Develop Bugs

Android on Kaiser: The difference between SD/NAND/EXT2?

In short:
Is there a thread somewhere stating the pro's and con's of running Android from different types of "media" (SD, NAND, EXT2)?
If there is, please provide a link, I can't seem to find anything that isn't an unanswered question or small comments.
If there isn't, let this be a starting point for those looking for the answer to this question.
Longer:
I've seen this question pop up once and again but it might be that the topic is totally exhausted and people have stopped commenting on it. I can't seem to find an answer though; What are the pro's and con's of using NAND, EXT2, FAT32 or any combination of it?
I see a couple of installation alternatives and some I have been able to conclude myself but others not.
* Running from SD-card using HaRET
This option is the slowest in terms of Android performance. It has the added value of easily getting back to Windows Mobile by rebooting the phone, gaining easy access to the SD card and manipulation options.
* Running the system AND data on NAND
This option has in my view the fastest Android experience. Access to files on the SD card is a bit more cumbersome (there is the SD card split widget APK available but I have yet to see it working) and access to files for manipulation I can't comment on (haven't gotten to that yet).
* Running the system from NAND and data on EXT2
The performance seems almost as fast as the system+data on NAND. I have no idea about the added value of running anything from an EXT2-partition in the SD card but I'm guessing it will be slower. I have no idea if file access for manipulation is easier or not compared to the other options.
* Running the system AND data from EXT2
I have not tried this yet and cannot comment on it. Something tells me it will be slower than NAND because of SD card overhead.
* Running the system from EXT2 and data on NAND
I have not tried this yet and cannot comment on it.
Now, I've missed out on several of the installation options but I'll edit this post as soon as I get to investigating it further.
Any comments/experience/knowledge in this is greatly appreciated, as it can make things clearer as to what options to choose.

Well these are very good question and wanted to start a thread on this matter as well. I also could not find a strait answer anywhere.
I also want to know if there is an advantage using ext2 over fat32.
So, people out there having knowledge about this matter please share it.

Ext2 and Fat32 are both types of filesystem used on various different types of media, including SD card, Hard drives etc.
EXT2 is (one) of the native linux filesystems, and is fully supported in kernel, and is usually faster and more stable in that OS
FAT32 is the 32bit version of the old MSdos filesystem, used up to Windows 98, and still supported by windows machines, but slower and less stable than the native NTFS filesystem used by XP and above.
Nand is actually the type of flash ROM used by our devices, and not a filesystem as such, and running Android in Nand refers to where the information is stored, rather than the filesystem used to store it.
It's equally valid to say that we run WM in Nand also.
I think that in the case of Android EXT2 should be faster and more stable than fat32 since it's designed for Linux, and works better in that OS.

Zenity ik would like to thank you very much as this answers mij questions.
And i think this would many others aswell.

Don't forget - if you format your MicroSD to just EXT2 then you will make it very awkward to transfer files to/from the card on a Microsoft Windows based system.
This may, or may not be a problem for you.
Ultimately, the current ideal situation (IMHO) is to run your OS from NAND, and to store your data (music / movies / documents) on a FAT32 format MicroSD - as this enables you to swap the MicroSD card without turning off the device, and provides best cross-platform usability of the MicroSD for the purposes of transferring data to/from it.

Thank you all!
Thank you all for commenting! I will add your comments to the Android-wiki I'm building as this question could come back repeatedly from newcomers (and old ones who forgot )!

boli99 said:
Don't forget - if you format your MicroSD to just EXT2 then you will make it very awkward to transfer files to/from the card on a Microsoft Windows based system.
This may, or may not be a problem for you.
Ultimately, the current ideal situation (IMHO) is to run your OS from NAND, and to store your data (music / movies / documents) on a FAT32 format MicroSD - as this enables you to swap the MicroSD card without turning off the device, and provides best cross-platform usability of the MicroSD for the purposes of transferring data to/from it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a program for allowing the mounting of EXT2 file systems on windows, however they are not signed. This is more problematic in Windows that are 64bit. The program is called 'ext2fsd' and you can get it from source forge. EXT2 is a better file system, and does not have the 4GB file size limit, and does not fragment (although on a SD card, this should not be an issue). EXT2 also has file permissions that Linux understands. Fat32 has no Access control file permissions.

