[HOWTO] Partition SD card

[TheBlasphemer]

Introduction
Transcend and several other manufacturers make 4GB SD cards these days. They're great if you use your HTC device as MP3 player or Camera, as they offer enough space for thousands of songs and pictures.
My device, the HTC Universal, handles them just fine. However some applications, most notably the Camera application, don't like it.

Why some apps don't like it
The main problem here is the way in which they calculate the free space.
the processor is 32-bit, which means it can handle numbers ranging from 0 to 2^32. 4GB is exactly 2^32 bytes, so that shouldn't be the problem.
The problem is that applications sometimes handle the number as signed, which means that it differentiates between negative and positive numbers.
With signed numbers, the last bit is actually used as the sign (positive or negative), and the new range stretches from -2^31 (-2GB) to 2^31 (2GB).
Up to 2^31, the unsigned numbers and signed numbers are the same, but after that the last bit is set in unsigned numbers, which means that if treated as signed it will be seen as a negative number.
So if you have more than 2GB free, and the application mistreats the number of bytes free as being signed, the application actually thinks you have less than 0 bytes free ;)

How to fix this?
There are several ways to fix this. The most simple one would be to have a simple dummy file so you always have less than 2GB free. This works for the camera application, but any miscoded application taking a look at the actual size of the disk will still screw up ;)
The other solution is partitioning your SD-card. This means that you actually split the SD-card up into several virtual SD-cards of smaller sizes. So one SD-card of 4GB could be seen as four of 1GB (my set up).
This way you still have 4GB of storage, but applications will not get confused as it's split up into several chunks.

WARNING
Before you start remember to back up the current data on your SD-Card. the procedure will completely erase your SD-card. You might be able to retain the data by using partitionmagic's resize partition features, but you'd have to test yourself.
Also I'd like to mention that although I tested this procedure myself, I can't garantuee it will work for you. If it renders your SD-card useless, I can not be held responsible.

My set-up
This tutorial was written using:
- T-Mobile MDA Pro (HTC Universal)
- Windows XP SP2 MCE (equivilant to Pro)
- Transcend 150x 4GB SD-Card
It might work with a different set-up, but I can't garantuee anything ;)

Requirements
- Windows Mobile 5
- WM5Storage (do not use CardExport2, you need the ability to turn off "Removable Class"!)
- Big SD-Card

Let's get started
Just follow the following steps :)

First, make a backup of your SD-card! the following procedure will erase it!
Next, install WM5Storage. I will attach a copy of version 1.53 with this post, but you can get the latest version here (http://www.modaco.com/index.php?act=dscript&CODE=showdetails&f_id=1702).
Just copy the .cab file to your device, and execute it from the file explorer. Just make sure you install on the main memory, as the SD-card becomes inaccessible during the procedure ;)
Start WM5Storage. On my device, WM5Storage did not put anything in the start menu or the today screen, so I had to launch it through the file-explorer. You can find it at My Device\Program Files\WM5Storage\.
Be sure to untick both "Read-Only" and "Removable Class". Optionally you can set it to light a LED on read/write, but that's not neccesarry for this procedure.
Disconnect your device from your computer.
Insert the SD-Card if you haven't done so already
Hit "Activate" (bottom, right)
Re-connect your device to your computer.
From now on all steps are done from the PC
Wait until windows has recognized all "new hardware", and you have new a new hard-drive listed in "My Computer".
Open the control panel (Start -> Control Panel)
Go to either Performance and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools (category view) or directly to Administrative Tools (Classic View)
Double-Click Computer Management
Go to Computer Management (Local) -> Storage -> Disk Management (might take a little while to find all drives)
In the bottom view, find the disk that has your SD-card in it (You can find out by looking at the contents through "My Computer", or by seeing which disk is added once you plug in your WM device)
Right click the partition (white block ;)), and choose for Delete Partition
In the just created "Unallocated" space, right click, and choose for New Partition
In the wizard:
choose for a Primary Partition
For size, enter 1024MB (or if there is no more remaining, just the remainder). Ofcourse you can also choose your own size
Assign any drive-letter you want (or none if you only want it to be accessible on the WM Device).
Format the partition as Filesystem FAT32, Allocation unit size Default, and pick any volume label you want (You will only see the volume label on the PC, on the WM Device it will just be "Storage Card X". Also tick "Perform a quick format"
Wait until the bottom line in the new partition reads "Healthy" (wait for it to format basically ;))
Create as much partitions as you'd like (just resume from right-clicking and picking New partition)
You're done partitioning! If you want, you can fill the contents of the SD-Card now before you deactivate WM5Storage :)
Disconnect the device from the computer
Next few steps on the Device
Click "Deactivate" (same place as "Activate" was before ;))
Close WM5Storage
You're all done! have fun with the multiple storage cards you have now :P


Afterword
I've put quite a bit of time in this tutorial, I'd appreciate if you at least told me if it worked ;)
If you can spare a few coins, I'd also appreciate a donation. You can donate with PayPal to "paypal@iavatars.com".

