Database Develop

[TUT]How to partition your SD card

Since I've read much about this in different threads (people who couldn't find out how to do it), I thought I could share some light on it in a separate thread...
For starters: DO NOT PARTITION YOUR SD CARD WITH ROM MANAGER!!! This will partition your internal memory, and will brick your phone... To get back to stock please follow this thread.
Okay... First off to the linux users out there. There already exists a very nice tutorial on how to partition a SD card in ubuntu(the steps will be very similar in other distros too). For the ones that want to use gParted, theres an live cd here.
For myself, and all the other windows users, read on
1. Get yourself a copy of "Paragon Hard Disk Manager".
2. Install it through it's instructions.
3. Mount your SD card to your computer, and make sure it's recognized.
4a. Probably the fastest way: Go to "my computer", right click on your SD card, click format, choose FAT32 and format your card.
4b. Launch PHDM, and select "format partition", choose your SD card (next), choose FAT32 (next), "Yes, apply" (next) and your card is beeing formated to FAT 32.
Now your going to make the ext2/3/4 partition.
5. Go back to the main menu of PHDM again.
6. Click "create partition", choose your SD card (next), make the new partition size (I picked 1GB for my ext) and pick ext2/3/4 (next), "Yes, apply..."(next) and your card is partitioned and formated to ext2/3/4.
Good luck

Or if you're like me and have a previous phone with Amon_Ra's recovery. Put the SD card that you're using in the Vibrant into the G1 and load into the Recovery and "partition sd card" and all you'll have to do is set up the size of the partitions. It'll take less than a minute to do this. Far more easier and im sure a lot of people from the Vibrant community were upgraders from the G1.

And partitioning your SD card does what exactly?

Novek said:
Since I've read much about this in different threads (people who couldn't find out how to do it), I thought I could share some light on it in a separate thread...
For starters: DO NOT PARTITION YOUR SD CARD WITH ROM MANAGER!!! This will partition your internal memory, and will brick your phone... To get back to stock please follow this thread.
Okay... First off to the linux users out there. There already exists a very nice tutorial on how to partition a SD card in ubuntu(the steps will be very similar in other distros too).
For myself, and all the other windows users, read on
1. Get yourself a copy of "Paragon Hard Disk Manager".
2. Install it through it's instructions.
3. Mount your SD card to your computer, and make sure it's recognized.
4a. Probably the fastest way: Go to "my computer", right click on your SD card, click format, choose FAT32 and format your card.
4b. Launch PHDM, and select "format partition", choose your SD card (next), choose FAT32 (next), "Yes, apply" (next) and your card is beeing formated to FAT 32.
Now your going to make the ext2/3/4 partition.
5. Go back to the main menu of PHDM again.
6. Click "create partition", choose your SD card (next), make the new partition size and pick ext2/3/4 (next), "Yes, apply..."(next) and your card is partitioned and formated to ext2/3/4.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The operation *apply changes* isn't available in demo mode. It cost 49.00?.........

stepinmyworld said:
The operation *apply changes* isn't available in demo mode. It cost 49.00?.........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download a gpartd boot cd and use that. Free, open source, easy.

MRCLrider said:
And partitioning your SD card does what exactly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Allows you to use the data/cache to SD mod to speed up some stuff on the phone. For most of us, it has nearly eliminated the lag.

Novek said:
Since I've read much about this in different threads (people who couldn't find out how to do it), I thought I could share some light on it in a separate thread...
For starters: DO NOT PARTITION YOUR SD CARD WITH ROM MANAGER!!! This will partition your internal memory, and will brick your phone... To get back to stock please follow this thread.
Okay... First off to the linux users out there. There already exists a very nice tutorial on how to partition a SD card in ubuntu(the steps will be very similar in other distros too).
For myself, and all the other windows users, read on
1. Get yourself a copy of "Paragon Hard Disk Manager".
2. Install it through it's instructions.
3. Mount your SD card to your computer, and make sure it's recognized.
4a. Probably the fastest way: Go to "my computer", right click on your SD card, click format, choose FAT32 and format your card.
4b. Launch PHDM, and select "format partition", choose your SD card (next), choose FAT32 (next), "Yes, apply" (next) and your card is beeing formated to FAT 32.
Now your going to make the ext2/3/4 partition.
5. Go back to the main menu of PHDM again.
6. Click "create partition", choose your SD card (next), make the new partition size and pick ext2/3/4 (next), "Yes, apply..."(next) and your card is partitioned and formated to ext2/3/4.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ttabbal said:
Download a gpartd boot cd and use that. Free, open source, easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried this and its not as easy as you state. The instructions aren't clear either. I have blank CDs, added the file but it also says download something else which wasn't there. Whe you try to open the app from the cd, it doesn't know which program to choose to open it.

