Help Phone data recovery Companies that are reliable ? UK

[elsaundersx]

Hello,

On the 29th/1/2016 ( Four weeks ago) My phone was wiped. I do not know whether this was a Factory Reset or my Device is Faulty. ( I do get ' Send Report to HTC to repair my Messages app. )

I'm not sure if I'm insured with a mobile phone retailer ( Such as Carphone Warehouse ) and I didn't back up with the Cloud ( I have Backed up to the Cloud recently on the Wiped out phone but I can't see or find anything in my Google Drive?...) ( I know,I know, silly me -_-)

I have heard there are Phone Recovery Programs which can recover Data ( Wondershare Dr Fone For Android ) And Recuva( Rooted) can Recover Data..

I've heard that using the phone and rooting it post-wiped can overwhite some files that were previously on my phone... So i've stopped using my phone as much.

I want to Root, but i'm scared that Rooting will only overwrite more files( as I was warned )

I tried Wondershare Dr Fone on a Free Trial but it only showed up photos that I took after post-wiping. It did say to recover these photo and more I would have to pay.

I am worried because I do not trust easily on the Internet and it is very expensive.

So, i'm wondering is there a Legitimate Phone Company that deals with these types of things that I can phone or visit or basically, A company that is not based primarily online ( if you get my drift) I do not mind paying I just want it to be legitimate.

Is there any other companies I can physically direct in the UK that deals with recovering data / this sort of thing? I know Law Enforcent or someone out there can recover the data but I don't know who to go to. Many thanks.

 

[elsaundersx]

HTC Desire Eye.

.

 

[Hadron]

A forensic data recovery company could probably do it, but it won't be cheap. I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations there.

For the rest, your problem is that the internal storage is only connected to your computer as an MTP device, and that doesn't give it the sort of access that file recovery requires (as you discovered with the trial version of one of those apps). Recuva is good, but won't help unless you can mount the drive as USB mass storage.

TBH I don't really believe that rooting will help. But unlocking the bootloader (a step towards rooting) will do another factory reset.

 

[elsaundersx]

I'm sorry, I don't understand why the second part of your answer makes my problem a problem? Explain again please. But thank you so much about for answering! How do I mount the drive as USB mass storage?

 

[elsaundersx]

A forensic data recovery company could probably do it, but it won't be cheap. I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations there.

For the rest, your problem is that the internal storage is only connected to your computer as an MTP device, and that doesn't give it the sort of access that file recovery requires (as you discovered with the trial version of one of those apps). Recuva is good, but won't help unless you can mount the drive as USB mass storage.

TBH I don't really believe that rooting will help. But unlocking the bootloader (a step towards rooting) will do another factory reset.

I'm sorry, I don't understand why the second part of your answer makes my problem a problem? Explain again please. But thank you so much about for answering! How do I mount the drive as USB mass storage?

 

[mikedt]

How do I mount the drive as USB mass storage?

You don't, not with current Android versions.

Could try contacting. http://m.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/
Best in business apparently, got $1000?

 

[peterh337]

Rooting won't wipe the phone, surely? I have rooted my S6 and my T700 and my T705 and none of them lost anything.

Whether one can recover anything useful is another matter.

The least bad UK cellular network is Vodafone. But if you only move in big cities then it doesn't matter.

 

[Hadron]

It depends how you root the phone. The normal way with a HTC is to unlock the bootloader, flash a custom recovery then use that to root, and unlocking the bootloader will erase the phone. Sometimes there are other ways, but it depends on the device and firmware version (e.g. the way I unlocked mine didn't wipe it, but that exploit was closed within a couple of months).

And as Mike said, what makes the second part of my answer the problem is that most devices haven't supported UMS since Android 2.3 (since 3 was tablet-only). HTC don't support it for sure.

 

[peterh337]

The method I used, almost a year ago, for my S6 and my T705 is from here
http://www.droidviews.com/root-samsung-galaxy-tab-s-with-one-click-cf-auto-root-tool/
It seems to have no bad effects except OTA updates *of the OS* stopped working (which is apparently as intended, and anyway they would break the rooting).

How do people do data recovery without opening the phone and transferring the flash chip(s) to something which can directly read them?

