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Ask Slashdot: Preparing an Android Tablet For Resale?
UrsaMajor987 (3604759) writes I have a Asus Transformer tablet that I dropped on the floor. There is no obvious sign of damage but It will no longer boot. Good excuse to get a newer model. I intend to sell it for parts (it comes with an undamaged keyboard) or maybe just toss it. I want to remove all my personal data. I removed the flash memory card but what about the other storage? I know how to wipe a hard drive, but how do you wipe a tablet? If you were feeling especially paranoid, but wanted to keep the hardware intact for the next user, what would you do?
I don't see how the machine can be wiped if it will not boot. My advice is to pry it open and physically destroy the memory chips. It isn't worth selling.
It's the only way to be sure!
There is 2GB of memory for the OS, personal settings, apps, etc. If you can not boot the device, you can not access this memory to clear it. You may be SOL.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
The poster said it won't boot, so they're selling it for parts. Some of those parts might still have data, and must be identified physically. Storage is awful tiny these days, so unless you know what you're looking for, you could miss a long term cache.
How? It doesn't boot.
Wow. I mean, I don't read the articles often, but you didn't even read the summary. Slashdot commentators have reached a whole new level of laziness.
The tablet won't boot. How do you expect him to factory reset it?
may be easy to fix so you can wipe it or keep it.
But if you can't fix it do a office space beat down to it!
Do you get the ADB device to register if you plug it in to a PC via USB and turn it on? That would be your only hope to wiping it assuming the screen is damaged but the SoC/flash still works to some extent. Also, have you tried opening it up? A similar thing happened to my Nexus device, and after popping the back cover off it turns out that the drop caused the battery to slide to one side, and come unplugged. Relocating the battery, adding a little more double sided tape, and snapping it all back together had it good as new in under 5 minutes.
If you really want to sell it for parts, disassemble it and destroy the main circuit board, or at least grind or pry off the chips with nonvolatile storage.
Any general treatment (heat, overvoltage, etc.) will surely destroy the rest of the phone before you can be sure it's cleared the nonvolatile storage.
From TFS: "If you were feeling especially paranoid, but wanted to keep the hardware intact for the next user, what would you do? "
Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. But light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
If it won't boot and you can't erase the on-board flash then try:
1) Sell it for parts and hope someone does not fix it and access your data (use a sticky note to kindly ask them to erase it for you)
2) Dump it at your local E-waste center and hope some does not pick it up out of the pile (and see #1)
3) Microwave it to fry the chips and hope you don't burn down your house (please upload the video)
4) Use it for target practice (9mm or larger please, full auto would be best) and then crush it with a steam roller (once again, please upload the video)
5) To meet your non-destruct goal, if you have skills: unsolder the flash chips, erase them in a programmer, reinstall the blank chips.
Or as pointed out from before (but it's too late), encrypt your data from the start and reset the keys.
Since you can't power the device on, your only choice is to remove the logic board that has the flash memory on it. Then you can still sell the screen, cover, battery, etc.
I'd make it look like some newer, thinner, model by re-formatting the entire device with a hammer, until it's paper thin.
As an added benefit, your data will be protected somewhat also.
I would take it apart and fix it. Usually it's a plug or cable that comes undone or a chip pops off. Check the internal battery connection also! The board itself shouldn't actually break. If something needs to be re soldered a shop will do if for like 10 bucks. Even if the display doesn't boot the system will and you can connect in. Worst case you destroy the chips by hand... Fixing it if it's clear where it broke inside is usually faster.
if you're that paranoid about someone finding your naked pics, then dont sell it ! why would you even risk it for 50$ of parts ? even if it was 200$, is that more important than someone getting your personal information ?... i never sell old hard-drives or cell-phones, they get destroyed.
remove the battery, and throw it in a campfire.
"If you were feeling especially paranoid, but wanted to keep the hardware intact for the next user, what would you do?"
To me these are mutually exclusive. If I was feeling especially paranoid, I would probably hurl the thing into a cauldron of molten lava, because, you know, the definition of being especially paranoid is an intense fear of others invading our privacy or being out to get you.
Disposing of my tablet by giving it to another person is wholly incompatible with your premise of me feeling especially paranoid.
Try signing into https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager. If the only thing wrong is the screen you might be able to erase your data.
If it's just a screen connection issue, ADB/fastboot should be enough to wipe any internal storage good and hard.
If it's more broken than that, you'll have to go inside. If something has come loose that you can put back into place, you win. Otherwise, you can either pray for a friendly JTAG connection or physically destroy the flash chips.
The subject says it all.
Find the flash chip soldered to the board. Smash it. Smash it good!