Ubuntu comes with a disk utility that is really easy to use.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

stepinmyworld said:
i tried this and its not as easy as you state. The instructions aren't clear either. I have blank CDs, added the file but it also says download something else which wasn't there. Whe you try to open the app from the cd, it doesn't know which program to choose to open it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do know you have to burn it as a CD IMAGE not as a file, right? If you're on Windows, Infrarecord is free and works well. Linux and OSX come with software that can do it. Then you boot from the CD, there isn't a need to open an app, it should launch itself once booted. Then select the SD card and partition. It even formats the partitions for you.
It's not as easy as some, but it's a whole lot easier than fdisk. Free software is generally not going to be as "pretty" as paid stuff. If you want the pretty, pay for Partition Magic, Paragon, whatever, there's a few options out there.

+1 for gparted boot cd
It has saved me several times when I've screwed up my hackintosh installs.

Paragon is saying it cant format my sdcard....

LovellKid said:
Paragon is saying it cant format my sdcard....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the paid version or the demo? To format you'll have to have the paid one...
/edit
Updated first post with link to gParted live cd...

Paid version (Thx Utorrent), but so just to clarify, so do I go straight from Fat32--> to Ext4 option? Or do I have to choose ext2, then create another partition (ext3), then ext4?

stepinmyworld said:
i tried this and its not as easy as you state. The instructions aren't clear either. I have blank CDs, added the file but it also says download something else which wasn't there. Whe you try to open the app from the cd, it doesn't know which program to choose to open it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to boot this cd once you burn it. Be careful not to partition your PC's hard drive

LovellKid said:
Paid version (Thx Utorrent), but so just to clarify, so do I go straight from Fat32--> to Ext4 option? Or do I have to choose ext2, then create another partition (ext3), then ext4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can go straight from having the whole SD in FAT32 to partition your card to ext4

Sumner info on how to do this with a mac would be nice. Or even via the command line from a rooted vibrant.
Sent from my Vibrant using the XDA app.
Typos, incorrect words, gibberish, and other nonsense brought to you courtesy of Swype.

Arr MiHardies said:
Sumner info on how to do this with a mac would be nice. Or even via the command line from a rooted vibrant.
Sent from my Vibrant using the XDA app.
Typos, incorrect words, gibberish, and other nonsense brought to you courtesy of Swype.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no experience with macOSX so I can't help you out there... If someone writes a guide here I'll update the OP, but I believe that you can use gParted Live cd with mac's too...

sjk;ddasmdaljl;akjwmj
i spent the better of the night trying to format my card. sandisk 16gb class 2.
i fire up PHDM after formatting the card through my computer. i keep getting an error message when i go through the create partition wizard saying that my external sd card has four different partitions including an extended one, which doesnt make sense because i just formatted it. ill attach a picture when i wake up.
i then tried to use paragon partition manager. my sd card shows up. yay. i proceed to create two primary partitions: 13.6gb fat32 and 1.5gb ext3. everything goes good. now, when i unmount my sd card, the phone then says that the external sd card is corrupted and that i need to reformat. reformatting takes me back to square one. 14.8gb fat32. i tried letting the phone format the memory card and then use ppm to do just a 1.5gb ext3 and success. it worked. i installed deodexed rom and saw that my boot time was 2-3 min as compared to the general 10-12 min i was reading about. downloaded quadrant and registered a beautiful 897. i also went to go put back all my files onto my memory card and it asks me to reformat the card. square one again.
last resort i used gparted. tried using 13.6gb fat32 and 1.5gb ext3 and gparted gives me an error saying it cannot complete it. i dont remember exactly the error because im not too familiar with linux.
if anyone has any ideas or alternatives that ive missed, please chime in.
EDIT: i tried using two different memory cards and they didnt work as well. there has to be something im either missing or doing wrong. =(

Can't believe none of you guys have a previous Android phone with Amon_Ra installed. It practically makes partitoning a SD card a joke.

