Hi guys..
I recently had to format my 16 gb transcend external sd card as it was shown to be damaged by my S3. I formatted, recovered data using remo recovery. Now on checking the drive is fine. Before it showed the drive health was poor and major failure with boot sector 46 failure and all but now it shows excellent health. Some of the photos recovered were damaged, but 90% were fine. The problem is I dont know why this happened and frankly not sure if my card will let me down again. Is there a good chance for the failure to occur again?
Yes... chances are your card will fail again.
Contrary to popular belief, SD cards are not to be trusted. They have a limited lifespan (very limited), which is shortened by each write cycle made to the card. That means the more you write to each, the shorter it will last. The memory cells actually "wear".
Although the memory cells found in SSD drivers also wear, their controller know this and keep track of what cells are to be considered worn out, so nothing is written to them again. This prevents data loss, but the drive's size is always shrinking (byte by byte, over the years).
With memory cards there is no such thing as an intelligent controller, so when the cells start wearing off, the whole device MIGHT be compromised.
I really don't trust USB flash drives or memory cards that already have a history of data loss. I usually keep them for extremely unimportant tasks, and that DOES NOT include have them in my phone or camera.
Simonetti2011 said:
Yes... chances are your card will fail again.
Contrary to popular belief, SD cards are not to be trusted. They have a limited lifespan (very limited), which is shortened by each write cycle made to the card. That means the more you write to each, the shorter it will last. The memory cells actually "wear".
Although the memory cells found in SSD drivers also wear, their controller know this and keep track of what cells are to be considered worn out, so nothing is written to them again. This prevents data loss, but the drive's size is always shrinking (byte by byte, over the years).
With memory cards there is no such thing as an intelligent controller, so when the cells start wearing off, the whole device MIGHT be compromised.
I really don't trust USB flash drives or memory cards that already have a history of data loss. I usually keep them for extremely unimportant tasks, and that DOES NOT include have them in my phone or camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply.. Guess I have to go for a new one then.
Related
OK so my card has been working great with no problems until about a week to a week and a half ago. Now it randomly uninstalls and gives me a warning message in the top bar that says " SD card unexpectedly removed. Unmount SD card before removing it to avoid data loss." When it does this I can no longer see my card in the phone file. I tried removing the card and formatting it in my computer and then reinstalling it. That seemed to be an improvement for about a week (I say seemed because it was a very short time). During that time it would sometimes mount and unmount on its own but always remounted.
Any advice is welcomed with the exception of dropping it in the trash.
I do not have another card to try but I would be willing if necessary to buy another. I just wanted the advice of others before I commit the money. Also does anyone know if the known issues with 32GB cards has been resolved? I may go head and get a 32GB class 10 instead if I have to buy one anyways.
Phone is running
Android 2.2
System version 4.1.83
Gingerblur 3.5 basic meaning I am running it the way it installs from XDA unmodded.
Memory PNY 16GB Class 10
There is a known issue with the contacts on the phone not "contacting" correctly with the SDCard. Some people have manually bent the contacts on the phone and solved this issue successfully. Personally I wouldn't want to do something like this myself.
How old is the card? Take it out and reseat it a few times, make sure it's getting a good connection. I have a few older cards that the edges have worn from taking them in and out of devices so much that they sit a bit loose. Could also be slightly malformed from the factory.
Same thing happened to me with a 16gb Patriot Class 10 micro sd in the atrix. I rebooted, shut down and reaseated teh card int eh phone, to no avail. Ive put it into a microsd to usb adapter tried in my comp and it wouldnt be recognized, after reinserting it a few times into the computer (running win7 64 bit), it had been recognized, but it said it had to be formatted, did so, yet the atrix still didnt recognize it at first, reinserted it a few times and than it worked, however i tried it several times in my laptop and desktop and at several occasions it wouldnt work, so i just filed for a RMA at patriot, describing the problem. Im just about to RMA the card tomorrow. After that ive put an older 8gb sandisk (class 4 or 6 i think) sd card in it and it works flawlessly again. So i just hope the 16gb card was broken and not that the atrix brakes cards ...
