Database Users

Clone SD card (with a2sd on)?

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?

Sigh... Formatted My SD Card With Backups

I was having problems with Taboonay 2.2, so I decided to wipe everything and try LightSpeed. First, I backed up all my apps with Titanium and moved the backups onto my external sd. Then, I did a full backup in CWM, just to be safe. Then I did a system wipe and formatted /system, /data and... /sdcard.
Yes, I got a little trigger happy there. Momentarily forgot that /sdcard is not the same in CWM as on the Acer roms (i.e. it's the external memory in CWM vs the internal in the rom).
After cursing myself loudly, I realized that a format that takes 2 seconds to do must not be a full format. I.e. The FAT table is gone along with file and directory information, but the files themselves should still be there.
As I'm a linux user, I installed TestDisk and was able to fully recover all my files. Moral of the story: Don't be dumb and format your backups, but if you do, don't panic. Just don't write anything else to the disk/card and you'll be able to recover your data.

fasteddy86 said:
I was having problems with Taboonay 2.2, so I decided to wipe everything and try LightSpeed. First, I backed up all my apps with Titanium and moved the backups onto my external sd. Then, I did a full backup in CWM, just to be safe. Then I did a system wipe and formatted /system, /data and... /sdcard.
Yes, I got a little trigger happy there. Momentarily forgot that /sdcard is not the same in CWM as on the Acer roms (i.e. it's the external memory in CWM vs the internal in the rom).
After cursing myself loudly, I realized that a format that takes 2 seconds to do must not be a full format. I.e. The FAT table is gone along with file and directory information, but the files themselves should still be there.
As I'm a linux user, I installed TestDisk and was able to fully recover all my files. Moral of the story: Don't be dumb and format your backups, but if you do, don't panic. Just don't write anything else to the disk/card and you'll be able to recover your data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once I was installing rom on my phone (in the early days) so I put the zip file on the sd card, wiped everything, and to make sure I was getting a completely clean install, formatted the sd card. Of course, this meant that I had also removed all of my CWM backups and the ROM I was going to flash! Duh...

This is why you transfer your CWM & Ti backups to your PC for safe keeping, you will never have this problem again.

fasteddy86 said:
I was having problems with Taboonay 2.2, so I decided to wipe everything and try LightSpeed. First, I backed up all my apps with Titanium and moved the backups onto my external sd. Then, I did a full backup in CWM, just to be safe. Then I did a system wipe and formatted /system, /data and... /sdcard.
Yes, I got a little trigger happy there. Momentarily forgot that /sdcard is not the same in CWM as on the Acer roms (i.e. it's the external memory in CWM vs the internal in the rom).
After cursing myself loudly, I realized that a format that takes 2 seconds to do must not be a full format. I.e. The FAT table is gone along with file and directory information, but the files themselves should still be there.
As I'm a linux user, I installed TestDisk and was able to fully recover all my files. Moral of the story: Don't be dumb and format your backups, but if you do, don't panic. Just don't write anything else to the disk/card and you'll be able to recover your data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
STOP! You haven't overwritten your sdcard yet, have you? Put it in a usb card reader, connect it to your PC and download Recuva. It will scan and restore deleted files (even after a format). It works very will with sdcards.

Euclid's Brother said:
STOP! You haven't overwritten your sdcard yet, have you? Put it in a usb card reader, connect it to your PC and download Recuva. It will scan and restore deleted files (even after a format). It works very will with sdcards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is what he did, just read the post.

Lol.. guess i got a little trigger happy too and didn't read the whole thing. Glad he was able to recover

Recuva can't even see my sd card now. It is just grayed out now. Guess it is time for a new one now. Glad you got your fixed.