[sheitan]

nice post, i'm bloging it right away 8)

[armournail]

I have a 2GB SD card. My o2 mini prompt me to format it when inserted. After formatted. o2 mini shows 0.01 MB only.
"My computer using card reader shows 14KB and from Disk Management, it shows 1.86 GB Free. I believe this "1.86GB Free" means unallocated space.
I right click on the unallocated space, but there is no option for me to choose a Primary Partition. It only has 3 options.
"New Logical Drive...",
"Delete Partition...", which is grayed out and
"Help".

Help! How to allocate this 1.86GB and format it to fat32?
Any kind soul please help me get this 2GB SD card to work with my o2 mini. 1.86GB and not 0.01MB.

Thanks

[nonentity]

is there anyway to rename the partition with a different name? i've tried a lot of ways but in vain... the 2nd partition always follow the name of the 1st partition... any help please?

thanks in advance...


non

[DnX]

After having lots of problems with my SD card, I already thought that partitioning possibly could solve the problem and, using your howto, I can use my 2 GB SD-card without any problems.

Thanks!

[st3v3]

ive done this on a 512 sd and using wm03, used a card reader to do the partition.

actualy worked well for a while if you have alot of files to store in one of the partitions, but ended up being a real pain when you wanted to re-do it

[ady]

Really nice post and easy too.

[siva_sira]

hi i tried it.....realyy wonderful....thanks a lot for posting this one...keep posting things lik tis.....

cheers,
Siva....

[VOODOOS!L]

thx for this tips!

I used it for my 2GB MiniSD card, but now I would like to keep my TomTom maps on the second partition, but TomTom can't recognize the map. (Storage Card2\)

I tried by editing the 'CurrentMap.dat' file and set the path to the Storage Card2 but still TomTom doesn't want to read this second partition. Anyone a solution for that?

thx!!

[jerrry]

Nice tutorial. I have problem with reading of my 4GB SD card. Now I'm using two partitions (1GB for cameras and 3GB for my PocketPC). Thank you

[deancharles]

I have been trying this but all I seem to be able to do is partition the card but only able to format the first partition s the rest of the card is rendered useless

Any help appreciated

[Menneisyys]

Great tutorial, will link it up from my related articles!

[mdatmuser]

Hi,
I've followed you instructions (great job, btw) HOWTO partition SD card....using the file download WM5torage.cab For some reason, I cannot get past the part after clicking on ACTIVATE immediately after inserting the SD Card. My MDA (TMobile Wiz) keeps locking up and I have to do a soft reset. I've tried reformatting the 4GB Mini SD card a few times and I've actually gotten different results. My last format (FAT32) shows (on PC) 1930MB free and 1931MB used which befuddles me. I formatted it again and it showed 3.78 GB free. Perhaps you or someone could assist me if possible. I bought the Mini SD card off eBay from a reputable seller. It was suppossed to be a Samsung 4GB Mini SD card and I was a bit surprised when it arrived as a SanDisk. Any idea as to why the phone keeps locking up? I also wonder if there might be an issue with the card...I examined the back of the card where the contacts are with magnification :eek: and the sides of the black composite show traces of perhaps an epoxy or bonding agent...I think SanDisks QC is better than that. To make things easier, you can also email me at honestrader@aol.com

[modabanga]

I have cingular 8125 and vista. I tried to use the program wm5storage but when I go to computer management there is not recognition of the 4 gig sd, nor is there any recognition of an sd when using my pda. Anyone know how to get the phone to recognize it (I tried reformatting) so that I can partition. Thanks

[mmeyer4663]

I have had some success with 4 GB cards from IntegrityElectronics and TopRam on my T-Mobile MDA running latest TMO ROM.
The problem I am running into a when using apps that are installed on the card and write dat to the card, other files get corrupted and render those applications unsuable. If I limit use to playing MP3 and videos, thing tend to stay stable.
Has anyone else observed this behavior?

