Develop Bugs

[Q] How Do I Remove An Ext3 Partition From My Sd Card?

I was using my 4gb sd card for apps to sd for my previously-rooted android phone, and had about a 500mb of it partitioned to ext3. I have since unrooted my android phone and put it back to stock, but in doing so, I lost the recovery console that would allow me to unpartition my sd card. Is there a safe program that will recognize the ext3 partition and remove it?

Gparted. You can use a live cd or a VM.

Hi there. I downloaded a free program call minitool partition wizard. Do a google search for it (I can't post links)
It has worked well for me with my SD card partitioning.
Make sure you back up the contents of your SD card before removing the ext 3 partition as it will delete all the contents on it.

could you please elaborate a little as i am a noob. like whats gparted? whats a vm? whats the process of doing what i asked? thanks for the help.

I don't know if Windows recognises it at all but worth a try really. Gparted is a live cd tool that allows you make partitons on a storage device. I think that VM refers to a Virtual Machine, using something like VMWare or VirtualBox.

guys please help. i used these softwares but none of these is showing my ext3 partition in the program window. just a 3.22gb of one partition on phone. the 512mb of ext3 partion is still missing and i dont know where to find it.

Well, since you really don't need the ext3 partition anymore, you could format the whole SD card from windows (do a back-up of the content on the hdd before, though). Then in Windows (I'm guessing you're using windows ), with the phone connected in mass storage mode, right click on My Computer / Manage / click on Disk Management and you should see in the list of the drives your SD card (pay attention to the size). Right click on the 512 MB partition - Delete volume... After that you should create a new partiotion, format it as FAT32... Or you could delete all the partitions of the card and create a new volume.

Icysoul said:
Well, since you really don't need the ext3 partition anymore, you could format the whole SD card from windows (do a back-up of the content on the hdd before, though). Then in Windows (I'm guessing you're using windows ), with the phone connected in mass storage mode, right click on My Computer / Manage / click on Disk Management and you should see in the list of the drives your SD card (pay attention to the size). Right click on the 512 MB partition - Delete volume... After that you should create a new partiotion, format it as FAT32... Or you could delete all the partitions of the card and create a new volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did that. in disk management i only see a 3.22gb partition. (i have a 4gb card, so i 512mb is still missing). i cannot find the 512mb ext3 partition anywhere. please can someone help me to find a software or any other method which will be able to detect the ext3 partition as well ?

The partition may be corrupted. You can still try to use Gparted live cd - google for gparted-live-0.7.1-5.zip . It can also be installed on USB flash, check their site for instructions. Restart your PC and boot from the CD or USB flash then check your sd card. If it still doesn't recognize the 512 partition, you might be out of luck.

Icysoul said:
The partition may be corrupted. You can still try to use Gparted live cd - google for gparted-live-0.7.1-5.zip . It can also be installed on USB flash, check their site for instructions. Restart your PC and boot from the CD or USB flash then check your sd card. If it still doesn't recognize the 512 partition, you might be out of luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how could the partition be corrupted because i was using the ext3 partition to install apps when i had root. it was only recently that i have to sell out my htc desire and i unrooted my htc desire. unroot procedure was done successfully but the card is only showing 3.22gb, i-e, 512mb is missing. this may become an issue if the buyer does not want to pay for a 4gb card with only 3.22gb of storage. it should be around 3.5-3.6gb

A partition may become corrupted if you remove the battery from the phone while the system is still running (i.e. writing data on the partition), it is not unheard of. Do try the gparted solution mentioned before, though.

Icysoul said:
A partition may become corrupted if you remove the battery from the phone while the system is still running (i.e. writing data on the partition), it is not unheard of. Do try the gparted solution mentioned before, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes buddy i have tried the gparted solution you suggested before. even that is showing only 3.22gb of my sdcard and no mention of the 512mb ext3 partition. i dont know whether i am doing something wrong or what.... ???
Anyway, is there anyway i could recover that corrupt partition? Like can i ROOT my htc desire again and then try to format the ext3 partition from the recovery? i read somewhere there is a way to do that in recovery by giving some commands. and once i have recovered the ext3 partition space then i can UNROOT my htc desire again. DO YOU THINK IF I DO THIS ITS GONNA BE OF ANY USE? Please help me.