This happened a few days ago and I tried all the reseating and reformatting then and it mysteriously started working again. What Caelan says makes alot of sense as the very first time it happened I had the phone in my back pocket since the shirt I had on had no pocket. So I probably sat on it wrong and caused the problem. I have no idea how people are reaching inside the little metal cover and bending the pins with any degree of accuracy.
I do not currently have another card but I can take this one and stick it in my sons phone for a while and see how it does. That should tell me if it is the card at least. So what is Motos return policy...........anyone?
intimnasc said:
This happened a few days ago and I tried all the reseating and reformatting then and it mysteriously started working again. What Caelan says makes alot of sense as the very first time it happened I had the phone in my back pocket since the shirt I had on had no pocket. So I probably sat on it wrong and caused the problem. I have no idea how people are reaching inside the little metal cover and bending the pins with any degree of accuracy.
I do not currently have another card but I can take this one and stick it in my sons phone for a while and see how it does. That should tell me if it is the card at least. So what is Motos return policy...........anyone?
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Click to collapse
Don't know of any phone returns for this. People either try different cards till one works, (and they all will if you put them in and out enough times), or they bend the pins.
Personally, I kept putting my SDCard in and out, maybe 5 or 6 times, with the phone turned on, and then all of a sudden the card registered. No problems since, but I haven't removed it since either. The card I have has been in two other phones with no issues, reads fine on my PC, in a camera, in my spycam........only issues I had were with the Atrix.
It's not the SDcards folks, but if you keep swapping them out, trying different ones, of course it will eventually work.
I wnder if anyone has tried taking a piece of plastic shim stock and attaching it to the backside of the SD card to make it a little thicker? I work in machine tool repair on the electronics end but I have access to the shim material as thin as .0001". I may try a piece like 5-10 thousandths and see if just tightening up the spacing helps. I'll post back here in a few days if it helps.
intimnasc said:
I wnder if anyone has tried taking a piece of plastic shim stock and attaching it to the backside of the SD card to make it a little thicker? I work in machine tool repair on the electronics end but I have access to the shim material as thin as .0001". I may try a piece like 5-10 thousandths and see if just tightening up the spacing helps. I'll post back here in a few days if it helps.
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Click to collapse
You can't get shim stock .0001" thick. You can however get it .001" thick!
Good point added a zero didn't I? However if I look in the shim crib I bet I can find .0005" but it may not be the plastic. Either way I actually meant the .001 heh heh.
My phone started doing the same thing a few days ago. Did it once, then nothing for a couple of days. Last night it did the same thing a few times while I was asleep. A reboot fixed(?) it, but if I see it doing it more, back to the store I will go to complain.
OK so here is what I have doen so far. I pur a piece of plastic shim on the back of my card in an effort to se if just tightening it would work. It did not. I then took the memory card out of my phone and swapped it with my sons 8GB Sandisk. Both phones read the memory cards and are working. Makes little or no sense to me but I can use my sons 8GB but not my 16GB.
I am still open to any other ideas if anyone has any, with the exception of bending pins in my phone.
Well, hasn't happened again. I even used about 4 hours of nav over the weekend to really heat it up. Nothing. My bet is on a software glitch somewhere....
Started happening again today, and this time more than once. I think I might try and get a new phone....
In case anyone is interested it has been about a week since swapping memory cards with my son and my 16GB class 10 is still working fine in his phone and the 8GB that came with his from HTC is still woring in my phone. I don't know why or what happened but now I am afraid to spend the money on a 32GB card. Last call on ideas as I won't be updating this thread anymore unless the 8GB unexpectedly crashes.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1128038
May help some people out.
What a bummer.
It was there, now it's not.
It was only a 16GB but has anyone else had theirs fall out?
There is a whole long thread about the fact people have lost them from day 1 given the slot is not deep enough, the cards sticks up, gets ejected and.... gone
They poorly poorly designed the card slot & that should have been a no brainer for them
Bugger!
I had all these eBooks on the card.
The full size slot on the keyboard looks more secure - maybe I'll stick with that?
Hey all,
There doesnt appear to be a topic specifically on this(I have searched) so I have to ask.
Does this cripple the phone for you?
