Root Formatting SD card from phone

[talereader]

Hello everyone.

I've looked everywhere for an answer but I still have my doubts.

Maybe a dumb question here, but... if having an ext2 partition + a fat32 on my SD (using apps2sd), does using the formatting option from the phone wipe the ext2 as well? If yes, how can I format only the fat32 one ? (Android 2.1)

 

[Podivin]

No, formatting the card (either by phone or PC) will not effect the ext partition.

 

[talereader]

Thank you for your prompt response!

Well, I formatted it and now the OS won't boot. It's stuck in a reboot loop.

I have CMLMod 1.5.1 ROM installed. I backuped up all the files on the card and also have a nand backup (only system, without the ext part) on the PC. It might be that the system needs some file from the SD (unlikely, in my opinion), or that the card wasn't properly formatted. If I insert it in the PC (through a card reader) on a Windows XP, it says it's not formatted.

So how do I format the fat32 partition in order to copy the files back on the SD, and hopefully boot the OS?

Note that in CMLMod's recovery mode, I don't have an option to mount the card and connect through the USB. Would the adb interface work, to list the partitions on the card, format the fat32, and then push the files on the sd?

 

[SUroot]

If you have a reader, you can just format it that way in FAT32 through windows...

 

[talereader]

Ok, the reader sees 3.96 Gb, which is the size of the entire card, not only the fat partition. I'll just format and repartition, and re-enable apps2sd. I presume that the ext part contained only the original apk's without any app settings, so i'll just reinstall them, without the need to reflash the rom.

 

[talereader]

I think that formatting from the phone damaged the file system on the card, because the phone just rebooted immediately after format and kept rebooting afterwards. The rom i'm using might not be as stable after all.

 

[DragosP]

I think you deleted system files.
I'm confused: what means app2sd? The script who moves apps from /data/app to ext partition on the card, or the app from market who automatically enables apps to sdcard from Froyo?

 

[talereader]

I'm confused: what means app2sd? The script who moves apps from /data/app to ext partition on the card, or the app from market who automatically enables apps to sdcard from Froyo?

Well to be honest, i'm not really sure. It came with the rom. Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe it's the script, because from what I know on Froyo you have to manually select the option to move the app to sd and the app needs to have support for this, but in my case all apps get installed by default on the ext.

Anyway, to conclude this thread, I formatted with a reader as I said, repartitioned, and finally had to reinstall every app (thankfully, that wasn't such a big pain, by using appbrain.com).

No settings or data were lost, but I'll be more careful and make a nand backup of the ext as well from now on, EVERY time I'll mess with major system or sd changes. This time I was plain sloppy.

 

[talereader]

I think you deleted system files.

I don't think it had anything to do with system files, as there were nothing more than apk's on the ext and on the fat there were only a few data folders from non-critical, user-installed apps. Note that just after fixing the sd, the system booted with a fresh partitioning (clean swap/ext/fat) with no problem (and I didn't touch it either, didn't reflash, just rebuilt the sd partitions).

Later edit: I did some tests, just to see how much does the system rely on the sd card. Maybe this was obvious, but I had to make sure. So, the rom doesn't boot without the original (properly partitioned) sd inserted, it just reboots (with apps2sd the ext and swap are now an extension of the system and tries to access them), and on the other hand it boots with no problem with an empty fat (it doesn't care about what files it finds or not, it just creates the data if it's not there, just as on a first boot after a fresh rom install)

 

[DragosP]

Ok. Then I'm pretty sure formatting the fat32 partition from phone erased the ext partition. So, you have to rebuild it and populate with apps.

 

[talereader]

Yup, all solved now. Thanks.

One question: I own an Orange Boston phone (made by Gigabyte, also known as “Codfish&#8221, not a HTC Desire, but I posted this here because I didn't find a subforum for it (and it was a generic question anyway). Is there an "All things root" general forum somewhere ?