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I have heard about this EFS and how things get Nasty when IMEI gets corrupt in samsung phones . So Can anybody write a simple steps for me to backing up EFS and restoring it if ever necessary ?
Thank you .
Another thing i have forgot to mention is i am unable to find a Folder called EFS in my / . There is a Folder called Factory which has all ther NV data files.
Hi all, I'm a new I9195GT owner (for a week already) and have been researching and having some satisfaction rooting and restoring all my apps with Titanium from my previous smartphone.
The phone works fine and I'm quite happy with it. I've already done a full backup with CWM recovery for any trouble I might come across in future but I don't know if a full backup from recovery contains all important and sensible data like EFS and NV data. Those two things are totally new for me as I'm coming from a HTC Desire which didn't require attention to those sensible points.
So I would be very grateful if anybody clears some doubts I have relating EFS and NV data:
- Does a full backup from recovery contain EFS and NV data, so in case that flashing a custom ROM results in corrupted EFS data, I would fix it just by restoring the full backup from recovery?
- What is the best and safest way for backup EFS and NV?
I've seen this post from arco68 which states a command I guess should be executed from Terminal directly in the smartphone, but I don't know how should that .img file restored to the phone in case it becomes corrupted.
I've also seen this post about the EFS Professional tool from lyriquidperfection but in the whole post I havent found anybody confirming it works in the S4 Mini i9195.... so it sounds good but I don't want to brick my new device being the first one to run the tool with the i9195
Thank you very much
As far as I know CWM does not back up EFS.
The good idea is to use TWRP recovery instead of CWM. TWRP does backup EFS.
You can get TWRP for 9195 here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2449107
Thanks for the idea. I'm ready to install TWRP recovery but, before installing it and replacing CWM,
Is it possible to launch TWRP recovery from CWM recovery, as temporary? And when rebooting CWM is back.
I remember doing something like this in my previous device: from 4EXT recovery launching a CWM recovery for some particular reason I don't remember
Sent from my GT-I9195 using xda app-developers app
batareikin51 said:
As far as I know CWM does not back up EFS.
The good idea is to use TWRP recovery instead of CWM. TWRP does backup EFS.
You can get TWRP for 9195 here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2449107
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP Recovery does not backup full EFS. IMEI is not included at least. Even though it lists a possibility of EFS backup, all it does is backups /efs partition. which does not contain IMEI in it. This concerns specifically I9195, which I own too and am researching this issue and also lost IMEI issue.
farewellartist said:
TWRP Recovery does not backup full EFS. IMEI is not included at least. Even though it lists a possibility of EFS backup, all it does is backups /efs partition. which does not contain IMEI in it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already had installed TWRP and made backups and nandroids....
So how can we safely backup IMEI in a way we can restore it in case it gets corrupted?
sergiosch said:
I already had installed TWRP and made backups and nandroids....
So how can we safely backup IMEI in a way we can restore it in case it gets corrupted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question, I've been looking for answer for weeks.
sergiosch said:
I already had installed TWRP and made backups and nandroids....
So how can we safely backup IMEI in a way we can restore it in case it gets corrupted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys!
The most simple method to backup our IMEI (efs folder) is:
1.Install rootexplorer
2.open it with superuser permission
3. Copy efs folder from root main folder to your sd card.
4.Upload from sd card to clouds to be sure you have a backup a different places.
5. Push thx for me
radicspeter said:
Guys!
The most simple method to backup our IMEI (efs folder) is:
1.Install rootexplorer
2.open it with superuser permission
3. Copy efs folder from root main folder to your sd card.
4.Upload from sd card to clouds to be sure you have a backup a different places.
5. Push thx for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did already that too, not with rootexplorer but TotalCommander which also has root access to any partition, I guess it performs the same backup just copying everything.
But then I don't know why it is valid to do "raw" directory/file copy with root explorer but it is not valid an EFS partition backup with TWRP recovery. I'm a newbie with this but, it seems the same to me....
