[Q] Help - Galaxy Tab 2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi guys Really need some help...recently my device kept giving me problems such as mount a sd..even though i already have and sd card...
until 1 day i decide to format the sd card and delete everything in it...And put it back on my device...Funny things is my device still detects those files that ive deleted...any idea whats wrong ?

I think there is a partition in the table that looks as another sd

bonico said:
I think there is a partition in the table that looks as another sd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this. The SD card is likely partitioned into several (at least two) partitions, and at least one of them still has the files you are seeing. I would open the card up in windows and see what you get. If you only get one mounted partition in Windows, go ahead and open the Admin Tools/Computer Management / Storage and you will likely see a previously hidden partition there that you can then remove, prior to reformatting the whole card.
Often these weird partitions are the result of the card manufacturers wanting a special partition for their "value added" software that comes on the card. Usually this is crapware, and the strangely formatted cards can cause problems just like what you are seeing. I've had this very problem with some offbrand thing I bought at OfficeMax, that came with "one click backup software" and it took me a while to figure out how to exorcise this demon.
Marc

I suggest only formatting your external sdcard as fat32. If there are still references to old files, you could also try formatting your cache partition.

Frankenscript said:
I agree with this. The SD card is likely partitioned into several (at least two) partitions, and at least one of them still has the files you are seeing. I would open the card up in windows and see what you get. If you only get one mounted partition in Windows, go ahead and open the Admin Tools/Computer Management / Storage and you will likely see a previously hidden partition there that you can then remove, prior to reformatting the whole card.
Often these weird partitions are the result of the card manufacturers wanting a special partition for their "value added" software that comes on the card. Usually this is crapware, and the strangely formatted cards can cause problems just like what you are seeing. I've had this very problem with some offbrand thing I bought at OfficeMax, that came with "one click backup software" and it took me a while to figure out how to exorcise this demon.
Marc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1

Related

Broken SD Card?

For the last 5 hours I have had hell with my sd card I redid my phone with JF new build and wiped out my 8gb class 6 a-data sd card but all of a sudeen it been acting weird
one thing is in paragon it shows the partitions still there (ext2) which takes up the whole card and should not, while windows shows its fat32, and i can access it in windows but it wont show up in in partition program nor delete
while when i mount it into the g1 (where it ask to mount or dont mount when plug it into pc) it instantly unmounts and i click mount again but just makes a noise and unmounts also saying its blank
now my 2gb chip seems to work fine (sometimes well if i unstall the drivers and let them re install then it works for a great amount of time), but this 8 gb,...well
what do you guys think? is it fixable? I can record video of it all (errors and stuff included) if u want
idk if its my chip, my phone or my pc can anyone help?
i think this has something to do with the way windows handles sd cards with no partition table. i assume you formatted the whole card to fat32 using a third party utility? that will totally confuse the system, because it cached a version of the partition table and now there's nowhere to find the new one. a quick solution is to use the build-in format tool to format your sdcard (right click on sdcard's icon and select format...). this should force the system to recalculate the size of the partition. then you have to unplug the card reader and plug it back in. now paragon should work.
billc.cn said:
i think this has something to do with the way windows handles sd cards with no partition table. i assume you formatted the whole card to fat32 using a third party utility? that will totally confuse the system, because it cached a version of the partition table and now there's nowhere to find the new one. a quick solution is to use the build-in format tool to format your sdcard (right click on sdcard's icon and select format...). this should force the system to recalculate the size of the partition. then you have to unplug the card reader and plug it back in. now paragon should work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after a long while, finally got windows to format the whole thing to fat32, but yet still acting weird
what kind of card reader are you using? certain card readers has their own controller and do not allow you to partition properly.
but i am sure mountd in android will allow you full access to the sdcard when it's mounted.
also how much total space do you have in that fat partition after format? a full 8gb sd should have approx. 7.45GB actually space. if your partition table is correct, windows should only format the fat partition and give you a size smaller than 7.45G.
I strongly suggest you try again under Linux using the phone as reader. any livecd with a partition manager will perform much better than windows.
Well i try it both on my phone and a mem card reader, but once I put it on my phone it does not detect a sd card (my 8gb im trying to fix) while detects my fat32 2 gb chip
on my laptop and pc cant format nor delete that ext2 8gb sd card
BUT that 8gb ext2 card im trying to fix loads perfeclty and can access it on ubuntu so im guessing its not physically broken
tanner2007 said:
but once I put it on my phone it does not detect a sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by "it", the GUI. How about doing an ls on /dev/block from the terminal on the phone to see what linux sees?
tanner2007 said:
on my laptop and pc cant format nor delete that ext2 8gb sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, what do you mean by delete the card? You can delete a partition, but not a card: I'm not sure makes sense.
tanner2007 said:
BUT that 8gb ext2 card im trying to fix loads perfeclty and can access it on ubuntu so im guessing its not physically broken
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You say ext2, but yet above you claim to have reformatted as FAT. What does your ubuntu machine think it is? One way to tell is to mount it and try to set permissions on a file, if you can, it is not FAT.
What is your objective, do you want a FAT partition, an EXT2 partition, both?
Well I got it working guys, I dont know what was happening as I said before different programs where detecting different file systems, but soon as I found out how to do it ubuntu I saw it was working and erased the whole card (all partitions and everything)
and now it works again thanks guys ur tips helped