Clockwork Backup 4.0.0.4 and Ext SD

Hi,
I've got Xoom 3.2 and I wanted to perform a backup. Clockwork 4.0.0.4 is what it says is the latest. I also have an Ext SD.
I did a backup as I usually do it from recovery, but it took too long... I reboot and I saw that I was running out of space, already 2.5GB.
My questions are:
- Is it trying to backup the entire Internal SD card?? That is about 30GB of data! I have a Nexus one and I am used to it just backing up that system to external SD? How can I do the backup on xoom without it backing up my Media and music and the big game data?
- Is there a way to make it back up to the External SD card instead of internal?
Will performing a WIPE wipe only system, or will it also wipe the Internal SD?
Thanks,

ssss25 said:
Hi,
I've got Xoom 3.2 and I wanted to perform a backup. Clockwork 4.0.0.4 is what it says is the latest. I also have an Ext SD.
I did a backup as I usually do it from recovery, but it took too long... I reboot and I saw that I was running out of space, already 2.5GB.
My questions are:
- Is it trying to backup the entire Internal SD card?? That is about 30GB of data! I have a Nexus one and I am used to it just backing up that system to external SD? How can I do the backup on xoom without it backing up my Media and music and the big game data?
- Is there a way to make it back up to the External SD card instead of internal?
Will performing a WIPE wipe only system, or will it also wipe the Internal SD?
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that version only sees the internal "sdcard" and will try to make a nandroid of it. You really need to install/reinstall the solarnz R4c Version 3.2.0.0 which was made specifically for the Xoom or at least the Rogue recovery which is based on v 4 but is also customised for the Xoom. As it is, you will not be able to flash from your internal sdcard either.
See, newer isn't always better.

Thanks a lot for the info. I tried to get 3.2.0.0 but when I went to Rom Manager, and looked under the other versions, there was no 3.2.0.0. I guess I have to download from some website and install?
So, say I go and I install 3.2.0.0.
It will see the External, I don't see any setting to specify where backups should go, will 3.2.0.0 aautomatically backup to external sd?
How about what gets backed up from Internal? Id on't want it all backed up!
Thanks,

So, I used 3.2.0.0 and backup went a lot better. Thanks it backed up to my external. The size is 2.5gb out of an internal sd of about 20gb.
I just need to know what it backed up from my internal sd and what it didn't?
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

One more thing rom manager now only sees the backups on the internal.. so I have to restore from recovery since backs are stored on external.
Just a bit screwed up this whole thing
Both recovery and from manager should have options to let user specify where to back and restore.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

I actually stopped using ROM Manager for that reason.
CWM recovery backs up your system image. To further back up apps and their associated data, use Titanium Backup.
And doing a restore from the recovery menu is correct. You can use ROM Manager to get into recovery as long as you don't get tricked into "updating" to another version of cwm recovery.

You could also fool clockwork to thinking it its latest version flashed. This way you can still use rom manager if you choose and still have the latest modded custom recovery.
1. Open Superuser and "Forget" ROM Manager.
2. Open ROM Manager, and Flash ClockworkMod Recovery.
3. After it downloads, it'll ask for superuser. Uncheck "Remember," and Deny superuser access.
4. Go to /sdcard/clockworkmod/download/download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/, and rename the file that just downloaded to [whateverItIs].img.real. (The next step will be easier if you copy the filename first.)
5. Copy the x. x. x. x to this location & rename it to whatever the new ROM Manager download was called.
6. Open ROM Manager, and Flash ClockworkMod Recovery again.
7. This time, Allow superuser.

