[Q]SD card Parted - Xperia Arc Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

does anyone have parted your SD Card for application with ext3 format??
anyone knows how to do that??

I take it youve rooted your phone and are using old style apps2sd, not android's builtin version.
I dont recommend ext3 or ext4 filesystems for use with mobile phones - total overkill and will actually slow things down. Stick with ext2.
When i did all this on my htc hero i used the info from this post and everything worked ok. Note that you *dont* need a linux swap partition these days.

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[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.

How to create usable ext partition for A2SD ?

Okay this is really driving me crazy. I have a bunch of custom ROMs on my system and none of them recognize the ext3 (or ext4) partitions on my SD card. I know for a fact that all of them support the sd-ext partitions. (Obviously, I am doing this for A2SD usability)
I have MIUI 1.7.1, CM 7.0.3 and HiApk (with sensefun) v1.1.
I tried creating an ext3 partition in the beginning of the SD card like this,
400MB ext3 (primary) | 1.6GB fat32 (primary)
I tried doing it the other way round too, like this ->
1.6GB fat32 (primary) | 400MB ext3 (primary)
Neither works. I am using GParted on my Linuxbox to do this. What is the problem ? and how do I solve it ?
I have read quite a bit on all this and none of it is straightforward. Can someone explain it to me, like a 10year old ?
Go to into recovery and partition your sd card there.
Swyped from Oxygen with Transparent XDA App
discoguru said:
Can someone explain it to me, like a 10year old ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can show you how... check my signature... there`s two youtube guides.
One with Gparted, and one with Minitools.
Enjoy.
how do you know it is not working?
the EXT doesnt add up storage space in 'internal storage' in android settings
you have to use Quick System Info from android market to check if a2sd+ is working
and also
the correct partition layout is FAT32 and then (after fat) EXT partition not the other way.
also try with 512mb ext partition.
To see the ext partition, you can either connect your phone to linux or use an explorer which has root access.
Swyped from Oxygen with Transparent XDA App
Thank you people ! Yup, got the partition working. Also, thanks to dzumagos for the tip on how to see the ext partition space.

Link2SD - getting two partitions working on your SD card

I have been fighting with this for some time but finally figured it out.
To get Link2SD working I had to format my first partition as FAT (aka Fat16 - NOT Fat32!). The second (for Link2SD afaik) was Ext2. I tried Fat32 but couldn't get that working so stuck with Ext2 for partition 2. I'm using Windows on my main PC so used minitool partition wizard home edition to create the partitions. Minitool is brilliant freeware for Windows, for ages one had to boot linux to fiddle with other than Windoze partitions.
I hope this helps someone else - I was pulling my hair out!! Perhaps a sticky??
how large was your second partition? I'm using minitool and didn't see an option for fat 16
ryanpl said:
how large was your second partition? I'm using minitool and didn't see an option for fat 16
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also used Minitool - what I did was Create my first FAT partition of 3 Gb, then my second FAT32 partition of 1Gb. 1Gb for Link2SD and 3Gb for data - I was thinking that's enough. *EDIT* Fat32 wasn't being mounted properly so I changed partition 2 to Ext2 and it's working fine now.
Minitool calls it FAT as opposed to FAT32. FAT = Fat16. HTH
Oh I have a 16gb card I'm trying to use.
BTW, how much of the original memory is allocated for apps? Has someone ever reached it?

SUPERNOVA Xtreme partition advice

i have an 8gb sandisk class6 sd card and SUPERNOVA Xtreme rom, whats the best partition for the first and second partitions, how big should the fat32 be and the ext4 partition be,i have gparted live cd, and a card reader, im having a problem with gparted it says.. cant write to /dev/sdb, because it is opened read only.
i have moved the little lock switch in both positions and still get the same error.
htc desire g7
not quite sure but i read somewhere the the ext4 partition has to be 2gb hense 2gb internal memory. maybe some1 can confirm this. r you can read Droidzones OP of the rom coz im sure some1 has probably already asked this
Sent from my HTC Desire
AFAIK it has to be ext3/4 with at least 1GB of size.
FAT32 partition should be located on beginning, and ext on the end. No other partitions between... But i also might be wrong.
if its ext3 it will automaticaly be converted to ext4
Sent from my HTC Desire
in the end with gparted, i made a 2gb fat32 and 6gb ext4 seems fine.
thanks for the help
lol shouldnt it be the other way around? 6gb fat 32 and 2gb ext4
Sent from my HTC Desire
I think ext partitions bigger than 1,5GB are not recommended due to stability problems.
On Gparted, have u tried to unmount partition? They need to be unmounted in order to be formatted.
Some devices have issues when an ext4>2GB is used. Anything upto 2GB is fine. Leave the rest to FAT32, but make sure FAT32 is first and ext4 the second. Both should be primary.
Read more here
i re partitioned as stated above correctly many thanks, i have total space 5.90, internal 1.19 after restoring the the phone with the backup.
i have noticed i have to turn off usb debugging for my laptop to see the phone as a drive, is this correct

SD Partition on 32 GB card?

