Root I've been trying for hours to partition a new SD Card!

[Red Dread]

Hi

I'm having issues with sticking a new SD card in my Rooted Desire. I am running the NeoPhyTe Mod v1.8 Sense-FroYo 2.2 ROM, and it seems great (before I was running Pays Desire Rom which had the same problem, so it's not the ROM).

My old 4gb card was partitioned with 512mb for Apps to SD (I can't even remember how I did this now, but I seem to recall it being really easy, I think I used ROM Manager), and worked flawlessly. The new card can be seen in Windows 7 when I go into recovery on the phone and select mount USB Storage, and I seem to be able to get into it to format the card, but when I reboot, the phone hangs at the HTC screen. There is nothing on the card apart from the ROM I installed.

I've tried partitioning it in Recovery with ADB/Clockwork, but Parted will not load/work. I've tried...well, everything I could find over the last 4 hours to try to sort this out. It should be a simple task, surely!?

All I'm trying to do is put in a new 16gb card, partition it for Apps2SD and reinstall my backed up apps. I have been trying to do this since 9am (it is now 12.50pm), and my head is well and truly done in. Can anyone help? Please? I am at my wits end!

 

[Rastaman-FB]

ok this is the deal, your rom requires an sd-ext partition to boot which doesnt exist so it goes into a loop
couple that with the old card holding that apps that have been movedvia the a2sd+ script.
you have 2 options

1. make sure you backup complete rom via recovery (using old sdcard), Use gparted live CD or linux to format the new SDCARD with an ext2/3 partition. copy the clockwork mod folder from the old card to the new card, place new card into the device and boot to recovery, restore.

2. use unrevoked to flash amonra recovery 2.0.0 (or if you have s-off "fastboot flash recovery amonrablablabla.img". boot to recovery and do a backup with sd-ext, remove old sdcard > insert new sdcard and boot to recovery, go to partition sd card and make a 512 partition. go to mount mass storage and place nandroid folder from old sdcard to new sdcard (nandroid folder is created by amon ra recovery not clockwork and the 2 are not compatible as RA uses tar for sd-ext). Unmount via recovery, go to backup restore and restore.
reboot

should work

 

[Red Dread]

Hey Rastaman

Thanks for that. I've been trying to restore my old Nandroid backup, but it isn't finding files on the (old) SD card. I have my backups saved on my PC. If I copy the folder over should the restore work, do you know?

 

[Rastaman-FB]

if your recovery is clockworkmod, make sure you copy the whole clockworkmod folder and place it in the root of your fat32 partition

the reason this method is different for you is because you must have used rommanager to format the sdcard and partition.
thats all well and good untill you move to a rom that uses a2sd+ and so needs the files to boot

wheres your old sdcard?

if you cannot boot into the rom as your old sdcard has gone or is dead, then you wont be able to use unrevoked to flash amon ra recovery 2.0. if you have s-off its not a problem though

if you dont have s-off and dont have old card to boot back to os then use gparted live
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
boot to that on your pc or via VM

 

[Red Dread]

Gotcha, I think!

Would you recommend using the second method, then? Is using Unrevoked to install amon ra similar to rooting my phone again, or is it more simple than that? Sorry if I sound dim, but as I get older these things become more complicated, or so it seems!

 

[Rastaman-FB]

Gotcha, I think!

Would you recommend using the second method, then? Is using Unrevoked to install amon ra similar to rooting my phone again, or is it more simple than that? Sorry if I sound dim, but as I get older these things become more complicated, or so it seems!

if you cannot boot into the rom then you cannot used unrevoked to flash the recovery. you need to be fully booted to run it.

 

[Red Dread]

Sorry, man. I should have pointed out that as of the last 5 mins or so I can now get into the ROM, and the phone seems to be booting ok. However, I still don't seem able to restore my old nandroid backup. I can see the files in the clockworkmod/backup folder, which is in the root of my SD card, but for some reason nandroid can't see them. Corrupt, do you think?

 

[Rastaman-FB]

Sorry, man. I should have pointed out that as of the last 5 mins or so I can now get into the ROM, and the phone seems to be booting ok. However, I still don't seem able to restore my old nandroid backup. I can see the files in the clockworkmod/backup folder, which is in the root of my SD card, but for some reason nandroid can't see them. Corrupt, do you think?

are you going to recovery via voldown + power?

how did you manage to get back into the rom?

 

[Red Dread]

I am, yeah. No idea how I got back into the ROM. It just seemed to accept the card on the second or third boot. I have a horrible feeling though that the issue may be that the ext partition is borked, as I'm not seeing any apps that are/were on my SD card. For some reason the Market app has disappeared aswell, so I can't even try to check my appbrain account. I have no idea what is going on...

 

[Red Dread]

I also only have a backup that is the original os that was with the phone when I got it. Nandroid isn't seeng the last backup I did before I changed to the current ROM yesterday. Is it worth trying to restore that, or will the problem remain the same, would you know?

 

[Rastaman-FB]

I am, yeah. No idea how I got back into the ROM. It just seemed to accept the card on the second or third boot. I have a horrible feeling though that the issue may be that the ext partition is borked, as I'm not seeing any apps that are/were on my SD card. For some reason the Market app has disappeared aswell, so I can't even try to check my appbrain account. I have no idea what is going on...

im surprised it cannot see it . i dont really have an answer for that

what is your folderstructure?

sdcard/clockworkmod/backup/dateofbackup/

or

sdcard/clockworkmod/clockworkmod/backup/dateofbackup/

EDIT:
if you go to settings/sd and phone storage does it see your card there and display the size?

 

[Red Dread]

Folder structure is

sdcard/clockworkmod/backup/dateofbackup/

 

[Rastaman-FB]

Folder structure is

sdcard/clockworkmod/backup/dateofbackup/

check my edit

 

[SUroot]

The missing apps are missing from the old sd card?

 

[Red Dread]

Rastaman

It was seeing the card ok, yeah, but see below. Would I be right in thinking that if I have no apps installed to my SD card, then as long as I just have the partition on the new card done, assuming I can do it ok, then there will be less issues with the switchover?

danfrance

Yeah, they are, or were. I'd backed everything up, so I just reformatted the card and repartitioned it and manually downloaded all my apps again via AppBrain. Bit of a faff, but got there in the end. Now I just need to partition the new card after backing all my current settings up again! Will try that tomorrow, I think. I've had more than enough today!

 

[Rastaman-FB]

what rom are you using.
if its one with built in a2sd+ you will need to partition the card then re-apply the rom over the top so the script gets fixed

its always awkard with a2sd+ builds as its a script that is required where as froyo apps2sd just ignores its location.
a2sd+ auto installs all apps to your sd-ext partition, you dont have to move to sdcard as its seen as internal storage by the rom.

its a bit mad but basically you main problem is that clockwork wasnt picking up the restore directory which i find odd

 

[Red Dread]

Woop Woop!!!

Finally nailed it this morning. I followed your tips thusly:

1. Backed up everything using ROM Manager
2. Transferred the whole Clockworkmods folder to my PC
3. Put new card in phone
4. Shut down PC, plugged in phone, reboot phone into Recovery, mounted the new SD card, then mounted as USB drive
5. Booted up PC with the Gparted Live CD
6. Created a 1gb partition (just in case I need it) on the new card and formatted this as a primary partition, Ext3
7. Exited Gparted, disconnected phone and rebooted into Recovery.
8. Waited a bit for Nandroid to see the Recover files, and when it did, restored a backup I did this morning
9. Crossed fingers and rebooted phone.
10. It worked!

Thanks so much for your help, Rastaman. Thanks have been clicked!

J...