Can anyone tell exactly in which file is stored imei? Isn't the same structure/process valid for other Galaxy brand smartphones so we can follow them?
radicspeter said:
Guys!
The most simple method to backup our IMEI (efs folder) is:
1.Install rootexplorer
2.open it with superuser permission
3. Copy efs folder from root main folder to your sd card.
4.Upload from sd card to clouds to be sure you have a backup a different places.
5. Push thx for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I repeat, EFS FOLDER / PARTITION even on a raw byte level DOESN'T CONTAIN phones IMEI. This concerns specifically Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini LTE (I9195).
---------- Post added at 03:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:31 PM ----------
sergiosch said:
I did already that too, not with rootexplorer but TotalCommander which also has root access to any partition, I guess it performs the same backup just copying everything.
But then I don't know why it is valid to do "raw" directory/file copy with root explorer but it is not valid an EFS partition backup with TWRP recovery. I'm a newbie with this but, it seems the same to me....
Can anyone tell exactly in which file is stored imei? Isn't the same structure/process valid for other Galaxy brand smartphones so we can follow them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Normally, phones IMEI in previous galaxy devices (don't know about current S4, I own S4 Mini LTE), was stored in nv_data.bin file which was located in /efs folder on root. (which is a mount point for mmcblk0p10 partition in S4 Mini LTE). But, in this device, there is no nv_data bin file and IMEI is not stored nowhere close to efs partition. Not too many people own S4 Mini's and almost everybody whom I asked an information based their knowdledge on another devices and were feeding me false information I heard over and over again.
To clarify something, I know, that EFS partition doesn't contain IMEI, because:
No file in efs mount point contains IMEI.
No IMEI found checking EFS Professional backup (tar) on HEX level using various search methods. Even through-looked it, file is not that big.
No IMEI found through-looking .raw backup made using cygwin (which contains every single byte of partition, even though it is not a part of a file), which is 95+% warrant, that IMEI is not in EFS partition.
farewellartist said:
I repeat, EFS FOLDER / PARTITION even on a raw byte level DOESN'T CONTAIN phones IMEI. This concerns specifically Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini LTE (I9195).
---------- Post added at 03:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:31 PM ----------
Normally, phones IMEI in previous galaxy devices (don't know about current S4, I own S4 Mini LTE), was stored in nv_data.bin file which was located in /efs folder on root. (which is a mount point for mmcblk0p10 partition in S4 Mini LTE). But, in this device, there is no nv_data bin file and IMEI is not stored nowhere close to efs partition. Not too many people own S4 Mini's and almost everybody whom I asked an information based their knowdledge on another devices and were feeding me false information I heard over and over again.
To clarify something, I know, that EFS partition doesn't contain IMEI, because:
No file in efs mount point contains IMEI.
No IMEI found checking EFS Professional backup (tar) on HEX level using various search methods. Even through-looked it, file is not that big.
No IMEI found through-looking .raw backup made using cygwin (which contains every single byte of partition, even though it is not a part of a file), which is 95+% warrant, that IMEI is not in EFS partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate. Pretty clear :good:
I was also not confident about some tutorials I read in other forums claiming that just doing a copy of file structure from /EFS folder would backup our IMEI. Your explanation is appreciated.
Hope to find some way to effectively backup sensitive data as IMEI is....
sergiosch said:
Thanks mate. Pretty clear :good:
I was also not confident about some tutorials I read in other forums claiming that just doing a copy of file structure from /EFS folder would backup our IMEI. Your explanation is appreciated.
Hope to find some way to effectively backup sensitive data as IMEI is....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found it! Making guide right now. Basically IMEI is contained in both mmcblk0p11 and mmcblk0p12 partitions. Samsung apparently has developed a new error-safe phone nv data preservation system, I'll explain in details in tutorial.
farewellartist said:
Found it! Making guide right now. Basically IMEI is contained in both mmcblk0p11 and mmcblk0p12 partitions. Samsung apparently has developed a new error-safe phone nv data preservation system, I'll explain in details in tutorial.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great news! looking forward to read that guide :good::good:
sergiosch said:
Great news! looking forward to read that guide :good::good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you mount those partitions? I've tried with no success. All I get is "mount: No such device".
deliog said:
How do you mount those partitions? I've tried with no success. All I get is "mount: No such device".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't mount, just backup.