Fellow rookie to rookie step by step guide
This is my first Android phone and really my first experience with “programming.” I am using a Windows 7 PC, a rooted phone and a 16GB class 2 external SD card. Here is my step by step guide to partition your external SD card (That is the one that has/had Avatar on it) using free software:
1. Download and install the ISO recorder from alex fineman. Just Google “alex fineman iso recorder.” If you don’t have his program you will not be able to burn ”gparted live” as an image to a CD which is the next step
2. Google “gparted live” and select the sourceforge site. Next select “To install GParted Live on CD, download the .iso file and burn it as an image to a CD.”
3. I tried the most recent stable version but it would not load so I ended up using the most recent “Testing release” which worked on my Windows 7 PC
4. Download the gparted-live-0.6.2-2.zip which will now have an ISO extension since you downloaded and installed the ISO recorder in step 1
5. Open the gparted-live and follow instructions to burn a disc image
6. Connect you phone and enable USB mass storage (I used my work BB rather than the Vibrant in case I messed things up. Others have recommended an old phone)
7. Start your PC with the gparted-live disc in and get ready to hit the “esc” key to get into boot up. Select “boot from cd”, “gparted live default setting”, “don’t touch keymap”, 33 (for English), and “0”. You should now get the gparted-live interface and there should be two devices connected. Your PC and the phone with its external SD card
8. Delete the existing SD card partitions but make double sure you are on the phone and not your PC before you do this. Next, create the primary, fat 32 partition and leave no more than 2 GB of space for the next partition. Create a primary, ext3 partition and select accept to create the new partitions. That is it. Exit gparted and reboot your computer without the disc
I did the repartitioning so I could apply the custom ROM from anomalous3 over in the development section. I would highly recommend his ROM as a next step in your development as the phone is incredibly fast after installing it. As I said, I am a 100% rookie but the phone is now blazing fast (over 1,400 from low 800 on Quadrant. I really have no idea what it means but the difference is fantastic). Best of luck to my fellow rookies/noobs/nbs/newbies

Burned wrong image - Full SDCard Access

so i either don't fully understand how images work in the SDCard itself (not on the nook), or i did something wrong and don't know how to fix the card, but at any rate, i managed to burn a 128meg image onto my 8gig sd card, didn't like the image, and now can't figure out how to get the card back to a regular 8gig card!
would love some direction. tried to search but must not be using right keywords.
didn't see any kind of format or clear option in the winimg program we're using.
thanks!

byproxy said:
so i either don't fully understand how images work in the SDCard itself (not on the nook), or i did something wrong and don't know how to fix the card, but at any rate, i managed to burn a 128meg image onto my 8gig sd card, didn't like the image, and now can't figure out how to get the card back to a regular 8gig card!
would love some direction. tried to search but must not be using right keywords.
didn't see any kind of format or clear option in the winimg program we're using.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On your Nook I believe you can go to Settings, Device Info, Mount the SD card if it's not mounted and then format it. It'll erase it and you'll have a blank SD card. If you're going to put a different image on the card I don't know if you even need to bother formatting, but I' not sure about that stuff.

does the nook format work differently than a computer format? because i burned a 128meg image onto an 8gig card and now even a computer format won't get the whole 8gigs back... just the 128 megs. it's like it's got invisible partitions on it or something.

Partition
Try EASEUS Partition Manager to change the partition size/format card.

byproxy said:
so i either don't fully understand how images work in the SDCard itself (not on the nook), or i did something wrong and don't know how to fix the card, but at any rate, i managed to burn a 128meg image onto my 8gig sd card, didn't like the image, and now can't figure out how to get the card back to a regular 8gig card!
would love some direction. tried to search but must not be using right keywords.
didn't see any kind of format or clear option in the winimg program we're using.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
byproxy... here is the easy way...
1) Go and download "EASEUS Partition Master 7.0.1 Home Edition" --- just google it (the home edition is free and downloadable)
2) Put your microSD card into a card reader and plug into your computer
3) install EASEUS onto your computer and run the app
4) Once app is started, located your microSD card amongst the list of drives listed
5) select each one of the partitions on the SD card, and delete them individually
6) Once all partitions are deleted, make sure that you are still selecting the microSD card, and select the option to create partition (it may just say create)
7) Make sure you select FAT 32
8) Then select FORMAT
9) Lastly, click on APPLY and it will do all the things above. So in short you select all the actions that you want... and only in step 9 will it execute all those actions.
Please make sure that any changes you make are to the SD card and not any of your other drives. Last thing I would want is for you to accidentally format your Computer, NAS, or your non-SD card. =)
Enjoy...

