How can I recover my file that were not on my SD Card?

[AC Question]

recovering files

I have an lg enact and it just keeps loading the verizon screen when turned on. is there a way to recover all of my files that were not on my sd card.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: recovering files

Welcome to Android Central! Unfortunately, if the phone is stuck, it may be very difficult to retrieve those files. It doesn't appear that you can boot into Recovery with that phone, which would have been one of my suggestions otherwise. If you have an SD card inserted, make sure it's removed, in case it's corrupt (which can cause odd phone behavior). Also consider a new battery.

 

[Rukbat]

Re: recovering files

You'd need a service to do that. The userdata partition in the phone's storage has to be imaged (saved as a file), then you can use PhotoRec on a PC (Linux, Mac or Windows - there are 3 versions) to extract all files in that image file. (That means not just deleted files, but everything, so have a lot of free hard drive space.) Instructions for PhotoRec are at PhotoRec Step By Step. (It's one of the most useful programs available, and it's free. I think everyone should have a copy and learn how to use it, so "I lost all my files" isn't a time to panic, it's a time to realize that you're about to waste some time - and be bored to death if you don't have something to do.)

But since the phone isn't working, you'll need someone with a JTAG box to pull the partition from the phone's hardware and save it as a file. So whether you get your files back or not depends on how valuable they are. The secret password to a Swiss account with millions in it? No question. Some snapshots that you wish you'd backed up, but they aren't very important? Not unless you suffer from "too much money" syndrome.

In the future, unless nothing's changed, make a backup every week of everything that's changed - music (that's not paid - you usually can't back that up), videos (same caveat), apps, settings (I have an app I keep medical records on every day, and back up to the external SD card using Helium. The Helium file gets backed up off-phone every week.) Then if something happens to the phone you still have your data - which is the most valuable part of any computer.