[Noob Q] Safe to flash from Ext. SD? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey everyone, I'm still getting accustomed to the intricacies of flashing custom ROMs on my S3. On my only other Android device, my Acer Iconia Tab A500, flashing ROMs and creating/restoring backups from the Ext. SD is standard practice. However, I have seen many ROM install instructions specify using the Internal Storage to flash ROMs.
TL;DR: Is it safe to flash ROMs stored on the external SD card? Also, is creating and restoring CWM backups from the Ext. SD a recommended process? My latest backup is 3 GB and I'd really prefer to keep it on my Ext. card rather than internal storage.
Thanks for any help guys
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3

I am using cwm 5.5.0.4 v1.5
Backup and flashing through ext sd card. Haven't had any issue so far.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Don't know the exact version of mine, but it's CWM Touch 6.x (for some form of parity with my tablet).
Don't know if it matters, but I'd like to be sure it's safe first.
Thanks for taking your time to reply
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3

Cwm touch 6.0.1.2 support ext sd card. So it should be fine for you to use ext sd card for backup and flashing.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Since my SGS III, I never flashed from internal, Everything is working great, so I don't think that flashing from either storage device is harmful. Just be sure not to remove your External SD card whilst flashing. But that speaks for itself, isn't it?

Arsaw said:
Cwm touch 6.0.1.2 support ext sd card. So it should be fine for you to use ext sd card for backup and flashing.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
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HKboy92 said:
Since my SGS III, I never flashed from internal, Everything is working great, so I don't think that flashing from either storage device is harmful. Just be sure not to remove your External SD card whilst flashing. But that speaks for itself, isn't it?
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Alright, thanks guys! Now I can reclaim those 3 gigs of space Thanks to one and all!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3

Related

Why is my GS2 seeing my SD card as internal & vce versa

Before I ever started flashing kernels or ROMs my GS2 sees my internal card as the SD Micro card and my SD Card as the internal card?? Anyone else have this or know why this is??
Example, just now I went into CWM to update my SHOstock ROM and had to choose internal card for it to see the update even though I put the update on the SD Card..
same thing happened to me yesterday when i flashed my gs2 for the first time. i thought at first i accidentally loaded the zip onto my internal sd accidentally but i double checked and it was definitely on the external sd.
That's just the way it works on Entropy's kernel. I believe it even says so in his thread.
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Nick281051 said:
That's just the way it works on Entropy's kernel. I believe it even says so in his thread.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
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Yup. Someone didn't read the Changelog.
Cyanogenmod labels their partitions differently than Samsung-derived ROMs (Samsungs don't follow the current Android standard).
Right now the CWM binary in Daily Driver is pulled straight from CM7, so I haven't had a chance to recompile and label the external SD as external instead of internal
Entropy512 said:
Yup. Someone didn't read the Changelog.
Cyanogenmod labels their partitions differently than Samsung-derived ROMs (Samsungs don't follow the current Android standard).
Right now the CWM binary in Daily Driver is pulled straight from CM7, so I haven't had a chance to recompile and label the external SD as external instead of internal
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Hey guys. How do I make the external SD card the default location to where my data goes. I bought 9 MM And it required a full gig of data and it all went on my internal storage
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MysticKing32 said:
Hey guys. How do I make the external SD card the default location to where my data goes. I bought 9 MM And it required a full gig of data and it all went on my internal storage
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk
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No clue - turns out that what the OP was talking about was how CWM reports internal vs. external.

Unlocked and Recovery Flashing

Hi I just came from the Thunderbolt and I am used to Backing up and flashing my ROMs from the SD card. I have noticed all of the instructions are recommending doing this from internal memory.
I have a 64 GB sd card formatted in FAT32 and TWRP sees it fine. I was wondering the reasons for using the internal memory.
Thanks
GMoGoody said:
Hi I just came from the Thunderbolt and I am used to Backing up and flashing my ROMs from the SD card. I have noticed all of the instructions are recommending doing this from internal memory.
I have a 64 GB sd card formatted in FAT32 and TWRP sees it fine. I was wondering the reasons for using the internal memory.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of people have suggested using internal because the same people most likely use CWM and not TWRP. CWM does not function properly yet with use of the ext sd card. I used CWM for years but currently I'm using TWRP as it utilizes my ext card.
CBConsultation said:
A lot of people have suggested using internal because the same people most likely use CWM and not TWRP. CWM does not function properly yet with use of the ext sd card. I used CWM for years but currently I'm using TWRP as it utilizes my ext card.
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That makes sense. Thanks fr the quick reply. So I should be good as long a I utilize TWRP
GMoGoody said:
That makes sense. Thanks fr the quick reply. So I should be good as long a I utilize TWRP
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I would think so.
CBConsultation said:
I would think so.
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CWMR now utilizes the ext sd card which is cool. I was using TWRP also but switched back to CWMR.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app

installing custom roms

I have been having a weird problem installing roms to my rooted galaxy s3 I9300
i have the phone rooted, i have it backed up with nandroid, and i have clockwork mod recovery on the phone.
when i boot it into recovery mode the phone doesnt see the roms i have on the SD card. from all videos of "how to install" they were left in the zip folder therefore i decided to leave them there.
any ideas anybody?
Are you selecting sdcard then ext sdcard?
Otherwise its looking in phone not external
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azraelscript said:
Are you selecting sdcard then ext sdcard?
Otherwise its looking in phone not external
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
i was checking just sd card

Help flashing to KITKAT with no externel SD card so can't wipe system? :/

Yeah as the (long) question says, I want to upgrade from 4.1.2 but I have no external sd card to store the rom on, this means I can only 'dirty flash' which is likely to cause problems.
Please could anyone advise how I go about the process of upgrading to KITKAT? please
What? Why do you need an external SD card? More reading required, you need to know this kind of thing before messing with your phone. Load the rom on your inbuilt storage, the internal SD. Flash rom from internal SD with necessary wipes. Done.
When I first started mucking around with my S2, I didn't have am external SD for the first 6 months or so. No problems caused /encountered.
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
Hopper8 said:
What? Why do you need an external SD card? More reading required, you need to know this kind of thing before messing with your phone. Load the rom on your inbuilt storage, the internal SD. Flash rom from internal SD with necessary wipes. Done.
When I first started mucking around with my S2, I didn't have am external SD for the first 6 months or so. No problems caused /encountered.
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
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Haha, I am quite experienced flashing lol its just been a while. I've always had an external sd and was unsure if the system wipe etc would erase the saved rom.
Haha, thanks for the reply, I had an idea it would be safe to just do it but you have confirmed what I was unsure of
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Liquidsmooth KitKat rom sdcard problem