Partitions, appstosd, MoDaCo

I used the recovery partition to create FAT32, ext2, and swap partitions on my sd card.
1) What size does it make each of these partitions?
2) What is each used for?
3) When loading the MoDaCo update.zip (and rebooting after first boot) after creating these partitions, what does it do with each of them? My free space on each seems to change, and I think it's loading some apps to the SD card? But not others?
4) How do you see how much space remains on the fat32 and ext2 partitions? Which one is shown in the SD card info settings page, and which one is used for USB mass storage mode? Neither seems to change much even after I install a bunch of >1MB apps.
Thanks for any help.
Also, what's taking up all my internal phone space? If the update.zip moved apps to the SD card, why do I only have 50 MB left of internal space?
jonnythan said:
I used the recovery partition to create FAT32, ext2, and swap partitions on my sd card.
1) What size does it make each of these partitions?
2) What is each used for?
3) When loading the MoDaCo update.zip (and rebooting after first boot) after creating these partitions, what does it do with each of them? My free space on each seems to change, and I think it's loading some apps to the SD card? But not others?
4) How do you see how much space remains on the fat32 and ext2 partitions? Which one is shown in the SD card info settings page, and which one is used for USB mass storage mode? Neither seems to change much even after I install a bunch of >1MB apps.
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
32 mb swap, 500mb ext2 rest fat32
swap is for linux swap if its used in the rom, ext2 is for your apps, and fat32 is for your storage
yes it loads all of your /data/app and /data/app-private apps on your sd card, your /system/app stays there
you can do a df -h under adb to see your free space
jonnythan said:
I used the recovery partition to create FAT32, ext2, and swap partitions on my sd card.
1) What size does it make each of these partitions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it makes a 32MB Swap partiton, a 500 MB Ext2 partition and the rest fat32.
jonnythan said:
2) What is each used for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Fat32 is normal files like music, pictures, etc. The ext2 is used for apps2sd. Don't worry, 500MB is more than enough for this. The swap is used for bakcground applications so they run better without slowing the phone down as much.
jonnythan said:
3) When loading the MoDaCo update.zip (and rebooting after first boot) after creating these partitions, what does it do with each of them? My free space on each seems to change, and I think it's loading some apps to the SD card? But not others?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Fat32 it shouldnt do anything. Obviously you will have less space because the other partitions are taking some of it's space. It loads the apps onto your ext2 partition but not all of them. System apps such as the calculator, browser, phone, etc stay on the system partition because it's faster.
jonnythan said:
4) How do you see how much space remains on the fat32 and ext2 partitions? Which one is shown in the SD card info settings page, and which one is used for USB mass storage mode? Neither seems to change much even after I install a bunch of >1MB apps.
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have Windows, Linux or Mac. I don't know about Mac but I know Linux can view ext partitions natively (obviously, it's the native filesystem). For Windows you might be able to load the disk management application but if that doesnt show it you need a partitioning application or any other application that can read ext partitions off an sdcard. Don't know any off hand except paragon partitioning manager 9.0 (8.0 never seemed to work with my sd cards)
jonnythan said:
Also, what's taking up all my internal phone space? If the update.zip moved apps to the SD card, why do I only have 50 MB left of internal space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See the above explanation.
nelson8403 said:
32 mb swap, 500mb ext2 rest fat32
swap is for linux swap if its used in the rom, ext2 is for your apps, and fat32 is for your storage
yes it loads all of your /data/app and /data/app-private apps on your sd card, your /system/app stays there
you can do a df -h under adb to see your free space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That answers my questions, thank you.
I found another though. I unmounted my SD card via Settings to see if the apps would fail to work in an effort to try to figure out if they were actually installed there. Predictably, they failed to work, but the system didn't pick the card back up after I reinserted it. So I rebooted the phone with the SD card in.
Then everything died. The apps didn't come back, but the phone still had them listed and tried to launch them, resulting in force-closes. An ext2 repair didn't fix it, so I just went back to my last Nandroid backup and reapplied update.zip.
I learned that this is a Bad Thing to do, but I'm wondering if this was a fluke or is it generally inadvisable to unmount the SD card for this reason?
im a noob to the whole android thing.but how do i partition the sd card and create ext2?????
jonnythan said:
I learned that this is a Bad Thing to do, but I'm wondering if this was a fluke or is it generally inadvisable to unmount the SD card for this reason?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since this is a simple symlink, if you reboot the phone without the target of the symlink being there, and the phone tries to use it...
The results are left as an exercise for the reader.
Now for anyone who asks why it isn't smart enough not to break... that's like asking why your car doesn't run if you take half the spak plugs out.
posguy99 said:
Since this is a simple symlink, if you reboot the phone without the target of the symlink being there, and the phone tries to use it...
The results are left as an exercise for the reader.
Now for anyone who asks why it isn't smart enough not to break... that's like asking why your car doesn't run if you take half the spak plugs out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, but I'm asking why it still doesn't work once you put the spark plugs back in
It's not a big deal, I certainly learned not to do it.
jonnythan said:
Ah, but I'm asking why it still doesn't work once you put the spark plugs back in
It's not a big deal, I certainly learned not to do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because booting the phone with it thinking the app was installed but it not able to find it trashed other data structures.
BTW, people trying to do stuff with the SD card removed after putting the apps on the SD card is probably one of the main reasons it currently is root only.
The OS needs to be modified to handle removable app storage gracefully (not something that happens in a standard phone.)
So should you format the card prior to flashing Modaco's ROM so the system knows to install all the apps to the ex2 partition. Or can you format the card AFTER you have already flashed Modaco's ROM and still have the apps automatically install on ext2 partition? I only ask cuz I formatted after flashing the ROM and wanna make sure it's installing it on the ext2.
I formatted mine afterwards and it moved all my apps over to the sd card automatically.

