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Hello XDA Developers.
I have hit a brick wall trying to partition my 8gb SD card for my MyTouch3g, and could use a little help, i can getting very frustrated and any help will be appreciated .
Questions:
1) Is there any way to partition the 8GB SD card on the computer, then just put it into the MyTouch3g?
2) How do i know what size partitions should be for my 8GB card?
I cannot get adb set up on the computer properly to do it, also many of the guides are for the G1 and involve typing things in the recovery console with the hardware keyboard.
I have googled for hours trying to find a guide specifically for partitioning with the Mytouch3g without using adb, but could not find one.
Side note: I rooted my phone using the 1touch method.
you can use Amon_Ra's recovery and it'll do it for you automatically.
http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/22/how-to-root-the-mytouch-3g-or-g1-in-one-click/
...
maybe dumb question, can i flash the Amon_Ra's recovery img after already having the cyanogen recovery img...or do i need to start with a clean slate?...and any advice if im using the stock 4gb SD card as far as partitioning/format for better performance?
i need help too...
please help a noob!!!
i'm in the exact same boat. using cyanogen 4.0.2 also and an 8gb sd card too.
please help...
Same
Yeah im worried about flashing another recovery image over the Cyanogen recovery image.
I rooted using the 1-touch method that auto installed Cyanogen Recovery image....dont know if flashing another recovery image would brick it or not
if you guys have the myTouch and unsure, unroot then root again using the Amon_Ra method on unlockr
http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/22/how-to-unroot-your-mytouch-3g/
I use Amon_Ra's recovery and I know it does the partition for me automatically, but how do I know what size my partitions are ? For example, there are some roms that require 96Mb's for Swap...Any help will be greatly appreciated and thanx to all the Devs for their hard and continous work on the G1 and MT3G....
unk2009 said:
I use Amon_Ra's recovery and I know it does the partition for me automatically, but how do I know what size my partitions are ? For example, there are some roms that require 96Mb's for Swap...Any help will be greatly appreciated and thanx to all the Devs for their hard and continous work on the G1 and MT3G....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ask this in every thread?............search please!!!!
Cyan's recovery should have an option to auto format your card
you can use Amon_Ra's recovery img without flashing it to your phone!
Just boot it, instead of flashing it.. and select the option to partition the sdcard and then reboot...
No changes to your phone... just a partitioned sdcard!
use the following commands with fastboot loaded on your phone (back + power)
fastboot boot your_recovery_img.img
Hope this helps
philicibine said:
you can use Amon_Ra's recovery img without flashing it to your phone!
Just boot it, instead of flashing it.. and select the option to partition the sdcard and then reboot...
No changes to your phone... just a partitioned sdcard!
use the following commands with fastboot loaded on your phone (back + power)
fastboot boot your_recovery_img.img
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does this really work? first time i have seen this reported. Have you done it? If you have could u give me some more detailed instructions on how to do it. Please and thank you. If this is a totally noob request I apologize,I am new to this.
Follow this guide and you can partition the card how you like.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535914
It really is easy to do, just try.
Here's what I am doing. I'm a complete noob and it took days and days of tinkering and reading through this site to refine this. I've done it multiple times now with experimental ROMs and it works great for me.
Put your SD card in your computer's reader, or a 3rd party reader device. Copy all the files to your hard drive in a backup folder of some kind.
Go get GParted at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
You can download the iso image. Use a program like http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn the iso image to a CD which will be bootable.
Once you have the Boot CD with GParted you can boot your computer up with it in the disc drive. Make sure your BIOS settings have the CD before your hard drive to check for boot sequence.
GParted will start up, I pick the defaults. It reads my SD reader with my 8GB Class 6 inserted. Make sure you select your SD card from the drop menu, the default is my computer hard drive which you don't want to touch!
I delete all the partitions on the card.
The first partition is your FAT32 and it will be the largest partition.
The next Partition you want to make is an ext2, ext3, or ext4 partition. I use ext3. I make this partition about 800 MB. This is where the Cyanogen ROM will copy your apps to automatically when it detects it.
The last partition is going to be a Linux Swap file and should be about 32 MB.
