[Q] How to format SD card to use as internal memory? - Xperia Arc Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello All,
As we all know there a bit slight issue as far as the internal memory of Xperia Arc is concernend.. when I googled on how can we use our SD card to actually increase the internal memory so that we need not move the apps explicitly to the SD card, I came to knw that we need to create a partition on our SD card in ext4 format.. But I dint get the exact way of doing it... so can anybody tell me how we can do it? And does it need to have a custom ROM installed? Does it work on stock ROM also? Please help.. Thanks..

Try Link2SD or AD2SDX.

I tried Link2SD, but my problem was that after creating the new partition in FAT32, the phone won't mount the SD card, and keeps acting as if the SD card removed. When I deleted the second partition, everything went back to normal but without adding to the internal memory (which is the whole point)
I must have done something wrong but can't figure it out.

The second partition is the one that has to be in ext4 format and as logical so your phone will not try to mount it for storage purposes..
Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk

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SD card problem

got a problem and can't seem to solve it. Can anybody help please.
Have opendesire 3.2 working at the mo and had an ext 2 partition with it. All was working well until this morning.
I charged my phone and switched it on but would't boot. Tried removing batteries numerous times but still no joy. Removed sd card and it worked. So I formatted sd card back to fat 32 but now it still won't work with the sd card in(Just stays on HTC screen)
I then tried to create another partition incase that what was causing the problem with gparted. When I went into Gparted it stated that my 4gb stock sd card was only 3.5 gb and that there was no pertitions present. Looks like the end of my card has dissapeared ( Has anyone heard of this before )
Anyone any idea how to get the sd card working again?
Or will I have to buy another card.
Any help much appreciated.
It still works without sd card.
as with any memory card, you dont get all the specified space free for storage, some space is lost with the file system and sector size ect, 3.5 gig sounds about right for a 4 gig card, i use a 16 gig card and get about 14.5 gig when formatted, also your problem with the rom sounds like its cuz you dont have an ext partiton
The rom doesn't need an external partition. You can install without. When I partitioned my card with gparyed it showed as 3.5gb as fat and 512mb as ext 2. I then changed ext2 to 3 and thats when my problems started. I have formatted it all back to fat now but it wont boot.
Is this because the rom now thinks a partition should be present and it isn't?
Still got recovery, is it worth flashing the Tom(opendesire 3.2) back onto a new SD card as I have a backup of my old one on laptop?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
memphisuklf said:
The rom doesn't need an external partition. You can install without. When I partitioned my card with gparyed it showed as 3.5gb as fat and 512mb as ext 2. I then changed ext2 to 3 and thats when my problems started. I have formatted it all back to fat now but it wont boot.
Is this because the rom now thinks a partition should be present and it isn't?
Still got recovery, is it worth flashing the Tom(opendesire 3.2) back onto a new SD card as I have a backup of my old one on laptop?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you haven hard reset then yeah, your rom has set itself up to be used with an ext partition, just do a hard reset, and leave your sd card out of your phone on first boot
Sorry, new to this stuff. How do you mean hard reset?
Seem to be getting by, by using guides at moment.
AndroHero said:
if you haven hard reset then yeah, your rom has set itself up to be used with an ext partition, just do a hard reset, and leave your sd card out of your phone on first boot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Sorted it. Reflashed after wiping through custom recovery and removed sd card once done. After first boot I put sd card back in and it booted. Not going to partition my card any more cause this is the 2nd card that my partition through rom manager has disappeared and can't seem to get the partition back. On a 4gb card only got 3.21gb showing now through system storage on desire.
Anyone know why this keeps happening? Or are the stock cards just utter ****e.
Tried ubuntu but even that only shows it at 3.5gb with no partitions.
edited to remove this post..

Formatting SD card

Hi. I would like to know if i format my SD card, will this also wipe the ext3 partition? Will I have to re-partition the SD card after the format, or will it still be there?
Many Thanks
i was under the impression that a partition is treated as a different drive. so even if you format your SD card, it shouldn't touch any of the partitions created. like, you have SD card partition and ext 2-4. then only the SD card partition is formatted. of course i could be wrong and please let me know if that is so
As i saw, if you format with slow metod, it will delete also the partition..
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
and the answer is..........
NO! Formatting your SD card will NOT WIPE YOUR EXT3 PARTITION Tried it last night, and i still have all my apps back on phone and also have 80.88 MB of internal (which is what i had before)

[Q] After partitioned my SD card, where the space had gone ?

