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Finding what I copied onto my Captivate....

Zaphod137

Lurker
Jul 20, 2010
8
0
So I got the SNES emulator and snagged some ROMs and copied them onto my Captivate (the fixed memory, no microSD card) via my computer. Problem is, I can't seem to find them on the phone itself... When I open up the SNesoid or a File Browser app, I can't seem to find any of the directory structure I saw when it was on my computer as a mass storage device.
Am I just dumb and looking in the wrong place? Or do I need to have an SD card to use for such things?
 
The problem is that the root directory that is shown on the computer as a mass storage device is not the same as the root directory as shown on the phone. They both show /sdcard, but none of the other directories match. I went searching through the phone's directories, but couldn't find it....
 
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/sdcard is the user (non-system) storage mount for the internal phone memory, then under that same location, Android mounts any external MicroSD car under SD, like so:

/sdcard/sd

When you mount the filesystems to your PC, it mounts the /sdcard and /sd as two separate storage volumes. So for example your G: drive might be the /sdcard location and the H: drive might be the /sdcard/sd location.

By mounting the external storage under the /sdcard location it sorts of creates a different model vs. how it's visualized when connected to a PC.

Some of the file managers also create an abstraction so like SD is a selectable volume by name, but I've seen a few apps that hit up the filesystem directly, so you have to understand how things are organized.
 
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my issue is trying to find files I copy over. particularly APK files. the mass storage device has folders: Android, DCIM, download, and sd.

The file structure when I use a file browsing app shows none of these folders. I've searched for known files but that doesn't work either. What's funny is that I know an app I downloaded, PDAnet, the APK was saved to the download folder, which is where I tried to copy another APK. However, I can't find them, my "Apps Installer" apps keeps crashing, and trying to download the APK thru barcode scanner only gives a "cannot finish download, there is not enough space" error. I have hardly anything installed yet. Blocked at every turn!
 
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try dropping your files directly onto the root of the SD card. As mentioned, if your using an external card, the folder on the phone is /sdcard/sd. If you're just using the internal memory then it's the /sdcard directory.

I can't find an "sdcard" directory to drop to. As mentioned, under "removable disk" in Windows file explorer, all I see is Android, DCIM, download, and sd.

I do see an "sdcard" director on the file explorer app on the phone, but I can't find any of the folders that I see in Windows USB drive.

EDIT: hmm, i found the folders off the sdcard after rebooting (thanks, rob). that seems to be my Android lesson so far, when in doubt reboot. incidentally, looks like I'll need to use SDK somehow to sideload this Market Enabler app, since ironically the phone is blocking install
 
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AHHH, yeah, sorry, when I said the root I meant when it mounts it on your PC. Example: mine mounts as M:\ I just drop files to the root of M: when I want to get them on my phone I browse to /sdcard. DCIM is your picture directory, not sure what download is and android contains system files of some sort.

Regarding this market enabler, where did you get this?? To my knowledge you need to copy over your settings.db and edit it on your PC then copy it back.
 
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AHHH, yeah, sorry, when I said the root I meant when it mounts it on your PC. Example: mine mounts as M:\ I just drop files to the root of M: when I want to get them on my phone I browse to /sdcard. DCIM is your picture directory, not sure what download is and android contains system files of some sort.

Regarding this market enabler, where did you get this?? To my knowledge you need to copy over your settings.db and edit it on your PC then copy it back.

whoops, i meant MarketAccess. I finally got that side loaded, had to use Android Central Sideload Wonder Machine because I only got permissions denied when trying to use SDK sideload.

So, now I have another problem -- it never installs the "Samsung Android USB Modem", it keeps failing even after I point it to the folder with all the Captivate drivers. Googling for this has had no luck. Should I start a new thread? The problem is that I cannot install PDAnet on windows without all the drivers installed.
 
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So, now I have another problem -- it never installs the "Samsung Android USB Modem", it keeps failing even after I point it to the folder with all the Captivate drivers. Googling for this has had no luck. Should I start a new thread? The problem is that I cannot install PDAnet on windows without all the drivers installed.
Not a new thread, you should post in the USB drivers sticky if you're still experiencing issues. Try the generic SGS drivers. I've got several posts in that thread, one of them detailing how I got all aspects recognized/working.
 
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