Formatting SD Card...

When I format my card by putting it in the slot my laptop has it doesn't wipe the ext partition... I say this because it's showing that the 2gig card is only a 1.27gig card. This can't be right?
Any help is appreciated.
What OS are you running?
Windows 7 (64 bit)
I don't have a card reader so I can't test it but try to right click on My Computer and select manage. Then go into Disk Management.
The problem is windows can't recognize ext partitions so it won't mount them
Otherwise look up a partition manager to run under windows. I always partition under linux or with dedicated tool you boot to off a CD. I am not sure a good one to recommend to run under windows. Maybe someone else can recommend one.
If you made a 4gb ext partition on an 8gb card, windows will now only see this as a 4gb card until you reallocate the ext partition.
I'm running Windows 7 64-bit and I use Paragon Manager to modify the ext partitions. I am not sure if there is a legitimately free version of this program.
Thanks everyone. I'm downloading Paragon Manager now. I made my ext partition too big and want to put more music on there. I also feel like partitioned the card twice... I think I have an ext 2 & an ext 3 partition.
Again, thanks!
Sd Formatter
mrcharlesiv said:
When I format my card by putting it in the slot my laptop has it doesn't wipe the ext partition... I say this because it's showing that the 2gig card is only a 1.27gig card. This can't be right?
Any help is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use SdFormatter from this link: http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
Question:
Over the last few months I (like most people here) have tried several roms. I moved from the sdcard that came with the phone to an 8gb, no problems there.
The way I backup my sdcard is I make a folder on my desktop and literally just drag and drop the whole card over, hasn't let me down yet. When I switched I formatted the 8gb card and just copied my latest sdcard backup to the 8gb and everything works great. I am at the point where I have a lot of stuff on there from from things like apps I've uninstalled, etc. and I'd like to clean it up. I have everything I would want to keep backed up on my desktop.
So here is my question:
If I reformat my sdcard will the phone copy/install anything on the clean sdcard it needs to run?
If so then I'm thinking I could just copy what I want (nand backups, pictures, music, etc.)
Thanks
nebenezer said:
Question:
Over the last few months I (like most people here) have tried several roms. I moved from the sdcard that came with the phone to an 8gb, no problems there.
The way I backup my sdcard is I make a folder on my desktop and literally just drag and drop the whole card over, hasn't let me down yet. When I switched I formatted the 8gb card and just copied my latest sdcard backup to the 8gb and everything works great. I am at the point where I have a lot of stuff on there from from things like apps I've uninstalled, etc. and I'd like to clean it up. I have everything I would want to keep backed up on my desktop.
So here is my question:
If I reformat my sdcard will the phone copy/install anything on the clean sdcard it needs to run?
If so then I'm thinking I could just copy what I want (nand backups, pictures, music, etc.)
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and yes. I have cleaned house a few times by deleting everything off my 8gb card and bringing back just my pictures, music and backups.
If you are using an ext partition to store apps and want to delete this data, you will need to format this with a program that can handle this ext partition or the easiest way is through recovery (wipe ext partition). Otherwise, if you want to keep your apps on the partition you can just delete everything off the card through windows or even format it there.
Thanks Danknee!!
I thought that was the case but wanted to make sure.
I haven't had the need to use a2sd yet so that's not a problem.
One more question:
I've formatted and put everything I want to keep back. Should I just reboot or do I need to reflash DC!.0, the reason I ask is because there was literally nothing on the card after formatting (not surprising). So I put HTC Sync back in case I need it, will the phone build the file structure it needs as it needs it or should I do anything else at this point?
Thanks
You can just reboot. The SD card doesn't have anything on it that would be replaced by flashing anyway. Since you aren't using apps2sd, you could technically have two different SD cards that you swapped in and out. You would just need to unmount and remount them to prevent corruption during the swaps.
Apps save settings on the card, but these will be resaved when you use these apps again. Conversely, the apps you never use again won't be taking up any space now.
danknee said:
You can just reboot. The SD card doesn't have anything on it that would be replaced by flashing anyway. Since you aren't using apps2sd, you could technically have two different SD cards that you swapped in and out. You would just need to unmount and remount them to prevent corruption during the swaps.
Apps save settings on the card, but these will be resaved when you use these apps again. Conversely, the apps you never use again won't be taking up any space now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, thanks.
I totally understand what you just posted... So HTC ships these phones with SOME files that you can't get back by reflashing? (ie. HTC Sync) just curious
nebenezer said:
Awesome, thanks.
