Ok, I have two Devices a t959 and a t959v. I have brought them both up to android 4.x.x with the appropriate files for the device. Somehow the T959 repartitioned the amount of system RAM from 500Mb to 1.5Gb while the t959v is still at 500mb. On the t959 I flashed to stock, using the Samsung Vibrant Root tools. (T959UVJFD)
then the update.zip recovery from 03.11.2102. then to cm-7.2.0-vibrantmtd and then to Xperia Vibrantmtd 4.2.2. I didn't notice the repartition until I ran out of space installing the same apps that were on the t959 and then compared the two phones under settings/apps. the t959v says 410Mb used and 117Mb free. the t959 says 373mb used and a whopping 1.1Gb free.
I looked at the log for the Xperia update and came across this: "Creating file system with parameters: Size: 1589624832 This would indicate that the partitioning happened during that update.
My upgrade path on the t959v was Oneclick Stock restore, then bhundven-blastoff-v2.5. then CM 11-20140908-UNOFFICIAL-galaxys4gmtd.
I didn't see anything similar during the update in the t959v.
So my dumb question is: Is there a way to have a similar memory partition on the t959v?
It seems to be that having the larger system partition goes a long way to making the phone really useable since after about 9 apps the normal system partition fills up. Is there a downside to having the larger system partition?
thewizardofahhs said:
Ok, I have two Devices a t959 and a t959v. I have brought them both up to android 4.x.x with the appropriate files for the device. Somehow the T959 repartitioned the amount of system RAM from 500Mb to 1.5Gb while the t959v is still at 500mb. On the t959 I flashed to stock, using the Samsung Vibrant Root tools. (T959UVJFD)
then the update.zip recovery from 03.11.2102. then to cm-7.2.0-vibrantmtd and then to Xperia Vibrantmtd 4.2.2. I didn't notice the repartition until I ran out of space installing the same apps that were on the t959 and then compared the two phones under settings/apps. the t959v says 410Mb used and 117Mb free. the t959 says 373mb used and a whopping 1.1Gb free.
I looked at the log for the Xperia update and came across this: "Creating file system with parameters: Size: 1589624832 This would indicate that the partitioning happened during that update.
My upgrade path on the t959v was Oneclick Stock restore, then bhundven-blastoff-v2.5. then CM 11-20140908-UNOFFICIAL-galaxys4gmtd.
I didn't see anything similar during the update in the t959v.
So my dumb question is: Is there a way to have a similar memory partition on the t959v?
It seems to be that having the larger system partition goes a long way to making the phone really useable since after about 9 apps the normal system partition fills up. Is there a downside to having the larger system partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, welcome to the forums!
By "system RAM", I'm assuming that you mean data storage for apps. There are typically three main partition to worry about: the system partition which contains all the preinstalled apps and the OS (Android), the data partition which stores all user installed apps and data, and the sdcard partition (optional) which stores music, videos, pictures etc. The RAM is used by the phone as a place to hold the data that is currently being used.
The TL,DR version is this: The T959 has 16gb of storage, the T959V has only 1GB. Read on for more info...
One of the key differences (to the end user) of the T959 and the T959V is that the T959 has an internal SD card while the T959V does not. So for the T959, there is 16GB of space, some of which is used for the data, some for the system, and the rest for the sdcard partition. On the other hand, the T959V just has a larger oneNand partition than the T959. On the T959, it stores the recovery, boot, and efs partitions (which are not really important for the end user, just that they work ) So on the T959V, it has a larger one (about 1GB) that stores the data and system partition in addition to the recovery, boot, etc partitions. The sdcard partition is used when you insert a microSD card into the phone. On the T959, when you insert an microSD card it is used as yet another partition that the T959V doesn't have.
Note that this is a bit of a simplification.
It is possible to have more space on the data partition to install apps, but then you have to move the data partition to the microSD card. This is slower but definitely possible.
Hope this helps.
Related
Lately, I've been flashing a bunch of different ROMs, and in each one, they require you to have a certain amount of your memory partitioned. I'm not too experienced in this particular area and I've been wondering what is the point of all the partitioning?
Why can't we just have one partition and run things off of that like with a computer running on windows??
What are the differences between ext2 and ext3 and so on?
So far, I've only been able to find out that the swap partition is for memory extension when the phone is currently using all of its ram, it can convert some of the sd card's memory to use for programs. Can anyone provide more insight on this?
I've asked myself the same questions .... hope someone will explain...
hacker01 said:
Lately, I've been flashing a bunch of different ROMs, and in each one, they require you to have a certain amount of your memory partitioned. I'm not too experienced in this particular area and I've been wondering what is the point of all the partitioning?
