I was just wondering how one would make a RAW dump of a SD card and then later write back, Like a ISO from a disc for example.
The reason is because I want to backup my HD2 Android card but there is various files I can not seem to find/access via windows, Ive set all folder options to show hidden/system files etc but still cant, so wanted to dump the entire SD card so I can try another build of android out as one of my 8GB cards is for windows other currently has the EvoLeo rom on which is working well but the only other card I have over 1GB doesn't work when trying to boot android.
If you have linux, you can simply use the 'dd' command. It makes a perfect byte-for-byte copy that can later be restored.
If you've got root and bash installed, dd is available on your phone as well. So, if you've got it connected to a network share, you can do it all from the phone as well.
If none of the above works for you, I beleive that Windows allows creating backups of removable storage.
Im just a windows user bud.
Ive tried through windows but not sure how to make a backup of removable media, I guess im aksing what program can do this?
Hmm, try connecting the card to the PC and right click on it in my Computer. A backup option should be either there or somewhere under properties.
(It's been a while since I've used Windows)
Is it possible on the surface pro? Im a developer/student. Windows 8 is great for in class stuff but when it comes to developing, linux takes the win. I'd love to be able to install linux on a microSD card and boot to that (yeah, I know it will be slow but it can be left in the surface without protruding too much). Anyway is this possible? I can't find anything on this beyond removing win 8 and loading linux on it.
Meh, kids these days... when I was in college, I tri-booted on a 60GB hard disk.
But, if the internal storage isn't good enough for you, yes of course you can install Linux to the microSD card. You'll need to disable Secure Boot as usual for installing Linux at all. Beyond that, it's the same as any other Linux install except instead of reformatting the system partition, you reformat the microSD card and install there. People have been installing Linux to removable storage for years; it's no different on the Surface Pro and a microSD card than on a desktop with an external HDD or a laptop with a flashdrive or ... you get the idea.
Great, Thanks. I was just unsure since no one has seemed to do it (or at least posted it on the internet).
And don't get me wrong, I remember installing linux/windows on my first laptop with 20GB. These days, however, files are larger than CD's and the remaing space on the pro just does not cut it anymore, unless I want to delete all my downloads after using them.
Thanks again!
YOu need to go into charms > settings > Change PC Settings > General > Advanced startup to be able to boot from a usb or sd
can I install MAC OS? if I can I will order right away
seesunmoon said:
can I install MAC OS? if I can I will order right away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you asked the wrong question here.
Honestly, it does not matter if you can install MAC OS on the Pro.
The question you need answered is: Are there MAC OS Drivers for the Pro's Hardware? If not, then there is no point in seeing if the OS installs.
right, right, i guess apple will make something like surface pro, tablet with full max os
If history is any indication, they will do so 5-10 years after somebody else (typically Microsoft) has a similar OS/device, call it "revolutionary" and "innovative", and people will think they invented it...
Seriously though, I'm sure you could Hackintosh the Surface Pro, but hardware support may be lacking. The basic stuff (video, storage, sound, probably USB) and possibly some other things like WiFi and webcam will probably work. Touch and stylus are highly questionable. Normally I'd say that there's no chance of the covers working, but apparently they're fine under Linux so maybe they use an electrically standard interface through that funny docking connector.
There's something very weird about buying a (primarily) software company's hardware to put a (primarily) hardware company's software on it, though...
I have no doubt the Hackintosh guys will be all over this once a few of them get an S-Pro, I had an XE700 and there were people running it on them so I cant see the Pro taking much time for them to jump on to it.
Cool Dude
GoodDayToDie said:
Meh, kids these days... when I was in college, I tri-booted on a 60GB hard disk.
But, if the internal storage isn't good enough for you, yes of course you can install Linux to the microSD card. You'll need to disable Secure Boot as usual for installing Linux at all. Beyond that, it's the same as any other Linux install except instead of reformatting the system partition, you reformat the microSD card and install there. People have been installing Linux to removable storage for years; it's no different on the Surface Pro and a microSD card than on a desktop with an external HDD or a laptop with a flashdrive or ... you get the idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This does really answer the question at hand,
I haven't yet been able to boot from an MicroSD card I have used a USB drive to boot into Ubuntu 14 Trusty Thar, using instructions that are all over the web, however I haven't found any documentation of successfully boot from a MicroSD card. I will be trying this afternoon and will post what I find. Installing linux to the microSD card I'm sure will be straight forward, its the booting that will be an issue I'm sure.
