Tired of that small 5gb usb storage? Here is my hack to swap your external SD card with the USB storage!
This is usefull especially if you use GPS apps that download maps or games that download big data files! I got the idea and studied several hacks for the galaxy 1900 so partial credit goes to whoever made those hacks.
DISCLAIMER : I have only tested this on the 4.0 U.S version running 2.3.5 and am not responsible for a brick (although it seems impossible to brick your phone while messing with this file).
So basically start by going to /system/etc using root explorer or similar (yes, you need root). Once there backup the vold.fstab file to somewhere ON ROOT (I put it in /data/app/)! This is important so you can access it if you need to restore it (also make sure root explorer is installed on device memory, not SD card). Now take my modified vold.fstab and replace the original in /system/etc, then change the permissions to rw-r--r-- (long click the file, then select permissions) . If all goes right after you reboot your device, USB storage should now be your SD card and vise versa! Be aware any apps on your USB storage will now have to be transfered using a PC, move the .android_secure folder to your SD card. Hope it works!
EDIT: here is a modified version for the yp-g70, all credit goes to rjsmith2007 for making and testing this!
Won't Maps pull data from the Ext SD anyway? All my music is on ext SD and players have no problem finding it; I would think maps would be the same. It's really like a 5gb and 16 gb (in my case) partition (isn't it?).
I'm looking for a reason to root, SD card/space is not one of them. My battery only charging to 90% is though, need to recalibrate (since it's never hit 100%)
tcat007 said:
Won't Maps pull data from the Ext SD anyway? All my music is on ext SD and players have no problem finding it; I would think maps would be the same. It's really like a 5gb and 16 gb (in my case) partition (isn't it?).
I'm looking for a reason to root, SD card/space is not one of them. My battery only charging to 90% is though, need to recalibrate (since it's never hit 100%)
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Click to collapse
I am referring to when you download maps with an app like sygic;
it saves it to the /sdcard/ directory instead of the /sdcard/external_ed/. Also gameloft games do the same and can use up your room pretty fast. I find this pretty useful myself, since I have a 32gb sd card, but just wanted to post it so if anyone does ever need it, it's here for them.
iJimaniac said:
DISCLAIMER : I have only tested this on the 4.0 U.S version running 2.3.5 and am not responsible for a brick (although it seems impossible to brick your phone while messing with this file).
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Click to collapse
I just tried it with my Galaxy S Wifi 5.0. The mapping of the internal sd to the external_sd folder fails, but it works for mapping my external sd to the sdcard folder.
Edit: I took a look at the original and made a modification to yours to work with the YP-G70 model (the 5 inch one). Just copy the file from within the zip folder to your /system/etc folder.
rjsmith2007 said:
I just tried it with my Galaxy S Wifi 5.0. The mapping of the internal sd to the external_sd folder fails, but it works for mapping my external sd to the sdcard folder.
Edit: I took a look at the original and made a modification to yours to work with the YP-G70 model (the 5 inch one). Just copy the file from within the zip folder to your /system/etc folder.
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Click to collapse
Thank you! I appreciate it! I post it on the original post and give you the credit.
Thanks man. I appreciate it. I was trying to do this myself before, but ended up having to format my SDcard and gave up. Thanks for the help!
rjsmith2007 said:
Thanks man. I appreciate it. I was trying to do this myself before, but ended up having to format my SDcard and gave up. Thanks for the help!
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Click to collapse
glad I could help!
Can't I just copy all of the data from my internal sd card onto my computer, remove the internal sd card, copy those files onto a larger sd card and put the larger sd card back into the galaxy player? Im sorry if this Queston has been asked before, or if it sounds stupid, but I can't find the answer to this Queston anywhere! Thanks in advance!
(P.S) This post was made with a Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0! No joke!
freshpintreez said:
Can't I just copy all of the data from my internal sd card onto my computer, remove the internal sd card, copy those files onto a larger sd card and put the larger sd card back into the galaxy player? Im sorry if this Queston has been asked before, or if it sounds stupid, but I can't find the answer to this Queston anywhere! Thanks in advance!
(P.S) This post was made with a Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0! No joke!
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Click to collapse
Hi,
There's still a bit of confusion with respect to terminology, I think (including myself).
I *think* that when the SGP5 displays "internal sd card", it's only part of the "internal 8GB memory". That "internal 8GB memory" is probably, I guess, something like an SDCARD or flash memory module that's soldered to the mainboard, and with Android, I think that it's split into a couple of areas.
Here's my "guess" of how things are arranged, using the terminology from Settings==>SD card and device storage:
"System storage": Part of the 8gb internal memory, e.g., includes /system, etc.
