want to Flash the phone since any added files will start destroying the potentially recoverable data (plus I'd simply rather not format the phone if possible).
Is it possible to mount the internal storage of the Sony Xperia S as a drive so that I can run my PC based data recovery tools on it?
I imagine App Store apps are too lightweight to handle a file-based undeletion. If I could just see the device in my recovery apps I'm sure I'd be in business! I've attempted Recuva and R-Studio.

Doing some more research (like a good little n00b) I imagine I'm going to need SD Mounter.
I'm a little thrown off because 'SD' usually describes SD cards (of which the Xperia S has none). Also, the screenshots (for SD mounter) seem to indicate it's for ICS so I'm not sure if there's going to be a compatibility issue there.
Am I barking up the wrong tree by making this assumption? Should JellyBean have access to the mass storage and the option is simply not showing for some reason? Anyway, I'll continue working under my assumptions until someone suggests otherwise...
To get SD Mounter running, I'm going to need BusyBox. The problem is, I'm trying to read the BusyBox installation FAQ, and I'm finding it very vague. Like...
and save it under the name "busybox"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but it does not specify WHERE. Make a folder called 'busybox' on the root folder of the phone? Somewhere on my PC (the page suggests its for the PC rather than the phone)? Also I'm seeing Linux-looking command lines, but I'm on a PC... can I run this via the command prompt in Windows? I downloaded the 'binaries' like it said, but there aren't any executables in here...
Can anyone shed some light?

There's an app called BusyBox Installer, that installs it correctly on my Xperia S. That SD Mounter app works perfectly on 4.1.2, though. I use time to time. It just messes up a bit with Media Scanner, requiring me to do a reboot on the phone to make it work again.
I wish you lot of luck trying to recover your files. I once tried something like that, but came unsuccessful. There were some media I wish I had saved, but it wasn't THAT important, so I just gave up.
Suggest to your friend, though, to get an account on Mega, Box.net or Dropbox. All of them has auto backup of camera media to the server. All of them has options to backup only on WiFi, and even when charging only. The first two has 50 Gb of free storage for life (Box, you just need to sign with your Xperia device), and the later only 2 Gb, but you can get more and more with promotions.
Alternatively, he can enable the Google+ Auto Backup. There is 15 Gb (shared with Gmail and Google Drive) for pictures on original resolution or unlimited on 2048px, compressed. On Google+, though, you have the Auto Awesome, which make some awesome images.
Hope it helped. If I can help any further, just tag me
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Hey Felimenta97, thanks for your swift response!
Felimenta97 said:
There's an app called BusyBox Installer...
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Click to collapse
I see 'BusyBox Installer' in the Play Store, is that the one? Seems strange that the Play Store would add an app that requires rooting. Just wanna make sure I shouldn't be looking for it somewhere else (plus I'm away from that phone at the moment)
Felimenta97 said:
It just messes up a bit with Media Scanner, requiring me to do a reboot on the phone to make it work again.
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That's okay. I've warned them this process might even brick their entire phone. They are prepared (I hope) for complete loss/compromised apps
Felimenta97 said:
...I wish you lot of luck trying to recover your files. I once tried something like that, but came unsuccessful...
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*touches wood*. Gah I'm suddenly 10 times less confident this file recovery is gonna work. Wish me luck! They'll be crushed if I can't get their media back...
Felimenta97 said:
...get an account on Mega, Box.net or Dropbox...
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Click to collapse
Oh trust me, I've already given them the lecture
Thanks for your help!

TheWaste said:
Hey Felimenta97, thanks for your swift response!
I see 'BusyBox Installer' in the Play Store, is that the one? Seems strange that the Play Store would add an app that requires rooting. Just wanna make sure I shouldn't be looking for it somewhere else (plus I'm away from that phone at the moment)
That's okay. I've warned them this process might even brick their entire phone. They are prepared (I hope) for complete loss/compromised apps
*touches wood*. Gah I'm suddenly 10 times less confident this file recovery is gonna work. Wish me luck! They'll be crushed if I can't get their media back...
Oh trust me, I've already given them the lecture
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I'm a lazy person, who can't find a way to break quotes into multiple parts (serious, how do you Do that, without having to write the quote code every time? It is not much, but I'm really lazy, so yeah.
Yep, that's the app. There's no reason for Google to block root apps. It's a function of the OS itself, just hidden from users. It's one of the easiest things to do on a Nexus device, after all. It's hidden because, if used without caution, can soft brick your device. But, don't worry, that shouldn't do any harm. At it least it hasn't with my device until now haha
As I said, I had already lost lots of stuff, and I didn't bothered much to go any further to recover it. It was a simply Install Recuva, run on the SD card and see if I could restore anything. Nothing? OK, no worries. As you already mentioned in your first post, avoid at all costs writing new files to the SD Card partition.
About the lecture, yeah, I imagined you had already told them, but it doesn't hurt to tell anyway.
About the SD Card on the Xperia S, another technical info you might or might not know, and also doesn't hurt to tell. Until Android 2.3, devices with a big internal storage required a partition for cache, one for data (apps and their own data), one for system, and one SD Card. The last one in Fat32 (plus others, but those are just too small and insignificant, for most, anyway) Think of a normal hard drive with plenty of partitions. Since Xperia S was developed (and launched) with 2.3 (one of Sony's biggest mistakes with this phone), it had to follow those "guidelines".
With Android 4.0 and beyond, the above mentioned data and SD Card turned into one partition, in Ext4 format. That data partition stores both apps and their data, and also other types of media, like media, documents, and etc. That storage goes into a mounted folder.
Anyway, again, wish you good luck. If they aren't very close friends/relatives, you should charge some money for all the hassle if you recover haha
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Felimenta97 said:
how do you Do that, without having to write the quote code every time?
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Click to collapse
Haha, actually I still kinda do. #hen I hit 'reply' I empty the quote block, copy the empty quote block a few times, then copy-paste the parts of the text I'm replying to as I go
Felimenta97 said:
avoid at all costs writing new files to the SD Card partition.
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Click to collapse
Yeah absolutely.
Felimenta97 said:
Until Android 2.3, devices with a big internal storage required a partition for cache, one for data (apps and their own data), one for system, and one SD Card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jeaz. Thank god I don't have to eff around with that!
Felimenta97 said:
With Android 4.0 and beyond, the above mentioned data and SD Card turned into one partition, in Ext4 format. That data partition stores both apps and their data, and also other types of media, like media, documents, and etc. That storage goes into a mounted folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't need to re-format the internal storage of the phone to attempt recovery do I?
Thanks again Felimenta!

TheWaste said:
Haha, actually I still kinda do. #hen I hit 'reply' I empty the quote block, copy the empty quote block a few times, then copy-paste the parts of the text I'm replying to as I go
Yeah absolutely.
Jeaz. Thank god I don't have to eff around with that!
I don't need to re-format the internal storage of the phone to attempt recovery do I?
Thanks again Felimenta!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not in Xperia S case. As I said, it is on Fat32, so it is easily mount-able on Windows.
On any phone with Android 4.0 or more, you'd need a Linux to do the recovery. You can't format it, or else you will turn the device into a really expensive paperweight.
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