[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] Stealth22:
Ok, so, this is a two part question.

I've got a 32GB Nexus 7, and I'm having some issues with it. This tablet is completely stock. I haven't rooted it, I haven't unlocked the bootloader, installed a custom ROM or anything. All I've done with it was install OTA updates from Google, download some apps/games, and take some pictures.

About two days after I bought the thing and set it up, I got an error that said "System UIDs inconsistent" or something to that effect. I'd never seen it before, but a Google search revealed that the easiest way to fix it was to do a wipe/factory reset, so I did.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago...I'm from Canada, and while driving down to the States, I was bored, so I took out my shiny new Nexus 7, and turned it on. It was stuck at the 'X' screen, and wouldn't boot. I was frustrated, but because I was still in Canada, I was able to run a search on my phone. Factory reset. Ugh. So I did...once it finished, I used my data plan to download a few essential apps, and it was good to go.

Fast forward to today. I'm going to be returning home later today, but yesterday I decided to try out the GPS functions, because the TomTom GPS I've got isn't the greatest, and I much prefer Google Maps Navigation. A friend with a Nexus 4 was able to use the wifi where we were staying to get directions to various places, and then he'd shut off the wifi, and his N4 would still maintain the GPS signal and navigate him for the whole trip, even with no data, and for a lot of the time, no cell signal at all. I wanted to try the same with my N7, not knowing that many users are experiencing issues with the GPS.

So yesterday I was trying to use the Sygic GPS app, which apparently does offline navigation. And I guess because the N7 location capabilities are iffy right now, it wasn't working. So I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to reboot the tablet, thinking that would fix the GPS. This was after I had taken LOTS and LOTS of photos during the trip.

The tablet reboots, and gets stuck on the 'X' screen again. I was ready to bash my head through the car window at that point.

Long story short, the tablet doesn't boot. I'm a software developer for a living, so I had (keyword.. HAD) USB debugging turned on, but since I had to wipe the thing at the start of the trip, I never re-enabled USB debugging, but I don't recall if you actually have to or not...I'm assuming that it loses that setting when you wipe it.

So USB debugging, I can only assume, is not enabled. I can boot into recovery mode, but all I get is the Android icon with a red exclamation mark, and a message that says "No command". I know that you can press the power and volume up buttons to get the menu in recovery mode.

But what I was hoping to be able to do was use ADB to pull a full backup of the device, to at least salvage all the photos I took. I don't care about the apps, I can always reinstall those. I did not have a chance to set up an auto-sync (either Dropbox or Google+) of the photos, unfortunately.

I downloaded the Google USB drivers, and the Android Platform Tools (the wifi at this hotel sucks, so I didn't get the full SDK), and I'm using my brother's laptop, which is running Windows 8. I can get the tablet into recovery mode, and the laptop recognizes the tablet when I try to power it up, or when its in the fastboot menu.

But I can't get ADB to recognize the Nexus at all, it doesn't appear in adb devices whatsoever. And right now, the laptop doesn't seem to react when I plug the tablet in after booting into recovery mode. I also tried plugging in the USB cord, then booting into recovery mode, same thing.

I can only get ADB to recognize the tablet if I hit the "Apply update from ADB" option in the recovery menu. It shows up in adb devices, but it says "sideload" next to it, and if I try any other adb command (shell, backup, pull, etc) it just says "error: closed". I tried adb kill-server and adb start-server, then adb backup again, no dice.

I stayed up till 1AM last night fiddling with this thing, and I have a feeling that I might need to wait till I get home, or maybe when I get to work, as I believe I've got the full Android SDK installed there.

So, my two questions on this are...

1) What the hell am I doing wrong? Is there any way for me to recover the photos from the device? I'm sure that adb backup will work, if I could just get this damn laptop to recognize the device.

I've done quite a few Google searches already, and found a few results. I can't post links apparently, but there's a certain thread posted on StackExchange about how to perform a full backup of non-rooted Android devices. While it was helpful, I can't do that backup because this laptop won't recognize the tablet.

But I'm just spinning my wheels here, and could really use some help. Are there different drivers I should be using? Is there a way to run ADB from the bootloader rather than recovery mode? How do I get Device Manager (Windows) to even recognize the tablet when its in recovery mode?

2) So this will be the third time (after I get these photos recovered, hopefully) that I'll be doing a wipe on this tablet. I've got a two year replacement warranty on it. Should I be taking it back for a new one? Would it be a bad app thats causing these issues? Most of the apps I have are "official" ones anyway, aside from a couple of games, but they're all popular ones. After the wipe, should I re-flash it with Google's latest stock ROM?

Thanks in advance!!