I have just recently got polymod's eclair running with both system and data on ext2 partitions.
my question is...
I am just wondering what the boot order is...
and where(if possible) can it be changed?
system.img in the andboot folder VS system on partition.
I know it can be set in the installer. but lets say I had installed system on ext2 partition. and then later placed a system.img in the andboot folder.
can I swap between the two?

OK...
I figured it out myself,
You can use the installer to select boot options (Not just options to install)
so I have a system and data on partitons. (currently using)
and I also have a second build installed to .img files in the andboot folder. (for failsafe backup)
if I want to swap from one into the other
I enter installer and change the settings for the system and data to
their respective locations and then just QUIT.
I also still have a donut build in the android folder. as well as still running winmo.
quad boot system on my phone...LOL

Now thats a neat use of the installer, I think this find deserves it's own thread in fact, I'm certain others will find it useful

Tanks !

binlabin said:
* Running the system from NAND and data on EXT2
The performance seems almost as fast as the system+data on NAND. I have no idea about the added value of running anything from an EXT2-partition in the SD card but I'm guessing it will be slower. I have no idea if file access for manipulation is easier or not compared to the other options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done some tries with this doing the partitioning from within android and then formatting the FAT32 partition from Windows 7 but the FAT32 partition doesn't work very well afterward. Really slow and sometimes crashes the explorer. Propably something to do with my SD-card. May try doing the partitioning and formatting from Linux to see if it works better.
Seems to me the main advantage of this option is to increase the size of available data storage which i suspect can become a limitation sooner or later in a pure NAND install.
EDIT: Now I've done it and gone NAND-System + EXT2-Data... Partitioned the SD-card from Ubuntu with gparted. Resized the FAT32 partition and created 3 primary EXT2 partitions. only the second (partition 3) should be used though with the setup I am using. It's charging right now so I haven't tried it out much yet but I will later on. However I noticed that I now have 171Mb free phone storage instead of 30-something that I had before (same apps installed).
EDIT2: Ran gparted again and shrinked the unused partition (partition 2) and expanded the data partition (partition 3) so I now have 369Mb free "Internal phone storage". Haven't noticed any speed differences between this and when I had data on NAND.

nand
By then one question:
If im install android in the NAND is more fast ready? But this process erase WM6?
Because now android work good in my HTC TYNT II but the camera and bluetooth not work and have one or two performance problems and for this dont like delete WM6 of my phone, and for this im use Android from my SD.
But look the NAND option because have a problems with the time live of my battery only lasts 5hours with android and SD.
Thanks for your help and cooperation

excellent thread which answers some questions that I had. Thanks to everyone who contributed. The only question remaining though and I have posted this elsewhere without getting an answer:
I partitioned a 2 gb sdcard with ~1.6gb Fat32 and the rest as a single Ext2. I selected system on nand and data on ext2 in the installer. After installation, it does show alot more memory for data as compared to data on nand, BUT I also have a data.img in andboot which is in the Fat32 partition, with a size around 250mb. The question is, is the data in that file or on ext2? If I backup data from installer, it creates a databackup.img in andboot with the same size as data.img. Seems to me the ext2 partition is just taking up space and not being used. Can anyone more knowledgeable shed some light on this? Thanks.

Not quite sure what is going on there, seems very counter-intuitive, I would have assumed that system on Nand, data on EXT2 would have installed the data partition to EXT2 on SD. This would seem not to be the case in this instance.
There are a few experiments you could try, if you are brave enough, since you may cause problems by trying any of these suggestions, which could mean a reinstall, I leave it to your judgement how to proceed
Ok firstly I assume you have a card reader, since you managed to partition and format the SD card in the first place. Remove the SD card, insert in card reader, delete the andboot folder, or the contents of the folder, ( may be wise to have a spare SD with either a winmo or android install handy at this point, just in case things go horribly wrong ).
Now with the cleaned SD, put it in the phone and boot, it should boot fine, IF the data is truly on the EXT2 partition.
That at least will answer one question, namely, where the heck is my data?
If this works fine, then I'd just put it down to some inner weirdness of android on non-native devices, if it fails then I'm wondering if your EXT2 partition may have problems, forcing the phone to dump it on the first available good partition, namely the FAT32 one.
Oh and if it does fail, you will have to reinstall, since your data will be toast.
Finally, good luck, I await with interest

