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[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] How to Push as mass storage device in PC?

Hello all
I bought a P6200 recently! but when I connect it to PC it doesn't mount as USB drive?
As well in settings menu I couldn't find it to set it to mass storage mode!(like my Xperia neo and other Android phones) even it doesn't have USB part
Would u help me ?
It's ridiculous that can't be done!

yup... it is ridiculous because it really cant be done...

That' s not true. After connecting my Tab Plus to PC, I got new wino opened with 2 drives. One is my MC and second Phone memory so I can copy whatever I want. Try in settings-application-development...

that is in MTP mode...

The reason is because of how the GTab 7+ uses internal/external memory.
It's impossible for Android to unmount the memory because it's constantly in use. This provides a lot of benefits for performance and application space.
However, the trade off is that unmounting the partition would cause android to crash. So you can't unmount it to let a PC mount the partition. The work around for this is Android hosting the partition as an MTP device and doing file changes by proxy for the PC.
Personally, I haven't found a situation where I needed to do something on the file system that MTP prevented me from doing. At least so far...

I too have had no problems so far transfering files using MTP but its very slow. So I've used a card reader to transfer files to the sdcard when I wanted to do a quick transfer of a larger amount of files such as mp3's.

Hard to mount the sd card as a drive for use with synctoy is one example of where mtp is inconvenient at best.
Sent from my GT-P6210 using Tapatalk

Mass Storange mode is no longer available since Android3/4 deives as there is no seperate internal SD card. All Android tabs connect with MTP mode.

I use SyncToy as well to backup the whole of /sdcard. But that's for the P1000, now I can't do the same on the P6200. All the other available options are either too slow or too cumbersome to use on a daily basis.
Sent from my GT-P6200 using XDA App

Has anyone tried the "Multi Mount SD-Card" app on this device? It mounts the SD card as USB mass storage without dismounting from the android system.

I found mine mounted them both only after i inserted a micro sd card into the device.
Sent from my GT-P6210 using xda premium

I have just installed Multi Mount SD-Card v2.12 and found that it is not compatible with the device. It's disappointing.

I would suggest setting up adb and using Android commander (it is a GUI for windows)
Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk

[Q] A Storage problem on the Blaze

Before I even explain my issue, I would like to clearly state that I have indeed used the search function here and used google and bing search engines to try and find a solution. It seems no one has came across this or I am not searching for the right thing.
Ok, now on to my issue at hand. I have done lots of flashing on multiple devices and so I know a fair amount when it comes to all that, but my issue is that on the Blaze It says on Samsung's website that it has 4gbs of internal storage. On my phone, I have tried gingerbread stock, Ice Cream Sandwhich on stock, and even used every Jelly Bean rom on the forums for this device. Regardless of the rom I use, stock or custom, my phone displays internal storage twice, which in any file manager shows one as the phone's internal storage, and one as the sd card/usb storage, but both have 1.4gbs of free space on a fresh install. They show up seperate, but should be the 4gbs of internal space. Another thing is if I have a micro sd in my phone it shows up in setting>storage, but if I try to use a file manager to locate it, regardless of which one I use, I cannot access my micro sd card or find it. The only place it shows up is in settings>storage, along with both seperate internal storages that have 1.4gbs of storage each. I am trying to figure out how to fix this issue so I can find a way to use my sd card for applications instead of my phone using usb storage as the sd card, which limits me to 1.4gbs of space,

Zekk98 said:
Before I even explain my issue, I would like to clearly state that I have indeed used the search function here and used google and bing search engines to try and find a solution. It seems no one has came across this or I am not searching for the right thing.
Ok, now on to my issue at hand. I have done lots of flashing on multiple devices and so I know a fair amount when it comes to all that, but my issue is that on the Blaze It says on Samsung's website that it has 4gbs of internal storage. On my phone, I have tried gingerbread stock, Ice Cream Sandwhich on stock, and even used every Jelly Bean rom on the forums for this device. Regardless of the rom I use, stock or custom, my phone displays internal storage twice, which in any file manager shows one as the phone's internal storage, and one as the sd card/usb storage, but both have 1.4gbs of free space on a fresh install. They show up seperate, but should be the 4gbs of internal space. Another thing is if I have a micro sd in my phone it shows up in setting>storage, but if I try to use a file manager to locate it, regardless of which one I use, I cannot access my micro sd card or find it. The only place it shows up is in settings>storage, along with both seperate internal storages that have 1.4gbs of storage each. I am trying to figure out how to fix this issue so I can find a way to use my sd card for applications instead of my phone using usb storage as the sd card, which limits me to 1.4gbs of space,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the 4gb is like 3.72GiB which is split up with 1.4gb of user space (pictures, videos, etc), another 1.12 for apps (shared with titanium if you don't switch the backup folder location) and the rest for the system (rom, kernel, recovery etc). It does have 4gb.
In regards to your external sd card... which rom are you running? On most JB roms the external sd card path is found at /external_sd and NOT at the sdcard/external_sd that ALL the ICS roms use.