I can't seem to move apps to the internal sd(16gb),because the sdcard0 tray in settings/app is not present, but when I mount usb storage on my pc, the storage is present,even on file managers
Help pls
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Frazercrib said:
I can't seem to move apps to the internal sd(16gb),because the sdcard0 tray in settings/app is not present, but when I mount usb storage on my pc, the storage is present,even on file managers
Help pls
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Click to collapse
You can't exactly... the "internal storage" in your screen shot is the /data partition for installing applications, that is the normal place apps go. Under normal circumstances you cannot install apps to your internal (12.5GB) storage, it is considered external storage to the operating system, hence why it is in /sdcard0 and your real microSD card is /sdcard1. To use these areas for apps you must use a tool like App2SD, Link2SD, or similar app, and only some apps can be moved, if it has a widget it cannot be moved and there are a few other rules that it will ward you about.
Okay.... So I did what you said and tried link2sd, but when moving apps to SD I get an 'INSUFFICIENT STORAGE ERROR'
And isn't there suppose to be an 'move to SD card' option in this app?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
No, not in KitKat anyways, it doesn't have the SD card support that ICS had, Google hates SD cards for some reason, and has been limiting SD card support more and more in each Android version since Ice Cream Sandwich.
As far as the error in Link2SD, not sure, I haven't used it in years... Sorry.
I can be able to move apps to sdcard0 on omni kitkat rom...guess I'll stick 2 it,other kitkat roms excluding liquidsmooth and omni are a bit laggy
Frazercrib said:
I can be able to move apps to sdcard0 on omni kitkat rom...guess I'll stick 2 it,other kitkat roms excluding liquidsmooth and omni are a bit laggy
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Sounds like you need to format the internal storage then mount it and just for good measure backup the external and format that and then mount too. I had a similar problem and when I did this all is well. I hope this helps.
Still a no show
Sent from my HTC Rezound using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Format internal
netookska05 said:
Sounds like you need to format the internal storage then mount it and just for good measure backup the external and format that and then mount too. I had a similar problem and when I did this all is well. I hope this helps.
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How do you go about formatting the internal sd card. I just went from 4.2 to 4.4.4 and now TWRP and CWM recoveries will not mount and recognize the internal card. I can't even access the internal card to format it or anything else. How do I go about fixing this. 4.4.4 is pretty sweet.
sexyleigho said:
How do you go about formatting the internal sd card. I just went from 4.2 to 4.4.4 and now TWRP and CWM recoveries will not mount and recognize the internal card. I can't even access the internal card to format it or anything else. How do I go about fixing this. 4.4.4 is pretty sweet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings, Storage and Erase Internal SD card
netookska05 said:
Settings, Storage and Erase Internal SD card
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Click to collapse
Thanks for getting back to me.
The problem is the real internal storage is unmountable on my phone. My external sd card it appears to be partitioned as the system and external storage sd cards. There is no sdcard0.
The internal emmc card is unaccessible even in recovery.
sexyleigho said:
Thanks for getting back to me.
The problem is the real internal storage is unmountable on my phone. My external sd card it appears to be partitioned as the system and external storage sd cards. There is no sdcard0.
The internal emmc card is unaccessible even in recovery.
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Are you S-Off? RUN usually brings it back... The exe version...
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 using Tapatalk
acejavelin said:
Are you S-Off? RUN usually brings it back... The exe version...
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 using Tapatalk
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Yes I am S-Off. Pardon my ignorance what is RUN? How do I use it? Where do I get it?
Thanks for all your help. It is horrible not being able to take pictures or download any MMS...
sexyleigho said:
Yes I am S-Off. Pardon my ignorance what is RUN? How do I use it? Where do I get it?
Thanks for all your help. It is horrible not being able to take pictures or download any MMS...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry... autocorrect fail... RUU
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acejavelin said:
Sorry... autocorrect fail... RUU
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 using Tapatalk
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Oh got ya. I tried researching a little bit and didn't find the info I was looking for. Could you please be a little more specific. What steps would I need to go through to do this. Right now I'm running 4.4.4 Pac-Man with the internal SD card issues.
I found the RUU's here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2094412&page=2
But what do I do with the exe?
I really appreciate all the help you can give! Thanks...
sexyleigho said:
Oh got ya. I tried researching a little bit and didn't find the info I was looking for. Could you please be a little more specific. What steps would I need to go through to do this. Right now I'm running 4.4.4 Pac-Man with the internal SD card issues.
I found the RUU's here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2094412&page=2
But what do I do with the exe?
I really appreciate all the help you can give! Thanks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reality is you should really perform the full downgrade/upgrade procedure here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2509770
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 using Tapatalk
acejavelin said:
The reality is you should really perform the full downgrade/upgrade procedure here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2509770
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Will try this...maybe this is what I've been looking for
Sent from my HTC Rezound using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Seems this little problem is only on liquidsmooth and carbon rom...I saw a post about partitioning/format sdcard/emmc before flashing the rom...I'll try that tonight.

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