[memorito]

Ok, I used the storage program to access the card. Then with the disk
management on XP I formatted the card as FAT for the entire 4gb card.
It looks like it worked. I copied all my files to it. Everything is running.
I have done several restarts with no problems...

Hope it stays so.

Good luck folks. I will report back if anything weird happens.

[memorito]

Ok. So it all got completely screwed.
I guess it got corrupted. My guess is when
I started using the camera. All of a sudden
there are only blank folders on the storage
card with a period as the names. Tons of them.
Nothing else. Any ideas?

And now I cannot get wm5storage to work.
It keeps telling me that something is accessing
the card. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[memorito]

It seems the problem was that there was a hidden Recycler folder on the storage card that would not let me use wm5storage. Probably from
Resco File Explorer... Deleted that with my PC...
Somehow magically my pc read the card. I don't know how to explain
that seeing as it was formatted in FAT not FAT32...
Then wm5storage worked and I paritioned it into 2 halves.
Lets see how that goes.

I hope, well.

[someguysomewhere]

This may be a silly question but...

Can't you plug the micro SD into a card reader and use Windows XP Disk Management tool (or any other partintioning tool) to create the partition on the storage card? What's WM5Storage actually doing?

SG

[someguysomewhere]

Anyone? Can't one just soley use the Disk Management tool in Windows to partition a SD card?

[alchopop]

cool, thanks for the heads up.
found this a day after I bought a new 2gb card but thats ok, I now have 2

Alchopop

[VreebieZ]

Anyone? Can't one just soley use the Disk Management tool in Windows to partition a SD card?
I tried, but disk management tool doesn't show 'delete partition' (it shows on other disks, even on RAID5 arrays). I tried partition magic, but PM won't even detect the whole card.

The card (topram brand) works fine with my 6700; my only concern is camera and several other progs detect the card as full.

I haven't test OP's method though. I need to replace this card because the top part is loose when I received it, and finally came off when I tried to remove it from my phone.

I really hope there is a simple registry fix. Because I prefer to use folders than partition the card.

[sambartle]

I tried, but disk management tool doesn't show 'delete partition' (it shows on other disks, even on RAID5 arrays). I tried partition magic, but PM won't even detect the whole card.

I don't have an SD card adapter handy to try it right now.. but the command line windows XP tool DISKPART usually can handle things like this.. (it can delete some types of recovery partitions that are marked so that disk management wont go near them)

Open up a command prompt and type diskpart to run it. Theres some inbuilt help I seem to rememeber..

[LordDeath]

my new 4gb sd card was too slow with my prophet under fat32. it is faster with fat16, but the clustersize would have become 64kb!!
with this guide i managed to create two 2gb fat16 partitions with much smaller clustersize and filetransfers on my prophet are much faster now :)
thx a lot for this guide!

[canbcan]

I used linux partition tools, gnome partition editor to format my sd drive to fat32 to see if it is better than fat16. I used wm5torage. Copied files to computer then back to sd and things are ok . My card is really slow anyways :(, I guess it was an old 1gig. better than none :)

[eversict]

i've got the mda vario (wizard, G3, cpu OMAP850) for ... 1,5 years or something...since: 09/29/2005 (rom 1.2.3.2 NLD).

buyed a 4gb mini sd from emtec. pocket pc doesnt see the card.. my old cardreader doesnt see the card to. So I buyed a new cardreader and now my pc can connect and write/read from the card. I've formatted in all many ways and tried it..but the pocketpc isnt recognising it. I've tried it with wm5storage to but...as i say before... my pocketpc doesnt recognize it so wm5storage says: "cant open card".

I have try partition magic & diskmanagement (windowsxp) but couldnt remove or split the partition.

I am looking for another solution now:
- updating rom?
- tool for windows to mount the sd card as usb disk (got a working card reader: sweex CR004) <-- so without using the pocketpc
- diskpart doesnt see it as a DISK, only as a VOLUME:
Volume ### Ltr Label FS Type Grootte Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 E SUPER_WINPE CDFS Dvd-rom 638 MB
Volume 1 D Dvd-rom 0 B
Volume 2 C NTFS partitie 34 GB In orde Systeem
Volume 3 G Games & Ove NTFS partitie 114 GB In orde
* Volume 4 F KOEN FAT32 Verwisselb 3900 MB
Volume 5 H Verwisselb 0 B
Volume 6 I Verwisselb 0 B
Volume 7 J Verwisselb 0 B
translation/explanation: Verwisselb = Removable / partitie = partition / In orde = OK(working/fine)

Volume 4 (F:\) is the cardreader -> minisd card.