Yeah, I figured it was still the 4gbs, but being split like that is stupid. As far as what rom I am using or have used, I have used both the the gingerbread stock and ice cream sandwhich stock. I have used the official CM10 latest nightly build of Jelly Bean for this device, I have used Paranoid, Baked rom, Blaz3r, and now I am using the new Pacman Jelly bean Rom, but with the same issue. I will go to those locations where you stated and it shows nothing, even if i go back one and hold down on the screen and go to properties of that folder nothing is there. And the usb storage of 1.4 is located at this directory /sdcard. And where my micro sd card should be at which is /external_sd there is nothing nor does it display the gbs of space. The micro sd card is only viewable through settings. I have tried a 2gb, an 8gb, a 16gb and a 32gb micro sd. All work fine, on my pc and a Sidekick 4g I have, and even show up on the Blaze with no errors, but I can't use any file manager to access it. The only way i can access it is through the recovery, in which case it uses the directory /sdcard and then I have no access to the usb storage like I do in the roms.

Zekk98 said:
Yeah, I figured it was still the 4gbs, but being split like that is stupid. As far as what rom I am using or have used, I have used both the the gingerbread stock and ice cream sandwhich stock. I have used the official CM10 latest nightly build of Jelly Bean for this device, I have used Paranoid, Baked rom, Blaz3r, and now I am using the new Pacman Jelly bean Rom, but with the same issue. I will go to those locations where you stated and it shows nothing, even if i go back one and hold down on the screen and go to properties of that folder nothing is there. And the usb storage of 1.4 is located at this directory /sdcard. And where my micro sd card should be at which is /external_sd there is nothing nor does it display the gbs of space. The micro sd card is only viewable through settings. I have tried a 2gb, an 8gb, a 16gb and a 32gb micro sd. All work fine, on my pc and a Sidekick 4g I have, and even show up on the Blaze with no errors, but I can't use any file manager to access it. The only way i can access it is through the recovery, in which case it uses the directory /sdcard and then I have no access to the usb storage like I do in the roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried reformatting your external sd?

Yes I have tried reformating it and I bought a brand new one and its the same problem.

Zekk98 said:
Yeah, I figured it was still the 4gbs, but being split like that is stupid. As far as what rom I am using or have used, I have used both the the gingerbread stock and ice cream sandwhich stock. I have used the official CM10 latest nightly build of Jelly Bean for this device, I have used Paranoid, Baked rom, Blaz3r, and now I am using the new Pacman Jelly bean Rom, but with the same issue. I will go to those locations where you stated and it shows nothing, even if i go back one and hold down on the screen and go to properties of that folder nothing is there. And the usb storage of 1.4 is located at this directory /sdcard. And where my micro sd card should be at which is /external_sd there is nothing nor does it display the gbs of space. The micro sd card is only viewable through settings. I have tried a 2gb, an 8gb, a 16gb and a 32gb micro sd. All work fine, on my pc and a Sidekick 4g I have, and even show up on the Blaze with no errors, but I can't use any file manager to access it. The only way i can access it is through the recovery, in which case it uses the directory /sdcard and then I have no access to the usb storage like I do in the roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On GB and ICS the location for your external SD card is /sdcard/external_sd. On jelly bean it's at /external_sd. You need a root file explorer to access it (root explorer/es file explorer) in jelly bean roms.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Yes, I know this, I have looked in those locations and I did have root when I used Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich stock. I currently have the Pacman rom, which is a CM!) variation/Jelly Bean rom. When I use Es File Explorer or Root explorer the directory /external_sd is empty and when I backup and hold down the screen on that folder and go to properties it doesn't show any storage information. It just says 0.0mb. I have tried every directory someone has mentioned or I thought was it, and I only have the usb storage showing up, and in manage applications when I click an application's details it will ask me to move to sd card and when I do that it moves from the phone storage of 1.4gb to the usb storage of 1.4gb.
To me it seems like the OS keeps thinking the usb storage is the only sd, and it displays my actual micro sd, but doesn't actually show it in root explorer or es explorer. I am trying my best to provide as much information as possible. I posted on here because I have spent a few nights trying everything I know and can Google search to solve this problem.

Zekk98 said:
Yes, I know this, I have looked in those locations and I did have root when I used Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich stock. I currently have the Pacman rom, which is a CM!) variation/Jelly Bean rom. When I use Es File Explorer or Root explorer the directory /external_sd is empty and when I backup and hold down the screen on that folder and go to properties it doesn't show any storage information. It just says 0.0mb. I have tried every directory someone has mentioned or I thought was it, and I only have the usb storage showing up, and in manage applications when I click an application's details it will ask me to move to sd card and when I do that it moves from the phone storage of 1.4gb to the usb storage of 1.4gb.
To me it seems like the OS keeps thinking the usb storage is the only sd, and it displays my actual micro sd, but doesn't actually show it in root explorer or es explorer. I am trying my best to provide as much information as possible. I posted on here because I have spent a few nights trying everything I know and can Google search to solve this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So at the top of the screen you only see the phone icon in ES file explorer? Or does it have the phone icon and /sdcard/? You need to go into the settings in ES file explorer and check the 'root explorer' and 'up to root' in root settings or you will not be able to access the external_sd through es file explorer in JB.
There is an "external_sd" folder located in the /sdcard in jelly bean... that's not where it really is. You need to make sure you are at root / and scroll down to /external_sd. The external_sd folder in /sdcard does show 0.0mb.

Yeah I already knew that you had to check 'root explorer' and 'up to root' in es explorer. I fixed the sd card issue by downloading and flashing the latest CWM recovery available for the device and formatted the sd card and internal storage, this fixed the issue. I also did a fresh install of the Pacman Jelly Bean rom and now it shows /sdcard and /external_sd and they are both properly displayed and I can explore them as I should be able to. I think the TWRP and that may have caused the problem, or when I had an older version of CWM Recovery, but after doing as I described above my issue was resolved and now the storage is displayed as it should. I tried this on the other recoveries and countless roms with no such results, so I guess a better and more up to date recovery fixed a formatting issue that was occurring.
I do thank you for all the help that has been provided, as its nice to know that the community for this device has devs and senior members of these forums willing to help people with their problems, whether they are complicated or simple.

FWIW I think twrp may have been what caused your issue. I remember someone was having other issues I believe with paranoid android settings not working and twrp was the cause. I have been on the original cwm by shabbypenguin since the beginning and have had no issues with any rom. Glad you got it figured out:thumbup:
Sent from my SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app

I have the same phone and have 1.40GB internal storage but I did some research at Tmobile.com and got this http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_blaze_4g_t769-4420.php and it say there is 3GB and a 4GB Micro SD. I upgraded to a 16 GB Micro SD but had some problems with CM 10 being about to access my music and etc. but I got around that today YAY!. But with the OS and other partitions that are needed 1.40 should be about right after everything. Cheers mate

Mounting internal storage as USB mass storage

Hi Guys, is there a way to mount the galaxy s3's internal storage as a USB mass storage device? As you know, currently when you connect to the computer, there are only two options: MTP and CTP. I know there is an app that does this for the external SD Card but I need it for the internal storage.
Thanks!

I use an app called SambaDroid. Once you connect to your phone you can map it as a drive using Windows. I use SyncToy to back up my stuff regularly, and although it's a lot of steps, it works pretty well.
If anyone has found a less labor intensive method, I would love to hear it.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

Hi... please help me. I just flash my SGS3 and than I wipe data (from recovery). And all my files on internal has gone. Very sad about it, many photos are there. I want recovery it, but I need mount the internal as mass storage. Any one help me???