I've seen where some people use a 64 MB swap file but I think the general consensus of 32 is fine.
Once you are done, close out GParted and pull the CD out when it ejects your tray. When you reboot the computer without the CD in it, your Windows OS should boot right up like normal.
In Windows you should see the large FAT32 partition on your SD card. Windows won't see the ext3 or swap partitions. Copy your SD card files back to your SD card and eject the card.
When you put the card in your MyTouch3G, turn on the phone. Leave it alone when your screen comes up. The Cyanogen ROM will detect your ext3 partition and begin copying all your apps to it. At first it will look like you have no apps but they will begin appearing as they are copied to your SD card. It may take a couple minutes depending on how many apps you have.
The GParted CD is an easy way in the future to wipe out partitions on your card and set it up for you.
Currently I have a Sprint HTC hero running MoDaCo v 2.2 (has A2SD included). My SD is partitioned with ext 2 and swap. If I was to get a larger SD card to replace the one that's currently in the phone, is there a way I can completely copy all the partitions from the old one to the new one without having to do any maintenance on through phone's recovery image? Or will there always be a few things that need to be done through the recovery image (re-partition the new card, etc)? Is this process listed somewhere already (changing SD cards)? Thanks.
You could use droid explorer, Linux, adb shell, or Android commander to pull the data from you extra and swap partition. Then format and push to your new card.
EasierLikeThis said:
Currently I have a Sprint HTC hero running MoDaCo v 2.2 (has A2SD included). My SD is partitioned with ext 2 and swap. If I was to get a larger SD card to replace the one that's currently in the phone, is there a way I can completely copy all the partitions from the old one to the new one without having to do any maintenance on through phone's recovery image? Or will there always be a few things that need to be done through the recovery image (re-partition the new card, etc)? Is this process listed somewhere already (changing SD cards)? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've got it backwards. You need to do EVERYTHING through the recovery image... don't know why you'd have a problem using it.
Make a Nandroid + EXT backup of the phone.
Turn on USB-MS, mount the phone on your computer.
Copy the contents of the sdcard to your computer, *including* the Nandroid backup.
Unmount the phone, turn off USB-MS.
Now power-off the phone.
Replace the sdcard, boot the phone back to recovery. Do NOT allow the phone to boot Android, all you'll get is endless FC errors and you'll have to reboot it again anyway.
Partition the new sdcard.
Turn USB-MS on, mount the phone on your computer.
Copy the sdcard files, including the Nandroid backup, back to the sdcard.
Unmount the phone, turn off USB-MS.
Now restore the Nandroid backup. This puts your apps back onto the EXT partition.
And now you can allow the phone to boot Android.
posguy99 said:
You've got it backwards. You need to do EVERYTHING through the recovery image... don't know why you'd have a problem using it.
Make a Nandroid + EXT backup of the phone.
Turn on USB-MS, mount the phone on your computer.
Copy the contents of the sdcard to your computer, *including* the Nandroid backup.
Unmount the phone, turn off USB-MS.
Now power-off the phone.
Replace the sdcard, boot the phone back to recovery. Do NOT allow the phone to boot Android, all you'll get is endless FC errors and you'll have to reboot it again anyway.
Partition the new sdcard.
Turn USB-MS on, mount the phone on your computer.
Copy the sdcard files, including the Nandroid backup, back to the sdcard.
Unmount the phone, turn off USB-MS.
Now restore the Nandroid backup. This puts your apps back onto the EXT partition.
And now you can allow the phone to boot Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a problem using it, its very robust and easy to decipher. I just wasn't sure what steps would go into changing SD cards and keeping everything the way they are. What you've described here is perfect. Thanks very much. Time for me to go get a bigger, higher classed SD card to replace this stock 2gb card. Thanks.
So I just traded my iPhone for a rooted MyTouch. It has the Cyanogen mod I believe. Well all of a sudden I could not access my SD card and when I tried to open it on my computer it said 'Wrong Format'. Wouldn't work on the phone either. So I formated Fat32 and thought I could start over.