sweet. exactly what i was looking for. thanks gents!!!

hvuong2 said:
byproxy... here is the easy way...
Enjoy...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, but isn't it easier just to do it in the Nook or am I missing something here?

...worst case there's a low level SD card formatter from Panasonic (IIRC might be Toshiba) that will do a complete low level format and has recovered uSDs for people using them with Nintendo DS dev carts...
A Google search should turn it up, or a thread on a DS site which might have a link to it. It'll be a little windows program...
(I believe that windows and most devices just do sort of a quick format of the uSD, and so can't recover from some problems like re-partitioning of the card... so monkeying around with a partition editor and assigning the card to be one big partition then re-fromatting under windows or some other device MIGHT work as well...)
[EDIT]
oops, I see post #5 has the re-partitioning solution as well... another way to do it would be to backup an image of the card BEFORE burning something like autonooter on it then restore that original image to card once finished with whatever you were trying out... it's what I did when I tried autonooter w/my old 128MB card, in linux in my case a
dd if=/path/to/sd/card of=./somefilename
dd if=./autonooter.img of=/path/to/sd/card
then later
dd if=./somefilename of=/path/to/sd/card
sd card path under linux is likely to be /dev/memc<device ref characters?>
You should also be able to do this under windows with the utility recommended for windows users to use with the autonooter image, as I'm guessing that it's just a GUI wrapper and a windows compiled version of the dd utility...
[/EDIT]

Varying opinions
BarryR1 said:
OK, but isn't it easier just to do it in the Nook or am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some believe that there are issues with formatting on Nook... depending which ROM you are running. The surefire and safe way, is to do it from a PC.
Nook should format, but may not partition correctly.

hvuong2 said:
Some believe that there are issues with formatting on Nook... depending which ROM you are running. The surefire and safe way, is to do it from a PC.
Nook should format, but may not partition correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, the Nook will format the *device* and not a partition, so it always works. But you don't want to do it if you've installed NC or HC to eMMC.
If you're using Stock rooted, just boot without the card in the device, put it in, format. Done.
Or if you're on a real os just format the device... mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX

Easily and quickly resize your SD Cards FAT 32 Partition

To quickly resize the FAT32 Data (ie music extra large data files etc) portion of any of the bootable SD cards use the following steps:
1. Create your SD Card from the Image.
2. Download and install Easeus Partion Master from Download.com
3. Close out file manager and any other active programs before starting Easeus.
4. Start Easeus, it will boot up and it will show the SD with the four partitions.
5. If your SD card has room that is unclaimed part of it will be gray and labeled unformated.
6. If it has room, right click on the last partition of the sd card and choose Resize/Move.
7. Now simply drag the end of the partition so that it extends the box to include as much of the unformated drive space as you want it to.
8. Hit Apply. Here is the rub, Easeus tries to save the data on that particular partition while extending/expanding the drive. I don't believe this is guaranteed so please backup anything you want to keep. But know that it is possible it might make the transition just fine.
9. Exit the program, you're done!

I've tried this and Easeus doesn't show any of the SD partitions. I've tried two different cards (an 8GB and a 16GB) on two different computers. Any suggestions? I posted this issue in another thread but nobody responded.

Bad reader?

Yeah, Partition Master only shows the first partition for me. I may try to pick up a different reader to see if that's the issue.
EDIT: I picked up another SD card reader over lunch and it also just shows the first partition. Is there some magic to showing all of the partitions on the card?
RE-EDIT: Scratch that...Windows only mounts the first partition as a drive letter but Partition Master shows all partitions properly. Cool!

