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Help please! Lost SDcard Partition!

Hey fellow devs,
I have been trying to configure my partitions on my 4GB SDcard for around 7 hours now..... it's currently 4:43am CST and I've lost it.
I researched and researched to find out the best way to create the FAT32/EXT2 partitions for my SDcard and i believed i had it and now I'm left with only 2.2GB/4GB available to me from my FAT32 SDcard! I can't create an EXT2 partition anymore or another FAT32 because there is no space allocated. I've been using Partition Manager 9.0 for the process but I'm kinda really freaked out now. Someone please tell me that i haven't friend my SDcard.
What I have been working on is trying to get my apps & caches saved to my SDcard so i have save my internal memory and stay away from Lag spikes. I currently have JFv1.42_RC_33 Modded created by LucidREM. It is supposed to auto save all apps/caches to the SDcard but of course you have to first have the FAT32/EXT2 combo. Well i thought i had it so i went and flashed my G1 with that Modified build.
1. Formatted SDcard after having FAT32/EXT2 partitions created because i was trying to follow the new auto updated from another post by using Android SDK(ADB) and running appsToSD.bat which failed.
Note: I'm not sure but i think that is where i went wrong by formatting the SDcard after the partitions and not before.
2. Went for LucidREM's method right after.....
3. Powered down > Booted from Camera+Power > Updated from update.zip(JFv1.42_RC_33 Modded > Home+Back for reboot.
4. Got back to home screen and all my old stuff is still there. Apps and all because they were saved to the phone's internal memory(Phew)
5. Went to Terminal and did
a. $su
b. #copy.sh app
c. #copy.sh data (OPTIONAL)
Failed.
So lastly i decided to check my partitions in Partition Manager 9.0 and found that my EXT2 partition is completely gone and the 1.5GB memory went with it!!
So now I'm stuck with 2.5GB FAT32 SDcard. Can't rollback or create EXT2 since all primary slots are taken up.
I know this is a long post but I'm like at the end of my rope. I know my G1 is pretty safe but I have no clue about my SDcard.
Please Advise.............
P.S I'm gonna go to sleep now.....Lol..... 7 hrs is too long to be focused.....
Thanks Devs
Stringbeanz
[email protected]

beanz,
sleep deprivation is never a good thing when playing with partitions. first of all. Secondly, i feel your frustrations... i have been there recently. So here is where i offer help.
You are in a good spot because your g1 still has all the apps / data untouched
As far as the sd card goes. i would back up any information you have on it that you dont want to loose. here are a few tricks you can try.
- i dont know if your running Paragon Partition Manager from windows or not but i would make a bootable cd and run it from outside windows. it worked exponentially better for me that way.
-i would also suggest making your ext2 partition no bigger than 500mb. even if you download 100 apps you wont fill that up. and it seems to have less issues the smaller it is.
-also if your card is not a class 6 lucidRem doesnt advise moving the data.
hope this helps

Perdid0,
Thanks for your prompt response to my post. I have just a few Q&A to your response.
1. I am running Partition Manager 9.0 on Windows XP SP3
2. My 4GB SD card only has 2.2GB on 1 partition (FAT32)
3. I'm not able to add another partition such as an EXT2 because there is no primary spot available or allocated space. That is what Partition Manager 9.0 told me.
So.......
1. How do I check if my SD card is Class 6? App or prog?
2. Since I can't create a partition on it now is it trashed?
3. I'm thinkin just to wait and get a 16GB Class 6 or 8 if I find one.
4. But until then if I am able to undo the damage to my current one that would be great.
Thanks for ur help with my Questions.
Stringbeanz

Low memory

I'm running the **SMS* 3.02 by RSK team on my HTC Desire, the rom works great (I wanted the Amaze Cam) but I seem to run out of internal memory really quickly, ROM has only been on (again) for a week and I'm down to 25mb, all apps have been moved to SD.
I do have quite a few apps installed, but surely being on SD internal memory should be empty. The phone has a 16Gb SD card with a 2Gb ext partition created through recovery.
How to I get the memory back? I suspect it's going to be full in a day or 2, leading me to another full wipe

What i did to make more mem is using ''ram manager'' on the market and kill apps running in the background.