[1.65GB, in my SGP5]
"USB Storage" = "internal sd card" = /sdcard: The rest of the 8gb internal memory.
[5.01GB, in my SGP5]
"SD Card": The external microSD card, if you have one plugged in. Appears at /sdcard/external_sd.
[29.81GB, in my SGP5, where I have a 32GB microSD card plugged in.]
That System storage + USB Storage totals 1.65+5.01 GB, or 6.66GB. I guess the remainder of the 8GB is for bootloader, etc.?
Jim
Looks about right. Task Manger has them labeled like you list them, except there is a "Personal data" partition. It's 133mb on my 5.0. Maybe email and contacts?
I'm guess apps get installed on "System Storage", plenty of room there without having to move stuff to USB or Ext. I pretty much just use my ext card for media and pictures.
For some reason this caused issues with my Market connecting to the internet, any idea why? Anyone else experience issues with this modification?
Hmm, no no one has mentioned that problem, and I have been using this for months - no problem. Sorry if it did that, have you tried restoring the original? Also, an update to the instructions is to change the permissions to rw-r-r. I didn't notice anything wrong without changing the permissions, but you never know.
jimcpl said:
Hi,
There's still a bit of confusion with respect to terminology, I think (including myself).
I *think* that when the SGP5 displays "internal sd card", it's only part of the "internal 8GB memory". That "internal 8GB memory" is probably, I guess, something like an SDCARD or flash memory module that's soldered to the mainboard, and with Android, I think that it's split into a couple of areas.
Here's my "guess" of how things are arranged, using the terminology from Settings==>SD card and device storage:
"System storage": Part of the 8gb internal memory, e.g., includes /system, etc.
[1.65GB, in my SGP5]
"USB Storage" = "internal sd card" = /sdcard: The rest of the 8gb internal memory.
[5.01GB, in my SGP5]
"SD Card": The external microSD card, if you have one plugged in. Appears at /sdcard/external_sd.
[29.81GB, in my SGP5, where I have a 32GB microSD card plugged in.]
That System storage + USB Storage totals 1.65+5.01 GB, or 6.66GB. I guess the remainder of the 8GB is for bootloader, etc.?
Jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty close.
https://github.com/Entropy512/initramfs_yp-g70/blob/master/misc/recovery.fstab is the Player 5.0 partition table.
As you can see, nearly everything is on partitions of mmcblk0 - on the Player 5.0, this is eMMC (embedded MMC) storage. The total size of mmcblk0 is 8GB
The partitions here include (but are not limited to):
p10 - EFS - this contains device-specific config data, on phones that includes IMEI, on our device it's probably Bluetooth and WiFi MAC addresses
p11 - Kernel
p12 - Recovery (on some devices, recovery is a separate kernel partition - Samsungs have this partition set aside even though most of their devices don't actually use it. You can put anything you want on p12 and it won't do anything usually. For us, recovery is part of the kernel initramfs on p11)
p13 - /system - This is where the system firmware, often called the "ROM" sits. A number of people are trying to fight the "ROM" terminology, since it's not really true - flash isn't read-only, thus it isn't the "ROM" any more
p14 - In the linked file it's /datadata, but the device actually mounts it as /dbdata - various SQL databases for apps live here
p15 - /cache - a cache partition separate from data. Files stored here are intended to be safely wipable/deletable
p16 - /data - Various user data. Your apps live here unless you've moved them to SD. Most system settings are here too. ICS merges this partition with the internal SD so they are one and the same
p17 - /emmc in recovery and, if someone ever has the time to port it, CM7, /sdcard in Samsung factory firmwares. This is the "internal SD card".
There are a few other partitions that are not touched by recovery that exist, such as the LFS partition and the bootloader partitions. These are all small.
mmcblk1 is the external SD. Usually only one partition, which is /sdcard in recovery/CM7 and /sdcard/external_sd in Samsung factory firmwares
On the 4.0, I believe it uses Samsung's older NAND flash technology and not eMMC, so the partitions on internal storage appear as stlN/bmlN
i think i did something disaster...
i am using Samsung Galaxy W. I did follow your above instruction. The problem is after restarting my phone, I go to setting>storage and it shows total space and available space for SD card and USB storage is UNAVAILABLE. What is available is only Device Memorry which is 1.03GB.
Thinking that your vold.fstab is not compatible with my Samsung Galaxy W, I replace it with the original vold.fstab that I backed up earlier. However this does not solve the problem.
Then what I did is I tried to reset the phone to its original factory setting (Setting>Privacy>Factory Data Reset..),. Unfortunately the same problem still persist. And i think this is silly and catastrophic step since i loss my original vold.fstab which is stored in the internal memory.
Any of you can help me?