As I recall, the install has the FAT32/Ext2 options incorrectly swapped. It has been this way for a while.

zenity said:
Not quite sure what is going on there, seems very counter-intuitive, I would have assumed that system on Nand, data on EXT2 would have installed the data partition to EXT2 on SD. This would seem not to be the case in this instance.
There are a few experiments you could try, if you are brave enough, since you may cause problems by trying any of these suggestions, which could mean a reinstall, I leave it to your judgement how to proceed
Ok firstly I assume you have a card reader, since you managed to partition and format the SD card in the first place. Remove the SD card, insert in card reader, delete the andboot folder, or the contents of the folder, ( may be wise to have a spare SD with either a winmo or android install handy at this point, just in case things go horribly wrong ).
Now with the cleaned SD, put it in the phone and boot, it should boot fine, IF the data is truly on the EXT2 partition.
That at least will answer one question, namely, where the heck is my data?
If this works fine, then I'd just put it down to some inner weirdness of android on non-native devices, if it fails then I'm wondering if your EXT2 partition may have problems, forcing the phone to dump it on the first available good partition, namely the FAT32 one.
Oh and if it does fail, you will have to reinstall, since your data will be toast.
Finally, good luck, I await with interest
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great idea, I'll try this on the weekend. I wont delete data though, I'll just rename andboot and backup data for good measure, because I want to be able to go back to the data by renaming it back if it doesn't work. I was also thinking if there is any way to get to the ext2 partition and read it... I'm on xp so I cant do it on my pc, and on the phone, I've looked around in astro n other file managers but cant see anything. But if the case is as golfnz34me points out, then I should just backup the data, and change the option to Fat32 in install and restore data. That should do the trick.
golfnz34me said:
As I recall, the install has the FAT32/Ext2 options incorrectly swapped. It has been this way for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, will check this out. If its true, then great, more speed for my /data! I wonder how I missed this, been going through these forums regularly...

Ok I checked it out, and golfnz34me is correct it seems.
But now I found a new problem. I backed up data, and in the installer, set the data to SDCard, and tried to restore data. It gives various errors like
Code:
cannot determine filesystem size
failed
failed to format
...some other lines...
losetup: /dev/block/loop2: no such device or address
I created the partition with Paragon partition manager, and after getting this error I rechecked in PPM. I reformated the partition, but still get the error. In PPM the partition drive letter isnt assigned. Or, the partition isnt the active partition. Can one of those be the problem? The volume name is Ext2. Im not very experienced in partitioning etc, apart from normal ntfs partition for new hds in windows, so I didnt play with any options. I dont have a linux system either. Any got any ideas? Any help would be appreciated alot!

Not sure about using partition managers other than gparted, afaik most people are using the Gparted live cd if they don't have a linux install handy.
The errors all point to some sort of problem with the EXT2 partition, or it's formatting.
Also EXT2 partitions do not have drive letters, nor do they have to be active partitions.

Apps and data on SD card.
I cant seem to figure out how to make all the apps and other stuff install to the SD card. Do I have to partition the card into two partitions? or is there a way to install the system to Nand and make all the apps and data go to the SD card? Ive tried setting it to System on nand and data on SD partition but it says no partitions to install to or something.

[Q] Creating an EXT partition on SD card

On a rooted HTC Desire I installed the XDA rom: “LeeDrOiD V2.0 (30/08 l Official 2.2 l FAST l STABLE l OPTIONAL A2SD+)”.
I need to create on the SD Card (of 16GB) a partition EXT3.
I have used Quick System Info Pro and A2SC storage to check and it displays “Information not available”.
I have installed on HTC the utility “Rom Manager” in order to try to create the EXT type partition.
When I am trying to format with Rom Manager the software does not ask me what type of partition to create (EXT2 or EXT3), but only what size to have and the size of swap.
Can you help me by giving advice on how to create the EXT3 partition?
Thank you in advance.

