[Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lacostej:
Hello,

my i9300 has been rebooting strangely in the past days, and this morning was stuck in boot loop. Unfortunately I didn't get to backup the last pictures I took. I am trying to find a way to get access to the data it might still hold.

I can enter recovery mode (works but sometimes requires several attemps). Once there it cannot read system partitions (and thus can't wipe cache).

I tried to remove battery / sdcard, hold power button for a long time, hold it with home + up as well

More info:

* kernel has some issues to access the root system

$ dmesg | grep mmc
<5>[ 0.000000] c0 Kernel command line: console=ram loglevel=4 bootmode=2 sec_debug.level=0 sec_watchdog.sec_pet=5 androidboot.debug_level=0x4f4c sec_log=0x100000@0x46000000 s3cfb.bootloaderfb=0x5ec00000 sysscope=0xff000000 lcdtype=96 consoleblank=0 lpcharge=0 lpj=3981312 vmalloc=144m oops=panic pmic_info=65 cordon=80682fa972fd0742b08c3ec03dbe74be connie=GT-I9300_OPEN_EUR_ca5a0240c80b887511e34b14c9d00c16 androidboot.emmc_checksum=3 androidboot.odin_download=1 androidboot.bootloader=I9300XXUGND5 androidboot.serialno=4df1dd821ee57fd9 snd_soc_core.pmdown_time=1000
<6>[ 1.741101] c2 dw_mmc dw_mmc: clock source 0: sclk_dwmci (40000000 Hz)
<3>[ 1.741379] c2 mmc0: Version ID 0x5342240a.
<6>[ 1.741630] c2 mmc0: FIFO WMARK FOR RX 0x80 WX 0x40. ###########
<6>[ 1.742124] c2 mmc0: MSHCI controller on samsung-mshci [dw_mmc] using IDMA
<6>[ 1.742616] c2 s3c-sdhci s3c-sdhci.2: clock source 2: sclk_mmc (88888888 Hz)
<6>[ 1.742906] c2 mmc1: vtf_2.8v regulator found
<3>[ 1.770850] c0 mmc0: cmd 52 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.771702] c0 mmc0: cmd 52 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.775742] c0 mmc0: cmd 8 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.776591] c0 mmc0: cmd 5 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.777420] c0 mmc0: cmd 5 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.778246] c0 mmc0: cmd 5 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.779073] c0 mmc0: cmd 5 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.779920] c0 mmc0: cmd 55 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.780767] c0 mmc0: cmd 55 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.781613] c0 mmc0: cmd 55 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.782463] c0 mmc0: cmd 55 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.801773] c1 mmc0: PERM_WRITE_PROTECT was set.
<6>[ 1.801805] c1 mmc0: VTU00M: 15010056545530304df1dd821ee57fd9
<7>[ 1.848333] c0 Registered led device: mmc1::
<6>[ 1.848801] c0 mmc1: SDHCI controller on samsung-hsmmc [s3c-sdhci.2] using ADMA
<6>[ 1.849085] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 1.849225] c0 s3c-sdhci s3c-sdhci.3: clock source 2: sclk_mmc (8888888 Hz)
<3>[ 1.849340] c0 mmc2: no vmmc regulator found
<7>[ 1.849600] c0 Registered led device: mmc2::
<6>[ 1.849898] c0 mmc2: SDHCI controller on samsung-hsmmc [s3c-sdhci.3] using ADMA
<3>[ 1.883922] c0 mmc0: cmd 13 response timeout error
<6>[ 1.885069] c0 mmc0 : disable PON feature : ffffff92 : 00(0e) : 00000000
<3>[ 1.885909] c0 mmc0: cmd 6 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.887775] c0 mmc0: cmd 6 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.889637] c0 mmc0: cmd 6 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.891500] c0 mmc0: cmd 6 response timeout error
<3>[ 1.892612] c0 mmc0: error -110 whilst initialising MMC card
<6>[ 1.920360] c0 mmc1: cmd 52 command timeout error
<6>[ 1.920726] c0 mmc1: cmd 52 command timeout error
<6>[ 1.924597] c0 mmc1: cmd 5 command timeout error
<6>[ 1.924932] c0 mmc1: cmd 5 command timeout error
<6>[ 1.925265] c0 mmc1: cmd 5 command timeout error
<6>[ 1.925601] c0 mmc1: cmd 5 command timeout error
<6>[ 2.149524] c0 mmc1: new high speed SDHC card at address aaaa
<6>[ 2.150146] c0 mmcblk0: mmc1:aaaa SU32G 29.7 GiB
<6>[ 2.151639] c0 mmcblk0: p1

* note that there are errors for both internal and external cards, but if I remove/readd the external card while booted:

<6>[ 554.482789] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 554.483031] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 554.484051] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 554.484199] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 554.484371] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 554.484487] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 554.680618] c0 mmc1: card aaaa removed
<6>[ 554.701931] c0 sdhci_set_ios : MMC Card OFF samsung-hsmmc
<6>[ 555.482722] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.482883] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 555.483037] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.483154] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 555.483279] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.483414] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 555.483529] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.483649] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.483772] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 555.483891] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.485434] c0 mmc1: card removed.
<6>[ 555.485614] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.486618] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.486961] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.487101] c0 mmc1: card inserted.
<6>[ 555.681309] c0 sdhci_set_ios : MMC Card ON samsung-hsmmc
<6>[ 555.710511] c0 mmc1: cmd 52 command timeout error
<6>[ 555.711030] c0 mmc1: cmd 52 command timeout error
<6>[ 555.715224] c0 mmc1: cmd 5 command timeout error
<6>[ 555.715679] c0 mmc1: cmd 5 command timeout error
<6>[ 555.716136] c0 mmc1: cmd 5 command timeout error
<6>[ 555.716587] c0 mmc1: cmd 5 command timeout error
<6>[ 555.915431] c3 mmc1: new high speed SDHC card at address aaaa
<6>[ 555.918560] c3 mmcblk0: mmc1:aaaa SU32G 29.7 GiB
<6>[ 555.923272] c3 mmcblk0: p1
<7>[ 557.842034] c3 SELinux: initialized (dev mmcblk0p1, type vfat), uses genfs_contexts
~ # df -k
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 425992 136 425856 0% /dev
tmpfs 425992 8 425984 0% /tmp
tmpfs 425992 0 425992 0% /storage
tmpfs 425992 0 425992 0% /mnt/secure
tmpfs 425992 0 425992 0% /mnt/fuse
/dev/block/vold/179:1
31154688 29870720 1283968 96% /storage/sdcard1

What are my options ?

* I've seen some people using JTAG software tools and soldering to reset the eMMC. E.g. http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f60...n7100-without-removing-emmc-pictures-1945278/ Are there a combination of these operations that might allow me to read without destroying the data ? I also read http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-note-2/help/to-recover-data-corrupted-emmc-t3292290/page2 but was not 100% sure of how to use that.

* are there some soft solutions I should try before I do this ? Maybe reflashing recovery software? Some magic combinations I don't know ?

The phone has

* CWR v6.0.4.6

* BlissPop 3.6 (if I recall long time since I set it up it.)

Thanks anyone for their help.