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[Q] Dual boot with microSD?

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!

How do I repartition an external sdcard on android tablet that supports only MTP?

I have a rooted 8" KitKat tablet on which I want to install debian on a chroot using linux deploy. According to the guide, one of the first steps is to re-partition the external sdcard into two parts: one 512mb FAT32 partition, and another ext2 partition.
Is there a way to re-partition my 32gb external sdcard using an app or something on android itself? I'd prefer not having to take out the sdcard and reinsert it on another device.
Another problem is that my tablet only supports MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) when connected to a computer via USB, it does not support the typical Mass Storage Device mode. If the latter were the case, I could have easily used something like gparted on my linux computer and partitioned it, but not sure whether that could be done using MTP.
I also have a CWM boot recovery image of my tablet, so I can start using that. But is it possible to safely re-partition an external sdcard using that?

How to set up SD Card as Internal Storage?

I've been all day trying to get a Micro SD installed on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Go5 so I can move apps onto it. After bricking an old SD 32 GB card and buying a new 64 GB card I started searching for help here. I found information that said the card has to be formatted as 'Internal Storage.' This post described the process (the process that worked toward the bottom).
I'd been trying to figure out how to install the Android SDK on my Windows PC without downloading Android Studio in order to get the adb shell mentioned in that post set up. I found this post and this post on the stackoverflow forum, but just wasn't able to figure it all out. But it looks like I need the Java SE Development Kit 10 installed.
I was able to set up USB debugging on the phone though.
Can anyone help me out here and describe just what must be done to achieve all this?
Thanks for any feedback on this

Not really able to help but i read many people advise against using SD card as internal storage. Most regular SD cards r not fast enough or durable enough to last more than a few months. Just sharing

sautom said:
Not really able to help but i read many people advise against using SD card as internal storage. Most regular SD cards r not fast enough or durable enough to last more than a few months. Just sharing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're right about that. I've installed programs on USB sticks that can be quite sluggish. Then again I've had a number of system maintenance utilities on flash drives for years that aren't and still perform fine. Then they don't get used for hours on a day to day basis.
I moved a number of apps on my old Galaxy Ace to a micro sd card though, most used was the Poweramp music player that's always performed well.
And I've got the card now, so I may as well try to get it set as internal and just see how it performs over time. Thanks for you feedback sautom.

TakuSkan said:
I've been all day trying to get a Micro SD installed on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Go5 so I can move apps onto it. After bricking an old SD 32 GB card and buying a new 64 GB card I started searching for help here. I found information that said the card has to be formatted as 'Internal Storage.' This post described the process (the process that worked toward the bottom).
I'd been trying to figure out how to install the Android SDK on my Windows PC without downloading Android Studio in order to get the adb shell mentioned in that post set up. I found this post and this post on the stackoverflow forum, but just wasn't able to figure it all out. But it looks like I need the Java SE Development Kit 10 installed.
I was able to set up USB debugging on the phone though.
Can anyone help me out here and describe just what must be done to achieve all this?
Thanks for any feedback on this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have lollipop or newer Android version, you should be able to use the "Adoptable storage" option.
Also, if performance is important to you, then you won't like this option, using sdcard as internal is slower, the only "gain" in using this is the system has more storage to use. There is no gain on performance, you actually lose there.
I don't recommend using sdcard as internal storage though. There are way too many issues that come along with using this kind of modification. A lot of times, the sdcard gets corrupted, then the real issues start when you try to fix it, usually, the device won't function properly, the data on the sdcard gets lost/corrupted, just to name a couple of the many possible issues. It isn't exactly "easy" to fix this when it happens, depending on what goes wrong, sometimes it can't be fixed.
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Droidriven said:
If you have lollipop or newer Android version, you should be able to use the "Adoptable storage" option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read quite a bit on this and "adoptable storage" now, and agree that trying to use an expansion SD card as internal memory to run apps is a bad idea Droidriven. I still have a little over 1 GB left on the tiny built in 8GB internal SD Card memory, and have most of what I want installed.
I'm pretty green when it comes to Android, coming from many years with Windows and a tad with Linux. I see that with v6.0.1 Marshmallow, the OS began setting up a system directory tree on the 64 GB SD card when I installed it, and I'm able to set data folders there for apps like the camera. That'll be good for storing large camera videos and other media files.
One thing I haven't figured out yet though is whether or not there's any setting on a non-rooted phone like this Go5 that will allow me to transfer files directly into the 'Android' folder on the internal 8 GB card from Windows. I'm able to connect the two via USB or FTP and write files from Windows to folders on the 8 GB card like 'Download'. But I can't copy any files from Windows over to any of the writable apps folders in the 'Android' folder. I've resorted to copying them 1st to 'Download' from Windows, and then using a file manager in Android to copy files over to the 'Android' folder. I'm not used to such rigid file/folder permissions.
Does this sound like an issue that will require rooting? It'd make life a lot easier if that weren't the case. I'd think if I can write files to that 'Android' folder from within Android, I ought to be able to do the same remotely somehow.
Thoughts?

