Root Should I partition my SD card?

[windsorclarenc]

I have a bunch of questions. I understand this allows you to move all of your apps to your SD card with a2sd.

1. Does this mean they'll stay right where they are when I flash a new ROM and won't have to bother with backing up my apps?

2. How do you find out if your SD card is a high enough class for this?

3. Does partitioning have any other benefits?

4. Will this help my phone run smoother/faster, assuming I move my apps?

5. Last but not least, can someone point me in the direction of a how-to for doing this?

 

[dustwun77]

1, No. new roms will have to do whatever they have to do to get them on it again.

2. I did it with class 4, no prob. I don't play games though.

3. some roms pretty much use up internal memory, leave less room for apps. need to be partitioned to put more stuff on then.

4. not that I have noticed.

5. directions are in our rooting sticky. I suggest a 1 gig partition as PLENTY.

 

[Rxpert83]

I have a bunch of questions. I understand this allows you to move all of your apps to your SD card with a2sd.

1. Does this mean they'll stay right where they are when I flash a new ROM and won't have to bother with backing up my apps?
No, you'll end up wiping the SD-EXT which is where your apps are stored when you flash a new ROM. Not wiping this would cause issues

2. How do you find out if your SD card is a high enough class for this?
If you havent bought a new one its not suggested to partition. Class 6 or higher is recommended. It CAN be done with lower class cards, but you may experience sluggish performance

3. Does partitioning have any other benefits?
Speed increases due to there being much more space available. This is especially noticeable with the sense 3.5 ROMS

4. Will this help my phone run smoother/faster, assuming I move my apps?
Yes, due to above reasons

5. Last but not least, can someone point me in the direction of a how-to for doing this?
Rooting for dummies gingerbread guide at the top of this forum in the root info thread.

If you play games I would do a 2Gb partition, as some games can be as high as 750MB+

Should cover it

 

[windsorclarenc]

Cool beans, thanks a bunch! Is there any real reason I shouldn't partition? Any dangers?

 

[Rxpert83]

If your card goes bad you lose access to those apps, but you would lose access to your titanium backups the same way. So either way your screwed (hopefully you have a recent nandroiD!)

 

[Granite1]

I have a bunch of questions. I understand this allows you to move all of your apps to your SD card with a2sd.

1. Does this mean they'll stay right where they are when I flash a new ROM and won't have to bother with backing up my apps?

2. How do you find out if your SD card is a high enough class for this?

3. Does partitioning have any other benefits?

4. Will this help my phone run smoother/faster, assuming I move my apps?

5. Last but not least, can someone point me in the direction of a how-to for doing this?

The guys pretty much covered everything from 1-4 pretty well.

I'll put my .02 in for #2: If you have never replaced the SD card you got with your phone, you have a class 4. If you get a new one, might as well get a class 10. It'll run faster, and the read and write speed will increase.

#5: I got the section from the root guide ( compliments of Mr. Ocnbrze )
1.copy your content of the card to a computer because partitioning will wipe the card's content.
2.go into recovery and select partition your sd card
3.enter 32 for swap, and 1024 or 2048 for ext2, and do the rest for FAT
4.select upgrade ext2 to ext3
6.select usb-ms toggle and transfer your contents of your card on your computer back to the card.
5.go to the main menu and do a full wipe (min data, dalvik cache and cache)
6.flash the superwipe
7.flash the rom of your choice.
8.reboot

from now on it is recommended you wipe dalvik cache, cache, data and sd ext.before flashing roms. MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT SELECT WIPE SD CARD as it will do just that. your card will be erased. also make sure that when making a nandroid backup to select sd ext to be backed up as well.

Any questions, just let us know!

 

[dustwun77]

OCN had a deal posted on here for a Patriot class 10 16gig card. I bought it and run it partitioned. It works really well. Might be what makes a difference when I use Bootmanager app, as roms run from sd card with that app.

before I got the class 10 card, I partitioned with a class 4 card. had a 2 gig partition. way too much. a waste of space really.

Anyway, with the class 4 partitioned, it worked fine for me. I don't play any games or run any intensive apps or really multitask. your results may vary.

i couldn't wait for the card to get here though, so I did it and it worked great!

 

[windsorclarenc]

I have a 16gb san disk SD card purchased from Wal Mart so I'm assuming it's above class 4. I think I'll partition later tonight. As for nandroid, from a couple horror stories I've heard, I've learned to always keep a working backup somewhere not on my phone. I always backup everything so nothing will really change there. And as usual, thanks a bunch guys. You're all a giant help to me.

 

[Braaainz]

before I got the class 10 card, I partitioned with a class 4 card. had a 2 gig partition. way too much. a waste of space really.

Anyway, with the class 4 partitioned, it worked fine for me. I don't play any games or run any intensive apps or really multitask. your results may vary.

Thanks for this info. I picked up a 32gb class 4 from WalMart for $30 a couple of weeks ago and have been thinking about partitioning it. I'm still waffling on the idea. Using the standard APPs to SDcard feature (which only moves part of the app) still leaves me with over 200mb on my Evo's internal memory.

 

[ocnbrze]

Thanks for this info. I picked up a 32gb class 4 from WalMart for $30 a couple of weeks ago and have been thinking about partitioning it. I'm still waffling on the idea. Using the standard APPs to SDcard feature (which only moves part of the app) still leaves me with over 200mb on my Evo's internal memory.

partitioning is super easy to do and most roms now have support for a2sd. i'd say go for it. i only wish that i did it sooner.

