Develop Bugs

Partioning SD Card

Sorry, done a search and looked through all posts but can't seem to find a guide to partition sd card for use with apps2sd.
My phone is rooted and have rom manager installed where it looks I can perform the partition. Can someone point me to a noobs guide to partition or give us a hand. I have read about all different extensions to make the partition to but have no idea what they all are. Any help appreciated.

Swap - 0
Ext3 - as little or as much as you wish (usually 512-1024mb)
FAT31 - the rest

obviously this will wipe the sd card, what about all backups etc. Do i just copy to pc then copy them back when partition is complete?

Yes, but remember you will have less space on for data since a part of it will be taken up by Ext3 partition.

no problem, cheers for that

Make this sticky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
memphisuklf said:
Sorry, done a search and looked through all posts but can't seem to find a guide to partition sd card for use with apps2sd.
My phone is rooted and have rom manager installed where it looks I can perform the partition. Can someone point me to a noobs guide to partition or give us a hand. I have read about all different extensions to make the partition to but have no idea what they all are. Any help appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been trying to make this subject a sticky for a while.
I posted some tutorials in the Q&A Thread: See my post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=713643 (bottom of the page)....
Good luck!

does rom manager create the partition as ext 3 as default?

ok, seems I now have a problem. Did partition through manager 512mb/0 swap seemed to work fine but now phone won't boot, stuck at htc white screen. Any ideas?
Edit
Ok booted after 4th time of pulling battery. Doesn't look like it partitioned though. on windows I only have H: with 3.18gb

I used the Android Recovery Menu from Paul's old rooting tutorial which let me partion the memory card easily.

gave up for now, will have a look later on but don't want to mess with it that much as i`m using my stock sd card

I think you already have A2SD installed. I used Rom Manager to do the partition too and it was straightforward. No problems with rebooting though. If you reinstall your apps now, and if you check with a system info apps, you will find that you now have loads of internal memory.

ah, ok got 115mb free after installs(Used to have 10mb). So the defrost rom i`m using will automatically use apps 2sd when a partition is found?
Thought I had to set this up with spare parts?
How come I cant see the partition through windows?

Windows doesn't recognise linux partitions. Check with Quick System Info if A2SD is working correctly.

haha, feel stupid now. Working fine when checked with quick system info. Cheers for all the help guys, much appreciated

memphisuklf said:
ok, seems I now have a problem. Did partition through manager 512mb/0 swap seemed to work fine but now phone won't boot, stuck at htc white screen. Any ideas?
Edit
Ok booted after 4th time of pulling battery. Doesn't look like it partitioned though. on windows I only have H: with 3.18gb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u have 4Gb card and in windows you see only 3.2Gb partition, then i think you have ext partition there ok. Windows wont see your ext.
Rom Manager will make ext3 partition in the end of your sd card.
With 512Mb ext + 0Mb swap you will get fat32 partition + ext3 in your SD card.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

On a similar topic, if I install a 2.2 ROM with Google APS2SD and legacy APS2SD, do I only need to create a partition for the legacy version of APPS2SD? If I just wanted to use the Google version can I just leave the card as it is?

yep, no formatting is needed for google app2sd

Here's my experience to Partition the SD card.
1) I rooted my Desire with "UnrEVOked"
2) Flashed the phone with a ROM
3) Then I went to "Market" and download "ROM manager", which has an option to "Partition SD card".
4) Reboot

dexter9898 said:
Here's my experience to Partition the SD card.
1) I rooted my Desire with "UnrEVOked"
2) Flashed the phone with a ROM
3) Then I went to "Market" and download "ROM manager", which has an option to "Partition SD card".
4) Reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a related thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731531
I developed the most common methods of partition your SD Card, and answered some questions and asked some additional ones.
I would very much welcome it, if anyone wants to participate in assembling the infos about SD cards....

Not the best guide but does work, you may need to adjust the figures depending on what size card you got.

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

[Q] How big can you get an EXT partition on the Desire?