It still shows my apps installed in the Marketplace, although they were on the SD and deleted. I can't uninstall them, but it thinks they are there, somewhere. Has anyone had this problem? I am relatively new to Android and rooting. I had a jailbroken iPhone before. Thanks!
kinda depends really. I would suggest first going thru recovery console if you are using amon recovery and partition sd card there. With most modified roms you have apps 2 sd so there are actually 3 partions. The biggest is fat32 for data like music, then ext2,3,4 for applications then a linux swap partition to help expand the ram on the phone and if you formated on PC or from settings on phone those partitions are gone. So I would do that first and then try to uninstall from market and reinstall again if not you may need to wipe and restart the device.
How do I get into recovery mode? I tried going to the terminal and using the flash_image recovery /sdcard/imgfile but it says I do not have permission?
Any ideas??
If your phone has been rooted right by the previous owner, you can access the recovery mode by first powering down, then pressing home and power at the same time.
Ahh! That worked! thanks!
I have a variation on this problem and lost my apps and Market, hope someone can help. Started with the SD card coming unmounted randomly, known issue with EVO I guess. Followed the recommendation of reformatting the SD by plugging it into a Windows PC and doing a FAT32 format. I backed up everything I could "see" from SD to C: drive. I am running a custom ROM with APPS2SD feature and Clockworkmod recovery. I'm very new to Linix and Android but, it looks like there is a Linix Ext3 partition that is made by APPS2SD on the SD card and that is where all my apps where, including android Market app. So, upon copying all the folders back to the re-formatted SD I had no apps and no android Market to able to re-download all my apps. I guess Market is like a licensed deal that you can't just get a .apk of and reload it. I do HAVE a current recovery backup that was on the FAT32 directory of the SD card but it appears the the Ext3 partition is not in that recovery file. I tried booting into recovery with Clockworkmod and reformatting the SD again, I tried a "Restore ext3.img" but Clockworkmod comes back with 'sd-ext.img not found" so I am guessing that the Linix Ext3 partition backup was stored IN the Ext3 partition of the SD(?) and the system and data stuff is stored in the FAT32 recovery file. Brilliant idea (not)! I tried a re-flash of the ROM, flashes OK but no apps. Anyway, the SD is properly partitioned now, the FAT32 stuff is back on, I don't know how to look in to the Est3 partition but, I know there is one program there cause I installed a file explorer by downloading and executing an .apk and there was an option to install it to SD. Going to factory reset and starting over again is not an option. Any ideas please?
SOLVED this issue:
apperantly the android market application is called "vendor.apk" and can be downloaded from various sites BUT WAIT, it's not that simple. Apperantly the vendor app has to be specific to your phone (hardware)? On a whim, I downoaded the previous version of my custom ROM (happedned to be Fresh ROM) .zip, I extracted the vendor.apk from the .zip and installed that. Then, I had an apk called MarketUpdater.apk, or something like that, that had installed in the phones system/app from the last Fresh ROM update. I ran this to update the vendor (android market) to the latest version, then I ran that. Did it work? NO, it crashed hen I tied to run market. I then did a re-boot. Did it it work? NO Upon attempting to reboot it got stuck in a loop and froze. Very scary. So, remove the battery and try again. I think I had to remove and re-install the SDcard somewhere in there to get it to a first time boot and, after a re-boot, whalla, come back with a working market. Market remembered all the apps that I purchased and I re-downloaded everything. Of course, I don't know for sure where they are stored right now (SD card or phone??)
And, my original problem of SD card constantly coming unmounted has been fixed.
This is really really frustrating. I've rooted my phone, but no matter what ROM I use (except for the official ones), I get random crashes constantly. Sometimes it will be swype, other times Android, other times many many others.
I've tried about every ROM out there. Bittersweet, Aloysius, Darchdroid, etc. etc. What could the problem be? My phone runs fine on stock software! My SD partition is currently 512MB ext2 with the remainder (1.5GB) as FAT32. Could that be the problem? I'm running recovery image 1.6.2.
I'm just wondering if the custom ROMS install some of the software in places (SD card, etc.) that the officials ROMs do not and maybe since I'm not partitioned properly, I get crashing? I don't have a swap partition either.
Any ideas?!?
have you wiped everything befor flashing the roms?
