Database Users

app2sd how does it works?

hello every body i am new in the android community.
i've just got a htc hero.
i've rooted it at http://theunlockr.com/ by using the
How To: Root Your HTC Hero in One Click! methode.
now i've put the modaco custom rom in by useing the recovery image.
so i've put it in the sd rename it to update.
applyed it in the recovery image so i've got a new rom.
and what now? to put apps to my sd?

Back up your as card. Go into recovery loader again. Use the format as: fat / ext / swap
I think modaco and fresh both default aps2sd so nothing else is required other than removing and reinstalling your apps so they get put on the sd.
Good luck and make sure you do step 1!

so anytime you install an app from the app market, it will automatically install on your sd card? (i have modacos rom) and how can you check to make sure it does?

all of my apps are on my SD card, maybe with the exception of WiFi teether since it is in the rom and I think needs to be in /system/ to work.
It's nice, my apps are persistent with factory resets and rom flashes.
If I pull my SD card they stop working, if I put it back the spring back to life.

so you dont have to install any apps for this to work, you just have to partition the sd card?

1. Backup your SD card, the Repartition wipes everything out
2. Boot into recovery
3. Run the Partition Fat16/EXT/Swap
4. Reboot
5. Reinstall your apps so they are moved to the SD card.
In really basic terms we trick the phone into thinking nothing happened but we move the App directory to the SD card and point to the card instead of internal memory.
You have to understand how the linux kernel works to really understand the whole "don't have to install software". One of the things Linux beats the crap out of micro$oft about is "things just work".

things have moved on a lot..a little help please

Hi,
last time i came in here unhappy with my stock HD2 on tmobUK android was just emerging on SD, now i came in here the other day WP7 is available as NAND and so is android....things seem to be a little confusing now, quite a few of these great ROMS are from people whos first language is not english so its quite hard to sometimes understand what they are explaining so i would be greatful if someone could answer somes questions, i have tried to read threads as best i can but some of them, well most actually are well into the hundreds within hours.
1) A lot of chefs describe NAND and SD, i know the difference between the two, but then they get mixed with magldr and NAND with ext4 etc etc..basically i want to flash the phones software to my NAND, i am assuming this is the best way to have it running at its optimum ?..so if i do this why would i need ext4 partions on the SD as well ? whats the benefit of it ?
2) i have also noticed that you can scan a barcode and have a link download a new rom to your phone and flash it, could i do this with ANY rom straight over the top of another without question ? and everything will be as it should be.
3) Does each ROM need to be set up in a different way?, this partly answers the previous question.
4) i flashed WP7 to my NAND (i think)..i was not happy with it and i had magldr installed, i just formatted my SD card to fat32 popped it back in and followed instructions to put [Feb 01][DL DesireZ v3.4][DL Data2SD/Ext4 v2.6][Nand/SD/MAGLAR] on to it.... it took me into magldr and told me to do a few things...did this flash to my NAND ? and did it do what was needed to the SD card regarding format or was it up to me to make certain changes to the SD card myself ?..the phone works and i can make calls, but all the apps that are stated to be in the ROM are not there, i cant find any GPS stuff and when i go to market place itsays its downloading an app but i can never see it.
As you can see i really am quite discombobulated with all this...i would love a easy reading guide that explains everything from A-B and all the terminolgy.
Thanks.

1. Many of these Android roms would swamp the entire memory of the EU HD2, so a workaround is to have partitions on the sd cards to store apps and data, leaving the system to run on NAND. When you update your rom, you just flash the system files and all app and data remains on the sd card.
2. The QR code just allows you to download the rom to your phone. You would still need to flash it AFAIK. (Heven't tried one of those yet). There are basically 2 types of NAND Android roms. One type use the more conventional flash type where you run an exe (daf.exe) from the usb flasher option on magldr. The 2nd (more recent type) packs the roms as zips which you can download and copy to your sd card and then using Clockwork mod, you can flash the rom directly from your sd card. This also allows you to take full backups, try another rom and if you don't like it you merely restore the rom.
3.Each rom and each dev has their own way of building these roms, so you will need to read carefully regarding what to do wrt sd card partitions etc.
4. Flashing WP7 and the Android rom via magldr would have installed the rom to NAND. You would need to partition your sd card yourself prior to flashing the rom. There are tutorials on how to partition the sd card to give you more help.

