Possible to Recover files after a Factory Reset/Recovery? - Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

[Hekja]

Hi!

We have a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 which was starting to become unstable and where it automatically asked if we wanted to do a factory reset/recovery during bootup. I do not remember exactly what it said.

Because I had important documents on the device I chose 'No', but before I was able to do a backup the device was shut down and restarted by my son who chose 'Yes' for the factory reset/recovery.

Since I was not present I do not know the method being used for recovery. Before recovery the device was rooted and of all apps SuperSU is still and the only app present of all the apps that was installed before. When trying to start SuperSU I get 'Unfortunately, SuperSU has stopped'. I am only telling this to illustrate the behavior of Android after the recovery.

Android version was/is 4.0.4. When booting into recovery mode it says 'Android system recovery <3e>'. When using the stock 'My Files' it is only showing default folders on sdcard and no previous files/documents.

If someone could please help me out I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[El Presidente]

Were the files/folders you require stored on the SD Card or the internal memory of the device?

If the former, you could try a windows app called Recuva to see if that will find any of the stuff you're looking for. It's important nothing is written to the card in the interim though as you'll potentially overwrite anything that may be salvageable.

If the documents were on the internal memory, they're 99.99% gone, unfortunately.

 

[Hekja]

Were the files/folders you require stored on the SD Card or the internal memory of the device?

If the former, you could try a windows app called Recuva to see if that will find any of the stuff you're looking for. It's important nothing is written to the card in the interim though as you'll potentially overwrite anything that may be salvageable.

If the documents were on the internal memory, they're 99.99% gone, unfortunately.

Thank you very much for your reply El Presidente.

If you by internal memory mean the virtual 'sdcard' that would be a yes. Like; /storage/emulated/0 or /Root/sdcard as it says in 'My Files' on Android 4.0.4. It is not a removable sdcard.

Did I understand you correctly when I understand 'internal memory' as the virtual/emulated sdcard?

 

[El Presidente]

Yep, the virtual sd card. If the files were there they're almost certainly gone.

I know later versions of Samsung's take on Android include a cloud backup function but I'm not sure a device running 4.0.4 would have it.

Is there an option anywhere to log in to your Samsung account?

 

[Hekja]

Again thank you for your reply El Presidente. Appreciate it.

I am starting to get to terms with that my files are probably lost, but would like to try with Recuva first. If possible that is. I have tried to connect to a Windows machine, but the Android device will not show up in Recuva. Is there a way to make the virtual sdcard show up? I have tried 'All files' -> 'On my media card or iPod' but it doesn't work. I have tried with version v. 1.53.1087.

Regarding Samsung account there is no files there.

Thanks

 

[El Presidente]

Recuva will only work with SD Cards and proper removable storage and the Virtual SD Card in your tab doesn't count as either. Google really borked up the way storage is handled in 4.0-4.4 so whilst it claims to be an SD Card, it's still part of your internal storage.

You could try something like this - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.defianttech.diskdigger

I'm not entirely confident it will work, but at this stage, there's no harm in giving it a go.