[Q] 4EXT recovery format SD-EXT help - Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

When I format my SD-EXT on 4EXT it erases all my information on my SD-card. When I try to install Runny Rom v5.5 it gets stuck on the SD partition part. I do a battery pull and check my SD card and all my files are gone

You don't say if you have two partitions on your SD card or not. You've got to have two partitions otherwise you won't have it working properly. The first one should be normal FAT32 and the second one EXT3 or EXT4 depending on the requirements of the ROM you want to flash. The best way to achieve this is to use gParted on a normal PC. Then you can use 4EXT on your phone to manipulate the SD-EXT part of your SD card, eg formatting it or converting between different types of EXT partition. This is the part where your apps data, cache, actual apps, dalvick cache etc. will be kept depending on your settings. Leave FAT32 partition alone.
If you are installing your ROM from the phone then the necessary file should be placed in FAT32 partition. Just remember the path where you copied it. You will need this when you use 4EXT to install the zip file.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

Make sure you have two partitions: FAT32 + EXT4 (size at least 1 GB). Also make sure that they are correctly aligned.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

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Development Idea

Well here is my idea. Could we possibly partition the FAT32 part of our phones into more then one partition.
Saying like we could have a few FAT32 based partition, A Primary, One for roms/patches, then etc.
That way when we format the primary, it doesn't delete the roms we could flash. So we didn't need to hook up the phone to the computer to copy roms back over.
I know Recover firmware would need to support this. But it's just a thought.
I'm not really an expert at this, but doing a full wipe and installing a new ROM doesn't wipe the contents of your SD Card. Are you saying partition the phone's internal storage? What's wrong with just storing the ROMs on your SD card?
BlueScreenOfTOM said:
I'm not really an expert at this, but doing a full wipe and installing a new ROM doesn't wipe the contents of your SD Card. Are you saying partition the phone's internal storage? What's wrong with just storing the ROMs on your SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant like partition the SD Card into multiple partitions, So when you erase the SD:Ext and the FAT32, the ROM Partition doesn't go with it.
So example
SD:Ext - Partition 1
FAT32 - Partition 2 (Default SD Storage)
FAT32 - Partition 3 (ROM Storage, Backup Files)
So when you partition the SD Card though the Recovery it will only format Partition 1 and Partition 2, So if you left somewhere wtihout your computer and tweaking your phone, You could use partition 3 and access your ROM files and backups without going though loops for them.
What recovery are you using. I'm still not sure what you are talking about? I have no problems accessing my roms and kernels. You can do it plenty of ways and not do what you are talking about..
Use root explorer. Can transfer from download folder or if you made a certain folder on SD card for them you can copy paste them to the root directory on SD card if you use RA recovery. Clockwork you can go through every folder looking for the zip using clockwork unlike RA recovery which needs it to be in root of SD card. Your making it hard on yourself..
Why would you want to wipe fat32 and partion?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

[Q]SD Card SD-EXT Dissappeared[Q]

I have an 8GB SanDisk MicroSD, it had a 500MB SD-EXT partition made using ROM Manager with 0MB of Swap. I was using OpenDesire, the latest version.
However I decided to change to Cynanogen 6.1.1, as it is more stable. I decided to Un-Mount and Format my SD Card, as I know this wont format my SD-Ext. After Formatting my SD Card wouldn't re-mount so I connected it to my computer, and formatted it again, by right clicking and clicking Format in My Computer.
After doing this it said I had 7.86 GB of Memory on my SD-Card. This is how much is left on the SD Card with no Partition's or data. After I installed Cynanogen, when wiping the user data, I noticed that it said there was no SD-Ext partiton, and so it couldn't format it. I immidiatley went back to ROM Manager to create one, however when it gets to the Clockwork MOD Part I just get a error about a signature or something? Can anyone please help - thanks!
Perhaps the format option under settings wiped the whole SD card and repartitioned it with a single FAT partition, therefore deleting the EXT partition. Format from within windows/linux in future. AFAIK, there would not be an ext on a stock rom and therefore no need for one, so the format option just goes ahead an obliterates.
If you've got a nandroid you could just repartition and restore.
Sounds like it just formatted the whole thing into a single partition. Just partition it back again as your really suppose to do when switching roms.

[Q] sd-ext not mounting properly

Hi
I installed (12/15/2012) [SS] Jelly Bean CM10 v2.9.1 (4.1.2) version 3.0 on my desire and followed all the settings for CPU governor and A2SD scripts. Configured my email, and installed all apps from scratch.
Everything seemed fine, worked smooth. Last night the phone crashed and rebooted and somehow lost most of the apps., including Google play which makes things harder ... Looking at memory usage, it look like there is a problem with /sd-ext.
if i open terminal, and try to run A2SD again, it also shows a problem:
/sd-ext not mounted properly, it might have errors
Found block device: /dev/block/mmcblk0ps
Removing flag a2sd
Removing flag ad2sd
Removing flag dc2sd
Setting flag a2sd
/system/bin/a2sd: line 74: /sd-ext/.a2sd: read-only file system
chmod: /sd-ext.a2sd: no such file or directory
would you also like to move DALVIK-CACHE
I put the SDcard in my computer and it showed no errors
When I go into recovery, I can mount all partiotions without problems??
For now I will go to reflash the phone and start all over.
How can I find out what happened here and how to prevent that?
And is there an easier way to repair this problem
hoping it will not occur again...
Happy new year, best whishes for everyone, and hoping for help
D.
UPDATE: cleared all data from within recovery, cleared cache from recovery and reflashed the zip
when I try to run the a2sd script error is still there!!!
put the sdcard in mu computer, deleted and recreated the partition
and then the error is gone ... ??
How did you create the partition? Use gparted or 4ext recovery only, not minitool or clockworkmod recovery
I used minitool
What is the difference?
So it will crash again?
Anything i can do as a repair or do i have to start all over again?
Thanx for your help!
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2
Minitool doesn't create the partitions properly.
Backup your sd card to pc. Then I recommend to delete all partitions and repartition using gparted. Search for guide in development section.
Copy everything back to sd card afterwards, then rerun the a2sd commands
Sorry for not understanding ...
Can I copy the ext4 partition as well then? If I delete that, I am in the same situation as yesterday after the crash (?)
Just running the a2sd again did not work then
Thx
D.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2
duiksmurf said:
Sorry for not understanding ...
Can I copy the ext4 partition as well then? If I delete that, I am in the same situation as yesterday after the crash (?)
Just running the a2sd again did not work then
Thx
D.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. try to backup user apps only using titanium backup, don't know how many have been lost, but can try and save the others.
2. copy whole sd card to pc. this just copies the whole FAT32 partition of the sd card. you will not see the ext4 partition when connected to PC, don't worry about it.
3. delete all partitions and repartition using gparted (step 5 here)
4. copy the backup back onto sd card.
5. full wipe everything from recovery, flash rom, run A2SD commands and reboot etc.
6. restore any apps using titanium, should go to partition automatically if everything is working. install another app like diskusage to browse all your partitions.
How to fix the dreaded sd-ext not mounting properly, or fix A2SDGUI not rebooting/crashing
The reason this happens is because you have flashed a rom that doesnt support ext4. You will have to change the ext4 partitiion to ext3 in order to get a2sd to install properly.
If you have backed up your data and just need to get a2sd running follow this guide, I am not responsible for lost data or a corrupt sd card
1) Download aparted app. WARNING: If used incorrectly you can destroy the data in your sdcard
Click tools. There should be a partition called FS: ext4, Select it, then press delete(WARNING DATA FOR APPS WILL BE LOST)
2. Click create, then select EXT 3 this time, and the default size 999, dont touch any other settings or you'll corrupt your sdcard, dont touch the init and end parameters!
3. REBOOT the phone
4. Then try a2sd install in terminal or if your using the A2SDGUI, click Dalvik, select Dalvik on SD-EXT, then hit Move and Rebuild, wait for it to reboot, if it does not reboot hit Move! and wait for it to reboot. It should reboot, if it doesnt reboot or crashes you didnt read step 3 when I said to reboot your phone after adjusting the partition, or you mistakenly chose ext4 partition!
If your were silly enough not to backup your data, you can download gparted iso and boot it using your PC. Then connect the phone and goto the ext4 partition and COPY all the files and paste it in a temporary folder. Then delete the partition, then create an EXT3 partition and PASTE back all the data files in the ext3 partition.
alochet said:
How to fix the dreaded sd-ext not mounting properly, or fix A2SDGUI not rebooting/crashing
The reason this happens is because you have flashed a rom that doesnt support ext4. You will have to change the ext4 partitiion to ext3 in order to get a2sd to install properly.
If you have backed up your data and just need to get a2sd running follow this guide, I am not responsible for lost data or a corrupt sd card
1) Download aparted app. WARNING: If used incorrectly you can destroy the data in your sdcard
Click tools. There should be a partition called FS: ext4, Select it, then press delete(WARNING DATA FOR APPS WILL BE LOST)
2. Click create, then select EXT 3 this time, and the default size 999, dont touch any other settings or you'll corrupt your sdcard, dont touch the init and end parameters!
3. REBOOT the phone
4. Then try a2sd install in terminal or if your using the A2SDGUI, click Dalvik, select Dalvik on SD-EXT, then hit Move and Rebuild, wait for it to reboot, if it does not reboot hit Move! and wait for it to reboot. It should reboot, if it doesnt reboot or crashes you didnt read step 3 when I said to reboot your phone after adjusting the partition, or you mistakenly chose ext4 partition!
If your were silly enough not to backup your data, you can download gparted iso and boot it using your PC. Then connect the phone and goto the ext4 partition and COPY all the files and paste it in a temporary folder. Then delete the partition, then create an EXT3 partition and PASTE back all the data files in the ext3 partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eh?
- The ROM supports ext4 just fine, most ROMs here do. ext4 is also faster than ext3...
- The problem was that the partition was poorly created in minitool partition wizard, likely that it was not properly aligned.
- The issue has already been solved...9 months ago...

[Q] GB to JB - Reformat SD?

Currently running MikG3.11 w/a2sd so have a EXT3 partition for data (I have my /cache pointing there also). I'm looking to move to a JB rom (probably Evervolv - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1961602).
How do I need to re-partition my 16G sd to make the most efficient use? It's been quite a while so a quick 'step1,2,3 howto would be great..including suggested sizes, ext3/ext4...)
Recovery is SmelkusMod..
Thanks Tons!
You may not *need* to do anything out of the ordinary.
If your ext3 partition is of a reasonable size, you might be able to just wipe everything (except 'SD card') in smelkus, flash the ROM, and proceed from there. Nandroid first of course.
'Reasonable' means about 512 to me, others may have different ideas.
How big is your ext partition?
The main reason to repartition is if you are having mystery SD card issues or you want to add or resize partitions. If these don't apply, just wipe, flash, and go.
6100 using xda app-developers app
NxNW said:
You may not *need* to do anything out of the ordinary.
If your ext3 partition is of a reasonable size, you might be able to just wipe everything (except 'SD card') in smelkus, flash the ROM, and proceed from there. Nandroid first of course.
'Reasonable' means about 512 to me, others may have different ideas.
How big is your ext partition?
The main reason to repartition is if you are having mystery SD card issues or you want to add or resize partitions. If these don't apply, just wipe, flash, and go.
6100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would. Repartition, 0/1024, ext3, then ext4....i actually do this before any flash. Think about what a2sd does, and you'll realize that if you don't format, your system has to run through more dead data to get to the info it needs
Sent from my EVO 4G using Tapatalk 2
jwitt418 said:
I would. Repartition, 0/1024, ext3, then ext4....i actually do this before any flash. Think about what a2sd does, and you'll realize that if you don't format, your system has to run through more dead data to get to the info it needs
Sent from my EVO 4G using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/system 318 used out of 350mb
/data 369/428mb
/cache 1.38mb/160mb
sdcard ext3 .97 used, 1.79GB total.
sdcard fat32 (rest of the 16G)
I had thought that going ext4 was typically recommended for JB. Are you saying first create a 1G ext3, then the rest as ext4? How does that work for transferring files back and forth via usb to a win7 box?
I intend on doing this fresh.. ie, install gbapps and individual app re-installs from there.
I have a lot of opinions on this but let me just try to answer your one specific question about ext4.
(going from memory here, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong..)
When creating partitions in recovery, you will be prompted to allocate space to three separate partitions, swap, sd-ext, and 'the rest'. You have to choose a specific size for the first two, the third partition gets whatever is left. If you choose a size of zero when prompted, it will skip creating that partition.
So if you follow jwitts advice above, you will answer zero for swap, then 1024 for the ext partition.
This will skip the creation of a swap partition and create a sd-ext partition with size 1024. Initially you want to format this as ext2.
The rest of the SD card will go in the main sdcard partition and will be formatted as FAT.
As a last step you convert your ext2 partition to ext3 (and if you think there would be a benefit, you can further convert it from ext3 to ext4 in a subsequent step.)
Honestly, I installed evervolv over the exact same partition scheme you have already and have seen no need to tamper with it. Obviously others do. I leave you to make whatever decision you feel most comfortable with.
Partitioning is destructive: you lose all the contents of the entire SD card in the process so you need to make a backup first, and I don't mean nandroid. To me it's a bit more inconvenience plus the risk of losing irreplaceable data (ie pictures, music, etc).
By contrast, wiping partitions is routine and doesn't touch the main FAT partition. If you use smelkus to wipe your sd-ext partition (as implied in the oft-repeated advice to "wipe everything except 'SD card'") you should be starting with a pretty clean slate.
Maybe I've had the wrong understanding all this time, but I have been working under the assumption that "wiping" has the effect of deleting all the files below certain mount point.
The contents of your sd-ext folder are just as gone as if you "formatted". There may be other benefits to additional formatting or partitioning, and when you are planning to start from scratch, that can be a good time to do this sort of "preventive maintenance", but I was just pointing out that under normal conditions it is not strictly necessary.