Many thanks to all of you
Well, did you change the permissions on your backup back to rw-r--r--? And yes, this mod should only be used for the device intended for. Are you sure that you replaced the modified vold.fstab with the original one? Did it give you an warning about overriding (it should have)? Are you sure you used your backup and not accidentally mine? What program did you use to copy?
Hmm stupid question, but how do you replace the existing file? I am using root explorer an it says it is read-only when I try to paste it in there.
Edit... Never mind... I didn't have it mounted correctly.
I have tried this multiple times, but every time I reboot it says "USB storage damaged, may need reformatting." So I press reformat, and it's done in like 1 sec and the problem still persists.
Any ideas?
Hmm, odd. I know you have the same version player as me, are you running 2.3.5 or 2.3.6, maybe that could affect it? Did you try before you did a lot of modifications to your device? What type of SD card you got, I use a 32gb class sandisk. I don't think that would matter, but you never know. I recall getting that error when I was working on the mod, but I got it fixed before I released it. Weird.
Oh yeah, what do you have your sd card formatted as? I use FAT32, not sure if that could affect it. May want to try reformatting the card on a PC, then try.
I have a 8gb kingston micro sd card, and I'm running 2.3.5. I had this problem a long time ago too when I was still on stock. Maybe it's my sd card. I will reformat it and try again, and if it doesn't work I will try a different sd card.
Hi,
Yesterday I was backuping files from sdcard to pc. I accidentally interrupted it in the middle of the process and then I got warnings on phone about sddcard being corrupted.
Next thing I did, was to change my firmeware (ICS). (Thats why I was backuping). In new firmaware I still got info about sd card being corrupted so I tried to format it on phone with no results. I formatted it on PC to fat system.
NOW here is a problem:
When I put a sdcard which is full (transferred files from PC) - in settings - storage I can seee that it is full (gives info about how many mbs are free). However when I try to enter external_sd with ES File Explorer or normal android explorer it shows that there are NO files on sdcard. When I try to connect phone with sdcard in it to PC I can only see main phone storage not SD card.
It happens with every sdcard I put into my phone.
Anyone knows what to do?
EDIT: Now I am on Hydrogen ICS
Did you check to see if the SD card was mounted?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Yes it is. In settings I can see how much space is on it left.
*Is there a format option in ICS?*
*Maybe I should try formatting from recovery? How to?*
But still other sd cards doesn't work either.
My fault - Hydrogen ICS has new path to sdcard /emmc.
*panic mode off*
LOL........
since you sort it out yoursself, and cant thank yourself I made it for you....
After upgrading to ICS, some of my apps stopped to work. At first I tought the problem is with how ICS handles external_sd folder on internal memory. Than I noticed that I cant copy anything from my PC to Phone via cable. Strange thing is that I can copy via kiss air. So, I am in doubt where could be the problem:
1) ICS ?
2) Cable ?
3) Phone memory ?
4) Phone usb jack ?
Since I don't have second cable with me, I ll have to investigate after few days, but would like to hear your opinions. I just tried - copying from phone to pc via cable works fine. Last evening I updated Kies on last version. Also, I formated usb of the phone - no change - still can't copy anything on the phone.
***
Update - now it seems that I can't copy anything on usbStorage folder only !!!
***
Thanks in advance.
Zile
do a factory reset and install phone drivers fresh ...
So, situation is like this:
even on the phone, I cant copy anything in folder usbstorage. So, it looks like internal usb is damaged ? Also, what is strange, I CAN copy a lot of data on the phone, but note in folder USBSTORAGE or, for example external_sd (i don't have real sd card), which is probably internally made in usbstorage folder ?!? But I can copy more than one gig of data from pc to phone, and when I go to settings of the phone, I see that amount of free usb memory is decreasing, and internal phone memory is same.
very strange.
Looking for your answers.
Zile
Stop copying things to the usbStorage folder. It is only for USB OTG.
As said above try reading the basics first from the stickies .
jje
My Igo stopped working. All the data was stored in external_sd. Now, when i try to reinstall, simple it doesnt wotk again. So thats the main reason i wanted to access these folders. On Gb everything worked fine. Now on Ics - not.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
zilez2003 said:
I CAN copy a lot of data on the phone, but note in folder USBSTORAGE or, for example external_sd (i don't have real sd card)
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zilez2003 said:
My Igo stopped working. All the data was stored in external_sd
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Click to collapse
I've highlighted another problem for you.