[REF] CWM - Clockworkmode menu options & Partitions– GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Hi mates,
When we are flashing a Custom Rom from the CWM, we are normally instructed by the Devs only to do few steps on CWM like “Wipe Data/Factory Data Reset, Wipe Cache etc.. which we simply follow, but most of the people don’t know, including me, what these options and many other options of CWM are really standing for.
When I googled, I could not find a thread which explains about these options in a single thread, so I would like to share with my friends about what I found the Common Options of the CWM here...
Obviously these are commonly applicable for all the devices which are having CWM, but I am always concern about my favorite Galaxy S II.
People who are completely new to Recovery and these options, I suggest them to read this thread first and give a thanks to it's author.
What Is Recovery & Download Mode?
The oder and segregation of the below items in the CWM menu may vary or some of them may be removed in different custom recoveries designed by respective Developer.
CLOCKWORKMODE BASED RECOVERY MENU
1) Reboot Menu :
reboot system now
This one is self-explanatory.
2) Install Menu :
choose zip from (internal/ external) sdcard /
Lets you install any zip file (with any name) from any location on your SD card. The file can be for a ROM, a kernel, an application, a theme or any mod as long as it is in recovery-flashable zip format.
apply /sdcard/update.zip
This one is essentially the same as the ‘apply update from sdcard’ option of the main menu. widely used option for installing a ROM that you have downloaded and copied to your SD card. Entering this option will bring up a screen that will allow you to browse your SD card for the zip file.
apply update from sdcard
This can be used for installation of any official or unofficial update, ROM, kernel, theme etc. that is in a zip format installable from recovery, as long as the file is named update.zip and it has been placed on the root of your SD card (i.e. not in any sub-folder). Selecting this option will bring up a rather annoying confirmation prompt but this has saved us on multiple occasions from a lot of trouble we would have been into due to accidental key presses.
toggle signature verification
Turns the signature verification on and off. When signature verification is on, you will not be able to install any custom ROMs that haven’t been signed by the developers (most custom ROMs aren’t signed). Switching it off skips the signature verification check and proceeds with the installation.
toggle script asserts
Seldom-used option for a vast majority of users. It simply turns script asserts on or off. If you don’t know about these (I don’t), it’s best not to change this option.
3) Wipe Menu
wipe data/factory reset
This option wipes all user data on the device as well as cache. Doing this will leave your phone in the state it was in when you bought it or when any custom ROM was first installed. It will also wipe any sd-ext partition that you might have setup. (see more about sd-ext below under partition)
wipe cache partition
This is a good practice to do this before flashing any ROM. The /cache partition just stores temporary files that are not critical to device operation and can be re-generated easily, this Wipes the cache partition of the device to clear all the data accumulated there over use. This is often used before installing a new ROM, app, kernel or any similar mod via recovery.
Wipe Dalvik Cache
Allows you to wipe the cache for the Dalvik virtual machine. The dalvik cache wipe is quite similar to cache wipe but it stores the post ran java applications. Since Android is JAVA based, it uses the same java virtual machine for compiling. The dalvik cache just stores post-compiled applications in order to speed up the system. Wiping this just forces the system to re-cache those application. It causes no problems but a slight hint of lag on first boot. This is required before most ROM installations and at other occasions too, for fixing some problems.
Wipe Battery Stats
Wipes the saved battery usage statistics and effectively recalibrates the battery. Useful in various scenarios when Android isn’t showing correct battery levels.
4) Nandroid menu
backup and restore Undoubtedly one of the most important features provided by a custom recovery, the backup and restore feature – also known as Nandroid backup – allows you to take a snapshot of your phone’s entire internal memory including all partitions, and save it on the SD card.
Backup
Takes a Nandroid backup, as explained above.
Restore
Lets you restore a previously taken backup. Entering this option presents you with a list of existing backups from the SD card that you can choose from for restoration.
Advanced Restore (new options are available separately to restore from external or internal SDcard in the latest CWM)
This option is similar to the Restore option but once a backup has been selected to be restored, this option allows you to choose what parts of it to restore. You can choose to restore the boot, system, data, cache and sd-ext partitions.
5) Storage menu
mounts and storage
Allows you to perform maintenance tasks on all the internal and external partitions of your android device
mount/unmount /system, /data, /cache, /sdcard, /emmc.
These options let you toggle between mounting or unmounting these respective partitions. Most users don’t need to change these options.
format system, data, cache, sdcard or sd-ext
These let you directly format any of these partitions. Take extreme care with this option as formatting any of these partitions will result in losing all data on them, especially the boot and system partitions. Formatting the system partition will remove your ROM and leave your phone without an operating system while wiping the boot partition may brick your phone unless you restore or flash another one before rebooting your device. See below more explanation about these partitions.
mount USB storage
Lets you enable USB mass storage mode for your SD card right from recovery so that you can connect it to your computer via USB and transfer any files to/from it without having to leave recovery.
6) Advanced
This section contains a few options most users will not require, Here are the options from this section:
Report Error
In case of errors, this feature can be used to save a log of recent ClockworkMod recovery operations on the SD card that you can later report from Android using ROM Manager.
Key Test
Lets you press any of the hardware keys to see if they are properly functioning, and to see their key codes.
Partition SD Card
This option gives you a no-frills way to partition your SD card properly for use with ROMs that support data2ext (a very handy hack for low internal memory devices that enables an /sd-ext partition on the SD card to be used as the internal user data storage i.e. as the /data partition). Once this option is selected, you will be given options to choose the sizes for the /sd-ext partition as well as an optional /swap partition on the SD card, and will then automatically format it for you, leaving the remaining space for normal SD card usage. This option will wipe all data from your SD card so use it with caution!
Fix Permissions
Fixes the file permissions for the internal memory partitions back to default. This is very useful as a fix for several errors and Force-Closes that start appearing after you or an application you installed and provided root access end up messing up the permissions of important files.
PARTITIONS :
The Android uses several partitions to organize files and folders on the device. Each of these partitions has a distinct role in the functionality of the device, but not many Android users know the significance of each partition and its contents. In this guide, we will take you on a tour of Android partitions, what they contain and what can be the possible consequences of modifying their content.
Let’s start with a list of standard internal memory partitions on Android phones and tablets. These are:
• /boot
• /system
• /recovery
• /data
• /cache
• /misc
In addition, there are the SD card partitions.
• /sdcard
• /sd-ext
Note that only /sdcard is found in all Android devices and the rest are present only in select devices. Let’s now take a look at the purpose and contents of each of these partitions.
/boot
This is the partition that enables the phone to boot, as the name suggests. It includes the bootloader and the kernel. Without this partition, the device will simply not be able to boot. Wiping this partition from recovery should only be done if absolutely required and once done, the device must NOT be rebooted before installing a new one, which can be done by installing a ROM that includes a /boot partition.
/system
This partition basically contains the entire operating system, other than the kernel and the bootloader. This includes the Android user interface as well as all the system applications that come pre-installed on the device. Wiping this partition will remove Android from the device without rendering it unbootable, and you will still be able to put the phone into recovery or bootloader mode to install a new ROM.
/recovery
The recovery partition can be considered as an alternative boot partition that lets you boot the device into a recovery console for performing advanced recovery and maintenance operations on it. We have already learnt about this partition and its contents above.
/data
Also called userdata, the data partition contains the user’s data – this is where your contacts, messages, settings and apps that you have installed go. Wiping this partition essentially performs a factory reset on your device, restoring it to the way it was when you first booted it, or the way it was after the last official or custom ROM installation. When you perform a wipe data/factory reset from recovery, it is this partition that you are wiping.
/cache
This is the partition where Android stores frequently accessed data and app components. Wiping the cache doesn’t effect your personal data but simply gets rid of the existing data there, which gets automatically rebuilt as you continue using the device.
/misc
This partition contains miscellaneous system settings in form of on/off switches. These settings may include CID (Carrier or Region ID), USB configuration and certain hardware settings etc. This is an important partition and if it is corrupt or missing, several of the device’s features will will not function normally.
/sdcard
This is not a partition on the internal memory of the device but rather the SD card. In terms of usage, this is your storage space to use as you see fit, to store your media, documents, ROMs etc. on it. Wiping it is perfectly safe as long as you backup all the data you require from it, to your computer first. Though several user-installed apps save their data and settings on the SD card and wiping this partition will make you lose all that data.
On devices with both an internal and an external SD card – devices like the Samsung Galaxy SII – the /sdcard partition is always used to refer to the internal SD card. For the external SD card – if present – an alternative partition is used, which differs from device to device. In case of Samsung Galaxy S series devices, it is /sdcard/External_sd while in many other devices, it is /sdcard2. Unlike /sdcard, no system or app data whatsoever is stored automatically on this external SD card and everything present on it has been added there by the user. You can safely wipe it after backing up any data from it that you need to save.
/sd-ext
This is not a standard Android partition, but has become popular in the custom ROM scene. It is basically an additional partition on your SD card that acts as the /data partition when used with certain ROMs that have special features called APP2SD+ or data2ext enabled. It is especially useful on devices with little internal memory allotted to the /data partition. Thus, users who want to install more programs than the internal memory allows can make this partition and use it with a custom ROM that supports this feature, to get additional storage for installing their apps. Wiping this partition is essentially the same as wiping the /data partition – you lose your contacts, SMS, market apps and settings.
Now whenever we install a ROM or mod that requires we to wipe certain partitions before the installation, we should be in a better position to know what we are losing and what not and thus, we’ll know what to backup and what not.
Best Regards

