Elpelco

Has been me today. I am trying oh so hard to partition my SDcard, but to no avail. I've tried to do it this way: *** How To PARTITION SDCard *** - Android @ MoDaCo but my phone won't boot to the recovery screen for some reason, all I get is an image of a phone with an exclamation mark. This is driving me nuts, if anyone can help me I would REALLY appreciate it.

USing an unbranded GSM Hero, Modaco 2.9 installed.

quantumrand

You could just format the card directly from your computer. Create a partition large enough for your apps with the ext3 format. Then FAT32 for the rest. You can also add a 3rd swap partition if desired.

Slug

That's the standard recovery screen. Did you flash an 'enhanced' recovery image such as Cyanogen's or Amon Ra's beforehand?

__________________
Site Rules/Guidelines and Zero Tolerance Policy

Elpelco

Forgive me for begin dense, what is the best way to partition a card on my pc?

Yes I did. The thing is when I try to do anything in adb on that screen, it says device not found.

Ok. Update. I've managed to partition the card, I THINK. ONly now my file browser keeps force closing and apps to SD tell me I need to visit a website and look at the tutorial. The adress doesn't work. I am officially out of ideas.
If anyone can help me out I would very much appreciate it. I keep being told 'well just Google it, look for the info, it's there.'
Guess what? No, it's not. AppstoSD is not simple to use, I get that, and I'm not a noob, I just don't understand how to get it to do what I want it to.
So PLEASE help, I'm at the end of my tether with this. :-( I don't expect someone to do it for me, but I can't find anything online to help me figure it out.

Last edited by vido.ardes; November 17th, 2009 at 07:56 AM. Reason: Triple Post

Slug

I'll try.... You'll require a card reader if you want to try this.

Download GParted LiveCD and burn the .iso to a CD.
Copy anything you require to keep from the memory card to your PC.
Insert the memory card into the reader and connect the latter to the PC.
Boot the PC from the GParted LiveCD and once in GParted itself select the memory card from the drop-down list of volumes top-right.
Delete any partitions on the card.
Warning: double-check you've not selected a hdd by mistake!
Now recreate your required partitions. The first one must be FAT32, the second ext3. If you're also adding a swap partition it will be third and formatted linux-swap.
Once finished, exit GParted, remove the CD and reboot (right-click to access shutdown menu).
Insert memory card in the handset, switch on and you should notice a lengthy delay during startup as AppsToSD moves everything from internal memory to the ext3 partition.

Actually, it should be. Something's gone wrong somewhere with your installation, that's all. Keep the faith - we'll get it sorted.

quantumrand

I have yet to install any custom ROMs on my device, but I have looked into it enough to say I am 95% sure I coud do it.

The fact that adb devices doesn't return any connected devices suggests that you haven't properly rooted your Hero. Try reflashing the custom recovery image. Check out this page: [GSM/CDMA] 09/11 - Installing the patched recovery image on your device - Android @ MoDaCo

It has the easiest method of rooting your phone and flashing the custom boot loader.

Elpelco

Oh hosanna, reasonable people!
Alrighty. I managed to do format the card in the way suggested from the modaco thread, apparently, and when I rebooted my phone, the apps I'd installed were gone. Market said they WERE installed but unable to load. Had to uninistall and reinstall them.

The recovery image I used is a Cyanogen one, so I booted to that and did the partition thing. My phone doesn't boot to it when I power on+home, though.

That's my situation right now.

So, @quantumrand, if I do that, is it going to do anything to the ROM I have installed? Or is it simply reinstalling (or whatever it is) the recovery image?

Thankyou for your patience, internet cookies for all.

quantumrand

Hmm...I can't say for certain how it will affect your current ROM. I would assume that your ROM should still start up without any issues, but I suppose there's always the possibility that your current bootloader acts significantly differently, though I doubt it.

Furthermore, are you certain you have MCR 2.9 installed? It seems odd that adb wouldn't report any connected devices if you are in fact on the MCR. It should say definitively in Settings>About Phone whether you have MCR or not. I know it may seem trivial, but it's always helpful to comfirm such things.

Elpelco

That was one of the first things I checked and yep, 2.9. Plus I reflashed it this morning. This is what I don't understand.