loady said:
Hi,
last time i came in here unhappy with my stock HD2 on tmobUK android was just emerging on SD, now i came in here the other day WP7 is available as NAND and so is android....things seem to be a little confusing now, quite a few of these great ROMS are from people whos first language is not english so its quite hard to sometimes understand what they are explaining so i would be greatful if someone could answer somes questions, i have tried to read threads as best i can but some of them, well most actually are well into the hundreds within hours.
1) A lot of chefs describe NAND and SD, i know the difference between the two, but then they get mixed with magldr and NAND with ext4 etc etc..basically i want to flash the phones software to my NAND, i am assuming this is the best way to have it running at its optimum ?..so if i do this why would i need ext4 partions on the SD as well ? whats the benefit of it ?
2) i have also noticed that you can scan a barcode and have a link download a new rom to your phone and flash it, could i do this with ANY rom straight over the top of another without question ? and everything will be as it should be.
3) Does each ROM need to be set up in a different way?, this partly answers the previous question.
4) i flashed WP7 to my NAND (i think)..i was not happy with it and i had magldr installed, i just formatted my SD card to fat32 popped it back in and followed instructions to put [Feb 01][DL DesireZ v3.4][DL Data2SD/Ext4 v2.6][Nand/SD/MAGLAR] on to it.... it took me into magldr and told me to do a few things...did this flash to my NAND ? and did it do what was needed to the SD card regarding format or was it up to me to make certain changes to the SD card myself ?..the phone works and i can make calls, but all the apps that are stated to be in the ROM are not there, i cant find any GPS stuff and when i go to market place itsays its downloading an app but i can never see it.
As you can see i really am quite discombobulated with all this...i would love a easy reading guide that explains everything from A-B and all the terminolgy.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) MAGLDR is nothing but kind of a bootloader. You can select how you want to start your ROM. AD SD or NAND or also now you can back up ROMS with MAGLDR... SD ROMS use haret.exe method. NAND uses DFT.exe method. there is another way called Clockwork MOD which uses .zip method.
Differences:-
SD Method: you have winmo 6.5 on NAND and android on SD card.
NAND Method: you install android on NAND itself.
Clockwork MOD: you install android on NAND but the benefits include you can backup your whole ROM in the actual state and flash it back later... So you can try different ROMs without worrying about installing apps and adjusting settings on the ones you like.
ext4 is a type of partition used by system. you can use the ROM which supports APP2SD and put your apps on ext4 partition.
2) As for the barcode ones. I am not sure how that works, but deffinately not as easy as you are thinking...
3) All the NAND roms use DAF.exe method so you do not need to worry about setting up the ROMs or anything. It does it for you. But some NAND roms have capabilities for APP2SD, in that case you might have to format your SD card in some particular way (explained in the threads always) to get ext2/3/4 partition to use app2sd.
4) you can flash WP7 only on NAND as there is no other way to do it for now. As for the new build you used, it has more than 1 versions. SD and NAND. If you followed the instructions for NAND and used DAF.exe to install it, then the ROM is already set up for you on NAND. Now the build you used had data2sd option and you can format your SD card as the author has said to use app2sd functionality.
One more thing, mostly TMO US users do not need app2sd as they have enough space on their phone. So if you are TMO US user, you can opt your self out from that headache.
Hope this helps. Just for the clarification, I am also a newb... I tried my level best to answer your questions...

QR codes are just text, in this case a URL. Instead of making you type the URL on your phone, you can just scan it with a special app, and get taken to the URL. Nothing more.

