Should I partition my SD card?

windsorclarenc · January 14th, 2012, 07:15 PM

I have a bunch of questions. I understand this allows you to move all of your apps to your SD card with a2sd.

1. Does this mean they'll stay right where they are when I flash a new ROM and won't have to bother with backing up my apps?

2. How do you find out if your SD card is a high enough class for this?

3. Does partitioning have any other benefits?

4. Will this help my phone run smoother/faster, assuming I move my apps?

5. Last but not least, can someone point me in the direction of a how-to for doing this?

dustwun77 · January 14th, 2012, 07:22 PM

1, No. new roms will have to do whatever they have to do to get them on it again.

2. I did it with class 4, no prob. I don't play games though.

3. some roms pretty much use up internal memory, leave less room for apps. need to be partitioned to put more stuff on then.

4. not that I have noticed.

5. directions are in our rooting sticky. I suggest a 1 gig partition as PLENTY.

Rxpert83 · January 14th, 2012, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by windsorclarenc

I have a bunch of questions. I understand this allows you to move all of your apps to your SD card with a2sd.

1. Does this mean they'll stay right where they are when I flash a new ROM and won't have to bother with backing up my apps?
No, you'll end up wiping the SD-EXT which is where your apps are stored when you flash a new ROM. Not wiping this would cause issues

2. How do you find out if your SD card is a high enough class for this?
If you havent bought a new one its not suggested to partition. Class 6 or higher is recommended. It CAN be done with lower class cards, but you may experience sluggish performance

3. Does partitioning have any other benefits?
Speed increases due to there being much more space available. This is especially noticeable with the sense 3.5 ROMS

4. Will this help my phone run smoother/faster, assuming I move my apps?
Yes, due to above reasons

5. Last but not least, can someone point me in the direction of a how-to for doing this?
Rooting for dummies gingerbread guide at the top of this forum in the root info thread.

If you play games I would do a 2Gb partition, as some games can be as high as 750MB+

Should cover it

windsorclarenc · January 14th, 2012, 07:33 PM

Cool beans, thanks a bunch! Is there any real reason I shouldn't partition? Any dangers?

Rxpert83 · January 14th, 2012, 07:35 PM

If your card goes bad you lose access to those apps, but you would lose access to your titanium backups the same way. So either way your screwed (hopefully you have a recent nandroiD!)

Granite1 · January 14th, 2012, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by windsorclarenc

I have a bunch of questions. I understand this allows you to move all of your apps to your SD card with a2sd.

1. Does this mean they'll stay right where they are when I flash a new ROM and won't have to bother with backing up my apps?

2. How do you find out if your SD card is a high enough class for this?

3. Does partitioning have any other benefits?

4. Will this help my phone run smoother/faster, assuming I move my apps?

5. Last but not least, can someone point me in the direction of a how-to for doing this?

The guys pretty much covered everything from 1-4 pretty well.

I'll put my .02 in for #2: If you have never replaced the SD card you got with your phone, you have a class 4. If you get a new one, might as well get a class 10. It'll run faster, and the read and write speed will increase.

#5: I got the section from the root guide ( compliments of Mr. Ocnbrze

)
1.copy your content of the card to a computer because partitioning will wipe the card's content.
2.go into recovery and select partition your sd card
3.enter 32 for swap, and 1024 or 2048 for ext2, and do the rest for FAT
4.select upgrade ext2 to ext3
6.select usb-ms toggle and transfer your contents of your card on your computer back to the card.
5.go to the main menu and do a full wipe (min data, dalvik cache and cache)
6.flash the superwipe
7.flash the rom of your choice.
8.reboot

from now on it is recommended you wipe dalvik cache, cache, data and sd ext.before flashing roms. MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT SELECT WIPE SD CARD as it will do just that. your card will be erased. also make sure that when making a nandroid backup to select sd ext to be backed up as well.

Any questions, just let us know!

dustwun77 · January 14th, 2012, 07:55 PM

OCN had a deal posted on here for a Patriot class 10 16gig card. I bought it and run it partitioned. It works really well. Might be what makes a difference when I use Bootmanager app, as roms run from sd card with that app.

before I got the class 10 card, I partitioned with a class 4 card. had a 2 gig partition. way too much. a waste of space really.