TakuSkan said:
I've read quite a bit on this and "adoptable storage" now, and agree that trying to use an expansion SD card as internal memory to run apps is a bad idea Droidriven. I still have a little over 1 GB left on the tiny built in 8GB internal SD Card memory, and have most of what I want installed.
I'm pretty green when it comes to Android, coming from many years with Windows and a tad with Linux. I see that with v6.0.1 Marshmallow, the OS began setting up a system directory tree on the 64 GB SD card when I installed it, and I'm able to set data folders there for apps like the camera. That'll be good for storing large camera videos and other media files.
One thing I haven't figured out yet though is whether or not there's any setting on a non-rooted phone like this Go5 that will allow me to transfer files directly into the 'Android' folder on the internal 8 GB card from Windows. I'm able to connect the two via USB or FTP and write files from Windows to folders on the 8 GB card like 'Download'. But I can't copy any files from Windows over to any of the writable apps folders in the 'Android' folder. I've resorted to copying them 1st to 'Download' from Windows, and then using a file manager in Android to copy files over to the 'Android' folder. I'm not used to such rigid file/folder permissions.
Does this sound like an issue that will require rooting? It'd make life a lot easier if that weren't the case. I'd think if I can write files to that 'Android' folder from within Android, I ought to be able to do the same remotely somehow.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always just use the ES File Explorer app, it lets me move whatever I want to/from Android folder.
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Droidriven said:
I always just use the ES File Explorer app, it lets me move whatever I want to/from Android folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, from within Android. I'm using the free open source Amaze file manager that I can do that with. But I can't connect the Android phone to a Windows PC and be able to copy files from Windows to the Android folder on the phone. Just to Download, and maybe DCIM and the root of the internal 8 GB SD memory.
Can ES File Explorer access shared folders on a Windows PC? Amaze sets up an FTP server, but I don't see where it can access files on a Windows system.
EDIT: Seems it can: How to Access Shared Windows Folders on Android, iPad, and iPhone

TakuSkan said:
Yes, from within Android. I'm using the free open source Amaze file manager that I can do that with. But I can't connect the Android phone to a Windows PC and be able to copy files from Windows to the Android folder on the phone. Just to Download, and maybe DICM and the root of the internal 8 GB SD memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should be able to do this with just Windows. Are you sure that you have your USB options set correctly? It should be set to MTP(file transfer).
When you connect the device to PC, you should see a USB icon in the status bar on the device, pull down notification panel, it should have a notification that takes you to your USB options.
Or, when you connect the device, you might get a pop-up menu on your device that has settings for USB options.
It varies from one device to another and one android version to another.
Do you have USB debugging enabled in developer options?
Also, if you do some reading about everything that the ES File Explorer app can do, you'll see that it can be used to transfer files to/from PC via more than a few options, including wirelessly/remotely.
It has several things it can do and different ways to connect when connecting/connected to other devices, including smart TV and others. It can also be used as a server or even be used to create a hotspot.
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Droidriven said:
You should be able to do this with just Windows. Are you sure that you have your USB options set correctly? It should be set to MTP(file transfer).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes Droidriven. I have set USB debugging and USB is set as MTP. I just discovered that Amaze does connect to Windows like ES File Explorer by running it's cloud search function. So far Amaze has done everything I've been told to use ESFE for. But Amaze is very light. I just used Amaze to copy a file over from a shared Windows folder to that Android folder on the phone.
I have Total Commander on the Windows system, but when I use it to navigate to an apps subfolder of Android on the phone, it can't see any of the files or folders that I can access with Amaze from within the phone.
So I'm half way there Just need to figure out how to get Windows to see and write files on this Go5 now.