Thanks guys...the fog is clearing a little now...just a few reiterations..
So if i opt to flash to NAND, is it flashing it to the NAND upon each boot or is it written once and thats it, it seems to take a little while longer to boot these ROMS on NAND than a stock ROM..so for instance, if i was to remove the SD card after shutting down the phone and then start it up again, would it not boot because its looking for the ROM on the SD to put into NAND ?...i understand that running from the SD card it just boots from the SD card.
So basically the last ROM i installed, as i did not pre setup the partitions on SD card, FAT32/1024mb ext4/512mb ext4 and went on to flash the rom it has ONLY flashed the ROM WITHOUT the apps and everything else it was supposed to have pre installed already ?...so i have now setup my SD card and i am going to follow through again from scratch and hopefully have the ROM running with all the said apps.
My SD card being setup FAT32 / 1024 ext4 / 512 ext4 doesnt seem to be a lot of space to store apps on the ext4 partitions, what data goes on what partitions...and do i HAVE to have the ext 4 at the stated sizes ?
Thanks again guys for your input, you have all been really helpful.

loady said:
Thanks guys...the fog is clearing a little now...just a few reiterations..
So if i opt to flash to NAND, is it flashing it to the NAND upon each boot or is it written once and thats it, it seems to take a little while longer to boot these ROMS on NAND than a stock ROM..so for instance, if i was to remove the SD card after shutting down the phone and then start it up again, would it not boot because its looking for the ROM on the SD to put into NAND ?...i understand that running from the SD card it just boots from the SD card.
So basically the last ROM i installed, as i did not pre setup the partitions on SD card, FAT32/1024mb ext4/512mb ext4 and went on to flash the rom it has ONLY flashed the ROM WITHOUT the apps and everything else it was supposed to have pre installed already ?...so i have now setup my SD card and i am going to follow through again from scratch and hopefully have the ROM running with all the said apps.
My SD card being setup FAT32 / 1024 ext4 / 512 ext4 doesnt seem to be a lot of space to store apps on the ext4 partitions, what data goes on what partitions...and do i HAVE to have the ext 4 at the stated sizes ?
Thanks again guys for your input, you have all been really helpful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use NAND then you can start your phone without SD card. The build is on NAND(ROM). Where win6.5 used to be originally. You do not HAVE TO partition your card. You can use whole card at FAT32 and store all your data on there. But if you choose, you can give some storage space as ext2/3/4 partition and store your apps in that partition. The benefit is you can free some space from your phone. When you boot your phone for the first time, it will be in original state. Then you can install apps from the market. These apps will be going to your phone's inbuilt memory by default. But you can use some apps to move apps from your phone storage to ext4 partition. But be aware that after you move your apps to SD card you have to have SD card in all times or those apps will not work when SD card is not there. As far as the size of ext4 partition is in question, 1024 MB is more than enough. As you will have some space on your phone and 1024MB on ext4. I would say if you install more apps than that, then you phone will be laggy like hell. ext4 partition size should not matter according to me.
Also read tutorials at this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=905841

^ Agreed. Don't do Apps2SD if you don't really need it. It's another possible source of problems (I've had my fair share of system crashes with A2SD on my ol' Magic, and the biggest problem was that there was no way of backing stuff up - stuff probably got more reliable nowadays though), it's not ideal for your SD card and speed isn't optimal either.

StephanV said:
^ Agreed. Don't do Apps2SD if you don't really need it. It's another possible source of problems (I've had my fair share of system crashes with A2SD on my ol' Magic, and the biggest problem was that there was no way of backing stuff up - stuff probably got more reliable nowadays though), it's not ideal for your SD card and speed isn't optimal either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People would have you believe otherwise..ext4 is faster but ext2 parsay is more reliable... for the life of me i have followed numerous guides explaining how to format the card, even one i followed from a rom was in perfect enlgish and easy to follow but my phone just locks at the spinning tmobile logo, it wont even boot into magldr...all i can do is reflash a stock rom using RUU...im sure i am doing everything in correct order

Some Questions on SD Card Organization (ANDROID NAND)

Hello,
I'm having some troubles understanding the SD Structure after flashing an Android ROM.
Fist of all, Could someone please explain what's the point on Partition the SD when flashing? I just cant understand... Is the OS Installed there?
i've got a few dir's in the SD (.android_secure , ANDROID , LOST.DIR , tmp)
Why are this dir's in there? Can't I have one dir for all this?
And finally, How can I install all the apps to a single dir in SD? Something like program files in windows.
I just would like to have the SD as clean as possible, but the OS just constently keeps stuff in the root of the SD...
Thank you very much for you help.

