Root Upgrading SD Card - Apps2SD

[The Wagster]

Hi,

I've just bought a new SD Card with the hope of replacing the card currently used in my Hero. But I'm having trouble getting the new card to work.

I am running Elelinux Froyo Special Edition 2.2 and I use Apps2SD. New SD card is a 8GB type 6 Samsung purchased from play.com

Is there a guide anywhere that tells me what I should do/ should have done?! I've copied everthing to my PC (including a titanium backup). I unmount the current SD card, remove and replace with new one. But every time I try to mount the new card my Hero reboots and it won't boot with the new card in place.

Is there something I'm doing wrong?

 

[Podivin]

Because you didn't mention that you've copied everything back from the PC to the new SD card I think there is one of two problems.
1) the card is not yet formatted
2) the phone is looking for an app that it's expecting to find on the SD card and is not finding it, causing a reboot.

If you've got an adapter that will allow you to plug the card directly into the PC then now is a good time to get it out.
First, make sure the card is formatted (that the PC can see and use it as a external drive). If it's not then format it. Because I have a different phone I can't say for SURE, but I expect it needs to be formatted fat32.
Next copy all of your data that you saved on your PC from the old SD card to the new SD card. Be sure and 'safely remove hardware' on the PC, put the SD card back into the phone to see if it's better behaved now.

If you don't have an adapter then try this. Connect the phone to the PC and boot your phone into recovery. If you have a USB-MS toggle option select that(again, my phone is different than yours, so not sure this option exists). Hopefully the PC can now see your phone as an external drive. If it can then the two steps above still need to be done.

 

[Xyro]

So you're currently using apps2sd? Are you using the older version, where you have to partition the card or the built in froyo version?

You might not be copying your apps to the new card, which might be what's causing the crashes.

@ mhotovec: Fat32 is right.

Q for others: Where does froyo apps2sd store apps, exactly? On the fat partition, right? Is it normally visible or is it normally hidden?

 

[The Wagster]

Thanks guys.

I partitioned the SD card. I was using apps2sd on Eclair and didn't change anything (expect the ROM) when I switched to Froyo. So I guess I'm using old style. How would I set it up new style?! I didn't even know there was one!

I had tried to Format the new SD card when in the phone but it didn't seem to do anything. Unfortunately I'm at work now and don't have permission to format anything plugged into my PC! Will try when I get home.

 

[Podivin]

Check the specs on your ROM to see if the new ROM uses the partition. On my phone Froyo ROMs do not use the partition, and they won't even boot up if the SD card has a partition (sound familiar?). So now I'm thinking that the SD card has a partition, and that you're new ROM doesn't need/want/like that partition. If that's the case you can remove the partition using the same steps you used to create it, but you set the size to 0 (zero).

 

[Xyro]

Yeah, now you're on 2.2 you don't need an ext partition any more.

What you ought to do IMO is backup all of your apps with TB whilst using the old sdcard, format the new card to all fat32 (via the recovery menu and USB-MS toggling), do a nand + ext backup and then a factory reset. Then put the titanium files on your new card, boot and restore all of the apps.

That's the most sure fire way of getting everything working again

 

[Mohsin]

Quick question - is apps2sd+ available on any Hero ROMs?

 

[Xyro]

I think so. I hadn't heard it referred to as apps2sd+ before, but by the sound of it we do have that option as part of the 2.2 cyanogen mod settings. (Which is bundled in a lot of 2.2 ROMs, like elelinux or froyd).

 

[Mohsin]

Thanks for the reply. So what would I have to do to enable it, do you know? I'm running Elelinux Special Edition, and only see support for Apps2SD. If I'm honest, I don't really understand what the difference between A2SD and A2SD + is.

 

[Xyro]

After my 30 seconds of googling, this is how I think it works (so don't quote me on this )

- Apps2sd: The old custom method - requires an ext partition (which is somewhat of a hassle).
- Froyo 'Move app to sd': Official method - uses a secured folder on the normal part of the sdcard, so no paritioning is needed. But it's limited in which apps can be moved and doesn't move them completely.
- Apps2sd+: An advanced version of froyo's method - uses the normal partition of the sdcard but moves the majority of any and every app.

In the cyanogen mod settings (on elelinux), under application settings, I see the option to allow the movement of all apps to the sdcard. That's what I suspect is apps2sd+.

 

[Mohsin]

Thanks for that mate, will have to look into it more when I get round to buying a better micro SD .

 

[The Wagster]

Thanks everyone, got it working now.

Elelinux does require a partition for apps2sd. I think there was problems with formatting the fat32 part of the SD card which caused issues.

 

[Xyro]

Elelinux does require a partition for apps2sd.

Are you sure? I purposely repartitioned my card back to normal, removing my ext partition, before flashing the latest elelinux, and I'm using apps2sd+ just fine.

By 'no partitioning needed', I mean the whole card is a fat32 partition. (That's just what a stock sdcard comes as).

