Database Info

[Q] Odd internal memory setup ?

I have a question about my new T-Mobile G2x 2.2.2
I have a 16 gig sdCard (formatted as NTFS) The phone see's the sdCard fine as a 16 gig card. My question(s) are:
1) Is it ok to format the sdCard as NTFS or should I use Fat32 with multi-partitions instead ?
2) My phone seems to be installing apps and games to its internal memory, even tho I am telling it to install to my sdCard. When I run the program called App2SD which allows you to move your apps from the internal phone memory to the installed sdCard, it is showing me that I have 3 storage locations !
#1 - Main internal phone memory with 1.46 GB's
#2 - sdCard with 5.45 GB's ??
#3 - My real sdCard with 16 GB's
It is installing everything to that #2 internal (fake) sdCard.
I know the phone has like 6 GiGs internal doesn't it ? so why is it splitting it into main memory and some type of sdCard ??
I only want it to have the main phone memory and my REAL sdCard of 16 GB's.
Ok I know I am making this more confusing than it is, but I think you all understand what I am asking :O)
What is wrong here ??
Thanks so much!
John
.

It's just the way the phone is partitioned. Not much you can do about it unless you either root or install a cm7-based rom.
Even if you root, the solution isn't perfect and it breaks USB mass storage mounting to your computer.

phburks said:
It's just the way the phone is partitioned. Not much you can do about it unless you either root or install a cm7-based rom.
Even if you root, the solution isn't perfect and it breaks USB mass storage mounting to your computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I didnt make it clear. My phone is rooted and NvFlashed CWM 5.x
So what are my options now ? Also, what is USB mass storage ? I see it in the settings, but not sure what it is.
Thanks

Thibor69 said:
Sorry I didnt make it clear. My phone is rooted and NvFlashed CWM 5.x
So what are my options now ? Also, what is USB mass storage ? I see it in the settings, but not sure what it is.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About the best you can do is to swap the mount points of your internal "sdcard" and your actual removable sdcard. You do this by editing the /system/etc/vold.fstab file. You can't rename the mount points to anything other than what they already are (/mnt/sdcard and /mnt/sdcard/_ExternalSD) but you can swap them. So then your removable sdcard will be /mnt/sdcard and your internal "sdcard" will be /mnt/sdcard/_ExternalSD. Its not exactly accurate but at least all of your partitions are usable and your removable sdcard is used as your actual sdcard.
As for it breaking usb mass storage, when you plug your phone into your computer via USB it gives you a notification on your phone that says USB Connected. Normally if you select Mount then your sdcard is mounted to your computer and so you can browse the files on it. With the stock rom if you change the mount points of the SD cards then it won't mount your sdcards to your computer.

Ok I understand. I just dont get why this is like this. I mean I buy a 16 gig sdcard, but I can not install anything larger then 5 gigs on this phone since it doesnt install or allow me to move install to a real sdcard. What good is a phone with only 5 gigs of installable memory ??? Am I missing something ?
All my other phones, you install a sdcard and you get full access to it for installs and storage !
: /

Thibor69 said:
Ok I understand. I just dont get why this is like this. I mean I buy a 16 gig sdcard, but I can not install anything larger then 5 gigs on this phone since it doesnt install or allow me to move install to a real sdcard. What good is a phone with only 5 gigs of installable memory ??? Am I missing something ?
All my other phones, you install a sdcard and you get full access to it for installs and storage !
: /
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm totally in agreement. The edit above will allow you to install to your micro sdcard. Your other option is to install cm7 or a cm7-based rom since they utilize the external sdcard properly.

phburks said:
I'm totally in agreement. The edit above will allow you to install to your micro sdcard. Your other option is to install cm7 or a cm7-based rom since they utilize the external sdcard properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, well I just installed [ROM][Gingerbread 2.3.3] Weapon G2x 2.6 [Better Ram Management!][9.30.2011] .... but since I have the same issue I assume it must not be a CM7-based rom. May I ask what rom you use or recommend please ?
Thanks again !

