[Q] Securely wipe device using fastboot - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello everyone,
I need to securely wipe any personal data on my phone and tablet.
On my Linux notebook I just zero the whole disk one or two times and reinstall the OS, with my Android devices it's a little bit more complicated.
Is there a way to securely wipe all my data, for example using fastboot?
Isn't there anything comparable to the good old
Code:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX
so that I can simply flash a new Android OS afterwards? Or at least for the data and cache partitions so that I just keep the OS
A method that definitely works is to just write a file to the data and cache partitions until there is no space left, but I wondered whether there is a "cleaner" solution?
Thanks for your help

timediv said:
Hello everyone,
I need to securely wipe any personal data on my phone and tablet.
On my Linux notebook I just zero the whole disk one or two times and reinstall the OS, with my Android devices it's a little bit more complicated.
Is there a way to securely wipe all my data, for example using fastboot?
Isn't there anything comparable to the good old
Code:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX
so that I can simply flash a new Android OS afterwards? Or at least for the data and cache partitions so that I just keep the OS
A method that definitely works is to just write a file to the data and cache partitions until there is no space left, but I wondered whether there is a "cleaner" solution?
Thanks for your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A method for wiping all your data and the associated cache partitions using fastboot while still keeping your OS can be accomplished by running the following fastboot commands:
Code:
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase userdata
After you run those commands you will have wiped your cache and data partitions. Let me know if you still have questions.

shimp208 said:
A method for wiping all your data and the associated cache partitions using fastboot while still keeping your OS can be accomplished by running the following fastboot commands:
Code:
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase userdata
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure that erase not just declares the partition as erased but leaves the actual data untouched?
Another thing I thought about was this method, but I have no idea whether it works and is safe to perform.
Code:
fastboot flash cache /dev/zero
fastboot flash userdata /dev/zero

timediv said:
Are you sure that erase not just declares the partition as erased but leaves the actual data untouched?
Another thing I thought about was this method, but I have no idea whether it works and is safe to perform.
Code:
fastboot flash cache /dev/zero
fastboot flash userdata /dev/zero
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since it's fastboot and the bootloader it truly erases the declared partition not just marking it as erase and leaving things untouched. The commands you listed wouldn't work as that's not proper fastboot syntax or how fastboot commands are structured.

Try this guide to sideload the official ota. http://www.gizbot.com/mobile/featur...oneplus-3-official-android-nougat-037189.html

Related

fastboot data partition

hey,
Long story short, I royally screwed things up on my I/O tab. So now I'm trying to restore a nandroid backup via fastboot. The only problem is that I don't know the name of that data parition. I've tried
Code:
fastboot flash userdata data.img
and
Code:
fastboot flash data data.img
is there any way I can see the partition table in fastboot? I should be able to get adb if I need it as well.
Thanks,
Sam
maybe I don't have the name wrong. maybe it's just the fact that /data keeps getting mounted as read only for no apparent reason..

[Q] Complete reset without touchscreen

Hi, I am planning on selling my Atrix that has a busted digitizer, so the touchscreen is inoperable. I would like to wipe all traces of my personal data from the phone. What fastboot/ADB commands need to be run? Do I need then to push a new ROM to flash after I wipe the phone? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
To completely wipe your phone use this: FFW
Then flash a 2.3.4 Fruit cake to revert it to stock.
Thank you but that doesn't wipe any data whatsoever on /sdcard/
No it doesn't. If you want to, under Advanced in CWM there's an option to erase sd-ext (External SD), if you want to erase the internal memory hook up your phone to the computer and erase it with android commander. It does everything via ADB so you don't have to use the touch screen.

