[Q] Factory restore wipes internal SD card as well? - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

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.

Related

Will wiping out device wipe out the content in /sdcard/ ??

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

Quick question on wiping data & "SD"

Will wiping the phone in CWM delete files on the "SD" space of the phone? I've read it is all apart of the same partition, so I wanted to make sure before awkwardly deleting the ROM I am about to install..
I have wiped tons of times in CWR and it hasn't touched the /sd yet. All my files are safe and sound.
Sent from my GNex
Grims said:
Will wiping the phone in CWM delete files on the "SD" space of the phone? I've read it is all apart of the same partition, so I wanted to make sure before awkwardly deleting the ROM I am about to install..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it clears *all* internal storage.
So...which is it?
Maybe I misunderstood but are you talking about wiping /data and /cache? Because when I do this it does NOT wipe the /sd but does wipe all other user data, just like on every other android phone I have had.
Sent from my GNex
Grims said:
So...which is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wipe data/factory reset on CWM wipes your WHOLE phone, including "SD" card. I advise you to use the Super Wipe Lite script from the Android Revolution ROM, get it here. This will do a complete wipe, except SD card.
A bit of more info, in case you're interested: the SD card is the folder /data/media mounted as /sdcard. When you wipe in CWM, the data folder is emptied as well.
EDIT: i havent actually tried to do a normal full wipe from CWM, im stating the above just from reading other reports here. Maybe the last version from CWM has fixed this, i dont know
EDIT2: You can wipe cache and dalvik as usual from CWM without any problems.
flakz0r said:
Wipe data/factory reset on CWM wipes your WHOLE phone, including "SD" card. I advise you to use the Super Wipe Lite script from the Android Revolution ROM, get it here. This will do a complete wipe, except SD card.
A bit of more info, in case you're interested: the SD card is the folder /data/media mounted as /sdcard. When you wipe in CWM, the data folder is emptied as well.
EDIT: i havent actually tried to do a normal full wipe from CWM, im stating the above just from reading other reports here. Maybe the last version from CWM has fixed this, i dont know
EDIT2: You can wipe cache and dalvik as usual from CWM without any problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured that was how it was setup, but didn't know if CWM had any logic built into it to filter out the folder. I'll take a look at the script, thanks.
The built-in factory reset in Android will also wipe everything.
I did data,cache,dalvik wipe and formatted system going from 4.0.2 to 4.0.3.
I did NOT lose my SD card
The default wipe in ICS clears *all* internal memory. The default Factory Reset feature of CWM does the exact same thing. I've done it twice and it wiped fully both times.
Very interesting direct contradictions going on in here..
Wiping data in CWM DOES NOT WIPE THE VIRTUAL SDCARD. People need to stop saying it does.. it is all one partition but the virtual SD card is not wiped when you wipe data in cwm.. Factory resets in settings will wipe your virtual SD card but cwm WILL NOT.
Edit: sorry I had a long night, but I will leave the caps so people actually read it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
It is quite troubling to read how many people are saying that wiping in CWM will erase the SD card.
It 100% DOES NOT. I have wiped in CWM dozens of times already. I can not say the same for Factory Reset in Android...but in CWM wiping data DOES NOT wipe your SD.

[Q] Is '/sdcard' contents deleted when I wipe before flashing a new ROM?

Hi all,
I am currently running Ir8 ROM meaning I did not need to wipe before I flashed it over the stock ROM.
I would like to give the CM9 nightly kang a go. I was just about to wipe before I flashed the new ROM when it occurred to me that all my files, pictures, nandroid's etc are stored in the virtual /sdcard on Galaxy Nexus.
With my Nexus One all my files were on the physical SDcard meaning they were unaffected by any kind of wipe including a full factory reset.
Could someone explain how this works with the Galaxy Nexus, do I need to back up all my files and nandroid's etc onto my PC every time I need to perform a wipe before installing a ROM to avoid FC's etc, or is the virtual /sdcard on a seperate partition, I'm a little confused??
Many thanks in advance for any help
You would be well served to perform backups of the internel sd card in the unfortunate event of a wipe.
CWM has been written to not format the device partition mounted to /data which has the virtual sd. It instead just removes all files/directories outside of /data/media.
You are safe to perform a data wipe from CWM without losing data in the virtual sd.
silow said:
You would be well served to perform backups of the internel sd card in the unfortunate event of a wipe.
CWM has been written to not format the device partition mounted to /data which has the virtual sd. It instead just removes all files/directories outside of /data/media.
You are safe to perform a data wipe from CWM without losing data in the virtual sd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks for your quick reply, that is very helpful. I will of course follow your advice and back everything up before proceeding to be on the safe side!

When wiping data, will I lose "SD Card" data?

Will wiping the data (before ROM flash) also wipe the "SD Card" data? I know on other phones, that have a physical SD card, when you wipe data the SD data remains. But, with the Nexus having a virtual SD card, I didn't know what would happen.
In essence, I'm thinking Titanium Backup is useless unless you pull the backup data from the phone before flashing a new ROM, because the backed up data would be deleted with a data wipe for new ROM flash.
cmcfalls said:
Will wiping the data (before ROM flash) also wipe the "SD Card" data? I know on other phones, that have a physical SD card, when you wipe data the SD data remains. But, with the Nexus having a virtual SD card, I didn't know what would happen.
In essence, I'm thinking Titanium Backup is useless unless you pull the backup data from the phone before flashing a new ROM, because the backed up data would be deleted with a data wipe for new ROM flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "sd card" data remains. Nothing is messed with in that portion of memory. TiBu works great.
strongergravity said:
The "sd card" data remains. Nothing is messed with in that portion of memory. TiBu works great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I wondered what would happen with a data wipe.
If you flash a stock ROM via fastboot it WILL WIPE THE "SDCARD". EVERYTHING.
Basically:
Stock recovery data wipe/factory reset = SDcard wiped
Custom recovery data wipe/factory reset = SDcard untouched
So if you haven't rooted/CWM'd your phone yet, don't put anything big and important on the SDcard. If you have put stuff on your card just make a backup of it on your PC and then do the unlock/recovery install procedure. Then you'll be set. Titanium Backup will be back to working just like it does on any other phone once you have a custom recovery installed. No worrying about the SDcard getting wiped.
you'll definitely want to install a custom recovery if you're going to be wiping anything. Id highly recommend the clockwork touch recovery. The standard one is really a pain to use as the navigation is odd and its hard to select what you want.
^ I wonder as well, but I proceed without thinking about sdcard. Lucky enough our great dev took care of that. Btw, I didn't have time to see the recovery since when I got it I flash CWM immediately.
The answer is here for TWRP
the answer
Kiwyxda said:
The answer is here for TWRP
the answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thread had been dead for 8 months...

Wiping data/cache does nothing?

Whenever I flash any rom on my gsm nexus my previous apps and info still show up on the new rom, even if I did a full wipe. Is there something wrong with my nexus?
If they're on your virtual sd card then no, nothing's wrong. CWR doesn't touch your sd card partition nor does doing a factory reset. The only way to delete everything is to format them (mounts & storage -> format /data). If you want you can format all of the partitions, however you won't be able to boot until you flash recovery and adb push your ROM's zip onto the 'sd card' and install it.

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