I believe on IOS the file system is encrypted, or is this only if you configure a screen lock?

 

[Slug]

The method I used, almost a year ago, for my S6 and my T705 is from here

As Hadron rightly pointed out

It depends how you root the phone. The normal way with a HTC is to unlock the bootloader, flash a custom recovery then use that to root, and unlocking the bootloader will erase the phone.

How do people do data recovery without opening the phone and transferring the flash chip(s) to something which can directly read them?

They generally don't, as what you suggested is impossible without highly-specialised and expensive equipment. Most people rely on backing up their important/irreplaceable data regularly, and trusting that things won't go wrong as they unfortunately seem to have done here in the OP's case.

 

[elsaundersx]

As Hadron rightly pointed out





They generally don't, as what you suggested is impossible without highly-specialised and expensive equipment. Most people rely on backing up their important/irreplaceable data regularly, and trusting that things won't go wrong as they unfortunately seem to have done here in the OP's case.

Sigh. Okay.

Isn't there people out who do this on their own without help ? ( I know you have to be highly experienced and equipped but it's just a question )


- When you back up to the cloud, where do you go to recover files ( other than Google drive ) ?

 

[elsaundersx]

You don't, not with current Android versions.

Could try contacting. http://m.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/
Best in business apparently, got $1000?

I'm from the UK, so $1000 = £637.33 pounds ( apparently )

Besides, that isn't too much to pay for important recovery data


...

 

[Hadron]

With a cloud backup it depends on which backup you used. If you backed-up app data to Google servers it should restore when you sign your device in to the same Google account. If you used a cloud-based message backup app you need to reinstall that, sign in then tell it to restore. Your contacts can be accessed by logging on to Gmail through a browser, but would also restore if you sign in to that account from a phone and enable contact syncing. Etc.

As for the cost of a professional recovery, it's really a matter of what the data are worth to you. Unfortunately we do fairly often get cases where the only copies of photos of great personal value are stored on a phone which was then wiped or damaged, and believe me if there was a simple answer to this we would have put it in the FAQs section of the forum long ago.

 

[elsaundersx]

With a cloud backup it depends on which backup you used. If you backed-up app data to Google servers it should restore when you sign your device in to the same Google account. If you used a cloud-based message backup app you need to reinstall that, sign in then tell it to restore. Your contacts can be accessed by logging on to Gmail through a browser, but would also restore if you sign in to that account from a phone and enable contact syncing. Etc.

As for the cost of a professional recovery, it's really a matter of what the data are worth to you. Unfortunately we do fairly often get cases where the only copies of photos of great personal value are stored on a phone which was then wiped or damaged, and believe me if there was a simple answer to this we would have put it in the FAQs section of the forum long ago.

Well I kept getting ' Back up to cloud ' before my phone got wiped but I don't remember clicking on the option.... Now when my phone got wiped I took some photos and deleted them, I can recover them from Wondershare Dr Fone Free Trial but I backed these up to the cloud ( ' On my HTC, it just has an option to back up to the cloud and then I get ' Back up now'..... The phone has been backed up to My HTC Account, but even thought my photos are recoverable( Dr fone proves this).. I cannot find where to recover the deleted photos I took post-wiped on my phone, despite my phone saying Backup to the cloud successful. I did have two GmIl accounts ( my mum's Gmail and my Gmail ) signed on my phone but I think he HTC Account was my mum's HTC Account, but now due to wiping I had to make a new HTC Account ( in my name)


Aha stress -_-_

 

[elsaundersx]

With a cloud backup it depends on which backup you used. If you backed-up app data to Google servers it should restore when you sign your device in to the same Google account. If you used a cloud-based message backup app you need to reinstall that, sign in then tell it to restore. Your contacts can be accessed by logging on to Gmail through a browser, but would also restore if you sign in to that account from a phone and enable contact syncing. Etc.

As for the cost of a professional recovery, it's really a matter of what the data are worth to you. Unfortunately we do fairly often get cases where the only copies of photos of great personal value are stored on a phone which was then wiped or damaged, and believe me if there was a simple answer to this we would have put it in the FAQs section of the forum long ago.

