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Samsung S5 / Android Disaster - Aboslute Dealbreaker

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  • 27-10-2014 10:25pm
    #1
    Rezident
    Registered Users Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭


    Moved form Apple a few months back, pretty happy with the Samsung S5, apart from all the annoying nanny messages. Away in south africa disaster struck. I was using the local WiFI and I saw a notification for some automatic Samsung update that must have happened in the background. After the update no mp3s will play, all my movies, photos, videos, absolutely nothing will play. It said it does not play that type of file - it has played them all for months.

    Tried the usual fixes, took out the SD card and put it back in a few times, now the phone is telling me that the SD Card is blank or uses an unsupported filesystem! It's a 128Gb card with all my music, all my life plus of course all of my holiday photos including the whale that surfaced about ten feet from our boat.

    The phone keeps trying to re-format the card. I'm pretty sure there was nothing wrong with the card and the Samsung/Android update is the whole problem. Any help greatly appreciated. I have my data backed up but obviously the holiday photos/videos etc. are still on the card (I hope). Or has samsung/android deleted them?

    Also: I tried the SD card in a different samsung phone and it's giving the same error message about an unsupported filesystem. What has this automatic update done to my card and all my data? This is a disaster.


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    #2
    54kroc
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,376 ✭✭✭54kroc


    Don't put the card into any more phones, pop it into a pc if you have access to one and see if you can get your data off it.


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    #3
    Rezident
    Registered Users Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭Rezident


    OK guess i need a card reader for pc, will have a look.


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    #4
    Rezident
    Registered Users Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭Rezident


    OK it is not even showing up on a pc, using a sd card reader. I take it this is not good. How could an automatic samsung update do this!? This is shocking.

    I'm pretty sure there is a way to get the data off the card, there must be. What sort of software (preferably free) do people use for this?

    Cheers.


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    #5
    Kenny Logins
    Registered Users Posts: 9,061 ✭✭✭Kenny Logins


    Recuva.

    ...but only if the card is showing up - it could have died completely. Some card manufacturers offer a recovery service. What brand is it?


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    #6
    Rezident
    Registered Users Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭Rezident


    It’s a SanDisk Ultra 128Gb.


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    #7
    Fresh Pots
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,234 ✭✭✭Fresh Pots


    Rezident wrote: »
    It’s a SanDisk Ultra 128Gb.

    Is it definitely a genuine card?


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    #8
    Kenny Logins
    Registered Users Posts: 9,061 ✭✭✭Kenny Logins


    Rezident wrote: »
    It’s a SanDisk Ultra 128Gb.

    SanDisk have their own recovery software - http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4985/~/data-recovery-for-memory-cards-and-flash-drives


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    #9
    banie01
    Registered Users Posts: 16,625 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    As Kenny suggested try recuva to recover your files.
    If it is a genuine SanDisk card I'd be on to their customer support.
    Have you tried any other SD card in the handset yet?
    Are they being recognized/read?
    I know the timing of the failure and the software update would intuitively point to a phone/software issue.
    But it's likely just coincidence, if there was an update killing SD cards it would be impacting massively and there would be a furore on line.
    My thoughts are it's a problem with the card rather than the phone.


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    #10
    timetogo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 990 ✭✭✭timetogo


    Rezident wrote: »
    The phone keeps trying to re-format the card. I'm pretty sure there was nothing wrong with the card and the Samsung/Android update is the whole problem. Any help greatly appreciated. I have my data backed up but obviously the holiday photos/videos etc. are still on the card (I hope). Or has samsung/android deleted them?

    Also: I tried the SD card in a different samsung phone and it's giving the same error message about an unsupported filesystem. What has this automatic update done to my card and all my data? This is a disaster.

    The Samsung update didn't do this. It's more likely that you got an update around about the same time your card was failing.

    Like the previous guys have said, grab some recovery software. I've had good results from this software before (https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-products.htm)
    I haven't used Recuva but it's probably similar.

    I'd recommend you get a professional though. An option would be to find a data recovery company near you and ask them how much it would cost to attempt to restore a card. Restoring a card isn't the same as restoring a hard drive so I'd hope they would have some good tools (like the ones I've listed) and could do it for about €50 - €100. I've gotten it done before for hard drives and the company I used sent me a list of files they could recover. Then it was either up to me to pay them or decide not to go ahead.

    Where did you buy your card from? It's hard to spot fakes. A big giveaway is if they're a lot cheaper than normal. They could be marked at 128Gb but only have 8GB on them. Once you try and write above 8GB they start losing data.
    Or the card could simply be faulty. It's not common but I'm sure theres some failure rate. If you had Dropbox / Google + enabled on your phone any photos you took might be backed up automatically. It'd be worth logging on to those sites to see if any of your photos are there.


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    #11
    Rezident
    Registered Users Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭Rezident


    Fresh Pots wrote: »
    Is it definitely a genuine card?

    I know there are dodgy cards out there so I don’t buy them from China or Ebay. Although, how would one confirm this? I bought it from Amazon and it has worked perfectly with small and very large files for months, so it would appear to be fine. Everything was fine until this samsung software update which instantly changed everything, strongly suggesting that it is not just the card. There have been zero performance issues with the memory card (which I have all of my music, photos, video etc. everything on). I use (used) it regularly every day and there has not been so much as a music skip while using it for the last 3 or 4 months. I’ve been building PCs for years and it did not feel like dodgy memory although, again can this be confirmed?


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    #12
    Rezident
    Registered Users Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭Rezident


    OK cool, thanks for the suggestions guys, I will try them tonight. Thanks for the input.


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    #13
    Rezident
    Registered Users Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭Rezident


    OK I got an SD card reader for my PC but the SD card will not even show up in it. Nothing shows up at all in windows. I’ve tried a different SD card which does show up so what are my options now?

    Is there any way to get the data off the card without going to those ludicrously expensive data recovery labs?


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    #14
    Kenny Logins
    Registered Users Posts: 9,061 ✭✭✭Kenny Logins


    Sounds like the card is borked, and there's not a lot you can do. It happened to me with a Nikon D7000, and afterwards I discovered there is a list of tested and approved cards. Mine wasn't on the list.


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