Built-in storage is going to be an IC or two that are soldered to a PCB. If the device won't boot, the only really safe way to delete the data is to dismantle the unit and totally destroy the board and make sure all ICs are broken.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Just a quick note. You probably won't make much on the proceeds for a sale for parts. Used tablet parts don't fetch very much on the open market. If the tablet is non-working, there is no guarantee which parts work and which don't. Taking tablets apart is difficult and time-consuming, so there is a lot of labor involved. Also, due to the ways that tablets tend to be assembled (lots of epoxies and thin plastics), it is very easy to damage the parts during disassembly.
Kicking the tablet with his boots won't reset a factory, what are you talking about?
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If you were feeling especially paranoid, but wanted to keep the hardware intact for the next user, what would you do?
If you're worried about the data leaking out and you can't use the device, the options for a "especially paranoid" person are:
a) Ensure that it's acceptable for the next user to have the data.
b) Destroy the device to make data recovery impossible. An oxyacetylene torch should be reasonably effective and quick.
If you can't boot it, you can't delete the data stored on it. How difficult is that concept?
The only way you can clear it now is with a shotgun.
Same procedure if it does work. People say "encrypt then wipe" but how do you know what's going on behind the scenes when you do that? You don't. You assume it's doing what you want but you can't know that unless you go over the code. If you really care about security, destroy the device when you're done with it. Bash it good and grind the pieces to powder.
If you had file system encryption enabled, you're safe. "If you were feeling especially paranoid" you probably did have encryption enabled. If not and the tablet indeed can't be made to boot, then I think you're hosed.
Pro-Tip: Most security/privacy problems can be mitigated ahead of time, but only rarely after the fact.
From TFS: "If you were feeling especially paranoid, but wanted to keep the hardware intact for the next user, what would you do? "
Whoops! Guess I was wrong!
Oh wait, you left off part of TFS that completely proves you wrong. Here, I'll just add them back in.
I have a Asus Transformer tablet [...] It will no longer boot. [...] If you were feeling especially paranoid, but wanted to keep the hardware intact for the next user, what would you do?
Yes, the final question may not have been asked by the original person, but that does not matter. Within the context of TFS, we must assume that "will not boot" is still in play.
"But it says 'intact' you moron."
That just means no desoldering / putting a drillbit through components.
"Will no longer boot" does not go along with "no obvious sign of damage."
Truly awesome sig ..
Lookup the flashboot and adb commands from the ADK. Also download the adb driver from the vendor.
Look for the appropriate iFixit teardown page, then open it up! If the glass isn't obviously cracked, maybe something inside just came loose. You didn't say what model you have, but the first comment on the Asus Transformer Infinity TF700 teardown mentions an internal power switch next to the battery connector (step 15 picture 2), maybe that could have bumped itself off.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
If you dropped it and it no longer works, you're pretty much at an impasse.
You have three options: :)
1) open it and remove the parts you wish to sell, and then shred the PCB with the flash memory on it
2) open it, and unsolder the flash memory, then destroy just that.
3) willitblend. problem solved, but it won't have any resale value
Asus Tablets are notorious for fragility problems with their power connectors.
If this is what did your tablet in then it might be possible to repair it - either DIY or at a repair shop.
Alernatively, the digitizer could have cracked, if you have a spare (or if you know someone at a repair shop),
you could put it on temporarily and see if you could pull off the data. (or you could also just repair it)
Otherwise, at the level of miniaturization we now see on tablets, it is pretty much impossible
to desolder/resolder anything and expect it to work unless you have a major electronics lab.
Treat anything that is not socketed as all part of one indivisible component - the motherboard.
If that includes the memory, then you may as well crush it to be sure it's not retrievable.
If you want to be a little more environmentally conscious,
first identify the memory and crush that, then send the rest for recycling.
I was perusing the back-to-school sales in the Sunday papers and saw some new Android tablets listed for $59. I think they were the early 7" models 8GB and Android 4.2. I see such models even cheaper online.
Built-in storage is going to be an IC or two that are soldered to a PCB. If the device won't boot, the only really safe way to delete the data is to dismantle the unit and totally destroy the board and make sure all ICs are broken.
Bingo, give this man a cigar. With modern NVRAM the only way to be sure it's safe is to destroy it. Yes, really! So my advice to anyone parting with a personal electronic device is, "Pulverise it with a hammer on a concrete slab." Becuase the money you get back from its sale will not offset identity theft or whatever other havoc can be delivered from data left on the device in NVRAM. I still have ALL my old phones and other devices from the last twelve years and will eventually destroy them. Don't get on the recycle kick either. I know, there are some things in there that would be better recycled but any possible data on the device trumps environmental concerns. I don't go through a phone every year so it's not a lot of devices for me.
1) You won't Get dick for parts (unless you part it our yourself, and basically only the screens, battery and speakers are worth any cash)
2) The potential crook gets just about everything he would need to make your life a living hell in either ID theft or flat out harassment.