Thibor69 said:
Ok, well I just installed [ROM][Gingerbread 2.3.3] Weapon G2x 2.6 [Better Ram Management!][9.30.2011] .... but since I have the same issue I assume it must not be a CM7-based rom. May I ask what rom you use or recommend please ?
Thanks again !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's correct. Weapon is based on stock 2.3.3. I personally switch between cm7 (recent nigjtlies releases) and Ultimate G2X (its based on 2.2.2). With Ultimate I have my sdcard mount points edited so my external card is my main sdcard.

phburks said:
That's correct. Weapon is based on stock 2.3.3. I personally switch between cm7 (recent nigjtlies releases) and Ultimate G2X (its based on 2.2.2). With Ultimate I have my sdcard mount points edited so my external card is my main sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok ... so with Ultimate ROM I can edit the vold.fstab and all should be good ?

Faux's Nexus AOSP rom is damn near perfect and uses the external sd card perfecty for what your wanting. I too think whoever decided to partition the internal storage that way is a complete idiot! I just use that internal sdcard for my mp3 and movie files and store backups and roms/kernels on my external along with installed apps/games to my ext partition using link2sd.

Thibor69 said:
Ok ... so with Ultimate ROM I can edit the vold.fstab and all should be good ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I do but it might be a more hassle-free solution to try a cm7-based rom or, as suggested, Fauxs aosp rom.

[TWEAK][MOD][FIX][CM7] sdcard Switcharoo!

CyanogenMod 7 sdcard Switcharoo tweak/mod/fix!
When i first got CM7 on my Infuse I immediately came across an annoying problem (at least for me). Like all AT&T customers, my phone came with an external SD card with 2gb of storage and the phone itself has 16gb of internal storage. So i noticed that by default, my 2gb external sdcard was the mnt/sdcard directory that all my apps use and mnt\emmc was my internal 16gb. For me that sucked because all my Titanium Backups were in my internal sdcard and I coudnt move it to my external because of memory insufficiency. So i decided i would mod the ROM to switch these sdcard directories and have 16gb instead of 2gb in my mnt\sdcard directory.
So, to make this simpler for me and you, suppose:
----------------------------
Internal sdcard (16gb) = A
External sdcard (2gb) = B
----------------------------
A is by default in mnt\emmc
B is by default in mnt\sdcard
----------------------------
The problem with the above statements is that 2gb is not enough to make it my default sdcard. Apps like Titanium Backup, Dropbox, Camera and tons of others (like games) always store things in mnt\sdcard and they can rarely be configured to store elsewhere (at least to my knowledge).
So to solve the problem i edited the mnt\system\etc\vold.fstab file. This file just contains some random gibberish about where the sdcards mount to. So i switched the mounting directories of the two sdcards A and B. So far all i had to do is copy over the apps stored in my external to the new external mount (mnt\emmc).
So in short the only thing this changes is: (the before and after pic)
Before:
mnt\emmc is internal 16gb
mnt\sdcard is external 2gb
After:
mnt\emmc is external 2gb
mnt\sdcard is internal 16gb
Now, if lets say you had your apps stored in A and used my tweak. You would have to copy your apps over to B because thats the new A. Confusing i know...im trying. lol
So here is the procedure:
0. Download the attachment below and unzip it in your phone somewhere
1. Make sure you have root explorer or similar app
2. Using your explorer app mount mnt\system\ R/W
3. Navigate to vold.fstab file in mnt\system\etc
4. Rename the file to vold.fstab.bak (to keep it backed up)
5. Now find the directory where you downloaded and put my new vold.fstab file
6. Copy my new vold.fstab file to mnt\system\etc and paste
7. Reboot phone.
If you encounter difficulties, then undo the process by first deleting my modded vold.fstab and then renaming your old vold.fstab.bak to vold.fstab and then rebooting.
Also, Keep in mind that this is for CM7 users. Don't use it if you don't know what CM7 is or don't use CM7 port. Cheers, hope this helps someone.