TakuSkan said:
Yes Droidriven. I have set USB debugging and USB is set as MTP. I just discovered that Amaze does connect to Windows like ES File Explorer by running it's cloud search function. So far Amaze has done everything I've been told to use ESFE for. But Amaze is very light. I just used Amaze to copy a file over from a shared Windows folder to that Android folder on the phone.
I have Total Commander on the Windows system, but when I use it to navigate to an apps subfolder of Android on the phone, it can't see any of the files or folders that I can access with Amaze from within the phone.
So I'm half way there Just need to figure out how to get Windows to see and write files on this Go5 now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know where you're having issues, all I have ever done is just connect my device to Windows via USB then use the native Windows Explorer file manager to transfer to/from internal/external to PC/device. I've never had to do anything special or use any extra software on the device or PC to achieve this, plus, I've done this on different Windows systems.
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Droidriven said:
I don't know where you're having issues, all I have ever done is just connect my device to Windows via USB then use the native Windows Explorer file manager to transfer to/from internal/external to PC/device. I've never had to do anything special or use any extra software on the device or PC to achieve this, plus, I've done this on different Windows systems.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it may be because this was a T-Mobile phone and that they may have disabled some functions like "adoptable storage" which doesn't seem to be present, as well as maybe setting permissions to prevent access to certain system folders.
I've even found that I have to change the extensions of some files like ini files to txt before I can drag and drop from Windows Explorer via a USB connection to just a few folders on Android.
It is a bit nutz. Rooting would probably solve the problem. But I'm not ready to go there yet. There may be an answer for getting the Windows > Android file viewing and writing yet. But at least for the moment I can copy both ways with the Amaze File Manager.

Okay, I'm back to considering formatting this 64 GB SD Card as internal storage. I would really like to record video to it, and with the internal memory limited to 1 GB that's left of the total of 8 GB from the factory, that's just not going to make it.
I got the Android SDK and 'adb shell' working on my PC, and started researching how to run commands that would target just the SD Card, and not the existing memory. The command 'sm list-disks' returns: disk:179,32
Is that the phone's internal memory, the SD Card's memory, or perhaps all memory on the phone? When I run the command 'sm list-volumes' I get:
private mounted null
public:179,33 mounted 38C4-18FE
emulated mounted null
I know 38C4-18FE is listed on the phone as being my added SD Card. So I'm hesitant to run the command I see people using to format their SD Cards: 'sm partition disk:179,33' I've wiped the wrong drives by mistake before using Windows diskpart when I didn't specify the right drive/volume. Can anyone clear that up for me?
I'm still hesitant to do this as it seems the phone will automatically begin to use the entire contents of the SD Card as space to run its OS. Might there be commands that would specifically alot the space on the card for writing data, and not for apps that would write and rewrite data there? Something I could create a folder in and point video recording apps to?
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow

TakuSkan said:
Okay, I'm back to considering formatting this 64 GB SD Card as internal storage. I would really like to record video to it, and with the internal memory limited to 1 GB that's left of the total of 8 GB from the factory, that's just not going to make it.
I got the Android SDK and 'adb shell' working on my PC, and started researching how to run commands that would target just the SD Card, and not the existing memory. The command 'sm list-disks' returns: disk:179,32
Is that the phone's internal memory, the SD Card's memory, or perhaps all memory on the phone? When I run the command 'sm list-volumes' I get:
private mounted null
public:179,33 mounted 38C4-18FE
emulated mounted null
I know 38C4-18FE is listed on the phone as being my added SD Card. So I'm hesitant to run the command I see people using to format their SD Cards: 'sm partition disk:179,33' I've wiped the wrong drives by mistake before using Windows diskpart when I didn't specify the right drive/volume. Can anyone clear that up for me?
I'm still hesitant to do this as it seems the phone will automatically begin to use the entire contents of the SD Card as space to run its OS. Might there be commands that would specifically alot the space on the card for writing data, and not for apps that would write and rewrite data there? Something I could create a folder in and point video recording apps to?
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's possible to partition the external sdcard so that it has separate partitions with one of those partitions devoted to internal storage and the other for whatever you want. I'm not versed in specific tools and methods to do it, there are many.
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Droidriven said:
It's possible to partition the external sdcard so that it has separate partitions with one of those partitions devoted to internal storage and the other for whatever you want. I'm not versed in specific tools and methods to do it, there are many.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm happy with dedicating the entire memory in my sd card to adoptable storage space. I just want to know if adb is returning the right designation of my added sd card memory, and not the default internal memory.
Does the command 'sm list-disks' run from an adb shell that returns this for me: disk:179,32 mean that 179,32 is the designation that represents the sd memory card I added? Or if I try to use adb to partition 179,32 as adoptive memory, will I be formatting the default internal memory? What would be an adb command to return the designation of the small 8 GB default internal memory of my phone?

