Develop Bugs

[Question] SD Card formatting/partitioning guide

I can only assume this has been asked and answered, but I have searched and not been able to fine a suitable post yet...
I want to find a guide to format and partition my (16GB in my case) SD card in the best way for the current/future Desire ROMs

eesmm said:
I can only assume this has been asked and answered, but I have searched and not been able to fine a suitable post yet...
I want to find a guide to format and partition my (16GB in my case) SD card in the best way for the current/future Desire ROMs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use Windows to format the sd card to Fat32, after which you can then use Rom Manager (download from market) to create a ext partition (it will shrink the Fat32 partition to make room for the ext partition)
Alternatively, you can do it all in linux and it's pretty straight forward.
For example, Ubuntu (you can download a live version of ubuntu which you can burn to cd or copy to a bootable usb stick) can read the sd card (I just connect the phone whilst in clockworkmod recovery, select mount usb, and voila) and then you can use 'Disk Utility' located in the administrative tools area of Ubuntu to delete the stock partition that comes with most pre-formatted memory cards, create a Fat32 partition (Eg: 15GB) and then create an ext4 partition with the remaining space.
Using Linux is handy for backing up the contents of your ext partition - particularly useful when upgrading from a smaller sd card to a larger one but wanting to keep all your data.
I'm not the greatest at writing instructions and I have no idea if any of the above helps you in any way, but I hope it does!

I would use ROM Manager, but the Max partition size seems to be 512 and i want to make a 2GB partition. I am also unsure of whether the EXT partition (is EXT 3 or EXT4 best) should be primary or secondary, and will the Desire automatically start putting APPs there?
...and and what point do I turn the card back into a Goldcard, if at all necessary?

eesmm said:
I would use ROM Manager, but the Max partition size seems to be 512 and i want to make a 2GB partition. I am also unsure of whether the EXT partition (is EXT 3 or EXT4 best) should be primary or secondary, and will the Desire automatically start putting APPs there?
...and and what point do I turn the card back into a Goldcard, if at all necessary?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Gparted is the best partition tool ;-) It can be used as a live CD - which can be booted in virtual box.
2) You'll never need a goldcard, unless you want to go back to stock RUU (ie to send your phone back to get fixed).
3) EXT4 Primary partition
4) The desire will put apps there if the rom has Apps2sd enabled. Most roms these days do, but some require you to install the script yourself. 2gb seems a lot for just apps though.

Simple is better.
I myself have an 8gb sd card and used rom manager to partition it. I did not format my sd card beforehand, just took out the card from the package and put it into my phone.
Checking my appbrain list, i currently have 132 apps with a total size of 344MB.
Using the app Quick System Info:
A2SD storage-- Total: 458MB, Free: 110 MB
Internal storage-- Total: 148MB, Free:63.34 MB
I personally think 512 MB partition is more than enough.

friedkimchi said:
I personally think 512 MB partition is more than enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'd agree with this. I had a 512MB partition - extended it using gparted to 1GB but it really was a pointless activity as I was nowhere near using the 512MB in the first place
Oh well - future proof I guess!
@ OP... What would you need 2GB for? Seems, well, excessive...
BTW, the latest clockworkmod supports partitioning directly in the recovery menu and I believe it will give you the size you want.

[Q] Just bricked 2x SD cards partitioning. Do I need a class 6 one?

When trying to create an ext4 partition on the stock 8Gb SD card that I got with my Desire, I ended up 'bricking' it so now it's damaged and is no use any more.
I had a spare 4Gb one lying about (same make) and tried again, but suffered the same problem. Now that card is read only and I can't format it any more. Android just won't let me, and of course my PC doesn't see it as it's read only so again, 'bricked'.
Suffice to say now i'm furious as i've wasted 2 cards. I wasn't aware of different classes of SD cards before today but i'm guessing my problem stems from the fact that I was trying to add an ext4 partitions to class 2 cards? I wish the guides re partitioning would say that you need a better class of card to create ext3/ext4. (I was in the past able to make an ext2 ok on the first one)
Do I need to get a class 6 card to be able to use ext4?