Anyway, with the class 4 partitioned, it worked fine for me. I don't play any games or run any intensive apps or really multitask. your results may vary.

i couldn't wait for the card to get here though, so I did it and it worked great!

windsorclarenc · January 14th, 2012, 08:13 PM

I have a 16gb san disk SD card purchased from Wal Mart so I'm assuming it's above class 4. I think I'll partition later tonight. As for nandroid, from a couple horror stories I've heard, I've learned to always keep a working backup somewhere not on my phone. I always backup everything so nothing will really change there. And as usual, thanks a bunch guys. You're all a giant help to me. :-)

Braaainz · January 14th, 2012, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dustwun77

before I got the class 10 card, I partitioned with a class 4 card. had a 2 gig partition. way too much. a waste of space really.

Anyway, with the class 4 partitioned, it worked fine for me. I don't play any games or run any intensive apps or really multitask. your results may vary.

Thanks for this info. I picked up a 32gb class 4 from WalMart for $30 a couple of weeks ago and have been thinking about partitioning it. I'm still waffling on the idea. Using the standard APPs to SDcard feature (which only moves part of the app) still leaves me with over 200mb on my Evo's internal memory.

ocnbrze · January 14th, 2012, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Braaainz

Thanks for this info. I picked up a 32gb class 4 from WalMart for $30 a couple of weeks ago and have been thinking about partitioning it. I'm still waffling on the idea. Using the standard APPs to SDcard feature (which only moves part of the app) still leaves me with over 200mb on my Evo's internal memory.

partitioning is super easy to do and most roms now have support for a2sd. i'd say go for it. i only wish that i did it sooner.

MusicAddict · January 23rd, 2012, 01:57 PM

Besides space, is there any advantage to partitioning? I'm running CM7 with about 45 apps installed and sit around 200MB free space on the phone.

Seems like any speed increases would be minimal in my case.

ocnbrze · January 23rd, 2012, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MusicAddict

Besides space, is there any advantage to partitioning? I'm running CM7 with about 45 apps installed and sit around 200MB free space on the phone.

Seems like any speed increases would be minimal in my case.

yes you are right as long as you have around 150-200mb internally then there is no need to partition. aosp roms are small so as long as your app count is low then your are in good shape. however, if you flash any of the sense 3.5 roms or even some sense 3.0 roms then i would recommend that you partition it. they can be quite large. or if your an app whore like me and have 150 or so apps then no matter what you should partition the card.

LittleRedDot · January 23rd, 2012, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Granite1

The guys pretty much covered everything from 1-4 pretty well.

I'll put my .02 in for #2: If you have never replaced the SD card you got with your phone, you have a class 4. If you get a new one, might as well get a class 10. It'll run faster, and the read and write speed will increase.

#5: I got the section from the root guide ( compliments of Mr. Ocnbrze

)
1.copy your content of the card to a computer because partitioning will wipe the card's content.
2.go into recovery and select partition your sd card
3.enter 32 for swap, and 1024 or 2048 for ext2, and do the rest for FAT
4.select upgrade ext2 to ext3
6.select usb-ms toggle and transfer your contents of your card on your computer back to the card.
5.go to the main menu and do a full wipe (min data, dalvik cache and cache)
6.flash the superwipe
7.flash the rom of your choice.
8.reboot

from now on it is recommended you wipe dalvik cache, cache, data and sd ext.before flashing roms. MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT SELECT WIPE SD CARD as it will do just that. your card will be erased. also make sure that when making a nandroid backup to select sd ext to be backed up as well.

Any questions, just let us know!

My stock card was a class 6?

dustwun77 · January 23rd, 2012, 04:48 PM

Does it have a class number on it?

LittleRedDot · January 23rd, 2012, 05:55 PM

Yep

dustwun77 · January 23rd, 2012, 06:37 PM

oh, I thought ur statement was a question.

I originally partitioned with a class 6 card and had no problems. i just used a 1 gig partition and I didn't play any games or anything intensive.

argedion · January 23rd, 2012, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rxpert83

If your card goes bad you lose access to those apps, but you would lose access to your titanium backups the same way. So either way your screwed (hopefully you have a recent nandroiD!)

Thats why you keep a copy of your tb on Dropbox. You Loose SDCARD replace it sync tb with dropbox get it all back

Always a good Idea to keep your latest Nandroid there as well.

LittleRedDot · January 24th, 2012, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dustwun77

oh, I thought ur statement was a question.

I originally partitioned with a class 6 card and had no problems. i just used a 1 gig partition and I didn't play any games or anything intensive.

It was a question, I thought you were saying that the stock card was a class 4, but mine wasn't... is that unusual?

mikem0269 · January 24th, 2012, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LittlrRedDot

It was a question, I thought you were saying that the stock card was a class 4, but mine wasn't... is that unusual?