Follow up coming soon
n4m4st3 said:
This does really answer the question at hand,
I haven't yet been able to boot from an MicroSD card I have used a USB drive to boot into Ubuntu 14 Trusty Thar, using instructions that are all over the web, however I haven't found any documentation of successfully boot from a MicroSD card. I will be trying this afternoon and will post what I find. Installing linux to the microSD card I'm sure will be straight forward, its the booting that will be an issue I'm sure.
Follow up coming soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got this to work. You need to use:
rufus.akeo.ie
And then just choose USB boot from the menu advanced start up options menu. Which is funny because it doesn't actually show the micro sd as an option to boot, but it automatically finds it somehow.
Pretty sure the uSD slot is attached via USB, so it's basically just "boot from USB external storage".
Another way you could have done it is to install the Linux bootloader (GRUB stage 1) to the internal storage, and then have that chainload to the uSD card. That should work even if for some reason the firmware doesn't want to boot off uSD normally.
I just got a Surface Pro 2 and started playing with the idea of booting Linux off the SD card. I haven't done an actual installation yet, but I was just playing with the idea of making a bootable USB device preferably without having to change the internal SSD. (Especially since I have the 64GB base model and that's really barely enough for a comfortable use of Windows. I also wanted to leave the recovery partition intact as a good just-in-case.)
So first I made a bootable generic USB flash drive using UNetbootin and a stock Ubuntu 14.04 desktop installation image. Works as expected, can go into the "Advanced Startup" screen and boot from USB device. Nothing special, was able to launch the live session.
Then I used UNetbootin again, this time on an 8GB microSD I had laying around. The Surface would NOT boot off the microSD card through "Advanced Startup."
Then I tried it using the Rufus tool linked above -- this worked. You can go through "Advanced Startup" or hold volume down when powering on the Surface. Either way will launch the Live session. Very cool.
So then I went back and tried to figure out what was different. Same card, same base ISO... what I noticed was that Rufus was setting the "lba" flag on the SD card's FAT32 partition. So I formatted and recreated the card with UNetbootin again, verified it was unbootable, then used gparted to set the "lba" flag. After that, it booted. So this is something to note.
I'll have to actually try installing to the card and seeing if the Surface will boot from it or not. But this is something at least.
EDIT:
It seems like Surface will never boot the SD card if it isn't exactly a single FAT32 partition consuming the entire microSD card.
I'll just wrap up my last bit of contribution to this for now. I used a virtual machine with an EFI install of Windows 8 to stage this at first...
So the short end is, it seems the Surface Pro's firmware is strict about what it will boot from USB, and it seems to be a device that must be a single FAT32 partition with the "boot" and "lba" flags set, or else it won't work. If anyone knows of another combination, great, but this is what I determined through my limited experimentation.
Basically the most minimally invasive Ubuntu (or other Linux) install I could think to do that generally leaves the Surface a Surface and a Linux device second was this procedure (using Ubuntu 14.04):
Create an Ubuntu USB install device (use the aforementioned Rufus tool for best results or else be aware of the partitioning specifics.)
Use "Advanced Startup" or "Vol -" at power on to boot the USB key
When installing and prompted about disk installation, do "Something Else" (Careful! Very easy to obliterate the internal Windows or reduce space on less-equipped Surfaces to useless levels!)
Use "/dev/sda" as the place to install the boot loader (GRUB)
Resize the Surface's main Windows partition back by a small amount (e.g. 512MB)
Create an ext4 partition in this space and set this as the "/boot" mount point (exercise to the reader to look up making a /boot partition for GRUB and deciding on the amount they want to allocate)
Partition your SD Card in the Surface however you like, but you'll need some kind of ext4 partition for the Ubuntu installation, of course! (e.g. I split mine into NTFS, ext4, and swap space, but you can do whatever suits you)
Set your root mount point on the SD Card's ext4 partition.
And that's pretty much it -- the Ubuntu installer is smart enough to take care of the rest.
Major point here, regarding step 4 -- you CAN have the "/boot" on your SD card if you like, but what will happen is that you will be unable to properly boot from GRUB if you don't have that specific SD card inserted. If you never plan to remove your SD card, you can avoid changing the internal memory partitions at all.