My personal situation:
Have an x10i
Long time SE user
Planning on upgrading in the next month
The two cons with this phone for me are the lack of an SD slot, and the battery. With google music and the like I can totally deal with the SD failing. But the battery, its got me totally conflicted. Ruining a dream phone. I've had several SE phones and their programming isnt great. Even just the other day my X10 crashed twice and I had to pull the battery. This is what worries me.
Thoughts?
Scratch
No and no
The phone has built in reset button combinations (hard-coded so will always work). I don't see other than that, why the battery thing is a problem Unless you plan on keeping the phone for a very long time (read: to the point where the battery cant hold a charge) it's not worth losing sleep over. There's a few threads on how to remove the battery I believe as well, and by then your warranty will be up anyways, so who cares if you unscrew the back .
The no SD thing is also not a problem with the amount of internal memory available + USB OTG support
shmoejoe said:
No and no
The phone has built in reset button combinations (hard-coded so will always work). I don't see other than that, why the battery thing is a problem Unless you plan on keeping the phone for a very long time (read: to the point where the battery cant hold a charge) it's not worth losing sleep over. There's a few threads on how to remove the battery I believe as well, and by then your warranty will be up anyways, so who cares if you unscrew the back .
The no SD thing is also not a problem with the amount of internal memory available + USB OTG support
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah jaysis, there were big rants about this on another forum and there was ZERO mention of the fact that it had a hardcoded reset.
*waits for burfday cash so he can run to the shop*
Thanks.
@Mods: feel free to close.
Scratchling said:
Hey all,
There doesnt appear to be a topic specifically on this(I have searched) so I have to ask.
Does this cripple the phone for you?
My personal situation:
Have an x10i
Long time SE user
Planning on upgrading in the next month
The two cons with this phone for me are the lack of an SD slot, and the battery. With google music and the like I can totally deal with the SD failing. But the battery, its got me totally conflicted. Ruining a dream phone. I've had several SE phones and their programming isnt great. Even just the other day my X10 crashed twice and I had to pull the battery. This is what worries me.
Thoughts?
Scratch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1st. The 32gb seams to do me at mo (may not be good for app hoarders) at the end of day the battery will die before watch 1 season of (e.g family guy) or half way through 1 good space hungry sd using game, so why do you need it full up. 2nd. Batt is not a problem unless you carry spares around with you. Hard reset = (power button and vol up) works same as pulling the batt out. this was my same worrie when read about it myself at first.
well, i forced a bootloop to test the "hard shutdown" and it works
Think about the HTC X devices, they are only coming with 16gb and dropbox as backup.
bustervic said:
Think about the HTC X devices, they are only coming with 16gb and dropbox as backup.
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Click to collapse
That's the one s. The one x has 32gb, just like xperia s.
About the sd card slot. I really don't miss it. 32gb is more than enough memory for me. In my old phone (htc desire) I had a 32gb sd card and never took it out of the phone. If you need some removeable memory for whatever reason usb on the go will do, but I doubt I will ever need it.
The the battery. Well running around with spares is not something I ever did. I usually just bring a charger or usb cable if I'm away from home for a while. If you are in places where you have no access to power, you could allways buy an external charger. That would basically do the same job as extra batteries. If you're worried the battery may wear out over time: it is removeable if you unscrew the back. So It can be replaced if needed.
RiotRick said:
That's the one s. The one x has 32gb, just like xperia s.
About the sd card slot. I really don't miss it. 32gb is more than enough memory for me. In my old phone (htc desire) I had a 32gb sd card and never took it out of the phone. If you need some removeable memory for whatever reason usb on the go will do, but I doubt I will ever need it.
The the battery. Well running around with spares is not something I ever did. I usually just bring a charger or usb cable if I'm away from home for a while. If you are in places where you have no access to power, you could allways buy an external charger. That would basically do the same job as extra batteries. If you're worried the battery may wear out over time: it is removeable if you unscrew the back. So It can be replaced if needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the X has 32, same as us. Given how much stuff I have installed I would think I would have less space, my 4S was a 32gb and it was mostly full with half the apps and a few more pics and videos.
+1 about the charger, I have some old Nokia N882/N95 micro USB cables that I use as backup and might even buy:
http://www.obostore.com/2000mah-hbt-micro-usb-portable-power-bank-charger-p-4232-c-103.html
as a backup battery option.