PLEASE HELP me to get a working solution, buyed many things now (card: 70 euro / cardreader 20 euro) and still cant do a thing :(

[LordDeath]

do you still have a warranty? maybe the card has an error and it can't be fixed :confused:

[eversict]

do you still have a warranty? maybe the card has an error and it can't be fixed :confused:

got it only 1 day, but there is no money return on compatibility problems.. and my pc recognise it 100% good (with cardreader) and can write/read from it to.. so when I send it back to the webshop then the would say it is just working fine..

its only my pocketpc that isnt recognizing it... i thought it is normal...older rom..so first need to have smaller partition before recognising?

[keych]

my card isn't recognised by my PC in a card reader or using wm5storage. The device will see it, but the files have become corrupted. I was hoping a format would sort it out but no luck....

[keych]

i've got the mda vario (wizard, G3, cpu OMAP850) for ... 1,5 years or something...since: 09/29/2005 (rom 1.2.3.2 NLD).


Is that not an HCSD device anyway - you can't use cards more than 2GB....

[NetrunnerAT]

you can buy 4gb cards with normal SD format!

not all 4gb cards are SDHC cards!

[eversict]

you can buy 4gb cards with normal SD format!

not all 4gb cards are SDHC cards!

its not an SDHC but a normal mini SD (http://opus.nl/produkten_detail.asp?l=eng&pdid=8357)

[pronor]

Just wanna say thanks for your great tool - works perfect on my 2GB SD card on my hermes

[aljamil]

Hi my pc pocket is running on windows mobile second edition is there any way to make it work as I got 8gb sd card Many Thanx.

[pronor]

Hi my pc pocket is running on windows mobile second edition is there any way to make it work as I got 8gb sd card Many Thanx.

Hi aljamil,

I don´t know if the tool works on your ppc - but you can easily do the same procedure if you just put your 8GB SD Card in a card reader and connect it to your pc ;-)
After your pc has detected the card reader as a new drive you do what TheBlasphemer described.



Open the control panel (Start -> Control Panel)
Go to either Performance and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools (category view) or directly to Administrative Tools (Classic View)
Double-Click Computer Management
Go to Computer Management (Local) -> Storage -> Disk Management (might take a little while to find all drives)
In the bottom view, find the disk that has your SD-card in it (You can find out by looking at the contents through "My Computer", or by seeing which disk is added once you plug in your WM device)
Right click the partition (white block ), and choose for Delete Partition
In the just created "Unallocated" space, right click, and choose for New Partition
In the wizard:
choose for a Primary Partition
For size, enter 1024MB (or if there is no more remaining, just the remainder). Ofcourse you can also choose your own size
Assign any drive-letter you want (or none if you only want it to be accessible on the WM Device).
Format the partition as Filesystem FAT32, Allocation unit size Default, and pick any volume label you want (You will only see the volume label on the PC, on the WM Device it will just be "Storage Card X". Also tick "Perform a quick format"
Wait until the bottom line in the new partition reads "Healthy" (wait for it to format basically )
Create as much partitions as you'd like (just resume from right-clicking and picking New partition)
You're done partitioning! If you want, you can fill the contents of the SD-Card now.

[Hallster]

I tried the partition of a 4GB mini sd and now it only reads as 2bg total. Is there a way to fix this or am I screwed?

[Belka77]

I tried the partition of a 4GB mini sd and now it only reads as 2bg total. Is there a way to fix this or am I screwed?

Same here. I was able to create 2 partitions of 2 Gb each on my 4Ggb sd card. Formatted 1st as Fat 32 = OK, however I was never been able to format the second partition: formatting would hang for a long time and at the end message " Formatting not succesfull" would popup. After that - I was stuck, couldn't delete the second partition or reformat it. The only way to get my 4 G back was to run an HP USB Disk Storage Format tool. That actually deleted the second (unformatable) partition and I was able to at least get my 4 GB back. I started looking at the partitioning after folders on my new SD card got corrupt. Since then I reflashed a different rom and now it seems to be OK (keeping my fingers crossed). Will see if Camer app or some other app will get it corrupt again, then i am going to try partitioning again.
Let me know if you need the HP ... tool and I'll post it.

