Having problems with ext3 for months now... help :(

---

Hey xda!
I keep losing my ext3 partition with all my apps every few boots.
It actually usually happens after I have trouble installing/uninstalling apps, which send my phone into softboot mania. A hard reboot usually fixes the app install problem, but every so often unmounts the ext3, which I then have to reïnstall.
Over the past months I've been moving dalvik around, flashing new ROMs, full wipes all the time, checking ext3 for errors, using different software to format re-partition,... The problem is that these issues are non-persistent and so very hard to check if it's fixed. So every time I have to reboot I'll clench my heart and full on rage when I lose ext again

So today after partitioning my SD card again and doing a full wipe, only to lose my ext3 again after hours of setting my phone back up it dawned on me... could this be my recovery??
I'm on CWM 5.0.2.0
It served me well for like a year until I got into the whole A2SD thing...
Problem is I wanna go back to AmonRA now (think that was my first recovery) but Mod Manager won't let me anymore. And I don't have adb anymore, nor the knowledge of how I rooted and did all of that stuff 2 years ago (scatterbrain).
So... Any thoughts on this, is my recovery the issue here? And can I flash AmonRA without having to go through adb and all that?


tl;dr
My ext3 is ****ed (sporadically), I THINK recovery is to blame. I suck at adb, how to flash AmonRA?


Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Yeah...quit using CW around version 3 due to the exact same BS...I found I had to actually repartion the whole SD card several times and even lost my backups once...

AmonRA was good but the newest greatest and most amazing recovery inho is 4EXT! http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1291970 it has been the best recovery I have used bar none and the developer is awesome with support if needed!

Thanks for responding so quick, you did not lie about the awesomeness of 4ext!
I'm having a blast tinkering with the recovery control settings

Since we're in the same boat, maybe you can be of advice.. Would upgrading to ext4 do me any good? Any upsides to it?
When I got into A2SD, ext4 was too new and considered to be "DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTS" xD

EXT4 is the stock filesystem for all new Android phones.

Originally Posted by Jack_R1

EXT4 is the stock filesystem for all new Android phones.

Oh ok, so it would be ridiculous for me to get it now, thanks for clarifying

For the record, this issue has (as it seems for now) been resolved by flashing AmonRA and wiping -> repartitioning the card with that.

While AmonRA was great I found many advanced features in 4EXT. For instance you can go from ext3 to ext4 and back again with just the push of a button. EXT4 is a more efficient file system and most ROM's nowadays should support it...if not just switch back to ext3. Also 4ext will check for filesystem errors on your SD card and also check partition alignment. If you use 4ext to partition it will ensure proper partition alignment which the other recoveries don't do....

While I was impressed with ext4 features and all, I tend to go with stability over advanced features. Which is why I'm on Amon_RA's recovery, and also why I'm on an OTA build ROM, so ext4 support is ruled out for me. I want my phone just to have all the functionality I need, and have maximum reliability so I can always depend on it.
In the ext4 thread there's a good example of why I will mostly choose stability over extended functionality

Originally Posted by Galloway

While AmonRA was great I found many advanced features in 4EXT. For instance you can go from ext3 to ext4 and back again with just the push of a button. EXT4 is a more efficient file system and most ROM's nowadays should support it...if not just switch back to ext3. Also 4ext will check for filesystem errors on your SD card and also check partition alignment. If you use 4ext to partition it will ensure proper partition alignment which the other recoveries don't do....

I confirm 4EXT is the best recovery (using it for few months now without any pbs) and ext4 partitions are reliable now! Don't hesitate.