Just hoping to possibly help someone with my findings about the Droid X / X2 and the usage of slow or inexpensive 16GB+ microSD cards. I was about to factory reset my phone when I realized that a problem started after copying a bunch of videos/music to my external microSD. Sometimes after restarting the phone it would restart itself again, seemingly at random.
It seems that my microSD card, a cheapo class 4 Lexar that I pulled from an LG phone, is just not up to the task. The thing is the problem is not obvious unless you try another card. It seems the phone doesn't care what kind of card you use if you use an 8GB or less, but 16GB or higher you need to stick to a good brand like PNY or SanDisk and use class 10 or better. Anything less and the phone seems to get finicky and may reboot on its own at seemingly random times. I found that my rebooting happened shortly after Android reading the SD card when manually starting the phone.
So I figured that since people do sometimes complain of this phone doing random reboots, don't give up it could very likely be something as simple as a subpar SD card. In my case it was the entire problem.
Hello all,
I have been using LineageOS for MicroG on a Moto G7 power for about two years. This was all great until I forgot I had my phone in my bathing suit pocket and took it into the ocean with me while on vacation. I disassembled the phone, disconnected the internal battery, washed with fresh tap water, and then soaked in isopropyl alcohol for a while. After drying, I tried reconnecting the battery and got no external signs of life. I tried connecting a usb cable between the phone and my computer. Oddly enough, the phone shows up as a ADB device.
I opened a adb shell and tried "cd sdcard" to see if I could get into the DCIM folder to recover my photos. I got the output "/system/bin/sh: cd: /sdcard: No such file or directory". Just for fun I tried to see if I could boot TWRP and do anything with that. I entered "adb reboot bootloader", waited a while and then entered "fastboot boot twrp.img). The phone then showed up on my computer in some kind of file transfer mode. I was now able to see the "sdcard" folder. but the contents were all random characters and I was unable to open any files.
The three questions I have are:
1. Given the info above, is there any way to recover contacts, texts, and photos via any ADB commands?
2. When I was able to view the "sdcard" folder, it was all gibberish. Does LineageOS for MicroG encrypt its folders, or is my data likely corrupted?
3. Given that the phone responds to ADB anf Fastboot commands, what are the chances that the main board and memory are OK and its a just an issue of the screen being dead?
Thanks in advance for any help that you all may be able to provide,
Tim
Is the data on a SD card? Is it encrypted?
The phone is likely toast, if not now, soon.
It was RO or distilled water it needed to soak in, not isopropyl alcohol! Isopropyl alcohol (or any solvent) will as you see, poison the LCD. Water then air dry for LCD phones.
Regardless the salt likely already started the corrosion process*. It will likely fail eventually... it's a killer. Sometimes if you pull the battery immediately/flush it completely out within minutes the device might be saved. That's a big maybe.
*residue left behind on the connector contacts and such is corrosive and hygroscopic. Unless completely removed the corrosion tends to slowly continue.
Given my original post, do you think the LCD display is the only casualty? Replacement screens seem to be about $30. Do you think it is worth the risk to get one? Its not like its a ton of money. I don't know any other way to take control of the phone without a working display. Is there a ADB command that can put it into file transfer mode where I can at least get my photos? I am not looking to achieve a long term repair. Only looking to retrieve my data.
Thanks
P.S. I did hit all the connectors with contact cleaner and gently scrubbed with a toothbrush when I had the phone apart.
tim0477 said:
Given my original post, do you think the LCD display is the only casualty? Replacement screens seem to be about $30. Do you think it is worth the risk to get one? Its not like its a ton of money. I don't know any other way to take control of the phone without a working display. Is there a ADB command that can put it into file transfer mode where I can at least get my photos? I am not looking to achieve a long term repair. Only looking to retrieve my data.
Thanks
P.S. I did hit all the connectors with contact cleaner and gently scrubbed with a toothbrush when I had the phone apart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give it a shot.
Not much to lose and it will be an interesting experiment if you get it online again.
Check around the power section and V+ rails on the mobo for damage. There's not much you can do with the BGA chipsets as all the solder joints are beneath them.
I dropped my Buds case in a full cup of coffee, cream and sugar. Broke it down on the spot, flushed with RO water then anhydrous isopropyl.