Thanks, I'm not sure how killing running apps is going to free phone storage space, though
I suspect I need to find a data2sd rom, ideally with the new cam

getting closer, I notice my Dalvik cache is ~170Mb, so taking up all that space. I installed 2 market apps to move it, the first, S2E just does nothing when IO tell it to move the cache. The second, a2sdgui, exits with the following message
"cannot start for one of these reasons
1. your phone is not rooted (it obviously is to be running custom roms?)
2. A2SD scripts could not be found o
3. No EXT partition found

Did you create a partition on your SD CARD? Does your custom rom support APP2SD (normally is natively included)?
Make sure.
Otherwise, I would suggest to try another rom to see what happen.

frosty68 said:
getting closer, I notice my Dalvik cache is ~170Mb, so taking up all that space. I installed 2 market apps to move it, the first, S2E just does nothing when IO tell it to move the cache. The second, a2sdgui, exits with the following message
"cannot start for one of these reasons
1. your phone is not rooted (it obviously is to be running custom roms?)
2. A2SD scripts could not be found o
3. No EXT partition found
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't assume that because you are running a custom ROM means your phone is rooted - the 2 have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Check that you have superuser installed, and if you do run terminal emulator and type the command su. If you're rooted you should get asked if you want to allow superuser privileges to the app. If it doesn't ask then either you've allowed (and remembered) the permission before or you're not rooted.
If an app's telling you you're not rooted then it's possibly right - always good to be sure.

Thanks, phone definitely rooted, and superuser installed (and titanium backup, which I've just used)
can't see mention of apps2sd on the rom page, though I was running a pretty old version.
Decided to do a full wipe, repartition the SD card and install a later version which has dalvik-cache to sd-ext, hopefully this will solve the problem of it filling.
Showing 174MB free right now, (+8.6Gb)
I take it if the cache does fill again I can just wipe it with no ill effects?

I wipe all my cache periodically with this:
https://market.android.com/details?...sMSwxLDEwMiwiY29tLmFhYy5jYWNoZW1hdGUuZGVtbyJd
I normally free up to 20 MB.

[Q] CM 10.1 internal memory low

I have installed CM 10.1 in my GT-P3113 and it works great, I like the interface better than Samsung. But the internal memory shows up as about 4.5gb with 500mb used by apps, and about 400mb free. That doesn't sound right, I don't have very many apps, but I am having trouble downloading some of the larger games, like Asphalt7. Can I do anything to fix this? Am I missing some step, like a nand flash or format? I have a 32gb sdhc card but use it for music and videos. Don't want to start moving apps to it.

fast96 said:
I have installed CM 10.1 in my GT-P3113 and it works great, I like the interface better than Samsung. But the internal memory shows up as about 4.5gb with 500mb used by apps, and about 400mb free. That doesn't sound right, I don't have very many apps, but I am having trouble downloading some of the larger games, like Asphalt7. Can I do anything to fix this? Am I missing some step, like a nand flash or format? I have a 32gb sdhc card but use it for music and videos. Don't want to start moving apps to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now does your device initially had 11.85 GB internal memory?
if yes, then you could free up your memory.
well, i am just sharing my experience with CM 10.1 on tab 2 but p3100(almost same as p3113, with extra calling facility). b4 flashing cm10.1 i had some 7 GB internal memory with my stock ROM(4.1.2). if i would ve flashed that stock rom again, then my internal memory would ve gone to around 10.9-11.2 GB, as it formats the device completely.
but when i flashed with CM 10.1, i had internal memory less than 7 GB now, it is just because it doesn't formats your device, but removes your installed applications. let me explain you in other way---->lets go with installing windows 7 in your PC.
if you install windows without booting by using some virtual disks or some DVD, your old programs gets stored in windows.old folder, the same happens here, its just that you are using the CM recovery as your virtual disk thing, it overwrites your systems keeping your old files(BUT NOT IN ANY SINGLE FOLDER) they are kept as it is. the apps you installed earlier with your OLD FIRMWIRE WILL NOT GET REMOVED, BUT ALSO WILL NOT WORK.
in this case the only way to get rid of this memory issue is to remember those folders where your programs get installed with yous OLD OS(firmwire) and DELETE them directly(just like deleting WINDOWS.old folder if you dont need it). well for some huge games like NFS MW or ASPHALT, dont delete those folders where it got installed previously, as these are downloaded data, so with your new firwire you just install the game with the reqd apk file and your game will run without downloading data again, if you delete them, u ve to download again. but its better if you keep a backup of such huge games in your PC)
but in the other way if you install windows from the boot using your DVD, you ve an option to format and reinstall(the formatting drive option, you ll not get if you are not booting from the CD and directly running the installer from within an OS). the same happens here too, if you flash your firmwire from the download mode, your device is completely formatted(additionally u may need to clear wipe cache/wipe dalvik cache too, from the recovery).
SO IF YOU FLASH CM 10.1 FROM THE DOWNLOAD MODE YOU CAN GET ALL YOUR MEMORY BACK, but i don't know if there is any method to install CMs or AOKPs or any custom ROM from the download mode, as these files are in zip format and not *tar.md5. so we install them from the recovery mode.
LETS SEE IF THERE IS ANY METHOD TO INSTALL CUSTOM ROMS VIA DOWNLOAD MODE USING ODIN DIRECTLY(but i dont think so).