There are recycle depots that will shred the system board to verify secure data destruction. It might cost a little, but it's better than paying to monitor your credit score for a few years.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
Load up the Android dev environment, and plug in your "non-booting" android tablet. Not booting can mean many things:
- screen no longer connected(system booting, but screen display not working)
- screen displays and boot halts part way
- no boot, no screen, no heat, no life.
Suggestion:
* connect to the Android dev and see if the device shows up. If it does:
- backup data files.
- un-associate the device with your accounts(GooglePlus, Facebook, netflix, amazon, etc.)(not exhaustive list)
- filling all available space with a bulk file of zeros.
- reflash the firmware
- fill with zeros again, if you are paranoid
- reflash the firmware again
- sell the device.
If the device does not show up, then to ensure your data doesn't fall into the wrong hands, remove the onboard flash chip(s). Failing that, you are rolling the dice selling it unwiped, as someone will be able to recover data from it.
I've generally found that a factory reset in settings >> backup and restore still leaves a lot of personal cruft on Android devices, including photos and recordings (!). This is horribly designed. What I usually do is install ES File Explorer (free) and wipe the entire data partition on the internal SD without prejudice - I delete everything. Then do a system factory reset in settings (which wipes the system partition) and you should be pretty good to go. Note that I don't buy a non-rootable device, so this only applies to rooted units although this should work on any device.
Purchase better shoes with a sensible heel.
On newer tablets, one can run blkdiscard on the device or fstrim on the mounted filesystem. There are even rooted apps that do this on a scheduled basis.
I'd encrypt /data, factory reset, run fstrim on /data, the cache, and /system, repeat again, then flash a new ROM on the device. Not 100%, but barring a thief with a fab plant that can decap chips, the data will be gone.
However, tablets don't sell for much, especially broken ones, so I'd probably just destroy the motherboard (sans battery), and recycle everything else.
I'm pretty sure that the ADB commands will just do a low level format, they will not physically overwrite the sectors holding your personal data (which is difficult on Flash memory anyway).
IMO the only safe method is to use Android's device encryption, but of course it's too late for that once you can't access the tablet any more. I learned this the hard way (a dead Nexus 7 which I probably will end up physically destroying).
Interestingly, a few years ago I had an iOS device that got dropped in water and no longer functioned. I took it apart and pulverized the electronics, as I figured there was no way I could guarantee the data on there was inaccessible.
I took the baggie of pulverized parts to the local cell phone drop for recycling; got a few odd looks as I dropped it in.
Then I took the case backing (the bit with the serial number engraved into it) to Apple for a $50 store credit. The same credit they would have given me had I given them the entire device. That's probably as good a deal as I would have got from anywhere, even if I had kept everything intact.
The best part? I kept the LCD screen, as it still worked just fine.
Look for a youtube video on how to disassemble and reassemble. Unplug and re-plug the internal video cable and try booting again.
My advice is to destroy the part with the storage ICs, not the whole device which probably has totally functional parts which could be used to fix another broken device (casing, display, buttons, etc).
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Definitely my favorite internet quote! :D
Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. But light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
http://www.willitblend.com/vid...
It's too late now, but if this device had been encrypted before it was broken, you'd have a lot less to worry about.
OTOH, it's worth pointing out that if the level of effort required to find the storage on the broken device so you can wipe or destroy it is too much to bother with, it will almost certainly be too much effort for anyone to go through the same effort in order to retrieve your data, on the off chance there might be something of value in there somewhere.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
My experience is that most tablets and chrome books have horrid resell values. Take a hammer to it and, if you're concerned about dumpster divers, go drive it to your local landfill.
Fix it or have it fixed, the wipe the data and then sell it. You'll not only be able to clear your stuff out, but you'll get a lot more for a working device. If you're selling for parts, sorry to say you will only get about $25 USD for it.
I had an ASUS tablet that stopped working.
Turned out the battery is just stuck in with double-sided tape and it had moved enough for the connector to come loose.
Run a guitar pick around the outside of the screen to open it up and plug the battery back in!
If he records the beat down and monetizes it on YouTube, he'll probably make more money than trying to sell it for parts.
Considering the low cost for manufacturers to use a user removable microsd rather than flash soldered to the board, we all should request that personal digital devices have storage that can be removed and destroyed by an end user without engineering knowledge. Remove a cover, pop out the card, done. All you need in the onboard flash is a bootloader with recovery capabilities to reload the user flash.
You'll burn through more money in labor by opening up the device without damaging it further and yanking the proper chips than what you'll get for it in parts.
