Motorola XT901 won't boot, need data

[Kirby]

I'm not sure if anyone here can help with this, but I figured it was worth a shot. I have a customer with a Motorola XT901 phone which locks at the boot logo, but I can get into all the various menus and alternative boot options. Is there a way to get it into any of these menus and then see the photos stored on the internal memory from a USB connection to the computer? I've tried various driver packages, but still have some unidentified hardware and no driver letter shows up on the computer.

 

[TAPtech]

you may be able to using adb.... do a google search for android adb and you'll have some reading to do. Otherwise if you can get your hands on the same or later firmware image, you can probably just flash that using recovery.

 

[Kirby]

you may be able to using adb.... do a google search for android adb and you'll have some reading to do. Otherwise if you can get your hands on the same or later firmware image, you can probably just flash that using recovery.

Yeah, I've booted to the adb (couldn't remember the name before you mentioned it), but no luck with a drive showing up. As I said, I got some of the drivers installed, but several show up not recognized and no drive letter shows up.

I don't know a whole lot about phones. Can you give me a general idea what might happen to get it working? For instance, if I find the right drivers and boot to adb, will a drive letter show up? Or is there maybe some software I need to run to "talk to" the phone? I've already done a lot of looking for this but, frankly, I just don't know enough about phones to decipher it all. Some really general "this is how you might get to the files after booting to adb" would be handy. And I do mean really general. Does a drive letter show up? Is there a command line utility and what would it be called? That sort of thing. I just need a general springboard at this point so I even know what to Google for.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Can you get to fastboot on the phone?

 

[Kirby]

It's something I work on in between my "real" work. There are 2 different menus I can get to. I have tried clearing some cache (or something along those lines. My memory is horrible). I don't even remember how I get to the menus, but it's something to do with Power and Volume simultaneously. I remember that if I can get to the little dead android guy, from there I can make it come up to the other menu. I can, if I recall, do anything on it except get it to boot. It freezes at the Motorola logo, but the animation may keep going. It has been over a month since I've tried anything with it.

So, short answer, yes, I believe I can. The term sounds vaguely familiar, anyway. Is it a "Fastboot menu", I think? I know just about zero about phones.

 

[nlinecomputers]

If you have cleared caches then you probably already ruined any chance at getting data off of it.

 

[Kirby]

It didn't seem like that would be the case in the instructions I found. It was one of the things to do to try to get it to boot. Normally when I think "cache" I don't think "permanently stored data". But like I said, I don't know phones at all,

 

[nlinecomputers]

You'll have better luck posting your questions here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-razr-m

 

[Kirby]

Yeah, I remember looking there and I think I actually posted the question but got nothing. I've already given up, just a last-ditch effort.

 

[labtech]

Depending on the type of storage chipware, may be able to recover the files with a "chip off" approach. It will likely be fairly difficult to assemble the logical structure, but a flash specialist cannot know until dumping an image of the chip and studying the layout.

If the data is important, please send private message. It will be a few hundred for sure.

 

[Kirby]

It's just pictures of his daughter that he doesn't have anywhere else. I appreciate the offer, though.

 

[GTP]

Have you thought about calling the manufacturer and ask them?

 

[TAPtech]

if you just wiped the dalvik cache then you shouldn't have lost any data. I would suggest finding a compatible version of TWRP and flash that to your recovery image. You can do this using fastboot and adb with a windows computer. Once you get the recovery flashed, boot to recovery and plug it into your windows computer. You should be able to browse the contents of the phone storage with TWRP recovery.

 

[Kirby]

Thanks for the help. I don't know that I'll go through flashing the image. I've rooted a phone a couple of times, but not for years. The customer would like the photos, but won't go nuts and kill everyone if he doesn't get them. It's a lot to learn again to make a few bucks.