You're probably doing something wrong when you flash. Make sure to wipe your data.
Could also be apps you have installed, remember, Android multi-tasks, so an app can cause a crash when it isn't in the forefront
Here's my process when I flash.
1. Copy the zip file to the SD card.
2. Turn off phone.
3. Press and hold HOME while turning phone on.
4. Wait for recovery menu and wipe Davlik and phone.
5. Go back and flash phone to the zip file on SD.
6. Reboot phone.
You don't have to format the SD every time do you? I just formatted it completely and created an EXT2 and FAT32 partition. Do I need a swap partition?
I'm just really at a loss. I'm so tired of trying ROMs...but they all crash. Am I missing something in the process? How does everyone else do it?
Question:
I've noticed I'm pretty much at my limit for space on my current SD card (like 80MB remaining on a 4GB!)...
I've ordered an 8GB card to replace this one... but how can I "clone" my current 4GB card (with a2sd partitions) and then copy it over to my 8GB card, without losing data, settings, apps, etc? Is there a way?
Thanks in advance.
Do this all from within Clockwork Recovery:
1) Make a nandroid backup
2) Connect the phone to a computer
3) Partitions menu > mount USB storage
4) Copy all contents from the old SD card to a temporary folder on your computer (including the clockworkmod folder which contains the nandroid backup you just took)
5) Unmount and disconnect from computer.
6) Pull battery to shut the phone off, or if you would prefer you can boot the phone and then turn the phone off immediately afterward. Pulling battery just saves time.
7) Put new SD card in
8) Boot into clockwork
9) Format the card with Clockwork w/ ext partition
10) Connect to computer, mount USB storage again, copy all files back to the phone
11) Unmount and disconnect cable from computer
12) Nandroid > advanced restore > Restore sd-ext only
13) Reboot and you're done.
And if something goes wrong, it's not really a big deal since you will still have the original files on the old SD card so you can try again or ask for help to try another method.
Sounds complicated enough to work. I'll try when the card comes and let you all know. Thanks!
gfinockio said:
Sounds complicated enough to work. I'll try when the card comes and let you all know. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha yeah, I think it's the easiest way to do it with Windows, since you can't read the ext partition from the computer. You could probably just copy the contents of both partitions through Linux if you're comfortable doing that.
Doesn't a nandroid backup the ext partition too?
If you're using windows you could just backup your fat32 partition on your PC and partition your new card and then copy all your files back and do your nandroid restore.
I think this would work...
jdwhite87 said:
Doesn't a nandroid backup the ext partition too?
If you're using windows you could just backup your fat32 partition on your PC and partition your new card and then copy all your files back and do your nandroid restore.
I think this would work...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clockwork does not back up my ext partition. It can't mount it or anything. Not sure why. Might be because its ext4, but when I do nandroids the sd-ext backup always fails.
I have to use Ubuntu and mount as storage. Then both of my partitions mount on my computer and I can do as I please. For me this seems easiest anyway. Simple copy and paste and it can be done from a live cd for those that dont already have Ubuntu.
Sent from my cm7 Aria.
drumist said:
Do this all from within Clockwork Recovery:
1) Make a nandroid backup
2) Connect the phone to a computer
3) Partitions menu > mount USB storage
4) Copy all contents from the old SD card to a temporary folder on your computer (including the clockworkmod folder which contains the nandroid backup you just took)
5) Unmount and disconnect from computer.
6) Pull battery to shut the phone off, or if you would prefer you can boot the phone and then turn the phone off immediately afterward. Pulling battery just saves time.
7) Put new SD card in
8) Boot into clockwork
9) Format the card with Clockwork w/ ext partition
10) Connect to computer, mount USB storage again, copy all files back to the phone
11) Unmount and disconnect cable from computer
12) Nandroid > advanced restore > Restore sd-ext only
13) Reboot and you're done.
And if something goes wrong, it's not really a big deal since you will still have the original files on the old SD card so you can try again or ask for help to try another method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm stumped on step 9 - what menu option in Clockwork will format the ext partition? What menu?
gfinockio said:
I'm stumped on step 9 - what menu option in Clockwork will format the ext partition? What menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Partitions menu
CallMeAria said:
Partitions menu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version has that menu option? I don't see it.