Rom manager creates ext3 partitions.

Lennyuk said:
Rom manager creates ext3 partitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I partitioned with Rom Manager my sd card with Ext size=512MB and swap=0.
After that, again, Quick System Info Pro say, at <A2SD storage> : “Information not available”.
??
(sorry for my english)

Did you reboot your phone once done?

I am stuck in the same position, in Rom manager I select the size and swap and then it reboots. It now goes straight to a diagram of an exclamation mark in a white triangle and an Android bot. I waited for 15 minutes and nothing happens. Here I press the oj and there is some information stating that there is some problem with the update.zip. SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!

EddyOS said:
Did you reboot your phone once done?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
And... exact like <David0123> !

Same thing here
I'm just gonna chime in and say I'm having the same issue here when trying to create the partition using rom manager.
I ended up creating the partition using gparted on my linux box, but after copying all the files back to my fat32 partition, and rebooting my phone it no longer recognizes the applications installed to sd using froyo a2sd. (I have not installed old school a2sd yet as it is not compatible with the version of CM I'm using... waiting for 6.1)
Is there a reason the phone wouldn't see the files for the applications? I created my fat32 partition first, then an ext3 with the remainder.

Is it possible to create a 1gb ext partition using ROM Manager?
Hi.
I have an HTC Desire (T-Mobile UK) usng the Pinky Desre 1.8 rom. I have ROM Manager Premium installed, but this only allows upto 512mb for an ext partition.
I have a 8gb MicroSD card and would liike to create a 1gb ext2/3/4 partiton.
Does anyone have any nfo on how I can do this (assumng that ts possible of course)
Thanks in advance

killawatts said:
I'm just gonna chime in and say I'm having the same issue here when trying to create the partition using rom manager.
I ended up creating the partition using gparted on my linux box, but after copying all the files back to my fat32 partition, and rebooting my phone it no longer recognizes the applications installed to sd using froyo a2sd. (I have not installed old school a2sd yet as it is not compatible with the version of CM I'm using... waiting for 6.1)
Is there a reason the phone wouldn't see the files for the applications? I created my fat32 partition first, then an ext3 with the remainder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried
- moving all the apps on the SD back to the phone
- Do a backup i.e. Titanium
- Reboot phone
- Create partition using ROM Manager
- Re-install apps \ Move to SD
I haven't tried ths, but thinking logically, it should work

vybztymz said:
Have you tried
- moving all the apps on the SD back to the phone
- Do a backup i.e. Titanium
- Reboot phone
- Create partition using ROM Manager
- Re-install apps \ Move to SD
I haven't tried ths, but thinking logically, it should work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 16mb of available space on my phone with every application possible moved to the sd card so moving them back is out of the question. I guess I could always just do an brainapp sync for my free apps and re-install the rest from .apk. I'm thinking now I'll hold off until I get a class 6 to make the ext partition.

vybztymz said:
Hi.
I have an HTC Desire (T-Mobile UK) usng the Pinky Desre 1.8 rom. I have ROM Manager Premium installed, but this only allows upto 512mb for an ext partition.
I have a 8gb MicroSD card and would liike to create a 1gb ext2/3/4 partiton.
Does anyone have any nfo on how I can do this (assumng that ts possible of course)
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amon-Ra lets you make bigger partitions that Recovery Manager/ClockWorkMod
There is a way to do this via ADB I believe as well, or a linux partition manager like GParted.

Lennyuk said:
Amon-Ra lets you make bigger partitions that Recovery Manager/ClockWorkMod
There is a way to do this via ADB I believe as well, or a linux partition manager like GParted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip.
I'm checking the forums on Amon-Ra....need to know a few things i.e. can it be installed \ work with CW; does CW need to be uninstalled etc)
Will try the Linux G-Parted route as well.
Thanks

vybztymz said:
Thanks for the tip.
I'm checking the forums on Amon-Ra....need to know a few things i.e. can it be installed \ work with CW; does CW need to be uninstalled etc)
Will try the Linux G-Parted route as well.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How mine is set up
Use Unrevoked to install Amon-Ra (that way if you enter recovery via HBOOT you go to Amon-Ra
Then keep RomManager installed, if you need to do anything via clockworkmod you can do it via this app, which "fake flashes" the recovery for its purposes, however still leaves Amon-Ra as its permanent recovery.

Lennyuk said:
How mine is set up
Use Unrevoked to install Amon-Ra (that way if you enter recovery via HBOOT you go to Amon-Ra
Then keep RomManager installed, if you need to do anything via clockworkmod you can do it via this app, which "fake flashes" the recovery for its purposes, however still leaves Amon-Ra as its permanent recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again....
I rooted using Unrevoked via Slax, and just want to ask if usng Unrevoked again means I'll have to re-root...or can I just install Amon-Ra?
(apologies if this is a silly question)

My unanswered ROM Manager, SD Card Partition post looks like it belongs here
I rooted my dInc with UnRevoked & 4ever and am now running SkyRaider 3.0 Sense (seems stable & fast) and I see that there's an update available to SR Sense 3.1 RC3 - so I figure now might be a good time to use ROM Manager to create an Ext partition for Apps on my 16G Kingston Class 10 SD card - although, so far I've been using App2SD successfully w/o partitioning the card. What's the benefit? The ability to back up apps on the sd card?
Anyway, I did nandroid & Titanium backups and copied my entire card to a folder on my PC.
My first question is what size ext partition should I choose? (I do currently have a ton of apps - but will be paring down to a leaner machine with fewer redundant apps). Also, what swap size do you suggest?
2nd, when I copy from the PC's SD Card folder back SD Card, which files & folders go to the ext. partition? Just the moved apps?. Then, all the rest to the main partition?
Then, do I just mount the card in the phone and run the update with a full wipe?
I already have the Goodies installed but, will I want to d/l the newest kernel?
Lastly, which of Titaniums' batch restore scenarios is best to finish with? Missing Apps w/ data? All apps & system data?
I realize there are numerous ways to go on this but I'm hoping you folks have some experience you can share before I make any major changes to a phone that's really running pretty well.
Please keep in mind I'm working with ROM Manager and I haven't gotten into sdk, adb, emulation or overclocking - yet

Dartmouth70 said:
I rooted my dInc with UnRevoked & 4ever and am now running SkyRaider 3.0 Sense (seems stable & fast) and I see that there's an update available to SR Sense 3.1 RC3 - so I figure now might be a good time to use ROM Manager to create an Ext partition for Apps on my 16G Kingston Class 10 SD card - although, so far I've been using App2SD successfully w/o partitioning the card. What's the benefit? The ability to back up apps on the sd card?
Anyway, I did nandroid & Titanium backups and copied my entire card to a folder on my PC.
My first question is what size ext partition should I choose? (I do currently have a ton of apps - but will be paring down to a leaner machine with fewer redundant apps). Also, what swap size do you suggest?
2nd, when I copy from the PC's SD Card folder back SD Card, which files & folders go to the ext. partition? Just the moved apps?. Then, all the rest to the main partition?
Then, do I just mount the card in the phone and run the update with a full wipe?
I already have the Goodies installed but, will I want to d/l the newest kernel?
Lastly, which of Titaniums' batch restore scenarios is best to finish with? Missing Apps w/ data? All apps & system data?
I realize there are numerous ways to go on this but I'm hoping you folks have some experience you can share before I make any major changes to a phone that's really running pretty well.
Please keep in mind I'm working with ROM Manager and I haven't gotten into sdk, adb, emulation or overclocking - yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(Q1) I have an 8gb sdcard and created a 1gb Ext2 partition using G-Parted (using Ubuntu 10.04 onmy thumb drive). You dont need to create SWAP. I did'nt use ROM Manager as it (a) totally wipes your sdcard and (b) it only allows for a 512mb partition. I still copied all my sdcard data to my NAS beforehand though....just in case
once I parttioned my sdcard,
I did a full wipe (incl. cache \ dalvic etc)
Installed custom ROM (Pinky Desire 1.8 – FRF91 Official Sense Release).
Then re-installed everything from scratch as, like you, was unsure how TB would restore my backups.
Then used TB to restore User apps w /Data. I figured that system apps were easier\safer to reconfigure manually
Once done, and tested - did an"all user apps+system data" backup with TB.
Booted into Recovery, and did Nandroid backup (and copied that to my NAS bos)
Dont worry about which apps go to the EXT partition. As I understand it, most free apps can be moved\installed to the SDCard; paid apps can only be moved\nstalled to sdcard if the developer has enabled it to do so. I use an app called App 2 SD - it dentifies which appa can be moved to sdcard.
I'm pretty sure that there are easier \ quicker ways, and that my way is over cautious, but it was useful in giving me a better understanding of Android.
I hope this helps.