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1134290

Yep. Been done before a long time ago. Tho I do admire your initiative in putting the info together

Stifler69 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1134290
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No Doubt this one should be on the top of this thread,
What a simple and awesome explanation about the Recovery & Download mode, many thanks to pulser_g2
I know, majority of users only need the simple steps and shortcuts, they don’t care what’s happening internally and theoretically, but some are really curious to know…
Many thanks mate....

zaheedahmed said:
No Doubt this one should be on the top of this thread,
What a simple and awesome explanation about the Recovery & Download mode, many thanks to pulser_g2
I know, majority of users only need the simple steps and shortcuts, they don’t care what’s happening internally and theoretically, but some are really curious to know…
Many thanks mate....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah mate you do what you have to do. It is a good thread and provides good information. Nice work. Just wanted to show you Pulsers thread as well though because he has done something similar to yours long time ago..But anyway good work and if you need any help let me know

Thanks, will save later text in PDF and keep it on PC just to have one more tutorial about things

Awesome write up!! Brilliant!
As you are so knowledgeable about CWM, perhaps I can ask you a question?
When I do a backup, it says that no external SD card was found, so it skipped the external?
When I check under mounts, the only option for the external SD card is to UNmount.... This would suggest that the card is mounted, correct?
So how would I go about backing up the external card too?
Thanks!
Sent from my SGH-I727R using xda premium

Question, if i do nandroid backhp through CWM, i suppose it saves files that i dl such as apps/games, or i need to download later again 600mb+?
Sent by powaaaaah of GT-I9100 Taparatatatalk!

shaggyskunk said:
Awesome write up!! Brilliant!
As you are so knowledgeable about CWM, perhaps I can ask you a question?
When I do a backup, it says that no external SD card was found, so it skipped the external?
When I check under mounts, the only option for the external SD card is to UNmount.... This would suggest that the card is mounted, correct?
So how would I go about backing up the external card too?
Thanks!
Sent from my SGH-I727R using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your appreciation,
I would like to express once again as I mentioned in the starting of the thread that this is only a humble effort of the undersigne that I searched for such information and combined at one place here....
As far as I know about your problem of SD card storage, this is a compatibility issiue which varries on one custom recovery to another, also one SD card to another. such issues are fixed by developers in their latest versions of recoveries.
I experienced once the same issue which was resolved when I changed my SD card.
And my current (touch) recovery of Redpill v1.3 allows me to Backup and restore from external SD card with all available options flowlessly.
Thanks

X-Plosiv said:
Question, if i do nandroid backhp through CWM, i suppose it saves files that i dl such as apps/games, or i need to download later again 600mb+?
Sent by powaaaaah of GT-I9100 Taparatatatalk!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Between CWM & Titanium, you should not have to download anything.
Sent From my Two Tin Cans & String Device on The Wookie Network

X-Plosiv said:
Question, if i do nandroid backhp through CWM, i suppose it saves files that i dl such as apps/games, or i need to download later again 600mb+?
Sent by powaaaaah of GT-I9100 Taparatatatalk!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it backs up all your installed apps and system data along with the ROM, but it do not back up the additional data which is downloaded and stored in User's partition of your SD card by the applications, such data will remain on your SD card untill you format it, available to support your apps when you return to the previous ROM.

awsome eplanation
as above posts say awsome explinationculdnt b clearer now then all

zaheedahmed said:
Of course it backs up all your installed apps and system data along with the ROM, but it do not back up the additional data which is downloaded and stored in User's partition of your SD card by the applications, such data will remain on your SD card untill you format it, available to support your apps when you return to the previous ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but when I do format/wipe all, I guess then it deletes all that is on SD card as well, such as game files and music? If so, I'd rather just copy paste it on my PC, then after doing all wipes and formats, just copy back from PC

Zaheed, you are far too humble! Your post was brilliant, informative & timely.
Sent From my Two Tin Cans & String Device on The Wookie Network

X-Plosiv said:
Yes, but when I do format/wipe all, I guess then it deletes all that is on SD card as well, such as game files and music? If so, I'd rather just copy paste it on my PC, then after doing all wipes and formats, just copy back from PC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you do normal wipes (data/ factory reset, cache, dalvik) before installing/restoring ROM, it won't touch any data which is saved in your SD Card normally, but it is more safer if you back such application data to you PC which normally find in a folder "Android/ Data /xxx" in the root of SDcard

Thanks for info.
I have read a lot on this but am still nor clear whether a wipe data/factory reset includes a full cache wipe. Most rom install instructions tell you to do both, but it seems a wipe cache is redundant if you factory reset.