[MichaelTV]

My 4gb card started getting corrupted recently so I thought I'd format and partition it... unfortunately, Windows said the Format Failed, and now Disk Manager says the card is "unreadable"! I've tried the HP USB Disk Storage Format tool, but that only says I have a 0-byte drive in and says there isn't one when I tell it to format.
What can I do??

[Moonprince]

Thanks fpr the great HowTo. So far evrythings works as described, but after I have formatted my 2nd. 2 GB partition on my 4GB SD-Card, I can only use it from my PC. My german XDA neo (HTC Prophet) goes not see a second storage card.
Any clues?

Thanks in advance,
Michael

[CypherXG]

is there anyway to rename the partition with a different name? i've tried a lot of ways but in vain... the 2nd partition always follow the name of the 1st partition... any help please?

thanks in advance...


non

I have the same problem. :confused:
3 partitions, named StorageCard,StorageCard1,StorageCard2
or in german: Speicherkarte,Speicherkarte1,Speicherkarte2.

I would like to rename this in System, Tools and Multimedia. :)

P.S. The HP Storage renamer don't work on WM6. :mad:

I hope someone can help here.

Cya CypherXG

[applegd]

I have 8G SandDisk Extreme III SDHC card, when I use it in my DELL X51V PDA, X51V can recognize it but the size limit is 4G, so I try to partition this 8G card into two 4G. Did anyone try this before?

[Bellers]

I have had a Universal for about a month now. I bought an 8GB SDHC card but it was only recognised as 4GB. even when formatted with FAT32. I thought this might be the solution but I have just partitioned it into 2x 2GB drives but it still will not recognise the extra 4gb of space.
My SDHC card reader sees it as 8gb so I know that it IS an 8GB card. Any ideas would be very useful...

[Bellers]

Update:

FIXED! I uninstalled my SDHC drivers on the device and installed the ones located here (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=377391&highlight=SDHC+8gb).

They are listed to only work for the universal so test with caution

[Molenaar]

Hi

Thanks for going to the effort of resolving this issue.

I am using an iPAQ HPP2200.

I get unstuck at My Device\Program Files\WM5Storage\. When I tap on the cab file the iPAQ tells me that it is not a windows CE setup file

Advice to molenaar@clear.net.nz would be appreciated

Regards
Ad.

[Wingzfly]

Alright, I am one step away from being able to do this. I'm running Windows Mobile 2003 SE and so I can't use WM5Storage on it. But I CAN use Card Export - though, I know that this won't let me remove the "removable storage" flag. Is there a way to get rid of the "removable storage" flag in Windows Mobile 2003 so that I am able to finish the partitioning of my SD card?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[vikasch]

Great tutorial, I was able to partition my 4gb SDHC card in my iPaq 6940.

FYI: I installed sdhc.cab mentioned in another XDA forum which enabled my device to read 4G SDHC cards. I tried this procedure to overcome issue of wm5 not recognizing sd card properly after device coming out of suspend/sleep mode.But hard luck issue is still the same. Anybody had anyluck with this issue?

Thanks

[chinister]

Many thanks! I was successfully able to do it using a 2GIG SD Card. My PocketPC is able to view it. However, when I try to access the SD card from my laptop (card reader), it says "disk not formatted". Is this normal? Would appreciate feedback.

Many thanks again and good good work

[XinaPower]

I tried to run the procedure, but when I do activate, and conect my HTC to my Pc, it does not see the HTC or my SDCard.

Any help?

Best regrads.

[dpetro]

introduction
transcend and several other manufacturers make 4gb sd cards these days. They're great if you use your htc device as mp3 player or camera, as they offer enough space for thousands of songs and pictures.
My device, the htc universal, handles them just fine. However some applications, most notably the camera application, don't like it.