I'm considering buying a Kingston Class 10 MicroSDHC 16GB card. I'm wondering how big can I get the EXT partition on it, without potential problems. I did hear that having a slow card causes grief for those who move all cache, apps and data to the SD. I only have a class 2 16 gigger atm .
Is it worth it, buying a super fast card then apps2sd?

Class 2 is suffice. For the EXT 2 partition size, i would recommend nothing bigger than 1024 MB, even 512 MB would be fine.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Have it as big as you want/need. Depends on how many apps you have and if you use the ext partition for anything else.
I wouldn't bother moving cache to SD unless you run out of internal memory. There's usually enough room on data for it (unless you have MANY apps), so why move it?

I would say as big as you want but if you are only willing to do it through Rom Manager, you can only do up to 512MB. but still, 512 MB still is alot

Oh yes, and i would say that getting a class ten card is not necessary, i have a class 4 one and i am very happy with it unless you are transferring 16GB worth of files at one go and you would see a big difference. I would say class 6 would be good enough

and in case we have an ext partition on the sd card.. if i do a regular format will i loose the ext partition or not?

shockem said:
I would say as big as you want but if you are only willing to do it through Rom Manager, you can only do up to 512MB. but still, 512 MB still is alot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
512 isnt alot, i have a 1.25gb ext and only 200mb free
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

AndroHero said:
512 isnt alot, i have a 1.25gb ext and only 200mb free
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does on create a 1.25gb ext without linux? I've looked everywhere and can't find!

gladman said:
How does on create a 1.25gb ext without linux? I've looked everywhere and can't find!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download Gparted Live CD (Very small download)
Burn it to a cd/usb
Reboot with this.
Partition as you wish!

Ok did this. How do I get Desire using Aurasense to use the ext3 partition? So far it can't see it.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

Sorry to bring this thread up again, so here's what I intend to do along the linesof the subject:
What I have:
- I have a rooted Desire on SuperVillain (2.2) ROM
- I have an 8GB class 6 SD
- I have RAN OUT of space on my 512MB partition, so yes it aint a lot if you're an app whore like me.
What I intend to do
1. Resize my SD ext partition to 1024MB or 1.25GB as stated above.
How I intend to do it
- Manually (by this i mean, copy and paste) backup my whole SD card to my computer.
- do a Titanium backup
- Format my SD card
- partition using GPARTED (see steps I got below)
- Manually restore (by this i mean, copy and paste- again) my SD card backup back to my newly partitioned SD card
- do a restore using Titanium backup
As stated above:
Download Gparted Live CD (Very small download)
Burn it to a cd/usb
Reboot with this.
Partition as you wish!
Now, my questions are, overall are these steps correct?
Do I really need to do a Titanium backup and restore for this? or manual backup and restore should do it? If yes, then what type of backup/restore on Titanium would you recommend? (apps only?, data only? apps +data?, etc...)
TIA!

Open gparted, copy the ext partition of the card, copy it to an unpartitioned area of hard disk or a pen drive. Del the ext, stretch to new size, paste back. That's it.
Make both nand and ti backups for good measure.
Via T3 phone of the year 2010 - HTC Desire

so nand and ti backup isnt actually required..hmm Thanks man!
I have heard stories that after doing these their apps wont launch well bec it "lack permission" etc...that they needed to "fix permissions" using ROM manager- any experience on this?

cyberkamote said:
so nand and ti backup isnt actually required..hmm Thanks man!
I have heard stories that after doing these their apps wont launch well bec it "lack permission" etc...that they needed to "fix permissions" using ROM manager- any experience on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ti and Nand Backup are absolutely required, unless you have utterly useless data on your card.
On restore, there may be permissions issues. Restoring using Ti should be stringently monitored. Do a Nand Backup of the freshly installed Rom once again before attempting Ti restore. A Nand restore is as safe as it gets. While doing a Ti restore, do not attempt to restore system apps installed by HTC. That will create Force closes. While restoring apps, try restoring apps alone, see if there are issues. Then try data+apps if you need the data saved by the apps. If the system gets corrupt while restoring any particular app, gp back to your Nand, restore the prev good copy and try again omitting that app which caused problems. After Ti restore, do the Rom Manager>Fix permissions.
The Gparted method I mentioned is not known to many. It is by far, the easiest method. However like any method which deals with system partitions, do so at your risk and if you're good at system tasks. The safer alternative would be using Vmware>Mount Gparted as LiveCD, since there is zero chance of data loss on the host PC. However if you dont know Vmware, dont ask more..This is not for you.