SimboXXX said:
Thanks for info.
I have read a lot on this but am still nor clear whether a wipe data/factory reset includes a full cache wipe. Most rom install instructions tell you to do both, but it seems a wipe cache is redundant if you factory reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you are right, I also understand the same, but the option for merely wiping cache is kept for using in some odd situations, like when we fingered to the ROM and got some error, then we got a no-wipe version of the existing ROM to reflash, such case we need only to wipe cache…. I have got an error recently on CWM when I reflashed my no-wipe Checkrom v6 without wiping anything, then I wiped only cache, problem solved…..
what ever may be the theory, do as the developers directed for their ROM…..NO RISK

shaggyskunk said:
Zaheed, you are far too humble! Your post was brilliant, informative & timely.
Sent From my Two Tin Cans & String Device on The Wookie Network
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks mate...

Thanks for the thread, you can never know too much. On second thoughts, there's probably no danger of that.
What would be really good if you have the knowledge, is a detailed guide on CWM Edify scripting. I'm sure many people would find that useful, especially me. There doesn't seem to be a lot of good guides or information on the language, at least I can't find them yet. If you have any good links I'd definitely appreciate it as well.

Here's another bit of information, that answered a question I had....
In case anyone else has this question...
Here is the answer from:
http://android.stackexchange.com/qu...ter-no-sd-ext-found-skipping-backup-of-sd-ext
" This means you do not have an ext3/4 partition on your sdcard. This really ins't a big deal, this is like a legacy part of the nandroid backup process. CM doesn't "officially" support the sd-ext partition any more anyhow."
Hope it helps someone else... In the end, the answer is pretty straight forward.
Sent From my Two Tin Cans & String Device on The Wookie Network
Sent from Down The Rabbit Hole, using Tapatalk 2

Important and Read RE: MTP in recovery aka data/media

This is completely pulled off of my other thread in the HOX+ section
our device is a data/media device which is why usb mount don't work
here's a link that explains it all
http://teamw.in/DataMedia
and part of the convo with dees_troy is below
<Dees_Troy> Nope, it will *never* work on a data/media device
<Dees_Troy> read and learn: http://teamw.in/DataMedia
<WinBot> [Link] http://tinyw.in/lstO :: What is a data media device? | TeamWin
<Dees_Troy> definitely worth understanding
<Dees_Troy> at some point we're going to try to kang in MTP for recovery
<Lloir> so for now then it's sideload or from inside the rom
<Dees_Troy> or adb push
<Lloir> aye
<Dees_Troy> or gtfo
<*****> so cant mount usb storage with newer devices...hmm one x did guess this is where confusion at least on my part came to be
<Lloir> lmao Dees_Troy
<Dees_Troy> one x wasn't a data media device
YOU MUST either transfer the rom\boot\porn\audio\mods while the phone is on or use adb push or even sideload when in recovery, THIS IS THE ONLY way
IF you want to read without clicking the link i'll whack it up in #2