A much easier solution:
Go to Settings -> CyanogenMod settings -> Application
Uncheck "Use internal storage"
Reboot.

PVD04 said:
A much easier solution:
Go to Settings -> CyanogenMod settings -> Application
Uncheck "Use internal storage"
Reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, i understand what you are saying. But you, like others dont get what im after. i dont care where my apps go. i want my mnt\sdcard to be 16gb not 2gb. end of story.

Mohammad_Adib said:
No, i understand what you are saying. But you, like others dont get what im after. i dont care where my apps go. i want my mnt\sdcard to be 16gb not 2gb. end of story.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand exactly what you are after. Unchecking "Use internal storage" mounts the internal storage as mnt\sdcard. There is no reason to do it any other way.

My /mnt/sdcard is the internal memory and my 4GB microsd is my external storage been like that from stock and I have all of my important stuff on the external for obvious reasons. Don't know why you would need this am I missing something?
Infused with Android DNA

PVD04 said:
I understand exactly what you are after. Unchecking "Use internal storage" mounts the internal storage as mnt\sdcard. There is no reason to do it any other way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly right - unchecking internal storage does exactly what your tweak does.

I have a 16 gig SD internal and external and I prefer using external which is default, when my phone had to be redone due to bad flash, I loss everything on my internal. Even if I checked something wrong it still feels safer using external last I checked 16gig cards are like 25 bux. I want 32gig next. Sounds to me like a poor attempt to get status here. Try on a group less educated then xda. I feel offended by this trick.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

This might be useless for CM7 users but what about MIUI users, don't CM7 and MIUI use the same kernel?
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

i just got a 16gb external card to replace the OEM supplied 2gb sdcard.
Also Titanium allows you to change the backup folder location.

Cool. thanks for telling me. but that never worked for me. so this did and i dont care how u guys do it as long as the results are the same.

I thought that emmc was the external memory card? Because I have a 16 GB external and CM7 reads it as EMMC
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium

Cm7 switchs external and internal so it is like every phone since not all phones have 16gb internal. I don't really use internal.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

[Q] G2X, cant mount sdcard on cm7

Hi,
I have a g2x and i recently rooted it using superoneclick and i tried to back up using nvflash
however when i boot into recovery and try to install a zip or do anything with an sdcard, it says cant mount sdcard.
i ended up installing cyanogenmod 7 using rom manager.
but at the moment i cant do anything that involves using the sdcard because it cant mount.
any ideas on how to fix this?
thanks in advance

When you're in recovery, have you simply tried taking out the memory card then putting it back in?
Sometimes the simplest solutions work. It used to not mount my sd card too and just popping it out and back in made it read it.

buru898 said:
When you're in recovery, have you simply tried taking out the memory card then putting it back in?
Sometimes the simplest solutions work. It used to not mount my sd card too and just popping it out and back in made it read it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks ill try it and let you know but how come nothing ever gets loaded onto the phones internal sdcard I still have the 5 gigs that I initially had and nothing is ever loaded onto it including the apps I download, any way I can change this?

EgyptianBoi said:
Thanks ill try it and let you know but how come nothing ever gets loaded onto the phones internal sdcard I still have the 5 gigs that I initially had and nothing is ever loaded onto it including the apps I download, any way I can change this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the way they memory is partitioned. ~3 GB for the System and Apps, 5GB for other stuff. There's a workaround/fix for CM7 in the development forum (atleast I think there was) but I don't know if it works anymore.

