A few weeks back I wrote about an application you could use to retrieve deleted files from a computer’s drive, SD Card, etc. This was really highlighted when I got an email from Tom in Harrisonburg, about his adventure with that application, Recuva.
It began with, "I took a deep breath, downloaded, installed and ran Recuva on my wife’s defunct mini-SDHC card from her phone…" Tom went on to tell me that Recuva fully recovered about 90%, over 600 photographs and eight videos. These had been taken on her phone and then the card failed. Now the grandkid photos were back.
He was so impressed he bought the Pro version. I like hearing good news from all of you, so let me know if you read something that helps you out.
Now a warning for all of you Android phone users. If you sell, give away or toss your phone/tablet in the trash there are two things you should do first. Number one is to remove your SD card if you have one installed. It may contain many things about your system, possibly pictures you have taken, downloaded files, sites you visit, etc. Next, you must perform a "factory reset" of your device.
FYI, here is the way to do a factory reset. Note: devices may vary slightly. Go to Settings, select Privacy and then "Factory data reset." You will get a big warning about setting your phone back to the way you got it out of the box when you bought it. It may give you the choice to also wipe your SD card. Choose, "OK" and it will be wiped clean.
Until recently I would say you are now safe to get rid of the phone/tablet. But new information has come to my attention. It is now known that some disreputable people have been known to get old phones and recover information. They run software like Recuva or other similar "rescue" apps and get a lot of information back from the erased system.
You think,"That is fine, my pictures are of me fully clothed unlike some recent celebrities." But what about your email username and password? Or you bank account login, a personal letter you wrote, your Dropbox account and on-and-on? Your personal data could be retrieved.
There is a safe way to get around this problem many geeks suggest implementing. You add one new procedure to your Android device before you execute the factory reset. Encrypt your device. Encryption basically scrambles your device’s data with a cryptographic key so that only you can access it with a great password. That way it cannot be accessed without that encryption key. You can do this on your device at any time; however, it has a couple of drawbacks. It can cause battery drain, it can also slow down your device and if you decide you do not like your phone encrypted it cannot be undone without a factory reset. That causes a loss of all data.
Look under Settings and then Security to encrypt your phone/tablet. Once encrypted you may then run a factory reset and if someone looks into recovering your data they end up with a recovered scrambled mess. Your information will be safe.