I don't think class and partition compatibility have anything to do with each other, the class is just a indication of the minimum write speed. Also i had no problem getting a ext3 partition on a class 2 sd card.
What program are you using to partition the cards?

Yeah? I had read that somewhere. I'm using Gparted Live CD.
I can't think why both cards failed the same way then.

have a look at this link
http://download.cnet.com/VaioSoft-Recovery-Manager/3000-2094_4-10286449.html
manage to recover a bricked sd card with this. It might work for yours.

I used Gparted for my SD the other day and mysteriously, 4GB went missing. Luckily, Android reformatted it for me and I got my 4GB back

madffrogs said:
have a look at this link
http://download.cnet.com/VaioSoft-Recovery-Manager/3000-2094_4-10286449.html
manage to recover a bricked sd card with this. It might work for yours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try that. Thanks.

madffrogs said:
have a look at this link
http://download.cnet.com/VaioSoft-Recovery-Manager/3000-2094_4-10286449.html
manage to recover a bricked sd card with this. It might work for yours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an old program. It doesn't appear to work under W7.
Not sure it would be any help anyway as Android doesn't even give me the choice to make the damaged cards visible to a PC.

Did you try to mount them in recovery or just under android?
If only in android while booted, go in to recovery and mount it that way.

TheGhost1233 said:
Did you try to mount them in recovery or just under android?
If only in android while booted, go in to recovery and mount it that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't seem to have an option to mount an SD card in recovery mode.
The only options I have are:
Reboot system now
Apply sdcard:update.zip (which doesn't work as the SD card is damaged so there is no update.zip accessible)
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe cache partition
I think I did when I could use the update.zip but as I say, that's now not an option.
Any ideas?

Always be careful with ext4, it's known to kill the sd card's lifespan (so I've read from others, I've never tried it myself). I always use ext3 and it works fine.
P.S. Formatted with Rom Manager :/

ext4 will kill your card in 10 years maybe, so get that out of the equation.
boot a linux live cd if you dont have it installed (i.e. ubuntu)
open a terminal and then:
$sudo su (it will ask for your user password if you have one)
#dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX
but you have to replace that X by your phone's sd device it will probably be something like sdb or sdc, dont indicate the partition which would look like sdb1 or sdc1
once done, you hace to partition it again:
#cfdisk /dev/sdX
and then format those partition, like:
#mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdX2 (now you have to indicate the partition)
good luck, and dont **** up your system.

crapula512 said:
ext4 will kill your card in 10 years maybe, so get that out of the equation.
boot a linux live cd if you dont have it installed (i.e. ubuntu)
open a terminal and then:
$sudo su (it will ask for your user password if you have one)
#dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX
but you have to replace that X by your phone's sd device it will probably be something like sdb or sdc, dont indicate the partition which would look like sdb1 or sdc1
once done, you hace to partition it again:
#cfdisk /dev/sdX
and then format those partition, like:
#mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdX2 (now you have to indicate the partition)
good luck, and dont **** up your system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both my cards are already dead, so Ubuntu and Windows can't see them.

barryfell said:
Both my cards are already dead, so Ubuntu and Windows can't see them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about your card reader? Maybe it is not the cards? I did my partitions using Ubuntu Live CD. My MicroSD card is a Sandisk 2GB card without any class specified.

Keep your cards and keep trying to format them after 2-3 days. Formatting in FAT32+BTRFS bricked two of mine a few weeks back but they were fine after a week and started getting recognized by then - not before though.
And yep, not to do with Class rating; I run Ext4 with a Class 2 and 4.
------------------------------
- Sent via HTC Desire -