 

[MusicAddict]

Besides space, is there any advantage to partitioning? I'm running CM7 with about 45 apps installed and sit around 200MB free space on the phone.

Seems like any speed increases would be minimal in my case.

 

[ocnbrze]

Besides space, is there any advantage to partitioning? I'm running CM7 with about 45 apps installed and sit around 200MB free space on the phone.

Seems like any speed increases would be minimal in my case.

yes you are right as long as you have around 150-200mb internally then there is no need to partition. aosp roms are small so as long as your app count is low then your are in good shape. however, if you flash any of the sense 3.5 roms or even some sense 3.0 roms then i would recommend that you partition it. they can be quite large. or if your an app whore like me and have 150 or so apps then no matter what you should partition the card.

 

[LittleRedDot]

The guys pretty much covered everything from 1-4 pretty well.

I'll put my .02 in for #2: If you have never replaced the SD card you got with your phone, you have a class 4. If you get a new one, might as well get a class 10. It'll run faster, and the read and write speed will increase.

#5: I got the section from the root guide ( compliments of Mr. Ocnbrze )
1.copy your content of the card to a computer because partitioning will wipe the card's content.
2.go into recovery and select partition your sd card
3.enter 32 for swap, and 1024 or 2048 for ext2, and do the rest for FAT
4.select upgrade ext2 to ext3
6.select usb-ms toggle and transfer your contents of your card on your computer back to the card.
5.go to the main menu and do a full wipe (min data, dalvik cache and cache)
6.flash the superwipe
7.flash the rom of your choice.
8.reboot

from now on it is recommended you wipe dalvik cache, cache, data and sd ext.before flashing roms. MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT SELECT WIPE SD CARD as it will do just that. your card will be erased. also make sure that when making a nandroid backup to select sd ext to be backed up as well.

Any questions, just let us know!

My stock card was a class 6?

 

[dustwun77]

Does it have a class number on it?

 

[LittleRedDot]

Yep

 

[dustwun77]

oh, I thought ur statement was a question.

I originally partitioned with a class 6 card and had no problems. i just used a 1 gig partition and I didn't play any games or anything intensive.

 

[argedion]

If your card goes bad you lose access to those apps, but you would lose access to your titanium backups the same way. So either way your screwed (hopefully you have a recent nandroiD!)

Thats why you keep a copy of your tb on Dropbox. You Loose SDCARD replace it sync tb with dropbox get it all back Always a good Idea to keep your latest Nandroid there as well.

 

[LittleRedDot]

oh, I thought ur statement was a question.

I originally partitioned with a class 6 card and had no problems. i just used a 1 gig partition and I didn't play any games or anything intensive.

It was a question, I thought you were saying that the stock card was a class 4, but mine wasn't... is that unusual?

 

[mikem0269]

It was a question, I thought you were saying that the stock card was a class 4, but mine wasn't... is that unusual?

Just checked my stock 8 G but even with my readers on I cant read it
I thought it was a class 4

 

[dustwun77]

It was a question, I thought you were saying that the stock card was a class 4, but mine wasn't... is that unusual?

I don't know. Bought a different card same time i got the phone.

 

[new optimus]

if anyone is interested Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more! has 16gb class 10 cards for under $20

 

[ocnbrze]

if anyone is interested Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more! has 16gb class 10 cards for under $20

i use this one:Newegg.com - Patriot LX Series Class 10 16GB Micro SDHC Flash Card Model PSF16GMCSDHC10 (16GB)

 

[Mikestony]

How would one know if, in fact, the sd card is partitioned? I rooted recently and have Amon Ra v2.3 recovery and used that to partition my stock sd card. Then, I recently got a 32mb class 10 card and partitioned that to use in my phone. All went smoothly. Yet, I cannot see that it is partitioned using Astro File Manager or the Titanium Backup Pro. I have searched, and searched for the answer before I asked it. I am new to rooting and still have stock ROM and Kernel. Taking it slow...want to be more educated before I move on to flashing anything.
This has been an extremely helpful and useful site

 

[ocnbrze]

How would one know if, in fact, the sd card is partitioned? I rooted recently and have Amon Ra v2.3 recovery and used that to partition my stock sd card. Then, I recently got a 32mb class 10 card and partitioned that to use in my phone. All went smoothly. Yet, I cannot see that it is partitioned using Astro File Manager or the Titanium Backup Pro. I have searched, and searched for the answer before I asked it. I am new to rooting and still have stock ROM and Kernel. Taking it slow...want to be more educated before I move on to flashing anything.
This has been an extremely helpful and useful site

the easiest way is to use tb and go to the main screen. at the bottom it will list your system rom, internal, sd card, and a2sd. if you do not see a2sd then your partition did not take. but with amon ra i doubt that would be an issue. and the stock rom will not have support for a2sd. you will need to flash a custom rom that has it. i would recommend that you try mikg 3.0. it is waaaaaaaaay better then stock. plus it has a2sd support as well.

 

[Mikestony]

Well, I do not see an a2sd listing in Titanium Backup.. I would surmise my stock rom does not support it. I have downloaded the MikG 3.0 rom but have not flashed it yet. Little nervous, but from reading about flashing, it seems simple. When you say that MikG has a2sd support, do you mean it is cooked in, or do I still have to download darktremor a2sd also.