This might work since it worked for me. 4GB mysteriously disappeared from my 16GB card and neither Windows or gparted picked it up. The only way I was able to get it back was putting it in my phone and the Android picked it up. I did have to format my whole SD card but nontheless, I got all my space back. Hope this helps and if you have tried this then I can only guess that your SD card is buggered.

GoogleJelly said:
This might work since it worked for me. 4GB mysteriously disappeared from my 16GB card and neither Windows or gparted picked it up. The only way I was able to get it back was putting it in my phone and the Android picked it up. I did have to format my whole SD card but nontheless, I got all my space back. Hope this helps and if you have tried this then I can only guess that your SD card is buggered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
um actually, my sdcard IS in the phone this whole time as i dont have any card reader. i am connecting my phone with my pc in hard drive mode.
from within the phone, i have tried to format the sd card many times but the space does not go beyond 3.22gb..

Something seems to have messed the partition up. Have a look around on the web
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

ok tell me if i root my cellphone again, will it help?
because there is a way to delete the ext3 partition from the recovery.

finally recovered my ext3 partition.
this is what i did.
1) rooted my phone.
2) enter into clockworkmod recovery
3) mount sd-ext (i guess it wasnt mounted that's why no app was recognizing it)
4) now windows was able to recognize the ext3 partition.
5) problem solved.

jamy_hallian said:
finally recovered my ext3 partition.
this is what i did.
1) rooted my phone.
2) enter into clockworkmod recovery
3) mount sd-ext (i guess it wasnt mounted that's why no app was recognizing it)
4) now windows was able to recognize the ext3 partition.
5) problem solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh man, I had EXACTLY the same problem and was driving me nuts. I searched high and low everywhere and couldn't find the answer. Thank you!

shaboobla said:
Hi there. I downloaded a free program call minitool partition wizard. Do a google search for it (I can't post links)
It has worked well for me with my SD card partitioning.
Make sure you back up the contents of your SD card before removing the ext 3 partition as it will delete all the contents on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this worked.. thanks a lot
i had the same issue as the OP

Use a card reader and MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Delete all partitions on the SD card and create a new one that fills the entire SD

[Q] Low Memory Issue

My girlfriend got the HTC Wildfire S for MetroPCS a couple of weeks ago. It is a nice phone except for one little problem: The internal memory is crap. She has exactly 5 apps installed, all are moved to SD, and she has 7.14 MB or internal memory free. It is running the stock 2.3 Rom rooted. I need some help figuring out what to do. Before you guys make suggestions let me list what I have already done:
1. S-OFF and rooted, removed all bloatware, which moved it from 3.21 MB to 8 MB which seems like BS because a few of those apps were about 6 MB in size.
2. Moved apps to SD card partially in the applications menu in settings.
3. Cleaned caches
4. Uninstalled almost every application.
This is very frustrating because she cant update apps, she cant download apps, and it is frustrating because I have the old Huawei Ascend on CM7 and I have more apps and am faster than her phone, its ridiculous, I also wonder why after removing over 60MB or crap and bloatware it freed up about 7MB. Makes no sense. I don't want to do DT's app2sd script yet because she doesn't have a way to back up her stuff before the partition of the SD card. If anyone can explain another way or something I can do to fix this please..... It would be greatly appreciated.

Use Partition Wizard Home (Free) to resize your FAT32 partition and create your Ext(whatever your kernel supports) partition on a windows machine.
No need to back up. Doesn't destroy partitions.
My preference is Link2SD free from the market.
You can mass move your apps, dalvik cache and library files to the Ext(Probably Ext2 with stock rom kernel) from the SD card and internal to your Ext partition very easy.
Also you can set it up to auto do this when new apps are installed and choose which apps you want to keep fully internal for faster booting, startup, etc.

d33ps1x said:
Use Partition Wizard Home (Free) to resize your FAT32 partition and create your Ext(whatever your kernel supports) partition on a windows machine.
No need to back up. Doesn't destroy partitions.
My preference is Link2SD free from the market.
You can mass move your apps, dalvik cache and library files to the Ext(Probably Ext2 with stock rom kernel) from the SD card and internal to your Ext partition very easy.
Also you can set it up to auto do this when new apps are installed and choose which apps you want to keep fully internal for faster booting, startup, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate the fast reply. but here is my issue, she doesnt have a computer... is there anything else we can try?

