[General Questions and Answers] Tadgh:
Well I posted this in general - but I didn't get a reply - and I'm really desperate.

When it comes to mobile platforms I'm more or less as green as they come - so forgive my ignorance regarding... Everything

I recently misplaced my beloved Nexus 4's flipcase. The day it went missing, I managed to stumble and drop my phone a distance onto tiles . It landed at such an awkward angle that the screen not only cracked but pretty much shattered - killing what I believe is known as the digitizer with it. It won't respond to touch.

Distraught I took up my dad's old Galaxy S3 - which was only cracked and a bit eaten (puppies). I went straight into using it and due to a demanding schedule I didn't have time to recover any of the data of the N4 - which I don't know how to do anyway. I quickly learn that I hate Touchwiz and the lack of personal details wakens me to how reliant I am on my phone.

So I set aside some time to get root - load a custom ROM (pa) - and transfer all my data from the N4 to the S3. The first difficulties appear when the S3 rejects towelroot. I install the towelroot apk from the official website and run it. Towelroot tells me it's currently an unsupported device. I google the model number (i9300) and apparently it works with Towelroot. Weird - I guess I'll do it manually.

So I install odin and download what I need and get the drivers for the S3 working and get root. It works without a hitch (I think until later ). Next I look into how to get a ROM on my phone. This happens: http://xdaforums.com/para...4/post54744770 (that's my post btw so it's the exact scenario). I will say that while I was going through this issue I tried many things to try and get rid of the error - I played with CWM a lot - tried to update it - updating failed with unknown errors. - I tried to flash my recovery - it couldn't flash my recovery. Earlier I had tried to install the CWM recovery on it's own from the play store (again - total noob) I only got related versions of CWM from 2011-2012. All of these problems were pretty confusing - and eventually due to the generic error about not being able to flash my recovery I had no idea how to proceed so I did as advised in the thread above and installed Flashify.

Flashify told me I had root, but that it couldn't get access to SuperSU - and to delete SuperSUs memory of Flashify. I went to SuperSU and SuperSU told me that it needed to update my binaries (I don't even know what my binaries are?!). I tell it it can go ahead and it just says "installation failed" so I install SuperUser to try and replace SuperSU - and delete SuperSU. And Flashify is clinging to the remains of SuperSU. Between my odd model identification (TowelRoot - Status 7 error) and my devices seeming lack of compatibility with.. Anything really (I imagine the two are related). I decide to clean slate it with a factory reset. Which I do from the CWM BIOS (?? Volume up + Home + Power?).

So of course unlike any phone I've ever worked with - a factory reset now means wipe my SIM. (Okay that was laziness and stupidity I should have taken it out first but allow me to grieve). As I should have predicted but didn't it wiped all my backups (foolishly saved onto the internal SD card) and leaves me in the fetal position on the ground making howling noises shedding tears onto the floor.

I can't afford a new phone - or to repair my old one. I need the data off my N4 - who's touchscreen doesn't work - which is problem number 1. And I would really rather not live with touchwiz, or have to do half the process again when I otherwise find the time to get rid of it, so I want to do that now but there are so many errors and I have no idea what I'm dealing with - which is problem number 2.

So please, if anyone can help me out with a)Getting the data off my N4 (it is properly set up as a mass media device) and b)Fixing this seemingly banjaxed S3 and getting pa onto it.

Any help would be really gratefully received. It's been an awful weekend - I also lost a hard drive with all my work and a lot of personal data on it to natural causes.

Thanks - I eagerly await my knight in shining armor.