System files

Where are they located? like baseband, boot, system files. I can flash certain imgs but not others. I am using dell streak. It's broken and i can flash all images except system.img...
Mods please don't move this, it's an old device and I need some veterans on this forum. (dell streak board is dead).
Thanks
ineedhelpman said:
Where are they located? like baseband, boot, system files. I can flash certain imgs but not others. I am using dell streak. It's broken and i can flash all images except system.img...
Mods please don't move this, it's an old device and I need some veterans on this forum. (dell streak board is dead).
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System files can be found in the phones /system folder. Boot files can be found in the root directory ( / ) of the phones filesystem and will have names such as init.rc, etc. If your talking about dumping the boot.img file you will have to figure out what partition block the boot partition is by running the command from terminal emulator or ADB shell:
Code:
mount
Taking note what block the boot partition is then run the following command:
Code:
dd if=path/to/boot/partition of=mnt/sdcard/boot.img
This will dump your boot.img to your sd-card.
Baseband isn't something you can conventionally extract form the phone but similar to baseband is RIL which can be found in /system/lib with a name similar to dell-ril.so.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
shimp208 said:
System files can be found in the phones /system folder. Boot files can be found in the root directory ( / ) of the phones filesystem and will have names such as init.rc, etc. If your talking about dumping the boot.img file you will have to figure out what partition block the boot partition is by running the command from terminal emulator or ADB shell:
Code:
mount
Taking note what block the boot partition is then run the following command:
Code:
dd if=path/to/boot/partition of=mnt/sdcard/boot.img
This will dump your boot.img to your sd-card.
Baseband isn't something you can conventionally extract form the phone but similar to baseband is RIL which can be found in /system/lib with a name similar to dell-ril.so.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help. But are the files located in the innersd card? or actual hardware? My phone still boots with no innersd card, so I suspect it's located in the hardware? Does ADB give me access to the actual hardware? (something like BIOS). Thanks a ton.
Yes ADB does give you access to the actual hardware or where the system is mounted
Sent from my Vivid 4G using Tapatalk 4 Beta
ineedhelpman said:
Thanks for your help. But are the files located in the innersd card? or actual hardware? My phone still boots with no innersd card, so I suspect it's located in the hardware? Does ADB give me access to the actual hardware? (something like BIOS). Thanks a ton.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The files in the /system directory are located on the internal sd-card as part of the /system partition, so is the RIL. The boot.img partition is a part of the tablets internal file system. All of the above mentioned things can be acessed with ADB which gives your access to your devices file system. The reason the device will still boot without a system.img existing is because the device will go into fastboot mode (More integrated with the devices hardware) which is the phone's bootloader mode (Similar to BIOS). Fastboot mode, and the bootloader is separate from the regular Android file system (Semi similar to interfacing with hardware, fastboot is a lower level interaction with the devices file system, the accessing files on your device through ADB) containing boot.img, recovery.img, system.img, cache. img, you can interface with fastboot through fastboot commands and booting your device into fastboot mode or from adb running the command:
Code:
adb reboot-bootloader
That being said if someone were to mess up the PBL (Primary Bootloader), and SBL (Secondary Bootloader) partition on their device then fastboot mode would very likely no longer be accessible.
shimp208 said:
The files in the /system directory are located on the internal sd-card as part of the /system partition, so is the RIL. The boot.img partition is a part of the tablets internal file system. All of the above mentioned things can be acessed with ADB which gives your access to your devices file system. The reason the device will still boot without a system.img existing is because the device will go into fastboot mode (More integrated with the devices hardware) which is the phone's bootloader mode (Similar to BIOS). Fastboot mode, and the bootloader is separate from the regular Android file system (Semi similar to interfacing with hardware, fastboot is a lower level interaction with the devices file system, the accessing files on your device through ADB) containing boot.img, recovery.img, system.img, cache. img, you can interface with fastboot through fastboot commands and booting your device into fastboot mode or from adb running the command:
Code:
adb reboot-bootloader
That being said if someone were to mess up the PBL (Primary Bootloader), and SBL (Secondary Bootloader) partition on their device then fastboot mode would very likely no longer be accessible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. That means if I can boot into fastboot then my hardware has no problem? Then I am wondering why would some image fail to flash? Since system.img is flashed onto the innersd card, then I would expect no problem in flashing it onto a working sd card, no?
ineedhelpman said:
Thanks. That means if I can boot into fastboot then my hardware has no problem? Then I am wondering why would some image fail to flash? Since system.img is flashed onto the innersd card, then I would expect no problem in flashing it onto a working sd card, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get into fastboot mode then your device shouldn't have a hardware problem (But it is still possible for there to be a hardware problem with other parts of your phone). What system.img file are you trying to flash? Additionally system.img is flashed to the phones internal sd-card (NAND storage) on the phones internal file system not the phones external sd-card.
shimp208 said:
If you can get into fastboot mode then your device shouldn't have a hardware problem (But it is still possible for there to be a hardware problem with other parts of your phone). What system.img file are you trying to flash? Additionally system.img is flashed to the phones internal sd-card (NAND storage) on the phones internal file system not the phones external sd-card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am trying to flash the stock system.img that came with the recovery tool (I'm using dell streak). It fails if I manually flash it, and it fails with the tool. I assume that fastboot and qdl automatically directs it to its right place? I mean I just use "fastboot -i 0x413c (that's the vendor id) system system.img" and it fails. Everytime I test I use a fresh copy of the internal sd, so it should be just as it was out of the factory. Does flashing on a blank fat32 sd card work?
can you tell the exact error message it is printing when it fails?
what does your bootloader say when in fastboot mode?
it should say something like "FASTBOOT USB" and there should be some text above this line.
can you tell us this text?
flashing images over fastboot flashes always to internal flash memory not to sdcards, thats important to know.
so you cannot format your sdcard with fat32 and expect your fastboot command to write anything to it.
In addition to what eightysoft said make sure your also running the latest version of fastboot which should be version 1.0.3.1. Plus try running the fastboot flash command without supplying the vendor id (Make sure you have disconnect any other Android devices from your computer when doing this first).

[Q] How to completely erase data?

I've searched but found no answer. My problem is that I can't completely erase data. Yes I've wiped in cwm installed different ROMs cleared everything restored from RUU but using the app Diskdigger I can always find files & everything that I've already deleted. I have tried force running the TRIM action which was successful but I'm always able to recover deleted files. Either I'm doing something wrong or that's a freakishly advanced app
Could be something wrong with your recovery
Being you mentioned an RUU I assume you have an HTC phone, this means your bootloader supports fastboot and so long as you are s-off you can run this command in fastboot to completely erase data partition
fastboot erase userdata
If your device emulates an SD card (as opposed to a removable SD) this is stored on data partition so be advised it will wipe that too
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

[Q] No ADB from Recovery, hesitant to wipe /data

I currently have CM10.2 on my DNA. I had soft-bricked my phone previously and recovered it using RUU; from there I did the CM10.2 install.
I'd like to wipe my /data partition then push what's necessary to install CM11M8 because of the way it divides up the profiles, but I can't ADB from recovery even after trying the numerous driver fixes that have been mentioned in the forum (naked drivers, etc).
If I wipe /data, there's no OS to boot into and I can no longer ADB to push the files. What are my options?
Wiping data should not wipe out the OS.
You should just be able to put the file on internal storage, wipe and flash cm11.
Not sure I understand the dilemma.
santod040 said:
Wiping data should not wipe out the OS.
You should just be able to put the file on internal storage, wipe and flash cm11.
Not sure I understand the dilemma.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I do "Format /Data" it wiped the OS. Am I missing something? Or am I only supposed to do "Wipe Data/Factory Reset?"

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