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How to Partition your Sd Card??

How to partition your SD Card for us Newbies.
how can i do that? Ext2 , Ext3
i have a 8 gb sd card class 6. someone guide me please with a link
Thnx

acronis disk manager can do that but the card wouldnt boot in my phone, so i used the phones internal boot up manager to do it, unlocker.com has a video guide. i only been doing this my self passed 3 days and its been really confusing so good luck

Page 2 of the Q&A Forum
oMaRcO said:
How to partition your SD Card for us Newbies.
Thnx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Introductory Remarks:
- Ext Partition is only needed if your rom uses App2SD+ (Froyo app2sd works with basic Fat32 partition)
- "Install apps to sd" (ext) must sometimes be configured in your ROM, check the thread for your rom for infos...
- Backup your SD card before you start ! The following steps will wipe the contents !
- Ext partitions are only visible in Linux = Windows can't see it.
- Swap Partitions are no longer useful.
- You can check if you have a working ext partition with Quick system info (in app market)
- On first reboot after partition, android will move some apps to the SD, this will take a lot of time. Some people have reported a bootloop on green HTC Screen, one reported a need to Battery pull 4 times before it finally worked), so be patient!!!!
- If the device is plugged into a PC when you try to boot with the partitioned SDCard it never gets past the white HTC sceen & logo.
Now the tutorials:
A. Easiest way is to install Rom Manager:
1) install rom manager
2) choose partition sd card
- 512mb ext
- 0 swap
3) let RM do the rest... ;-)
- I believe Rom Manager (as of end of July) creates an ext2 partition, therefore if you want ext3 or 4, easiest is to go through Gparted, or if you have amonRa Recovery, I believe this function is present.
B. Another one is using Gparted:
(copied this from http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Apps2SD)
You can use a livecd of GParted, or use it from within Ubuntu (vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVK-t...eature=related)
+ You can do this using your phone to mount the SD card or a Card adapter directly connected to your computer.
1) Connect your phone to your computer (or use an SD Card adapter...., in this case skip to 4))
2) Pull down the notification bar and mount the phone
3) Start Gparted
4) Gparted will search available drives. (Your phone should show up as a USB drive, and will be something like /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdc1, etc..)
Warning: double-check you've not selected a hdd by mistake!
5) In the upper right corner, select the correct USB device for your phone. (i.e. check to make sure it is correct size for your SD card)
6) Right click on each partition and select 'unmount'
7) Right click on each partition and select 'delete'
If you know what you are doing, you can re-size the partitions and add a new 2nd partition formatted as ext2/3/4
8) Right click on the big gray bar (should say unallocated x.xx gb) and click 'new'
9) Enter configurations
Free Space preceding = 0
Create as = Primary
New size = [don't touch]
File system = fat32
Free Space Following = 512 (or whatever you want)
10) Click add
11) Right click on the big gray bar (should say unallocated x.xx gb) and click 'new'
12) Enter configurations
Free Space preceding = 0
Create as = Primary
New size = [don't touch]
File system = ext3 or 4 (recommend ext4)
Free Space Following = 0
Click add
13) [CHECK AGAIN you are working on your SD card and not your Hard Drive!!!!] Click edit, then 'Apply All Operations' to write changes to disk
14) Quit GParted
15) Unmount your SD Card
16) Reboot your phone and wait (see introductory remarks)
C. Recovery Images
Some Recovery Images also have a option to format your SD card from the recovery screen. (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=721792).
I have not tried that.
As long as you have an ext2/3/4 partition and the ROM you're flashing has A2SD support (check before you download the ROM), you are not required to do anything more.
D. How to check if it worked?
To check whether A2SD is working once you've flashed your ROM,
1)Download Quick System Info from the Market, and check under A2SD Storage, it should give you enough informations.
2)download the Android Terminal Emulator app from the market and use the following commands
Code:
su
ls -l /data
You should see your app directory pointing to /system/sd/app and app-private pointing to /system/sd/app-private (courtesy of ikkokusenkin)
E. Further Infos
See: http://geeks.pirillo.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-partition-an-sd-card or :
http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f...rtition-14232/ or:
http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/15/ho...-android-when-using-swap-hero-and-or-apps2sd/ (With Rav Recovery...) or:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=534714 (most complicated way.... )
related thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731432&page=2
F. Open Questions:
What I don't know:
- If the size of the ext partition matters (if you have to choose 256/512 or 1024, and can't have 600mb for example?
- What ROMs require ext partitions? (all with app2sd+, basic froyo app2sd doesn't require ext partition).
- If Class 6 SD cards really are that important (some webpages say that class 2 cards are not able to handle ext2 partitions and end up bricked.
- How to manage the contents in the ext partition when changing SD Cards... (do you need any management of your ext partition?) or you have to reinstall those apps????) See here.
- How to check if you bricked your sd card...
- etc...
Good Luck

Use Rom Manager
Completely painless, took less that 2 mins to do mine
PS - It may appear to stuck at the HTC white screen after completion, I just left it and
it booted up normally after about 3 mins
50 apps installed and 132MB spare!!