The card will be visible to Windows in computer management. Just delete the partition.
Bricked my arse
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

barryfell said:
I don't seem to have an option to mount an SD card in recovery mode.
The only options I have are:
Reboot system now
Apply sdcard:update.zip (which doesn't work as the SD card is damaged so there is no update.zip accessible)
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe cache partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A corrupted filesystem or partition is very different to a corrupted card. You most likely have the former, not the latter.
Which Recovery and version are you using?
All Recoveries for a while allow you to mount the card via USB. The option is under "mounts and storage" in CWM Recovery, like: http://www.brutzelstube.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ClockworkModRecovery.jpg
Format when it is mounted through this option via your PC.
------------------------------
- Sent via HTC Desire -

jiehao85 said:
What about your card reader? Maybe it is not the cards? I did my partitions using Ubuntu Live CD. My MicroSD card is a Sandisk 2GB card without any class specified.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a card reader and it's cheaper to buy a new card than buy a card reader to maybe fix them.
I previously had an ext2 partition which I done via Clockwork recovery. However, when I tried to format the card and repartition it with an ext4 partition using Gparted Live CD I broke both the cards. At first they were just being reported as read only by Android but as I tried to fix them they became damaged so now I can't mount them.
I think the problem stems from me formatting while the cards were mounted, as mentioned earlier. My mistake there. I should have formatted them under Gparted.
Now they are damaged Gparted no longer sees them and while Windows disk management did see them for a while (when Android was reporting them as read only) now I can't see them I can't do anything to them.

gutsbn said:
The card will be visible to Windows in computer management. Just delete the partition.
Bricked my arse
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before I damaged it it was visible in Windows disk management, but there were no partition(s) and no ability to format. The disk was just grey, like the DVD drive..

th3 said:
A corrupted filesystem or partition is very different to a corrupted card. You most likely have the former, not the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the former at first, but further attempts to fix it ended with the latter.
Which Recovery and version are you using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was using Clockwork, but I can no longer get in to it. As I say, all I can access are:
Reboot system now
Apply sdcard:update.zip
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe cache partition
I used to go to 'Apply sdcard:update.zip' to get into Clockwork Recovery but as I say, this is no longer an option, as the SD card has been formatted and now damaged.
All Recoveries for a while allow you to mount the card via USB. The option is under "mounts and storage" in CWM Recovery, like: http://www.brutzelstube.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ClockworkModRecovery.jpg
Format when it is mounted through this option via your PC.
------------------------------
- Sent via HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would if I could get into Clockwork Recovery. I just don't see a way of mounting the card to do anything with it now it's damaged. (Unless I maybe bought a card reader)

th3 said:
Keep your cards and keep trying to format them after 2-3 days. Formatting in FAT32+BTRFS bricked two of mine a few weeks back but they were fine after a week and started getting recognized by then - not before though.
And yep, not to do with Class rating; I run Ext4 with a Class 2 and 4.
------------------------------
- Sent via HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. I'll maybe try that at some point but I have a new card on the way so i'll be making sure I format and partition it in Gparted and not make the mistake of formatting while mounted in Android.

Help me fix my SD Card

Hi there,
A couple days ago, I had a usb brick. I quickly fixed it, everything got back to normal except for my sd card : I think it's corrupted. Why do I say this ? Because I've got another sd card, and it's working perfectly. I can't get to format it via Gparted. It says the procedure failed, there was an issue and i couldn't format it. In addition, even though it's a 4GB card, it's recognized as a 3gb card.
When I try to use it in recovery mode, it says :
Code:
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0)
But when I use the other card, nothing weird happens.
I'd like you guys to help me repair my SD card.

kev94 said:
Hi there,
A couple days ago, I had a usb brick. I quickly fixed it, everything got back to normal except for my sd card : I think it's corrupted. Why do I say this ? Because I've got another sd card, and it's working perfectly. I can't get to format it via Gparted. It says the procedure failed, there was an issue and i couldn't format it. In addition, even though it's a 4GB card, it's recognized as a 3gb card.
When I try to use it in recovery mode, it says :
Code:
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0)
But when I use the other card, nothing weird happens.
I'd like you guys to help me repair my SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Googled and found this: http://www.ehow.com/how_4850280_repair-corrupt-sd-card.html

1. link your desire with pc
2. enter "FASTBOOT Mode", it will display "HBOOT USB PLUG"
3. open dos windows and type adb shell
4. type fastboot oem rebootRUU
5. type fastboot oem enableqxdm 0
and retry

I already tried this, but it didn't work out ! I'm out of ideas...

