I am about to re-partition my SD card. I currently have Fat32 and Ext3, and according to some posts in the development section, having a swap partition on your SD will speed up your phone, especially when u r using Hero ROM. Is that correct ? If I do so, do I have to reflash the FW ?
Thanks in advance. Hope you guys won't get annoyed with those noob's questions of mine
I don't know how people can run Hero without swap, it does help a lot. 64mb is a good size, anything bigger is too big imo.
No, you shouldn't have to reflash.
i asked a similar question not too long ago. all you have to do is backup your ext3 partition if your running apps 2 sd and want to keep your apps without having to install them all again. then you just repartition your card with the swap partition included and then restore your ext3 partition. hope this helps
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Hello there,
So i'm trying to figure out how to partition my 1gb sd card for the hero rom and ive read about there being a ext3, ext2 and fat 32, but do i need all three or just two of those? If so which ones?
I know paragon partition manager has the option for ext2 and ext3 aswell as linux-swap 2...
Just wondering how much should be given for each?
Fat 32?
and whatever else i need.
Thanks in advance.
upgrade ur recovery to cyanogens 1.4 then use gparted. search. dont need dat program its all done from your fone. supper easy.
also wrong section and its fat32 ext3 and linux-swap 32mbs
Coderedpl said:
Hello there,
So i'm trying to figure out how to partition my 1gb sd card for the hero rom and ive read about there being a ext3, ext2 and fat 32, but do i need all three or just two of those? If so which ones?
I know paragon partition manager has the option for ext2 and ext3 aswell as linux-swap 2...
Just wondering how much should be given for each?
Fat 32?
and whatever else i need.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need:
Fat32
ext3 - not bigger than 1.5GB...512mb is a good size
linux-swap - anything from 32 to 96...I use 64mb
They must be in that order.
I'm assuming that 1GB card is the one that came with you're phone, if so, don't bother. Buy a branded class 6 card, they're very cheap nowadays. reason being, the phone needs to cache things to the linux-swap partition...that faster the card the better the performance (in theory).
As Hiroots said, partitioning can be done on your phone, look for a guide on using parted (*not* gparted)
Please post in Q&A next time.
Im getting a bigger memory card for g1. Have Cyanogen 4.2.15.1 Do i have to format the new card for everything to work or just pop it in. Backed up sd card on laptop. Any answers appreciated. thanx ( by forma ti mean wipe partition card and such)
You're going to have to, at the very least, format it to FAT32 so that you can actually use it. Second, you will have to make an ext2, 3 or 4 partition if you want Apps2sd to work. Setting a 3rd partition for swap would be up to you if you decide to use it or try a hero rom in the future. Look at the current partitions on the memory card you use and just create similar partitions for the new memory card. You will also have to copy your current ext2, 3 or 4 partition to your new memory card if you currently have Apps2sd enabled on your current rom because that is where all the apps are stored.
thanx
i figured i would but just wanted to make sure. Thanks for the reply and you guys do such a great job that i wanted to say thanks for all the hard work you guys do.
Hello,
I've been googling around but didn't find an answer for some questions I have..
I bought an att n1 one month ago with stock 4gb card. yesterday new 32gb sandisk sd card has arrived and I started wondering what can I do with it, so my nexus would benefit
I have cyanogenmod 5.0.8 now, and i've used Amon_ra recovery to partition my sd card.
I used 256 mb swap, 2048mb ext2>3>4 and fat for the rest.
Now I'm wondering, why do I need I fat partition at all??
I'm linux user, so mounting a ext partition is not a problem.
will all apps work with only ext partition?
how do they know now that they should use fat as a storage and ext is only for app2sd?
is there anything else i could think off now? maybe I should make some additional partition only for custom roms, radios, updates, backups?
(I've seen a screenshot of "program" that allows to flash custom roms from a list, thats that? )
finally, is it possible to have dualboot? I mean two OS installed? (I still dont know what for )
Thank you for answers, especially those concerning partitions
Hello, I'm hoping someone can answer a few questions I have regarding the format of the SD Card for the Android system. - Apologies if this has already been explained on this forum, I did a search but didn't find anything too useful that answered my questions.
(I have knowledge of the linux file-system and swap drives, just unsure of the benifits of this for android).
Currently using a 16GB SanDisk Class4 SD Card.
I'm aware that you can format the SD Card to use as a swap-drive and for use of ext2 file-system.
