Given the "new" mass storage system set up on our Galaxy Nexi, what is kept and what is erased when we wipe data and/or other 'partitions'?
When I fastboot oem unlock'ed, everything on the mass storage was wiped out. I was kind of expecting it, so no problems.
EDIT: read that SDcards also get wiped when fastboot oem unlock is executed. Okay, that's a parallel.
I'm wondering because when lots of ROMs start appearing ripe for flashing, will we have to transfer all the contents of the mass storage over to a hard drive, flash the ROM, etc., and then transfer all the contents back? In particular, our titanium backup backups.
Whereas with other Androids with SDcards, provided you didn't specifically wipe sd-ext or format the SD, that was regarded as safe.
After the bootloader is unlocked CWM acts the same as any other device. The "sd card" isn't wiped when flashing.
Related
whats the correct command to format my internal storage in fastboot? I ask a I'm paranoid that I'll wipe the wrong partition and brick.
My internal storage (possibly more partitions????) is borked from trying a nandroid when I didn't have enough space (2gb not enough lol). Now everything is running f-cked and laggy. Tried full wipe and everything.
I tried erase storage from settings but now I cant even get back into recovery, it reboots instantly!!!
I have a Galaxy Nexus that won't boot. It goes through a boot loop. I've tried everything to try and get it working. I've wiped data/factory reset, I've formatted system and re-flashed ROMs that were already on my phone, I've tried restoring backups from several nandroid backups. It never gets past the initial Google splash screen with the unlock symbol.
I'm going to send it in for service, but I'm wondering if there's a way to try to access the flash memory to copy all the data to my computer? I've stupidly done tons of regular backups (Titanium, SMS, nandroid) to my flash memory on my phone, but never backed it up to my PC. I can see the directory structure through CWM 5.5.0.2, but I can't mount it as a USB storage device from CWM and I assume I actually have to be booted up to use ADB.
Any suggestions?
big_raji said:
I have a Galaxy Nexus that won't boot. It goes through a boot loop. I've tried everything to try and get it working. I've wiped data/factory reset, I've formatted system and re-flashed ROMs that were already on my phone, I've tried restoring backups from several nandroid backups. It never gets past the initial Google splash screen with the unlock symbol.
I'm going to send it in for service, but I'm wondering if there's a way to try to access the flash memory to copy all the data to my computer? I've stupidly done tons of regular backups (Titanium, SMS, nandroid) to my flash memory on my phone, but never backed it up to my PC. I can see the directory structure through CWM 5.5.0.2, but I can't mount it as a USB storage device from CWM and I assume I actually have to be booted up to use ADB.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should be able to do adb with the device in recovery mode. I'd recommend doing something like
Code:
> adb pull /data/media sdcard
This will copy the entire contents of the pretend SDcard on the phone (/data/media) onto a new folder on your computer called "sdcard".
I don't think there's a way to access the internal memory through CWM. For CWM to do that, is that to unmount that partition, and it cannot unmount data (where the sd-cad resides) as android wouldn't run without the /data partition, or so I've heard.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Theshawty said:
I don't think there's a way to access the internal memory through CWM. For CWM to do that, is that to unmount that partition, and it cannot unmount data (where the sd-cad resides) as android wouldn't run without the /data partition, or so I've heard.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recovery is not Android, it will run fine without the /data partition mounted (though there isn't a whole lot it would be able to do then, since that's where all your flashable goodies would reside). CWM accesses internal storage all day long when you're flashing ROMs and kernels and whatnot.
Thanks! I assumed ADB wouldn't work in recovery because I tried it quickly on a PC that didn't have the drivers installed. I plugged in it on my upstairs PC and I'm doing a very lengthy adb pull as I type this. Thanks!
Hello everyone,
after more then 2 years with my trusted N1 i finally had to move to a new phone because i broke the screen of my old one.
having the GN now for allmost a week, and within the first few hours of owning the device it got 3 OTA updates and is now at 4.1.1. i am quite happy with it but 2 days ago i startet messing around wiht it. so i ulocked the boodloader and rooted and got myself franco kernel on the GN.
as expected everything worked fine.
today i wantet to give some 3th party roms a try. i tried installing MIUI and euroskanks cm10. both with rom manager.
but on each of them i got in a bootloop after flashing, just showing the franco kernel boot animation.
i flashed both roms without wiping the data (just the cache)
i suspect that is my problem.
i am a little bit scared about the wipe data option for flashing new roms. on my N1 it worked fine since all my files on the sd card where not touched and i could get started allmost immediantly.
unlocking the bootloader of the GN wiped everything out off my phone and i had to copy it all back from a backup.
if i choose wipe data will that also (again) wipe my complete device or just the "OS part" and leave my data alone?
if it wipes everything how do i avoid having to make a backup of my data and restore it afterwards after each and every rom i flash?
i have noted the mnt/sdcard folder on my GN that (apparently) just links back to the root of the memory. what is the puropse of this folder? just to be compatible with "old" apps that insist on writing files to the SD-card or something else?
thanks for the info
no data from sdcard gets removed.
its basically a "NON REMOVABLE sdcard"... think of it that way.
patlabor said:
Hello everyone,
if i choose wipe data will that also(again) wipe my complete device or just the "OS part" and leave my data alone?
if it wipes everything how do i avoid having to make a backup of my data and restore it afterwards after each and every rom i flash?
i have noted the mnt/sdcard folder on my GN that (apparently) just links back to the root of the memory. what is the puropse of this folder? just to be compatible with "old" apps that insist on writing files to the SD-card or something else?
thanks for the info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. It will wipe your "OS part" + apps. Will leave data in "sdcard" alone. Factory Wipe clears the virtual "sdcard"
2. Can't be avoided, I use Wugfresh's toolkit to make app backups a breeze. Takes a little more time than it used to when I had my OG Droid with a EXT partition but hey, at least you'll always have a current backup of your apps.
