Does Android support any useful filesystems on the sdcard? I need to store an 8GB file, which is too big for FAT. It's a 16GB card.
Alternatively, does anyone know a way to store large files on the card?
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I'm asking this specifically for the Atrix.
I would like to have one central location for all apps and data, and have all the apps installed as "internal". The advantage of this method is so that apps can function independently of whether /sdcard (or /mnt/emmc if you do it that way) is mounted or not on the device. I did something similar on my HTC Evo, using DarkTremor's A2SD. But the Atrix, with its 10GB partition, means that I won't need to symlink anything to my actual SD card.
The 10GB partition (mmcblk0p18) is ample space for all user apps and data. But the existing 2GB /data partition (mmcblk0p16) definitely requires that some larger apps use the asec feature of the SD card. I understand that some apps need the SD card for extended downloaded content, like most Gameloft games, and any standalone GPS navigation app with its own maps. In those cases, I am a little more flexible, and understand that I can't use those particular apps when the card isn't mounted.
So here a couple questions, regarding the "swap":
Is there any way I can rename the partitions-- change the 10GB partition to mmcblk0p16, and the 2GB partition to mmcblk0p18 (and reformat them to EXT3 and FAT respectively)? Rebuilding the partition table is not an option. There's just way too much at stake there.
Would all of the bootable components (kernel, ROM, bootloader, and recovery) need to take into consideration the new structure? Or would the renaming of the partitions make this all seamless?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks for reading!
Hi guys I am new to android and I got myself a Micromax A110 running on android ics with 2 gb of internal SD card memory...
As you guys can figure, the internal memory just isn't enough for installing heavy games and storing and downloading large videos and music, so I added a 32 gb external micro SD card.. the card shows in my file manager and its contents are accessible, most apps like ttpod, ttorrent, vlc, chrome etc don't detect my external card. They only access the contents of my internal SD card, download to it.. I can't set the default directory to the external card...
When I installed nfs most wanted to my phone, it asked me to free up data in my SD card or insert another one as there was no space left due to obvious reasons of my internal SD card being filled with other apps.. I uninstalled and reinstalled it after setting the default storage location to the external storage... I found that the game installed in the internal storage this time and on startup, it gave the same message..
Is it a common problem or a limitation to the OS? Is there a work around for this? If so how? Does my phone needs to be rooted for the purpose? Please help as the problem is getting annoying.. my external card is lying almost empty...
Thanks in advance,
Extremely sorry for the long post...
Sent from my Micromax A110 using Tapatalk 2
It's because Google made the stupid decision, starting with Honeycomb (which is why the Motorola Xoom, the first Honeycomb device needed an update to enable use of it's MicroSD card slot) to merge the /data/ and /sdcard/ partitions. What that means is that the SD card becomes a virtual space (a folder, in fact) located in the same place where all your apps are stored. Why is it stupid? If you have a phone that actually has a MicroSD card slot, like yours or the Galaxy S III, the MicroSD card becomes a different "folder" (something like /sdext/, which stands for either extension or external). Only apps that specifically are programmed to look for that mount point/folder will be able to use it. Most music/video/picture players/viewers can, because it makes sense to automatically program to do that. But with large games, like you said, NFS Most Wanted (which I also have), it sucks because the game is like 2GB.
My Galaxy S3 has 16GB internal and a 32GB card. I'm forced to use the internal storage only for large games because they don't see the memory card. It sucks. The good thing about merging /data/ and /sdcard/ is that it simplifies things, like on the iPhone where your space is your space, no matter how you use it. It used to be that you had like 1GB or 2GB for apps (the APK files only, not the files that games download for example) (which the HTC One X does, but still only uses internal storage because there's no card slot), and the rest went to your MicroSD card slot. Now it's all to internal storage because your internal storage IS your MicroSD card slot at system level.
Product F(RED) said:
It's because Google made the stupid decision, starting with Honeycomb (which is why the Motorola Xoom, the first Honeycomb device needed an update to enable use of it's MicroSD card slot) to merge the /data/ and /sdcard/ partitions. What that means is that the SD card becomes a virtual space (a folder, in fact) located in the same place where all your apps are stored. Why is it stupid? If you have a phone that actually has a MicroSD card slot, like yours or the Galaxy S III, the MicroSD card becomes a different "folder" (something like /sdext/, which stands for either extension or external). Only apps that specifically are programmed to look for that mount point/folder will be able to use it. Most music/video/picture players/viewers can, because it makes sense to automatically program to do that. But with large games, like you said, NFS Most Wanted (which I also have), it sucks because the game is like 2GB.