Through terminal emulator, enter commands
su
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12
And how to restore later if IMEI gets corrupted/null?
Sent from my GT-I9195 using xda app-developers app
sergiosch said:
And how to restore later if IMEI gets corrupted/null?
Sent from my GT-I9195 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2569532
sergiosch said:
Great news! looking forward to read that guide :good::good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you (or someone) PLEASE post or send PM with backups of partition mmcblk0p11 and mmcblk0p12? While researching this issue, I trashed 2 OF MY PHONES and nulled my IMEIs because of delusion caused by memory of having a backup, which I didn't. It's a pity to give away such a fortune for spares. I need NV blocks to hex compare them with blocks I got from another healthy I9195. Since IMEI numbers of different phone blocks will be different, difference will show on hex level too, which will help me determine exact address of IMEI location, after which I could modify my trashed NV blocks at determined memory address with my original IMEI, which could save me from watching at useless brick. And also would help me at development of I9195 IMEI Restore tool.
Disclaimer: I am not modifying my IMEI nor doing any actions which end-target is modification of original IMEI and differing it from original one. I am modifying nulled (trashed, unoriginal) IMEI to its ORIGINAL state which ultimately couldn't be called nothing else but RESTORING. I won't use IMEI from gathered NV blocks. I just need a another healthy block to fix my issue and help develop tools so others could be able to sleep at nights without issue that causes me sleepless nights.
farewellartist said:
Could you (or someone) PLEASE post or send PM with backups of partition mmcblk0p11 and mmcblk0p12? While researching this issue, I trashed 2 OF MY PHONES and nulled my IMEIs because of delusion caused by memory of having a backup, which I didn't. It's a pity to give away such a fortune for spares. I need NV blocks to hex compare them with blocks I got from another healthy I9195. Since IMEI numbers of different phone blocks will be different, difference will show on hex level too, which will help me determine exact address of IMEI location, after which I could modify my trashed NV blocks at determined memory address with my original IMEI, which could save me from watching at useless brick. And also would help me at development of I9195 IMEI Restore tool.
Disclaimer: I am not modifying my IMEI nor doing any actions which end-target is modification of original IMEI and differing it from original one. I am modifying nulled (trashed, unoriginal) IMEI to its ORIGINAL state which ultimately couldn't be called nothing else but RESTORING. I won't use IMEI from gathered NV blocks. I just need a another healthy block to fix my issue and help develop tools so others could be able to sleep at nights without issue that causes me sleepless nights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't done yet any of the backup processes you explain, so I don't even have the files you're asking for, but with all the gratitude and admiration I feel for the developers I wouldn't feel any confortable sending sensible data from part of a nandroid backup.... speaking just for myself of course, if I could choose how to help a developer I would preferr doing a donation to help him recover the hardware he has broken to help others. Some months ago I heard a friend telling that he had been scammed with a phone he bought in some cash converter and only worked for one day, then it became with null IMEI, and he suspected someone had "stolen" or "shutdown" his IMEI for unknown reasons...
sorry to say that, maybe I'm an ignorant but I just don't feel confortable with what you are asking directly to me
Hello,
I have screwed up my IMEI after some risky operations. I have a backup of EFS partition (folder), which is useless, since it doesn't contain my IMEI, which I haven't checked previously and just dumbly/blindly relied on it containing my IMEI. The big question is, where is IMEI stored on galaxy s4 mini LTE (I9195)? I tried to restore using several methods, like:
EFS Professional Qualcomm Tools, by writing my original IMEI, but it still doesn't do any changes, nor before restart of the phone, nor after.
NV Items Reader/Writer - same result as EFS Qualcomm. Same goes to QPST tools.
Tried reboot nvrestore through adb/console, but i haven't had made backup previously.
