Micro SD Card Formatted as Internal Storage on Android Possibly Corrupt
Posted: 20 Jul 2018, 02:50
I have a 32GB Micro SD Card I used in my Android 7.1 phone and had it formatted as internal storage. I have nightly back-ups of my data - if I'm connected to wifi. A week ago, I was on a road trip, took about 70 pictures during the day, did not connect to wifi, so my photos didn't back up. In the morning, I noticed some of my apps were crashing. I realized the apps that were installed on the card were the ones that were crashing. I took the card out and set it aside until a few days ago when I had time to try to recover the files.
I put the card into an SD Micro Card Adapter and plugged that into a computer. The computer could see two partitions, the first was an Android file structure, but no files. The second partition was showing a 0 bytes and Windows prompted me to format the card. I did not. I haven't written anything to the card since it became unstable in my phone.
A colleague used the card reader and we plugged that into his Linux box and he ran PhotoRec. He could see files, but could not open any of them and PhotoRec only recovered 1 file, which was not any of the data files I had on the card.
I then ran PhotoRec from my Windows computer and had the same result.
When I plug the card back into my phone, my phone sees the card is there. It shows me apps are installed (but I cannot actually access them). It tells me there are no image files (yet, the used space on the card is the same as it was when the issues started). I can see other files that are on the card. If I attempt to access the files from my phone, my phone reboots.
I put the card in, then plugged my USB cable to my phone and my computer. I can see the SanDisk drive, with the amount of space free showing what I expect. When I run PhotoRec, it doesn't recognize my phone or the card.
I believe that because the card was formatted as internal storage, the only way to see the data is to have the card in my phone. When an SD Card is formatted as internal storage, it is encrypted so that the only way to view the files is if the SD Card is in the phone. I think that may be why my colleage said he could see some files on his Linux machine, but couldn't access them, and why PhotoRec didn't recover any of the files.
With the card not in my phone, my phone works, but I cannot take any pictures because my phone thinks I don't have any internal storage. I don't want to "Forget" the card on my phone because then the encryption key on the phone to unlock the card will be deleted.
Is there a way to run PhotoRec and have it recognize my phone and the SD card so it can access the files? Have you encountered this issue previously and know a way to pull the data from the card without the phone?
I put the card into an SD Micro Card Adapter and plugged that into a computer. The computer could see two partitions, the first was an Android file structure, but no files. The second partition was showing a 0 bytes and Windows prompted me to format the card. I did not. I haven't written anything to the card since it became unstable in my phone.
A colleague used the card reader and we plugged that into his Linux box and he ran PhotoRec. He could see files, but could not open any of them and PhotoRec only recovered 1 file, which was not any of the data files I had on the card.
I then ran PhotoRec from my Windows computer and had the same result.
When I plug the card back into my phone, my phone sees the card is there. It shows me apps are installed (but I cannot actually access them). It tells me there are no image files (yet, the used space on the card is the same as it was when the issues started). I can see other files that are on the card. If I attempt to access the files from my phone, my phone reboots.
I put the card in, then plugged my USB cable to my phone and my computer. I can see the SanDisk drive, with the amount of space free showing what I expect. When I run PhotoRec, it doesn't recognize my phone or the card.
I believe that because the card was formatted as internal storage, the only way to see the data is to have the card in my phone. When an SD Card is formatted as internal storage, it is encrypted so that the only way to view the files is if the SD Card is in the phone. I think that may be why my colleage said he could see some files on his Linux machine, but couldn't access them, and why PhotoRec didn't recover any of the files.
With the card not in my phone, my phone works, but I cannot take any pictures because my phone thinks I don't have any internal storage. I don't want to "Forget" the card on my phone because then the encryption key on the phone to unlock the card will be deleted.
Is there a way to run PhotoRec and have it recognize my phone and the SD card so it can access the files? Have you encountered this issue previously and know a way to pull the data from the card without the phone?