Thanx for the feedback!
Sounds like about what I'll be doing - unless someone comes up with specific details on using ROM Manager.
What's particularly confusing is that even the apps that can be moved to the SD card only partially reside on the card.

Too many a2sd a2sd+ app2sd, really confused...

I'm really confused, first with all the different a2sd variants and ones that are made by Darktremor or other people or the FroYo version. This is as much as I know for this app.
Secondly, I really couldn't find any information on doing partitions manually or setting ALL partitions to ext since I have a linux box, I really don't care to use windows to copy over files or whatever. I have a VMware box to do that on my windows machine anyways.
Third, the ClockworkMod recovery has NO options to do the partition following Darktremor's faq, and I don't know if I should install another recovery after flashing my hboot to 0.93 S-OFF (Alpha)
Mind you I only had my android for about 6 days and this is my first one, so learning curve is hard.
Please help

1) the names can be confusing but old apps2sd is an ext partition on your SD card that appears to the system as internal storage. Froyo apps2sd is using Froyo to transfer mapps to the fat32 partition (normal partition) of your SD card. You just need to use context because people tend to use apps2sd for both.
2) you can use gepart to partition. You need a fat32 partition for apps to write to and for any personal data because Android looks to that partition for that kind of data. I have my SD card as 5 gb fat32 and 3 gb ext3. Fat32 goes first.
3) go to ROM manager. Partition SD card. Choose size....there is only 3 sizes though.
If anything I wrote is wrong I'm sure I'll be corrected.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but since this is related to a2sd in general I might as well ask it here. What's the effect of having a2sd+ on your battery? Would it lower battery life due to cache and apps being stored mainly on SD instead of internal memory? I observed that this was often the case when I store always-on apps on SD back on my old Windows device.

So no way of not using a fat32 eh?
It still seems I don't have much space left after using the Rom manager way. I have 120meg free on internal mem.
Could I just format using linux mkfs? I want to make the apps partition about 2GB to hold more apps. Though it seems some widgets can't take putting on SD card, it dissipates.

BriEE said:
So no way of not using a fat32 eh?
It still seems I don't have much space left after using the Rom manager way. I have 120meg free on internal mem.
Could I just format using linux mkfs? I want to make the apps partition about 2GB to hold more apps. Though it seems some widgets can't take putting on SD card, it dissipates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Widgets must be installed on internal storage, or they wont work.

If you want an easy method to make a ext 3 partition use ROM manager premium from the Market. It will make you automatically an ext3 partition with a maximum of 512 mb which is enough (put swap to 0). Just keep in mind that first inside ROM Manager you need to select the option Flash ClockworkMod Recovery, and after that go to the SD partition option otherwise it wont work. And also remember you need to have the PREMIUM version otherwise it might not work
Now if you want to have more than a 512 mb you can use gparted. It is a livecd which means that can work on linux, mac or windows just reboot with the cd inside and is quite straightforward to use. Hope this helps.

Hello guys, any thought about that issue maybe?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=816098

Partitions acting funny

Hello,
I'm having a strange issue: at first I partitioned my 8GB SD into 7,4GB FAT32 + 0,6GB ext4 (for A2SD+) but in spite of the A2SD feature I run out of Internal Memory (and couldn't install anything else). Then I resized those partitions (with GPartED live cd in a virtualbox, same as first time), increasing ext4 to 0,9GB: didn't change anything for A2SD+ (still had to uninstall some apps, strange fact is that re-installing the very same ones takes much less space), but I could (and actually still can) see the FAT32 partition from the phone no problem. However, upon Windows 7 connection (both x86 and x64) and select "disk drive mode", I only get a few folders listed and most of them doesn't show up even though I can see everything from internal phone file manager (and I can play music or see pics I can't see from the pc). Any advice? Should I just wipe that? Can I copy the FAT32 files to the computer, somehow, maybe via GpartED live cd?