why some apps don't like it
the main problem here is the way in which they calculate the free space.
The processor is 32-bit, which means it can handle numbers ranging from 0 to 2^32. 4gb is exactly 2^32 bytes, so that shouldn't be the problem.
The problem is that applications sometimes handle the number as signed, which means that it differentiates between negative and positive numbers.
With signed numbers, the last bit is actually used as the sign (positive or negative), and the new range stretches from -2^31 (-2gb) to 2^31 (2gb).
Up to 2^31, the unsigned numbers and signed numbers are the same, but after that the last bit is set in unsigned numbers, which means that if treated as signed it will be seen as a negative number.
So if you have more than 2gb free, and the application mistreats the number of bytes free as being signed, the application actually thinks you have less than 0 bytes free ;)

how to fix this?
there are several ways to fix this. The most simple one would be to have a simple dummy file so you always have less than 2gb free. This works for the camera application, but any miscoded application taking a look at the actual size of the disk will still screw up ;)
the other solution is partitioning your sd-card. This means that you actually split the sd-card up into several virtual sd-cards of smaller sizes. So one sd-card of 4gb could be seen as four of 1gb (my set up).
This way you still have 4gb of storage, but applications will not get confused as it's split up into several chunks.

warning
before you start remember to back up the current data on your sd-card. The procedure will completely erase your sd-card. You might be able to retain the data by using partitionmagic's resize partition features, but you'd have to test yourself.
Also i'd like to mention that although i tested this procedure myself, i can't garantuee it will work for you. If it renders your sd-card useless, i can not be held responsible.

my set-up
this tutorial was written using:
- t-mobile mda pro (htc universal)
- windows xp sp2 mce (equivilant to pro)
- transcend 150x 4gb sd-card
it might work with a different set-up, but i can't garantuee anything ;)

requirements
- windows mobile 5
- wm5storage (do not use cardexport2, you need the ability to turn off "removable class"!)
- big sd-card

let's get started
just follow the following steps :)

first, make a backup of your sd-card! The following procedure will erase it!
next, install wm5storage. I will attach a copy of version 1.53 with this post, but you can get the latest version here (http://www.modaco.com/index.php?act=dscript&code=showdetails&f_id=1702).
Just copy the .cab file to your device, and execute it from the file explorer. Just make sure you install on the main memory, as the sd-card becomes inaccessible during the procedure ;)
start wm5storage. On my device, wm5storage did not put anything in the start menu or the today screen, so i had to launch it through the file-explorer. You can find it at my device\program files\wm5storage\.
be sure to untick both "read-only" and "removable class". Optionally you can set it to light a led on read/write, but that's not neccesarry for this procedure.
disconnect your device from your computer.
insert the sd-card if you haven't done so already
hit "activate" (bottom, right)
re-connect your device to your computer.
from now on all steps are done from the pc
wait until windows has recognized all "new hardware", and you have new a new hard-drive listed in "my computer".
open the control panel (start -> control panel)
go to either performance and maintenance -> administrative tools (category view) or directly to administrative tools (classic view)
double-click computer management
go to computer management (local) -> storage -> disk management (might take a little while to find all drives)
in the bottom view, find the disk that has your sd-card in it (you can find out by looking at the contents through "my computer", or by seeing which disk is added once you plug in your wm device)
right click the partition (white block ;)), and choose for delete partition
in the just created "unallocated" space, right click, and choose for new partition
in the wizard:
choose for a primary partition
for size, enter 1024mb (or if there is no more remaining, just the remainder). ofcourse you can also choose your own size
assign any drive-letter you want (or none if you only want it to be accessible on the wm device).
format the partition as filesystem fat32, allocation unit size default, and pick any volume label you want (you will only see the volume label on the pc, on the wm device it will just be "storage card x". Also tick "perform a quick format"
wait until the bottom line in the new partition reads "healthy" (wait for it to format basically ;))
create as much partitions as you'd like (just resume from right-clicking and picking new partition)
you're done partitioning! If you want, you can fill the contents of the sd-card now before you deactivate wm5storage :)
disconnect the device from the computer
next few steps on the device
click "deactivate" (same place as "activate" was before ;))
close wm5storage
you're all done! Have fun with the multiple storage cards you have now :p


afterword
i've put quite a bit of time in this tutorial, i'd appreciate if you at least told me if it worked ;)
if you can spare a few coins, i'd also appreciate a donation. You can donate with paypal to "paypal@iavatars.com".

=======================
dear
i cant download attached file .....
Please help

greetings from greece !

[twiztidnutzzzzz]

Hey peeps, got a prob.
partitioned the sd card today and well for some reason it partitioned the wrong amount so now i have 18 mb on my sd and 886 internally.... How can I revert these actions. Plz help...

ugh..
t-nutz

ps it be for my g1 duh..
ugh again

[CDoggC]

i've just bricked my a201 trying to make 3+1 from sdhc 4gb for igo 2008...after pushing the "activate button" and ok after u sure,it jammed
:(
i cold reset it and it only says loading... forever
i followed exactly the steps...
The same way as i upgraded the rom succesfully at my qtek 9000 / universal, with xda developers support but now there must have gone smth bad...
geez i got no gps now...