I totally understand what you just posted... So HTC ships these phones with SOME files that you can't get back by reflashing? (ie. HTC Sync) just curious
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you can flash back to a stock sense ROM with no problems. What I meant was that you could actually use your phone with no memory card and it would be fully functional except that some apps couldn't save settings and data.
The SD card is completely optional and all the system files and system apk files are stored in your phone's internal memory.
danknee said:
No, you can flash back to a stock sense ROM with no problems. What I meant was that you could actually use your phone with no memory card and it would be fully functional except that some apps couldn't save settings and data.
The SD card is completely optional and all the system files and system apk files are stored in your phone's internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the confusion... I understand the phone can operate sans sdcard. if I'm not mistaken I believe I installed HTC Sync on my pc from my sdcard meanin that if I deleted it without backing it up I would have to (Jeez, I just realized what a waste of time this is, but I'm in too deep to stop) get HTC Sync from another source, ie HTC's website?
LOL yeah, you are probably right about HTC sync. I downloaded sync from the HTC website anyway (to make sure I had the lastest version). Besides that, I can't think of anything else on the stock 2gb card that is irreplaceable..

[Q] Questions About A "Read Only" Micro SD

A week or so ago, I flashed this ROM onto my phone. ([ROM] (v1.2.6_r2) Nexus AOSP Gingerbread 2.3.4 - Faux123 [Jun-26-2011] - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068367&page=189)
I had to end up switching back to stock ROM. Ever since the flash back to stock, my memory card has been "locked"
In the process of flashing my phone back to stock, my external Micro SD card became locked to "Read Only". I cannot format or erase any of the content that was stored on my card during the flashings. It literally seems to be "LOCKED" onto the card.
I've tried the windows format option in the Device Manager. I've also tried the Windows Command prompts. NOTHING has worked. Formatting the card in my phone does nothing. No data gets erased.
With the card in my phone, I can access all my files (movies, music, pics, etc). But I cannot modify, delete, or add any new content! (Example, I cannot select my External SD as a valid storage location for new pics in the camera.)
Does anyone have any ideas on how to reformat this card to get it working for me again. It is a 16gig card. I hate to throw it out.
Thanks.
I would recommend trying Panasonic's sdcard formatter. It seems to be pretty good at formatting sdcards that other programs have trouble with.
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/sd_formatter20.html
Another thing you could try, you can format your sdcard inside clockwork recovery mod. (Under the mounts and storage section if my memory serves)
mstrk242 said:
I would recommend trying Panasonic's sdcard formatter. It seems to be pretty good at formatting sdcards that other programs have trouble with.
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/sd_formatter20.html
Another thing you could try, you can format your sdcard inside clockwork recovery mod. (Under the mounts and storage section if my memory serves)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes thats good one ! +1
avetny said:
yes thats good one ! +1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the suggestions
That did not work. I ran the SD formatter and the windows formatter and my content is STILL on the card.
CWM won't format the card either.
Any other ideas?
Did you try partitioning the card? Just one 16GiB FAT32 partition?
Joe-retired said:
Did you try partitioning the card? Just one 16GiB FAT32 partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Joe -
That is officially over my head.
How would I go about doing that?
Can you get the card replaced under warranty?
Since you tried formatting the sd card, I am assuming you have backed up everything on it.
As easy way is in Clockwork recovery mod choose -> advanced; then choose -> partition;
when prompted for a partition size for the ext partition choose the smallest, also the smallest for swap (I think you can choose 0 for this one) continue to follow prompts and the card will be partitioned.
One more thing to try if that doesn't work:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
Go to this site, download the cd or usb disk version and boot off it. Now, plug your card into your computer (NOT through the phone, use a usb reader. If you don't have one, you can probably pick up a cheap one for around 10 bucks.), you may need to rescan the disks after you plug the card in, to make sure gparted sees it. Now, delete the entire partition, so there is no partition at all on the card.
Boot back into windows, plug the card in, try to format it again. I've seen this happen when you have a damaged mbr on the sdcard. Also, when you format in windows, (if your system will allow it), id try to format it to a 64k cluster size instead of 32k. (on a 16gb card 32k is the default cluster size.) It'll speed it up a bit. (not really needed, but a nice boost.)
The last thing you can try, if all else fails, boot into clockwork recovery (assuming you have it installed) and format the sdcard through there.
If all that fails, I'd say you have a bad card. But try those steps first, hate to see you throw the card away if it's still good. )

