Is it possible to resize active partitions/
I am running Stock JB on sytem1 and ParanoidAndroid 4.3 on ssytem 2 (this is my primary system). Prior to ROM flashing I created (3) 1GB partitions for each system. Now my Data partition for system 2 is at 100MB even after I moved every app I could to the SD card. Every thread I looked at said 1GB was more than enough for a data partition so I cannot understand how I've run out of space. Perhaps I am not using the partition structures correctly. Anyway, I was hoping to resize an active partition the same way I have with Partition Magic when resizing a Windows drive partition. Thanks for any replies.
Related
I finally decided to apply a lag-fix to my phone. I used the RyanZA fix available in the market. I'm not exactly sure on the stock partition configuration on the Captivate but if I understand the lag-fix, an ext2 partition is created and the system files are moved to that partition.
Thinking ahead for when Froyo areives, I'm wondering if I can format all of my internal storage and reinstall a ROM. If I format the internal storage, do the necessary partitions need to be created manually or does installing a ROM create the needed partitions?
I hope this question makes sense. I'm fairly new to Android so execuse me if my terminology is off.
Thanks.
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:
Let me start with: I know that there have been many posts on this, but before you get mad, I was unable to find an answer to what I specifically want to do.
For reference: I am a software developer and sysadmin with a decent amount of Linux experience, but not a lot of android specific experience.
Now that the introduction is out of the way:
What I would like to do is completely remove the "USERDATA" partition (the "Internal SD card"), grow the "SYSTEM" partition to fill that space, and then mount my SD Card (external) as the SD Card that the system sees.
I'm currently on Cyanogenmod 10.1 but want to upgrade to 11 soon.
The reason I want to do this is because:
I have all if my apps that I can set to install to SD Card
Both "internal" partitions are full (only about 200MB is available for pictures/etc. and I can no longer update apps)
Camera (and pretty much everything else as well) stores to the Internal SD card by default
If the system partition was 1.1+1.4=2.5GB and all of my apps were "installed" to a real SD card, it would be a lot more comfortable.
So, here's what I am thinking *might* work (maybe not in the right order, though?):
Point the fstab entry for the internal SD card to the external SD card
I have the PIT file. I will delete the "USERDATA " and grow "SYSTEM" to fill the space
When I write it out in steps, it seems pretty simple...
My concerns:
Will a ROM update (to CM11) re-partition back to the old way (and, in the process, break a bunch of stuff)?
I don't ever plan to go back to stock android or change to another ROM (other than upgrades).
Thanks for reading this long post and for any insight you may be able to provide.
--mobrien118
It's a wonderful idea if it works.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app
Modifying partitions is a bit dangerous.
But I have to ask you why do you need another GB of /system storage?
There was a line you can put in the build.prop that flips your ext. SD with the internal one on cm10 I believe.
This'd interest me if I could get rid of usbdisk and sdcard0 merged.
It would need the phone to be repartitioned though, causing issues with the backups and ROMs.
You may even have to compile cm from source.
Its a lot of trouble
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using Tapatalk
I just did so on S4 Mini with cm-11 Android 4.4.
First I was thinking of using symlinks and/or bind mounts to redirect to the the external sdcard, but that's a bit of a hassle because
1) Since 4.2: both emulated and external storage is mounted with a fuse layer on top not supporting symlinks
2) Since 4.4: no more global write access on external storage
So moving data was the simplest solution. Besides providing (much) more space my sdcard is also around 20% faster in sequential writes: 8.5 MB/s internal vs 10.5 MB/s external. Is it really 2014?
I haven't yet decided what to do with the original data partition, so for the moment I left it unused. Hence I haven't touched the internal partition table.