Slug

It sounds to me that the recovery image didn't flash correctly, as booting up with HOME held should bring it up. If you're seeing the standard recovery screen then something's screwed up. Quantumrand's suggestion is a good 'un, and won't affect your existing ROM at all. The only thing overwritten will be your existing recovery image.

Elpelco

Interesting. I wonder why that was? I shall try it tomorrow, thanks muchly.

Ok, moment of truth....

IT WORKED! Thankyou so much guys, I was beyond frustrated. I'm off to partition my SD card now, and once I've got appstoSD running, my Hero will be exactly the way I want it to be.

And now I must ask....how do I set up apps to SD? I tired partitioning the card from the recovery screen, and then installed apps to SD, but it didn't work, apps tells me to check the website for the tutorial.

**EDIT**
I installed apps then repartitioned the card. Rebooted, now all my apps are gone.

**EDIT 2**
I did a wipe on the phone and repartitioned the card, several times. Now if I install an app it's there, fine, but when I reboot it's gone. Market says it's installed but it can't open. What have I done?!

Last edited by vido.ardes; November 19th, 2009 at 04:59 AM.

Slug

If you're running one of the recent MoDaCo ROMs then there's nothing to set up, as AppsToSD is included in the ROM. Provided your card is partitioned correctly (FAT32 + EXT3) AppsToSD will automatically move all your installed apps to the second partition on the first restart. That's why there can be quite a delay during boot.

Elpelco

I didn't partition the card before the flash. If I do it now, from the recovery screen, and reboot, will that do it?

Sorry for all the questions.

Last edited by Elpelco; November 16th, 2009 at 08:30 PM.

Slug

You don't install AppsToSD - it's already there as part of the ROM.

The normal sequence of events with a stock handset would be:

(a) Flash the modified recovery image to the handset
(b) Repartition card as desired (1st partition FAT32, second partition EXT3)
(b) Run the ROM update.zip file from the memory card via the recovery image.
(c) Reboot and wait while AppsToSD moves everything it can to the EXT3 partition.
(d) Enjoy!

With MCR 2.9 already installed, simply partitioning the memory card correctly and rebooting the handset should get AppsToSD working its magic.

Elpelco

Sorry, I realised after I typed it, I did edit but not quickly enough. Thankyou for your patience. I'll do it tomrrow.

Slug

No patience required.... we've all been there at some time. Stay cool, work methodically and it'll come together. Once you've done it once it's a piece of cake thereafter.

Good luck. I'll be hoping for good news when I log in later.

Elpelco

Ok last question. The recovery image I'm using is the one from quantumrands post above, and it has the option to partition the card with a fat32, ext2 and linux swap, fi I do that and then select 'convert ext2 to ext 3, and then reboot, will that do it?

Slug

Yup, that'll work fine.

quantumrand

I think he's more concerned about whether it will delete his data or not.

From the looks of the wording, I would assume it should save your data, but perhaps you should back it up to your computer before hand, just in case.

Elpelco

How do I know if it worked?

She. :-)
And I did back it up but it didn't delete it.

**edited because I sounded snotty**

Last edited by vido.ardes; November 19th, 2009 at 04:58 AM.

quantumrand

Sorry, note to self: There are girls on the internet.

Elpelco

Lol, no probs. Tis a mistake I've made many a time.

Alrighty. It would appear it didn't work. I think apps are still installing on my phone, since my phone memory is down to 77mb and yesterday it was 93mb and I've been installing a few apps on it. :-(

Last edited by vido.ardes; November 19th, 2009 at 04:58 AM.

quantumrand

When you say phone memory, do you mean RAM as per reported by an app like TasKiller or some other process manager, or the internal phone storage available in the Settings?

Elpelco

The internal memory of the phone.

Would really appreciate some help on this :-(
I can't seem to get it to work. I tried partitioning the card from the recovery image, and when I rebooted, my installed apps are all gone. Market says they're installed but they won't open. (I've got some shortcuts on the homescreen)

Any suggestions?

Last edited by vido.ardes; November 19th, 2009 at 04:58 AM.

quantumrand

Perhaps try the App ID Fix on the recovery image (Home+PowerOn)?

daveybaby

Thread resurrection, hope that's okay:

Rooted and installed MoDaCo a couple of days ago. Partitioned up a new SD card, and i *think* everything has been moved across (phone storage says 89MB available, it was about 5MB before). However, i now seem to have no way of finding out how much space is used on my ext3 partition. Phone info reports the space on the FAT32 partition, and the phone's internal storage. But not the ext3 partition.