TakuSkan said:
I'm happy with dedicating the entire memory in my sd card to adoptable storage space. I just want to know if adb is returning the right designation of my added sd card memory, and not the default internal memory.
Does the command 'sm list-disks' run from an adb shell that returns this for me: disk:179,32 mean that 179,32 is the designation that represents the sd memory card I added? Or if I try to use adb to partition 179,32 as adoptive memory, will I be formatting the default internal memory? What would be an adb command to return the designation of the small 8 GB default internal memory of my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried running the command without the external sdcard inserted? That will tell you the designation of your internal because internal is all it will see, then insert the external sdcard, then you can run the command to see what the designation for the external is. Once you setup Adoptable Storage, there will be no difference in designation, the OS will see your internal and your external as one complete storage space, it sees external as if it were internal and identifies/labels it as such for all intents and purposes.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
Have you tried running the xommand without the external sdcard inserted? That will tell you the designation of your internal because internal is all it will see, then insert the external sdcard, then you can run the command to see what the designation for the external is. Once you setup Adoptable Storage, there will be no difference in designation, the OS will see your internal and your external as one complete storage space, it sees external as if it were internal and identifies/labels it as such for all intents and purposes.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly the information I've been after Droidriven. That sounds like the perfect way to differentiate default internal memory from an SD addon. I read where after formatting/partitioning the sd card, installed apps will stay on the internal memory unless you opt for an ill advised process of moving them to the new space where they probably won't perform well.
How will the OS see the added sd memory after formatted as adoptable storage? My concern is that since this a cheap flash memory sd card, I don't want the OS to start writing and rewriting to this sluggish, slow flash memory card and just wear the thing down. Is there any way to specify the added memory as being data storage only? I only want the extra memory for writing video from the phone to a space large enough to hold multiple files

TakuSkan said:
I read where after formatting/partitioning the sd cardm installed apps will stay on the internal memory unless you opt for an ill advised process of moving them to the new space where they probably won't perform well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's right.
TakuSkan said:
How will the OS see the added sd memory after formatted as adoptable storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, it will see all one space with no way to "store here instead of there" that I know of. The OS uses the entire space as it sees fit.
TakuSkan said:
My concern is that since this a cheap flash memory sd card, I don't want the OS to start writing and rewriting to this sluggish, slow flash memory card and just wear the thing down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly what it will do, this is the common cause of sdcard formatted as internal getting burned out, they aren't meant to do all that writing/rewriting/overwriting/deleting constantly. Frequent activity kills it in the end, hence, my original post warning against the downsides to using external as internal. Once external is incorporated into internal, if the external gets corrupted, the OS won't boot or operate, potentially making a terrible mess to get the device recovered but not the external sdcard, it's toast at that point, along with everything that was stored on it, in some cases, the device can't be recovered either, due to lack of software support or publicly available downloadable firmware.
TakuSkan said:
Is there any way to specify the added memory as being data storage only? I only want the extra memory for writing video from the phone to a space large enough to hold multiple files
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be possible somehow, but it probably requires root and some other apps that use root to make the needed modifications to direct data where you want it stored. I'm not sure it's possible though because, as I said previously, the OS sees internal and external as one complete partition, with no way to "see" a difference between them because they no longer have differing disk designations.
In my honest opinion(based on my exposure and experience with various devices that have used this as an option and the issues they have had along the way), using external as internal is too risky and shouldn't be used. Oddly, Adoptable Storage works better on devices that have better hardware and plenty of internal storage than it does on lower end devices with limited hardware and limited storage, the lower, limited devices are typically the ones that end up having issues. I know, this seems counter-intuitive since the better devices don't need the extra internal storage and the lower devices do need the extra internal storage, but we both know that flash memory is very unreliable for continuous write/delete/rewrite and is doomed to fail.
Could you possibly consider some kind of OTG storage, wireless USB drive or some kind of "cloud" storage or FTP setup?
You should be able to direct your downloads, your pics and your recordings to the folder of your choice when downloaded/created instead of having to move them after. I'm not certain you need to do this just to be able to use your external to store data.
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Android phone as Harddisk?