3. Yes. It'd actually be less obvious it's still called /sdcard/ if you weren't rooted and poking around . I believe JB switches this to sdcard0 now to account for devices that have external sdcards to be mounted as /sdcard1 and so on.
Ok, I guess I get it.
Just one more thing to make sure.
It looks like all my files are in the root of my phone and mnt/sdcard has just one folder but with the same files as the folder with the same name in my root.
When I wipe data now will it keep everything or just the files in my mnt/sdcard folder?
patlabor said:
Ok, I guess I get it.
Just one more thing to make sure.
It looks like all my files are in the root of my phone and mnt/sdcard has just one folder but with the same files as the folder with the same name in my root.
When I wipe data now will it keep everything or just the files in my mnt/sdcard folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Custom recovery (AKA not CWM or TWRP or whatever you're using) will wipe your SD card. Just remember that.
All the custom recoveries wipe /data/ while keeping /data/media/ (your sd card).
Nothing on your "SDcard" will be lost.
I'm in the same situation as the original poster and would like a "definitive" answer. CWM has both a factory reset and a format /data option (in a separate submenu). Which preserve the content of the virtual sdcard ? Which is the raccomended way to try out a JB rom? I have 10+ Gb of data in the sdcard and i would like to avoid moving everything forth and back via MTP protocol...
Thanks
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
IF you are using CWM recovery, "wiping data" will erase the entire userdata partition EXCLUDING /sdcard. This means that everything under /data (except /data/media which = /sdcard) will be erased. This includes all apps you have installed in /data, and most data for those apps.
IF you are using a stock recovery, "wiping data" or "factory reset, will wipe the entire userdata partition, including /sdcard.
Wiping data or factory restore/reset/whatever does NOT touch the system partition or return the device to "factory condition". So if you have installed apps in /system or have root, the will still be there.
Hi,
I just installed CWM and flashed the new CM10 milestone for my Galaxy Nexus.
As part of this, I wiped data via CWM, and also wiped cache.
However, this seems to have removed *everything*, including the SD card storage, DCIM etc.
Err, is this normal on the Galaxy Nexus? I know it doesn't have a separate SD card per se, but I was under the impression that the internal SD card storage gets left alone on a factory reset.
This isn't good...
Long shot, but any way to recovery? Lol.
Cheers,
Victor
No only the stock recovery wipes everything. Unless you hit format /data in recovery... even then it doesnt format /data/media which is the true location of the symlinked "sdcard" The recovery wouldnt have done this i would say either you messed up and hit an option that said something otherwise. Or it just had a hiccup and corrupted.
Galaxy s3 T999 tmobile phone.
Liquid Smooth ROM. - Amazing rom btw. I cant thank those folks enough for their brilliant work
TWRP for recovery
Ive done numerous dalvic/system/cache/data wipes through twrp in preparation for new roms. But my INTERNAL 16 gb SD card always shows that i have around 12GB USED. thats with no personal apps installed
Heres my question. How do i remove all unnecessary data thats hogging up space. I want a CLEAN space to work with!
I do have 4 twrp recovery files (4gb worth of data?) stored in there. Im assuming the system uses about 3 gb's. plus the gapps and liquid rom are only 194 mb combined. So that accounts for maybe 7 or 8 gb
So how do i do a totally clean wipe without losing twrp, recovery files AND root!
the only wipe option ive never used is USB-OTG. (USB On The Go?) No idea what it is or what it does. so i never messed with it. Ive read that it acts like a driver of some sort to allow usb devices to communicate with each other..
Ive also never gone into the Format data section of twrp out of fear that i might wipe the wrong things and render my phone useless
One article i read said that i might have to revert back to stock? im hoping thats not so. And do a factory wipe. Is that different from TWRP's functions? Im assuming that i would lose root.
they said din flash to stock
Odin master clear (or wipe SD from settings)
*2767*3855# on the phones keypad ...(i think codes in general only work on stock TW)
Do i have to format the sd card? would i lose important partitions that would delete the recovery system?
any ideas? i considered opening a partition wizard app to see the different partions on the internal sd card.
I'm no expert on this, but I think that Liquid Smooth has a place in Settings to let you view the space allocation of the storage in your phone and external SD card.
Go to Settings > Storage (or something similar) and take a look at how much space is being allocated of each of the different types of data. It might give you a better idea on what might be taking up that additional ~4GB of space.
If you can, provide us with a screenshot of the Storage screen. If not, you can just type them here so we can better understand what might be going on.
Back up internal sdcard to your computer.
Wipe data/factory reset.
Wipe /data/media.
You can do this through TWRP. Won't lose anything except contents of your internal sdcard. Which is why you back it up first.
Don't forget the formatting of the filesystem does this. Just like windows a 100gig hard drive formats to a smaller amount.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2