Installing GRUB to the SD card through the Ubuntu installer will do no good since, again, the Surface seems adamant about only booting a device with a single FAT32 partition occupying the full space. Obviously the installer USB device you make IS a bootable Linux image on a FAT32 partition, so you CAN pull it off if you have all the know-how -- i.e. setting up GRUB and booting an ".img" file from the FAT32 partition -- pretty sure the Ubuntu installer doesn't support this in a straightforward manner.
In any case, I'm happy with GRUB and "/boot" being on /dev/sda. I can remove the card and simply be unable to boot Ubuntu, but still use Windows. If you follow this installation, I highly recommend setting GRUB to boot Windows by default just in case you do remove the SD card and don't have your touch cover connected. Further, I recommend setting up GRUB so that it always times out (on the default Windows selection) even if the previous boot failed (which, by Ubuntu default, GRUB will not timeout on a failed boot.) But of course this is all user preference and what kind of situations you expect yourself to be in.
Hopefully this is at least one adequate answer to the OP, even though it is over a year old.
Footnote: Haven't gotten the built-in WiFi / Bluetooth working, even with putting the firmware in place. (The mwiflex driver is complaining about a command timeout as soon as it loads and does not progress.) Tried a newer kernel, still doesn't work. I'm mostly interested in the WiFi, but as yet, still no good. But that's beyond what the OP was strictly asking.
UPDATE: Firmware update fixed WiFi. (Info from https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=64111) -- Basically clone git git://git.marvell.com/mwifiex-firmware.git and copy /mwifiex-firmware/mrvl/usb8797_uapsta.bin to /lib/firmware/mrvl and reboot. Not sure if newer kernel needed. Was running kernel 3.15.0-999-generic from Ubuntu's mainline.
why install grub? the only reason is if you want to default boot into windows
since you're installing a second os on the microsd, you can access it directly with power+vol down
anyways, i was brought here because i was thinking of getting an sd card with a fully independent os for my surface pro
if i burn a ubuntu iso onto the microsd, you wouldnt actually be installing the os onto the sd card right? every time you boot, it would be the live-cd ubuntu
is there a way to install the full os onto the microsd?
anonxlg said:
why install grub? the only reason is if you want to default boot into windows
since you're installing a second os on the microsd, you can access it directly with power+vol down
anyways, i was brought here because i was thinking of getting an sd card with a fully independent os for my surface pro
if i burn a ubuntu iso onto the microsd, you wouldnt actually be installing the os onto the sd card right? every time you boot, it would be the live-cd ubuntu
is there a way to install the full os onto the microsd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just install ubuntu onto the microsd...
anonxlg said:
why install grub? the only reason is if you want to default boot into windows
since you're installing a second os on the microsd, you can access it directly with power+vol down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With power+vol down, I was only able to boot a USB device or microSD that was partitioned exactly as a single FAT32 partition occupying the entire device, which is also what you get from making a bootable Ubuntu key using tools usually. Even if all I did was shortchange the FAT32 partition, the Surface would no longer try to boot from it. It would not boot an SD card I installed Ubuntu to, and I tried it as a non-EFI and EFI install. If you have different results, go ahead and post about it. It seems to me that the firmware was being extremely particular about what kind of drive it was booting from. I'm not sure why Microsoft would make it so particular except to perhaps limit was sort of "recovery" devices you might be trying to load. Logically speaking, it only needs to boot a FAT32 partitioned device since that's the only thing generated by the recovery software in Windows 8, so they have no reason to support anything else.
Thank you southbird! Works great on my Surface Pro 2, BUT ....
Partitioned my micro SD (using gparted) as your instructions: two partitions - first partition ext4 and the other NTFS. Added small partition on internal HDD for /boot. I installed kubuntu 14.01. Made Windows the default boot, and everything works except Windows 8.1 will not recognize the partition for data (the partition that is formatted NTFS). It "sees" it as a broken drive and wants to format the whole micro SD card and I know it will delete the ext4 part (where / resides) because it doesn't "see" the card as being partitioned. Your instructions sound like you got the data partition to work (it is "seen" and usable in kubuntu). Did you do something else to get Windows to "see" it as a separate data partition? :fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed:
southbird said:
I'll just wrap up my last bit of contribution to this for now. I used a virtual machine with an EFI install of Windows 8 to stage this at first...