Just checked my stock 8 G but even with my readers on I cant read it

I thought it was a class 4

dustwun77 · January 24th, 2012, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LittlrRedDot

It was a question, I thought you were saying that the stock card was a class 4, but mine wasn't... is that unusual?

I don't know. Bought a different card same time i got the phone.

new optimus · January 24th, 2012, 11:12 AM

if anyone is interested Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more! has 16gb class 10 cards for under $20

ocnbrze · January 24th, 2012, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by new optimus

if anyone is interested Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more! has 16gb class 10 cards for under $20

i use this one:Newegg.com - Patriot LX Series Class 10 16GB Micro SDHC Flash Card Model PSF16GMCSDHC10 (16GB)

Mikestony · January 24th, 2012, 08:20 PM

How would one know if, in fact, the sd card is partitioned? I rooted recently and have Amon Ra v2.3 recovery and used that to partition my stock sd card. Then, I recently got a 32mb class 10 card and partitioned that to use in my phone. All went smoothly. Yet, I cannot see that it is partitioned using Astro File Manager or the Titanium Backup Pro. I have searched, and searched for the answer before I asked it. I am new to rooting and still have stock ROM and Kernel. Taking it slow...want to be more educated before I move on to flashing anything.
This has been an extremely helpful and useful site

ocnbrze · January 25th, 2012, 05:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikestony

How would one know if, in fact, the sd card is partitioned? I rooted recently and have Amon Ra v2.3 recovery and used that to partition my stock sd card. Then, I recently got a 32mb class 10 card and partitioned that to use in my phone. All went smoothly. Yet, I cannot see that it is partitioned using Astro File Manager or the Titanium Backup Pro. I have searched, and searched for the answer before I asked it. I am new to rooting and still have stock ROM and Kernel. Taking it slow...want to be more educated before I move on to flashing anything.
This has been an extremely helpful and useful site

the easiest way is to use tb and go to the main screen. at the bottom it will list your system rom, internal, sd card, and a2sd. if you do not see a2sd then your partition did not take. but with amon ra i doubt that would be an issue. and the stock rom will not have support for a2sd. you will need to flash a custom rom that has it. i would recommend that you try mikg 3.0. it is waaaaaaaaay better then stock. plus it has a2sd support as well.

Mikestony · January 25th, 2012, 06:19 AM

Well, I do not see an a2sd listing in Titanium Backup.. I would surmise my stock rom does not support it. I have downloaded the MikG 3.0 rom but have not flashed it yet. Little nervous, but from reading about flashing, it seems simple. When you say that MikG has a2sd support, do you mean it is cooked in, or do I still have to download darktremor a2sd also.

ocnbrze · January 25th, 2012, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikestony

Well, I do not see an a2sd listing in Titanium Backup.. I would surmise my stock rom does not support it. I have downloaded the MikG 3.0 rom but have not flashed it yet. Little nervous, but from reading about flashing, it seems simple. When you say that MikG has a2sd support, do you mean it is cooked in, or do I still have to download darktremor a2sd also.

i believe that you will need to flash darktremors to use a2sd. but mikg 3.0 will have support for it. i do not think that it is automatically cooked in.

cowboys956 · January 25th, 2012, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ocnbrze

the easiest way is to use tb and go to the main screen. at the bottom it will list your system rom, internal, sd card, and a2sd. if you do not see a2sd then your partition did not take. but with amon ra i doubt that would be an issue. and the stock rom will not have support for a2sd. you will need to flash a custom rom that has it. i would recommend that you try mikg 3.0. it is waaaaaaaaay better then stock. plus it has a2sd support as well.

I recently flashed Mikg 3.0 and anthrax kernel v9 (take it froma noob... waaaaay easy). I never partitioned my sd card. I used TB to move my apps to sd card (about 80-90 apps). At the bottom of TB says I have 308 MB internal free, 9.59 GB free of a 16 GB card and SD card (a2sd) 28.9 MB free of 367 MB. So does this mean that my card is partitioned?

ocnbrze · January 25th, 2012, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cowboys956

I recently flashed Mikg 3.0 and anthrax kernel v9 (take it froma noob... waaaaay easy). I never partitioned my sd card. I used TB to move my apps to sd card (about 80-90 apps). At the bottom of TB says I have 308 MB internal free, 9.59 GB free of a 16 GB card and SD card (a2sd) 28.9 MB free of 367 MB. So does this mean that my card is partitioned?

yep a2sd is what you want to see.

cowboys956 · January 25th, 2012, 03:35 PM

Noob question. I never partitioned nor flashed Darktremors. So how did I get a2sd and get partitioned? Does Mikg 3.0 automatically do it?