I guess it stores it in some other partition. Also, after research done, there have been claims that phone stores backup of nv_data in some partition and automatically restores it if there are differences between backup and real imei. Or phone just restores backup automatically on each phone bootup. Either way, I must've screwed really big, since on my adventures both are wiped and my nulled IMEI seems to be right for the phone.
I include a PIT file.
Seems like I am the only one unlucky in this situation, cause there are no similar topic on this forum or internet altogether concerning EFS and I9195.
.PIT FILE
any1?
well i had a i9000 before. and there was always a efs backup made when you installed cm for example. i screwed my imei also more than once on this phone and restored it by installing an factory image from samsung. i has to be a complete image with all parts for odin i think.
OT: here are less developers around. this phone isn't so much supported as i thought it would be. but i really dont want to buy a 5inch just to have developer support so i hope someone will be able to help you.
x10isrooted said:
well i had a i9000 before. and there was always a efs backup made when you installed cm for example. i screwed my imei also more than once on this phone and restored it by installing an factory image from samsung. i has to be a complete image with all parts for odin i think.
OT: here are less developers around. this phone isn't so much supported as i thought it would be. but i really dont want to buy a 5inch just to have developer support so i hope someone will be able to help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, it does make a some kind of backup, which manually could be made through adb with command "reboot nvbackup", but my problem is that either I don't have that backup, or it somehow has made a backup of efs after it was corrupted. Somewhere in this forum i saw someone writing that reboot nvbackup command backups efs to fsg and backup partitions, but I through-Hex-checked it, no trace of any content of efs/nvdata.(Or it is encrypted somehow.). Also I did recieved backup and fsg partitions of healthy phone, and checked-through it. Same story.
In despair I stormed every single partition on the phone I could reach. The only partition containing contents of efs (also IMEI) was mmcblk0p24, which stores userdata and mounts on root as /data. I doubt it's legitimacy, since as far as I know, it gets wiped after factory reset, so it couldn't be the place sensitive data are stored. Now I am waiting to receive a healthy phones userdata.img.ext4 partition backup to get memory addresses of IMEI location and to be able to write my IMEI in my userdata.img.ext4 backup. Cross fingers, but doubt this will work.
Also, I didn't check loop# and ram# partitions under /dev/block/. This will be my next step, if writing and restoring userdata fails, which probably will.
farewellartist said:
Hello,
I have screwed up my IMEI after some risky operations. I have a backup of EFS partition (folder), which is useless, since it doesn't contain my IMEI, which I haven't checked previously and just dumbly/blindly relied on it containing my IMEI. The big question is, where is IMEI stored on galaxy s4 mini LTE (I9195)? I tried to restore using several methods, like:
EFS Professional Qualcomm Tools, by writing my original IMEI, but it still doesn't do any changes, nor before restart of the phone, nor after.
NV Items Reader/Writer - same result as EFS Qualcomm. Same goes to QPST tools.
Tried reboot nvrestore through adb/console, but i haven't had made backup previously.
I guess it stores it in some other partition. Also, after research done, there have been claims that phone stores backup of nv_data in some partition and automatically restores it if there are differences between backup and real imei. Or phone just restores backup automatically on each phone bootup. Either way, I must've screwed really big, since on my adventures both are wiped and my nulled IMEI seems to be right for the phone.
I include a PIT file.
Seems like I am the only one unlucky in this situation, cause there are no similar topic on this forum or internet altogether concerning EFS and I9195.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've found the address of IMEI? I also did not find my IMEI in a full backup of EFS partition. I also do not believe that it is in mmcblk0p24, if it were, would lose the IMEI on a factory reset.
Sorry for bad English... :silly:
lrdslr said:
You've found the address of IMEI? I also did not find my IMEI in a full backup of EFS partition. I also do not believe that it is in mmcblk0p24, if it were, would lose the IMEI on a factory reset.
Sorry for bad English... :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I think, that I have found it, but this is difficult. I haven't slept for over 40 hours, I'll convert this thread into research thread after I get some sleep. But for now, short version.