So it says it's a 3GB card? You had an 1GB Ext partiton before?
If yes, that's where your 1GB's gone.
Recommended is to repartition your card again from scratch - Using Either GParted, EASEUS or MiniTool partiton.
Backup everything from it, then delete all partitions - and re-create them.

davebugyi said:
So it says it's a 3GB card? You had an 1GB Ext partiton before?
If yes, that's where your 1GB's gone.
Recommended is to repartition your card again from scratch - Using Either GParted, EASEUS or MiniTool partiton.
Backup everything from it, then delete all partitions - and re-create them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it's 3.7 GB and not 4GB (I guess it's normal though). And yes, the missing space was from the ext partition. Thanks god, the first thing I did was a backup of my SD card. Yet, I tried to format the card with Gparted (I'm currently running Ubuntu 10.10) but as I said above the procedure fails.
Then, I formatted in Windows, and I managed to create a 3Gb fat32 partition recognized in Gparted.
But how am I supposed to get my missing space back if this space isn't recognized in Gparted ?

I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 (natty) - and i'm able to mount my EXT partiton of the SD Card.
As I said, don't just format the card, but delete all partitions and re-create them, then format them.
Also, if your card is messed up badly, maybe you have to use the termina with commands to recover the ext partition.

Always format SD cards with the "SD Formatter 3.0" from the SD Association: http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
This little programs formats the whole card (full capacity, erasing all other partitions) in FAT32 meeting all SD specifications.
Furthermore it alligns the LBA parameters (virtual heads, cylinders etc) and the fat32 parameters with the internal structures of the flash memory (eraseblocks), so that fat32 clusters never overlap eraseblocks. This speeds up write performance (in my case about 50%! ).
There is no better tool to format SD cards.
After that you can resize (But don't move it, just trim the end. The free space in front of the FAT32 partition is part of the alignment) the FAT 32 partition with gparted and generate an ext partition in the free space.
Finally one should run the ext alignment script (it's a zip for recovery mode) from baadnwz homepage (http://www.baadnwz.eu/2011/05/align-your-sdcard-fat-and-ext-partiton_16.html) to align also the ext4 partition to the flash cells.

boot up into android (with any ROM) and go to settings > storage > format SD card
this should restore whole SD as FAT32
funny enough Android could do it, while Gparted could not (gparted didnt see my whole sd, it didnt see the ext partition)

davebugyi said:
I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 (natty) - and i'm able to mount my EXT partiton of the SD Card.
As I said, don't just format the card, but delete all partitions and re-create them, then format them.
Also, if your card is messed up badly, maybe you have to use the termina with commands to recover the ext partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---> As I said too , Gparted fails to create partitions. It displays a "warning" icon by the sd icon. Unless I'm a fool, I can't get any further there.
hypophysis said:
Always format SD cards with the "SD Formatter 3.0" from the SD Association: http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
This little programs formats the whole card (full capacity, erasing all other partitions) in FAT32 meeting all SD specifications.
Furthermore it alligns the LBA parameters (virtual heads, cylinders etc) and the fat32 parameters with the internal structures of the flash memory (eraseblocks), so that fat32 clusters never overlap eraseblocks. This speeds up write performance (in my case about 50%! ).
There is no better tool to format SD cards.
After that you can resize (But don't move it, just trim the end. The free space in front of the FAT32 partition is part of the alignment) the FAT 32 partition with gparted and generate an ext partition in the free space.
Finally one should run the ext alignment script (it's a zip for recovery mode) from baadnwz homepage (http://www.baadnwz.eu/2011/05/align-your-sdcard-fat-and-ext-partiton_16.html) to align also the ext4 partition to the flash cells.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---> Sounds great and geeky, gonna give it a try tomorrow afternoon (CET +2 here)
dzumagos said:
boot up into android (with any ROM) and go to settings > storage > format SD card
this should restore whole SD as FAT32
funny enough Android could do it, while Gparted could not (gparted didnt see my whole sd, it didnt see the ext partition)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---> Yeah, Gparted is a bit lazy here.... Gonna try it if hypophysis's method doesn't work out. I gotta admit this kinda problem is pretty disturbing and pisses me off so much.... Waiting forward to get it over with.
Anyway, thanks a lot for helping me, you're good people here !

