Help Is there a company who can pull picts off the internal memory?

[caseynotis]

Hi all...

Two years to the day, 11/6/12, my Dinc crashed on me. I rebooted and it's stuck 'power cycling', as the Verizon folks called it last night. I see the white HTC screen for a bit, it changes to the black screen w/the red Droid eye, then freezes...back to the white HTC screen, etc...over & over, until I remove the battery to stop the cycle. I've spent hours since, looking for a solution to get my picts off the internal memory (apparently when I set the phone up, I did not choose the sd card for storage ...I can deal with losing my contacts; two years worth of picts, esp of my 4 & 8 yr old, my stomach is having a hard time with that.

So tonight I got the new Dinc, and off I go to see if Verizon can get anything off my old phone. Nope, notta, no deal. I'm left with whatever is on my old sd card (which actually was picts from two phones ago).

I'm not tech savvy enough to go rooting etc...so here is my question :

Does anyone know of a company who can pull these picts off the internal memory? I'm wondering if it's almost akin to having your hard drive crash, and the Geek Squad still being able to grab the data?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.....

 

[sdrawkcab25]

Hi all...

Two years to the day, 11/6/12, my Dinc crashed on me. I rebooted and it's stuck 'power cycling', as the Verizon folks called it last night. I see the white HTC screen for a bit, it changes to the black screen w/the red Droid eye, then freezes...back to the white HTC screen, etc...over & over, until I remove the battery to stop the cycle. I've spent hours since, looking for a solution to get my picts off the internal memory (apparently when I set the phone up, I did not choose the sd card for storage ...I can deal with losing my contacts; two years worth of picts, esp of my 4 & 8 yr old, my stomach is having a hard time with that.

So tonight I got the new Dinc, and off I go to see if Verizon can get anything off my old phone. Nope, notta, no deal. I'm left with whatever is on my old sd card (which actually was picts from two phones ago).

I'm not tech savvy enough to go rooting etc...so here is my question :

Does anyone know of a company who can pull these picts off the internal memory? I'm wondering if it's almost akin to having your hard drive crash, and the Geek Squad still being able to grab the data?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.....

Have you tried safe mode:
Safe Mode - DROID INCREDIBLE by HTC

 

[caseynotis]

I have not tried that -- can I do this from complete shut down?

 

[caseynotis]

Never mind - I tried & it didn't work. The phone/system did the same cycling thing. I even held down the Volume Down button and optical joystick constantly, as the phone cycled, and still nothing. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[Colchicine]

I can't help directly with your question, but I can offer a solution for the future.

-Cardinal rule of electronics: Never go 2 years without making a backup. If you're an average user, you really should pull all of your photos off every 30 days.

-Use one of the many services that can do automatic backups. Photos in particular, there's an easy solution. Even if you have no interest in using Google+ you should still use the app for the Instant Upload feature. As you take photos, it will send them to your account in a folder that can ONLY be private. I can go outside to to take a picture of something, and by the time I walk upstairs to my computer it's already on my account.

Instant Upload - Google+ Help

 

[caseynotis]

Thanks, Colchicine. To be very honest, I had actually thought that the phone was 'just' a year old. Of all the things I keep track of in my head, when I got my phone basically resides at the bottom of the list. Regardless you are correct, I should have been pulling my picts off at least once a month. I really should have taken the time to ensure they were being stored on the sd card. But hindsight is 20/20.

 

[sdrawkcab25]

I'm not sure if the stock recovery screen let's you mount the internal storage. But you can try the factory reset option. It doesn't erase the internal memory and might let you boot up.

Turn off the phone. Then press and hold down the volume down button, while still pressing, press and hold down the power button till the phone turns on. Use the volume keys to select recovery, press the power button to choose it. The phone will boot into recovery mode. You should see a red triangle. Press volume UP and power at the same time. Some options should pop up. Use the volume keys to select factory reset and press the power button to choose it. Confirm your choice and let it run. You should then be able to boot up and recover your pics.

 

[caseynotis]

So doing a hard factory reset does NOT erase the picts on the internal memory?

 

[sdrawkcab25]

So doing a hard factory reset does NOT erase the picts on the internal memory?

It shouldn't....but it is really your only hope anyway.

 

[caseynotis]

Hm...so is my theory that the internal memory of a cell phone is like a hard drive, that data can be pulled from, incorrect? I just keep going back to the fact that the phone has power, it starts to boot up, then the OS gets stuck....shouldn't there be a way to get in there ?

I wish there was a company that specialized in retrieving data from loopy phones.

 

[sdrawkcab25]

Hm...so is my theory that the internal memory of a cell phone is like a hard drive, that data can be pulled from, incorrect? I just keep going back to the fact that the phone has power, it starts to boot up, then the OS gets stuck....shouldn't there be a way to get in there ?

I wish there was a company that specialized in retrieving data from loopy phones.

If you were rooted and had a custom recovery you could get to the data...but rooting now might also wipe the internal storage... your best bet is to try the factory reset from the stock recovery.

Edit: im going to do a factory reset on my old incredible with the stock recovery... I'll let you know if it wipes the pics off the internal storage.

Edit2: factory reset did not wipe pics from internal storage... going to try the clear storage option from the bootloader.

Edit3: even after choosing the clear storage option, the pictures remain on the internal storage.

 

[caseynotis]

okay...we'll give it a whirl. What happens after it boots up? BAU or will it be in some safe mode....I'm assuming I'll need to grab the picts w/a usb cable?

 

[sdrawkcab25]

okay...we'll give it a whirl. What happens after it boots up? BAU or will it be in some safe mode....I'm assuming I'll need to grab the picts w/a usb cable?

If/when it boots up... it will be just like the day you bought the phone.