Rxpert83 · January 25th, 2012, 03:45 PM

If you have a partitioned card MikG will recognize and send your apps over upon installation.

cowboys956 · January 25th, 2012, 03:53 PM

Understood. I was just wondering how my card got partitioned if I never partitioned it. All I did was Flash Mikg 3.0 and Anthrax v9. Sorry, just trying to understand my phone and learn what its doing. Since I am partitioned, how can I free up space on a2sd portion. i have deleted several apps but only my internal memory goes up, not the sd card (a2sd) portion on TB.

Mikestony · January 25th, 2012, 07:56 PM

When I got my new sd card, I partitioned it per instructions on this site somewhere...I believe Rooting GB with Amon Ra v2.3 recovery...
Anyway, still running stock rom...I don't know how cowboys956 sd card is partitioned if he never did it.

Is there anyway to tell if my card is partitioned? Titanium Backup does not indicate a2d partition as I did not flash that yet.
How about a command in Terminal Emulator that I have installed?

cowboys956 · January 25th, 2012, 10:25 PM

Couldn't figure out how my card got partitioned, so I backed it up and reformatted. It was partitioned at about 350mb which got full FAST. I partitioned with instructions above and now have more than enough space. 80 apps installed and Im at 360mb (84%) free phone memory. I guess mikg 3.0 has darktremors since I never flashed it. Very glad I have it. Also TB pro should indicate if you are partitioned by displaying SD card (a2sd) memory usage. Hope this helps.

cowboys956 · January 25th, 2012, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikestony

How would one know if, in fact, the sd card is partitioned? I rooted recently and have Amon Ra v2.3 recovery and used that to partition my stock sd card. Then, I recently got a 32mb class 10 card and partitioned that to use in my phone. All went smoothly. Yet, I cannot see that it is partitioned using Astro File Manager or the Titanium Backup Pro. I have searched, and searched for the answer before I asked it. I am new to rooting and still have stock ROM and Kernel. Taking it slow...want to be more educated before I move on to flashing anything.
This has been an extremely helpful and useful site

Mikestony if you can root your phone, you can definitely flash a ROM and/or kernel. Much easier and faster IMO. Good Luck. Now Im a flashing freak

. Im trying everything to see what works best. Lot of FUN. Enjoy!

ocnbrze · January 26th, 2012, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikestony

When I got my new sd card, I partitioned it per instructions on this site somewhere...I believe Rooting GB with Amon Ra v2.3 recovery...
Anyway, still running stock rom...I don't know how cowboys956 sd card is partitioned if he never did it.

Is there anyway to tell if my card is partitioned? Titanium Backup does not indicate a2d partition as I did not flash that yet.
How about a command in Terminal Emulator that I have installed?

yeah not sure how his card was partitioned as well. that is an odd occurrence that is not common.

really the only way to get the card partitioned is to do it yourself. if you did not partition it then your card is not partitioned. you will need to go into recovery and then partition it.

you will not have access to your sd ext on a stock rom. you will need to flash a rom that had either support for a2sd or having it cooked in like mikg3.0.

and with TE you , if the rom has it cooked, and you want to be sure that the apps are on the card you can first type su and enter then type a2sd reinstall. here is a list of commands you can do in TE with either darktremors or a2sd cooked into the rom:Darktremor Apps2SD Command Line Help | Facebook

Die2self21 · June 18th, 2012, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Granite1

The guys pretty much covered everything from 1-4 pretty well.

I'll put my .02 in for #2: If you have never replaced the SD card you got with your phone, you have a class 4. If you get a new one, might as well get a class 10. It'll run faster, and the read and write speed will increase.

#5: I got the section from the root guide ( compliments of Mr. Ocnbrze

)
1.copy your content of the card to a computer because partitioning will wipe the card's content.
2.go into recovery and select partition your sd card
3.enter 32 for swap, and 1024 or 2048 for ext2, and do the rest for FAT
4.select upgrade ext2 to ext3
6.select usb-ms toggle and transfer your contents of your card on your computer back to the card.
5.go to the main menu and do a full wipe (min data, dalvik cache and cache)
6.flash the superwipe
7.flash the rom of your choice.
8.reboot

from now on it is recommended you wipe dalvik cache, cache, data and sd ext.before flashing roms. MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT SELECT WIPE SD CARD as it will do just that. your card will be erased. also make sure that when making a nandroid backup to select sd ext to be backed up as well.

Any questions, just let us know!

