Originally Posted by d.terenzzo

Thanks man, thats a great guide...

Just one thing, Fastboot IS NOT exclusive for windows system, even for PC.

Cheers

You are right, it is for Windows, Linux and MacOS. I have a habit of using "PC" to mean "computer". I will adjust the wording in the first post.

this is very useful. thanks!

I have a question that wasn't answered in this FAQ. I was hoping someone could shed some light on the issue, then the OP could update the post to help others...

Basically, on my last Android phone my nandroid backups were all located on my SD card, under clockworkmod/backups. Now, they are located under mnt/shell/emulated.

I am new to emulated partitions and don't really get what is going on. I seem to be able to access various contents of my SD from the following directories:

• mnt
• sdcard
• storage - which also has emulated and sdcard0 subfolders

The contents of these locations is not identical though! Could someone please explain what is actually going on?
Many thanks

Originally Posted by 1234568

I have a question that wasn't answered in this FAQ. I was hoping someone could shed some light on the issue, then the OP could update the post to help others...

Basically, on my last Android phone my nandroid backups were all located on my SD card, under clockworkmod/backups. Now, they are located under mnt/shell/emulated.

I am new to emulated partitions and don't really get what is going on. I seem to be able to access various contents of my SD from the following directories:

• mnt
• sdcard
• storage - which also has emulated and sdcard0 subfolders

The contents of these locations is not identical though! Could someone please explain what is actually going on?
Many thanks

This is new in Jelly Bean. Not sure why Google changed it. That said, they are all symlinks for compatibility with various apps. You data is actually stored in /data/media/0. This is your "sdcard" and the other locations should be pointing to that, so the contents of the "other locations" should be identical to that.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Originally Posted by efrant

This is new in Jelly Bean. Not sure why Google changed it. That said, they are all symlinks for compatibility with various apps. You data is actually stored in /data/media/0. This is your "sdcard" and the other locations should be pointing to that, so the contents of the "other locations" should be identical to that.

Thanks for the answer. I will try and express my current understanding in a few statements. If any of it is wrong I would appreciate someone putting me correct.

• The N4 has one large 16Gb drive.
• On this drive is the data/media folder, which is preserved when full wiping, flashing roms, etc.
• The /data/media/0 folder is meant to represent the SD card. Without root access this is all file explorers will see.
• Instead of saving to data/media/0/clockworkmod/backup, CWM now backs up to data/media/clockworkmod/backup. This is why you need a root file explorer to see the backups.
• The 'SD card', 'mnt' and 'storage' folders are all symlinks to /data/media.

Assuming all that is correct how, how would an unrooted user delete folders from data/media, other than data/media/0.
Also, will it be possible for CWM to change their backup directory to what it has always been?

Originally Posted by 1234568

Thanks for the answer. I will try and express my current understanding in a few statements. If any of it is wrong I would appreciate someone putting me correct.

• The N4 has one large 16Gb drive.
• On this drive is the data/media folder, which is preserved when full wiping, flashing roms, etc.
• The /data/media/0 folder is meant to represent the SD card. Without root access this is all file explorers will see.
• Instead of saving to data/media/0/clockworkmod/backup, CWM now backs up to data/media/clockworkmod/backup. This is why you need a root file explorer to see the backups.
• The 'SD card', 'mnt' and 'storage' folders are all symlinks to /data/media.

Assuming all that is correct how, how would an unrooted user delete folders from data/media, other than data/media/0.
Also, will it be possible for CWM to change their backup directory to what it has always been?

There are a few points that are not exactly correct in your post. I'll explain when I'm in front of a computer.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I came across this comment in another thread that answered one of my questions:

"I believe the location was changed because of the multiple users feature that has been incorporated into android.

If you go into storage you'll notice a folder called sdcard0. This is how android handles multiple users the next user would have a folder called sdcard1 and the next sdcard2 so forth and so on.

CWM had problems handling this so Koush changed the location to get around the problem."

Originally Posted by 1234568

I came across this comment in another thread that answered one of my questions:

"I believe the location was changed because of the multiple users feature that has been incorporated into android.

If you go into storage you'll notice a folder called sdcard0. This is how android handles multiple users the next user would have a folder called sdcard1 and the next sdcard2 so forth and so on.

CWM had problems handling this so Koush changed the location to get around the problem."

That's pretty much correct, although I believe the actual folders are /data/media/0, /data/media/1, etc. Everything else is just symlinks.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Cool. And was everything else in my previous post correct then? Just trying to puzzle out exactly how this all works. Thanks for giving your time for this one on one teaching!

Originally Posted by 1234568

Cool. And was everything else in my previous post correct then? Just trying to puzzle out exactly how this all works. Thanks for giving your time for this one on one teaching!

The other thing that wasn't quite correct is that data/media is NOT preserved when doing a wipe if you are using the stock recovery, but is preserved if you are using a custom recovery like cwm or twrp.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2