Database Develop

[Q] Convert SDCard to MainMem so External_SD becomes SDCard?

Hi there,
Is there a way to make the add the internal SD card to the main memmory? So that there would not be an internal SD card anymore?
I do not mean swapping the moutpoints around so my External_SD becomes my primary and my internal my second....
I want to get rid of the internal one alltogether (adding it to main memory).
I figure that I'll have to format the storage in a certain way... would that do it?
Can someone tell me step by step what to do?
I do have CW-mod installed.
I did search the forum, but couldnt find anything conclusive. Just hints that it should be possible...
If there already is a thread where all this is explained, please point me to it, because I couldn't find it.
Thanks,
Pfeffa-rah

I don't think this is possible , never heard of someone who did it

I have no idea how to do that. My question is... why would you want to do that?
Having an internal_sd partition adds the benefit of having big app data (such as those in Gameloft games) sit in a very fast partition and still be called "sddata".
Also, it's mountable via PC so everything in there can still be backed up. So it's best of both worlds really.

This was discussed some time ago in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1013575
There were ideas on how to remount the cards at boot. I myself come to the conclusion that since more phones start to behave in this way, app developers will have to start dealing with it. It just sucks they are mostly slow on the uptake. My main problem was the Spotify cache location being hard coded so I resorted to hack the Spotify apk.
PS. salisbury_steak: What is it with people like you that every time someone has a question on how to do something, your immediate response is "But why would you want to do that?!".

sorech said:
PS. salisbury_steak: What is it with people like you that every time someone has a question on how to do something, your immediate response is "But why would you want to do that?!".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was actually an honest question.
I wanted to understand why he wanted to do it. (i.e. What would be the advantages of it.) There was no supposed sarcasm in there.

how about the ability to install 5x more applications?

Having that stupid 5gb partition as sd card and the real sd card as a sub folder is retarded...
My 32GB class 10 cars is a lot faster than the internal one.
The internal 5gb memory is MUCH TOO SMALL!!! Most apps don't allow you to store data on the external card. If you like me and many others install some games that download aditional data + a nav app that downloads maps for europe + some streaming music app like wimp that can cache music for offline play then you are ****ed with LG's setup.
The setup CM7 uses solves the main problem but effectively wastes the 5gb by mounting it at emmc where like 0,0001% of apps are able to access it.
So adding those otherwise wasted 5gb to the main memory would be great. But i have not seen any solution to that yet :-(

Thank you Gensplejs for explaining that to them. I had no idea how to reply to that since it seemed so obvious to me.
This thread was ment to be a question about how to do it and not to discuss the usefullness of it. That is where I lost the way in other threads...
So, thanks for your replys all (realy).
But now, back On-Topic:
How would I do it?
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA Premium App

Please don't blame me if you tried it and you screwed up your phone.. It's your choice...
Well, I don't know if this would work, but this is how I would do it (accepting the fact that I'd loose almost 2GB of /data's free space):
1. Format your internal sd card to the same file system as your /data partition is (ext3 or ext4)
2. Copy every file from /data 1:1 to your sdcard (cp -R /data/* /sdcard)
3. I don't know when and where the partitions are mounted (maybe init.rc??)...anyways change the target there and let /data point to the internal sd card partition (so it is ensured that it is mounted automatically to the new location)
4. Reboot and keep your fingers crossed

I think i figured how to do it in theory. First we need some free space at our microsd to cp /data. Then we should repartition with fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0p8 and p9 into one partition and change vold.fstab to mount only externalsd at /sdcard as we do when we swap partitions. In theory it should work but i cant test it right now or make a script since ve gone vacations and i dont have a pc to restore in case of error

I agree.. certain apps wont store to sdcard.. its better to use the whole 8gb as phone storage, and use external sdcard as default sdcard.
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App

What ive found till now is that sd swapping is easy. You can do it by tweaking only vold.fstab. But repatriationing is a pain in the ass. Looks like lg has "faulty" partitions or something and to do it you must mesh up with with almost half partitions.
I had to rebuilt boot lgdrm recovery data and sdcard to make em half work. So it probably isnt worth the trouble. Also I think init.rc is built on the boot. So just remounting internal sd to /data wont work either.

sectors is not space
it says 7996, so thats 8GB

i saw it in hurry. the brain sometimes belives whats he want to belive
sorry

New to XDA
Hello everybody,
I'm new to android and i'm trying to find out how to solve the problem posted in this thread.
I see you've got the awnser but i don't know how to do this.
I've been searching google and XDA for ever but i just can't find the awnser.
Could you make a step by step howto or point out to a post how to do this.
I mean converting your external sd to ext4 and change the mounting points.
I'm a complete nood, i didn't get adb to work on my pc, ext4 recovery is not for the p990 2x.
I've read something abbout changing fstap for swapping te mounting points for sdcard and emmc, witch is also ok for me, but formating to ext4... wel i frankly don't know how to do this.
I'm quite stuk on this.
The only partitioning experience i've got is Gparted in Ubuntu or repartitioning in Windows 7.
Thans in andvance!
Greetz,
JMG

http://android.modaco.com/topic/347...-partitions/page__gopid__1821791#entry1821791
check this
you can expand data partition , but there is a limitation of 1.75gb

Thanks davjan
Thanks davjan,
As far i can see it's indeed not worth it.
I wil have to go on and try to find out how to change the filesystem to ext4 and swap the internal and external sd.
That way i get more usable space instead of a big datastorage witch cannot contain program data.
But thanks for the quick reply.