Why can't we just have one partition and run things off of that like with a computer running on windows??
What are the differences between ext2 and ext3 and so on?
So far, I've only been able to find out that the swap partition is for memory extension when the phone is currently using all of its ram, it can convert some of the sd card's memory to use for programs. Can anyone provide more insight on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be helpful if you mentioned what phone you're using.
Generally the reason you have a /data and /system partition separately are so that you can either upgrade or reinstall Android without losing your data. If you reflashed whatever ROM you're on right now again, without wiping anything, all of your apps and settings would still be there (although any mods you flashed to modify the ROM itself would need to be flashed again).
System - Holds Android itself and any apps that came with the ROM. Some ROMs (or rather updater scripts inside of ZIP files) will install some apps in the data partition to save space.
Data - Your settings and any applications you installed.
Sometimes you WILL have to wipe everything to go to a different ROM, but for the most part if you're on an official ROM that came with your phone, and your carrier pushes an update, you don't have to.
I'm guessing you have an older phone if you need to make a swap file. A swap file is like RAM in the form of a file; if your phone runs out of usable RAM, it can use the [slower, but useful] swap file, which is like memory you reserve from storage [your MicroSD card]. Windows and other OS's use swap files too, but given how much RAM we have in computers today, we hardly ever use it.
EXT 2 fs - A non-journaling file system. It's quicker than EXT 3 and takes up less space for itself in memory (not for files, just for itself), but it's more susceptible to corruption if you randomly turn off the phone while a file is being accessed.
EXT 3 fs - A journaling file system, which means that it keeps track of any file operations within itself. While it's slower than EXT 2 and takes up more space, it is more reliable and is safer in terms of file integrity.
There's also EXT 4, but only certain phones are compatible with that, mostly Samsung Galaxy S phones.
tl;dr: It keeps everything modular.
Thanks for the explanation. It helped
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
With all the lighter custom ROMs we have today, the default huge /system partition we have in the O3D is a waste of space. Same with the /data partition. For those who don´t know, both /system and /data (and other smaller ones) are actual internal SD Card space!
That´s why we have LG specs saying we have 8GB of internal flash storage, when in fact we have just 5.5GB available.
So my question is: is there a (safe) way to wipe all internal SD partitions and then recreate them with more appropriate sizes, earning back all the wasted space?
Thanks a lot!
Marcovecchio said:
With all the lighter custom ROMs we have today, the default huge /system partition we have in the O3D is a waste of space. Same with the /data partition. For those who don´t know, both /system and /data (and other smaller ones) are actual internal SD Card space!
That´s why we have LG specs saying we have 8GB of internal flash storage, when in fact we have just 5.5GB available.
So my question is: is there a (safe) way to wipe all internal SD partitions and then recreate them with more appropriate sizes, earning back all the wasted space?
Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you read about data2ext? I think it would be a very good solution to us.
Sent from my LG-P920 using XDA App
Thanks for the reply, ThiaiZ!
However, I think I´m looking for something different: as far as I know, data2ext changes the /data partition pointer to external memory (SD Card), so the original /data partition will never be used by the OS, and it´s space will be wasted, right?
I would like to find a way to get this wasted space back! If we could repartition /system, /data, /cache, to smaller sizes, we would have more storage space for stuff on the internal SD. Does it make sense? Thanks!
Well, since I had no solutions here, I would like to post some examples of this for other phone models:
MyTouch 3G Slide - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=893706
LG GT540 - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1171531
The MyTouch 3G Slide thread is particularly good because it explains in detail how to check the partition sizes, and shows how much space is wasted on the /system partition.
Marcovecchio said:
Well, since I had no solutions here, I would like to post some examples of this for other phone models:
MyTouch 3G Slide - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=893706
LG GT540 - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1171531
The MyTouch 3G Slide thread is particularly good because it explains in detail how to check the partition sizes, and shows how much space is wasted on the /system partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't we have to be s-off to be able to resize the partitions ?
I did it a lot on my HTC Desire.
BTW do you have any idea in which block data and sd-ext are mounted on our device ?
I believe the S-OFF flag exists only in HTC devices. I read that somewhere here, at XDA. The guy seemed to know what he was talking about, and he said LG never implemented any kind of protection like S-ON / S-OFF.
About the block names, I believe you can list the blocks and the partition names they´re mounted as, with the "df" command. I know almost nothing about Linux, and even less about how Android manage it´s partitions, but that would be nice to be able to tweak their sizes...
LG GT540's partitions can easily be resized by flashing an MBN file. Don't know if this phone can get that done too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1171531
Don't try resizing partitions.
You'll brick your phone.
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:
this is a AT&T version of Galaxy S, which is captivate.
In setting Storage page, It shows 2 different internal storage, One is about 2-3GB, the other one is 9GB I think. The problem is everytime I flash a custom ROM, it goes in that 2-3GB storage. So I am not able to install a lot of apps. I was wondering if there is anyway I can combine those 2 different storage?
DUHAsianSKILLZ said:
Either you have an SD card or you have two partitions. The os is mostly stored on the smaller one. You can probably move apps to the other storage. Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
newbie here. no sd card in my phone. but could have two partitions. anyway to combine them in to one? I am pretty sure when i got this phone 4 years ago, it only got one partition. but I had tried some different ROMs.
Hi
Thanks for writing to us at XDA Assist. This is normal, the first partition is your system partition, the second partition is your user-accessible partition. They're kept apart for security and safety reasons, if the average user had access to the system partition (root access) they could damage it and render the phone useless. No, you can't combine the two partitions.
No response in two days, thread closed.
I just finished installing the latest ROM (YOG4PAS1N0) from here:
[ROM][YOG4PAS1N0] Cyanogen OS 12.1 [Rooted][TWRP flashable][NEW OTA]
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/development/rom-cyanogen-os-12-1-t3186593/page10
and it works amazing!!! No issues so far...while I was doing it I decided to use TWRP 2.8.6.0 to do a back up. I know that the following is a very "old school" way of backing my data but what I used to do is just save all the files in the exact same way my OPO is shown via the windows file system, and so I used to cut and copy .....place in a folder and done.... I have every single picture I have EVER taken since I owned a camera phone in 2007 but thats besides the point,,,I backup up my data via TWRP and I noticed that it created a 10GB partition. I am ok with it cause I keep a pretty clean phone...I have 10 apps at most and some pictures and videos.
I was wondering in the interest of recuperating that 10GB is there a way to unpartition it? my back up is 2.67 GB large and as you guessed it, I saved it on my PC....so I could do with out it on my phone. BY the way I didn't do a system or data wipe when I installed the ROM...flash and dalvik and cache wipe....I figured if I screwed up, I could do a FULL FORMAT and copy paste the files I wanted. But the update worked flawlessly ..except for the 10GB "missing"....
This is not an emergency, I can live without the 10GB I was just curious.........I have 54GB out of which I am only using 9GB...plenty left
Thanks for any help and for taking the time and reading this...
I did search for the answer but most users have other partition issues such as not loading or not finding it....I also google TWRP partitions and I got a lot of "how to use it" stuff...but nothing on how to "un partition"
seco007 said:
I just finished installing the latest ROM (YOG4PAS1N0) from here:
[ROM][YOG4PAS1N0] Cyanogen OS 12.1 [Rooted][TWRP flashable][NEW OTA]
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/development/rom-cyanogen-os-12-1-t3186593/page10
and it works amazing!!! No issues so far...while I was doing it I decided to use TWRP 2.8.6.0 to do a back up. I know that the following is a very "old school" way of backing my data but what I used to do is just save all the files in the exact same way my OPO is shown via the windows file system, and so I used to cut and copy .....place in a folder and done.... I have every single picture I have EVER taken since I owned a camera phone in 2007 but thats besides the point,,,I backup up my data via TWRP and I noticed that it created a 10GB partition. I am ok with it cause I keep a pretty clean phone...I have 10 apps at most and some pictures and videos.
I was wondering in the interest of recuperating that 10GB is there a way to unpartition it? my back up is 2.67 GB large and as you guessed it, I saved it on my PC....so I could do with out it on my phone. BY the way I didn't do a system or data wipe when I installed the ROM...flash and dalvik and cache wipe....I figured if I screwed up, I could do a FULL FORMAT and copy paste the files I wanted. But the update worked flawlessly ..except for the 10GB "missing"....
This is not an emergency, I can live without the 10GB I was just curious.........I have 54GB out of which I am only using 9GB...plenty left
Thanks for any help and for taking the time and reading this...