So how do you access it
So you are correct and this works. My question is how do you access the SD card. If I pull it out and use a reader, windows only sees the boot sector. When I am booted autonooter 3.0 Rooted, put in the SD card and then plug into a computer it only sees the internal memory and the boot sector on the SD. When I connect it to the computer while booted in Honeycomb I do not see any drives.
Have you figured out how to load files on to this expanded area. I would love to try and play ripped DVDs on Honeycomb.

I'm able to resize the fat32 partition, but I would like to resize the internal memory so that I have more space for apps on my SD running honeycomb. Anyone find a work around for that?
Thanks

restoring sd card back to original size-HELP

I have spent over an hour reading threads and searching, cannot find what I need.
I have CM7 on eMMC.
How do I get my sd card back to 8gb?
SOVLED

-My Computer-Right click on SD card Drive- Format - Card is now 8 Gigabytes

Had this last night but try formatting the SD card within your nook. I had an SD card with 1 gig image and was having the same problem.

Just to clarify. Use the format options within the nook. Sorry not in front of Nook at the moment.

Larry94 said:
-My Computer-Right click on SD card Drive- Format - Card is now 8 Gigabytes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tks, but that did not work

Zhousibo said:
Just to clarify. Use the format options within the nook. Sorry not in front of Nook at the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read that on CM7 on eMMC when doing that it formats the boot on the nook not the sd card, so did you do this or just think its the way to do it. THanks

Use this program, the free edition:
EASEUS Partition Manager
Windows can only see the first partition on your card. There are probably 4 partitions left from your emmc install. Plug your microSD card into your computer and launch EASEUS. You should see the driver letter assigned to your microSD card and 3 other unassigned partitions on your card. Right click on each of those partitions and delete them. Then either resize the primary partition Windows can see to the full size of the card, or delete that partition, then create a primary partition on the card that uses the full card size. You should now have your full capacity back.

rog152 said:
I read that on CM7 on eMMC when doing that it formats the boot on the nook not the sd card, so did you do this or just think its the way to do it. THanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I actually did the format using CM7 on my Nook Color. Bit hazy on the exact details, but if you look at the SD storage section in the Settings you should see the different SD cards and will show which to format. I had used my 8 gig SD card as a 120 meg SD boot with CWM so this SD card kept showing available space of about 120 meg (so I chose this to format).
'Should' be fairly obvious but can understand your hesitation.
FYI, I tried Easues Partition on my Windows 7 64 bit machine but did not recognize. Might be worth trying XP or Linux if you have but I would test the above option (Backup everything if concerned). I had just flashed CM7 to my nook so wasn't too bothered if I lost anything.
I can check when I get home.

rog152 said:
I have spent over an hour reading threads and searching, cannot find what I need.
I have CM7 on eMMC.
How do I get my sd card back to 8gb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows only sees one primary partition, so you have to use a partition manager to delete the other primary partitions. MiniTool Partition Wizard claims to work in all versions of Windows, I only have 32 bit Vista. Or you could use Linux in a virtual machine such as Vmware, it's free for home use.

Alakar said:
Use this program, the free edition:
EASEUS Partition Manager
Windows can only see the first partition on your card. There are probably 4 partitions left from your emmc install. Plug your microSD card into your computer and launch EASEUS. You should see the driver letter assigned to your microSD card and 3 other unassigned partitions on your card. Right click on each of those partitions and delete them. Then either resize the primary partition Windows can see to the full size of the card, or delete that partition, then create a primary partition on the card that uses the full card size. You should now have your full capacity back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, this worked.

also this link
http://nookdevs.com/NookColor_Format_and_partition_your_SD_card_back_to_a_usable_state

I use SD Formatter, works great

I need some help with a SD card with CM7

Hi everyone. I have CM7 running off an 8GB Sandisk microsd card. Something I still cant figure out to do is how to access the remaining space on the card that is not being used by the boot partition. I can access it from the Nook, but if I take it out and try to access it from a PC I only have the boot partition which only gives me about 100mb of free space. When I plug the nook into my pc with the sdcard installed I only have access to the built in storage. Can anyone please tell me how to access the extra space or direct me to a walkthrough on how to do it. I searched but couldnt find it.
Thanks.