Internal Memory Full - Change Partition

Good companions I have a question and I expose the case. I have an S2, recently gave me the famous message "internal memory full", the easiest solution and suggested in all forums is, "install App2SD and move applications to the external SD". Matter solved. But I have to be in that game forever.
Investigating I saw that the partition for apps is aproximately 2GB and is in / data. Now this issue happens on versions of Android Gingerbread 2 * and down. And ICS version 4.* and on, the phone works with a single partition, where for example if my memory is 16GB, I have aproximately 12GB for personal data and apps and apps data. Then if I want I can install 12GB of applications.
Now, as the S2 came from the factory with Gingerbread (like me) if I upgrade to ICS or JB, the update changes the internal SD partitions to a single partition or maintains the original partitions? (/ boot. / recovery. / system. / cache. / misc. / data.)
All this with OEM Stock ROM. Now if you keep the original partitions then, if I install the ROM via ODIN, I can change the partition scheme to a single partition (as ICS or JB) to avoid the problem of "internal memory free space"?
Greetings and thanks. :good:

SD Card partitioning on MTD ROMs

Hi There
Can someone explain what he\she did to partition SD card, and make all apps get installed on it.
Please note :
1. I don't want to use Titanium backup for this usage. I don't have the paid version and I'm tired of doing this one app at a time.
2. I saw some guides on the net, but they were all for GB.
(partition the microSD on PC using minitool) -can we use ext4 on our MTD ROMs ? What is the 1st partition for ? and the 2nd ?
(install busybox and super user) - Is it still needed ? (MIUI for example has LBE as su).
(install Link2SD) - Is it always in memory ?
(reboot and put partitioned SD card)
(Define Link2SD)
3. I also saw swapper instructions but I can manage with 170MB free RAM memory I get after removing all unnecessary system apps, and I remember ppl saying then that it kills the SDCard very quickly.
If someone has a clear guide or instructions that he knows work, that will be nice.
Thanks in advance.

Step 1. Partition your SD card to have a sd-ext partition. This can definitely be ext2 or FAT16. Anything else depends on your kernel. Most of them do support ext3 and 4, but... start with something fairly basic.
Regarding recoveries:
TWRP has always failed for me on this, so I'd avoid that.
This may be doable in CWM. I've seen reference to that newer versions of CWM removed the partition option, so you might need to flash an ICS ROM with an older kernel, repartition, and then flash back to the one you want.
Also note that if you use CWM to repartition, your SD-card will be wiped. So do a backup first.
Step 2. Install Mounts2SD. Either from XDA or the Play Store. Even if you do take it from the Play Store to get update notifications, I highly suggest grabbing the recovery script from the XDA thread so that you can get back your shifted applications without needing to re-download and install M2SD, since it likes to be on internal which means... shifted off.
Step 3. Open Mounts2SD. Grant SU rights at whatever point it asks for it during step 3. Hit the menu button. Go to Application Settings. Install the Startup Script. Tell it to use the built-in busybox as well, so that you don't need to install anything or worry about it failing. Back out of the Application Settings.
Step 4. Press on the Wrench to go into the actual specific settings. I currently have forced Cache, 1% Storage Threshold, Applications are the only bit moved, the File System Check is on and using the Ext4 Driver, 128KB Deadline for Internal and 4096 with Deadline for External, and Safe Mode is disabled. But decide on what you want yourself, set it, go back to the Eye to see your current info.
Step 5. Reboot.
Step 6. Wait 1-30 minutes for it to finish moving all your stuff around.
Step 7. Unlock your phone, open Mounts2SD, and make sure everything looks pretty on that first 'Eye' info tab. If you like it then close Mounts2SD and keep going on your merry way. If you don't like it or you've done something like offload your data and now your phone is wretchedly slow, go to the Wrench, change your settings, go back to the Eye, and reboot again. Repeat until satisfied.

