Hi,
Sorry for being a noob but i came from android phones with sdcards and this is the first time i had one without a sdcard card slot..
the main question is, if i wipe the device, will the content in the /sdcard folder that i transferred via MTP (photos, music, Nandroid backups, etc) be wipe out as well?
I am asking because I swear the i did a wipe yesterday and ALL the content in the phone is gone, including the things i put in the /sdcard folder...
just need to clarify or maybe i am crazy? Please help..
There is no SDcard. Its all one big partition. Doing a factory reset wipes the entire device. Yes your pictures and videos, too.
lordlad said:
Hi,
Sorry for being a noob but i came from android phones with sdcards and this is the first time i had one without a sdcard card slot..
the main question is, if i wipe the device, will the content in the /sdcard folder that i transferred via MTP (photos, music, Nandroid backups, etc) be wipe out as well?
I am asking because I swear the i did a wipe yesterday and ALL the content in the phone is gone, including the things i put in the /sdcard folder...
just need to clarify or maybe i am crazy? Please help..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the /sdcard folder actually points to /data/media. Doing a factory restore resets the /data partition, including the contents of /data/media. This means everything put in /sdcard will be erased.
That's stupid. Really stupid. I factory reset my phone all the time... Am I supposed to copy everything back over every time... Eh that would suck.
My transformer and G2x had internal memory and a factory reset from clockworkmod didn't touch the internal storage.
Nvbackups would copy everything though.
-sent from temp HTC Rezound waiting for Galaxy Nexus
player911 said:
That's stupid. Really stupid. I factory reset my phone all the time... Am I supposed to copy everything back over every time... Eh that would suck.
My transformer and G2x had internal memory and a factory reset from clockworkmod didn't touch the internal storage.
Nvbackups would copy everything though.
-sent from temp HTC Rezound waiting for Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of doing a factory reset, you could just delete everything in /data except for /data/media. That will achieve the same thing and leave your media data alone.
Wiping data and cache in CWM do NOT wipe my whole phone what are you guys talking about? The /sdcard is treated and mounted as if it were a physical SD card.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
joshnichols189 said:
Wiping data and cache in CWM do NOT wipe my whole phone what are you guys talking about? The /sdcard is treated and mounted as if it were a physical SD card.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmmmmmm.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
joshnichols189 said:
Wiping data and cache in CWM do NOT wipe my whole phone what are you guys talking about? The /sdcard is treated and mounted as if it were a physical SD card.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah if you just wipe your data/cache via CWM it DOES NOT touch anything in your /sd card. However doing a factory reset via the settings menu while booted does!
RTContent said:
Yeah if you just wipe your data/cache via CWM it DOES NOT touch anything in your /sd card. However doing a factory reset via the settings menu while booted does!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok just to be clear, because people (me lol) get confused when people talk about the SD card when talking about the nexus. obviously there isnt one...so im assuming the partition that handles the media is what u refer to as the Sd card...virtual sd card. correct? and if i wipe data/cache via CWM it does NOT wipe my pictures, videos, etc...but if i factory reset under settings while booted...it WILL wipe EVERYTHING...i think i got it now if what i just said was correct...
v2.2v said:
ok just to be clear, because people (me lol) get confused when people talk about the SD card when talking about the nexus. obviously there isnt one...so im assuming the partition that handles the media is what u refer to as the Sd card...virtual sd card. correct? and if i wipe data/cache via CWM it does NOT wipe my pictures, videos, etc...but if i factory reset under settings while booted...it WILL wipe EVERYTHING...i think i got it now if what i just said was correct...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
joshnichols189 said:
Wiping data and cache in CWM do NOT wipe my whole phone what are you guys talking about? The /sdcard is treated and mounted as if it were a physical SD card.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1.. all these people are thinking the phone doesn't have a "sdcard." There is a "sdcard" but its more like internal storage. Think of it as a computer,
- Older phones like the G1 rely on the SDCard fully... so this is like running a OS off a USB drive without internal storage (G1 has a little internal storage.. not enough to say that there is one)
- Phones such as Galaxy S1/S2 have a sdcard AND internal storage. What does this mean? It's like a internal hard drive with the ability for external storage (flash drive, sd cards).
