How to restore SD Card with images (and more weirdness) on Note 4?

[DrCarl]

Took my Note 4 on the eclipse adventure and the phone started acting weird. Spontaneous restarts and my SD card appeared to be empty! The time lapse movie and other images are most important to me. Besides unmounting, then re-mounting the card, I did nothing (and took no more photos) hoping to be able to resurrect my images with a card reader once I got home. Success! The card reader found all the files. My movie and images were there! I did a big happy dance and ~copied~ the ~entire card~ over into a folder on my home computer.

Now that I am rested, I want to learn what to do with ALL the files I copied, and how to get my phone back to "normal." I seek direction from experts here on what folders and files to preserve, or leave on the card, and what to simply delete.

I thought I was shooting JPG files and now see a PNG and a matching XMP for every shot. I don't know what to do with the XMPs. All of my previous shots were JPGs.

I am also concerned about all the programs that have been set to store data on the card instead of on the phone's internal memory. It was a long and painstaking chore to "move", or change Settings to use the card instead of the phone's memory.

I really hope I don't have to do the factory reset thing and want to clean things up correctly. Occasional spontaneous restarts (such as when plugging into an external battery, or car charger), and error messages like "Samsung+ not responding" trouble me. Of course the music app can't access my 3,000 tunes because they are all on the card (and copies are safe on my PC).

What to do....?

Help? and TIA

Dr Carl

 

[Rukbat]

Did you find all the folders that used to be on the card? (Most apps store their data in their own folders.) If not, see PhotoRec Step By Step. PhotoRec will restore anything that's still readable, but it can take days.

Otherwise, copy all the folders except LOST.DIR to your PC. If they're already there, and not on the SD card, copy everything to the SD card - after running PhotoRec on it.

As for your pictures, you can use paint.Net to open a .png file and save it as a .jpg file. (Pngs are usually larger than the same image in a .jpg file.) As for the .xmp files, they're metadata files, containing the edits done to the raw camera image to convert it to a .png. But using Paint.Net, you aren't changing anything in the .png, you're just reading it, then creating a new .jpg file, so if you don't like the .jpg, you can always just keep the .pngs.

No factory resets - you want to restore files, not delete them.

 

[DrCarl]

Thank you for the PhotoRec link. Awesome. Saved for future.

I did find all the folders on the card and copied all of them to a folder on my PC

I am fairly well convinced that a new SD card is needed, so, you can skip all my notes below if you wish. Phone is happy with no card, and is deliriously sick when card is in place.

I would like to know two things.

1 - what is the issue is with the LOST.DIR folder? Like, should that be copied back onto the new card?

2 - is it OK to delete unneeded images from folders while using a card reader and before copying everything, the entire tree, back onto a new card? (Or, must this kind of maintenance be done while the card is in the phone?)

Thank you for being here.

DrCarl


--------------NOTES----------------

moved the precious images off to a safe place
deleted image clutter on phone's internal memory (maintenance)
deleted images from the SD Folder (via my PC + card reader)

Tried starting phone with card, after lagging and hanging, removed card and tried to delete all files from SD card.

Unable to delete anything from card. Card acts like it's locked. Can copy, but not delete. With card in card reader, there is no delete" or "cut" option - only "send to". Appears to be locked. I now see error that the card is “write protected” Researched unlocking write protect inc. adding registry key. fail.

Phone acts OK with no card. It acts sick when the card is in.

Research indicates that the card may be bad, and that they have some kind of (awesome) safety feature that engages a write protect in order that files may be copied. Age and heat may be issues. I did just spend 5 days in the 100 degree desert and used the phone a LOT. Although never left in the sun, it did get hot, and seems to have been running hot.

ORIGINAL PLAN
card: copy all files into folder on ‘puter
puter: verify pics are on R drive

phone/internal: lighten load, move unneeded photos to ‘puter
‘puter: go through SD Card folders: lighten load, del old pics, etc.

phone: put card in phone, mount and try, format if necessary

[ never got this far]
‘puter/card: copy card files from ‘puter to card while in phone

TO DO
phone/card:
delete google maps
delete XGo maps

verify apps store data on card (music app will prove)

THINGS I NOTICED
frozen loading (clock)
inserted card, froze, then spontaneously restarted
“Samsung+ has stopped”
“ASTRO file manager stopped”
“My Verizon has stopped”
“Select launcher” (Nova Launcher)
“Nova launcher has stopped”
tried S Launcher – (note: go to apps to change default)
“S Launcher has stopped”
Selected Nova Launcher again...

--restarted with card in
picked Nova launcher again
loaded...slowly
spontaneously restarted (card still in)
Selected Nova Launcher
“Android System has stopped”

With card in card reader, used ‘diskpart’ utility to clear readonly (“attributes disk clear readonly” )
Placed card into phone, was able to get to ‘Settings’ and ‘Format’
No Love.

Tried many combos. Start with card, started without card, then put it in, wiped system cache on startup with hardware buttons.

SD card
“Unmounting...”
“command ‘180 volume partition disk:179,64 public’ failed with ‘null’“

Restart: “Unsupported SD card. This device doesn’t support the SD card. T...” Unmounting. Was offered “format as portable storage”
Selected Format as offered. Error:
“command ‘9 volume partition disk:179,64 public’ failed with 400 Command failed”

Ordering new card. Not sure what the issue is with the LOST.DIR folder, like, should that be copied back onto the new card? Can I edit image files before copying the tree back to the new card?