Quick summary
partition sdcard (gdisk)
I recommend using GPT, this lets you work with partition names rather than numbers. For the sake of still having an "official" external sdcard I made two partitions. Keep in mind that it's usually the first partition which gets automatically mounted as external sdcard. So I made the 2nd partition the new home for data. This partition however has to be manually specified in the ramdisks fstab which involves flashing the boot partition.
format the new partitions (mkfs.ext4)
copy the original /data directory tree to the new data partition
extract initrd from boot.img (abootimg)
extract files from initrd (gunzip & cpio)
replace the /data entry in fstab pointing at your new data partition
re-pack initrd and boot.img (gzip, cpio & abootimg)
flash boot.img onto the boot partition (dd)
If you use recovery, you also have to edit it's fstab (analog to boot.img mentioned above)
done
Alternatively has anyone tried an init.d script? I see those scripts get executed before the mounting of data & sdcard
Meanwhile the original userdata partition got replaced by 3 new partitions: system2, cache2 & userdata2 which are now used for a dual boot ROM.
I've only changed GPT, not PIT. ROMs and Recovery don't use PIT, so as long as Heimdall/Odin isn't involved it should not cause any issues.
Hey guys,
So after read all that, I am also vry interested in what the OP has suggested. I get that the pit doesn't need to be affected, but as the OP asked, when flashing a new rom or updating an existing, would the partition be reformatted back to the way android handles it, ie; back to the system and data seperate and the sdcard not being used as the internal partition?
I am no developer and only have minimal knowledge in linux and android programing, but I am a quick study and any guide to help me sort this would be greatly appreciated.
Also I am about to get a second S4 mini specifcally for doing things like this so if I brick I don't care?
My next question is could it be possible to code the PIT file to do this for you so that you can just flash that through odin, but again would flashing roms affect this.
Cheers,
Sora.
aguaz said:
I just did so on S4 Mini with cm-11 Android 4.4.
First I was thinking of using symlinks and/or bind mounts to redirect to the the external sdcard, but that's a bit of a hassle because
1) Since 4.2: both emulated and external storage is mounted with a fuse layer on top not supporting symlinks
2) Since 4.4: no more global write access on external storage
So moving data was the simplest solution. Besides providing (much) more space my sdcard is also around 20% faster in sequential writes: 8.5 MB/s internal vs 10.5 MB/s external. Is it really 2014?
I haven't yet decided what to do with the original data partition, so for the moment I left it unused. Hence I haven't touched the internal partition table.
Quick summary
partition sdcard (gdisk)
I recommend using GPT, this lets you work with partition names rather than numbers. For the sake of still having an "official" external sdcard I made two partitions. Keep in mind that it's usually the first partition which gets automatically mounted as external sdcard. So I made the 2nd partition the new home for data. This partition however has to be manually specified in the ramdisks fstab which involves flashing the boot partition.
format the new partitions (mkfs.ext4)
copy the original /data directory tree to the new data partition
extract initrd from boot.img (abootimg)
extract files from initrd (gunzip & cpio)
replace the /data entry in fstab pointing at your new data partition
re-pack initrd and boot.img (gzip, cpio & abootimg)
flash boot.img onto the boot partition (dd)
If you use recovery, you also have to edit it's fstab (analog to boot.img mentioned above)
done
Alternatively has anyone tried an init.d script? I see those scripts get executed before the mounting of data & sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just managed to replace my internal sd with the external sd following your ruff guide. thank you very much! At first I struggled a bit getting it to work, because I had encrypted my data partition before -.- this seems to change something in the fstab / mounting / boot-up process, I couldn't get my S4 mini to boot with just changing the fstab.qcom in boot.img. With my recovery (TWRP) it worked from the start editing recovery.img's fstab.twrp /data mount point.
After decrypting(formatting) /data and re-editing fstab.qcom in boot.img it finally works I'm so happy! Enjoying a lot of space on my sdcard now!
usefull threads / information I learnt from:
Partition structure of S4 Mini
Encryption of ExtSD & some fstab information
Editing initrd
abootimg ReadMe
(Links last tried 28.05.2015)
Hi all...
Im having problem with Link2sd after resizing the second partition.
What I had done:
Before resizing the partition I copied all the files from ext partition to my desktop
I resized the partition to a smaller one, from 4.5 gb to 3.5.
