how long does it take to partition an SD card??

[dan330]

I have a 16GB class 10 card... i am repartitioning it for Gingerbread and Sense ROMs... because it takes so much room.. I need to move more apps to sd.

it is being partitioned:
228mb for swap .. dont know why.. just picked a number.
15xxmb for ext2.... will convert to ext3
rest will be for my data.

well it has been partitioning it for over 45 mins...
The dots are moving across the screen... it looks like it is working.
how long will it take? has something gone wrong???

thanks

 

[lunatic59]

That does seem rather long, but USB interfaces are notoriously slow. If there are loads of small files on it, it could take a seriously long time.

I would have copied all the files off the card, wiped out all existing partitions and created new ones. Then copy the files back.

 

[dan330]

i did copy all my files out... but did not delete them... then I did wipe everything.
i thought the repartitioning would not care if there was anything there...

I am afraid the battery will die before.. it finishes .. and flashing to the new ROM.

still going...

?????

 

[lunatic59]

i did copy all my files out... but did not delete them... then I did wipe everything.
i thought the repartitioning would not care if there was anything there...

still going...

?????

Hmmm, if you blew away the existing partitions, it shouldn't care about any files. It does have to format the new partitions, which take time. What are you using to repartition?

 

[dan330]

I am in RA recovery.. not the newest...
I rooted back in Dec 2010.. so what ever the newest version was then.

it has been 1 hr now.....

should I give up.. and do a battery pull?

 

[lunatic59]

I just watched a little youtube tutorial on repartitioning an sd card using RA and it didn't seem to take that long, however the tutorial showed very small partitions. I can't say one way or another whether the process is locked or what a battery pull might do in this case.

 

[dan330]

I did wipe all... did not reformat.

after a battery pull...
I just restarted the partition process...

funny thing..
the first time.. the letters and dots where green.
this time ... they are white!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hhhmmm.... fingers crossed.

 

[lunatic59]

Let's hope that's significant and that it works this time. Good luck.

 

[dan330]

crap.... 40 mins and counting...

 

[lunatic59]

crap.... 40 mins and counting...

If it's not throwing an error and the dot's are still advancing, maybe it does take that long.

 

[dan330]

no errors.. and white dots go across the screen.. and armies of white dots go marching up the screen...

wtf

 

[lunatic59]

no errors.. and white dots go across the screen.. and armies of white dots go marching up the screen...

wtf

Did you get the Dave Matthews model?

 

[dan330]

NOT funny..

 

[Usta]

I'm not sure how reliable are is the ext partitioning from Recovery.
I'd suggest to use Gparted to properly partition the card. For better interface, simply put the card in a card-reader and connect it to PC.

 

[dan330]

a member was kind enough to talk to me on the phone about this, and this is what I should try next:

1. partition with: 0 swap and 0 ext2 .. to see if it works.
it took 5 seconds to do.. no problem

2. usb to my pc.. had it error check the drive.. took 15 secs... no problem.
even formatted it... no problem.
got the full 14.9GB

3. go back to recovery.. partition it to 0swap, 1024mb ext2; back to waiting..
after 20 mins.. i battery pulled.
i tried to wipe the ext2 and would not even try... it will not allow me wipe it. just says ... skipped blah blah blah..


it is one of 3 things:
1. bad card
2. bad phone.. cant format or change drive space.
3. software setting/ permissions.....it just sounds like there is a setting that is off... like not allowing to partition out the space..?????


anyone have any ideas?

 

[dan330]

I'm not sure how reliable are is the ext partitioning from Recovery.
I'd suggest to use Gparted to properly partition the card. For better interface, simply put the card in a card-reader and connect it to PC.

thanks.. I will try that software... see if it can do it.

 

[Usta]

thanks.. I will try that software... see if it can do it.

Here is a video tutorial: Gparted

 

[dan330]

for whatever reason.. i was able to use RA 2.3 to create the partitions.

on my 16GB SDcard
swap = 0
ext2 = 1024
the rest for data.

it only took 5 secs to partition!!!

but... now it will not convert the ext2 to ext 3...
anyone know of another way to do that?

 

[Usta]

You can try Zip Align 3 to convert it. You need to flash the zip file from recovery.
alignment-ext3.zip

Otherwise, Gparted!

 

[dan330]

You can try Zip Align 3 to convert it. You need to flash the zip file from recovery.
alignment-ext3.zip

Otherwise, Gparted!

thanks.. I will try that flash.

I looked into Gparted.. and that was a little more than i want to try. for now. i might have too if i dont find a solution.

3 weeks ago.. i had a issue with this sdcard .. after 4 months of great use with no issues... the partition got corrupted. I am starting to think maybe the card is marginally bad.

 

[dan330]

during this ordeal... i updated RA from 1.8 to 2.3

the new nandroid backup has a lot more options to back up...and can select multiple parts:
boot
system
data
cashe
recovery
wimax
sd-ext
.android_secure

I am guessing.. that i only need:
boot
system
data
wimax
sd-ext

is this correct???

 

[dan330]

You can try Zip Align 3 to convert it. You need to flash the zip file from recovery.
alignment-ext3.zip

Otherwise, Gparted!

i tried that alignment-ext3 flash....
did not wipe anything.. because this would only mess with the ext sd partition

it completed and said "done"

i then tried to ... fix sd-ext.. it would not do it.
i then tried to ... wipe sd-ext.. it would not do it.

i dont know if it really worked or not. guess I have to reflash the ROM to see if it will create the apps2sd...

 

[Usta]

The reason I've recommended Gparted is because it can handle ext type (linux) partitions and do more. It can be booted from a CD, USB stick or virtually. This will come also handy for all your PC HDD partitioning operations.

It is better to learn using one very good tool, rather than wasting time trying to find a workaround.

By the way, you will need to make both the FAT32 and ext3 partitions as "Main", and you need to place ext3 after FAT32 (not before!).


From the internal memory partitions, I've used mostly these:
/system - the ROM goes here
/data - your apps are installed here
/sd-ext - Dalvik cache goes here