Jean Michel Gaar said:
Thanks davjan,
As far i can see it's indeed not worth it.
I wil have to go on and try to find out how to change the filesystem to ext4 and swap the internal and external sd.
That way i get more usable space instead of a big datastorage witch cannot contain program data.
But thanks for the quick reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what rom are you using? is your phone rooted?
swapping internal with internal sd is very easy
and most of the roms here on xda are ext4 , if you instal one of them they autoconvert to ext4

Jean Michel Gaar said:
Thanks davjan,
As far i can see it's indeed not worth it.
I wil have to go on and try to find out how to change the filesystem to ext4 and swap the internal and external sd.
That way i get more usable space instead of a big datastorage witch cannot contain program data.
But thanks for the quick reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I you read the link provided you'll see that it makes what you want: grow internal filesystem = lower SDcard usable space. The only thing is that it doesn't seem possible is to use the whole space: system limitation. 75Markus tried high /system and /data values and phone didn't work.
See in his Mediafire Folder, 'Nvflash + guide for changing Partitions:
http://www.mediafire.com/75markus
Ext4 is now common with custom ROMs (in fact all of them).
You should search in sd-ext partition system, which was designed to artificially expand filesystem on older phones using an 'ext' partition. I didn't heard anybody using this on O2X.
If you use CyanogenMod based ROMs, your external card will be mounted ad /sdcard by default.

Switching internal and external SD
Thanks guy's,
I'll check it out.
I've been using cyanogenmod 7.1 stable with vorkkernel 20110208.
But that gave me batterydrains while using maps and nextvid ate the same time (while i'm driving).
Now i'm trying MIUI 1.11.11 with latest swift extreme.
But MIUI is very buggy so i'm thinking of going back to CM.
The only thing is that my phone won't boot with the latest vorkkernel.

Unpartition SD

Hey People, devs members n all
I need help.
I thought lets partition SD card, looks fun
But then i lost all my data.
Thats fine.
Now, the space i have on my internal memory is so low that i hate it.
Anything i could do?
All sorts of Help appreciated.
So bombard me

Simply go in recovery mode and format your SD card!!...
U can asking use the "storage" option from settings...but I recommend using Clockworkmod recovery!..
"Please backup your data!"
galaxy fit + CM7.2 (2.3.7) + 801Mhz

yeah you should use cwm recovery then format the sdcard

jp_rocks said:
Hey People, devs members n all
I need help.
I thought lets partition SD card, looks fun
But then i lost all my data.
Thats fine.
Now, the space i have on my internal memory is so low that i hate it.
Anything i could do?
All sorts of Help appreciated.
So bombard me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i COULDN'T understand what you mean by 'Now, the space i have on my internal memory is so low' ?
However, from what the title of you post suggest I guess you want to remove the sd-ext partition of your sdcard. If that is the case here is a handy article that you might want to go through :
http://yagyagaire.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-remove-second-partition-of-your.html
Read through it and all your problems will be solved.

I think you don't know what's the partition use for.
It is used to increase internal storage.
If you partitions sd card, of course it will formating sd card.
Use Mini Partition Tool, google it.
sent from Nokia 3310

Thanks everyone!

Ext partition

Ok this might be a noob question but im going to ask it anyway..
Whats the point of creating one on the sd card?
Is the only benefit that i can move my apps to the sdcard with tools like link2sd?
Or can i also let the phone think i have more internal memory?
Im running the jellybam rom but i cant find any info about ext partitions, anyone who can explain it to me?
Thanks and enjoy your weekend guys

Coldstream said:
Ok this might be a noob question but im going to ask it anyway..
Whats the point of creating one on the sd card?
Is the only benefit that i can move my apps to the sdcard with tools like link2sd?
Or can i also let the phone think i have more internal memory?
Im running the jellybam rom but i cant find any info about ext partitions, anyone who can explain it to me?
Thanks and enjoy your weekend guys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know that there is an advantage for ext3 with a flash drive or SD card. See:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_f2fs_exfat&num=1
The article is mostly about f2fs vs exFAT, but some comments included.
"Earlier Phoronix tests have shown that F2FS from flash storage is already generally competitive with the popular Btrfs and EXT4 Linux file-systems."
"Seeing a user-space implementation of the Microsoft file-system outperforming the in-kernel "Flash-Friendly File-System" came as a shock."
With already slow SD transfer rates due to the media itself, I doubt you'll see an improvement in system performance. Maybe someone here has a better idea. I don't. But the worst you can do is nothing.
My only concern would be hooking up the 970 to a Windows machine; "stock", Windows may not see the extra ext2/3 partition. You'd need Linux to do that.