Partition questions and sd specs.

Please direct me to an idiots guide to SD partitioning...
I have been flashing my desire since the summer. And well i forgot how i initially setup my SD card.
I wanted to treat my self to a new CLASS 10 SD card. But when it came to partitioning the card i got lost.
Is it as simple as using clockworkmod to set partition size to 1-2Gigs? and swap to 0?
With reference to Ext2,ext3 and ext4 are these all multiple partitions? None of these where options within clockwork or rom manager
Anyway i did my partitions using clockwork and installed a new rom i had never used before runnymede. I found performance extremely sluggish and slow. Of course i did 3 new things at once. new card,new partition and new rom... could be one or all these causing me headaches..
Sorry to ramble on. Bottom line:
- Could i be kindly directed to a SD partitioning guide?
- Is the Desire compatible with 2,4, and 10?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1016084
[Video Tutorial] Noob Proof Everything Desire Guide UPDATED [04/04/11][Video Tut]
hope it helps.

The class 10 SD card should be OK with your desire.
The people in the know mostly recommend not using ROM Manager to partition SD cards. I would suggest try using GParted.
In terms of ext2, 3, 4 - I would recommend ext 3 for your SD card partition - it is safer than ext 2 partitions.
I would suggest an ext 3 partition size of 1024mb or even 2048mb (that should cover you for most present roms and most future roms).
I am not as knowledgeable as some of the other guys here but I will give you an useful link:
http://www.techcredo.com/android/tu...-for-a2sd-with-gparted-on-a-windows-pc-ext234
I usually create a bootable GParted USB drive and use to partition my SD cards.
I hope that helps,
KKH

I have been trying to create an ext4 partition using GParted. I did all necessary steps - will quickly run thru, just so you know:
1. Burnt ISO and accessed thru boot menu (running XP/SP3, btw)
2. Deleted existing allocation.
3. Created new primary partition as FAT32
4. Allocated "free space following" as 1024
5. Specified the unallocated memory (1024) as ext4.
There was no error in the operation.
However... When I tried to load stuff to the SD card, Windows prompted me to format the card before using. It made no sense but I couldn't do anything. And by formatting it, I lost everything that GPL had done in the first place.
I went over the process again, to no avail.
Does anyone know where I've possibly gone wrong? Please help.

Which recovery are you using?

I had the same issue, vista kept asking me to format SD card before use.
I fixed this by making my first partition in GParted the fat32 and the second partition ext3.
I think windows accesses the first partition by default and is happy with fat32.
If your ext4 was the first partition, windows would ask to format that ext4 in to fat32 before use.
I hope that helps.

thanks i should be good to go now..

TKG26 said:
thanks i should be good to go now..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you install 4EXT Recovery, you won't ever need a bootable disk to partition your SD card. You'll be able to do it straight from recovery I suggest you to give it a try!

My recovery is 4ext and I used this recovery to make partitions of my class10 sd card.
I also use this recovery to align my partitions.
You can also use the freeware "minitool partition wizard" under win xp instead of gparted.
Good luck.

harm007 said:
You can also use the freeware "minitool partition wizard" under win xp instead of gparted.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the OP uses this tool, he needs more than good luck. It's like rootSU says in his sig: "Don't be lazy and make GParted your first choice...". So please do not trust in windows software which wants to handle linux partitions.

Use rom manager. Simple as that
Sent from my Full Android on Bravo using XDA App

4ext recovery and have not gone back. Does all the dirty work for me.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Q] Using Link2sd correctly

Hey People,
As the title shows I have some questions about using Link2sd correctly.
First off my phone is rooted and is using a standard VM rom with most of the bloatware already removed and apps2sd built into the rom.
I am only using a 4 gig SD card that has 2 partitions.
In Link2sd SD(/mnt/sdcard) card shows total .97GB and SD Card 2nd Part (/data/sdext2) has total 2.84GB.
I think I have them backwards, should /mnt/sdcard be the larger partition since that is the one I have access to?
And what is the difference between Linking something to the SD card and just moving it to the SD card?
From what I have gathered when something is Linked to the SD card it gets moved to the /data/sdext2.
And if you just move it to the SD card it gets moved to the /mnt/sdcard partition.
When would you choose one over the other?
Thanks

Quick study Links2SD can move any app; A2SD can only move apps written to be moved to SD [/sdcard]. I prefer to use the ext2 or ext3 [/sdext] as much as possible for apps as its a native file system [android is a linux branch after all]. The fat32 can cause longer delays at boot time imo. I believe your partition sizes to be a good choice though. Your fat32 will fill up with nandroids, downloaded roms and mods, music, documents and such before you know it
Hope that helps.
Rob
Sent from my HTC_A510c using Tapatalk 2

I think your ext partition is to big for a 4gb sdcard, you may want to reduce it to 1gb or 2gb if you have plenty of apps. Let me tell you more about this link2sd, app2sd and data2sd so that you will understand better and be able to decide which is suitable for your phone.
As mentioned above, link2sd moves apps to your ext2/ext3/ext4 partition. But not only apps or the apk's, it also moves the dalvik, cache, and library files supporting the apps. The advantage of link2sd is the freedom to choose which of those you want to move. You can easily check or uncheck this options during the linking process.
Native app2sd moves apps to the fat32 partition (/sdcard). And it only moves the apk, leaving cache, dalvik and library files in the internal memory. If you have several applications moved in this manner, a certain portion of your internal memory is still being consumed.
There's also Data2Sd, it creates a link of the entire /data folder and moves everything to the ext partition. Logically speaking, your ext partition becomes your /data partition. The original data partition now becomes a useless space. The advantage of this is the size of your internal memory, which is only limited to the size of your ext partition. But there's also a disadvantage, to use app2sd you need a fast sdcard (category 6 and above is recommended) because everything is now residing on the sdcard which is normally slower than the built-in memory and may result to lagging on some applications.

I have a new SD cart I have partition it like the 1i use know
How do I copy all of my staff from one card to another? So that link 2sd will work with no problem?
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2

anhelogr said:
I have a new SD cart I have partition it like the 1i use know
How do I copy all of my staff from one card to another? So that link 2sd will work with no problem?
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I you mean the apps linked into your old sdcard, then do this:
1. Backup all your apps using titanium backup. The backup will be stored in your /sdcard under "TitaniumBackup" folder.
2. Use a card reader to copy that folder to your new sdcard.
3. Insert your new sdcard to your phone, then download and reinstall titanium backup.
It will automatically scan for backup up files in your sdcard and will allow you to restore all your apps.

Ok thanks s I will try this
Send from my Wildfire S Rom : Wildchild Lite v1. 1

Why is link2sd not finding my ext 2 particion ?
Is this because I used cwr to particion my SD card ?
I have made a 2gb ext2 with 512 swap I have linked a lot of apps to SD card but when I get the memory status I get the SD particion not detected
What can I do? The think is that the phone works fine
Send from my Wildfire S Rom : Wildchild Lite v1. 1

2GB is probably more that you'll ever need. I've always used 1GB and it has not yet run out.
Could you clarify what you mean when you say that you have linked a lot of apps but the SD partition is not detected?
Does Link2SD say that the apps are on the sdcard or the apps are LINKED to SD?

AceRoom said:
2GB is probably more that you'll ever need. I've always used 1GB and it has not yet run out.
Could you clarify what you mean when you say that you have linked a lot of apps but the SD partition is not detected?
Does Link2SD say that the apps are on the sdcard or the apps are LINKED to SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the problem is this when I open the link2sd a windows pops up and tells me to choose
Ext2 ext 3 ext 4 fat 32 if I choose ext 2 it say that it can't found the ext2 and I have to do a restart then it finds the ext2 and tells me to restart again if I do not turn the phone off there is no problem but if I turn the phone off at night I have to do this again:banghead: in order for the link2sd to find the ext2 partition if I go to link2sd settings storage use the 2end partition is not available only if I do 2 restarts
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2

Did you ever use data2sd or s2e or anything else which uses the sd-ext partition? It sounds like there might be a conflict between different startup scripts.
Could you open a root explorer (Or terminal or adb) and find the init.d folder.
On my CM9, the folder is at /system/system/etc/init.d
Post here a list of all the files inside that folder.

AceRoom said:
Did you ever use data2sd or s2e or anything else which uses the sd-ext partition? It sounds like there might be a conflict between different startup scripts.
Could you open a root explorer (Or terminal or adb) and find the init.d folder.
On my CM9, the folder is at /system/system/etc/init.d
Post here a list of all the files inside that folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I haven't use anythink
I have a new rom Installed with link2sd ready for use
I have a lot of free space the rom is what I wanted the only promplem is this :banghead:
The solution is never turn off my phone (I think this is no good for any phone )
Send using Htc Wildfire S
Rom Wildchild v1.1

anhelogr said:
No I haven't use anythink
I have a new rom Installed with link2sd ready for use
I have a lot of free space the rom is what I wanted the only promplem is this :banghead:
The solution is never turn off my phone (I think this is no good for any phone )
Send using Htc Wildfire S
Rom Wildchild v1.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got confirmation that the Link2SD/a2sd in this ROM are working just fine. Many users have reported that; and a few users have even told me that Data2SD also works just fine (I dunno... I only use Link2SD) with the only point being that you can't delete/uninstall any of the app2sd scripts that come bundled with the ROM. If you must use Data2SD (why??) then simply install it and you're off and running. Other than that, Link2SD should work just fine (it does for me and, literally, hundreds others).
I suspect this has to do with what/how you restored from Titanium Backup... or the fact that you partitioned with CWM. No offense, but CWM's strength is in backup/recovery, not partitioning (or even partitioning WIPING, if you read a few key posts on this forum).
I suggest you format with MiniTool Partition Wizard (lots of good tutorials on XDA). I'm using ext2fs myself and it works just fine (of course, ext4fs also works... I've tried it myself).
Good luck,

Tigger31337 said:
I've got confirmation that the Link2SD/a2sd in this ROM are working just fine. Many users have reported that; and a few users have even told me that Data2SD also works just fine (I dunno... I only use Link2SD) with the only point being that you can't delete/uninstall any of the app2sd scripts that come bundled with the ROM. If you must use Data2SD (why??) then simply install it and you're off and running. Other than that, Link2SD should work just fine (it does for me and, literally, hundreds others).
I suspect this has to do with what/how you restored from Titanium Backup... or the fact that you partitioned with CWM. No offense, but CWM's strength is in backup/recovery, not partitioning (or even partitioning WIPING, if you read a few key posts on this forum).
I suggest you format with MiniTool Partition Wizard (lots of good tutorials on XDA). I'm using ext2fs myself and it works just fine (of course, ext4fs also works... I've tried it myself).
Good luck,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I though the same that the problem is the partition method I use I will try the mini tool
Send using Htc Wildfire S
Rom Wildchild v1.1

I found the problem I was selecting ext2 for link2sd but when I use mini tool it said ext3 so I load up again the card start link2sd ext3 reboot and vouala all ok know I really enjoy my phone
Send from my HTC Wildfire S
ROM. Wildchild. v2. 0