Jufjufjuf said:
It's the way they memory is partitioned. ~3 GB for the System and Apps, 5GB for other stuff. There's a workaround/fix for CM7 in the development forum (atleast I think there was) but I don't know if it works anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right now if I go to storage in settings I have my SD card then I have internal storage with 1.48 gigs and then I have additional storage /mnt/emmc which has 5.21 gigs. At the moment apps installed from the android market go to the internal storage and apps online go to the SD card but I can move them to the internal memory. It seems that at the moment the one place with the most memory can't be used so I'm guessing thats the partition your talking about
o there's no way of changing this partition?
And can you give me the link to that? Thanks

Yaay got the SD card working in recovery it worked taking it out and putting it in again

EgyptianBoi said:
Right now if I go to storage in settings I have my SD card then I have internal storage with 1.48 gigs and then I have additional storage /mnt/emmc which has 5.21 gigs. At the moment apps installed from the android market go to the internal storage and apps online go to the SD card but I can move them to the internal memory. It seems that at the moment the one place with the most memory can't be used so I'm guessing thats the partition your talking about
o there's no way of changing this partition?
And can you give me the link to that? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, I don't believe it can be used (natively for apps atleast, you can always move media and files there). Unless you mount that internal partition to be the external SD card and do a Move to SD on the apps (both are settings in Android/CM7 somewhere) there's not much else you can do. The problem is that some apps don't work on the SD, of course you could keep those on the system partition.
Sorry if my replies are starting to get confusing, it's late here.

I use link2sd which creates a mount point script that uses the extra partition on external sdcard. I used minitool partitioned to create a 10gb ext4 on my 32gb class 10( I'm an app junkie lol). Most if not all apps/games moved with link2sd work flawlessly, I'm happy with it
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Jufjufjuf said:
You're right, I don't believe it can be used (natively for apps atleast, you can always move media and files there). Unless you mount that internal partition to be the external SD card and do a Move to SD on the apps (both are settings in Android/CM7 somewhere) there's not much else you can do. The problem is that some apps don't work on the SD, of course you could keep those on the system partition.
Sorry if my replies are starting to get confusing, it's late here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks i think i managed to get it! i found the settings i think you're talking about in the cyanogenmod settings and managed to switch the sdcard and additional storage. now the 5 gigs appears as the sdcard and the actual external microsd appears as the additional storage
i guess thats the best im gonna get
thanks a lot!!

d12unk13astard said:
I use link2sd which creates a mount point script that uses the extra partition on external sdcard. I used minitool partitioned to create a 10gb ext4 on my 32gb class 10( I'm an app junkie lol). Most if not all apps/games moved with link2sd work flawlessly, I'm happy with it
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks ill try it and see how it workds

d12unk13astard said:
I use link2sd which creates a mount point script that uses the extra partition on external sdcard. I used minitool partitioned to create a 10gb ext4 on my 32gb class 10( I'm an app junkie lol). Most if not all apps/games moved with link2sd work flawlessly, I'm happy with it
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jufjufjuf said:
You're right, I don't believe it can be used (natively for apps atleast, you can always move media and files there). Unless you mount that internal partition to be the external SD card and do a Move to SD on the apps (both are settings in Android/CM7 somewhere) there's not much else you can do. The problem is that some apps don't work on the SD, of course you could keep those on the system partition.
Sorry if my replies are starting to get confusing, it's late here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ya i thought i had everything working but now for some reason, my phone says it cant mount the system. any ideas why?

[Q] What's the deal with the SD Card Mount (NOT) issue on MIUI ROM?

Why is it not working right?
I mean - when i open Gallery or anything that needs the SD card, I get an error message, as if I don't have an SD CARD.
Can't install my new Keyboard (it looks for an SD Card). Can't take pictures. All my data is not recognized by this rom (wallpapers, pics I took with my older rom, and so on).
I don't have or ever use an external SD card! But I never had this issue (although it happened with CM7 once as well, but I don't remember how I fixed it(
HELP. Please! I love this ROM and would like to keep it (MIUI)

ANYONE ???