Using Cygwin, i have backed up healthy phones every single partition in .RAW format (which backs up not only files, but every single bit of memory) , including phones whole memory partition (mmcblk0), all 7 loop and 15 ram partitions and then hex checked them. What I've discovered is: that none of partitions contain IMEI nor in HEX or STRING format except mmcblk0p24, which contains 24 entries in my case in STRING format. BUT the whole phone memory block (mmcblk0) contains 60+ entries ..
If we weight information (considering all backups were made in .RAW format) that none of the partitions contain IMEI and IMEI is stored in whole memory block, I think we probably can conclude, that IMEI is not stored in any file on the phones memory. (And this is concluded based on information I got on backing up mmcblk0 using cygwin in .bin format. After hex checking file, it also contained around 24 entries, which is roughtly the same as userdata partition.) It is stored in phones memory not as a file, but as written bits in memory, which are not FRS recognizable.
I only I could restore .RAW format backups, this problem could easilly be solved. Damn, if I mange to solve and fill lacking information bits that spoils a big picture, I won't hesitate to spare one day of my life to actually create a tool to solve this. This has been a long and painful process,
Hi, I know this is an old topic, but I 've got same issue and I'd like to know if someone successed to re-write the IMEI on S4 mini LTE.
Thanks.
My HTC ONE M8 battery died and all SMS messages disappeared.
I badly need them back.
So my idea was:
1. to have a block by block backup of /data partition to a Linux or Windows box.
2. use some standard tools trying to find missing or corrupted or deleted files there. Find the one which has the messages.
3. extract the messages using something like mmssmsxml.py in the SMS Backup/Restore format and bring it back to the phone.
Unfortunately at this point I am still at #1 since this requires Rooting the device and rooting according to all posts is going to delete all data. So my questions are:
1) Can I do a "partial rooting" to just unlock /data partition?
This would give me opportunity to dd all data from the partition.
2) are there any other methods? Maybe the standard Unix/Linux way of booting a limited OS image (consisting of: boot, mount, parted, dd ...) so I could boot from SD and run the dd command and copy /data partition to the SD card and then bring it to the Linux computer.
Please help.
No way to do this that I know of, unless you happen to already by s-off: http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/help/root-losing-data-s-off-t3457817
redpoint73 said:
No way to do this that I know of, unless you happen to already by s-off: http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/help/root-losing-data-s-off-t3457817
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, is there a way to S-off the phone without wiping it out?
You can use ADB to make a backup without root.
adb backup -apk -shared -all -f C:\Users\NAME\backup.ab to backup everything. Replace "NAME" with your Windows username.
adb restore C:\Users\NAME\backup.ab to restore the backup, replacing "NAME" again, of course.
You can read more about it in this thread.
I have not used the adb backup but I was told, that it backs up only files. The new mmssms.db exists in the file system and currently has no messages. I need to have the full image of the partition in order to search all block marked "empty" which could potentially be blocks of the damaged (and disappeared) mmssms.db file in order to re-construct the file and get all sms messages from it. The new mmssms.db exists in the file system and currently has no messages.
Please correct me if I am wrong and I will be able to search the adb backup for missing blocks.
Regards.
Vladimir
rubashev said:
I have not used the adb backup but I was told, that it backs up only files. The new mmssms.db exists in the file system and currently has no messages. I need to have the full image of the partition in order to search all block marked "empty" which could potentially be blocks of the damaged (and disappeared) mmssms.db file in order to re-construct the file and get all sms messages from it. The new mmssms.db exists in the file system and currently has no messages.
Please correct me if I am wrong and I will be able to search the adb backup for missing blocks.
Regards.
Vladimir
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't know. I've never had a problem like this myself, but I thought I would suggest it as it's the only way to backup without a custom recovery that I know of. To flash a custom recovery you need to unlock your bootloader first, and that will wipe your phone.
I was messing with parted to trying to dualboot the tablet and i accidentally deleted one of the partitions and i cant find it anywhere.
If someone could please give me a backup of one.
Sorry for bad english.