AtmosFEAR4701 said:
I appreciate the fast reply. but here is my issue, she doesnt have a computer... is there anything else we can try?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone else's computer...

Helped...3
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using XDA App

I did try that and. now the phone can't see the SD card. what shoud I do use a SD card reader. and wipe it?

raven.warsong said:
I did try that and. now the phone can't see the SD card. what shoud I do use a SD card reader. and wipe it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this the same question from two different people or one person logged on as two different people?
If your card is corrupt and can't be read try a program like Recuva on the PC (free) to get your files from it.

d33ps1x said:
Someone else's computer...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I will get her phone on Thursday and try app2sd.

d33ps1x said:
Is this the same question from two different people or one person logged on as two different people?
If your card is corrupt and can't be read try a program like Recuva on the PC (free) to get your files from it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry different person. Got a new card read sd card checks out after partion it will just not read the card can all kind of test on the card formated changed partion back to fad 32 it will just not read the card mounts in windows just fine.

raven.warsong said:
sorry different person. Got a new card read sd card checks out after partion it will just not read the card can all kind of test on the card formated changed partion back to fad 32 it will just not read the card mounts in windows just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The card shows up and reads in windows?

AtmosFEAR4701 said:
The card shows up and reads in windows?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes and cant be read after any changes with mini tool partion wizard
if I make partions with windows storage manager it works fine. The only problem with that is windows see more that one partion on what it considers removal meda but cant create edit or change it. so gess im searching for a new partion tool or get some bootabe image of a linix distro and try it from there

Active partition, Fat32 and Primary partition?
raven.warsong said:
sorry different person. Got a new card read sd card checks out after partion it will just not read the card can all kind of test on the card formated changed partion back to fad 32 it will just not read the card mounts in windows just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Format it in windows using the partition software I mentioned and make sure it is:
1/ Fat32
2/ A Primary not a Logical partition
3/ Make it the Active partition

thanks I have been working on it and got it to see the sd card
what about the 2 partion should it be ext2 ext 3 or fad 32 I guss it dose not matter I have tried all 3 but link2sd will not see the 2 partion
---------- Post added at 09:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:02 PM ----------
the phone will see the sd card I have tryed fad 32,ext2 ,ext 3 and ext4 that app will see none of them as the second partion are you shure I dont need root or some thing? sorry for all the nob questions

raven.warsong said:
thanks I have been working on it and got it to see the sd card
what about the 2 partion should it be ext2 ext 3 or fad 32 I guss it dose not matter I have tried all 3 but link2sd will not see the 2 partion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Choose EXT3

Sorry for the double post but you have to be rooted from what I understand. There is also a script or application that you have to use to move the apps and you MUST be rooted.

thanks much I kind if figured that now sorry for wasting your time guess I should I read more or some thing

It's no problem good luck!

I have had good luck with this
http://androidforums.com/micromax-a70/422359-how-force-install-apps-sd-card-without-root-a70.html

sd card does not work
AtmosFEAR4701 said:
The card shows up and reads in windows?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what should i do if d sd card reads in windows and does not respond in the phone?? is there any way to recover it?? bcos i cant take d risk of ruining the memory card as it is my brother's office phone n he will kill me if something goes wrong wit it

Best way to format SD card

Hi I'm pretty sure this won't be an extremely popular topic but just wondering how people go about formatting there sd cards do u just wipe everything save ur backups? Ur photos music? Anything and also is there anything important I shouldn't delete?? Just curious to see how everyone else does it thanx for being nice
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA

Well, you can use your phone to format it by going into settings and storage. You should back up anything you dont want to lose to your pc. I find that the most effective way is to connect the sd card to the pc either in your phone via usb or via a card reader. Then go to my computer, right click on it and hit format. It thould already be in the right file format(fat32) if im not mistaken. Then just place your pics and whatever else back on there and the android system will do the rest. Hope i helped!
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using xda premium

If you are working with a removable SD card I'd recommend HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - v2.1.8. (free)
I had an 8 Gb card sitting around for a while and I wanted to use in my daughter's new phone. I put the card in the PC and deleted everything. Then I thought just format the damn thing. It seemed to only think it had 40 Mb. Windows would not format it to anything over 40 Mb. I had to download the HP tool and it would allow formatting to the full 8 Gb.

