How to Partition your Sd Card??
- Thread starter oMaRcO
- Start date
Page 2 of the Q&A Forum
Introductory Remarks:
- Ext Partition is only needed if your rom uses App2SD+ (Froyo app2sd works with basic Fat32 partition)
- "Install apps to sd" (ext) must sometimes be configured in your ROM, check the thread for your rom for infos...
- Backup your SD card before you start ! The following steps will wipe the contents !
- Ext partitions are only visible in Linux = Windows can't see it.
- Swap Partitions are no longer useful.
- You can check if you have a working ext partition with Quick system info (in app market)
- On first reboot after partition, android will move some apps to the SD, this will take a lot of time. Some people have reported a bootloop on green HTC Screen, one reported a need to Battery pull 4 times before it finally worked), so be patient!!!!
- If the device is plugged into a PC when you try to boot with the partitioned SDCard it never gets past the white HTC sceen & logo.
Now the tutorials:
A. Easiest way is to install Rom Manager:
1) install rom manager
2) choose partition sd card
- 512mb ext
- 0 swap
3) let RM do the rest... ;-)
- I believe Rom Manager (as of end of July) creates an ext2 partition, therefore if you want ext3 or 4, easiest is to go through Gparted, or if you have amonRa Recovery, I believe this function is present.
B. Another one is using Gparted:
(copied this from http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Apps2SD)
You can use a livecd of GParted, or use it from within Ubuntu (vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVK-t...eature=related)
+ You can do this using your phone to mount the SD card or a Card adapter directly connected to your computer.
1) Connect your phone to your computer (or use an SD Card adapter...., in this case skip to 4))
2) Pull down the notification bar and mount the phone
3) Start Gparted
4) Gparted will search available drives. (Your phone should show up as a USB drive, and will be something like /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdc1, etc..)
Warning: double-check you've not selected a hdd by mistake!
5) In the upper right corner, select the correct USB device for your phone. (i.e. check to make sure it is correct size for your SD card)
6) Right click on each partition and select 'unmount'
7) Right click on each partition and select 'delete'
If you know what you are doing, you can re-size the partitions and add a new 2nd partition formatted as ext2/3/4
8) Right click on the big gray bar (should say unallocated x.xx gb) and click 'new'
9) Enter configurations
Free Space preceding = 0
Create as = Primary
New size = [don't touch]
File system = fat32
Free Space Following = 512 (or whatever you want)
10) Click add
11) Right click on the big gray bar (should say unallocated x.xx gb) and click 'new'
12) Enter configurations
Free Space preceding = 0
Create as = Primary
New size = [don't touch]
File system = ext3 or 4 (recommend ext4)
Free Space Following = 0
Click add
13) [CHECK AGAIN you are working on your SD card and not your Hard Drive!!!!] Click edit, then 'Apply All Operations' to write changes to disk
14) Quit GParted
15) Unmount your SD Card
16) Reboot your phone and wait (see introductory remarks)
C. Recovery Images
Some Recovery Images also have a option to format your SD card from the recovery screen. (see http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=721792).
I have not tried that.
As long as you have an ext2/3/4 partition and the ROM you're flashing has A2SD support (check before you download the ROM), you are not required to do anything more.
D. How to check if it worked?
To check whether A2SD is working once you've flashed your ROM,
1)Download Quick System Info from the Market, and check under A2SD Storage, it should give you enough informations.
2)download the Android Terminal Emulator app from the market and use the following commands
You should see your app directory pointing to /system/sd/app and app-private pointing to /system/sd/app-private (courtesy of ikkokusenkin)
E. Further Infos
See: http://geeks.pirillo.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-partition-an-sd-card or :
http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f...rtition-14232/ or:
http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/15/ho...-android-when-using-swap-hero-and-or-apps2sd/ (With Rav Recovery...) or:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=534714 (most complicated way.... )
related thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=731432&page=2
F. Open Questions:
What I don't know:
- If the size of the ext partition matters (if you have to choose 256/512 or 1024, and can't have 600mb for example?
- What ROMs require ext partitions? (all with app2sd+, basic froyo app2sd doesn't require ext partition).
- If Class 6 SD cards really are that important (some webpages say that class 2 cards are not able to handle ext2 partitions and end up bricked.
-How to manage the contents in the ext partition when changing SD Cards... (do you need any management of your ext partition?) or you have to reinstall those apps????) See here.
- How to check if you bricked your sd card...
- etc...
Good Luck
Introductory Remarks:
- Ext Partition is only needed if your rom uses App2SD+ (Froyo app2sd works with basic Fat32 partition)
- "Install apps to sd" (ext) must sometimes be configured in your ROM, check the thread for your rom for infos...
- Backup your SD card before you start ! The following steps will wipe the contents !
- Ext partitions are only visible in Linux = Windows can't see it.
- Swap Partitions are no longer useful.
- You can check if you have a working ext partition with Quick system info (in app market)
- On first reboot after partition, android will move some apps to the SD, this will take a lot of time. Some people have reported a bootloop on green HTC Screen, one reported a need to Battery pull 4 times before it finally worked), so be patient!!!!
- If the device is plugged into a PC when you try to boot with the partitioned SDCard it never gets past the white HTC sceen & logo.
Now the tutorials:
A. Easiest way is to install Rom Manager:
1) install rom manager
2) choose partition sd card
- 512mb ext
- 0 swap
3) let RM do the rest... ;-)
- I believe Rom Manager (as of end of July) creates an ext2 partition, therefore if you want ext3 or 4, easiest is to go through Gparted, or if you have amonRa Recovery, I believe this function is present.
B. Another one is using Gparted:
(copied this from http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Apps2SD)
You can use a livecd of GParted, or use it from within Ubuntu (vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVK-t...eature=related)
+ You can do this using your phone to mount the SD card or a Card adapter directly connected to your computer.
1) Connect your phone to your computer (or use an SD Card adapter...., in this case skip to 4))
2) Pull down the notification bar and mount the phone
3) Start Gparted
4) Gparted will search available drives. (Your phone should show up as a USB drive, and will be something like /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdc1, etc..)
Warning: double-check you've not selected a hdd by mistake!
5) In the upper right corner, select the correct USB device for your phone. (i.e. check to make sure it is correct size for your SD card)
6) Right click on each partition and select 'unmount'
7) Right click on each partition and select 'delete'
If you know what you are doing, you can re-size the partitions and add a new 2nd partition formatted as ext2/3/4
8) Right click on the big gray bar (should say unallocated x.xx gb) and click 'new'
9) Enter configurations
Free Space preceding = 0
Create as = Primary
New size = [don't touch]
File system = fat32
Free Space Following = 512 (or whatever you want)
10) Click add
11) Right click on the big gray bar (should say unallocated x.xx gb) and click 'new'
12) Enter configurations
Free Space preceding = 0
Create as = Primary
New size = [don't touch]
File system = ext3 or 4 (recommend ext4)
Free Space Following = 0
Click add
13) [CHECK AGAIN you are working on your SD card and not your Hard Drive!!!!] Click edit, then 'Apply All Operations' to write changes to disk
14) Quit GParted
15) Unmount your SD Card
16) Reboot your phone and wait (see introductory remarks)
C. Recovery Images
Some Recovery Images also have a option to format your SD card from the recovery screen. (see http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=721792).
I have not tried that.
As long as you have an ext2/3/4 partition and the ROM you're flashing has A2SD support (check before you download the ROM), you are not required to do anything more.
D. How to check if it worked?
To check whether A2SD is working once you've flashed your ROM,
1)Download Quick System Info from the Market, and check under A2SD Storage, it should give you enough informations.
2)download the Android Terminal Emulator app from the market and use the following commands
Code:
su
ls -l /dataE. Further Infos
See: http://geeks.pirillo.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-partition-an-sd-card or :
http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f...rtition-14232/ or:
http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/15/ho...-android-when-using-swap-hero-and-or-apps2sd/ (With Rav Recovery...) or:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=534714 (most complicated way.... )
related thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=731432&page=2
F. Open Questions:
What I don't know:
- If the size of the ext partition matters (if you have to choose 256/512 or 1024, and can't have 600mb for example?
- What ROMs require ext partitions? (all with app2sd+, basic froyo app2sd doesn't require ext partition).
- If Class 6 SD cards really are that important (some webpages say that class 2 cards are not able to handle ext2 partitions and end up bricked.
-
- How to check if you bricked your sd card...
- etc...
Good Luck
Last edited:
Use Rom Manager
Completely painless, took less that 2 mins to do mine
PS - It may appear to stuck at the HTC white screen after completion, I just left it and
it booted up normally after about 3 mins
50 apps installed and 132MB spare!!
Completely painless, took less that 2 mins to do mine
PS - It may appear to stuck at the HTC white screen after completion, I just left it and
it booted up normally after about 3 mins
50 apps installed and 132MB spare!!
The first time round the Rom manager worked for me. But I again formatted the card thinking i had not followed the right partitioning so i tried again but i get stuck on a black screen with SU request written forever which needs to be force closed.
Please advise. thanks
Please advise. thanks
I recently bought a 32gb sandisk and want to get that working heres what I have done with no luck:
I inserted the new memory card and it picked up fine on the phone then I went to rom manager to partition the card, 512mb and 0 swap it reboots but only stays in clockwork mod, from here I dont know what to do.