So the short end is, it seems the Surface Pro's firmware is strict about what it will boot from USB, and it seems to be a device that must be a single FAT32 partition with the "boot" and "lba" flags set, or else it won't work. If anyone knows of another combination, great, but this is what I determined through my limited experimentation.
Basically the most minimally invasive Ubuntu (or other Linux) install I could think to do that generally leaves the Surface a Surface and a Linux device second was this procedure (using Ubuntu 14.04):
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello Guys!
I have another question to add here!
Next week i'll get my Surface Pro 2 with 256GB
The last days my mind played with some ideas to have a dualboot option in the surface.
Is it possible to install Android Lollipop (or Kitkat) x86 on the micro sd (64GB) and boot from it?
I have read the whole thread but its a lil bit complicated.
Would be nice if anyons can show this in a step by step process, or guide me to a tutorial.
thanks!!
Methisfaction said:
Hello Guys!
I have another question to add here!
Next week i'll get my Surface Pro 2 with 256GB
The last days my mind played with some ideas to have a dualboot option in the surface.
Is it possible to install Android Lollipop (or Kitkat) x86 on the micro sd (64GB) and boot from it?
I have read the whole thread but its a lil bit complicated.
Would be nice if anyons can show this in a step by step process, or guide me to a tutorial.
thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed you can, however:
1. The microSD will need to be formatted with GPT partition scheme, and the boot partition must be FAT32;
2. The January 2015 UEFI update removes ability to boot from microSD. Skip that and you're golden!
Hey,
I just sold a HTC Desire phones and had previously partitioned the Micro SD cards from within the recovery tool on the phone to allow for 1GB of the 4GB sd card to be used as part of the system. Now when I want to reuse the card as a regular card, I can only see 2.67GB available. I've tried Easus and MIniTool partition software as well as SDformatter, none of them see the full 4gb. I can't remember now correctly whether I was seeing 2.66gb primary and 1gb unallocated in the windows device manager after having messed around trying to merge them, but now I can only see 2.66 in every program I tried.
Would appreciate any help on how I can see and use the rest of the card
cormie said:
Hey,
I just sold a HTC Desire phones and had previously partitioned the Micro SD cards from within the recovery tool on the phone to allow for 1GB of the 4GB sd card to be used as part of the system. Now when I want to reuse the card as a regular card, I can only see 2.67GB available. I've tried Easus and MIniTool partition software as well as SDformatter, none of them see the full 4gb. I can't remember now correctly whether I was seeing 2.66gb primary and 1gb unallocated in the windows device manager after having messed around trying to merge them, but now I can only see 2.66 in every program I tried.
Would appreciate any help on how I can see and use the rest of the card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get your hands on a Linux Machine, a card reader and most importantly gParted. You might be abled to fix it. I have seen mem cards, usb drives etc which cant be recovered on Windows getting rescued by gParted. If you can get gparted, these steps usually work.
1) Select partition [Careful]
2) Goto Device then create partition table.
3) Then format.
Hopefully it should work. Otherwise you might have to use dd.
gr1m.r34p3r said:
If you can get your hands on a Linux Machine, a card reader and most importantly gParted. You might be abled to fix it. I have seen mem cards, usb drives etc which cant be recovered on Windows getting rescued by gParted. If you can get gparted, these steps usually work.
1) Select partition [Careful]
2) Goto Device then create partition table.
3) Then format.
Hopefully it should work. Otherwise you might have to use dd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, what's DD?
Would I not be able to do this on a windows machine and it would have to be linux?
cormie said:
Thanks for the reply, what's DD?
Would I not be able to do this on a windows machine and it would have to be linux?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bump
cormie said:
Thanks for the reply, what's DD?
