SD Card Partitioning Terminology? - Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

SD Card Partitioning Terminology? - Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey all, I'm a complete newb at all this and I just wanted to learn a bit more about apps2SD and partitioning an SD card. I've searched the forums but could not find an explanation really of what these things mean.
I understand that there is a fat32 partition, and I assume this is where the pictures and music go?
What do the ext2/3/4 partitions do? Are they for caches and apps? What are the differences between the three and what are the advantages between each, if there are any?
What about a linux_swap. What does that do? Any advantages for it?
Thanks everyone!

Related

Something about partitioning of sd card?

Hey guys! I found some videos on YouTube and learned something about partitioning of the sdcard.And I believe that we need to choose some ext. partition of 128,256 or 512mb and do some swapping things.Will that actually increase the internal space on our phone? Can someone show me a thread regarding this or give me a detailed explanation??? Thanks!

Some ROMs have this feature implemented. (Void, megatron, etc) Nothing new...
Sent from my LG-P500 using XDA App

So will it increase internal storage space???

It doesn't increase it. The apps will install on sd card and you will have more free space on internal storage.
Sent from my LG-P500 using XDA App

Is it the same as Apps2sd?

Yes. App2sd needs that ext partition. Otherwise the phone simply uses the entire memory card with FAT filesystem.

masteryx said:
Yes. App2sd needs that ext partition. Otherwise the phone simply uses the entire memory card with FAT filesystem.
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Do you mean the original 2GB SD has ext partition? I think there is only one partition although I can use apps-to-sd in my P500. What is the real benefit by using more than one partition?

Yeah I would like to know that too!

rikux said:
Do you mean the original 2GB SD has ext partition? I think there is only one partition although I can use apps-to-sd in my P500. What is the real benefit by using more than one partition?
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No, rikux, the original card only has FAT partition.
EXT type partition should be created only if you plan to use app2sd with a custom ROM.
In case things are not clear, App2SD is a feature that moves installed applications onto the memory card. There are two ways of using it:
1. Simple install of the app from the market. Now you got yourself a nice little batch mover from internal memory to the card. It can not move apps installed as services and widgets. You could move the apps yourself, but you can only do it one by one - so there's where Apps2SD comes in handy because it lets you do it all at once. All clear so far, OK?
2. A more sophisticated use of this feature, actually called "a2sd" and used in the custom ROMs. What it does is tricking the phone into believing it has more internal memory available. But all this extra space must come from somewhere, right? Thus, this space it's taken from the memory card under the appearance of an EXT partition. Why EXT, I don't know - probably in order not to confuse the phone with two FAT partitions. Now, when you install an application, the app goes to the internal memory but physically it's hosted on the SD card... get it? No more "moving to SD card" necessary, because now if you choose to MOVE an app from the "internal memory" to the "SD card", what you're actually doing is moving it from the EXT partition to the FAT partition. Moreover, now even service apps and widgets go to the SD card, and everything happens automatically.
rikux, you're falling in the first case above.
AsherChua, what you've seen on Youtube fits in the second case above.
I really hope you understand now the differences, and the utility.

Masteryx thanks very much for the good explanation.
As I am not going to use any custom ROM, the Froyo 2.2 inbuild capability to install2SD one by one is enough for me. So it seems like I don't need any more partitions.
The question still remains, are these "App2SD" and "a2SD" somehow more efficient than the standart Froyo apps2sd, which cannot install all apps to sd and if it can then only a part of app is in sd. I assume methode 1. and 2. can install all apps to sd.
Still one question as my 2GB original SD is quite full allready. Is it OK to copy all from the original SD to a bigger SD with PC card reader? Can the new SD be formatted in PC and is FAT32 OK?

Method 1 can install on the card only the apps that Froyo allows, not all of them. Method 2 installs all of them on the card.
About the new card: yes, it will work just fine. Just make sure you copy everything, including the hidden files and folders.
I suggest formatting the new card in the phone. Let it "decide" what kind of FAT system should be used. I know that FAT32 is a bit more reliable, but the phone manual clearly states that the card should use FAT16 (aka FAT) file system. I'm pretty sure both will work exactly the same, so do as you please.

Thanks masteryx for the brilliant answer! One question though,I'm using megatron and it has apps2sd 'preinstalled' in that rom. So can I say that I have case 2 enabled too?

AsherChua said:
Thanks masteryx for the brilliant answer! One question though,I'm using megatron and it has apps2sd 'preinstalled' in that rom. So can I say that I have case 2 enabled too?
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Yes, you do.

Right thanks!