Partition 64GB microsd card to 2 x 32GB FAT32

Hi guys,
I want to partition my 64GB (I know, 59GB actually) microsd card into 2 x 32GB FAT32 partitions. I've tried to do it in windows, using MiniTool Partiton Wizard like I did with other microsd cards until now, but without success: the tool creates two partitions but the 2nd one is not usable (it does not have assigned a letter); any attempts to correct this were futile.
Can this issue be fixed somehow? If yes, how?
Old Jimbo said:
Hi guys,
I want to partition my 64GB (I know, 59GB actually) microsd card into 2 x 32GB FAT32 partitions. I've tried to do it in windows, using MiniTool Partiton Wizard like I did with other microsd cards until now, but without success: the tool creates two partitions but the 2nd one is not usable (it does not have assigned a letter); any attemptions to correct this were futile.
Can this issue be fixed somehow? If yes, how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Start over, get it back to one unallocated partition, then use the Aparted app from play store.
Or you can try this
smallbusiness.chron.com/partition-sd-card-android-57286.html
Thanks for your reply @Droidriven!
I've managed to create those partitions: sdcard1 and sdext2, both FAT32 and having 29.5GB each. First partition (sdcard1) is working flawless: access speed, read, write. The 2nd one...
The 2nd one (sdext2) has an issue - I cannot create files (.txt), in root or in other subfolders. However, I can access it, move data to it from the other partition or from the internal sdcard and I can create folders and subfolders. In android's settings->storage menu, my external sdcard is shown as it has only 29.5GB (out of 59GB) but nothing about partitions.
Is this a permission issue (platform.xml)? Can it be fixed?
Old Jimbo said:
Thanks for your reply @Droidriven!
I've managed to create those partitions: sdcard1 and sdext2, both FAT32 and having 29.5GB each. First partition (sdcard1) is working flawless: access speed, read, write. The 2nd one...
The 2nd one (sdext2) has an issue - I cannot create files (.txt), in root or in other subfolders. However, I can access it, move data to it from the other partition or from the internal sdcard and I can create folders and subfolders. In android's settings->storage menu, my external sdcard is shown as it has only 29.5GB (out of 59GB) but nothing about partitions.
Is this a permission issue (platform.xml)? Can it be fixed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what your issue is, maybe because one partition is the primary partition. Did you choose all the same options when you set the second partition?
What android version are you using? Lollipop and Marshmallow do have permission configurations that are a pain, especially concerning extsd permissions.
I'll see what I can find, can't promise I'll find you an answer though.
The partitions' settings are identical, with the sole exception that one has to be the primary one. The microsd is new and tested with a few software programs to be sure it's not a fake (it's not).
I'm using AOSP 5.1.1 and yes, I believe there is a L permission issue.
Don't worry a bit regarding this issue. If you or someone else will find the solution, it'll be great, if not, life goes on.
Thanks anyway for taking your time!
Droidriven said:
Start over, get it back to one unallocated partition, then use the Aparted app from play store.
Or you can try this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How exactly do I get is back to one unallocated partition? That will solve all my problems right now

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