You can use easeus partition manager or minitools partition manager.... you need to set partition 4 to active to see it in the computer... but you MUST remember to make partition 1 active again to use it in nook....
The issue is that all 4 partitions are created as primary partitions... Window will only see the first active primary partition.

Thanks a lot. I will check out easeus partition manager. I appreciate your response.

I finally got around to trying what you mentioned, DizzyDen. I got the sd card switched to active, but still when I open it up in windows explorer I can only see the boot partition. In easeus it states that the partition will all the storage is active though. Any suggestions?

That is common and limitation of windows... it will only see the first active partition on a drive... the same as when you were using the 2 GB version.... you can change the active partition in easeus partition managare to partition 4... do what you want... but you HAVE to remember to change it back to partition 1 as active before you take it out and put it back in nook

DizzyDen said:
That is common and limitation of windows... it will only see the first active partition on a drive... the same as when you were using the 2 GB version.... you can change the active partition in easeus partition managare to partition 4... do what you want... but you HAVE to remember to change it back to partition 1 as active before you take it out and put it back in nook
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some how this really screwed up my computer booting up. I made 100% sure not to check any of my two desktop HDD's and just switched primary and active on the SD card. Easeus asked to reboot computer and then I eventually had to do a restore point to be able to boot windows afterwards...

How about you try this:
[ROM][CM7] Size-agnostic SD Card image and CM7 installer for SD Cards. with updater
I know this will require you to reinstall CM7 but it Automatically adjusts for any sized card and allows easy updating without CWR or PC.
____________________________________________________
Sent from NookColor CM7 using Tapatalk

japzone said:
How about you try this:
[ROM][CM7] Size-agnostic SD Card image and CM7 installer for SD Cards. with updater
I know this will require you to reinstall CM7 but it Automatically adjusts for any sized card and allows easy updating without CWR or PC.
____________________________________________________
Sent from NookColor CM7 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems they already did that... have cm7 running on SD... the problem they stated was not being able to access partition 4 on their computer.... btw... when you change active on SD in easeus don't reboot... you don't have to.

DizzyDen said:
Seems they already did that... have cm7 running on SD... the problem they stated was not being able to access partition 4 on their computer.... btw... when you change active on SD in easeus don't reboot... you don't have to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... What he's talking is that he did something like install a 4gb image on a 8gb card and now he wants to expand the "sdcard"partition to fill the remaining space on the card. I had to do this when I had a Nookie Froyo 2gb image on my 4gb card but it was annoying. The only easy and smooth way to do it was to Boot to my Linux Install (Ubuntu 10.04) on my PC and Run GParted(The best Partition Manager under the Sun) Trying to do it in Windows was just miserable.
In the end I found it much easier to simply use the Method in my above post when I installed CM7 and it's been the best Expirience I've had Installing a Custom ROM. It's also been dirt simple to update CM7 as all I have to do is plug the SD into my PC and Copy the latest CM7 zip onto my boot partition and boot to recovery. It installs everything automatically. You can even do the same thing to install GApps. If I'm away from my PC but want to update I just download the Zip to my Nook and then use a Terminal App to mount Boot to a folder, and then simply copy the Zip over and Reboot into Recovery.
So I recommend just reinstalling CM7 to an SDcard with my above post for a less stressful experience.
____________________________________________________
Sent from NookColor CM7 using Tapatalk

I don't think that's the case. He said he was able to see the storage space from his Nook but not when putting the uSD card in his PC. This is the case because Windows is only able to see the first active partition on a drive; using something like Easeus he can temporarily switch the active partition to #4 to view the storage space.
Unless what you mean is increasing the size of the first partition by deleting all the other partitions as well and just having 1 large boot partition so that it's viewable when mounted on PC (or on stock if dual booting). I don't know the viability of that because I'm not sure how CM7 needs to have partitions structured other than that the 1st is always the boot and the 4th = storage. I may be wrong
*edit: Also, if you're trying to access the root level of files during USB storage mode (for, eg., dropping a new boot animation to /data/local) you won't be able to do it, need to use something like Root Explorer or ADB*

I think the OP needs to clarify what his/her problem is because no matter how I read the OP's post I interpret it one way but other people are interpreting it other ways. Until the OP clarifies, I don't think anybody can help since none of us are on the same page.
____________________________________________________
Sent from NookColor CM7 using Tapatalk