The first time round the Rom manager worked for me. But I again formatted the card thinking i had not followed the right partitioning so i tried again but i get stuck on a black screen with SU request written forever which needs to be force closed.
Please advise. thanks

I recently bought a 32gb sandisk and want to get that working heres what I have done with no luck:
I inserted the new memory card and it picked up fine on the phone then I went to rom manager to partition the card, 512mb and 0 swap it reboots but only stays in clockwork mod, from here I dont know what to do.
If I connect the phone to the computer with the card mounted it displays the card as raw not fat32 but music files drag and drop and easily play.
I could format it from the computer to fat32 but I'll wait and see what you guys say.

Chan_B said:
I recently bought a 32gb sandisk and want to get that working heres what I have done with no luck:
I inserted the new memory card and it picked up fine on the phone then I went to rom manager to partition the card, 512mb and 0 swap it reboots but only stays in clockwork mod, from here I dont know what to do.
If I connect the phone to the computer with the card mounted it displays the card as raw not fat32 but music files drag and drop and easily play.
I could format it from the computer to fat32 but I'll wait and see what you guys say.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to format the card back to fat32 using:
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/index.html
Then check out the Windows way of using parted to partition
http://androidandme.com/2009/08/news/how-to-manually-partition-your-sd-card-for-android-apps2sd/
After partitioning I use clockworkmod to upgrade ext2 to 3.
And you can't always set a linux swap of 0 so calculate 1MB for that part.

I got it to fat32 but then the windows way of using parted to partition seems difficult. How can I tell if I have partitioned my card successfully? How can I partition using clockworkmod only, when I go to partitions menu it only says mount or format, this is frustrating...

Chan_B said:
I got it to fat32 but then the windows way of using parted to partition seems difficult. How can I tell if I have partitioned my card successfully? How can I partition using clockworkmod only, when I go to partitions menu it only says mount or format, this is frustrating...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gparted has a live cd to partition your sd card
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

Hi, i see you all set swap as 0 does that mean its using phone internal storage as swap how fast is read/write of phone ram ? i have class2 32gb card i used the phone boot with the r5 windows.bat to get into it and i set 256 swap/512 ext2/ rest 32bit all seems to work fine.
i note that writing to the sd card is about 2MBps and read is 10MBps.
i have a class4 8gb that writes at 10MBps reads about 17MBps i have had both in the phone and i cant say that i notice lag on the 32GB but i havent had it more than a few days and coming from xda orbit its a big difference.
if i use the card as storage the phone becomes very lag but maybe thats cause in that mode it would have no swap file? might change that when i finally flash to froyo.
gparted kept saying it was unformatted when windows said it was formatted so i gave up with it.

gianton said:
gparted has a live cd to partition your sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I think I sorted it. Fingers crossed.

Just rooted my htc desire and used rom manager to partition my sd card (the one I got when I bought the phone). Everything fine.
then I bought a new Transcend micro sdhc 8GB... this memory card is not recognize by windows if using card reader. So..:
- I inserted into blackberry and connected using usb cable. My windows (Windows xp) can see and access it.
- formatted the new memory card to Fat32
- copy Open Desire and and Official Sense Froyo ROMs, both by Adam
- flashed to Sense Froyo ROM, and when it rebooted, it freezed.. cant get into the system
- flashed to OpenDesire, it worked.
- Download ROM Manager
- choose "Partition SD Card"
- Swap 0, Ext 512mb
- ERROR...
what should I do?

Did you download Clockworkmod recovery through ROM Manager before that?