I did search for the answer but most users have other partition issues such as not loading or not finding it....I also google TWRP partitions and I got a lot of "how to use it" stuff...but nothing on how to "un partition"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean when you say it created a 10gb partition? TWRP doesn't create a partition when it makes a backup so I'm confused as to what you mean by that.
seco007 said:
I just finished installing the latest ROM (YOG4PAS1N0) from here:
[ROM][YOG4PAS1N0] Cyanogen OS 12.1 [Rooted][TWRP flashable][NEW OTA]
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/development/rom-cyanogen-os-12-1-t3186593/page10
and it works amazing!!! No issues so far...while I was doing it I decided to use TWRP 2.8.6.0 to do a back up. I know that the following is a very "old school" way of backing my data but what I used to do is just save all the files in the exact same way my OPO is shown via the windows file system, and so I used to cut and copy .....place in a folder and done.... I have every single picture I have EVER taken since I owned a camera phone in 2007 but thats besides the point,,,I backup up my data via TWRP and I noticed that it created a 10GB partition. I am ok with it cause I keep a pretty clean phone...I have 10 apps at most and some pictures and videos.
I was wondering in the interest of recuperating that 10GB is there a way to unpartition it? my back up is 2.67 GB large and as you guessed it, I saved it on my PC....so I could do with out it on my phone. BY the way I didn't do a system or data wipe when I installed the ROM...flash and dalvik and cache wipe....I figured if I screwed up, I could do a FULL FORMAT and copy paste the files I wanted. But the update worked flawlessly ..except for the 10GB "missing"....
This is not an emergency, I can live without the 10GB I was just curious.........I have 54GB out of which I am only using 9GB...plenty left
Thanks for any help and for taking the time and reading this...
I did search for the answer but most users have other partition issues such as not loading or not finding it....I also google TWRP partitions and I got a lot of "how to use it" stuff...but nothing on how to "un partition"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no 10GB partition. When a device says that there is 64 GB of storage, a bit of it is lost in formatting. It does not mean that when you plug in your phone you will get 64GB of storage. Additionally, there are several partitions, including data and system that are not visible to the user without root (or in recovery). These partitions also take up space on your phone (adding up to around 10GB of lost space), and are not visible when you plug in your phone. This is why your phone only shows 54 out of 64GB in the storage menu in settings, mine does as well. If you did have a 10GB partition on your phone, your phone would show 44GB when plugged in. I believe you can make the system partitions smaller, but its not recommended. This is simply off my memory so if I misunderstood the question or said anything wrong please be welcome to correct me.
f41lbl0g said:
There is no 10GB partition. When a device says that there is 64 GB of storage, a bit of it is lost in formatting. It does not mean that when you plug in your phone you will get 64GB of storage. Additionally, there are several partitions, including data and system that are not visible to the user without root (or in recovery). These partitions also take up space on your phone (adding up to around 10GB of lost space), and are not visible when you plug in your phone. This is why your phone only shows 54 out of 64GB in the storage menu in settings, mine does as well. If you did have a 10GB partition on your phone, your phone would show 44GB when plugged in. I believe you can make the system partitions smaller, but its not recommended. This is simply off my memory so if I misunderstood the question or said anything wrong please be welcome to correct me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured it was a 10GB partition because I was 10GB short (64GB out of the box vs 54GB) what I have, even though I now that OS and apps take up space. So what is the actual partition size that is created when TWRP creates a back up? The size of said back up? ....my mistake...
your explanation cleared it up. If I remove the back up from my phone will I recover that HDD space? or is it already saved for future back ups?
seco007 said:
I figured it was a 10GB partition because I was 10GB short (64GB out of the box vs 54GB) what I have, even though I now that OS and apps take up space. So what is the actual partition size that is created when TWRP creates a back up? The size of said back up? ....my mistake...
your explanation cleared it up. If I remove the back up from my phone will I recover that HDD space? or is it already saved for future back ups?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your backups are created on the visible portion of the data partition, in a folder called TWRP. No partition is created during a backup. You will not gain more than the available space on your phone by deleting the backup.
seco007 said:
I figured it was a 10GB partition because I was 10GB short (64GB out of the box vs 54GB) what I have, even though I now that OS and apps take up space. So what is the actual partition size that is created when TWRP creates a back up? The size of said back up? ....my mistake...
your explanation cleared it up. If I remove the back up from my phone will I recover that HDD space? or is it already saved for future back ups?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP doesn't create a partition, it simply creates a folder in your internal storage to place your backups in. That folder will only ever be the size of your backup(s). The moment you delete/move a backup you have that space free again, they're just like any other file that consumes space on a drive (it only consumes space while it's actually there).
f41lbl0g said:
Your backups are created on the visible portion of the data partition, in a folder called TWRP. No partition is created during a backup. You will not gain more than the available space on your phone by deleting the backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok So it works like any other file / folder...erase and you have the HDD space again....Thanks for clearing that up