My Galaxy S3 has 16GB internal and a 32GB card. I'm forced to use the internal storage only for large games because they don't see the memory card. It sucks. The good thing about merging /data/ and /sdcard/ is that it simplifies things, like on the iPhone where your space is your space, no matter how you use it. It used to be that you had like 1GB or 2GB for apps (the APK files only, not the files that games download for example) (which the HTC One X does, but still only uses internal storage because there's no card slot), and the rest went to your MicroSD card slot. Now it's all to internal storage because your internal storage IS your MicroSD card slot at system level.
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Hey man! Thanks for the reply....
Can you tell me how to work out a solution for this?
Is directory bind or fstab file hack the only solution?
Is it possible to overcome this without root?
And some apps do detect my Micro SD card... It is in the directory mnt/sdcard2
Please post questions one time only and in the proper Q&A section.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2019921
Cant download anything bigger than 4gb to external sd card. I have a T769 Blaze and have a 32gb external sd card installed, a sandisk hicap. I installed it factory and no luck. Read some forums and formated it to exfat, then ntsf, both read fine and can store up to 4gb but no more, tried all the various apps to get it to store when downloading but always get size limit error. How can I get my OS to allow bigger than 4gb to download to my 32gb sd card. Note: I have no issues when trying to move files from PC to phone, just downloading them from the Internet either by download site or torrent. Got some movies and software I need to get. OS is ics 4.0.4 rooted stock. I am a good pc geek but limited on android/linux skills.
Strange.
fallendaemon said:
Cant download anything bigger than 4gb to external sd card. I have a T769 Blaze and have a 32gb external sd card installed, a sandisk hicap. I installed it factory and no luck. Read some forums and formated it to exfat, then ntsf, both read fine and can store up to 4gb but no more, tried all the various apps to get it to store when downloading but always get size limit error. How can I get my OS to allow bigger than 4gb to download to my 32gb sd card. Note: I have no issues when trying to move files from PC to phone, just downloading them from the Internet either by download site or torrent. Got some movies and software I need to get. OS is ics 4.0.4 rooted stock. I am a good pc geek but limited on android/linux skills.
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Click to collapse
If you used an NTFS formatted SD card, you should be able to put a > 4GB file on there without trouble. You may have formatted the card as vFAT instead on NTFS. The problem would then be that your phone wouldn't be able to read and write to the NTFS file system (your PC would have no problem). The only file system that Android can read/write to that handles files larger than 4GB is Ext2/3/4. Of course, that means that your computer will have to have special software to read/write an Ext2/3/4 file system (unless you are running Linux on your PC, or you have a Mac). You can move the files from PC to Phone because you are probably writing to the phone's internal storage which is Ext4, and the MTP protocol is handling the file system issue that you would normally have if you tried to write to the file system directly.
Good luck, let me know if you need anything else.
-Mike
So if I forrmat my sd cart to exr4, I'll be able to downlod torrents up to 4gb? Correct?
Read somewhere that the Moto E actually supports 64GB (and even 128GB) MicroSD cards BUT only when they're formatted to FAT32, 'cause the device also prompts the user to do it when inserted. As we know in order to use Link2SD we need to format the card with EXT partitions and stuff like that, that should render the card uncompatible, or am I wrong?
Yeah, 64GB sdcard is working smoothly.
But I think you mixed something up. For Link2SD you have to create a 2nd partition on the SDCard. And this 2nd partition needs to be EXT formatted, while the main partition stays FAT32.
I recommend to not more thank 1,4 GB for the 2nd partition as Link2SD only moves apk and dex-files which isn't really that much.
Now I got it.
Is there any other way, with any other app, that can actually move the entire app from the internal memory to the SD Card, or at least move a significantly part of it in order to save some internal space? I thought Link2SD was able to do it, but you said it's not so useful since it only moves dex and apk files...
I understand how this is supposed to work but I have a 32GB main memory and a 64GB SD card, The system shows 90+GB of available storage. I then tried to copy a 50GB folder to the device by creating a folder off the root of the device. It dumped out at around 22GB becaus the main memory was full. I expected it to just go to the SD card at that point. Is there any way to force files to the SD card when it's "Internal Memory" formated?
both are treated as separate partitions so basically you can't use it for a single 50gb file
even if you format and use sdcard as internal the situation is same (they are treated as different partitions)
if the file is not single then split them up
one more thing, storing files in root isn't a good idea
Well I have a 64GB "partition" bring the SD card. So how do I put the 50GB on the 64GB partition? The file is not on the root, its in a folder off the root. But either way, the question stands. The 50GB is broken into many files but it stops copying when the main 32GB is full.