Database Users

[Q] Format SD Card without activating?

I'm selling my g1 and i already restored to factory settings so that the buyer can set up the phone his own way. except im not sure if i remembered to format the SD card.
I dont have a sd card reader anywhere and was wondering if there was any way to format the card without finding an extra sim and activating the g1 again

so I actually ended up finding a sd reader, but i cant seem to format the card on my mac because i had swap and partions running from back when i rooted my g1. is there anyway to get disk utility to format the card? right now every option is grayed out

Not unless your recovery supports adb (the stock one doesn't), in which case you can mount the card from adb...

how do i go about mounting the card via adb and then formatting it?

If you have a non-stock recovery like Amon Ra or Clockwork, simply boot into it (Home + Power) and mount the sdcard.
Then using partition magic or gparted (linux equivalent and imo much better) partition the card. To use gparted, you can use a live cd (or usb nowadays) to boot.

gooberguy said:
how do i go about mounting the card via adb and then formatting it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you can't. Only custom recoveries allow adb, and since the phone has been wiped the option for USB debugging has been disabled.
Just boot the phone, format from settings, wipe again, boom.

>
thanks it is really helpful

migrate sd card

Hi,
I have a nexus one with Rom MIUI.
I have a sd card with these partitions:
3.16 GB -> FAT32
488 MB -> EXT 4
61 MB -> SWAP
I would like to migrate the sd card to one that I have of 16GB. What steps should I do to can migrate all.
Many thanks and sorry for my english!

Copy the contents of the card to a computer, partition new card and copy the backups to the appropriate partitions.

I'm going to assume your are running a custom ROM here, if your not, these directions may not work for you.
I actually just did this yesterday myself, so I can give you instructions on how I did it. I use CM7 with Apps2SD, and I'm assuming your MIUI is usind Apps2SD as well.
**With original SD card installed**​1. Boot into recovery
2. Make a full backup (SYSTEM+SD-ext). The backup is stored on the SD card.
3. Now hook the phone up to your computer and copy the entire contents of the SD card to a folder on your computer (this can be done while in recovery or while booted into OS, it doesn't matter)
4. Shut down phone and remove original SD card and install new SD card
**With new SD card installed**​5. Boot into recovery
6. Partition SD card the same as it was before (most common is SD-ext=1024, Swap=0, rest as USB storage, or whatever it's called)
7. While still in Recovery, mount the SD card as USB storage and hook the phone up to your PC
8. Take the files that you copied from your original SD card and copy them to the root of your new SD card (don't just drag and drop the fold you put the files in, but rather open up the folder and copy the contents of the folder over so that it looks just as it did when you had the original SD card installed)
9. This step can probably be skipped, but I did it anyway out of habit more than anything, but wipe and format SYSTEM, all CACHE options, and SD-ext, and BATTERY.
10. Still in RECOVERY, you'll want to select the option to RESTORE. It'll list all previous restores, just pick the latest one.
11. Once that is done, REBOOT SYSTEM and you should be up and running.

[Q] SD Card and Back Up Question

hello everyone, i backed up my files using the CWM recovery, this may seem like a simple question (im a noob) but where do the backed up files go? i do not see them on my sd card or on the nook (built in memory) can i delete the backed up files? or get to them? Also a member here told me to buy 2 sd cards is a good idea, one with all the info and the other empty for apps and music so i can keep the sd card in the nook without it going to CWM everytime i boot, but if i buy a new sd card do i need to format it? or just use it out of the box and into the nook, will my apps still work since the new sd card is empty and my files?

Android311 said:
hello everyone, i backed up my files using the CWM recovery, this may seem like a simple question (im a noob) but where do the backed up files go? i do not see them on my sd card or on the nook (built in memory) can i delete the backed up files? or get to them? Also a member here told me to buy 2 sd cards is a good idea, one with all the info and the other empty for apps and music so i can keep the sd card in the nook without it going to CWM everytime i boot, but if i buy a new sd card do i need to format it? or just use it out of the box and into the nook, will my apps still work since the new sd card is empty and my files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Always format new cards. And never use Windows format. Use this. A freebie. Windows format can corrupt uSD.
Your nandroid (CWM) backup will be in the Backup folder in the ClockworkMod folder. It should be on your uSD.
One uSD is enough as long as it's large enough to hold all you want to use. I've always used at least a 16Gb card. Always name brand (SanDisk). You really don't want to swap back and forth. As long as your nandroind is on removable memory you should be safe. Some people copy their nandroind backups to their desktop computers for safe-keeping. A bit OCD but not really a bad idea.