The total filesize in this partition was under 2 gig.
Using minipartition tool I deleted the ext partition.
Resized my existing fat partition to 4 gb and created ext partition with rest of the space
Ext partition was created as primary.
Now I copied back all the files from desktop to sd card.
But everytime I start with my sdcard, Samsung logo keeps showing after boit sound.
I waited for 5 minutes but nothing happnd.
I started without sdcard. And tried recreating mount script.But the same problem.
How to overcome this problem. Do I need to start from the beginning? ?
My device Samsung Galaxy Fame 6812.
Running jb 4.1 Stock ROM definitely Rooted.
droidshan said:
Hi all...
Im having problem with Link2sd after resizing the second partition.
What I had done:
Before resizing the partition I copied all the files from ext partition to my desktop
I resized the partition to a smaller one, from 4.5 gb to 3.5.
The total filesize in this partition was under 2 gig.
Using minipartition tool I deleted the ext partition.
Resized my existing fat partition to 4 gb and created ext partition with rest of the space
Ext partition was created as primary.
Now I copied back all the files from desktop to sd card.
But everytime I start with my sdcard, Samsung logo keeps showing after boit sound.
I waited for 5 minutes but nothing happnd.
I started without sdcard. And tried recreating mount script.But the same problem.
How to overcome this problem. Do I need to start from the beginning? ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats the phone you're talking about?
LS.xD said:
Whats the phone you're talking about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oopss. Im really sorry for not specifying device model..
My device Samsung Galaxy Fame 6812.
Running jb 4.1 Stock ROM definitely Rooted.
droidshan said:
Oopss. Im really sorry for not specifying device model..
My device Samsung Galaxy Fame 6812.
Running jb 4.1 Stock ROM definitely Rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The operation to link storage to ext partition is scripted. Ext4 partition has to be formatted once after installing the script to work properly. Link2SD performs this when setting up. You can try formatting the SD-Ext partition using your custom recovery but i suppose you will have to set up the ext partition again usning Link2SD
LS.xD said:
The operation to link storage to ext partition is scripted. Ext4 partition has to be formatted once after installing the script to work properly. Link2SD performs this when setting up. You can try formatting the SD-Ext partition using your custom recovery but i suppose you will have to set up the ext partition again usning Link2SD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I copied the files back to ext partition after formatting the partition.
Do I need to start from the scratch?
Did you Format it using the custom recovery?
Sent from my beloved HTC One S using (most time buggy) Tapatalk
No custom recovery, running with stock recovery. I had no problem when I first started link2sd with no apos linked.
I formatted the ext partition from mini partition tool
droidshan said:
No custom recovery, running with stock recovery. I had no problem when I first started link2sd with no apos linked.
I formatted the ext partition from mini partition tool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems as you need to set up the partition via Link2SD again
LS.xD said:
Seems as you need to set up the partition via Link2SD again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes!! I had cleaned up the second partition from linked2sd. And rebooted.
Phone boots normally with basic apps..
Now I tapped " relink all files " frm link2sd . And copied one apk file from my backup & rebooted
Bingo!!! That app linked 2 sd .. now copying rest of the apps..
Thanks for helping me..
Hi all...
Just wandering if anyone new how to resize the system partition of a galaxy a53?
Need to make it larger to fit files onto it but not able to delete bloatware or anything for some reason using all the recommended processes. And to be honest having larger system partition would probably just be useful anyway.
My phone is rooted. I'm not fussed about having to refresh ect. And I have TWRP flashed and Stock Rom.
Please help lol
TWRP should automatically resize your system partition.
When you're installing the ROM, make sure you format /data then /system before installing.
It does, but i want to make the partition larger so i can add files to the system partition once the rom is flashed and phone is set up to be used.
At the moment it say 6GB partition and only the rom fits onto the partition and there isnt any room to add extra files. so im looking to make the partition say 10GB to give myself some wiggle room to play with.
i Have 128GB in total so can spare some extra GB's lol