Recovering a FAT32 currupted boot sector
Posted: 27 Jun 2020, 09:43
Hello
I need help recovering the boot sector of a FAT32 formatted SD card used in an Android phone with Testdisk. I tried interactive mode and I could recognize many filenames of my data. Unfortunately none was the main root of the filesystem, which accordingly to what I have read on the internet is what I need to find.
Folder structure was the common one of an Android phone. A bunch of folders in the root like "music", "camera", "screenshots"... and all files inside these folders. In the main root there were only about 10 files outside any folder.
Fortunately I have a backup of all the file contents made about some months ago, so I hope this can be used in some way to recover the actual filesystem. Folder structure and old files should remain the same, the only change is that the damaged filesystem contains newly created files, like photos taken after the backup.
Background of the filesystem corruption, if this helps:
-I checked my phone for notifications after waking up and it didn't power on, so it must have run out of battery overnight. After connecting it to the charger and waiting some minutes, it powered on and I could see a lot of warnings about SD access failure and a notification indicating the SD card was corrupted and a button for formatting it. Of course, I didn't press it. Maybe suddenly losing power during midnight provoked this.
- I took the SD card from the phone and plugged it on the computer using a card reader. It was read correctly, all my files where there, so i didn't understand why the phone reported it as corrupted. I looked for some command for repairing the FAT32 filesystem on it, trying to solve any damage it may have. I executed "sudo dosfsck -w -r -l -a -v -t /dev/sdf1" and I could see and output like "Checking file /DCIM/Camera/IMG_20160911_000514.jpg (IMG_20~1.JPG)". Here comes my worst mistake: as it was taking too long (it's a 32GB SD card almost 80% full), i jus't pressed ctrl+C to stop it before ending.
-I plugged back the SD on the phone. The error persisted. After connecting it back on the PC, the filesystem is no longer recognized. So stopping that command has corrupted it, and this is what I'm trying to repair.
Many thanks for reading to the end. Any help is appreciated.
I need help recovering the boot sector of a FAT32 formatted SD card used in an Android phone with Testdisk. I tried interactive mode and I could recognize many filenames of my data. Unfortunately none was the main root of the filesystem, which accordingly to what I have read on the internet is what I need to find.
Folder structure was the common one of an Android phone. A bunch of folders in the root like "music", "camera", "screenshots"... and all files inside these folders. In the main root there were only about 10 files outside any folder.
Fortunately I have a backup of all the file contents made about some months ago, so I hope this can be used in some way to recover the actual filesystem. Folder structure and old files should remain the same, the only change is that the damaged filesystem contains newly created files, like photos taken after the backup.
Background of the filesystem corruption, if this helps:
-I checked my phone for notifications after waking up and it didn't power on, so it must have run out of battery overnight. After connecting it to the charger and waiting some minutes, it powered on and I could see a lot of warnings about SD access failure and a notification indicating the SD card was corrupted and a button for formatting it. Of course, I didn't press it. Maybe suddenly losing power during midnight provoked this.
- I took the SD card from the phone and plugged it on the computer using a card reader. It was read correctly, all my files where there, so i didn't understand why the phone reported it as corrupted. I looked for some command for repairing the FAT32 filesystem on it, trying to solve any damage it may have. I executed "sudo dosfsck -w -r -l -a -v -t /dev/sdf1" and I could see and output like "Checking file /DCIM/Camera/IMG_20160911_000514.jpg (IMG_20~1.JPG)". Here comes my worst mistake: as it was taking too long (it's a 32GB SD card almost 80% full), i jus't pressed ctrl+C to stop it before ending.
-I plugged back the SD on the phone. The error persisted. After connecting it back on the PC, the filesystem is no longer recognized. So stopping that command has corrupted it, and this is what I'm trying to repair.
Many thanks for reading to the end. Any help is appreciated.