Thats normal.. all the phones have this structure.. so its okay!
Instead of touching system's settings, i suggest you create a folder "My Documents" or "My Folder" and keep your files there cause the root is gonna be full of folders and files from android if you're gonna install many applications

[Q] Android on SD and partitions etc NO CARD FOUND

Hello,
I am looking for some advice with regard to a speciifc problem I have with my HD2 which is running Android from SD using haret.exe etc to start the system from within Windows Mobile 6.5. The android files are currently held on a 8GB sandisk card. I have prefered this method of using android basically because I find it useful to remove the SD card and create a backup of the files onto my PC, which gives me peace of mind before installing new tryout software, just incase something goes wrong, I know I have the option to go back to a working system very quickly by reloading the files back to the SD card from the PC backup.
Recently I have been thinking that it might be easier if I could backup the files using the phone directly, so I decided to buy a 16GB card in order to partition it into two virtual 8GB drives and load my existing android os files onto one partition, whilst using the second partition to save a backup of android. I thought I should be able to create a backup of android from within WM6.5 instead of having to remove the card and rely on a PC all the time to do this job.
So, using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, I formatted and partitioned the new 16GB SD card, I used FAT32 for each partition and proceeded to copy my android files to the first partition of the new card. I installed the card into my HD2 and started the phone up which booted into WM6.5
From within WM6.5, I used the file explorer and could see both partitions appearing as separate SD cards, the first containing all my android os files etc, and the second partition was empty of course. Just as a test I thought I would try a copy and paste of a couple of files from the android partition to the empty partition, and this worked just fine. I thought to myself I am onto a winner here : ) Read on....
With that I decided to boot into android by clicking on haret.exe.
The system started to boot as normal and everything appeared to be going very very well. Booting completed and the system was ready to use..... Then I thought I would have a look around and see if it was running ok. OH DEAR.... It was reporting that it couldn't find the SD card, even though it had booted from it ! All my files and folders inaccessible and any programs that had been moved to SD card wouldn't start up or were missing from the list of installed apps. I still cant understand why the system has booted from an SD card that it cannot find once the system has booted......
This whole excercise was basically motivated by the need to be able to backup and restore the system from one partition to the other without the constant need to remove the SD card and do the job from a PC. (Constant removal of the SD card is starting to bother me incase I end up wearing the card slot out)
So basically my question is can this be done using my existing android install? (I wouldn't want to start again and install from scratch because the system is highly customised, and has took me a long time to get where it is now) I want to be able to have two partitions on my SD card, one which boots, runs android and holds all my files associated with android, and a second parition which I can use to create and restore a backup from within WM6.5.
This is not a desperate requirement, but I feel it would be a lot better than needing to rely on having my PC to hand all the time. This idea has come from my longstanding history of creating backups using GHOST and similar applications in Windows XP. I would like to do the same with my phone. Obviously I would still periodically make a backup to the PC for safekeeping but it would be more convenient to do it with the phone itself.
Any advice on where I am going wrong would be very useful. Also if you can suggest any other ways of making a strong reliable backup that makes an image of 'EVERYTHING' as is from within android directly, please let me know. I have had a look at Titanium backup, but not sure if it would make a mirror image of 'EVERYTHING' the way I would like to do it (like Ghost does in windows). The way I am doing it at present works fine, except for having to constantly remove the card and rely on having a PC about.
Oh by the way the android version on my SD card is Froyo 2.2 incase this matters (I have never bothered upgrading because it works and does what I need it to do)
Many Thanks
Tony