Example: Galaxy S2 has 16GB internal storage and expandable storage.
Phones like the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, Galaxy Tab is like.... internal hard drives without the ability for expanded storage (unless you USB OTG a flash drive!). This is just a beyond misconception on the scene and this is what they meant by not having a sdcard.
When you do a factory reset, wipe cache, wipe dalvik... your /sdcard/ IS NOT TOUCHED unless you run a script that says otherwise!
/sdcard/ and all the other folders are treated as two separate partitions!
When you unlock your bootloader and it wipes, that deletes everything, including the sdcard folder.
yea i was about to say this is incorrect information, if you want to wipe everything i believe in the ARHD thread there is a wipe script to wipe everything, even data/media
azr3alazd3ycum said:
yea i was about to say this is incorrect information, if you want to wipe everything i believe in the ARHD thread there is a wipe script to wipe everything, even data/media
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Super wipe lite from the ARHD thread does not wipe the virtual SD card.
--- This script will erase and format your system and cache partition using EXT4 file-system ---
--- It will also wipe /data partition, but /data/media (virtual SD card) will be untouched ---
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All your personal files that would be stored in SD Card in other devices which has one, are stored under /data partition, at /data/media/.
The /sdcard/ is just a link to /data/media.
There seems to be special handling in CWM recovery image for Galaxy Nexus when formatting /data partition as it will not touch /data/media. It's nice feature indeed, but you cannot now empty your /data/media content without manual work. But normally you don't even want to do that so it's fine.
It would be much more simple to just forget about the "virtual sd card" or /sdcard, since those are just, well, virtual and makes unnecessary confusion.
So our files are now stored like they would be under C:\Users\media. If you format C-drive, you'll lose your 'personal' files as well from media folder. The "virtual sdcard" /sdcard would be just a similar as Windows has as "Favorite" feature, just a shortcut to a certain folder location.
joshnichols189 said:
Super wipe lite from the ARHD thread does not wipe the virtual SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was referring to the full one. Its not out for the nexus yet. He has it for the transformer however.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
hey guys,
found this thread searching for an answer, i'll go ahead and ask it right here as it fits the the topic:
what i want to do when installing another rom is to wipe (system) data, cache and Dalvik cache (and i do not want my private files on the sd card to be touched). it is clear to me that CWM does not touch the sdcard partition. BUT: since all the apps are installed onto the sdcard partition they won't be deleted, right?
i want all my apps to be gone and to have a completely fresh new system installed without ANY leftovers from apps or apps/data or anything else that got stored on the sdcard partition while using the previous rom. of course these apps would not be installed anymore when you boot up the new rom, but all their files and folders would still remain on the sdcard partition, right? i'm talking about all those files that the rom generates itself and stores on the sdcard partition. of course i want to keep all my music, downloads, pictures, etc. but i want everything else to be gone.
to my understanding cwm does not touch the sdcard partition which leaves all the app folders and other android-created-files and folders (that were automatically created when using the previous rom) untouched and i would have to manually look for all these files and delete all these remnants which is kind of annoying.
do you know what i mean?
thx and greetz,
v.
vercetti said:
hey guys,
found this thread searching for an answer, i'll go ahead and ask it right here as it fits the the topic:
what i want to do when installing another rom is to wipe (system) data, cache and Dalvik cache (and i do not want my private files on the sd card to be touched). it is clear to me that CWM does not touch the sdcard partition. BUT: since all the apps are installed onto the sdcard partition they won't be deleted, right?
i want all my apps to be gone and to have a completely fresh new system installed without ANY leftovers from apps or apps/data or anything else that got stored on the sdcard partition while using the previous rom. of course these apps would not be installed anymore when you boot up the new rom, but all their files and folders would still remain on the sdcard partition, right? i'm talking about all those files that the rom generates itself and stores on the sdcard partition. of course i want to keep all my music, downloads, pictures, etc. but i want everything else to be gone.