Hello,
Is there a way to mount a android phone as harddisk?
I mean NOT as removable disk, I mean recognizing by pc as real harddisk like the
pc´s built in harddisk?

Rufus0700 said:
Hello,
Is there a way to mount a android phone as harddisk?
I mean NOT as removable disk, I mean recognizing by pc as real harddisk like the
pc´s built in harddisk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I doubt it, but, there is an app called Drivedroid(and similar apps) that allow you to boot Windows or Linux on your PC directly from your android devices internal or external storage.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
No, I doubt it, but, there is an app called Drivedroid(and similar apps) that allow you to boot Windows or Linux on your PC directly from your android devices internal or external storage.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But theres no way to add those functions directly inside the android system?
I dont want to start a image of a operating system, I want to start a operating system over usb who is directly
installed on the phone micro sd card (Theres no image file, the files of the system are directly on the sd card)
Why it is so hard to change the normal mass storage mode of Android to a "Harddisk mass storge mode" that would be the easiest way?

Rufus0700 said:
But theres no way to add those functions directly inside the android system?
I dont want to start a image of a operating system, I want to start a operating system over usb who is directly
installed on the phone micro sd card (Theres no image file, the files of the system are directly on the sd card)
Why it is so hard to change the normal mass storage mode of Android to a "Harddisk mass storge mode" that would be the easiest way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because, it would require formatting the device's storage in the same way that you would to create a bootable USB, that would make the storage no longer useable by the android system. In other words, you can't have it both ways where the android device can use the storage as mass storage AND at the same time use that same storage as a bootable drive.
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My problem is, I would need a tool, or something, what mounts the android SD Card on the computer with flipped RMB (Removable media bit), so its mounted as harddisk, that would be all I would need, but that seems not possible on android. The RMB of the micro SD
card is not flippable, otherwise the micro SD would become a harddisk by itself, but to flip the bit in the micro sd card controller, we would need a MPtool for the micro sd card controller, and this tool has only the micro sd manufaturer. So I would need some rt of filtering app on the android who allows mounting the micro sd on the computer, but filters the rmb to tell the computer that the micro SD is a Harddrive, but that seems not possible?

Rufus0700 said:
My problem is, I would need a tool, or something, what mounts the android SD Card on the computer with flipped RMB (Removable media bit), so its mounted as harddisk, that would be all I would need, but that seems not possible on android. The RMB of the micro SD
card is not flippable, otherwise the micro SD would become a harddisk by itself, but to flip the bit in the micro sd card controller, we would need a MPtool for the micro sd card controller, and this tool has only the micro sd manufaturer. So I would need some rt of filtering app on the android who allows mounting the micro sd on the computer, but filters the rmb to tell the computer that the micro SD is a Harddrive, but that seems not possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hard drives are not expensive, why not just buy a new hard drive?
The PC doesn't access the device's storage directly, it has to communicate with the storage through the device's hardware(CPU) and the device has to be powered on or the PC can't do anything with the storage, that is the roadblock that you aren't going to get past because hard drives do not work the same way. It is just a completely different animal than a hard drive or a typical USB drive. You are probably wasting your time, find a different solution because this one doesn't have much chance of working, whether you choose to accept that or not.
I could be wrong, but, I don't think that is the case.
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Can you mount BOTH Android internal & external storage onto Windows as a drive letter over Wi-Fi using a SINGLE WebDAV server?