If you create a partition using rom manager do you lose all your apps and settings that you already have in use.
thanks

jankos said:
Did you download Clockworkmod recovery through ROM Manager before that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes.. cos when i clicked partition sd card, it asked me to download clockworkmod first.
it goes to recovery screen but with "unsucsessfull" message. cant find sdcard/cache/update.zip ...
the funny thing is, if I copied update.zip from my old memory card into new one. and run update.zip from recovery screen... then it worked.
but when I checked with quick system info, app2sd only shows around 400mb. is that rite?

aoisora said:
yes.. cos when i clicked partition sd card, it asked me to download clockworkmod first.
it goes to recovery screen but with "unsucsessfull" message. cant find sdcard/cache/update.zip ...
the funny thing is, if I copied update.zip from my old memory card into new one. and run update.zip from recovery screen... then it worked.
but when I checked with quick system info, app2sd only shows around 400mb. is that rite?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its showing around 400mb for me aswell, but how exactly can I tell if it is working. If I go to manage applications and click on sd card I have a couple that I moved over i.e rom manager but some apps are unmovable to sd card. Are these apps unmovable by design. I hope I haven't done it wrong.
BTW neophyte is the best rom I've used yet.

I made partition with Rom Manager.
Do I need now to "swap" ext2 to ext3?
If so, how do I do it?!

mattan said:
I made partition with Rom Manager.
Do I need now to "swap" ext2 to ext3?
If so, how do I do it?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think rom manager does that as ext3.

mattan said:
I made partition with Rom Manager.
Do I need now to "swap" ext2 to ext3?
If so, how do I do it?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROM Manager makes directly ext3 format. Do not worry about that

jankos said:
ROM Manager makes directly ext3 format. Do not worry about that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it doesn't it makes a ext2 partition, you have to format to ext3... I have used gparted live cd to do this.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Too many a2sd a2sd+ app2sd, really confused...

I'm really confused, first with all the different a2sd variants and ones that are made by Darktremor or other people or the FroYo version. This is as much as I know for this app.
Secondly, I really couldn't find any information on doing partitions manually or setting ALL partitions to ext since I have a linux box, I really don't care to use windows to copy over files or whatever. I have a VMware box to do that on my windows machine anyways.
Third, the ClockworkMod recovery has NO options to do the partition following Darktremor's faq, and I don't know if I should install another recovery after flashing my hboot to 0.93 S-OFF (Alpha)
Mind you I only had my android for about 6 days and this is my first one, so learning curve is hard.
Please help

1) the names can be confusing but old apps2sd is an ext partition on your SD card that appears to the system as internal storage. Froyo apps2sd is using Froyo to transfer mapps to the fat32 partition (normal partition) of your SD card. You just need to use context because people tend to use apps2sd for both.
2) you can use gepart to partition. You need a fat32 partition for apps to write to and for any personal data because Android looks to that partition for that kind of data. I have my SD card as 5 gb fat32 and 3 gb ext3. Fat32 goes first.
3) go to ROM manager. Partition SD card. Choose size....there is only 3 sizes though.
If anything I wrote is wrong I'm sure I'll be corrected.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but since this is related to a2sd in general I might as well ask it here. What's the effect of having a2sd+ on your battery? Would it lower battery life due to cache and apps being stored mainly on SD instead of internal memory? I observed that this was often the case when I store always-on apps on SD back on my old Windows device.

So no way of not using a fat32 eh?
It still seems I don't have much space left after using the Rom manager way. I have 120meg free on internal mem.
Could I just format using linux mkfs? I want to make the apps partition about 2GB to hold more apps. Though it seems some widgets can't take putting on SD card, it dissipates.

BriEE said:
So no way of not using a fat32 eh?
It still seems I don't have much space left after using the Rom manager way. I have 120meg free on internal mem.
Could I just format using linux mkfs? I want to make the apps partition about 2GB to hold more apps. Though it seems some widgets can't take putting on SD card, it dissipates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Widgets must be installed on internal storage, or they wont work.

If you want an easy method to make a ext 3 partition use ROM manager premium from the Market. It will make you automatically an ext3 partition with a maximum of 512 mb which is enough (put swap to 0). Just keep in mind that first inside ROM Manager you need to select the option Flash ClockworkMod Recovery, and after that go to the SD partition option otherwise it wont work. And also remember you need to have the PREMIUM version otherwise it might not work
Now if you want to have more than a 512 mb you can use gparted. It is a livecd which means that can work on linux, mac or windows just reboot with the cd inside and is quite straightforward to use. Hope this helps.

Hello guys, any thought about that issue maybe?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=816098

Formatting of the memory card.

Hi sorry if this has been answered but couldnt find it.
i recently purchased a a bigger size micro sd card for my htc desire. The phone will not turn on with the card in, nor can i format it in the recovery memory. Can someone tell me what i need to format it as on computer. GPT MBR, FAT 32. etc etc. Thank you

I used Gparted in Linux to set up the standard layout:
- 32MB SWAP
- 512MB EXT2
- Rest FAT32
You can download a livecd of Gparted, or use "Partition SD Card" within ROM Manager.