Hi,
Not sure if this is the right place.. I just installed coredroid 1.2 and my sd card is not detected. Removed the sd card. Complete format then reinsert still doesnt solve the problem. I am able to use the card using a card reader. Any suggestions

etp23 said:
Hi I'm pretty sure this won't be an extremely popular topic but just wondering how people go about formatting there sd cards do u just wipe everything save ur backups? Ur photos music? Anything and also is there anything important I shouldn't delete?? Just curious to see how everyone else does it thanx for being nice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like you are formatting an existing (previously used) card? Do you have some issue with the card? Or just switching between devices? Can't see it making much difference using the built-in Windows disk management tool to format, using the phone to do it, or some other method.
I think even switching between devices, I haven't bothered to re-format, just deleted the files manually and swapped the card into the new phone.
For new cards, I don't even bother to format. They are always pre-formatted to FAT32, AFAIK. So I just insert it in the device and go . . .

redpoint73 said:
It sounds like you are formatting an existing (previously used) card? Do you have some issue with the card? Or just switching between devices? Can't see it making much difference using the built-in Windows disk management tool to format, using the phone to do it, or some other method.
I think even switching between devices, I haven't bothered to re-format, just deleted the files manually and swapped the card into the new phone.
For new cards, I don't even bother to format. They are always pre-formatted to FAT32, AFAIK. So I just insert it in the device and go . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do you move apps to external sd card ? before there used to be option to move to sd card now i don't see that .. i had this problem ever since i upgrade to cm10 and now on aokp....

I use SDformatter.
It's better than just with right click and select format.
Sent from my Incredible S using xda premium

if you have just one partition formated with fat32 on your sd-card, you can format it with windows-tools. if there is another partition (ext2/3/4) on your card, its not possible to format the sd-card completely with this tools and you need, as written above, an external tool like that from HP.
Beside this, i don't really understand why you want to do this, except you have a problem with your card...

i wiped my sd card with h.d.d low level format ! now i cant create right ext partition now . how can i do that ? i did everything with partition magic software . but not use .

If you have a Linux box and an SD card read use gparted. If you don't the best/fastest way is with a good recovery in an android phone
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

microsd card damaged suddenly !!!!

a microsd card 8GB class 4 came with my phone
today after I took a picture with the phone camera I forwarded to see but no sd card
I connected it to PC then the windows asked me to format ... I wondered the the card space became 30.6MB !!!!
and cannot be formatted .
I tried many ways to recover the sd card such as SDFormatter v3 , DriveRestore_Professional , EASEUS Partition Master , and more ... without benefit !!!
can any one explain what happened with the solutions if possible please

Try using the formatting option on your Phone, or you could try CWM to do it too.

Try doing what XD suggested, if that didn't work, try formatting with another pc

I tried to format using CWM and using 3 PC's (win7 & xp) without any benefit

That happened to me once.
if possible You have to connect the SD card directly in your computer (SD Adaptor or any SD card reader).
If you're using windows, you have to go to control panel--> Admins tools, and then go to disk partitions. There you have to identify your SD card on the list and eliminate all partitions that could be on your SD card. Then you have to create a new partition on that SD and the format it.
There you go.

caqo71 said:
That happened to me once.
if possible You have to connect the SD card directly in your computer (SD Adaptor or any SD card reader).
If you're using windows, you have to go to control panel--> Admins tools, and then go to disk partitions. There you have to identify your SD card on the list and eliminate all partitions that could be on your SD card. Then you have to create a new partition on that SD and the format it.
There you go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this more times but failing .......