What people should do with old tablets and smartphones is smash them. I'm sure there are techniques to wipe a tablet, but do you really want to take that kind of risk with your personal data? Even one credit card number accidentally cached by a sloppily programmed app can cause you way more harm than the $25 you might get for parts. You may not be liable for fradulent charges, but you are liable for the hours on the phone, filling out paperwork, and the other hassles coming from having your credit card stolen.
When I dispose of hard drives, I smash the platters to bits. Doesn't take much longer than 1-2 minutes. I have yet to dispose of an Android device, but the same concepts would apply.
The small amount of dollars you'll get for it isn't worth the headaches you'll go through, wondering if you really did clear off all that data.
Take a blowtorch to it. Then a hammer. Then a liquidizer. Add a sprig of mint, some ice and whisk 'til smooth. Repeat. Then bury it in the canal.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
One step: Trash it. The Asus Transformer is worthless junk, and has been ever since Asus trashed it with a hopelessly bug-riddled Ice Cream Sandwich update that turned a useful tool into something that randomly rebooted multiple times a day, crashed interminably, and for many months until the bug was fixed (pretty much the only bug they *did* fix in their ICS release), often got stuck in a boot loop that would drain the battery -- sometimes to the point where the tablet couldn't even be charged back up.
Some of these issues were somewhat ameliorated by third-party firmware, but none was able to actually *fix* them because the bugs were in sections of code for which no source was ever provided. All they did was apply bandaid fix after bandaid fix on top of a gaping wound.
Asus provided essentially zero support for this nightmare, which they followed up by releasing another tablet whose hardware was so fundamentally flawed that the in-device GPS could never work, and in many cases the Bluetooth / Wi-Fi traces weren't even connected to their antennas. You buy Asus, you get what you deserve. You keep Asus, you keep a headache that belongs in a landfill somewhere. (Or better still, dumped in the CEO's driveway.)
the screen is the most likely component to fail in an impact. can you plug it into a TV via HDMI / MHL, or plug a USB device that will indicate if it's getting power? does it show up on your wifi network?
Check out this article in The Guardian 'Factory wipe' on Android phones left naked selfies and worse, study finds,
Really keep the thing for parts yourself. Or just keep it. You can't safely wipe it. Really. You can't. Though the chance of somebody actually harming you is small it is there. And if you have enough paranoia to ask this question then you will worry. Even years from now it will pop into your head at three AM unbidden and for no reason. Was that picture of me and Irma Plotnik really gone? Really really?
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
buy a case, glue it to the tablet in the form of a triangle, and sell it as a doorstop.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I mean seriously - the thing is not operational but still presents unknown security risk so why not blend it into oblivion / one can sell tickets for the show. This of course if one finds blender big enough to fit the piece in.
I have a project in mind that calls for exactly those parts; I want to hook up a raspberry pi to the keyboard and lcd. I'll dismantle the tablet and de-solder the flash and mail it back to you!
Emphasis mine.
The premise is that you already set up encrypted storage back when the device worked, so you already know that the time of the failure, that everything is encrypted and whoever buys it won't have the key.
"But that's just not true. I didn't think to encrypt it," you explain, to which I answer, "Then stop calling yourself paranoid."
If you suddenly went from not caring to paranoid, then the only thing to do with a device that you can't access but which contains plaintext secrets that a motivated person might be able to access, is to physically secure it. Keep it or destroy it, but you can't sell it.
No one is pawing through damaged consumer goods looking for Fetlife passwords, bro.
Difficulty vs. Reward. Most criminals with the technological skill needed to rip raw data off damaged memory are smart enough to actually look for devices from targets worth stealing from.
Meanwhile anyone can steal all this personally identifying information and more by sticking his noggin in that little box at the end of your driveway. Or just wait for you to hand your credit card through the McWindow.
That is what I don't understand about the previous replies. They make it sound like all the chips in a device store data.
Open the device, use Google to identify the storage chips and destroy those chips only, that still leaves 95% of the useful parts available for sale.
That is what I don't understand about the previous replies. They make it sound like all the chips in a device store data.
Open the device, use Google to identify the storage chips and destroy those chips only, that still leaves 95% of the useful parts available for sale.
I don't just give this advice to wireheads like ourselves. Everyone needs to understand that their data doesn't go away with a "wipe" of NVRAM and the only way to be sure it's not readable is to destroy the electronics. Most people aren't interested in piecing out their prior electronic devices anyway, so saving certain bits is really bad advice for most people. The best advice is to crack it open, smash anything that even remotely looks like a piece of logic or memory and dump the dust into the trash. I'm sorry, but I don't support the guerilla market for replacement cellphone parts. If you're too cheap to buy a new phone or replace a component through the manufacturer then you probably shouldn't be using the device anyway because you cannot financially support its maintenance and upkeep. Or, you should pay the little bit extra and get the drop/damage insurance.
just sell the damn thing and get on with life