move files to sd card via symbolic links - Xiaomi Redmi 2 Questions & Answers

Hello,
for quite some time now I have been trying to move data from my internal memory to the sd card, as my internal memory is always filled to the brim.
As apps like Link2SD have either not worked or randomly stopped working, I want to take the same approach as I would on a Linux machine; Just making symbolic links.
The problem I am having is that I seemingly cannot make a symbolic link to my FAT32 formatted sd card. When formating the sd card to something else, like EXT4, the system doesn't mount it automatically anymore.
There is of course also the option to change the mountpoint of the sd card to /data/, but that of course doesn't work on a running system.
Long story short: How would I go about changing the mountpoints? On normal Linux systems you could edit the "fstab" file, but on my android system there is multiple fstab files which all have different rules inside; None of which fit the actual mountoptions that are seen in "mount".
I would like to keep to the official rom, as I have gotten quite used to it over the years and don't want to wipe my data to install something else.
Of course I have full access to all partitions. (at least as far as I know). I know my way around systems like debian and ubuntu, but have fairly little idea about android.

Well it is not possible to do that i think, FAT32 with ext4? No not possible, also a SD card can't be formatted to ext4 easily (Only works on some models of SD cards), but you can do a few things here:
1. Get a EMMC upgrade from local repair shops with all the data backed up from the old EMMC
2. Try other apps to link SD cards
3. Get a better/compatible SD card
4. You can actually use the built-in tool to do that, take a look: https://mobiletrans.wondershare.com/xiaomi/move-apps-to-sd-card-xiaomi.html
Hope this helps! If it doesn't, get back to us with some more details.
Happy Hacking!

Related

Transfering ext3 + apps to new SD card

Quick question, I have an 2GB (Non-class 6 SD card) and it was working okay with my G1 phone. I partitioned it with no problem, have apps, themes, roms, basically the whole nine yards on it. I recently just purchased a new 8 gb 6 class SD card and was wondering if Paragon Manager or any other program can transfer the data over flawlessly? I know I have to create a new ext3 part (probably using paragon manager) and then transfer all the data over...but was wondering if anybody else did this before without running into any issues and what was the overall process you took? I appreciate any help. Thank you.
no issues here, done it a couple times. didnt use paragon though. used ext support on my mac to copy all files from both partitions, then format the card using GParted on my Slax USB. then put my files back, inserted into g1 and booted the phone. cyanogens MOD works great with it.
malaeus said:
no issues here, done it a couple times. didnt use paragon though. used ext support on my mac to copy all files from both partitions, then format the card using GParted on my Slax USB. then put my files back, inserted into g1 and booted the phone. cyanogens MOD works great with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick question for you, did your apps still show as installed in the market when you swapped cards? I have been meaning to get my 8GB cards (I have a few with tv episodes on them) set up so I can swap between them and my 16GB at any time, but this question is one that is keeping me from trying yet (that and a lack of time).
Thanks.
insert original card and do not mount it (or unmount it if auto),
dd if=/dev/sdcardfile of=/home/yourusername/tmpsdbackup
swap cards and do not mount it (or unmount it if automatic),
dd if=/home/yourusername/tmpsdbackup of=/dev/sdcardfile
Then run gparted, move your ext partition to the end of the disk and expand your crap32 partition to max.
wait so do i just partion my 8 gig c6 and than copy all files off my other sd card and i should be able to boot up, of course redownload everything or should i not try that
and when i say copy my files ove3r just the ones on my sdcard not all my apps
Goog1e Phone said:
Quick question, I have an 2GB (Non-class 6 SD card) and it was working okay with my G1 phone. I partitioned it with no problem, have apps, themes, roms, basically the whole nine yards on it. I recently just purchased a new 8 gb 6 class SD card and was wondering if Paragon Manager or any other program can transfer the data over flawlessly? I know I have to create a new ext3 part (probably using paragon manager) and then transfer all the data over...but was wondering if anybody else did this before without running into any issues and what was the overall process you took? I appreciate any help. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Partition Manager to partition my 8g Sd card into a Ext3 partition. What I did was just wipe, reflash my ROM (Cyanogen's 3.4) and reinstalled all the apps from the Market. It seems like it would take forever, but it really didn't.
The reason why I reflashed was because when I changed SD cards originally, it stopped reading all the original files from the original SD. All-in-all, it was very easy to just: Wipe, Reflash the ROM, then reinstall apps from Market, which should still be listed under Downloads.
how do you format an ext3 partion

Want to use the 2GB internal memory for apps - how?