Hey guys,
I've searched around a lot but haven't found anything explicit to a 32 GB card's ideal partition table. I've read somewhere that the ext3 shouldn't be larger than 2 GB, is this really the case? Or is it device specific? And if thats the case, can the MT3G3 handle a larger than 2GB partition? Also, is there a point to having a swap partition? I know on Linux systems it helps with memory and the XDA SD partition guide mentions that we can have one if we wanted .. but is there a point to it?
My second question is ... should I get data2ext or a2ext? Or some other tool? The choice is pretty confusing, esp since it seems that some of them do the same thing?
I'm thinking about making the partitions equal between FAT32 and Ext3 (if swap won't make a difference).
PS - Its a Class 10 Sandisk card.
eMJaaay said:
Hey guys,
I've searched around a lot but haven't found anything explicit to a 32 GB card's ideal partition table. I've read somewhere that the ext3 shouldn't be larger than 2 GB, is this really the case? Or is it device specific? And if thats the case, can the MT3G3 handle a larger than 2GB partition? Also, is there a point to having a swap partition? I know on Linux systems it helps with memory and the XDA SD partition guide mentions that we can have one if we wanted .. but is there a point to it?
My second question is ... should I get data2ext or a2ext? Or some other tool? The choice is pretty confusing, esp since it seems that some of them do the same thing?
I'm thinking about making the partitions equal between FAT32 and Ext3 (if swap won't make a difference).
PS - Its a Class 10 Sandisk card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't know what a mt3gs works with, 32 should work but no larger I doubt. as for an ext partition there is no reason to make it smaller than internal memory and 2gb should be more than enough, I have never even used more than 1gb but 1~2gb should be the perfect point.
not sure if any of the roms here support ext4, if they do I would recomend that over ext3, it won't ware the card much fast (the extra journaling does but not much)
personaly kinux swap doesn't help much, not even on the g1 but give it a shot and see if it works for you, will help with multitasking
use apps2ext for sure, not data as it will be slow
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Thanks so much for the reply
I'll give this a go! I might as well have a swap partition as well since I have so much space should the swap be smaller than the ext3 partition? I'll also look into apps2ext .. but earlier came across int2ext in CronMod .. would that work?
eMJaaay said:
I'll give this a go! I might as well have a swap partition as well since I have so much space should the swap be smaller than the ext3 partition? I'll also look into apps2ext .. but earlier came across int2ext in CronMod .. would that work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if creating swap on sd is supported on this device (at least, CM7). When I tried to partition SD using Rom Manager the device didn't see my ext partition if I selected swap partition size more than 0.
As for apps for managing ext partition usage, s2e app worked for me all right on CM9 and CM7. If you device is running CM9 you should be extra careful with such software. In example, Link2SD caused much trouble for me - constant app FC and I had to reinstall the system.
And be careful - it seems that s2e wipes ext partition at the first mount.
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using xda app-developers app
If im not mistaken, your kernel has to support using a swap partition.
Look into darktremors apps2sd. A. Lot of folks seemed to like that. It allows you to choose different setups if I remember right. (A2sd, data2sd, etc)
Data2sd would prob work ok since you have a class 10 card.
Also, if you are needing more space and are running a custom rom, look up mtd partitions in development forum.
Another nice trick is bind-mount data to cache.
Mt3gs does not support higher than 32gb. Ext4 support I think is available but only through kernels or scripts.
Hope that helps.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Different ROMs support different a2sd scripts.....you will have to find a script compatible with your ROM.
I use A2SDGUI on my phone.
A swap partition acts a virtual ram for your phone if you run low on ram memory.Not required though.
Sent from my GT-S5570 using xda app-developers app
Thanks for the replies everyone
I'm running CM7.2 which has built in moving to SD but this hardly does anything :/ I've only got around 7 apps half of which I can't even update cos its running low on space :/
Quite a few partition articles / posts, etc mention ext3 no larger than 2 GB and a swap of 0 MB :/ I've got the CM kernel that came with the last stable release (in June this year) .. does that support swap? Is there even a point of adding a swap of 0 MB .. might as well not make a swap partition at all right? I'm partitioning using Gparted on my Linux! I think S2E supports that!
Seriously guys, thank you so so much for all your replies
Update: Link2SD didn't work. S2E worked on S-ON with a 28 ish GB FAT32 Primary Partition and a 2048 MB i.e 2 GB EXT4 partition.

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