Help [RESOLVED] Boot loop - desperate for recovery advice? :)

[Sorako]

Hello there everyone,

I was hoping I might be able to get some advice here, as while delving the internet for solutions I noticed that everyone here appears to be an especially friendly bunch

I'm sorry if I don't explain enough - this is my first Android phone, and I'm a bit of a noob!

Basically, I've got a Galaxy s2 I9100, on Orange UK. I've had it about a year and a half now, maybe a bit less as my first handset developed a weird inky-screen problem. o.o

It's not rooted, and as far as I know running Gingerbread.

It was all fine (if a bit slow/crashy) until yesterday, when while uninstalling some apps to free memory the main screen went blank except for the notification bar, which kept saying 'unexpected error, click here...'. Clicking it did nothing, and apart from the bar, it was unresponsive. I removed the battery and rebooted it, same thing. Thinking I had done something silly (I tried to be careful and only remove games, though I think I removed 'font changer' thinking it was something I downloaded? Could that cause issues?) I did the same thing again... and then it didn't go past the 'Galaxy S2' splash page.

It's been stuck on that loop since, only once by sheer fluke it booted, though it was still in the same 'black screen' and error message state - could still 'quick reply' to a text though, oddly enough.

Now the part where I'm really kicking myself is up until recently it was in USB debugging mode, which i stupidly turned off to try and get an app to work (that was one of the solutions) >< so now of course, I can't back up any of my internal storage!

My external SD card filled up last summer and so I chose to use the internal sd (I think?) to save photos and videos on to continue as it had a lot of space. External SD card is backed up... but of course, like an idiot, the internal isn't... *kicks self in corner of shame* ound:

So I guess my question is: Is there any way I can recover my photos and videos from the phone's internal memory? The USB storage/internal sd/whichever it is? Sorry that I'm not certain - I've done a lot of googling and heard all different opinions ><

If not, will doing the Recovery Mode (Volume up, home, power button) factory reset/data wipe kill all those pictures and videos etc? *sob* :bawling:

I'm pretty desperate - I need the phone working, but there is a lot of important pics on there and if possible I really don't want to lose them. I'm scared about going into the store in case they just wipe it (lame I know!) plus I wont be able to go in until Friday.

TL;DR: Phone in boot loop, need pictures from internal storage D:

Any help would be so appreciated - thank you very much!

 

[SCPadgeebar]

Nope, factory reset does not wipe nor do anything with the internal storage tho it would wipe all your messages, contacts and apps.

By the way, try to boot it in safe mode first.
1. Switch off the phone by pressing on the Power button.

2. Then turn the phone back on, while it is turning on press and hold the Menu button.

3. Now continue to hold the Menu button until you see the Home screen. On the home screen you see it say Safe Mode on the left hand corner.

4. Now that you are in Safe Mode you can go and remove any buggy apps that you don't want to keep.

 

[Sorako]

Ooh thank you very much, I didn't know about safe mode! I will try that and let you know how it goes

 

[Sorako]

By the way, try to boot it in safe mode first.
1. Switch off the phone by pressing on the Power button.

2. Then turn the phone back on, while it is turning on press and hold the Menu button.

3. Now continue to hold the Menu button until you see the Home screen. On the home screen you see it say Safe Mode on the left hand corner.

4. Now that you are in Safe Mode you can go and remove any buggy apps that you don't want to keep.

Thanks again for your reply! Unfortunately I wasn't able to boot it in safe mode. I tried a few times to make sure I wasn't timing the button presses wrong, but whatever I did it wouldn't go past the S splash screen before my finger started to go numb!

 

[SCPadgeebar]

Well, your best option now is to do a factory reset. Don't worry, it would not do anything with your photos/videos/music/etc on your internal storage.

 

[Sorako]

Okeeeee *deep breath* It's very scary! Goes against every instinct to press that wipe button without having a very recent backup! xD

I guess I'm right in saying that if I took it to the provider/phone shop, they would advise the same thing? I think it's wishful thinking of me to imagine there's a magic machine that can somehow extract the internal memory? xD

 

[SCPadgeebar]

They will advice the same thing and they would charge you a couple of $$$ if they are the one they did it.

By the way, factory reset/data wipe will only wipe data such as messages, contacts and apps.
Trust me, I always do that to my phone back when I was still rooted.

 

[Sorako]

They will advice the same thing and they would charge you a couple of $$$ if they are the one they did it.

By the way, factory reset/data wipe will only wipe data such as messages, contacts and apps.
Trust me, I always do that to my phone back when I was still rooted.

Hehe OK - time to bite the bullet! Thank you very much for the advice and being so patient with me! :adore:

 

[Sorako]

Hey there,

Just wanted to update you on things - all done, factory reset (it was so quick!), booted fine and as you said, all pictures intact and immediately put onto my mac xD I might ask my friend who is more android savvy to root it and maybe put JellyBean on it, so that I can use Titanium Backup for the future

Thank you sooo much again for your help, that saved me so much hassle and worry!! :dancing: :adore: I really really appreciate it, thank you very much

 

[SCPadgeebar]

I suggest you root your I9100 and flash Neat Rom.

We also have a thread for that here in Android Forums. http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-international-all-things-root/554062-neat-rom-44.html#post5671007