If I connect the phone to the computer with the card mounted it displays the card as raw not fat32 but music files drag and drop and easily play.
I could format it from the computer to fat32 but I'll wait and see what you guys say.
I inserted the new memory card and it picked up fine on the phone then I went to rom manager to partition the card, 512mb and 0 swap it reboots but only stays in clockwork mod, from here I dont know what to do.
If I connect the phone to the computer with the card mounted it displays the card as raw not fat32 but music files drag and drop and easily play.
I could format it from the computer to fat32 but I'll wait and see what you guys say.
Noonski
Inactive Recognized Developer / Moderator Emeritus
Try to format the card back to fat32 using:
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/index.html
Then check out the Windows way of using parted to partition
http://androidandme.com/2009/08/news/how-to-manually-partition-your-sd-card-for-android-apps2sd/
After partitioning I use clockworkmod to upgrade ext2 to 3.
And you can't always set a linux swap of 0 so calculate 1MB for that part.
I got it to fat32 but then the windows way of using parted to partition seems difficult. How can I tell if I have partitioned my card successfully? How can I partition using clockworkmod only, when I go to partitions menu it only says mount or format, this is frustrating...
gianton
Inactive Recognized Contributor
Hi, i see you all set swap as 0 does that mean its using phone internal storage as swap how fast is read/write of phone ram ? i have class2 32gb card i used the phone boot with the r5 windows.bat to get into it and i set 256 swap/512 ext2/ rest 32bit all seems to work fine.
i note that writing to the sd card is about 2MBps and read is 10MBps.
i have a class4 8gb that writes at 10MBps reads about 17MBps i have had both in the phone and i cant say that i notice lag on the 32GB but i havent had it more than a few days and coming from xda orbit its a big difference.
if i use the card as storage the phone becomes very lag but maybe thats cause in that mode it would have no swap file? might change that when i finally flash to froyo.
gparted kept saying it was unformatted when windows said it was formatted so i gave up with it.
i note that writing to the sd card is about 2MBps and read is 10MBps.
i have a class4 8gb that writes at 10MBps reads about 17MBps i have had both in the phone and i cant say that i notice lag on the 32GB but i havent had it more than a few days and coming from xda orbit its a big difference.
if i use the card as storage the phone becomes very lag but maybe thats cause in that mode it would have no swap file? might change that when i finally flash to froyo.
gparted kept saying it was unformatted when windows said it was formatted so i gave up with it.
Last edited:
Just rooted my htc desire and used rom manager to partition my sd card (the one I got when I bought the phone). Everything fine.
then I bought a new Transcend micro sdhc 8GB... this memory card is not recognize by windows if using card reader. So..:
- I inserted into blackberry and connected using usb cable. My windows (Windows xp) can see and access it.
- formatted the new memory card to Fat32
- copy Open Desire and and Official Sense Froyo ROMs, both by Adam
- flashed to Sense Froyo ROM, and when it rebooted, it freezed.. cant get into the system
- flashed to OpenDesire, it worked.
- Download ROM Manager
- choose "Partition SD Card"
- Swap 0, Ext 512mb
- ERROR...
what should I do?
then I bought a new Transcend micro sdhc 8GB... this memory card is not recognize by windows if using card reader. So..:
- I inserted into blackberry and connected using usb cable. My windows (Windows xp) can see and access it.
- formatted the new memory card to Fat32
- copy Open Desire and and Official Sense Froyo ROMs, both by Adam
- flashed to Sense Froyo ROM, and when it rebooted, it freezed.. cant get into the system
- flashed to OpenDesire, it worked.
- Download ROM Manager
- choose "Partition SD Card"
- Swap 0, Ext 512mb
- ERROR...
what should I do?
yes.. cos when i clicked partition sd card, it asked me to download clockworkmod first.
it goes to recovery screen but with "unsucsessfull" message. cant find sdcard/cache/update.zip ...
the funny thing is, if I copied update.zip from my old memory card into new one. and run update.zip from recovery screen... then it worked.
but when I checked with quick system info, app2sd only shows around 400mb. is that rite?
Its showing around 400mb for me aswell, but how exactly can I tell if it is working. If I go to manage applications and click on sd card I have a couple that I moved over i.e rom manager but some apps are unmovable to sd card. Are these apps unmovable by design. I hope I haven't done it wrong.
BTW neophyte is the best rom I've used yet.
gianton
Inactive Recognized Contributor
ROM Manager makes directly ext3 format. Do not worry about that
No it doesn't it makes a ext2 partition, you have to format to ext3... I have used gparted live cd to do this.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