What is a data media device?
I'm writing this page because there seems to be a lot of confusion about how many of the newer Android devices work. Starting in Honeycomb 3.0 with the Xoom, Google changed the way that they handled storage. Instead of having a "data" partition with your apps and a separate "sdcard" partition for storage, Google started giving you a single, very large data partition. Inside /data is a folder at /data/media that contains all of the contents of what you think of as your internal sdcard.
Since /data/media is part of /data, we pretty much never actually format the data partition. Formatting data, of course, also removes the media folder that contains the internal sdcard. When you choose a factory reset, instead of formatting, we use rm -rf commands to remove all the folders except for the media folder so that we can remove all of your apps and settings while leaving your "sdcard" intact. In TWRP we also have a wipe internal storage option that rm -rf's the media folder and a "Format Data" option that formats to recreate the entire file system in case something goes completely wrong or to remove device encryption.
When you're booted to Android, Android fuses the media folder to /sdcard and emulates a FAT files system that doesn't have permissions for legacy apps. We don't currently have fuse in recovery, so we just add an extra mount command to mount /data/media to /sdcard so in recovery you still have to worry about permissions on /sdcard.
Because the "internal sdcard" is not a true FAT file system, you can't mount it via USB storage. Well, that's not technically true, but the vast majority of people use Windows computers and Windows doesn't recognize ext4. If we were to allow you to mount the data partition via USB storage, Windows would claim that the device wasn't formatted and offer to format it for you, which, as you can imagine, would be a disaster. The whole ext4 setup is another reason that Android switched to using MTP for transferring files. Most of these devices don't have the necessary kernel configuration to even support USB storage mode, so it's not very easy to enable USB storage if we even wanted to try. Unfortunately at this time, MTP isn't available in recovery, so if you have no other option, you will have to use adb to push and pull files to/from your device.
As a special note, if you choose to do a factory reset from your ROM, even if the ROM says that it will wipe everything including the internal storage, well, that's not what TWRP will do. A stock AOSP recovery would format data including the "sdcard" but TWRP will use its regular factory reset setup that leaves the internal storage intact.
There are a couple of nice gains with using this setup vs the old data + FAT storage partition. With /data/media you, as the user get more control over how you use your storage. If you have a ton of apps, then that's no problem since you have a huge data partition to work with. If you don't have a lot of apps, you get more room to use for storing things like movies. Further, ext4 doesn't suffer from the 4GB file size limit that FAT has, so you can have a large, high-def movie on your device if you like. I'm sure another motivating factor was to get Android away from using FAT which is a Microsoft creation. Performance on ext4 in Android is also probably better than FAT. As a downside, data media devices tend to store a lot more app data in the "data" section and so backups on these devices tend to be larger.

Thank you for this post. I had been a bit curious about this. I have Evo LTE. But I also Boughy a family member a GNex that I have to maintain. I know that my Evo, I can plug into windows, and when I select USB transfer (not in recovery), it mounts my internal storage (not ext_SD) , and it shows as removable drive in windows. But,....when I plug in GNex, it shows up as GNex , not removable drive H. I always wondered a bit about what this all means.
Thanks for the info. :thumbup:
Sent from my EVO using xda premium

Thanks for the useful post.
If I make a nandroid backup for the whole device, will it exclude the /data/media folder? Because on my old phone the nandroid backup doesn't include /sdcard.

romitkin said:
Thanks for the useful post.
If I make a nandroid backup for the whole device, will it exclude the /data/media folder? Because on my old phone the nandroid backup doesn't include /sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does, we are past the point where that causes issues.
Everyone just needs to get used to the data/media thing. And learn how to use adb side load
I predict a whole bunch of "bricks" due to people not informing themselves on how the phone works and how to use adb
Sent from my One X using Tapatalk 2

A little bit from my side as well I hope someone will find this helpful. Virtual SD card on Android

Can't you use USB Host if you got recovery installed as well? I think I've read that somewhere...

mike1986. said:
A little bit from my side as well I hope someone will find this helpful. Virtual SD card on Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Link broken, here is the correct URL:
http://android-revolution-hd.blogspot.com/2013/03/virtual-sd-card-on-android.html
Oh and bump for anyone new to the idea of a "data/media" device. You're not in Kansas anymore.

NxNW said:
Link broken, here is the correct URL:
http://android-revolution-hd.blogspot.com/2013/03/virtual-sd-card-on-android.html
Oh and bump for anyone new to the idea of a "data/media" device. You're not in Kansas anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lloir, thanks for sharing and good explanation. MTP makes sense and on my One, this way file transfers are simple and fast. However there are two things I dislike about MTP right now:
When you copy files to the device, on some file types it throws a warning that the device might not be able to read the file. This interrupts the file transfer and I have to confirm I want to copy the file to the device. On an older MP3 player I have, I could deactivate this by editing a device capabilities XML file. On the One, I did not find such a file. Perhaps an option in the MTP deamon?
When I am transferring files, I can't browse through other folders at the same time. It says the device is busy.
Is there a way to solve those two issues or "is it what it is"?

Lloir said:
Windows would claim that the device wasn't formatted and offer to format it for you, which, as you can imagine, would be a disaster
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that on a device. Windows offered to format and I did it. Man that was not good! 2 hours later after manually restoring the partition values I was OK and the most amazing thing all my data was there perfect and untouched :silly: :highfive:
Thanks for that great explanation. Been having some issues with windows and android. Nothing big just had to sideload my ROM and killed my "sdcard" at least now I know why