Can you mount BOTH Android internal & external storage onto Windows as a drive letter over Wi-Fi using a SINGLE WebDAV server?
This works:
1. I can easily mount my Android INTERNAL storage (including the read-only root hierarchy!) on Windows using any free WebDAV server and the Windows "net use" command over Wi-Fi to make that half of Android a drive letter.
WebDav Android Home Directory: /
[This gives read access to root at / and read/write access to internal storage at /storage/emulated/0]
Windows Mount Command: net use Y: \\[email protected]\DavWWWRoot /USER:username password
This works:
2. At the same time, I can just as easily mount my Android EXTERNAL storage (i.e., the entire external sd card) on Windows using any second free WebDAV server and the Windows "net use" command over Wi-Fi to make that other half of Android a different drive letter.
WebDav Android Home Directory: /storage/0000-0001
[This gives read/write access to external storage at /storage/0000-0001]
Windows Mount Command: net use Z: \\[email protected]\DavWWWRoot /USER:username password
This fails:
3. But I can't seem to get just one WebDAV server to mount ALL of android (the root file system, plus read/write on the internal sdcard and read/write on the external sdcard) as a single Windows drive letter using that single WebDAV server over Wi-Fi.
WebDav Android Home Directory: /
[I believe this should access to the entire Android phone but it doesn't. Why not?]
Windows Mount Command: net use Z: \\[email protected] /USER:username password
My questions are:
a. Can you mount the entire Android phone (all three partitions) onto Windows over Wi-Fi as a single drive letter using a single WebDav server?
b. If so, how did you do it?
c. Why can't I?
Details:
My phone is Android 12; not rooted; Samsung Galaxy A32-5G; & the free WebDav servers I'm using are:
a. WebDAV Server, by The Olive Tree, Free, +ads, requires gsf, rated 3.5, 100K+ installs
b. WebDAV Server - BestDAV by ZQ Software, Free, ad free, gsf free, rated 3.4, 10K+ installs

GalaxyA325G said:
Can you mount BOTH Android internal & external storage onto Windows as a drive letter over Wi-Fi using a SINGLE WebDAV server?
This works:
1. I can easily mount my Android INTERNAL storage (including the read-only root hierarchy!) on Windows using any free WebDAV server and the Windows "net use" command over Wi-Fi to make that half of Android a drive letter.
WebDav Android Home Directory: /
[This gives read access to root at / and read/write access to internal storage at /storage/emulated/0]
Windows Mount Command: net use Y: \\[email protected]\DavWWWRoot /USER:username password
This works:
2. At the same time, I can just as easily mount my Android EXTERNAL storage (i.e., the entire external sd card) on Windows using any second free WebDAV server and the Windows "net use" command over Wi-Fi to make that other half of Android a different drive letter.
WebDav Android Home Directory: /storage/0000-0001
[This gives read/write access to external storage at /storage/0000-0001]
Windows Mount Command: net use Z: \\[email protected]\DavWWWRoot /USER:username password
This fails:
3. But I can't seem to get just one WebDAV server to mount ALL of android (the root file system, plus read/write on the internal sdcard and read/write on the external sdcard) as a single Windows drive letter using that single WebDAV server over Wi-Fi.
WebDav Android Home Directory: /
[I believe this should access to the entire Android phone but it doesn't. Why not?]
Windows Mount Command: net use Z: \\[email protected] /USER:username password
My questions are:
a. Can you mount the entire Android phone (all three partitions) onto Windows over Wi-Fi as a single drive letter using a single WebDav server?
b. If so, how did you do it?
c. Why can't I?
Details:
My phone is Android 12; not rooted; Samsung Galaxy A32-5G; & the free WebDav servers I'm using are:
a. WebDAV Server, by The Olive Tree, Free, +ads, requires gsf, rated 3.5, 100K+ installs
b. WebDAV Server - BestDAV by ZQ Software, Free, ad free, gsf free, rated 3.4, 10K+ installs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They can be displayed as separate drives but not as a single drive unless you have the adoptable storage option set up on your device, in that case, it would see your internal and external as a single integrated drive. One thing to note when using adoptable storage, the device will not boot with the sdcard removed.
There are also apps like Link2SD for rooted devices that can partition a portion of your external sdcard and use it as if it were part of the system partition so that you can move system apps to that partition even if your device would not normally allow you to move those apps to external sdcard. A couple of things to note about using such a partition as if it were part of the system partition, the moved apps will load and operate slower and the device won't boot without the external sdcard inserted or can even brick the device if the linked partition or external sdcard becomes corrupted.