I thought it would be simplier.
A few more questions:
1. If I partition SD on PC, then I don't need any partitioning on recovery so it should work fine even on TWRP or advanced CWMs. Am I right?
2. Why do I need scripts for? Isn't the app enough?
3. Why should/could it possibly slow down my device? TB 'move to SD' for all doesn't slow my device what so ever.
4. How and where do I see what partition is used for what?
5. How much RAM does the app take?
6. Have you tried other apps link2sd or something CM has built in I think.?
Thanks.
sent from me

New answers to new questions.
1. Skip step 1 if you've done it on your PC. I just suggested recovery as that's easy... if you've made your sd-ext partition on the PC, step 1 is done.
2. No clue on Link2SD. I use Mounts2SD instead since it lets me set things. It probably does the same thing though and sets a init.d script that gets run during startup.
3. True. For some reason though having all your data moved to sd-ext makes our phone go to a crawl. Same if you move off the dalvik.
4. That's in Mounts2SD. No clue how you can see if you're using Link2SD.
5. For Mounts2SD, none while it's being used, since it just runs as a startup script. The app is just to control the script.
6. Not successfully. I had tried 5 or 6 different apps back a year ago or so when I first started playing with sd-ext and Mounts2SD was the best and free, so... never looked back after that. Now you can also do some system-flag tweaking if you want to donate, but the sd-ext stuff is all free.

I was able to successfully partition SD and use mount2sd on 4.3 SlimBean.
however, it was rather slow.
CM 10.1 and CM10.2 by DJL. did not allow me to partition nor did they recognize SlimBean's partition even if I replaced them kernel (to NilTMT).
I'm currently using CM10.1 which is stable as a daily driver and manually swapping apps with TB, I hate it, but this is the best combination I've come so far.
I sold my wife's SGS4G and upgraded her to SGS3 and hopefully in a year I will do the same. it had its moments, but on the bottom line it's a pretty ****ty phone with its lack of internal mem...but hey, it drove so many of us to go deeper and deeper trying to understand and made us more tecnolgical and solution oriented.

Mounts2SD worked for me on CM10.1, so not sure why it failed for you. Ah well.

A few things I have found...
Yes, you can partition on Windows, but you're really asking for trouble. It's not too bad download Ubuntu or the like and you can boot off a USB stick without touching your Windows install.
The TeamAcid kernels that I know of handle ext2/3/4 file systems. All kinds of arguments as to which are better. I personally use ext4 and don't find it obviously "slow" for the way I use my phone.
That said, what the boot scripts (which are part of a flashed "kernel" for the SGS4G) actually do with a "special" partition is another story. In some cases the first stages of booting will look for special partitions and mount them in pre-configured places. For example, the second partition of the removable card might be mounted on /sd-ext/ in many CyanogenMod ROMs. Many (most?) SGS4G ROMs don't have these "special" mount rules defined.
Moving an app to SD using the "native" approach just moves the app and none of its data to the SD card. It won't for example, move 25 MB of mail from /data/data to your microSD
Moving an app to SD (or anywhere else) doesn't keep it from generating its classes in /data/dalvik-cache -- It isn't "free" to have an app on SD as far as internal storage goes, even if it doesn't write any data.
Moving an app to SD will absolutely slow down your boot time. It does it by creating a file that contains a file system that then gets read and mounted at boot time. You can watch the parade of them getting mounted using adb logcat. It can take a minute or two to mount them all. Once mounted, that double layer of file systems shouldn't slow you down too much, since it is basically a read-only kind of thing.
Scripts are required since you need to be able to "fake out" the operating system as to where things are stored for anything (except if you just use the native app to SD method). In most cases you need new partitions mounted before the Android part of the OS starts running.
Some scripts are more robust than others.
TitaniumBackup (paid version) has a way to move data to an external partition. It works like a charm for me (64 GB Sandisk UHS-1 / Class 10 microSD). It was very tweaky for me to get it to recognize the ext4 partition the first time. It can bulk-move app data to the partition. I don't know which, if any, of the other scripts move the data to an external partition.
On my phone, an ext4 file system can be significantly faster than the internal yaffs, especially for write. Alas, it usually seems to be read that is a killer for most things in an well-written app. On my phone, yaffs can be faster than ext4 for short reads. Who knows how this would play out in real-world usage.
Other things that TitaniumBackup can do that help free up internal storage, at least in the paid version, are:
Dalvik cache cleanup
Integrate system Dalvik cache into ROM
Integrate update into ROM
Convert to system app

I can confirm Link2SD works where Mount2SD fails, which is an ext3 partitioned sd-ext on AOKP. it doesn't get any simpler than that.
sent from me