You can download GParted for Windows aswell. Google it.

Or you can flash amon ra recovery and use that to partition within the recovery.
Also rom manager allows you to partition the card as well. I personally use 0mb for swap and 768mb for ext3. Do note rom manager only allows you to use an ext partition no bigger then 512mb. I assume it only formats it in ext2. My opinion is amon ra recovery is the way to go. Use version r5 as the latest is quite buggy according to other users. Or you can use gparted as mentioned earlier.
Misunderstood your post, use gparted. I didnt read that you cant turn on the phone with the card in it.

swap is not needed

Have you got / can you borrow a card reader for your PC, you can partition it from there
(Whys this under android dev?)
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

schiznik said:
Have you got / can you borrow a card reader for your PC, you can partition it from there
(Whys this under android dev?)
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Report the thread.
It's already been done.
Can't hurt, though.

I'm also having a little problem with the partitions...
I have a 32gb card, but when i remove it from the card reader after making the partitions (or after disconnecting the phone from the computer) the only partition remaining is the FAT32...ext and swap become unloccated space :s
how can i fix this?

feelmyanger said:
I'm also having a little problem with the partitions...
I have a 32gb card, but when i remove it from the card reader after making the partitions (or after disconnecting the phone from the computer) the only partition remaining is the FAT32...ext and swap become unloccated space :s
how can i fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do realize that you can't use the SWAP and EXT partitions as drive-space, right?

feelmyanger said:
I'm also having a little problem with the partitions...
I have a 32gb card, but when i remove it from the card reader after making the partitions (or after disconnecting the phone from the computer) the only partition remaining is the FAT32...ext and swap become unloccated space :s
how can i fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they are not accessable within windows

i know, i used gparted. but when i remove the sd card/disconnect the phone from usb mode the partitions are gone :|

zHk3R said:
You do realize that you can't use the SWAP and EXT partitions as drive-space, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, but i'm not talking about the space...the entire partition itself dissapears. for example, if i'm going to flash a rom that need an ext partition it won't flash...the ext partition is gone

one question,
should the ext partition be in the front or at the back of the FAT32 partition?
or it doesn't matter?

How to create ext3 partition on SD-Card under Windows

This post is for people scared of Linux (like me)
I finally found a way to partition a SD-Card under Windows. I tried more tools, but only one was able to work with SD-Cards. Here's what you need to do:
1. Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard (google it, i cant post links)
2. Resize original FAT32 partition to make room for the ext3 one. If you have enough space, the data on the card shouldn't be affected, but make a back-up just in case.
3. Create the ext3 partition on the space made available and apply changes
The first partition should be FAT32, and the second ext3, make sure you have them in this order.

Kneros said:
This post is for people scared of Linux (like me)
I finally found a way to partition a SD-Card under Windows. I tried more tools, but only one was able to work with SD-Cards. Here's what you need to do:
1. Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard (google it, i cant post links)
2. Resize original FAT32 partition to make room for the ext3 one. If you have enough space, the data on the card shouldn't be affected, but make a back-up just in case.
3. Create the ext3 partition on the space made available and apply changes
The first partition should be FAT32, and the second ext3, make sure you have them in this order.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost all custom partition managers can do this in Windows-Partition Magic, Paragon, Or Gparted with VMWare

They can, but not on SD Card. Windows doesn't support partitions on memory cards. I tried Partition Magic, Paragon, Easeus, none of them work.
I didn't try Gparted with VMWare tho, you might be right about that.

Kneros said:
They can, but not on SD Card. Windows doesn't support partitions on memory cards. I tried Partition Magic, Paragon, Easeus, none of them work.
I didn't try Gparted with VMWare tho, you might be right about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Paragon works for me on Windows..And Gparted is what I use

Strange, it didn't work for me (see attached pics).

Just install the latest ClockworkMod, or Amon-RA and do it through recovery.

Is it useful to have an ext3 partition on SD card with stock 2.2 rom ?

fblasot said:
Is it useful to have an ext3 partition on SD card with stock 2.2 rom ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's useless, you need a ROM that supports it.

quick question - if I create an ext3 partition using this method or any other way, and then move the apps I had on SD (the old way) back to internal, will it then move them to the ext3 partition automatically? I just want to make sure I have this right myself before I attempt it.
I'm using Oxygen 2.3 ROM RC-6 which supports apps2sd etc.
thanks in advance for any replies.

Kneros said:
Strange, it didn't work for me (see attached pics).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See mine..
I'm using 9.0 Pro, you're using 10.0 server, if that helps..
I still prefer Gparted though..On Vmware.