[Q] pb99diag missing after partiton resize

Seems I've made a bit of a booboo somewhere. I was recreating the ext3 partition on my sd card. I deleted the existing ext4 partition and resized the fat32 partition to take up the slack left behind. When I checked the partitions afterwards, everything was fine and all my files were present and correct in my fat32 partition. I booted into recovery, formatted all partitions except my fat32 and went to install my rom again. Except I forgot to put it on the sd card. So I copied it back on to my sd card, stuck the card back in the phone, booted into recovery and promptly got a message that pb99diag.zip is missing. I've checked the entire fat32 partition and there's no sign of it. I tried renaming "OTA_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.29.405.5-2.29.405.2_releasedauhl6jhok5cmdm6.zip" to "pb99diag.zip" but it doesn't seem to like it.
How can I get back into recovery without the pb99diag.zip?
found a similar thread: http://www.modaco.com/topic/348778-hboot-looking-for-pb99diagzip-why/
It's because you resized it, I believe it might eventually stop searching for the file and go into recovery, but it's not ideal.
I'd try backing up sd again, and completely reformatting and partitioning again, but using up to date gparted instead.
- Also, why did you need to change from ext4 to ext3? ext4 is marginally faster, most ROMs support ext4.
- And are you trying to install an RUU? In which case you don't need an ext partition at all?
Sorry just trying to understand your overall aim...
- Also, why did you need to change from ext4 to ext3? ext4 is marginally faster, most ROMs support ext4.
- And are you trying to install an RUU? In which case you don't need an ext partition at all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had 2 2gb ext partitions, ext3, ext4. I didn't need 2 so deleted 1 and just created a single ext3 partition. I wanted to go back to my PA jb 4.2.2 which was working fine until I used link2sd to free up some more system space but because its sh1t it just completely ballsed up my entire install. I installed an RU and this left me rooted with s-off and it was plain sailing from there to reinstall recovery and flash my custom rom again. I'm using a different sd card now (for testing purposes) but I'm still getting the pb99 errors. As you say, it will eventually allow me into recovery and I can continue what I'm doing but it takes ages and I've never had this issue before.
I'm using MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional to create my partitions.
mickrick said:
I'm using MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional to create my partitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's your main problem, do not use MiniTool Partition Wizard. More often than not it creates improperly aligned partitions. Link2SD won't have helped either, it's a messy method and you don't need it with 4.2.2 ROMs, follow the instructions to activate A2SD via terminal commands.
I would backup the FAT32 partition of your sd card, and reformat and repartition the whole thing using gparted. Use this video guide to help
Basically you want to remove all partitions and create one FAT32 partition, and max 2GB ext4 partition. You might as well keep it ext4 over ext3, it should be marginally faster.
Then full wipe and reflash ROM, don't use link2SD.
You should also look to s-off, search for guides, much more powerful, and useful if things go wrong.

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