The battery is spot welded in so that wasn't removed. Drank the coffee. Dried it for a day.
2.5 years later it's still working.
$hit happen...
tim0477 said:
Given my original post, do you think the LCD display is the only casualty? Replacement screens seem to be about $30. Do you think it is worth the risk to get one? Its not like its a ton of money. I don't know any other way to take control of the phone without a working display. Is there a ADB command that can put it into file transfer mode where I can at least get my photos? I am not looking to achieve a long term repair. Only looking to retrieve my data.
Thanks
P.S. I did hit all the connectors with contact cleaner and gently scrubbed with a toothbrush when I had the phone apart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally i would buy another working phone even a cracked screen one as long as it works and just swap out the motherboard i have repaired and brought back to life a lot of electronics using a spray chemical called deoxit , it was originally used by musicians to clean there electronics on mainly guitars but this stuff ids liquid gold for water damaged motherboards and such . If what you have on your phone is very important to you its worth spending extra money especially for pics as thats 1 thing you can never replace if you didn't back them up . Check out ebay you can find 1 complete for $40 or less . I've had phone repair customers come to me for this same issue on so many different phones which i repair anyway . I always buy a working phone from ebay or craigslist and do the motherboard swap as thats where everything is stored on and always spray Deoxit on board before installing and i get a great success rate !
Replaced the screen and the phone is working again. Unfortunately, the data is lost. Efforts to retrieve anything via ADB resulted in files and folders with names made up of random characters. The files were unopenable. Tried side loading a new copy of LineageOS and that also failed. Ultimately came to the conclusion that my data was toast. Ended up reformatting the memory, side loading a new copy of Lineage, and was still unable to boot. Reformatted again and tried a copy of a stock Motorola ROM and that finally allowed the device to boot. Sucks that I lost my photos and stuff, but was a interesting experiment to see if I could bring the device back to life again.
Is there any app that would do scheduled backups to a removable SD card? I know I could backup through Google, but I do not want to share my data with big tech.
Thanks.
tim0477 said:
Replaced the screen and the phone is working again. Unfortunately, the data is lost. Efforts to retrieve anything via ADB resulted in files and folders with names made up of random characters. The files were unopenable. Tried side loading a new copy of LineageOS and that also failed. Ultimately came to the conclusion that my data was toast. Ended up reformatting the memory, side loading a new copy of Lineage, and was still unable to boot. Reformatted again and tried a copy of a stock Motorola ROM and that finally allowed the device to boot. Sucks that I lost my photos and stuff, but was a interesting experiment to see if I could bring the device back to life again.
Is there any app that would do scheduled backups to a removable SD card? I know I could backup through Google, but I do not want to share my data with big tech.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The folks over on the Motorola G7 Telegram group were awesome for ideas on how to revive this phone.
tim0477 said:
Replaced the screen and the phone is working again. Unfortunately, the data is lost. Efforts to retrieve anything via ADB resulted in files and folders with names made up of random characters. The files were unopenable. Tried side loading a new copy of LineageOS and that also failed. Ultimately came to the conclusion that my data was toast. Ended up reformatting the memory, side loading a new copy of Lineage, and was still unable to boot. Reformatted again and tried a copy of a stock Motorola ROM and that finally allowed the device to boot. Sucks that I lost my photos and stuff, but was a interesting experiment to see if I could bring the device back to life again.
Is there any app that would do scheduled backups to a removable SD card? I know I could backup through Google, but I do not want to share my data with big tech.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah sound like you lost the encryption key(s)
Hear you on the Gookill cloud, it sucks. Trust Google with privacy? No.
An Android app that can do folder/file syncing reliably be nice. Right now I just copy whole folders... that takes a while.
Leave the SD card in the phone* and use it as a data drive. Then back up the SD card using the PC or 2 OTG flashsticks. Leave the SD card in the phone at all times.
If you use flashsticks also make periodic backups to hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC... because things can happen. Flash memory is convenient but less robust than hdd. You can never have too many backup drives. Never encrypt backup drives.
*if the OS crashes it will likely spare the SD card data, but never bet everything on that being so. The second drive provides some extra data security but it's not invulnerable to worms. A near lightning strike, accident or flash failure can also wipe everything.