Miui and cm7 rely on external not internal SEARCH around for the swap of sdcard mount points it has been discussed often enough to find easily.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

mt3g said:
Miui and cm7 rely on external not internal SEARCH around for the swap of sdcard mount points it has been discussed often enough to find easily.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your response!!!
I have found this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1144553&highlight=swap+sdcard+mount+points
1. Althoug I am not sure if I what I am suppose to choose is to make Internal Secondary or to make External Secondary???
2. Also, I have NO IDEA what the poster means when he says this:
"Instructions after flashing!
Create a folder called "_InternalSD" or "_ExternalSD" on the root of your SD Card. Fixed double underscore made it 1 now so its _InternalSD the same goes for _ExternalSD version"
Sorry, I am retarded when it comes to this

you want to make external secondary...
and the root of your sdcard means "not in any folders".

Does anyone still have the file that makes external secondary (for miui) ?
The download link is broken :/

Solved! How to swap the internal and external SD cards so apps install externally

If you are like me and bought the 16GB version of our beloved SG3, thinking you could always move apps to the external sd card, then this mod is for you. It swaps the internal and external sd cards so apps install on your external card, because your phone is fooled into thinking the external card is the internal card.
I suggest that if you are going to do this, you should probably do it right after installing a new ROM, and before you install any apps. That way everything will get installed onto the external SD card.
I didn't invent this, Zedomax adapted in from mattiadj. But most people haven't been able to get it fully working, probably due to variations in the init.d function of various ROMS. They'd be able to see the External SD card as the internal SD, but the internal SD would disappear. This method avoids using init.d, and instead uses the app Script Manager to load the script on boot.
After much fooling around, I figured out how to do it so the External SD card and the internal cards are swapped, but you can see both with any file Explorer. I got it working on CleanROM 2.0, but it should work on Beans 10 as well.
Here's how to do it: Warning, if you do not understand the following instructions, or don’t have experience doing these things, you probably don’t want to do this hack. I am not responsible if you a) brick your phone, b) delete your data, or c) get very frustrated. That being said, the most likely failure will be that you only see the one card (the External card).
Back everything up that you care about first!!!!
1. First, I'd recommend making a Nandroid backup of your phone.
2. Next, just to be extra safe, I would backup your internal SD card to your PC. While you are doing that, if you have data on the external SD card, back that up too.
3. Next, I would format your external SD card to fat 32. (You could probably use Ext format too, but I didn’t test that.)If you already have it in that format, and have content on it, this won't affect the content, but back it up just to be safe. It’s probably better to have the Ext SD blank to begin with, you can always copy back its content from your pc.
4. Next copy the contents of the internal SD to the External SD card. This is to avoid confusion about apps and such.
5. Next install script manager free from the play store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...anager&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
It will show up on your phone as S manager ads.
6. Download the mod from here: http://downloadandroidrom.com/file/...ternalsd_gs3_fat32orextfat_US_ZEDOMAXv0.2.zip
7. You’ll see a folder called: 11extsd2internalsd_gs3_fat32orextfat_US_ZEDOMAXv0.2.zip
You need to unzip the folder, then go to System/etc/init.d and copy the 11extsd2internalsd file from there to your phone. Put it into the /data directory. Use Root Explorer, and your phone will need to be rooted.
(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/11ext file in data directory.png)
Or you can get just the 11extsd2internalsd file here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/11extsd2internalsd
8. Using Root Explorer, navigate to that file in the /data directory. Press and hold the file name until the menu pops up, and click on permissions.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/Permissions.png
(Unix geeks set them to 777, and everyone else copy the picture below. Click OK.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/Permission settings 777.png
9. Open the script manager app, and select Browse as Root in the config screen. Tell it to remember this setting.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/Script manager browse as root and save.png
10. Navigate to the /data directory and choose the 11extsd2internalsd file that is located in /data and click on it. Click on the “Is script” button.
11. Now tap on the buttons that say Su, Boot, and Save. The file name will come up in yellow after the save.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/Script manager setting after save.png
12. Reboot your phone and you should see the swap working and be able to access both internal and external SD cards. The external card will show up as sdcard, and the internal card will show up as extSDCard. Your apps should now install to the external card, since your phone will think it's the internal card. Is that confusing? It was to me too!
Good luck and please share your experiences specifying which ROM you used, so that others can avoid frustration.
Thank you’s always appreciated.