[meelo88]

When I make the partitions and you soft reset the device. My phone hangs and won't boot. If I take the card out it will boot and then I insert the card and it will recognize the two partitions.

Has anyone else experienced this sort of problem?

Running NATF v5.2 (WM6.5) ROM, Kingston 8GB Class 4 SD card

Thanks!

[mlester]

Hi,
I like what you have done with regards partitioning. It would appear to be the first step towards my ultimate goal of creating virtual dvd images on my device. There is a lot of software out there to create video files out of dvds, but nothing to emulate one. I have a few educational dvds that are menu driven with hyperlinks to sections of the video that can't be met simply with video files.
I think that this might be the first step in achieving nirvana!
Do you have any thoughts about windows mobile mounting and running iso files?
Regards,
Martin

[Hallock]

thanks man this is the best and the easiest way to go about it!!!:D

[dragonfire613]

Not able to get very far in this at all sorry, and looks like the OP or anyone with knowledge to help me may be no longer following this thread, but I followed instructions exactly. Have a Toshiba 8GB MicroSD card that reads only as 4GB in my HTC / AT&T 8525 on Windows Mobile 5.0, running Win XP Pro SP3 on PC...and even with the 4GB detected on the phone, it only works maybe 5-10 minutes before the phone stops reading it altogether and locks up requiring a soft reset. install WMStorage on my Phone just fine, run & activate it fine. But when I then plug my phone into PC it pops up a New Hardware Found "Mobile Device" immediately followed by "USB Mass Storage" and then immediately followed by a "Your Hardware Did not Install Correctly"... in My Computer "Mobile Device" Still shows up separate from the Hard Drives & Other (CD/DVD, Mounted, etc.) drives.

I have a hunch it has to do with the built-in card reader on my PC or the fact that ActiveSync runs in the background all the time (tried deactivating it in MSCONFIG & Rebooting but no change in behavior).

Anybody have any advice? And to those who say they have partitioned the card easily on a card reader in Windows... how did you do it? On my install, cards show up as "removable media" and no option to partition...

Going to try using command prompt to partition and see how that goes...

Yeah just no luck. Windows will not read this card as anything other than removable, and it never shows up as a drive that can be partitioned....

(Added later: )
Still no luck with getting windows to recognize the card when it is plugged into the phone. I completely uninstalled ActiveSync thinking that was perhaps the problem since it would still detect as "Mobile Device" when I plugged the phone into PC using miniUSB to USB cable. When I plug it in I still get the "Found New Hardware"... then "USB Storage Device"... then "An error occured activating your device" (not exact wording perhaps). When I reinstalled ActiveSync 4.5 I notice that it updates my USB drivers. Perhaps this is the issue. Does anyone know how to roll back to my original USB drivers before ActiveSync? Or offer any help whatsoever? Or even read this post anymore? Seems like this should be a simple process to do... put a partition on a storage device, but everything reads it as "Removable Storage" if at all, and never as a hard disk that can be partitioned. Running XP SP3 if I didn't mention earlier. Help?!?!

[Added even more later]
Giving up at this point. Found that there are several versions of WMStorage out there later than the one in the OP, so I downloaded the latest 1.9 and installed on phone, activated just fine. Rebooted phone, rebooted PC. Plugged in USB, same result. Recognized phone as mobile device, then USB storage as hardware that cannot connect error (code 10). Tried rebooting without ActiveSync on, same result. Then even went to Device Manager and auto-updated driver for the malfunctioning "USB Mass Storage Device" and the auto-update said it found a new driver and installed it, and then the malfunctioning USB Storage Device changed to a malfunctioning Bluetooth Device (Still error code 10). So I Unplugged everything and then removed the bluetooth device in device manager & rolled back driver for USB Mass Storage. I guess at this point I'll just wait until I do the WIndows Mobile 6 update in a few days (haven't done it yet because a replacement phone is on the way due to a warranty exchange) and see if it recognizes the new cards. FYI, the new 8GB MicroSD Class 4 Cards work just fine in Camera, PC). I also tried several different ways of reformatting the 8GB MicroSD card with FAT16/64K and always formatted as FAT32/32K anyway. No clue and appears this post is abandoned... not sure why I'm even going into all this detail.