Ok very good info! But I use the nook color and I do not think I need to format the sd card?
HTC Wildfire S (VM) "s-off" "rooted" Stock Rom

If you use the uSD as flashable CwMR, then you wouldn't want to reformat the card, otherwise, you have to recreate it once again if you want to do a backup or install.

what i mean is my new sd card do i put it in my nook and format it thru cyannogen mod setting? says umount and format sd card, cause if i put the same CWM on the new sd card everytime i boot it will take me to cwm

Android311 said:
what i mean is my new sd card do i put it in my nook and format it thru cyannogen mod setting? says umount and format sd card, cause if i put the same CWM on the new sd card everytime i boot it will take me to cwm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Others have formatted their uSD cards in their NC's but as a general rule I don't. I know I sound like a one-trick pony but one needs to start with a good formatted card otherwise everything else is for naught.

The reason I ask is because I don't want to keep pulling out my SD card everytime I turn my nook on, so if I were to format the new SD card how would I do it?
HTC Wildfire S (VM) "s-off" "rooted" Stock Rom

Either you confuse about CwM uSD or I (we) do not fully understand your issue.
1. If your uSD is a flashable CwM Recovery then it WILL BOOT into CwM Recover EVERY TIME you boot up with that uSD card plugged in. That's the way it is
2. If your uSD is for normal usage, you should NOT have any problem leaving the uSD card in the NC when booting up.

sorry i should have better explained, ok i get it now, my question in simple form is do i have to format the new sd or just simply pop it in the nook and go

[Q] Access to bootable sd card from stock OS after 1.4.1 update

I have a nook color with dual boot from sd card. The sd card having an android 3.0 version.
After I got the 1.4.1 update, I noticed that I was able to access the sd card( the boot partition alone) from the stock OS boot of nook.
But now, dont know how, I dont see that anymore.
Was this a flawed update that was fixed or am I missing something.
Do help please.
I could really use the advantage of using the bootable sd card as a regular storage card when using the stock OS of nook. I prefer reading on the stock OS of nook.

Not sure why you're not seeing the SD card anymore, does it still boot?
SD card installs create multiple partitions on the SD card and the Nook will only be able to access the first one (boot). It should be accessible with any version of the Nook default OS.
You should have a media partition with a decent amount of room (1-5gb depending on NC version). That would give you more room than the 100-or-so mb on the boot partition.
Just found out that you can point the emmc install to see the "sdcard" partition of the sd card using the following info:
racks11479 said:
use root explorer and edit vold.fstab to "4" instead of "auto" for sdcard mount
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yes, I can boot from it. Every time I plug in the SD card, the notification already says that it is safe to remove the SD card. In the device Info part of the setting, the "Unmount SD card" is already greyed, though it does say that the SD card is found.
It is however useful for me to know that the boot partition should always be accessible.
I did remove the SD card a couple of times without unmounting it first, could this possibly have corrupted the card?

srn_28 said:
Yes, I can boot from it. Every time I plug in the SD card, the notification already says that it is safe to remove the SD card. In the device Info part of the setting, the "Unmount SD card" is already greyed, though it does say that the SD card is found.
It is however useful for me to know that the boot partition should always be accessible.
I did remove the SD card a couple of times without unmounting it first, could this possibly have corrupted the card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to boot the uSD card (the one with Android 3.0 on it) and see what happens.
If it can, then it's good, if not, you can say it's corrupted.

Yes, I can boot from it. So I assume the card is OK
I plugged in other uSD cards and they get recognized fine. So I assume the Nook stock OS device recognition is OK.
I should probably recreate the boot partition as a last ditch effort

I had the same problem at first, but now I have mounted the correct sdcard partition that I wanted to mount.
I couldn't get it to work with editing the vold.fstab file at first. Then at some point after I manually mounted the correct partition through adb shell and edited the vold.fstab it now works.

[Q] Running CM7 off NAND - anything to consider changing SD Card?

Hi all.
I was given an HD2 running CM7 off NAND. It has a 2gb SD card in there, with around 400mb as ext3/ext4 partition.
I want to swap the 2gb for an 8gb card. Having not installed the ROM myself (and am not too familar with the process on the HD2), I'm unsure how to proceed.
Are there any files on the SD card that are likely to be needed for booting?
Can I just stick the new card in, use recovery to partition it and then remove the card - copy the old ext3/ext4 partition data over and it'll be happy?
Do I need to use recovery, can I just a Linux box to do that instead?

mr_arc said:
Can I just stick the new card in, use recovery to partition it and then remove the card - copy the old ext3/ext4 partition data over and it'll be happy?
Do I need to use recovery, can I just a Linux box to do that instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
assuming you don't have a linux pc that can read ext partitions, id do it this way..
into cwm - full backup.
2gb card into card reader (or mount usb storage in android - or 'mounts and storage - mount sd card' in cwm) - copy off your whole fat32 partition - make sure you have hidden files set to show in windows explorer.
8gb card into phone, back into cwm, create the new ext partition.
8gb card back into card reader (or mounts and storage - mount sd card in cwm) and copy the fat 32 stuff back to the card.
into cwm - restore - advanced restore - restore the sd-ext partition only.

Thanks for the reply.
I do have a Linux PC to hand, and the HD2 doesn't have CWM on it.
So in the end, I used GParted to create a partition table that looked like the existing card and then copied the contents of the old card over. Phone booted up fine