Can you use or format another sd card? the purpose of this is to see whether it's actually the sd card that's at fault here

engnajjar said:
I tried this more times but failing .......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but can you see th SD on the windows disk partition manager?

engnajjar said:
I tried this more times but failing .......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need a new SD card then as everything else has failed.
Sent from myushi

caqo71 said:
but can you see th SD on the windows disk partition manager?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea I can see the partition with 30.6Mb only and can't fix at all

XperienceD said:
You need a new SD card then as everything else has failed.
Sent from myushi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after that I believe that I have to get another one but the main problem is to know why that happened !!!!!

engnajjar said:
yea I can see the partition with 30.6Mb only and can't fix at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but can you delete that partition?, is there some unused unpartitioned space?

caqo71 said:
but can you delete that partition?, is there some unused unpartitioned space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Faulty card, user error, who knows without some sort of log to determine why.
Sent from myushi

caqo71 said:
but can you delete that partition?, is there some unused unpartitioned space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't delete or create ...
it supposed to see unpartitioned space and could create but only I can see 30.6MB and can't use !!!!!!
XperienceD said:
Faulty card, user error, who knows without some sort of log to determine why.
Sent from myushi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mmmmm ... may the error able to be repeated with the new sd card ???

engnajjar said:
may the error able to be repeated with the new sd card ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, maybe not, if it's not faulty then there's no reason why it wont, and if other users on the thread of whatever ROM, kernel or both you're using have reported the same issue then I don't see why it wouldn't. Given that you've already said that you've tried everything suggested I suspect it's a faulty card, but you're never going to know unless you try.

thanks anyway for you all

Format in linux You must of tried turn you sd card into ram thing or ext overload at lease it will tell you what is wrong with your sd

[Q] partiotioning SD CARD

I got HTC Wildfire and i just installed RemPuzzle 2.83(which is great btw but that's not the point here)
and my CWM recovery is v2 or i don't remember.
i had v5 in my sd card.
i booted on my recovery(old version) and then i selected to install v5.
from v5 i selected to partition the sd card(options 4GB memory and swap 0) :silly:
it completed the task and after that the sd card is uselless.
the phone can't read the sd and my computer(windows) suggests to format the sd card but it cannot complete the task.
my question is
can i get the sd card working again or it's going to the trash can?
i don't care about the data inside,before anything was done i ha backup done to my pc.

geogs said:
I got HTC Wildfire and i just installed RemPuzzle 2.83(which is great btw but that's not the point here)
and my CWM recovery is v2 or i don't remember.
i had v5 in my sd card.
i booted on my recovery(old version) and then i selected to install v5.
from v5 i selected to partition the sd card(options 4GB memory and swap 0) :silly:
it completed the task and after that the sd card is uselless.
the phone can't read the sd and my computer(windows) suggests to format the sd card but it cannot complete the task.
my question is
can i get the sd card working again or it's going to the trash can?
i don't care about the data inside,before anything was done i ha backup done to my pc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use clockworkmod v 5 to format the SD card or just re-partition again with a swap size

my phone can't recognise the sd card.not even in recovery.when i selected wipe sd card it says "skipped sd card - complete"
as an effect i also can't partition again the sd card from my mobile.

Try to format your sd card via cmd (windows).
Just a thought.
Sent from my Wildfire using xda app-developers app

didn't work either..
cannot complete the task.
i'm gonna try with a partition manager and see if i have any luck..

geogs said:
didn't work either..
cannot complete the task.
i'm gonna try with a partition manager and see if i have any luck..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using an sdcard reader use the windows program called easeus partition master. If that doesn't work your only hope may be a Linux terminal. But make sure you use a different card reader as to rule out the phone as an issue.

Hiya mate, have a try with Heavy_Metal_Man suggestion with a partition manager, a good one I use is Mini Partition Manager, it has detected the 3 cards I have broke before :silly:
mount it to pc,
completely remove all partitions
and create 1 new partition across entire card,
reboot in to recovery when it tells you its created the partition.
and try it again
Hope this helps, if it did click " Thanks " on the posts you think helped!

ok guys.
thank you for your help.
i solved it...
i used MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition (with card reader) and saw the sd card and recreated all the needing staff so the sd card could be usable again.
what i did with CWM recovery is that i didn't replace totally the stock CWM,i just run the v5 something like virtually.and that created the problem.
thank you guys for your response!
cheers.