Droidriven said:
They can be displayed as separate drives but not as a single drive unless you have the adoptable storage option set up on your device....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for explaining why the "internal storage" (both / and /sdcard/) have to be one mount point while my external storage sdcard (named /storage/0000-0001/) has to be a second separate mount point.
The good news is that with two webdav servers, they can each be mounted as a drive letter each over onto Windows over Wi-Fi.
Droidriven said:
There are also apps like Link2SD for rooted devices that can partition a portion of your external sdcard and use it as if it were part of the system partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that advice but I'm not rooted and T-Mobile still owns the phone (as they gave it to me for free) so I think they've disabled rooting.
The one problem that remains is I don't seem to have WRITE permission at the TOP LEVEL of the external sdcard from Windows over Wi-Fi when the external storage sdcard (named /storage/0000-0001/) is mounted as a drive letter onto Windows.
Strangely enough, using Windows with the sdcard mounted as a drive letter, I can write to any directory on that external sdcard that I had created on the phone (e.g., /storage/0000-0001/0001/) but I can't write to the top level of that external sdcard itself (i.e., /storage/0000-0001/).
I haven't debugged that write-permission problem yet as I was trying first to mount both the internal storage and external storage as a single Windows drive letter.

GalaxyA325G said:
Thank you for explaining why the "internal storage" (both / and /sdcard/) have to be one mount point while my external storage sdcard (named /storage/0000-0001/) has to be a second separate mount point.
The good news is that with two webdav servers, they can each be mounted as a drive letter each over onto Windows over Wi-Fi.
Thanks for that advice but I'm not rooted and T-Mobile still owns the phone (as they gave it to me for free) so I think they've disabled rooting.
The one problem that remains is I don't seem to have WRITE permission at the TOP LEVEL of the external sdcard from Windows over Wi-Fi when the external storage sdcard (named /storage/0000-0001/) is mounted as a drive letter onto Windows.
Strangely enough, using Windows with the sdcard mounted as a drive letter, I can write to any directory on that external sdcard that I had created on the phone (e.g., /storage/0000-0001/0001/) but I can't write to the top level of that external sdcard itself (i.e., /storage/0000-0001/).
I haven't debugged that write-permission problem yet as I was trying first to mount both the internal storage and external storage as a single Windows drive letter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not familiar with connectivity and drive protocols with what you're doing as I've never had the need for such a process.
I'm not even sure what to look up in order to get familiar enough to troubleshoot your setup.
Also, your attachments can't be viewed correctly, the attachment feature here is quirky. It is better to upload your photos to an image hosting site and then link them here.

Droidriven said:
I'm not familiar with connectivity and drive protocols with what you're doing as I've never had the need for such a process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. I've used ALL the freeware servers & clients on Android to interface with Windows, and I've found that WebDav works the best since it mounts Android as a drive letter over Wi-Fi.
To be clear, Ferro's FTPUse will also (supposedly) mount Android as a Windows drive letter over Wi-Fi but I find FTPUse even more problematic than WebDAV is.
Also of course SMB/Cifs/Samba "should" work best with Windows, but an unrooted Android phone can't use port 445 while Windows insists on serving SMB shares on port 445 (so all you can use are SMB clients on unrooted Android and not the SMB servers).
There are other connection methods (e.g., libmtp, kdeconnect, nitroshare, etc.), but I find WebDav to be the easiest and most functional in my tests over the years.
Droidriven said:
I'm not even sure what to look up in order to get familiar enough to troubleshoot your setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. Currently I run two commands and that mounts everything; but I was just wondering why I can't do it with one.
a. I can mount the internal storage (including / & /sdcard)
b. I can mount the external storage (/storage/0000-0001)
I was hoping someone else would try it on another phone so that we can compare results. It's a very powerful feature to be able to save directly to Windows from Android and vice versa.
Droidriven said:
Also, your attachments can't be viewed correctly, the attachment feature here is quirky. It is better to upload your photos to an image hosting site and then link them here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that. Here are the images posted to an image site.
Both sdcards mounted
Permissions are the same
My Files has permission
File Manager has permission
X-plore has no permission
WebDav has no sd permission
Let me know if the images show up more easily that way as I normally include them but I'm all for making life easier for folks to see them.

I found one Android app - file manager+. Seems buggy but beautifully do the integration before being automatically disconnected. Maybe my network setup has something to do I'm not sure.

This thread is great! I'm trying to repurpose an old Samsung Galaxy Tab A tablet as a network drive on my home network. Ive been able to get BestDAV and WebDAV running on the tablet...but both give access to only the root directory of the tablet. I want the external SDCARD to be visible. Ive tried to specify this in the Website home directory setting, but Im clearly doing something wrong........can anyone help with the correct setting? Many thanks!!!