Can you help me, I don't understand steps 2-4. I got as far as going into recovery and selecting partion sd card but then I dont understand enter 32 for swap?? can you please explain?

AARONONE · June 18th, 2012, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Die2self21

Can you help me, I don't understand steps 2-4. I got as far as going into recovery and selecting partion sd card but then I dont understand enter 32 for swap?? can you please explain?

This is the instructions I used (thanks to ocn)

it is recommended that you do this before trying to flash a rom.
so here are the directions on how to do it:
1.copy your content of the card to a computer because partitioning will wipe the card's content.
2.go into recovery and select partition your sd card
3.enter 32 for swap, and 1024 or 2048 for ext2, and do the rest for FAT
4.select upgrade ext2 to ext3
5.select usb-ms toggle and transfer your contents of your card on your computer back to the card.
6.go to the main menu and do a full wipe (min data, dalvik cache and cache)
7.flash the superwipe
8.flash the rom of your choice.
9.reboot

when you get to step #3 you have the option to select these numbers. For example, you will be able to choose from setting for 1024 or 2048 (1024 is usually most common). As long as you have amon ra recovery, these instructions should flow exactly. Post again if you still run into problems.

billysheasr66 · June 22nd, 2012, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AARONONE

This is the instructions I used (thanks to ocn)

it is recommended that you do this before trying to flash a rom.
so here are the directions on how to do it:
1.copy your content of the card to a computer because partitioning will wipe the card's content.
2.go into recovery and select partition your sd card
3.enter 32 for swap, and 1024 or 2048 for ext2, and do the rest for FAT
4.select upgrade ext2 to ext3
5.select usb-ms toggle and transfer your contents of your card on your computer back to the card.
6.go to the main menu and do a full wipe (min data, dalvik cache and cache)
7.flash the superwipe
8.flash the rom of your choice.
9.reboot

I have CM7 flashed already. I just installed my new 32GB Class 10 card and decided to partition. I figured being I already flashed, I could skip that part... so I did steps 1-5, jumped to step 9.

I then go into TB to check, as mentioned above, but do not see A2SD... so does this mean it did not work? And, do I have to partition then flash? or can I just partition after the fact?

Thanks.

AARONONE · June 22nd, 2012, 11:38 AM

No, you will need to partition prior to flashing. Try doing a nand, wipe, partition,then flash. Load titanium then u should notice. If a2sd is baked into the rom,as most are, then it should automatically move the apps. If not, use the term emulator commands. Let us know how it turns out.

ocnbrze · June 22nd, 2012, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billysheasr66

I have CM7 flashed already. I just installed my new 32GB Class 10 card and decided to partition. I figured being I already flashed, I could skip that part... so I did steps 1-5, jumped to step 9.

I then go into TB to check, as mentioned above, but do not see A2SD... so does this mean it did not work? And, do I have to partition then flash? or can I just partition after the fact?

Thanks.

i believe cm7 does not have a2sd built in. it is supported though so you will have to flash darktremors to get a2sd to work.

Rxpert83 · June 22nd, 2012, 11:50 AM

Should be able to do a a2sd reinstall in terminal emulator to get it going.

Open it up, type in

Su (enter)
A2sd reinstall

billysheasr66 · June 22nd, 2012, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rxpert83

Should be able to do a a2sd reinstall in terminal emulator to get it going.

Open it up, type in

Su (enter)
A2sd reinstall

So I'm a bit confused... do I still need to flash after the partition, or just do this? I tried this but it seems it is still not partitioned, so I may have answered my own question?

ocnbrze · June 22nd, 2012, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billysheasr66

So I'm a bit confused... do I still need to flash after the partition, or just do this? I tried this but it seems it is still not partitioned, so I may have answered my own question?

no need to re-flash the rom. look in tb and see if is shows your a2sd partition and if there is anything in there. it will show how much you have on the main screen. and if it is cm7 then you will need to flash darktremors.

Mikestony · June 22nd, 2012, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billysheasr66

So I'm a bit confused... do I still need to flash after the partition, or just do this? I tried this but it seems it is still not partitioned, so I may have answered my own question?

Flash dta2sd, go into terminal emulator, to check to see if you are partitioned type
su
a2sd check
It will spit out a bunch of stuff, one of which should have something like "apps linked to sd card" or "private apps linked to sd card"

Edit: or another, easier way in terminal emulator
su
mount | grep sd-ext

it will tell you your current partition

billysheasr66 · June 22nd, 2012, 02:16 PM

Ah... there it is. I was looking in App manager instead of TB. Thanks for the help.