[corfurra]

Excellent tutorial !

4 year old post...still very useful and the process works perfectly!

Thanks a lot!

[Reignzone]

I'm wondering if this post can be utilized for WM6.5 on my HTC HD2?

I'd like to partition my 16GB SD card.

[elyl]

I'm wondering if this post can be utilized for WM6.5 on my HTC HD2?

I'd like to partition my 16GB SD card.

Why? Your HD2 can address the whole 16Gb just fine - I can see no advantage in having it partitioned!

[rakeshtiw]

Hi,

Excellent post. I have one question. What is the importance of WM5storage? What will happen if i dont use it? I have 16Gb storage card... and i know what you mean by the camera messing up on free space. Waiting for your response before i work on this.

One more thing... will 4gb each partition be too big for camera? I do not wish to use a 2GB partition as it will be small for my needs.

Thanks again.... cheers...

EDIT: I tried doing it without wm5storage... when i'm in administrative tools/disk management (xp sp3)... the partition options are greyed out and inactive. I understand this is old thread... but can someone help?

Thanks... cheers...

[Captain_Throwback]

Hi,

Excellent post. I have one question. What is the importance of WM5storage? What will happen if i dont use it? I have 16Gb storage card... and i know what you mean by the camera messing up on free space. Waiting for your response before i work on this.

One more thing... will 4gb each partition be too big for camera? I do not wish to use a 2GB partition as it will be small for my needs.

Thanks again.... cheers...

EDIT: I tried doing it without wm5storage... when i'm in administrative tools/disk management (xp sp3)... the partition options are greyed out and inactive. I understand this is old thread... but can someone help?

Thanks... cheers...
The importance of WM5torage is that it mounts your SD card as a hard disk, not a removable drive, which allows you to partition it.

However, it should be noted that this thread is quite old. Your device (Topaz) has a slot that handles SDHC cards up to 32GB with no problem, so there's no real need for you to partition it. This is more designed for older devices that can only read SD cards up to a certain capacity. Though, you might find it useful if you use navigation software on your SD card, and want to keep it on a separate partition so that you can access your other files more quickly when navigating through your Storage Card. Or you could even add a 3rd partition to separate your music, phots/pictures, etc - but at some point the device may get confused with Storage Card 2, 3, etc. to read from and your device may end up lagging.

[ahhl]

i think i found a way to expand back your sdcard size
use nuestorage
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=440730&highlight=partitioning+sd+card

i am tseting it now, seems that i manage to get back all my 8GB storage
trying to partitioning it so that i can run Android

[fan2tech]

Very Interested,thanks for the post

[jonscapri]

The partitioning tools suck in Windows in general.

Something I would suggest is to download a Ubuntu Live CD, and burn the ISO image to a cd. Make the changes in the bios to make it boot from the CD drive. CLick on the button to "Try Ubuntu". It'll take a few minutes to fully up and running since everything has to load off CD, but worth the wait.

Ubuntu has a some great tools included. The you're going to want to use is called Gparted. you're going to go to System>Administration> Gparted. Then it's easy from there.

Put the sd card in the mulit reader slot or USB adapter. Ubuntu will auto-mount the cars, and the partition(s) You're going to have to unmount them, and use Gparted to change the size of partition(s). Keep in mind to only work on the card, and not the actualy hard drive on the computer.

In Gparted you should see the sdcard listed as something like /dev/mmcbl0p1, or /dev/USBxx. or something like that.

DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING THAT IS LISTED AS
/DEV/SDA
/DEV/SDB

Make the changes you want to make to the SD card make or remove partitions, just amke sure that you use all the space in the sd card with one or more partitions.

I'm not responsible for your mistakes, and I assume that you are not the average user. If this is above your head find something that knows what they are doing, and do this for you.

[mosse_t]

work perfect.....
i use vista ultimate SP1 & HTC Prophet with blue manila rom
Great job.......
THANX!!!!!!!!!!

[Tribulattifather]

Thanks..

I've uploaded the latest cab too..

[vyis]

hmm, is this not compatible with winmo 6.5.3 ? i got very slow read/write speed when access the partition via wm5storage from PC. only get around 1/4 of those usual speed.

[beathookup]

Got it loaded on my PPC (TP2) but everytime I try to hit "Activate" it does not allow for anything to happen. When unclicking or clicking the options nothing changes in the bottom right corner