You should wipe and try this partition method.
Mtd partition: hxxp://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=806321
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Thanks, I do hope I'll figure A2SD+ out soon enough, it has some dark sides I just can't get. And before messing with the MTD method, I'll try a Linux virtualbox to access datas, copy everything, wipe everything on card, format 7GBfat32+1GBext4 and get datas back... hope that'll work!

Good luck
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

[Q] Freeing Up Internal Memory

I keep getting a message about storage space running low.
I have installed Apps2SD so all my apps that can be moved have been moved.
My contacts folder seems large at 18Mb
QuickOffice is 5Mb but I never use it.
Am I missiing something here?
Is there a way to free up memory easily?

If you have an a2sd+ script (most custom roms have), the apk files of your apps will be moved to the ext2/3/4 partition on the sd card, but there still remains the dalvik cache on the /data partition which uses up memory. There are scripts to move this dalvik cache to the sd card as well, but they require you have a class 4 or faster card. The best thing to do is search the thread of your rom, since it's probably been asked about it there.
If you're using google's a2sd (because you're not using a custom rom with such a script), not all apps can be moved to the sd card, since the developer has to specifically state the app can be moved, and for some reason, a lot of people don't do that. You can download a program called SDMove or App2sd from the market which will tell you which apps can be moved (and give you an option to move them), but there isn't very much you can do about getting more space. That is, if you don't want to get a new rom or install a a2sd+ script.

Cheers for the feedback.
Iam not sure if LeeDroid has the APPS2SD in the rom, I have Rom Manager and I THINK i now have ext2 and swap file but yet to confirm that with the new sd card as I am unable to copy the files from the old to the new, (thats another story)
So are you saying that APPS2SD on the ROM is better than APPS2SD from the market? I liked the market one so much I actually paid for to pro version.
Some of the apps will not move which is annoying, esp if what you say is that its all down to the lazy developers.
Can I reduce the phone book size? Text Messages etc to alleviate this issue?
I have no qualms in installing a new ROM if that will give me more space.

As many Desire users, I had the same issue.
Oxygen ROM is the best thing that had happened to Desire.
First do S-OFF, put Bravo Oxygen HBOOT patch (see alpharev.nl for more info), and then flash Oxygen ROM. And you will never have to worry about space again. I don't even move my apps to SD anymore, since there is no need.

Porcupine00 said:
As many Desire users, I had the same issue.
Oxygen ROM is the best thing that had happened to Desire.
First do S-OFF, put Bravo Oxygen HBOOT patch (see alpharev.nl for more info), and then flash Oxygen ROM. And you will never have to worry about space again. I don't even move my apps to SD anymore, since there is no need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I said that around in other posts and other members were moaning at me because "not everyone can do that". Anyway, yes flashing a hboot will give you more data to work with (depending on which template you get).
Using A2SD(+) is a workaround if you don't want to S-Off you Desire. However, A2SD(+) still uses /data partition unless you get a Data2SD script or at least a script to move the Dalvik cache. I think a lot of people fail to realise this.

Flashing Hboots? Sounds like Gary Glitters footwear!
What is S-OFF?
So is A2SD (+), different from A2SD?
Does this require a degree in Linux like so many of the other things?