Well, I tried hypophysis's method. It formatted successfuly. But as you said, I had to run Gparted again in order to create an Ext partition next to the fat 32 one. But I couldn't --> It says it couldn't find the "first sector" I guess, and it couldn't determine the device specifications, it wasn't able to perform everything he wanted. Actually it recognized the whole sd card, but wasn't able to do anything with it. I couldn't unmount it or mount it....
I'm stuck at square 1 Gonna try to perform dzumagos's method later.

How to backup and reformat an SD card with apps2sd?

Hi,
I'm running Cyanogenmod 7 on my HTC Desire with Apps2SD.
I was deleting an 800MB file off my phone when it was mounted on my PC and then my PC crashed mid-way through deleting the file and now I can't see the file that way being deleted but the space shows it's not deleted...
And I've also been getting a lot of "SD Card Damaged" notifications on my Phone (reboot fixes it) that were unrelated to the above.
So I wanted to reformat my SD Card (or fix disk errors or something).
I've got a 14GB FAT32 partition and and a 1GB Ext3 partition for apps.
Is it as simple as copying the contents from the FAT32 and Ext3 and then using gparted to erase and format a 1GB Ext3 and the rest FAT32?
(I'm running Linux - Ubuntu 11.04)
Should I do it by MicroSD>SD Card Adapter>PC
Or MicroSD>Phone>USB Cable>PC?
Thanks

Ano8 said:
Is it as simple as copying the contents from the FAT32 and Ext3 and then using gparted to erase and format a 1GB Ext3 and the rest FAT32?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is.
Ano8 said:
Should I do it by MicroSD>SD Card Adapter>PC
Or MicroSD>Phone>USB Cable>PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Either would work fine, though I have heard of some folks having issues with the SD>Phone method...

What If I change the size of the Ext3 partition?
If I change it from a 1GB to a 700MB will it adjust and work fine?

Ano8 said:
What If I change the size of the Ext3 partition?
If I change it from a 1GB to a 700MB will it adjust and work fine?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should be fine... as long as you don't require a 1gb partition on your rom
And I would do it by MicroSD>SD Card Adapter>PC

With a card reader micro sd card adapter, ubuntu sometimes complains the sd card is read-only. If it's so, start nautilus with root rights:
Code:
gksudo nautilus
Now you can copy the content.

Thanks, copying from SD Card now...

i made like this :
- make a nanroid Backup with your recovery
- save your FAT32 partition on your computer, don't forget Hiden files.
- format your SD as you want
- put your FAT32 from computer to SD
- restore your nandroid backup with recovery
- it's Done

t-minik said:
i made like this :
- make a nanroid Backup with your recovery
- save your FAT32 partition on your computer, don't forget Hiden files.
- format your SD as you want
- put your FAT32 from computer to SD
- restore your nandroid backup with recovery
- it's Done
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it better to do it like that, than just copying the ext partition?

That / there is no "better" way. It's just an alternative.

yep, just an alternative for those who don't use Linux

t-minik said:
yep, just an alternative for those who don't use Linux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, ok.
I am copying stuff back onto the SD Card now...

Stuck on Boot Loop Cyanogenmod 7
What did I do wrong?

nice information......................i have done it with my SD.................

mobileguy20 said:
nice information......................i have done it with my SD.................
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What???!?
I have a boot loop now.
How do I fix?
Is there some sort of temporary files that could be deleted?

HELP!!!!!!!!!!

I can still go to Bootloader...

HELP!
What should I do?
I don't want to loose data!

Bump..........

Um - bad situation
Maybe you should try to reformat the card exactly as it was, play back the contents and pray.
You wrote, that you had a read/write error with a 800 MB file and multiple error messages.
I would have saved my data per Titanium and Nandroid, formated and make a fresh ROM install. But alas - that´s no option at the moment.
If the above doesn´t work maybe the folks in the CM7 section have an idea.

