[Q] Data recovery on Xperia S (rooted)

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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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!

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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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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!

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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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