Help Problem seeing folders on removeable SD card

[Jack513]

When I plug in the USB cable, which came with the Bionic, from computer ( Win 7) to Bionic I see 2 folders. # 1. MOT & #2. (No name) Removable Drive. I cannot see any folders on #2 except Lost.drive.
Phone says there files in the media area (I assume that is the removable SD card). Can you help me find the files.

 

[Thom]

Take a look at ... Connecting Bionic to Windows 7 with USB Cable .. especially the mode set on the Bionic.

... Thom

 

[Jack513]

It did not work. Tried the soft reset and it always has been on mass storage. Any other ideas?

 

[Thom]

Its LOST.DIR

The names are confusing ... see ... SD Card Naming in ... http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid-bionic/438060-bionic-reference-terms-links.html#post3398984 ... and the short form is look on the SD card and not the SD-Ext card where you are currently looking.

I changed the names on mine (using Windows) to BIONIC SD and BIONIC SD-E as a reminder.

... Thom

 

[Jack513]

I downloaded Astro and it gives me
/mnt/asec,
/mnt/obb,
/mnt/sdcard,
/sdcard-ex,
/mnt/secure,
/mnt/usbdisk_1.1 & 1.2 & 1.3 & 1.4 & 1.5 & 1.6 & 1.7

/mnt/sdcard-ext only has LOST.DIR Folder
/mnt/sdcard has some Folders for apps
but I don't see any apps listed, are they hidden?

There are also other folders above /mnt
I hope this helps us.

 

[Thom]

I thought you only wanted to access the data on your Bionic. It is on the SD and SD-Ext cards.

There is a third area that is hidden and it contains the apps.

If you want to manipulate the entire structure you need a tool like Titanium Backup Pro and it requires that you are root-ed.

The reference I gave you has a section that shows that the three popular apps (Files, ASTRO, Titanium Backup Pro) call the various sections.

... Thom

 

[Jack513]

I will take a step back and say that when connected from my Bionic to PC two Drives come up -
1. "MOTO" (with a drive letter)
2. [FONT=&quot]blank with [/FONT]no name (with a drive letter)

Should I see sdcard-ex and/or sdcard? What should I see in windows explorer?

 

[Thom]

I will take a step back and say that when connected from my Bionic to PC two Drives come up -
1. "MOTO" (with a drive letter)
2. [FONT=&quot]blank with [/FONT]no name (with a drive letter)

Should I see sdcard-ex and/or sdcard? What should I see in windows explorer?

Those are the two cards yo are seeing as drives on the PC ...

8.00GB = SD Card (not removable)
14.8GB = SD-Ext Card (removable)

OK?

You can double-click on the names in Windows and change them to whatever you want. I chose BIONIC SD and BIONIC SD-E when I renamed them.

... Thom

 

[amageus]

When I plug in the USB cable, which came with the Bionic, from computer ( Win 7) to Bionic I see 2 folders. # 1. MOT & #2. (No name) Removable Drive. I cannot see any folders on #2 except Lost.drive.
Phone says there files in the media area (I assume that is the removable SD card). Can you help me find the files.

Media area is not in the Removable SD Card. For whatever reason the Media area replaced Apps2SD and does not store apps into your External SD Card. Your file system is setup as follows:

4gb reserved for the OS on the internal memory.
4gb reserved for apps on the internal memory.
8gb reserved for whatever you desire and labeled as "SDCard".
and whatever you have as an SDCard labeled as "SDCard-Ext" (16gb if using stock SD Card)

If you look in the Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Media Area it will state "Internal Storage" on the bottom and display your used and available space. For instance mine shows 5.5gb used and 2.5gb free. Using a widget called "Elixir 2" I have on my display 3 icons for memory (not ram). One is the Internal memory which displays how much space i have left for my apps. The other 2 are labeled as External Memory which are pointed to "/mnt/SDCard" and "/mnt/SDCard-ext". My "/mnt/SDCard" is showing 2.5gb free which is the 8gb of internal memory. So if you want to look for your files in the media area they are located in "/mnt/SDCard". However whatever is in your media is an app and I do not not (or have not looked) where the OS stores these apps. Hope this helps.

 

[johnlgalt]

Guys, it's this simple:

MOT maps to the internal storage, where most app data and Apps2SD resides.

The one without an assigned volume name (i.e. just says Removable Storage) is exactly that - removable storage. As in your MicroSD Card. Because you can take out your MicroSD Card. As in remove it.

So, you're not seeing any files on your SDCard (aka removable storage) - and that is the way things are right now for the BIONIC, b/c we have an internal storage area (which shows up on your PC as MOT that is 8 GB in size and contains all your app data, pictures, music, etc.

You can change the location of where pictures get saved to in the camera app. Some apps you can force to use the SDCard by going into the app's settings and changing the storage location.

Some apps - well, you just gotta wait.

 

[Jack513]

Thanks for the great feedback you all have given me to help visualize where things are on the SD's and how they are used.
I wish that the 16GB SD (aka removable storage) would be more of direct use for us (if I understand it right). To me the space is somewhat wasted. Would there be a good reason to upgrade to a 32 GB, if you do not but video & pics on it? Do you think ICS may have a good use for that space?

 

[Thom]

Consider the implications ... it is designed to be removable.

If you put data on it that an app needed and then removed the card then the data would no longer be present. Like set a bunch of options and have the values stored on the SD-Ext card. It would operate one way with the card inserted and another way with the card removed.

Another example ... add some ringtones to the SD-Ext card ... select one of the ringtones to be used for notifications ... connect the Bionic to a PC using a USB cable ... the SD-EXT card is then not accessible from the Bionic side ... a notification goes off when it is connected ... the ringtone that is heard is the default ringtone and not the one you told it to use.

I believe the whole structure was adopted well over a year ago in preparation for ICS.

... Thom