Wonder if this works on asop roms as well.
Please excuse my Galaxy S III, it's a bit Paranoid.

On my X2, this same mod was done via a flashable zip...not sure how it worked, but it was worked perfectly. At some point the roms incorporated the flip flop as part of the Rom. I like the feature because I wouldnt need to move certain app data to my external sd card. Also, I wouldn't have to show tibu where to look for my backups.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

Clienterror said:
Wonder if this works on asop roms as well.
Please excuse my Galaxy S III, it's a bit Paranoid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the consensus on this? Can this mod as posted above be applied to AOSP/CM9/CM10?

Just flashed this on aokp and both sdcard and external_sd are my physical sd card. The internal card is not showing.
Op, can we get an cm10 ver?

Did a little playing around. Below seems to work on cm10 aokp. Can op confirm this is good?
mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/block/vold/179:97 /storage/sdcard0
mount -o bind /data/media /storage/sdcard1

maniac2k said:
Just flashed this on aokp and both sdcard and external_sd are my physical sd card. The internal card is not showing.
Op, can we get an cm10 ver?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you actually flashing it, or using the Script Manager? As far as I know, only the Script Manager approach works.

maniac2k said:
Did a little playing around. Below seems to work on cm10 aokp. Can op confirm this is good?
mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/block/vold/179:97 /storage/sdcard0
mount -o bind /data/media /storage/sdcard1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, but take a look at the code from 11ext2internalsd file. If it works, and you can see both sd cards, then you've nailed it.

Yeah sorry, im running the script apk. It seems to work. I just dont understand the exacts of the vold/179:97 or if it should be vold/197:96?
When i go into settings/storage, should my physical sdcard stats be showing under internal memory?

Thanks I got mines to work now. Thanks to your suggestions.
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Xparent SkyBlue Tapatalk 2

Update: ive been using the script below for a littlw while and it is working great on cm10. It is best to enable it after a fresh rom install.
mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/block/vold/179:97 /storage/sdcard0
mount -o bind /data/media /storage/sdcard1

I need to do this.

MODERATOR.
This is not a Q&A Thread. Needs to be moved to appropriate location.

Apps Did Not Move After Internal / External SD Swap for GS3
Well I thought everything went perfectly because as mentioned, when I go to storage my internal shows my 64g card and internal of 12g now shows as external. However the apps are still on my internal which is now called my external and when I go to app manager it shows remaining space 5.9g. So I am not sure what I did wrong because I have reviewed this several times and started right after I installed a fresh rom . I am hoping someone can help me correct this because basically all it did was change the name of the two drives but apps are still getting installed to original location. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me

Swapping internal>external did not work
i followed all steps as stated above but when I go to File Manager (default), long pressing Internal SD>Details show 1.2 MB and External SD shows 1.8 GB which is not true. I have external SD of 8 GB and internal is 2 GB in my micromax a110 phone.
The steps above did not work to swap the memory but it now shows even incorrect size. I installed Root Browser lite but got no way to chck the size of the SD cards.. Please help

Does this work with the new Verizon Jelly Bean which they are now sending out via OTA? Are there other Verizon S3 Jelly Bean Roms that are known to work with this method? Thanks

Its works on the leak so i dont see why it wouldnt work on the actual vz rom

not working
This is not working with my samsung s duos please help

Any cm 10.1 updates for this?

I am unable to change the file permissions to -rwx-rwx-rwx- whenever I try to change it I get an error that the phone is unable to change permissions.
EDIT:
Successfully changed permissions and followed the instructions as given. Still not working on the international S3, my internal memory is still 16 GB and external 32GB