to my understanding cwm does not touch the sdcard partition which leaves all the app folders and other android-created-files and folders (that were automatically created when using the previous rom) untouched and i would have to manually look for all these files and delete all these remnants which is kind of annoying.
do you know what i mean?
thx and greetz,
v.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you clear all your data/cache when installing a new rom it will also wipe apps that have been installed on your sdcard. This does not include removing folders that apps may store additional data on the sdcard. If you want to remove these folders unfortunately you will need to do it manually.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Installed apps do not go in /data/media, but /data/app and /data/data. I dont think /data/cache exists, /data/dalvik-cache does.
Those are only erased if you do a wipe data/factory reset in cwm/twrp, and for the latter wipe dalvik cache.
sent from my i9250
Hey all, I'm new to the Galaxy Nexus. When you wipe data does that wipe your internal storage as well? As in the mnt/SDcard partition.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
No. Your content is in data/media
-Brought to you by Marino's Galaxy Nexus-
In a custom recovery, no. I believe stock recovery will wipe everything.
3rdstring said:
In a custom recovery, no. I believe stock recovery will wipe everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup if you're on stock recovery, it'll delete everything except things like ROM and kernel
Swyped on my Galaxy Nexus running AOKP with Franco Kernel
gmap516 said:
Hey all, I'm new to the Galaxy Nexus. When you wipe data does that wipe your internal storage as well? As in the mnt/SDcard partition.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to add some detail:
When you wipe data (or factory reset) using a stock recovery, it wipes the entire userdata partition (which is mounted as /data in Android). The userdata partition is where all your data is stored included anything stored in /sdcard. [It does not touch any other partition. So if you have a custom ROM, doing a factory reset will not magically restore the stock ROM. Same thing for the other partitions.]
When you wipe data (factory reset) using a custom recovery, it deletes all files in /data except the files in /data/media (which is mounted as /sdcard in Android).
Do I need to wipe the sdcard partition before I flash? Thanks
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda app-developers app
1st thing before you do anything: nandroid backup
now you are safe
- if you are upgrading the same rom, then don't wipe the sd partition, otherwise you lose your apps... generally a rom upgrade you can flash straight over the top without wiping anything.
- if you are switching roms, then yes you do a full wipe. make a titanium backup or similar to keep all your apps. then if you're using 4ext recovery there is an option "wipe all partitions except sd card", this formats everything: system/data/cache/sd-ext etc, but not the FAT32 partition of your sd card, where music/photos etc are stored.
As said, DO NOT wipe the sd partition! It's safe to write skill the others because you do have a titanium backup of your apps....
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2
Noob question... What will happen when I format system. What will I lose and keep. Will my internal storage get lost? And will I have to push new rom back to phone via usb transfer. I do understand wiping data, both caches, and system, but what does formatting system do.?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Your ROM is installed on /system. If you wipe system you wipe the os. It doesn't touch the data or internal storage.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Yes,you have to push new rom back to phone via usb transfer!
MrLifeguard said:
Yes,you have to push new rom back to phone via usb transfer!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no. no you dont.
wiping /system just erases the /system partition.
Thanx guys... I think I'm good. System wipe/format system will not erase data. But a data format wipe you lose everything. That's what I thought but wanted to double check so I didn't lose important data.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Hey guys I have been trying back up my data so can flash a new ROM but titanium backup will only back up to my phone not my SD card so when I wipe through cwm I'm going to lose my backups can anybody please help with this
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda premium
Go to preferences and change backup folder location. Click "detect"/search entire device and navigate to your sd card.
Not sure about cwm, but twrp won't format your internal sd storage unless you specifically target it. I always wipe data, system, and cache prior to flashing a new rom. I leave the sd partition alone unless I want to clear it for whatever reason.
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