While searching for info on this I found the following xda link which simply explains how to do this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/SD_card_partitioning
My questions are:
1. What are the benifits of having the ext2 file-system? (Would apps stored on SD Card run faster etc?)
2. Do I need to keep a FAT32 partition (as opposed to just having a swap and ext2 partitions without any FAT partition).
3. Does the swap drive greatly improve performance. And is this worth doing on a Class4 SD Card?
Thanks in advance!
Hi.
at the first I must say swat will decrease SD card life.
i recommond you to create EXT3 or EXT4 partition.
1)one of the benefit of EXT partition is your phone storage will not full and its help your phone performance.
2)yes.of course you should have fat32 partition for eg:music-movies...and other files.
3)yes.swap is a very good.and it helps your phone ram.eg:when you play plants vs zombie at the first screen game will exit because of ram and swap will use like ram and its good for gaming.
Thanks for the reply, much apprecaited.
Are you sure I need a FAT32 partition though? Videos, music etc etc can all be saved to ext2/3/4 on a linux OS so I just assumed I could just do away with FAT32 all together?
Is the following just not the same as using an App2SD app?
"1)one of the benefit of EXT partition is your phone storage will not full and its help your phone performance."
Sorry for being a bit fussy but I'd like to fully understand what the Ext/2/3/4 partition is actually used for. Is it just used purely for storage?
Thanks again!
In a short summary (and assuming you are using a Kernel and ROM supporting the features) ...
- "Swap" on a swap partition has its own own "filesystem". The data structures are actually created by "mkswap" and the partition is not directly accessible by the user. If your phone runs low on physical memory unused parts of the memory will be swapped out into the virtual memory to make room for other apps.
Note that this is no "magically increase your RAM" solution. Once swapping occurs it actually slows down the system as the swapped out memory regions need to be copied back into physical memory, sooner or later. It may only help to run "RAM hungry" applications.
- "SD-Ext" is a, most likely, ext2 formatted partition to where Apps you move to the SD (either by Android or App2SD) will go. This increases the amount of apps you can possibly install, but doesn't resolve the problem that apps having widgets or apps that are started during Android boot-up need to reside in the internal phone memory.
- The /sdcard partition where all your user data is being stored should be kept FAT32 (for the simple reason of making a backup of your data by slapping the card into card reader easier - Windows can't read Linux filesystems by default). Some ROMs will allow you to format /sdcard ext3 or ext4 ... the advantage is that ext3/4 (if the mount options are correctly set) may perform a lot better than FAT32, though your mileage may vary.
Roger? ...or do is something still unclear?
Many thanks B.Jay - I'll hit the thanks button after I post this reply! You cleared up all my questions, but just going back to the FAT32 partition;
I use linux as my main OS, so accessing the EXT format partition wouldn't be a problem; Do you know if all ROMs would work without a FAT32 partition and replace it with EXT2/3/4 partition? If you're unsure I can always find out by formatting and loading a rom.
Thanks again, you've been most helpful!
Agenty1609 said:
going back to the FAT32 partition;
I use linux as my main OS, so accessing the EXT format partition wouldn't be a problem; Do you know if all ROMs would work without a FAT32 partition and replace it with EXT2/3/4 partition? If you're unsure I can always find out by formatting and loading a rom.
Thanks again, you've been most helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Linux would, of course, be able to mount a ext partition (even on a SD card put into a card reader).
As for the ROM ... it depends.
The Stock Kernel Modules AddOn of GingerDX introduces ext3 and ext4 modules for the SEMC Stock Kernel, so in theory (I didn't test it!) you should be able to access /sdcard when being formatted ext3/4 - though it could be that you might need to adjust the vold script to properly mount the partition. The modules are mainly for supporting the sd-ext partition for "Apps-to-ext3/4-partition-on-mSD".
There's also alfsamsung's Alfs Kernel which is compatible with GingerDX and some other ROMs. That would be something you could try as well.
Simply look through the ROM threads ... I think MiniCM7 (+nAa's Kernel) should be able to support it, though this could involve some tinkering.
Personally speaking, I only have a ~2GB sd-ext on the SD in my X8 and the rest is a normal FAT32 partition (/sdcard).
yes you need a FAT32 partition.
when you partition your SD card you can move moveable app and games to ext partition.
please dont move app wich they cant move to ext partition.
cause after restart app that you moved to ext will corrupted.
good luck.