If your contacts app is too large ...
http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/127440-internal-memory-again.html

for me, data2sd was the only solution to consider when it comes to internal memory issues

uktotty said:
Flashing Hboots? Sounds like Gary Glitters footwear!
What is S-OFF?
So is A2SD (+), different from A2SD?
Does this require a degree in Linux like so many of the other things?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, HBOOT is the partition table in your phone. By default it has 147 MB for the /data partition (that's where your apps go) and 250 MB for the /system (where your ROM is installed).
Secondly, HTC implemented a security flag in our phones that protect this HBOOT from being changed and denies writing to /system when using the phone.
Now, this security flag can be disabled (S-OFF = security off), which will allow you to change the layout of your partition table. What @Porcupine00 was saying is a lot of people do the procedure to S-OFF their devices, flash the Oxygen HBOOT (which gives 300+ MB of /data storage), because Oxygen ROM is very small (about 90 MB) and doesn't need that much space in /system, so this space is made available in /data. However, messing with partitions is quite dangerous and you should read all the guides carefully before trying, because it can really brick your device. Must I add is voids you warranty?!
Now, to clear up the confusion about a2sd. There is the a2sd system implemented by Google and available in FroYo and higher which can only move the apps meant to be moved. There is the app on the market which is called App 2 SD which shows the apps installed on your phone that can use this system. And there are a2sd+ scripts which move all apps to the ext partition on your sd card.
Data2SD is another kind of script for moving apps to ext partition, along with their other data, but it requires a fast sd card (I think a class-6 or higher is recommended, whereas my stock Desire sd card is a class-2).
I advice you read through the Desire Android Development forum and find out about all these methods and make sure you know what you are doing before flashing.
Good luck!

thank you sir, very informative and non patronising
I still need to work out how to get the date from my old 4gb to my new 16Gb card as everyhing I have tried has failed, then I can get some larger partitions and the ext's

What is the problem you are having? When I rooted my phone, I swapped my 4-GB with an 8-GB one and the only thing I did is just copy all the contents from the former to the latter. I had no issues with apps, media files whatsoever.
However, I only had a FAT partition back then, so if you are talking about moving the apk's on the ext partition, you'll need to use a Linux operating system (because Windows doesn't read ext, and also doesn't mount anything else than the first partition on an external drive, which happenes to be the FAT one in our case). There are live cd's from several linux distributions that are available for free download, which you can use to copy the content from your ext partition to your pc, then back to the new card.

The problem is as follows.
Titanium back up all apps and data to 4gb card
Copy contents to windows desktop, folder properties 3.6gb
Change card to 16gb in phone, connect etc
Copy contents of 3.6gb file to new card
800mb on new card.
It seems to be copying FOLDERS but not the contents of those folders.
I am using standard USB mount
I have tried Droid Explorer
I also have ABD installed and stuff but it confuses me!
I have also got various versions of linux and a VM but not tried any of that as 20 years of windows experience probably wont help me
Only thing missing is a card reader currently so doing all of this via usb cable with card in phone

Maybe it has something to do with your Windows system? Could you try on another computer? Also, have you tried reformatting the new card before copying the files?

good point, dont have any other pcs to try here and works laptop is pgp encrypted.
I have used partionmanager to format the car, partition the card etc and it shows healthy partitions.
Just cant seem to copy and paste the files!

OK so I copy 3.6 gb from android to desktop, do the reverse and droid explorer says
"Copying 439Mb"

Can you try to open up your card using Windows Explorer and look at what size it shows? I'm thinking it's not actually the '439 MB' that's wrong, but the '3.6 GB'. I remember my Sense nandroid backup had about 400 MB as well, and also, how could you possibly fit 3.6 GB of apps in a Desire's 147-MB /data partition?
After you copy, try looking at some random files and cross-check the size it says on the phone (use Astro or some other fille manager), then chech the size on the card shown on your PC, and the size of the copied file. Maybe there is no copying error at all, but just a size-showing one, so maybe you've nothing to worry about

Sorry not the data partion the MicroSD Card
I am moving from a 4gb card which will hold around 4gb to a 16gb card which will allow me ext, swap parttions etc

Sorry, my bad, I meant 'Titanium Backup' and not 'nandroid backup'. I was saying the Titanium backup alone is fine if it's about 400 MB. So you can't copy your files like music, wallpapers and stuff? I wonder where the problem is

Trying something now, which is bot into recovery mode and mount the USB, copy to the new card via that method, no error messages yet

Guys
Thanks for the feedback
We have a result!!
Copy files from old CD Card to PC (3.6Gb)
Change cards in phone
reboot into recovery and mount usb
Copy files back (3.6Gb)
Woo Hoo
Phone runs quicker now, will see what we can do about internal memory after new rom