Hi all "I am new at this stuff so apologies for my ignorance in the following explanation"
I have a rooted desire phone with a 4GB class 4 SD card and clockwork recovery
The internal free phone storge was 51.2MB, and I decided to partitioned my SD card in order to free more space for the app. "which is 90% of them are on the SD card" and for using some custum room "I actually dont konw the use of partitionning in custum room" but that what I read
So, I partitioned my SD card using Rom Manager with 512mb ext and zero swap with no errors, after that I put all the app. back to the SD card with no problem and all app. run smoothly from the SD card
I checked the internal phone storge using "DiskUsage" and it was as follows
Data 147.6MB
Application 35.4 MB "some of this app. can not move to the SD card & the other I wanted on the internal memory like Astro"
System data : 61.0MB
Free space 51.2MB "which is the same as befor partitioned as well as all the above sizes "
And the SD card total space was 3.21 GB which mean that the 512 MB suppose to be ext. partion right now
The Qustion is where is the 512 MB that suppose to be ext. partion ? Should this partitionning prosses free the internal memory of the phone ? and what is the use of partitionning in custum room ?
It is kind of weird at first when your new to it all. Took me a few weeks to get use to it and understand how it roughly works.
When you partition your SD card so you have an ext partition, it won't actually show up as internal memory. The internal memory is being read off of the /data partition. To make it simple, the ext partition acts like it's "hidden" so to speak. To get it working you would need an A2SD script at least. Depending on what rom you have, the script could be an addon, where you have to flash it after the rom, or it would be built in so it's just up and running anyway.
You can check to see if the ext partition is working. Apps can see if it's working, just search around in the market. To get the apps onto the ext partition, you would probably have to move them, but don't use the moving feature in Settings > Manage applications.
Thanks for your reply
I actually didnt flashed any custom rom yet "I am planning to" and I am running the stock rom froyo 2.2 which have the move 2 SD card feature, and the only app. that I had in this matter is "Move 2SD Enabler" which with It I moved almost all the application that I want to the SD card "some app I cant like the maps"
But even after the moving of all app. the internal phone memory is the same
I mean I cant feel any deference after the partitionning
So How can I use this 512MB ext partition or when ?
and also are these free space on the internal phone healthy ? or may I suffer a space problem when I tried to flash a rom? and what kind of ext does the rom manager do ext.2 or 3 or 4 ? and does it matter when flashing a rom ?
Sorry for the dozen of questions
With most roms it comes with A2SD (there are other deviations of it but the same principle). This is a script which tells the rom to install apps to the ext partition on your SD card instead of the internal memory. Thus, you get more app storage.
When you have A2SD, only the apps get put on the ext partition. Other things like the data for the apps and the dalvik cache stay on the internal memory and will (eventually) fill up the internal memory. That's where d2ext for example comes in. (You can read about all this stuff in your own spare time).
Recovery/rom manager uses ext3 but you can upgrade it to ext4.

SD Card as EXT?

Ok, so I've searched around and haven't really found an answer to my question, sorry if it's been answered before.
I'd like to format my ENTIRE SD card as an EXT3/4 filesystem, and was wondering if it would register as a normal SD card under Android, or will it be used a "system partition"? Would i be able to transfer files freely using a file explorer and would apps using the SD card (not apps on the SD card) for data run properly. I'd like to have a different file system used as FAT32 is a little ancient, and EXT is much better. I'm running Ubuntu as one of my OS, so mounting it on my PC wouldn't be a problem.
Thanks.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1123833
Post 2
It would still be seen as an external SD card whatever file system you format it as.
Thanks. Although, i was reading through that thread and it says that the SD card will be reformated to VFAT on reboot. Is this true for the DHD too?
Possibly. I wouldnt know to be honest. Might aswell wait until somebody who knows about this can answer.

MicroSD lost 2GB, cannot be recovered with gparted

Hello everyone,
Yesterday I've partitioned my MicroSD card to be able to run Leedroid. But now that I want the partition space back to the microSD card and I can't. It seems that I lost 2GB.
- I've tried formatting the SD card while booted in Leedroid, but it just says the card is "corrupted" or some message like that;
- I've also tried using GParted to recover the lost ext partition, but also GParted doesn't show me the ext partition.
- I've tried mounting sd/ext as this seemed to help for a few people aswell.
Can anyone help me how I would be able to recover the lost space on the microSD card?
Thanks a lot!
It formats the SD in FAT, and then you do to him partitions to the card.
The SD is corrupt for extracting the SD of bad form and spending files without withdrawing it in a sure way.
Why don´t make partitions SD card with your Recovery? Is it simpler, aren´t you?
You should recover the whole memoría.
But, the SD would be spoilt.
Grettings.
So as you are saying. I lost those 2GB forEVER? Can't get them back somehow? :S
"Why don´t make partitions SD card with your Recovery"
I did make a partition with clockworkmod recovery if thats what you mean...
Did you do partitions with Recovery? And it will be of 2Gb, insurance....:
Then, if the Rom needs from a partition to start, and this one is of 2GB, you will not recover her until the SD this fromateada in Fat (the whole SD). the Rom, he needs this division for boot, truth?
I think that I am not explaining myself well, or that I do not understand well what you want to say, i´m so sorry!!!

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