Should I partition my SD? - Samsung Galaxy S (4G Model)

I have a SGS4G with a 16GB external SD and just the standard fat on it. I just got a new 32GB card and since I have to do copying anyway, I'm wondering if I should take the opportunity to partition it into an ext2 + fat.
As some background I've always been plagued with low space problems on the internal. I've already moved all the apps that I can to the external (fat) with Titanium backup. I'm satisfied with the speed, so thats not a motivation for partitioning to use an external ext2 for the apps instead of the fat.
The only thing that would motivate me is increasing the effective space on the internal.
Does partitioning buy me anything in that direction?

Related

Internal Storage 2GB? Why Is that?

So I managed to get a ROM going on my tab that came today, and all is pretty good so far. One question tho; I went to my settings --> SD card usage or whatever its called and my internal memory is showing 1.79GB total space.
My SD card is 16GB and that's showing up fine as 14 or whatever FREE, since I partitioned at 2048/0.
I don't get why the internal storage is 1.79. Shoudn't it be 16GB or whatever since that's how much this tablet has? I'm confused.
Thanks!
I may be wrong on this (Developers, please correct me if I am wrong) but I think the 2GB is reserved for the Android system and the remaining space is what you can use for apps, etc.
stuaross said:
I may be wrong on this (Developers, please correct me if I am wrong) but I think the 2GB is reserved for the Android system and the remaining space is what you can use for apps, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if thats the case, why won't it show the remaining 14G or whatever hmmm
The 16gig is divided as 2gig for apps and 14gig for storage (/sdcard). After format and overhead you get what you see.
Sent from my Viewsonic 10" GTab...CM7 style...
So how do i mount my internal? Im only able to mount my microsd card..
Actually I take that back. I can only mount my internal storage to my computer but not my microsd card. I have no idea how to do that...
That's normal behavior for the gtablet. There is no built in method for mounting the external SD to your computer.

So can someone explain to me why android partitions rom the way it does.

For example, I've got system rom, internal storage, sd card storage, and ext sd card storage. Why don't I just have internal storage and external storage? Can someone explain what each one is "for", and where I should store what (like apps, music, videos, etc.). Thanks ahead of time for any answers that you give, this has been bothering me for a while.
You should store your files on the internal /sdcard or your external /ext_sd micro sd card.
I'm saving music,videos and pictures on my external sd card.
This way i can take the card out of my phone plug it into a new one and have everything there.
I leave the build in card for the apps, kernels, roms, downloads and random other things.
Its mainly just preference.
Because of multiple partitions on the internal sdcard android can use different filesystems and option on each one.
Each filesystem can have advantages in security,scalablity, performance or reliance.
Partitions can be flagged read-only to secure them from involuntary changes.
Thanks for the help, but that leads to another question. I can't move some apps to the other part of my internal storage, or the media area, as the phone calls it, why not? It's just internal storage like the other partition, but the media area has around 12gb of data while the internal storage only has about 2. I just don't want to fill the first partition up because im not able to move apps out of it.
I'm not really sure about that one, but something along the lines off: on the internal 2gb partition android can restrict and controll access for stablity and safety reasons, while if the apps were saved on the 12gb media partition any rouge app could run wild and screw things up for other apps.
Physicly they are probably the same, so with some technical knowledge you could reflash your device and change the partition sizes.

Clarification with moving apps to SD/ext.

Motivation: I've just installed ICS 4.0.4 BCM RC4.1U2 on my HTC Desire, and I am finding I have low internal storage. Browsing around, I found lots of people talking about app2sd, link2sd, app2ext, and need some clarification on them all.
As I understand it:
app2sd is about moving part of an application to the SD card. The application will still take up some space on the internal memory. This is the concept, and apps like app2sd and link2sd do this.
app2ext is about making a partition on your SD card, which the phone thinks is part of its internal memory. To do this, I'll have to format my SD card and install a zip from CWM recovery.
So my questions are:
1 - Is my understanding correct? Have I missed any other big apps or tricks to do with freeing up internal memory.
2 - For app2ext:
- I guess that your phone's speed will then be linked to your SD card's speed. What class of SD card do you need for good performance.
- Is there a limit on how large you can make your virtual internal memory?
- Will applications with widgets work if moved to the ext partition of the memory card?
3 - I was previously on Cyanogenmod 7, and had more free space (only about 70mb was used, as opposed to 110mb now), is this just because I've got the next version along, with more features, so it takes more space?
4 - Is it possible that previous ROMs have left data behind that is eating up my internal memory, is there some way to purge this?

Internal memory related

Can any developer make use of the scripts used here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1281964 and make a detailed tutorial to increase the internal memory without having to use apps like link2sd
Some suggestions:
making the 2nd partion ext3 instead of ext2 to be able to handle more space
explaining the part of the htcfs
Cheers
Well, it's something quite similar.. and it's easier to use Link2SD actually. You can set the ext4 partition on the SD card to anything and just move everything.
Also, mounting /data/ to SD card will cause some lag; you'll need a higher SD card class. IMHO it's not worth the trouble - I have around 50 apps installed, including Sygic Aura (which is about 18 MB) and moved them all with Link2SD. Internal free space is 40 MB right now.

FolderMount or other means to mount external SD dirs on internal /sdcard

There seems to be quite a bit of discussion about this but no real resolution. I've been trying to find a way to mount directories on my external SD card onto the internal /sdcard directories to force apps that only can write to /sdcard internally to actually write to the external card. What a mess. I've tried symbolic links, battled the FUSE mounts, experimented with "mount -o bind" -- on and on. FolderMount claims to do such things, but bricks the phone.
I can do the bind mounts -- and when I look at them with adb they appear to be correct. But the apps continue to write to the internal /sdcard dirs. I've also turned off SuperSu mount namespace separation in testing.
It's a shame that something that really should be so simple is such a PITA. Any new ideas? Thanks!
Why don't you use ADB and partition your SD card as internal storage. Samsung took out the adoptable storage feature for Marshmallow. For the workaround go here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s7/how-to/enable-adoptable-storage-s7-t3333511
I considered that early on. The problem is that I've never seen a reasonable explanation of how "bonded" memory like that is handled. Right now I have a 64GB card split as one exFAT and one ext2 partition (the latter for link2sd, and mostly empty). But at least this lets me have some control over where apps end up. But if I bond ("adaptable") an SD card partition to the internal memory, I (AFAIK) lose that control. Any given app and app's data could end up on faster internal memory or slower external memory, and I wouldn't be able to control it. Also, at this point wiping the phone to do this would be a serious PITA. Am I missing something? Thanks!
Actually, you can partition part of the SD card as internal and part of it can remain external using the ADB method. I have a 64GB card myself, and it works great. I would recommend a high speed one though.

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