Brookbond said:
Hello,
I am looking for some advice with regard to a speciifc problem I have with my HD2 which is running Android from SD using haret.exe etc to start the system from within Windows Mobile 6.5. The android files are currently held on a 8GB sandisk card. I have prefered this method of using android basically because I find it useful to remove the SD card and create a backup of the files onto my PC, which gives me peace of mind before installing new tryout software, just incase something goes wrong, I know I have the option to go back to a working system very quickly by reloading the files back to the SD card from the PC backup.
Recently I have been thinking that it might be easier if I could backup the files using the phone directly, so I decided to buy a 16GB card in order to partition it into two virtual 8GB drives and load my existing android os files onto one partition, whilst using the second partition to save a backup of android. I thought I should be able to create a backup of android from within WM6.5 instead of having to remove the card and rely on a PC all the time to do this job.
So, using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, I formatted and partitioned the new 16GB SD card, I used FAT32 for each partition and proceeded to copy my android files to the first partition of the new card. I installed the card into my HD2 and started the phone up which booted into WM6.5
From within WM6.5, I used the file explorer and could see both partitions appearing as separate SD cards, the first containing all my android os files etc, and the second partition was empty of course. Just as a test I thought I would try a copy and paste of a couple of files from the android partition to the empty partition, and this worked just fine. I thought to myself I am onto a winner here : ) Read on....
With that I decided to boot into android by clicking on haret.exe.
The system started to boot as normal and everything appeared to be going very very well. Booting completed and the system was ready to use..... Then I thought I would have a look around and see if it was running ok. OH DEAR.... It was reporting that it couldn't find the SD card, even though it had booted from it ! All my files and folders inaccessible and any programs that had been moved to SD card wouldn't start up or were missing from the list of installed apps. I still cant understand why the system has booted from an SD card that it cannot find once the system has booted......
This whole excercise was basically motivated by the need to be able to backup and restore the system from one partition to the other without the constant need to remove the SD card and do the job from a PC. (Constant removal of the SD card is starting to bother me incase I end up wearing the card slot out)
So basically my question is can this be done using my existing android install? (I wouldn't want to start again and install from scratch because the system is highly customised, and has took me a long time to get where it is now) I want to be able to have two partitions on my SD card, one which boots, runs android and holds all my files associated with android, and a second parition which I can use to create and restore a backup from within WM6.5.
This is not a desperate requirement, but I feel it would be a lot better than needing to rely on having my PC to hand all the time. This idea has come from my longstanding history of creating backups using GHOST and similar applications in Windows XP. I would like to do the same with my phone. Obviously I would still periodically make a backup to the PC for safekeeping but it would be more convenient to do it with the phone itself.
Any advice on where I am going wrong would be very useful. Also if you can suggest any other ways of making a strong reliable backup that makes an image of 'EVERYTHING' as is from within android directly, please let me know. I have had a look at Titanium backup, but not sure if it would make a mirror image of 'EVERYTHING' the way I would like to do it (like Ghost does in windows). The way I am doing it at present works fine, except for having to constantly remove the card and rely on having a PC about.
Oh by the way the android version on my SD card is Froyo 2.2 incase this matters (I have never bothered upgrading because it works and does what I need it to do)
Many Thanks
Tony
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android looks at storage (and cards and file systems) differently. Assuming you created the partitions okay, you would have to use the Linux mount command (sorry, more reading).
A simpler way to accomplish your goal would be to have everything in one partition on the card. Create a folder and call it "Backup_Folder" or some other name meaningful to you. You will be able to copy/paste in Windows or Android.
Having said that you might want to read more about NAND installations when you have time. It would likely run better and give you more choices. Although a learning curve, once mastered it is as simple and safe as what you are now doing.
---
Junk: something you have kept for years, and thrown away two weeks before you need it...

How recover files from a wp7 sdcard?

hi guys i have this problem: for a mistake i deleted the wp nand rom on hd2, and now i have the sdcard with many video files that i wanna save!
there is a way for save this files? i can flash a wp7 rom with a new sd card and then insert the old sdcard? or there are other ways?

hehehe... you dont accept fact and after few posts open new topic...
forget it... no way to extract files from WP partition... in two years nobody make this
if you want, save SDcard or make partition backup if someone (not likely but maybe, who know) make solution for this....
next time be smart and use Zune...

you could try to re-flash WP7 with a different card but must be exactly the same as your previous SD & "Maybe" WP7 will still recognize the Old card that you used before, give it shot & let us know

you may delete or formatted your SD card by accident or mistakenly operation, then you may feel panic and wonder if there is any way to recover those deleted, formatted and lost files, you can try this:

no, try what?