Would I not be able to do this on a windows machine and it would have to be linux?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dd is a tool (again) on Linux which can clone disks etc. And gParted is a tool which I've heard works on Linux, Windows and Mac. But I've personally never tried it. But getting a copy of linux is pretty easy. Just download the iso (I recommemd Ubuntu, burn it onto a USB or CD and boot it. You can do a live session (Dosen't need to be installed, runs of RAM) then use gparted directly or install it ( 'sudo apt-get install gparted' in a Ubuntu Terminal).
gr1m.r34p3r said:
dd is a tool (again) on Linux which can clone disks etc. And gParted is a tool which I've heard works on Linux, Windows and Mac. But I've personally never tried it. But getting a copy of linux is pretty easy. Just download the iso (I recommemd Ubuntu, burn it onto a USB or CD and boot it. You can do a live session (Dosen't need to be installed, runs of RAM) then use gparted directly or install it ( 'sudo apt-get install gparted' in a Ubuntu Terminal).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey thanks a lot for such a helpful post, if that's what I have to do, I think it will be a bit too much effort just for the sake of 1gb extra on cards that are only a few euro anyway in the first place. Thanks again anyway but I might just have to leave it
Can we ditch the HDD/SSD of PC and use smartphone storage instead?
Is it possible to create an NTFS partition in the smartphone storage that will be used as a bootable external HDD/SSD drive that can boot a PC?
Try this:
How to Recover Your PC Using an Android Device
PC won't boot? No other computer available to make a recovery USB? Here's how to create a bootable USB in Android without a PC.
www.makeuseof.com
I'm talking about using the phone's storage as the main storage also of a PC for daily use, not just for a one-time boot.
You would first have to find an old phone that has the ability to run mass storage. Then you can experiment.
You can install a Windows Emulator on your Phone.​Look inside here:
2 Best Windows Emulator for Android Phones (Working) 2023
Looking for Best Windows emulator for Android phones? Check out these 2 best Windows PC emulators for Android. (100% Working)
techonation.com
Why not on Windows PC install the Windows Subsystem for Android ( WSA ) and run Android OS natively directly on PC?
The point is to combine the phone storage and the PC storage to one storage, to be able to manage your data in one place.
Dividing the storage to (at least) 3 partitions:
1. Android OS
2. Data (Documents, Music, Video...)
3. Windows OS
You don't need to manage your Data twice.
All your Data and changes is available to you at home and on the road.
You don't need Cloud or Sync solutions.
Offline.
What you want to get achieved simply is impossible IMO: in any case a server as MITM-machine is needed.
Only to have mentioned it: both the Windows OS and the Android OS store files in incompatible filesystems.
Didn't know Windows can installed on portable drives... I feel this is mainly a Windows question. I remember there was such funny thing BartPE.
Stamimail said:
Can we ditch the HDD/SSD of PC and use smartphone storage instead?
Is it possible to create an NTFS partition in the smartphone storage that will be used as a bootable external HDD/SSD drive that can boot a PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I understand your question, try the Drivedroid app, it can be used to make an Android device function as a bootable drive to boot PC from the Android device.
Also, there are some methods to dual boot on Android.
I'm talking about a situation where everything happens simultaneously:
1. First partition serves the phone to run Android OS. (The phone works normally. You can have a call on the phone)
2. The second partition serves both the phone and the computer, for User Data.
3. The third partition serves the computer to run Windows OS.
@Stamimail please answer yourself first
3. have you ever installed any Windows on external usb hard disk/ssd drive? Is that even possible? Idk
Yes, a long time ago.
Also a short internet search shows that it is possible.
I see there such thing Windows to go.
https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/index.html
probably easiest workaround is rooted android device with MicroSD card provided as UMS.
[APP][ROOT] USB MASS STORAGE Enabler v1.6
This app is to enable Mass Storage Mode for mounting your Memory Card as a USB Drive in Computer from your rooted device [Android 4.0+].. It does not mount internal storage, and it will not work if your device doesn't have External Memory Card...
forum.xda-developers.com
or try Drivedroid.
[APP][2.2+] DriveDroid - host ISO/IMG files to boot your PC from
DriveDroid allows you to boot your PC from ISO/IMG files stored on your phone. This is ideal for trying Linux distributions or always having a rescue-system on the go... without the need to burn different CDs or USB pendrives. The paid version of...
forum.xda-developers.com
In further reading, I get the impression that the big problem is that internal storage always has better performance than external storage.
I don't know why external storage can't be made to be as good as internal.
So the question now is:
If people decide it's a good idea, is it technically possible to implement this idea (that phone storage will replace computer storage)?
you can repartition userdata partition with gdisk and create another partition. this partition can be provided as UMS.
However, windows is known for dancing rumba on disk, you probably won't have much fun till emmc is weared-out.