Deleting picture data

[fotoman25]

I do not have a sd card in my Samsung s4 phone. I deleted some pictures I had, and I tried a couple of those recovery programs but nothing got them back. So instead of trying to get them back I wanted to figure out how to erase all data pertaining to pictures (security at my work items) do they can't be recovered when I get rid of this phone. I've read different things that all data doesn't delete when you delete stuff off your phone or when you do a factory reset. What can i do?

 

[Paul627g]

On your phone, the only real chance you ever have at retrieving your data from the phone's internal memory is if the phone is rooted and then you can try some different programs. But if the phone hasn't been rooted prior to attempting this then you can pretty much write off any retrieval of pics, etc from the internal memory. Time comes to move onward to another device make sure you do 1 or 2 factory resets and leave it stock/unrooted and you should be fine.

 

[Roy Mustang]

I do not have a sd card in my Samsung s4 phone. I deleted some pictures I had, and I tried a couple of those recovery programs but nothing got them back. So instead of trying to get them back I wanted to figure out how to erase all data pertaining to pictures (security at my work items) do they can't be recovered when I get rid of this phone. I've read different things that all data doesn't delete when you delete stuff off your phone or when you do a factory reset. What can i do?

Yes it is possible to retrieve data from a cell phone so if you are selling it to someone then I would recommend you to first factory reset your device then fill up the entire internal memory, that is if you have 4gb internal memory then put a 4gb movie on your device, the whole idea here is to overwrite the important data with something unimportant so that even if someone recovers the data then they will see that movie and not your contacts or pics, after doing this you should again factory reset the phone and then you can sell it.

To be extra safe you can repeat the above step and make sure you fill up the entire memory.

Actually the way things work is when you delete a file it is not actually deleted or something but the memory occupied by the file being deleted is marked as available and hence one can overwrite data on that memory area.

Also if you want to recover your deleted images then you need to be rooted after that you can use the app called disk digger from the play store.

 

[BetterAndBetter]

Only controller knows which memory cells it using. And data will not be erazed (you only see it as empty, but cells has information) until it will be overwritten. Safe erase than will be to delete all pictures and to overwrite some redundand info to your phone.

 

[fotoman25]

So if I download movie that would prevent any one from recovering any old info out pictures right? If I were to take pictures with my phone delete some and take more, dies that overwrite the previous pictures also? Or would they still be in there?

 

[fotoman25]

I keep seeing the term rooted, what is that or How's It done, so I can be sure not to do it.
Also, I keep seeing people say that everything can be brought back up no matter what, are they wrong? Just wanting to make sure my work info stays gone from Pics I took. So I wouldn't have to get a program or pay to have it wiped clean. Thanks

 

[Roy Mustang]

I keep seeing the term rooted, what is that or How's It done, so I can be sure not to do it.
Also, I keep seeing people say that everything can be brought back up no matter what, are they wrong? Just wanting to make sure my work info stays gone from Pics I took. So I wouldn't have to get a program or pay to have it wiped clean. Thanks

Let me make things clear for you
Let's say that your phone have 4gb internal memory.

Now let's assume that you put 100mb of important and confidential files on it, they can be pictured or audio files or videos.

The other day you decide that you want to sell this phone, so you delete all that important 100 mb photos or videos.

But when you delete those photos what actually happens is this-
Your operating system just labels the memory locations on which the photos or videos were present as available for storage.

In other words the operating system does not delete anything but just labels those memory locations(on which your photos and videos were present) available to be used again to write data on them.

So unless you actually overwrite that memory location your files can still be retrieved.

Now regarding overwriting-
Since we do not know which memory address the phone used to store those 100mb of files, hence in order to actually remove those files you will have to overwrite the entire phones memory with some useless data and then you are safe.

Regarding root-
A root user is one who had permission to read and write all files on the device.

Such a permission is used to install special apps that can do a variety of things that would not have been possible otherwise, some use cases are-

Create backup of phone using clock work mode.

Remove bloatwares and much much more.

Every phone had a different procedure to attain root and requires quite a many steps and hence you need not worry about getting your phone rooted accidently.

Check your personal messages and watch the video I have shared to know more about root and what you can do with it.

I hope I was help full.

 

[Golfdriver97]

If you format the /data partition that will clear the writable files.

 

[UJ95x]

You can also encrypt your device, and THEN do a factory reset. All your data gets formatted and the encryption keys go along with it.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SOKP 4.4.2

 

[fotoman25]

If you format the /data partition that will clear the writable files.

how do you do that? Samsung s4 phone

 

[Golfdriver97]

how do you do that? Samsung s4 phone

Through a custom recovery, like ClockworkMod or TWRP.

 

[Roy Mustang]

how do you do that? Samsung s4 phone

Don't bother yourself with all that stuff, custom recovery can be installed only on rooted phones and you are not rooted.

 

[Paul627g]

End of the day the only real " chance " you have at recovering deleted photos or data is if your rooted. Since rooting the device does do a full wipe in most cases anything on there would be removed and not possible to retrieve. This has come from a very reliable source that without root, any and all other methods or apps of retrieving stuff is purely a gamble and nothing is certain.

Plus I wouldn't worry too much about someone buying a used device and first thing they are going to do is try and retrieve deleted data on it.

Just my two cents.

 

[Roy Mustang]

Not all phones require a full wipe before rooting and even a full wipe is not that safe as there are softwares that can bring back formatted data.
Hence it's better to play safe.

 

[Roy Mustang]

Have a look at this article-
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/avast-factory-reset-cellphones,news-19092.html

 

[UJ95x]

Not all phones require a full wipe before rooting and even a full wipe is not that safe as there are softwares that can bring back formatted data.
Hence it's better to play safe.

The majority of the time, only OEMs have access to the software and hardware that can retrieve data from a formatted phone. But like I said above, if you want to be safe, encrypt the device and then factory reset it.