 

[Mohsin]

You always need a partition for the old-style Apps2SD. The fat32 stuff is Froyo's default one, which doesn't move the whole app to SD card and relies on the app to be suitable to move.

Old-style moves it without question, by tricking the phone.

I flashed DarkTremor, it's fantastic. Proper Apps2SD on my phone now, just need a class 6 memory card so that I can bring over the dalvik-cache with it and free up my internal memory .

 

[dino]

Are you sure? I purposely repartitioned my card back to normal, removing my ext partition, before flashing the latest elelinux, and I'm using apps2sd+ just fine.

By 'no partitioning needed', I mean the whole card is a fat32 partition. (That's just what a stock sdcard comes as).

not sure of it is necessary, but if the partition is there on boot then elelinux will certainly use it. Just did a clean flash of Elelinux 2.2 RC1-update 1 and with a freshly partitioned SD card. Titanium recognizes and reports the EXT partition as a2sd and after restoring my apps, it seems to have put them all there judging by the space used in the partition before and after.

Though isn't an old style a2sd partition totally integrated seamlessly with internal memory? So restoring the apps to 'internal' may very well actually be the EXT partition or the internal RAM, whereas 'external' would be the FROYO SD folder (Fat32 partition)?

 

[SUroot]

After my 30 seconds of googling, this is how I think it works (so don't quote me on this )

- Apps2sd: The old custom method - requires an ext partition (which is somewhat of a hassle).
- Froyo 'Move app to sd': Official method - uses a secured folder on the normal part of the sdcard, so no paritioning is needed. But it's limited in which apps can be moved and doesn't move them completely.
- Apps2sd+: An advanced version of froyo's method - uses the normal partition of the sdcard but moves the majority of any and every app.

In the cyanogen mod settings (on elelinux), under application settings, I see the option to allow the movement of all apps to the sdcard. That's what I suspect is apps2sd+.

When froyo came out, apps2sd got called apps2sd+ as the froyo implementation started to get called apps2sd. Since the script version still moves more, it is +.

There are a few different versions of +

An ext partition is required for +

Some custom roms have the means to change the default installation location to externalmedia too. Such as cyanogen.

+ is still the best version in my opinion. Although with data2sd, not sure we need it anymore

 

[The Wagster]

okay, so I could use normal froyo apps2sd with Elilinux froyo but as it saw my partition it started to use old style apps2sd anyway. Weird. Thanks for your help and extra info everyone.

 

[VertigoKid]

I have a similar problem with mine. I had a 16gb memory card that works great with my Samsung Moment. I then purchased a 32gb memory card and switched it out from my old memory card. Things were working fine at first and then when I started changing themes my phone decided that it didn't want to pull up anything from my card. It would say something along the lines of E:\something something something and that my card is bad and then it would work and then it wouldn't. At one point my phone wasn't rooted because it wouldn't install the Custom SDX zip. I put my old memory card back into my phone and everything worked. I switched it back to my 32gb card and haven't dared to use it yet. My phone specs are(since I don't know how to capture the pic from my phone) Firmware version 2.1-update1. Baseband Version S:M900.8.OS.DE03. Kernel Version 2.6.29. Build Number ECLAIR.DE03.

 

[SUroot]

Many 32GB cards are fake if not purchased from a reputable outlet

Use this to test :

Download H2testw 1.4 Free - Check your USB for errors with this tool. - Softpedia

 

[VertigoKid]

Many 32GB cards are fake if not purchased from a reputable outlet

Use this to test :

Download H2testw 1.4 Free - Check your USB for errors with this tool. - Softpedia

Thanks but I'm not sure how to test this with info already on my memory card. I don't want to erase what's already on there because I think it needs those files to read so my apps can work on both my phone and from my card. Like I said one minute it works and the next minute it gives me a bad error message. If it was a bad card it wouldn't be reading anything.

 

[SUroot]

Depends on the fault and / or how often you write data to it.

You can always copy your files to your PC and copy them back.

 

[VertigoKid]

Depends on the fault and / or how often you write data to it.

You can always copy your files to your PC and copy them back.

I got the card three months ago. Last month I decided to switch out the cards. I copied everything from my 16gb card to my 32gb memory card. As mentioned before there are times when my phone will read my card and there are times when it won't. As far as how many times I've put things on my card doesn't matter because I've only been using it for a month and shouldn't matter since it's a rewriteable card. Some of the themes that I try to put on my card requires a different build which means I have to switch from one build to another. My computer reads my card just fine. It's my phone that's being finicky.

 

[SUroot]

If its a fake card, with a lower capacity then it completely matters how often its written to. The more data you put on it, the closer to its true capacity you get. If you go over its true capacity, it starts to overwrite existing data.

That app will tell you if it is fake or faulty. If you're not willing to rule either out, then I can't help you.

 

[VertigoKid]

What I need to know is if there was a way I could find out how much memory my phone can take. I was told that a 32gb memory card may be too much for my phone to handle.