I'm not certain that this is where this post should go, however it seemed the most fitting for it. My android tablet (Arnova 7b G3) has only 4GB of internal storage, of which 2GB is allocated as storage, and the other reserved for firmware, apps and system etc. This makes it awkward when installing games for example which have a download size of 1.39GB (GTA: Vice City) that must be downloaded to internal memory as it leaves very little spare. The tablet divides the space into the following: Internal storage, and internal SD card.
Is it possible to merge the two partitions, seeing as a lot of the first partition is given to apps anyway it wouldn't be as though there was no space for firmware?
Thanks!
Related
From Droid Forums:
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...ion-storage-vs-internal-storage-question.html
The droid 3 has 512 meg ram (random access memory) for running OS and apps being used.
It also has 16 gig of internal storage (basically like an internal sdcard/flash drive).
This 16 gig is divided up in to different pieces, some to store the system (OS) files, some to store your apps that you download. It appears to use a little about 2.5 gig for this.
The rest of the internal storage is mapped as /sdcard (about 11.5 gigs). This is where you store pictures, .mp3s, etc....and where apps you download will store their data (kindle books, launcherpro backups, etc...).
A physical sd-card you install is "extra" space for you to store more pictures and songs and such.
Q1) How is the OS allocating between the 512MB RAM and the 16GB internal storage?
Two different pools.
512MB ram is RAM for the phone's OS and running apps.
16GB internal storage is storage of the system files and apps downloaded.
Q2) Are my applications installed across memory and the storage?
Memory is for running apps
Storage is for storing apps
There is no cross memory usage
Q3) Do I have control of where the apps are stored between the onboard memory and onboard storage?
No. On board memory is not for you to use, it's for the OS and running applications.
On board storage is divided in to sections, some for downloaded apps from the Market and where the system files are and another section for your files (documents, pictures, songs, etc..).
The 1.53GB remaining is the /data mounted partition for apps you get from the Market (or other sources). The 11.35GB is for where you would put pictures, music and such. They are both off the internal 16GB storage just separated in to different partitions. (2gb for /data, 11.35 for /sdcard).
Adding an additional (real) sd-card to the slot will mount as /sdcard-ext giving you more storage for pictures, music and such.
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Tom Crews
SnkBitten - http://android.snkbitten.com/
(available on Rom Manager)
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This question was asked in relation to the Droid 3, and the below answer is awesome, and I get it 100%, But I am wondering: Does this apply to the D2G at all? The 8GB internal storage that it has is massive compared to most phones in the same "class". I bought the phone, assuming, actually, that the 8GB was somewhat useful, but it's only been useful by ensuring I never, ever have to install an app on the sd card.
I have 120 apps, yet, 5.93 of this 8 GB is still available. In other words, NOTHING I ever do will come close to filling it, short of finding a way to put my pics/videos/music there.
It seems the Droid 3 allocates this space logically. But is there a way to make the D2G do it? An app, maybe? Or has it been doing it all along without me even realizing it?
You need to be rooted to be able to use that space.
Gasai Yuno said:
You need to be rooted to be able to use that space.
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I am rooted. Now what?
This requires either adb shell or a terminal.
First, you need to create a new folder for your stuff in /data, and set the permissions for it to 644 sdcard_rw:sdcard_rw.
Second, to be able to access it from your PC (and make the phone scan it for content along with the SD card contents) you will have to bind it to a folder on the SD, using mount's bind option.
I think that the bind mount won't survive reboots, so you'll have to bind it every time you boot your phone (you can always automate it via a script though).
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.
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?
Hi,
I have a 16gb tablet but settings only show12gb total available space... is this normal?
Cheers
b
Yes it's normal. I'm not exactly sure why it's like this, but I'm assuming that a portion of the device's flash memory is used for storage of the ROM, cache partition etc. and system apps.
This is however all perfectly normal, nothing wrong with your device
well there's a couple factors like first off it that standard of 1 billion bytes equals a GB when it really doesn't so the 16 is more actually like 14.8-14.9 GB then typically the App storage (approx 2GB sometimes up to 4GB) is separated out from the main storage (doesn't show up when connected to a PC like the rest of the internal storage) and then there is the "invisible" part that actually holds the OS. You should count youself lucky you have 12GB of space on my Razr Maxx out of the supposed 16 GB I have 6.1GB of useable internal storage and 2.7GB of app storage which means my system "invisible" part is taking over 6GB of space.
Is there a way to make the internal storage more usable after doing a data2sd (and even a rom2sd) install? I understand that if the card is pulled the tab will want something to fall back on, but it need not be huge. In my case I have under 6 gigs available from internal storage, and that just seems like a waste. There is a link to my old internal storage space I found as well, but is is separate and hard to get to. Anyone have any ideas? (and yes, I have been searching. Everything I find is on partitioning the external SD)
Thank you for all of your excellent work on improving the TF700!