Just to clear some things: I didn't have real sd cart. I suppose that becasue of missing sd card, some of the software i use on GB was making folder external_sd somewhere on internal memory of my SGSII - probably software is design to work that way. Folder external_sd could be seen using es file explorer, but not with default file manager. Also, on GB, I was able to copy files on folder usbstorage. On ICS - not any more. I admit i am not expert for android, but i aks: why on GB it was OK to copy files in this folder, now it isn't any more with ICS ? It makes me think that something is wrong with my phone. Or with ICS ? If this folder was provided to be just for "USB OTG" (whatever it means) - why I was alloud (as common user) to copy files in it while using GB ? I don't want to be software geek, I want to use my phone in the consistent way. Imagine that you have a PC, and on winxp you can copy files in folder MyDocuments, and for example on Windows7 you cant any more becasue iyt is now only for "DOC OTG". And, just to inform you - problem solved. I had to make folder on root of internal memory. After that software recognized it a put everythig in it.
Hey folks,
first of all, I'm sorry if my following problem has already been discussed elsewhere in this forum, but I wasn't able to locate a thread or post that fits my exact issue as I don't want to mess up another thread with this.
So here is my problem:
I've recentally updated the resurrection remix rom from v1.9.1 to v2.1 on my SGS2. My phone boots up normally and works like a charm. But then I mentioned that both of my music-apps (poweramp and stock-player) are showing every song twice, as there would be file duplicates. So I checked the content of my external sdcard (where I put my music on) with both the stock-file-explorer and ES file explorer and found out, that my external sdcard wasn't mounted in /mnt/sdcard anymore but in /mnt/emmc and when I clicked on the sdcard-icon in the stock-app it only showed me my internal storage. With ES file explorer I can't access my external sdcard at all. I already plugged the sdcard out of the device, rebooted, plugged it back in and rebooted again. But nothing has changed. Further I've taken a look with MyPhoneExplorer and figured out, that the folder /mnt/sdcard doesn't exist anymore (creating it by myself failed) while /mnt/emmc was still there. Long story short, here are the facts:
/mnt/sdcard --> doesn't exist anymore
/mnt/emmc --> shows the content of external sdcard
sdcard-icon in stock-file-explorer --> shows internal storage
ES file explorer --> can't access sdcard at all (maybe I'm too stupid to use it)
music-apps --> show all the files doubled
Please help me, what can I do to get my external sdcard back at /mnt/sdcard and the music-apps to show every file only once?
let's just talk about the mount points first:
on stock roms, the internal sd card is mounted as /sdcard/ and the external sd card is /sdcard/external_sd/
on aosp roms the internal sd card _should_ be mounted as /sdcard/ as well and the external sd _should_ be mounted as /emmc/ (external multi media card).
in recent cm9 builds, suddenly those mount points were reversed, which does not make much sense in my opinion.
with the jump from ressurection 1.9 to 2.1 you might have just hit that switch. have you performed a full wipe before and/or after flashing the new rom? maybe that'll do the trick
on aosp roms the internal sd card _should_ be mounted as /sdcard/ as well and the external sd _should_ be mounted as /emmc/ (external multi media card).
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Click to collapse
Actually that's the case. But what is mnt-directory good for then, if there already are folder providing the content of internal storage and external sdcards? and just btw. wikipedia says that emmc stands for embedded multimedia card and this was invented to be used as an internal storage, that's confusing me.
have you performed a full wipe before and/or after flashing the new rom?
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Click to collapse
I followed the installation guide very strictly and performed the wiping and factory resetting before and after the flashing as instructed.
But if the files are where they should be, why is my music indexed twice no matter what I do?
ps: I managed to access my external sdcard with ES file explorer after doing an analyse of the sdcard through the manager-option of ES file explorer.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a solution for the problem, beside waiting for the next version of the rom. But to those of you who may face the same or a similar problem, here's a little workaround:
In poweramp you can define the folders to scan, so just allow it to scan only /emmc/ and the doubled files will disappear. Unfortunately this is not possible for the stock-player. Maybe this is helpful.
i never bothered to look up emmc and just assumed the "e" stood for external.
if it stands for embedded it would actually make sense to switch the mount points.
the fact that one device can be accessed using several paths, e.g. /sdcard/ and /mnt/sdcard/ is a linux thing. same thing is present on pcs, servers and embedded systems (video game console, set top boxes, mediaplayers...). the mount point /sdcard/ is for convenience.
the "picking up files twice" issue you have with your music probably comes from some mount problem. but here's an idea:
in any music player, find a song that is present twice in a row, and look at its details. you should be able to find the full filename including the folder structure. then you will know exactly, what causes the duplicates. it might be that your card is mounted in some other folder as well.
other than that, as you said, it might be best to wait for the next rom revision, or get your post count up and post in the development thread directly, where they can probably help you. if that is a general bug of the rom, i guess you are not the first to realize it and people should be working on it as it sounds really annoying.