It won't even turn on with no SD Card in it.
What do I do?

SD Card cloning issues

I have been trying to clone my 4gb class 4 sd card to the new 8gb class 6, but failed.
I am using Cyanogenmod 7 nightly and app2sd with data moved to sd. My computer OS is linux and I have android tools installed.
1. I partitioned new card with newest clockworkmod, which unfortunately results in ext2, not ext4 so I reformated ext2 to 4 using some partitioning software.
2. Copied content of fat32 partition from the old card, including recent nandroid backup.
3. Booted to recovery and tried restoring sd-ext several times, but I either get 'MD5 sum mismatch', or it starts fine but at some point it stops with error.
I then tried again but this time without reformatting ext2 to ext4 but the result was the same.
I also tried just copying sd-ext directly with 'sudo' but the phone acts just like the new installation then and even 'Fix Permissions' doesn't help.
Help!

I just recently did this myself two different ways, the first was to use acronis disk manager to clone the sd from a 8gb to 16gb. This worked fine but took an extremely long time.
I then upgraded from 4gib to 8 and created the partitions manually and copied over the data from one mount to another. Works fine here.
Did you try restarting your phone and double checking the partitions / types?

Plug both sdcards in the PC then use gparted to copy the two partitions across then grow the fat partition to fill the space if needed.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

mercianary said:
Plug both sdcards in the PC then use gparted to copy the two partitions across then grow the fat partition to fill the space if needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have only one card reader in my laptop and connecting the card inside the phone makes the ext partition invisible for gparted. This makes copying partitions between two cards impossible.

impactor said:
I have only one card reader in my laptop and connecting the card inside the phone makes the ext partition invisible for gparted. This makes copying partitions between two cards impossible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put the phone in recovery, then mount USB, it works for me using amonra recovery.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

mercianary said:
Put the phone in recovery, then mount USB, it works for me using amonra recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using newest ClockWork recovery and all I can see in gparted is the FAT partition. Not even empty space where EXT should be.

and thats definitely mounting USB mass storage not mount SD card?
Theres definitely FS issues on the new card if you're getting MD5 sum errors.
Firstly dont use anything other than gparted to partition (see signature).
Flatten the new card completely. Format any partitions that may be there out and start again, from scratch.

rootSU said:
and thats definitely mounting USB mass storage not mount SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the only option in recovery menu. I think if I used something else, I wouldn't even see FAT partition. The ext is ext4, btw.
And we are talking the original card here, not the new one. The new one is in the reader.

impactor said:
This is the only option in recovery menu. I think if I used something else, I wouldn't even see FAT partition. The ext is ext4, btw.
And we are talking the original card here, not the new one. The new one is in the reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which is the only option? What recovery?

If I boot into recovery and go to 'mount and storage', 'Mount USB storage' is the only option that actually makes the phone visible to the computer. There are pleny of mount/unmount (eg: mount /data) options above this one, but they're supposed to work internally.

Is it Amon-Ra / RMD? Does the size of the FAT partition tally with the total size of the card? did you say had a card reader? just use that if you have

ClockworkMod Recovery 5.0.2.0
If I switch cards, then the one in the phone will still be invisible and I need both at the same time to copy partitions.

Forget copying partitions. Your instinct with nandroid restore was right, however you need to get the fs on the new card sorted
Also I have noticed on ubuntu that the data copy remaining is inaccurate. I leave it for several minutes after it appears to have completed to ensure data is written before ummount
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

rootSU said:
Forget copying partitions. Your instinct with nandroid restore was right, however you need to get the fs on the new card sorted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except this doesn't get me anywhere. I tried with ext2, ext4, created in recovery or by gparted and every time got stuck on the same stage.

Then theres a serious issue that needs fixing. Best not to work around. The nandroid is the best option.
Have you a Windows machine? H2testw.exe is a great sd testing app
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Created partitions are not visible in Gparted if the card is in the phone, contrary to empty space. It took me many attempts in different configurations but I got it done, eventually, using gparted partition copying for EXT and regular copy for the FAT partition content