Recovering Files from RAZR with 100% broken screen

[Benjamin]

Hey everyone,

So, my first RAZR suffered an accidental blunt force trauma injury back in January. After some spectacularly colorful death throes, the screen eventually went 100% black. The phone was still sensitive to touch in a couple select areas, but generally speaking the screen is 100% broken, dark, and unresponsive.

The question is, I have a lot of good photos that I took with it, even as it was dying. Any suggestions or tips for how I might get it recognized by my laptop to extract the files?

[Edit to add:]

Also, as an aside, I had the phone replaced through my insurance but they didn't even ask me to send the broken hardware in. So, I have this broken handset, but I know they're hard to repair. Anyone else had a similar case?

 

[FoxKat]

Funny...how would he know if anybody responded or not? :blink:


Just kidding... So, if you plug in a USB cable between your phone and computer, it SHOULD bring up the proper access to allow you to simply "drag and drop" your files from either the internal SD Card (sdcard) or the external SD Card (sdcard-ex). With some careful hunting and pecking, you can retrieve all the data you wish to recover. You should also NOT need to do any screen selection on the phone, assuming you haven't changed default settings for USB access.

So, how will we know if you got this message and what your success has been? (This I'm waiting to see!) :rofl3:

Good luck and...break a leg. :biggrin:

EDIT: By the way, the phone has considerable value even it its present state. eBay, Craigslist, any number of other marketplaces will yield financial reward. Of course, if you purchase the necessary parts and repair yourself (not too hard - see the following video), then you can either keep and activate it, give it to a family member or friend (ahh...I mean sell), or sell on the open market and likely recover not only the full cost to repair but even more net than you would have if you sold it broken.

 

[SallyC]

Have you ever connected it to your pc and selected USB mass storage from the pull down notification menu? If so, you might just be able to connect it via USB and access your photos as a drive letter on your pc. That's what mine does - I don't look at my phone's screen at all during the process. For more info, see this link.

 

[SallyC]

Funny...how would he know if anybody responded or not? :blink:


Just kidding... So, if you plug in a USB cable between your phone and computer, it SHOULD bring up the proper access to allow you to simply "drag and drop" your files from either the internal SD Card (sdcard) or the external SD Card (sdcard-ex). With some careful hunting and pecking, you can retrieve all the data you wish to recover. You should also NOT need to do any screen selection on the phone, assuming you haven't changed default settings for USB access.

So, how will we know if you got this message and what your success has been? (This I'm waiting to see!) :rofl3:

Good luck and...break a leg. :biggrin:

Ha ha! Great minds - but you're about a minute faster! :biggrin:

 

[Benjamin]

Funny...how would he know if anybody responded or not? :blink:


Just kidding... So, if you plug in a USB cable between your phone and computer, it SHOULD bring up the proper access to allow you to simply "drag and drop" your files from either the internal SD Card (sdcard) or the external SD Card (sdcard-ex). With some careful hunting and pecking, you can retrieve all the data you wish to recover. You should also NOT need to do any screen selection on the phone, assuming you haven't changed default settings for USB access.

So, how will we know if you got this message and what your success has been? (This I'm waiting to see!) :rofl3:

Good luck and...break a leg. :biggrin:

EDIT: By the way, the phone has considerable value even it its present state. eBay, Craigslist, any number of other marketplaces will yield financial reward. Of course, if you purchase the necessary parts and repair yourself (not too hard - see the following video), then you can either keep and activate it, give it to a family member or friend (ahh...I mean sell), or sell on the open market and likely recover not only the full cost to repair but even more net than you would have if you sold it broken.

So, I feel like I gave this a try back when it first broke, but I'll give it another go. I think its out of battery at the moment, its remarkably difficult to tell what's going on without the screen working. I'll get back to you (from my laptop, where I do all my forum-ing )

Edit:

So, that did not work. Plugging the phone in didn't trigger it into USB storage mode for some reason, which is odd because my current RAZR acts the way I wish the broken one did.

Given that it doesn't do it on its own, any other suggestions?

 

[FoxKat]

So, I feel like I gave this a try back when it first broke, but I'll give it another go. I think its out of battery at the moment, its remarkably difficult to tell what's going on without the screen working. I'll get back to you (from my laptop, where I do all my forum-ing )

Edit:

So, that did not work. Plugging the phone in didn't trigger it into USB storage mode for some reason, which is odd because my current RAZR acts the way I wish the broken one did.

Given that it doesn't do it on its own, any other suggestions?

Wow, so sorry...I had no prior knowledge that you had gone through this already. You are certainly in a pickle, aren't you?!

My first inclination would be to suggest a factory reset to fix USB settings back to default. The reset would leave all your data in place and give us back control, which would allow the transfer, but doing a reset without a screen will be next to impossible. Also, if you had a screen, then you wouldn't need to do s reset since you could just manually change the USB settings.

I'll need to research the best way to proceed and perform the reset without the screen. It can be done via the side buttons, but it's the order and number of button presses that have to be performed that I want to map out first. One wrong press could send us off track.