Can you give a short explaination?

I do not know how to change my HTC Account back ( to my mum's account).

 

[Hadron]

You could try Settings > Accounts & Sync and adding an account. If you used a different account then you presumably don't have access to your previous apps anyway (they are linked to the account rather than the handset).

I've never used HTC's backups. If I ever use their gallery app there is a message about backing photos up but I just swipe it away - I prefer to back stuff up myself than rely on some corporate, especially something platform or manufacturer specific (allergic to lock-ins).

 

[peterh337]

This may be stating the obvious but sometimes non-IT people (most smartphone users these days) have backed up stuff without realising it.

For example my phone was backing up to "google cloud" (everything today is "cloud" - I am sure there is an MBA course on "cloud hype") without me having ever consciously enabled that. All that backs up is the mundane stuff i.e. Contacts and installed apps (but restoring apps will work only if they are still in the app shop when you want to restore them - IOS has the same issue which very few people know about; a full Itunes backup is the only way to preserve apps which are no longer in the shop) and a few other bits. App-specific data is mostly not backed up; e.g. pics taken with 3rd party camera apps are also not backed up even if you choose "back up photos". It's a system which works for people who use their phone in a totally banal way, which is most users.

One guy I know lost his phone but found that his phone book was being backed up to the hands free system in his car! He got it back by buying a new (same model) phone and somehow restoring it from the car.

The only way to fully backup everything on a phone is by rooting it and then using Titanium Backup or one of the other similar products, whose user interfaces range from opaque to impenetrable. This is really unsatisfactory but it has its roots in avoiding piracy; if you could do a full backup (as yo can with say Trueimage on a PC) then you could duplicate licensed apps across multiple phones, and the google app shop would collapse. I hate IOS (a dummies' OS) but this is the one thing which Apple got right (with the above caveat) - you can restore c. 5 times I think.

 

[elsaundersx]

You could try Settings > Accounts & Sync and adding an account. If you used a different account then you presumably don't have access to your previous apps anyway (they are linked to the account rather than the handset).

I've never used HTC's backups. If I ever use their gallery app there is a message about backing photos up but I just swipe it away - I prefer to back stuff up myself than rely on some corporate, especially something platform or manufacturer specific (allergic to lock-ins).

When I do that, it says if I remove the HTC Account that I'm logged in with now, it'll remove all my backups and data, so I'm scared about doing this in case it removes my previous data, that was on my phone before the reset wiped it all out.

 

[Hadron]

Ah, I misread and assumed it was your Google account you needed to log in to.

I assume that it means that it will remove backups made with the currently selected HTC account.

So, before doing anything can we check whether you have a backup with HTC from pre-established? As noted I don't use a HTC account or HTC Backup, but a quick Web search reveals that the HTC Backup system uses your Dropbox or Google Drive storage, so you may be able to see whether there is anything saved just by visiting these. Or you could log in to your older HTC account via a browser at http://www.htcsense.com/ - I don't know whether you'll be able to check the backup status that way, but it's worth a try.

 

[elsaundersx]

Ah, I misread and assumed it was your Google account you needed to log in to.

I assume that it means that it will remove backups made with the currently selected HTC account.

So, before doing anything can we check whether you have a backup with HTC from pre-established? As noted I don't use a HTC account or HTC Backup, but a quick Web search reveals that the HTC Backup system uses your Dropbox or Google Drive storage, so you may be able to see whether there is anything saved just by visiting these. Or you could log in to your older HTC account via a browser at http://www.htcsense.com/ - I don't know whether you'll be able to check the backup status that way, but it's worth a try.

Hello,


Since them, my phone has went through another factory reset.


I decided to forget about the first one because I couldn't be bothered about getting it restored.


But it's happened again! This time, the factory reset has wiped out something important.

( BTW , it did say before I locked off and put my phone to charge that it's going through a factory reset before my phone clicked off white screen page... so?-)
Is there anyway to resolve this? I would love to get back all my information that was deleted on the 29th of Jan, but most importantly I need my files ( I have managed to restore files that I backed up to the cloud recently ) ( voice recorder) lost yesterday.


Where do I find authentic data recovery company??? Anyone