Hey there,
the U8800 has a 2GB partition which isn't used at all when an external SD-card is installed.
The internal 2GB partition is mounted to /HWUserData and is accessible. Now I want to use it for my apps. With the typical App2SD-apps that are available in the market I cannot move the apps to this partition. They are always moved to the external card.
Moving the apps manually is not very helpful as Android treats them as install-packages when I open them within the file manager.
tl;dr: The 2GB-partition does only show up within the file manager, how can i use it for apps etc.?
XphX
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1112857
Thank your for your answer; I do not want to use that program; I fear voiding the warranty. I have no problem with installing custom-ROMs, but I won't change the partitions of the internal memory.
I'll take out the external SD-card for a moment, maybe I can install the apps to the 2GB-part then...
Seriously, why does Huawei include 2GB of memory if it is not usable?
Use the default apps2sd option.
I've been thinking about this myself and thought about changing the mount points so the internal 2GB SD is formatted as ext then linked to /sd-ext and used as an a2sd partition. The advantage is that, unlike normal a2sd, you will still be able to remove the microSD card.
The problem would be that recovery images wouldn't like this as they always expect a2sd to be the second partition on the microSD. It would also stop the backups from working..
It's something I'll need to think about a lot.
flibblesan said:
The advantage is that, unlike normal a2sd, you will still be able to remove the microSD card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly what I want to do. a2sd simply does not recognize the partition as it expects it to be a second partition within the external sd. Could changing the mount point resolve this issue? Where would I even mount it to? The external card will still be the one recognized (or not?)..

sd partion

Clear your doubts guys!!!
Ok, so here's the deal, in a very longwinded way that should hopefully explain everything and answer ALL questions.
You have an SD card in your phone and, a bit like normal PC Hard Drives, you can "partition" them (split them into two or more sections of different filesystems). Normally, your SD card is just one big FAT32 partition, which is fine for storing your pics, messages, emails, etc.
Now, other then your Phone's SD card, your phone will have its own internal flash memory (or "NAND") storage. Tradditionally with Android, you could only install applications to this NAND storage, you cannot install them onto your SD card. So if you have an empty 32GB SD card, but only 5Mb of internal phone storage, you still wont be able to install many apps, if any at all.
This was done to protect the apps from things like piracy - it's not easy to access the location where apps are installed on your phone's internal storage (normally impossible without root), so you can't for example buy an app, copy it, refund it, then install it again.
Still, this is no good for those of us who like to install lots and lots of apps, legitimately, as we run out of internal storage very quickly.
So Google came up with a way to install apps to the SD card. A folder is created called something like .android_secure and this stores (I believe) encrypted versions of applications, but there's a few catches:
1) Apps aren't automatically stored here, you have to manually "move" them
2) Not all apps are capable of being moved, in fact most apps aren't, the developer needs to update their app and allow it. Some apps aren't and wont be updated and some developers may not want to allow it for whatever reason.
3) Not all app data is moved, most of it is but some data is left on your phone so many people still run out of internal storage quickly.
4) You can force ALL apps to be moved to this area by default, but it breaks incompatible ones - such as Widgets, which are unable to load due to the SD card not being "prepared".
So that's Froyo's version. Before Froyo existed, some very clever people came up with a thing called "Apps2SD". Remember I said that your SD card normally is one big FAT32 partition? Well, Apps2SD works by having your SD card patitioned into TWO filesystems. A normal FAT32 partition for your usual stuff and a secondary "EXT" partition. EXT is just a filesystem, like FAT32 or NTFS, but it's the filesystem used by Android internally. The SD card is normally FAT32 because it's a "universal" filesystem, that just about any machine will be able to read, whereas EXT filesystems are generally Linux only, but I digress.
EXT has several different versions. The most common one you'll see is ext3. The main difference between ext2 and ext3 is "journaling", which is just a fancy way of saying that should an operation (such as copying, writing or reading) be interrupted unexpectedly (say, by you turning your phone off), then no data should be lost or corrupted. You know how when you turn your phone on, it says "preparing SD card"? It takes a few minutes, but what it's actually doing is checking that the FAT32 partition hasn't been damaged, because FAT does NOT have journaling. If you used a computer back in the Windows 98 days, you may remember that lovely blue "Scandisk" screen that had to run every time you didn't shut your computer down correctly - that's the same thing. But then Windows 2000/XP came along with NTFS, which also has journaling, meaning you had less chance of loosing data. But I digress once more.
So you have your SD card partitioned into EXT and FAT32. Generally it doesn't matter if it's ext3 or ext4, but you don't get any real advantage with ext4 over ext3 in this instance. Apps2SD then runs a special script on your phone which "symbolically links" the folder from your phone's internal storage where your apps are normally stored, to the ext partition on your SD card. A symbolic link is a bit like a shortcut for folders, except it's transparent to the OS: In other words, Android doesn't know that when it's installing it's apps to the internal phone storage, it's actually being stored on the SD card. This effectively boosts your internal phone memory from the previous 5mb that you had in my example above, up to whatever size you made the ext partition on your SD card (often 512Mb or 1Gb, but it depends on how many apps you install).
Plus, because it's "journaled", it doesn't need to be "prepared", meaning it's ready to go as soon as the phone starts - so your widgets and apps work immediately (unlike "forced" Froyo Apps2SD, where widgets disappear).
The catch with Apps2SD is that whatever space the ext partition takes up is taken away from the SD card. So if you have a 4Gb card (with something like 3.5Gb of actual storage) and you make a 512Mb ext partition, your SD card will "shrink" to 3Gb. The space isn't actually lost, it's just being used by the ext partition. If you reformat your card, you'll get it back.
Finally, there's a difference between "Apps2SD" and "Apps2SD+". Remember I said that your apps are stored on a special folder inside your Phone's NAND storage? Well, that was a bit of a lie. It's actually stored in TWO places. There's a second area which is called the Davlik Cache. You don't really need to worry about what this is for (Hint: IT's to do with the Java runetime your phone uses to run apps), all you need to know is that apps use it to store data, which also eats up internal phone memory. Apps2SD+ moves davlik cache to the ext partition on your SD card as well, freeing up even more space. Some people believe that this may come at the cost of performance, as the internal NAND memory should be faster than your SD card (Which is why you also get people arguing over which "class" SD card is better for Apps2SD - the logic being that a faster SD card means less impact from this move), but the truth of the matter is that your applications will be running from your Phone's RAM anyway, so performance isn't really impacted at all. Since most apps are only a few hundred Kb's in size, or a couple of MB at the most, it's a non-issue.
Finally, any recent version of Apps2SD/Apps2SD+ should work with an SD card that is or isn't formatted with an ext partition. It'll check for this partition when your phone first boots and if it's not there, just use internal phone storage.
Having an ext partition WITHOUT Apps2SD+ shouldn't cause any issues, either, so you can format your SD card whenever you're ready.
So in summary:
Apps2SD "fakes" your phone's internal memory and puts it all on a hidden section of your SD card.
Apps2SD+ pushes even more content to the SD card, freeing up even more space on the phone itself.
"Froyo" Apps2SD has various limitations that "old" apps2SD does not, but is much easier to handle as it doesn't involve any kind of "partitioning".

[Q] Rooted Nook Simple Touch, Help Partitioning micro SD card

Hi! Successfully rooted my Nook ST using Nook Manager, except I used a 32 GB micro SD card to do the rooting. After rooting, I ended up with two partitions on the SD card, Nook (239 MB) and Nook Manager (62.9 MB). I was wondering what I need to do to be able to utilize the rest of the space on the card? The reason I bought a 32 GB card was so I could store all my sideloaded books there, and now I find I'm just limited to the space/partitions showing up when I connect the nook via USB.
You need to repartition your card.
Partition Magic can do that.
If you want to use multiple partitions on the SD card (like 2 x 16 GB) you might want to look at:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2184495
Renate NST said:
You need to repartition your card.
Partition Magic can do that.
If you want to use multiple partitions on the SD card (like 2 x 16 GB) you might want to look at:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2184495
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, will download a copy of Partition Magic later. I really am completely clueless when it comes to programming though. In fact, I'm only here because the folks at mobileread told me I'd probably have better luck having my question/s answered here than there. So just to confirm, I can repartition the drive using partition magic so I'll have one extra partition for the books I want to sideload, and I'm good to go already when I re-insert the SD card into the Nook? Or do I have to attempt the code that you gave in the thread you linked?
If you want to have a single FAT partition on your SD card you can do that without much change.
It comes down to whether you want to be able to pull the SD card and plug it into random desktops and things.
If you want to have multiple partitions or ext3 partitions you will have to use the new vold in the link above.
if used windows 7,8. Insert a memory card into the card reader. Go to cmd(administrator mode) and run command:
Diskpart
List Disk
Select Disk 1 (#select sdcard)
clean (#clean partition sdcard)
create partition primary
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign (#run command if not view sdcard in mycomputer )
Renate, I tried to repartition my SD card, but got a "disk is not formatted, do you want to format it now?" message. So I had no choice but to do a data recovery using EaseUs Partition Master first, then went ahead and clicked format now. Then I tried using Minitool Partition Wizard (couldn't find a free version of Partition Magic) to create new partitions in the formatted SD card so that the NookManager partition would be larger (27 GB) while the NookBackup partition would be 2 GB. Except that I can't seem to create any new partitions at all. And I also have no idea how to restore the data I'd backed up earlier either.
Sorry, I missed seeing this come up when you posted it.
When your Nook asks you if you want to format you should say "No!".
It could be that it misidentified the situation.
In any case, you want to look closer before formatting anything.
Here's a gotcha.
If you are using ext3 and the internal clock has reset itself then the last mount will be in the future.
That makes things angry. Check that the date/time on the Nook is correct.
You can use gparted to give the card the partition layout you need (i.e. first NookManager partition is big, second NookBackup partition is only large enough to hold a backup), then write the first partition from NookManager.img into first partition of the card (you need to do something roughly similar to this. Then you can use gparted to set the "boot" flag on the first partition and use the card to backup&root your Nook. Then remove the "boot" flag, and keep using the card for storage (it's a bit messy to have both user&app files AND NookManager boot files in the same place, but if you only have one card, then this is inevitable - i haven't found a way to mount the second or the third partitions from the card). The card will act as normal storage device when flag is not set, and as NookManager bootable card when flag is set.