I'll be back.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

 

[SallyC]

FoxKat, this link will describe how to do a reset using external keys (although you'd have to add how many clicks it is to, for example, 'Recovery') but unless the photos are on an SD card, a reset will cause them to be lost, correct? And if they're on an SD card, they don't need the phone to access them, correct? So unless I'm missing something, I don't know what a reset will do for Benjamin.

 

[FoxKat]

FoxKat, this link will describe how to do a reset using external keys (although you'd have to add how many clicks it is to, for example, 'Recovery') but unless the photos are on an SD card, a reset will cause them to be lost, correct? And if they're on an SD card, they don't need the phone to access them, correct? So unless I'm missing something, I don't know what a reset will do for Benjamin.

That's what i was doing...counting clicks. I have it all mapped out now.

A normal (menu selected), factory reset well not wipe the internal our external SD cards, but I'm not sure if a Recovery reset will not. I'm still researching.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

 

[SallyC]

I have not heard of a 'Recovery' vs 'Factory' reset. But I confess to being a bit confused. In the owners manual it says:

To reset your smartphone to factory settings and erase all the data on your smartphone, touch Menu> Settings > Privacy > Factory data reset > Reset phone.​

Warning: All data on your smartphone will be deleted. (Nothing on your memory card is deleted.)​

But on Motorola's site it says:

Factory Data Reset is a tool used to remove everything that was imported, added or installed on the device. Keep in mind, when using this feature everything is deleted. Nothing stored on the MicroSD or the internal phone storage will be affected unless you choose to erase it as well.
​

And on Verizon's site it says:

Performing a hard reset will remove ALL data including the Google account, system data, application data, application settings, and downloaded applications. Only perform this reset if absolutely necessary

​

and shows this image for step 6, where you erase everything:

View attachment 49983

So I have always gone on the belief that everything will be erased. But if you say not necessarily, I'm sure you're right. I've never reset my phone and somehow I'm sure you have. :icon_wink:

 

[FoxKat]

I have not heard of a 'Recovery' vs 'Factory' reset. But I confess to being a bit confused. In the owners manual it says:

To reset your smartphone to factory settings and erase all the data on your smartphone, touch Menu> Settings > Privacy > Factory data reset > Reset phone.​

Warning: All data on your smartphone will be deleted. (Nothing on your memory card is deleted.)​

But on Motorola's site it says:

Factory Data Reset is a tool used to remove everything that was imported, added or installed on the device. Keep in mind, when using this feature everything is deleted. Nothing stored on the MicroSD or the internal phone storage will be affected unless you choose to erase it as well.
​

And on Verizon's site it says:

Performing a hard reset will remove ALL data including the Google account, system data, application data, application settings, and downloaded applications. Only perform this reset if absolutely necessary

​

and shows this image for step 6, where you erase everything:

View attachment 49983

So I have always gone on the belief that everything will be erased. But if you say not necessarily, I'm sure you're right. I've never reset my phone and somehow I'm sure you have. :icon_wink:

In fact I did so last night. The two methods of reset are the menu driven one your information details, but since the OP doesn't have access to the screen walking him through that would be a nightmare. The other method is by way of the hard buttons and through the Boot Mode Selection Menu used in recovery mode or Fastboot. See the OP can still use the buttons, I felt that would be a manageable method.

The issue is that the cards are not erased if the reset is done through the touch screen unless you choose to wipe the cards, but the recovery method doesn't give you a chance to decide so I need to be sure its default is to NOT WIPE. Again, I'm still trying to confirm or deny.



Sent from my DROID RAZR using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

 

[Benjamin]

Thanks for the all the help guys, I really really appreciate it.

I definitely want to be careful with the reset, because I'm after photos that are stored on the internal memory card that have significant sentimental value and I'd really hate for them to get wiped away. So, thanks for taking the time to work out a solution and testing everything!

 

[syndicate0017]

If the reset is scaring you off, another option might be to get a card reader and a full-size SD adapter (insert your micro SD into it).

Edit: Of course this is assuming your files aren't on internal storage.

 

[FoxKat]

If the reset is scaring you off, another option might be to get a card reader and a full-size SD adapter (insert your micro SD into it).

Edit: Of course this is assuming your files aren't on internal storage.

Right, that was my assumption. I was working to recover the items on the internal SD card. This is what I read or interpreted from the OP.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

 

[lovemyram4x4]

Have you ever used web top or mirror mode over HDMI? If you have one set as default when HDMI is connected you can use another screen to see what your doing to transfer internal to external storage.

You could also try setting your new phone assuming it's also another Razr next to the old one to see where to touch the screen to make the transfer.

 

[FoxKat]

Have you ever used web top or mirror mode over HDMI? If you have one set as default when HDMI is connected you can use another screen to see what your doing to transfer internal to external storage.

You could also try setting your new phone assuming it's also another Razr next to the old one to see where to touch the screen to make the transfer.

Now those are some great ideas! Welcome to my team!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2