Interesting. I was sure you could format a card with ext partition through Clockwork but apparently you can't. You can do it through ROM Manager though, so I guess you may have to boot into the phone to get to it.
The programs on the ext partition won't show up yet of course. Don't be alarmed. Just partition the card through ROM Manager, then once you're done doing that, do the nadroid advanced restore. If there are any problems after a reboot (i.e., it didn't work correctly), go back and try doing the regular full nandroid restore.
gfinockio said:
What version has that menu option? I don't see it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
v2.5.0.1
This doesnt create a partition though. It just formats an existing partition. You'll have to use drumist's method of going through Rom manager to actually create the ext3 parition from the phone.
CallMeAria said:
v2.5.0.1
This doesnt create a partition though. It just formats an existing partition. You'll have to use drumist's method of going through Rom manager to actually create the ext3 parition from the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?
gfinockio said:
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
someone recommended in another thread that when that happens you just pull out the battery and then use volume down+power to boot back into recovery and it should then work.
But the method I use is to do it from Ubuntu (a linux version). If you dont want to install Ubuntu on your computer you can make a bootable CD or USB drive with Ubuntu on it (directions for this are on the Ubuntu download page) and actually run Ubuntu from the CD/USB without ever installing it on your computer. From there you can use gParted to create paritions. And while I recommend making backups, gparted even allows you to resize and move partitions without deleting anything.
gfinockio said:
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's what I was worried about. My suggestion then is to format the card through linux if you have a SD card reader. Easiest way is to use an Ubuntu LiveCD. Do you know how to do this on your own?
Also, definitely do a full nandroid restore once the SD card is reformatted. Since you booted the phone and tried to install an app, it's possible something got screwed up -- nothing to worry about though because a full nandroid restore should revert everything.
drumist said:
Yeah, that's what I was worried about. My suggestion then is to format the card through linux if you have a SD card reader. Easiest way is to use an Ubuntu LiveCD. Do you know how to do this on your own?
Also, definitely do a full nandroid restore once the SD card is reformatted. Since you booted the phone and tried to install an app, it's possible something got screwed up -- nothing to worry about though because a full nandroid restore should revert everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm reverting back now, going to sleep on it, and then investigate formatting it via LiveCD tomorrow morning. It's been several years since I've had to go near anything Unix.
By the way, another option is to just do a clean install on your phone with a ROM that has ROM Manager built in. Use that to do the format on the SD card.
drumist said:
By the way, another option is to just do a clean install on your phone with a ROM that has ROM Manager built in. Use that to do the format on the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That got me thinking...Ive never had a problem adding an ext partition using Rom Manager. Ive done it to 3 SD cards now without a single issue. BUT, Ive also always done it while on cm6/7 which both came with Rom Manager pre-installed with the rom and quite a bit of integration with the rom manager app...just a thought...
EDIT: Scratch that, I used it for 2 SD cards, the 3rd was done with Ubuntu.
Here's my post from the other thread
jdwhite87 said:
Rom manager - partition SD card - choose your partitions. It will reboot into recovery and try but fail to partition your card. Pull battery. Replace battery - hold volume down and power. Wait for it to try and find the libde. Img then press volume down and it will highlight recovery then press power. It will boot into recovery and finish partitioning your card.
I think that's how I got it to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this with two different SD cards on fr008. Both were sandisks. One was a 16 gb class 4 and the other was an 8 gb class 6. I couldn't get gparted to partition the 8 gb for whatever reason. I didn't know what Ubuntu was when I partitioned the 16 gb
It seems like an oversight that maybe of the masses of people with Android devices that one day the general (non-xda) population would want a simple way to transfer their sd card data to a larger card...
I Imagine there are a bunch of people out there clueless.
Hell, I read XDA and there was still no clear simple way in this thread.
(I got here from a Google search for SD CARD CLONE)
Got it to work, finally. Required some back-and-forth with the Nandroid backups, but I have everything running off of my 8GB SD card now, without reinstalling!
Now, to sell off my 4GB card... anyone?