SD card for app storage

I'm using a 400GB SD card. I saw a comment about creating 2 different partitions on it as I want to use part of it for app storage and the other part for file storage, The second partition would be exFAT so I can remove the card and transfer my books, music, etc. to it by attaching the SD card to my laptop as I understand that Windows would not be able to recognize the partition that would be formatted as internal storage. I did format the SD card using my laptop as two separate partitions. My Samsung Galaxy Tab A saw both partitions. I selected the 96GB partition as I wanted to use that for app storage and selected the option to use it as internal storage. Unfortunately when I did that, it appears that the system set the whole CD card up for internal storage. Does anyone have any insight on how to accomplish this - use part of the SD card for internal storage and part of it for storage that would be recognizable by Windows? Thank you very much.
I have not tried, so take the advice as a suggestion, perhaps android can be "fooled", which I doubt.
After creating a bulk partition in android, move the SD to Windows and resize that partition, and create a second partition on the remaining capacity and hide it.
Now move the SD back to android and see what happens.
If android will reformat the partitions again then I can't advise anything else.
However, if android accepts the memory, then the next step is to discover the partition in Windows and recheck the SD in android.
ze7zez said:
I have not tried, so take the advice as a suggestion, perhaps android can be "fooled", which I doubt.
After creating a bulk partition in android, move the SD to Windows and resize that partition, and create a second partition on the remaining capacity and hide it.
Now move the SD back to android and see what happens.
If android will reformat the partitions again then I can't advise anything else.
However, if android accepts the memory, then the next step is to discover the partition in Windows and recheck the SD in android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I was trying to work on that and now the Android Storage module (in Settings) keeps crashing when I open it. IDK what happened here. I've reformatted the SD card, I've removed the SD card, I've rebooted the table multiple times. I'm almost to the point of having to restore the tablet from scratch ... again.
Try this:
Link2SD - Apps on Google Play
Complete app management, move to SD, clear cache, remove bloatware and more
play.google.com
JR1979 said:
I'm using a 400GB SD card. I saw a comment about creating 2 different partitions on it as I want to use part of it for app storage and the other part for file storage, The second partition would be exFAT so I can remove the card and transfer my books, music, etc. to it by attaching the SD card to my laptop as I understand that Windows would not be able to recognize the partition that would be formatted as internal storage. I did format the SD card using my laptop as two separate partitions. My Samsung Galaxy Tab A saw both partitions. I selected the 96GB partition as I wanted to use that for app storage and selected the option to use it as internal storage. Unfortunately when I did that, it appears that the system set the whole CD card up for internal storage. Does anyone have any insight on how to accomplish this - use part of the SD card for internal storage and part of it for storage that would be recognizable by Windows? Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're trying to convert a partition in sd card as internal storage and leave the rest as an external storage. Not possible as far as I know.
TheMystic said:
You're trying to convert a partition in sd card as internal storage and leave the rest as an external storage. Not possible as far as I know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats a bummer but that is what I was feeling was going to be the outcome. I guess I'll just go with it as internal storage then and be rlefated to wireless transfer of my books, etc. To the tablet. Any thoughts on why my Storage module keeps crashing now? Something definitely went nuts somewhere along the way here. It was running fine.. until I start poking around with this. I'll probably just do a rebuild again tonight.. if I can find my steps notes.
I also don't think it's possible to do what you have in mind. It's also important to remember that Windows will only mount the first partition of an SD card. It won't see any other partitions without 3rd party software installed.
JR1979 said:
Thats a bummer but that is what I was feeling was going to be the outcome. I guess I'll just go with it as internal storage then and be rlefated to wireless transfer of my books, etc. To the tablet. Any thoughts on why my Storage module keeps crashing now? Something definitely went nuts somewhere along the way here. It was running fine.. until I start poking around with this. I'll probably just do a rebuild again tonight.. if I can find my steps notes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason people want a micro SD card is to be able to move it around between devices, so it is not a good idea to convert it into 'internal storage' for two reasons:
1. You can no longer move the card around (not without reformatting it again).
2. This process would significantly slow down the system if the OS starts saving apps, data and files on the micro SD card because it sees this space as internal storage.
Because of how you partitioned the SD card and tried converting only a part of it as internal storage, my guess is the process caused corruption somewhere, and the system is crashing because of that. I'm afraid you'll have to do a factory reset and start from scratch. I hope your files are safe.
JR1979 said:
I'm using a 400GB SD card. I saw a comment about creating 2 different partitions on it as I want to use part of it for app storage and the other part for file storage, The second partition would be exFAT so I can remove the card and transfer my books, music, etc. to it by attaching the SD card to my laptop as I understand that Windows would not be able to recognize the partition that would be formatted as internal storage. I did format the SD card using my laptop as two separate partitions. My Samsung Galaxy Tab A saw both partitions. I selected the 96GB partition as I wanted to use that for app storage and selected the option to use it as internal storage. Unfortunately when I did that, it appears that the system set the whole CD card up for internal storage. Does anyone have any insight on how to accomplish this - use part of the SD card for internal storage and part of it for storage that would be recognizable by Windows? Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should NEVER use an SD card for internal storage. They are MUCH to slow for that purpose. Today's SoC have RAM chips mounted directly on top and are several times faster than the fastest SD card bus. And low end tablets, which includes ALL Tab A devices, use a USB bus with limited bandwidth. So using faster SD cards is pointless as they will still only be as fast as the bus. SD cards are fine for storing video, audio, text and downloaded files, but NOT for running apps. Doing so will cause the device to be laggy at best, and cause crashes at worst.
blaacksheep said:
I also don't think it's possible to do what you have in mind. It's also important to remember that Windows will only mount the first partition of an SD card. It won't see any other partitions without 3rd party software installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The two partitions on the USB flash drive can be seen* in Windows without third-party software.
*I don't have an English Windows interface.
ze7zez said:
The two partitions on the USB flash drive can be seen* in Windows without third-party software.
*I don't have an English Windows interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant that it won't mount the second partition, although you can see it in Disk Manager.
blaacksheep said:
I meant that it won't mount the second partition, although you can see it in Disk Manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows 10 mounts both of these partitions, assigns them letters and you can use them (read and write).
ze7zez said:
Windows 10 mounts both of these partitions, assigns them letters and you can use them (read and write).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stand corrected! Previous versions of Windows could not do that.
ze7zez said:
The two partitions on the USB flash drive can be seen* in Windows without third-party software.
*I don't have an English Windows interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something strange in that attachment. Since when do Android SD cards have NTFS partitions? As far as I know, the internal storage partitions that Windows couldn't read were formated as Ext3 or Ext4 and the external as either FAT32 or exFAT.
lewmur said:
Something strange in that attachment. Since when do Android SD cards have NTFS partitions? As far as I know, the internal storage partitions that Windows couldn't read were formated as Ext3 or Ext4 and the external as either FAT32 or exFAT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't suggest the volume label. Partition K: is FAT. The example shows that Windows can show two partitions on a USB stick.
ze7zez said:
Don't suggest the volume label. Partition K: is FAT. The example shows that Windows can show two partitions on a USB stick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it can. It can show several. But NOT the two partitions created on an Android SD card because one of then is formated in a file system Windows doesn't recognize and that is what the poster was talking about.
edit: Disk Manager will actually show the partition but it won't be assigned a drive letter because Windows can't mount it.

Categories

Resources