iOS devices not booting past Apple logo

The instances I've heard about this happening, involved iOS devices which have been jail broken and require a connection to a computer upon being rebooted in order to work.

It's not something I've seen or experienced first hand, just been told about by a friend after some experimentation.

Krzys - Thanks for the link!

I am going to try the method (http//msftguy.blogspot.com/2010/07/data-recovery-not-just-for-iboot-pwned.html) on a currently working phone as I don't have a broken test phone.

I looks like this solution should work to fix devices that are not booting correctly.

Assuming that I can determine the correct firmware for the device then using the above method should restore the OS files and leave all the user data in tact?

If the device was Jailbroken and we carry out this procedure are we in effect deliberately loosing evidence as carrying this out will knowingly loose the JB and any JB apps that were installed? This could very easily alter the state of the data in quite a drastic way.

Krzys - Thanks for the link!

I am going to try the method (http//msftguy.blogspot.com/2010/07/data-recovery-not-just-for-iboot-pwned.html) on a currently working phone as I don't have a broken test phone.

I looks like this solution should work to fix devices that are not booting correctly.

Assuming that I can determine the correct firmware for the device then using the above method should restore the OS files and leave all the user data in tact?

If the device was Jailbroken and we carry out this procedure are we in effect deliberately loosing evidence as carrying this out will knowingly loose the JB and any JB apps that were installed? This could very easily alter the state of the data in quite a drastic way.

If you follow this procedure properly, you are not effectivelly jailbreaking or modifying the user partition, all you're doing is booting off a modified ramdisk and installing ssh into that leaving the user partition intact. From there while in SSH tethered via USB cable you can DD the user partition and follow with forensics tools. I suggest you read up on iPhone forensics before you proceed, especially zdziarski method which is essentially what you will be doing.

I suggest you read up on iPhone forensics before you proceed, especially zdziarski method which is essentially what you will be doing

I'm in the same situation with an exhibit where it won't boot past the boot logo. Its a 3GS iPhone. Once I let a custom firmware run to get some sort of sensability on the handset, I'd be inclined to opt for iXam to do a full dd, which shows to be a forensically sound method then Zdziarski method.