App manager pro, bless its heart, still seems to think all my apps are on internal storage, since it reports 5MB free. Confusing and slightly worrying.
[Edit] My mistake, app manager pro is correct, misinterpreted 5.999MB as meaning 6MB when its actually 6GB (german thousands delimiter).

ASTRO file manager doesnt seem to let me browse the ext3 partition. Again, can browse the internal storage, can browse /sdcard (which points to FAT32 partition). Cant see ext3 partition anywhere.

How do i find out what's going on in there? Is there an app which manages apps2sd? Is there any way of undoing apps2sd if i ever decide i need to?

Hmmm... in hindsight i should probably have sought answers to these questions *before* i used apps2sd...

__________________
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc : GiffGaff : UK

Last edited by daveybaby; March 17th, 2010 at 03:39 PM.

bluenova

It's very easy to mount the partition from a GNU/Linux O/S and view what's on it and how much free space you've got. If you haven't moved over to GNU/Linux yet then you could also check it from a live CD such as Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu Just insert the CD re-boot and choose Live session from the menu. It will then boot into Ubuntu and wont touch your hard drive. Just plug in your phone and mount, the partitions should automatically open in a file browser after a few seconds.

daveybaby

Heh, changing desktop OS is probably slightly overkill just to read the contents of a directory (but yeah, i have a livecd or two kicking around).

Just seems odd to me if there isnt some way to do this from the phone itself. Frankly, i was very surprised that Astro didnt find the partition...

Slug

Root Explorer file manager will display used/free space - that's what I use.

Alternatively, connect the handset to your PC and from a command prompt run "adb shell busybox df -h". The output will contain a filesystem mounted on /system/sd.... that's your ext3.

Deleting the ext3 partition and wiping the handset will do it, but I suspect you'd prefer a less drastic solution. It may be possible to enable/disable via shell commands, I dunno.

daveybaby

Tried Android Mate and that managed to read \system\sd correctly, but only the first time i ran it. Every time after that it returned an empty directory (same as astro does). Bizarre

Edit: Just found that if you actually kill the android mate process and then re-run it, it will read \system\sd correctly again. Once. Move out of sd and then go back in again and it's supposedly empty. Dont know about anyone else but i'm not trusting a file manager that returns different directory contents on subsequent reads for anything. Un. In. Stalled.

But root explorer reads it correctly every time. Thanks.

(although thats yet another app installed to do *almost* the exact same thing as half a dozen others. Gah! )

Eeep! Yeah, that's pretty drastic. Was mainly wondering what would happen if i needed to replace, wipe or remove the SD card for some reason. (mental note not to do that unless it's *really* important)

Last edited by daveybaby; March 17th, 2010 at 08:06 AM.

vjprakashbe

"nandroid + ext" backup will save us if we want to wipe/replace the SD card.

__________________
HTC HERO --- SenseHero 2.1 --- recovery-RA-hero-v1.6.2 --- hboot-1.76.2007 --- radio-63.18.55.06JU_6.35.09.26

bluenova

Does + ext acctually work though now? I remember reading on XDA a lot of people having issues with it?

vjprakashbe

For me it works perfectly...ever!!! just not one or two times... I might have switched 1.5 & 2.1 ROMs more than ~25 times in last one month with all possible ROMs available from XDA. I did not face any issue with +ext once.

Xyro

I had trouble with +Ext when I had an Ext4 partition. If I wanted to backup/restore +Ext I had to enter a command via ADB on the PC (Which you can find on the recovery image post on XDA).

Switched to Ext3 and haven't had any problems with it since

Slug

I find it invaluable. It reminds me of the old Xtree for Windows.... if you remember the limitations of the Windows 3.1 File Mangler and how an alternative shell was almost mandatory.

As noted, "Nandroid + ext" works reliably in the current RA_Hero_Recovery.

Btw, the command-line instructions I posted will also work via a terminal app on the handset such as Connectbot - no need to use "adb shell".

bluenova

Ah yes I think that's what I read now thinking about it, but I think I did see issues with ext3 as well. Anyway ext2 is said to be better for a flash drive due to the lack of journaling as there are less writes so the drive lasts longer.