creating a partition on micro sd

[jimeller]

I know this has been covered in several threads, and ive read them all, but i'm still kinda confused as to the best way to go about it.

Firstly, i want to transfer my apps to sd card. my hero is rooted and i'm running modaco 2.3 core.
After reading various posts, I downloaded paragon partition manager 10, but its a demo version and some of the features aren't accessible so there goes that idea unless i buy the full version. There are other partition managers around, but everyone seems to plug PPM as being the best.

Ive also read that you can do this manually, but how difficult is it really? I'm a novice when it comes to this stuff so i need a dummies guide to partitioning. Apparently there are many ways to manually do this, but i'm confused as to which is easiest and safest, (i also understand the dangers of doing this).

I have a Transcend class 6 card with 8gb and willing to give it a crack.

 

[Slug]

There are other partition managers around, but everyone seems to plug PPM as being the best.

Tbh, I find them all a PITA for working with removeable drives. All seem to require an OS reboot, so my tool of choice was the GParted LiveCD. If I had to restart Windows anyway I thought I might as well boot into a Linux environment to do the deed. I was well impressed with GParted; no problems finding and using my hardware (inc SATA drives, wireless kb/mouse etc) and a user-friendly GUI.

Ive also read that you can do this manually, but how difficult is it really?

A lot easier than it appears, actually. Copy anything from your SDHC card you want to keep before starting, as repartitioning destroys the existing FAT32 partition. You can copy it back across to the new one afterwards.

Assuming you're using Cyanogen's 1.4 Recovery (as most of us running custom ROMs are), you can use adb shell to make use of parted which is handily included. A good guide can be found here. Like so much Android goodness it was written for the G1 but the procedure's the same for the Hero - simply ignore any refs to "console". You can omit the third linux-swap partition if you don't plan to use it, and fergawdsake don't make the #2 partition ext4!

Amon_RA's Recovery Image is even easier, as it makes use of the sdparted script and can do the whole job automagically using safe default sizes. I've been running it for the past week and it's a good alternative to Cyanogen's 1.4 if the added features are of use.

HTH

 

[jimeller]

Slug you are a genius. I'm gonna vote for you in the next election.

I've wondered if the G1's method would work on the hero, but didn't want to risk it. I'll look into this in more detail when I get back on my laptop next week. .

Weekend is here!

Thanks for your help.

 

[Slug]

I've wondered if the G1's method would work on the hero, but didn't want to risk it.

It does indeed, I've done it myself. The syntax for parted looks intimidating but "?" at the <parted> prompt brings up the usual inline help listing all commands, their options and arguments, should you wish to check what's going on.