Thanks again! I think I'll follow your trend and try the 2GB SD-ext and the rest FAT32.
sd-ext missing!!
hey guys!! I've a small prob, would appreciate some tips. I normally move apps to sd card, if the app is movable by default. if the app is not movable by default, i use this app2sd by droidsail (available in the market) which force moves parts of the app 2 sd card. When I make back ups using xrecovery, i have no problem.
but when I use cwm for back ups, it gives an error saying sd-ext not found and it skips that part of the back up!! so any app I've moved by default or forced moved to sd card doesn't get backed up!! So I presume I have to create a sd-ext partition manually? How do I do it? I do have an sd-ext folder. but its not in sd card. it's in the root. (never had this prob with xrecovery though)
thanks in advance!!
neo_na said:
hey guys!! I've a small prob, would appreciate some tips. I normally move apps to sd card, if the app is movable by default. if the app is not movable by default, i use this app2sd by droidsail (available in the market) which force moves parts of the app 2 sd card. When I make back ups using xrecovery, i have no problem.
but when I use cwm for back ups, it gives an error saying sd-ext not found and it skips that part of the back up!! so any app I've moved by default or forced moved to sd card doesn't get backed up!! So I presume I have to create a sd-ext partition manually? How do I do it? I do have an sd-ext folder. but its not in sd card. it's in the root. (never had this prob with xrecovery though)
thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which version of CWM would that be?
Saipro said:
Which version of CWM would that be?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's cwm 4.0.1.5
Im using custom roms for a while now (on GDX26 now). i just move apps to sd, havent done any partitioning and things. so can someone give me a proper noobs guide to app2sd and tell me whats about this sd partitioning and file systems and stuff?
anybody??? :/
Check if your recovery has a Partition option, this is the easiest way to do it. If yes, you only need to give the size that you desire for the partitions. WARNING: all your SD data will be deleted.
If no, you need to use a PC Program, like minitool partition wizard, to create the EXT partition. It's easy: shrink the fat32 partition and create the EXT partition using the left space. The format must be EXT4.
Hopefully, your phone will recognize the EXT partition and will mount it
STALKER_88 said:
Im using custom roms for a while now (on GDX26 now). i just move apps to sd, havent done any partitioning and things. so can someone give me a proper noobs guide to app2sd and tell me whats about this sd partitioning and file systems and stuff?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pleas use forum search...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1345872
Thanks guys
but can you tell me whats the difference between native app2sd on 2.3 and app2sd with sd partitioning?
oh and whats this swap? its some sort of virtual ram right? do i need it and how do i make it?
Native app2sd doesn't move all the app to the SD (and not all the apps can be moved). Using EXT partition all the apps can be moved totally, so the use of internal memory is minimal.
SWAP, yes, it's virtual ram. I don't recommend you its use, because the SD's life is dramatically reduced.
If you wish to test it, you need to make another partition (formatted as SWAP), either from the Recovery or using a pc program.
RoberGalarga said:
Native app2sd doesn't move all the app to the SD (and not all the apps can be moved). Using EXT partition all the apps can be moved totally, so the use of internal memory is minimal.
SWAP, yes, it's virtual ram. I don't recommend you its use, because the SD's life is dramatically reduced.
If you wish to test it, you need to make another partition (formatted as SWAP), either from the Recovery or using a pc program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks that pretty much cleared everything for me.
I have a small problem :/
i partitioned the sd with CWM to ext4(no swap), everything works fine except the write speed of the sd in mass storage mode is so so slow. its really annoying why is that?
btw my sd is 16GB class 6
STALKER_88 said:
I have a small problem :/
i partitioned the sd with CWM to ext4(no swap), everything works fine except the write speed of the sd in mass storage mode is so so slow. its really annoying why is that?
btw my sd is 16GB class 6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please somebody help me with this?
i dont think this happend on ext4 format.
is the write speed realy a big thing? i also have moderate write speed and i can life with it
EDIT: If you want to move BIG files to your sd use a cardreader, for me its fast...
SafiXS said:
i dont think this happend on ext4 format.
is the write speed realy a big thing? i also have moderate write speed and i can life with it
EDIT: If you want to move BIG files to your sd use a cardreader, for me its fast...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have no idea how slow it is. about 900kb/s took me 3+ hours to copy about 10gb of my old data to the sd after partitioning
i dont have a card reader
BUMP!!!
Really need help please...
so no fix for this?