Choronzonix said:
quick question - if I create an ext3 partition using this method or any other way, and then move the apps I had on SD (the old way) back to internal, will it then move them to the ext3 partition automatically? I just want to make sure I have this right myself before I attempt it.
I'm using Oxygen 2.3 ROM RC-6 which supports apps2sd etc.
thanks in advance for any replies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The a2sd+ script is built in, it executes at installation. Best way would be to use Titanium to backup ur froyo a2sd apps, wipe+install a2sd+ custom rom, use the option of Titanium, to move to sd.

and how do you want to put data on the ext3 partition ? ... you will need linux, its the best way...

Kneros said:
This post is for people scared of Linux (like me)
I finally found a way to partition a SD-Card under Windows. I tried more tools, but only one was able to work with SD-Cards. Here's what you need to do:
1. Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard (google it, i cant post links)
2. Resize original FAT32 partition to make room for the ext3 one. If you have enough space, the data on the card shouldn't be affected, but make a back-up just in case.
3. Create the ext3 partition on the space made available and apply changes
The first partition should be FAT32, and the second ext3, make sure you have them in this order.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT:
Didn't work, SD could not be mounted under Android or Clockworkmod
Did the partitioning under Clockworkmod

partition works, but..
i tried minitool and easueus, both partiotion my 16 gb sd card, but...
I use miui rom, xpart(data2ext). the script works, but the phone is slow as ........
someone any idea?
i also have a 8 gb card, same partitions, but no problem..
any idea how i can tets my 16 gb card?

Minitool is crap. Haven't used easeus but its still under Windows, which is a no no
Gparted is the only decent tool that will nicely partition an ext partition on your sd whilst aligning it properly. This is both my personal and professional opinion.
Now because it doesn't run in windows, its a bit more long winded but so much more worth while.
Virtual machine (vmware player) is the best method. There is a link to a guide to set this up in my signature
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Kneros said:
This post is for people scared of Linux (like me)
I finally found a way to partition a SD-Card under Windows. I tried more tools, but only one was able to work with SD-Cards. Here's what you need to do:
1. Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard (google it, i cant post links)
2. Resize original FAT32 partition to make room for the ext3 one. If you have enough space, the data on the card shouldn't be affected, but make a back-up just in case.
3. Create the ext3 partition on the space made available and apply changes
The first partition should be FAT32, and the second ext3, make sure you have them in this order.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Minitool partition wizard is a wonderful and practical software. Thanks!!

Partitioning Help

I partitioned my SD card using ROM Manager a while ago, into 500 MB ext2 and the rest as fat32 (~6.5 GB).
Now, I want to repartition to increase the 500MB one to 1 GB and make it ext4. However, when I connect my phone and use Gparted, it only sees the 6.5 GB partition, not the 500 MB one (a2sd I guess).

b0ng0 said:
I partitioned my SD card using ROM Manager a while ago, into 500 MB ext2 and the rest as fat32 (~6.5 GB).
Now, I want to repartition to increase the 500MB one to 1 GB and make it ext4. However, when I connect my phone and use Gparted, it only sees the 6.5 GB partition, not the 500 MB one (a2sd I guess).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what?
Try do a full format under windows (untick "quick format")

@bortak:
As far as I understand him, he wants to repartition his SD card because he wants to increase the size of his EXT-partition. This partition should also be upgraded to EXT4.
@b0ng0:
1.) Backup all apps and system data with Titanium Backup.
2.) Boot into recovery and make a complete nandroid backup
3.) Connect phone to computer, enable USB Mass Storage (USB-MS in recovery), backup the whole data of the SD card (FAT32 partition is enough cause of your backups), disable USB-MS and disconnect phone from computer
4.) Partition your SD card either with recovery are GParted according to your needs
5.) Copy all data back on SD card (FAT32 partition)
6.) Flash rom and restore all apps (systemdata only if you did not change rom, WiFi Access Points can always be restored)

look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVK-tJe8pXE
it helps you a lot

Sorry, I should have stated the issue more clearly:
I have two partitions - 500 MB ext2 and 6.5 GB FAT32.
I want to increase my 500 MB ext2 to 1 GB ext4.
However, when I open Gparted it only sees the 6.5 GB FAT32 partition. I'm thinking this is because the 500 MB is in use by the phone (i.e. used for a2sd, although I may be wrong).
Do I need to connect my phone in any specific way?
EDIT: I used Windows Disk Manager and it saw both partitions, thanks for the help guys.

Download Gparted live, it's more easy formatting your SD. And DO A BACKUP of your sd before.