Hmm i've readed the article but cant find any info about what im looking for..
Anyone else who can help me?

[Q] ? how can I overcome the 4gb file system limitation

I would like to repurpose my N1 as a little WiFi capable storage device. I have been combing the internet for solutions and tried a few things. I can't seem to get a combination of android OS partition scheme and file system to accomplish this. Can somebody point me in the right direction. I am not picky about any of the details but it would be nice to be readable from windows. I am currently messing around with ext4 and using ext2fsd but I am not really getting anywhere.
Thanks if u can help me out

dasbooter said:
I would like to repurpose my N1 as a little WiFi capable storage device. I have been combing the internet for solutions and tried a few things. I can't seem to get a combination of android OS partition scheme and file system to accomplish this. Can somebody point me in the right direction. I am not picky about any of the details but it would be nice to be readable from windows. I am currently messing around with ext4 and using ext2fsd but I am not really getting anywhere.
Thanks if u can help me out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can flash a custom ROM (I recommend Evervolv KitKat) and use a2sd. Then you'll have up to 32 G on the external sdcard (which becomes a virtual "internal" sdcard.
Sent from my Nexus One

PhilipTD said:
You can flash a custom ROM (I recommend Evervolv KitKat) and use a2sd. Then you'll have up to 32 G on the external sdcard (which becomes a virtual "internal" sdcard.
Sent from my Nexus One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey thanks I already had a custom rom going with jelly bean and have a ext4 partition with a2sd install but it to make it visible even to linux seems to be a challenge and I dont know why. I also seem to get errors when downloading files bigger than 4gb which makes no sense. I dunno maybe i should get an otg card reader and put the old 4gb back in the phone and put the 32 gb in the card reader and use paragon software. Any body think this might work or have another suggestion.

dasbooter said:
Hey thanks I already had a custom rom going with jelly bean and have a ext4 partition with a2sd install but it to make it visible even to linux seems to be a challenge and I dont know why. I also seem to get errors when downloading files bigger than 4gb which makes no sense. I dunno maybe i should get an otg card reader and put the old 4gb back in the phone and put the 32 gb in the card reader and use paragon software. Any body think this might work or have another suggestion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about partitions sizes?
Sent from my Nexus 5

PhilipTD said:
How about partitions sizes?
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thnks again, The fat 32 partition is aprox 6gb and the ext4 partition is aprox 22gb so ya the ext4 is much bigger than the fat32 but that is what would make it practically useful. Right now I seem to be getting i/o errors around the 4 gb size area of a torrent? for a vmware image of a linux distro.

slow internal storage speed

Hey guys, I have an old xperia sp(4+ years old), But recently it got laggy. I tested some roms such as `android 7.1 and 9 and original 4.3`. In android 4.3 using phone doctor plus i got 3Mb/s for write speed and 12Mb/s for read but in android 9 i got 3Mb/s for write and 2Mb/s for read Can anyone help me how to fix this? Is there any way to use SD-card as internal storage? Thanks in advance.

That's so slow, strangely slow really. Could be that the flash cell is finally succumbing to its age.
You can try to use the Adoptable Storage feature. It is unknown of how fast the sdcard reader of XSP can reach, but of course please use a high speed card, preferably with label A1 (or if old card, U2). This is to ensure an acceptable experience.
If doesn't remedy, you could try something a little bit advanced, formatting sdcard as ext4 and use it exclusively for /data partition. It is however unknown if this could be done easily, or if it possible for recent Android versions (this trick was used in the old days of JB era)

TechnoSparks said:
That's so slow, strangely slow really. Could be that the flash cell is finally succumbing to its age.
You can try to use the Adoptable Storage feature. It is unknown of how fast the sdcard reader of XSP can reach, but of course please use a high speed card, preferably with label A1 (or if old card, U2). This is to ensure an acceptable experience.
If doesn't remedy, you could try something a little bit advanced, formatting sdcard as ext4 and use it exclusively for /data partition. It is however unknown if this could be done easily, or if it possible for recent Android versions (this trick was used in the old days of JB era)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I can format sdcard as ext4 but where can i mount sdcard to /data folder? or how to mount internal storage as read-only after mounting sdcard as data folder?

alirezaafzalaghaei said:
Thanks, I can format sdcard as ext4 but where can i mount sdcard to /data folder? or how to mount internal storage as read-only after mounting sdcard as data folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay i looked up a bit but it seems this is not possible due to a myriad of changes and features. The only possible way to make this work is by the means of kernel modification. But I'm sure me if not both of us, aren't even a "newbie" in that aspect.

TechnoSparks said:
Okay i looked up a bit but it seems this is not possible due to a myriad of changes and features. The only possible way to make this work is by the means of kernel modification. But I'm sure me if not both of us, aren't even a "newbie" in that aspect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, I think so, i'll wait for someone professional who can help me. Thanks:highfive: