Hi all,
I have SONY XPERIA tipo with 803MB Internal Sotrage and 2.20 GB.
I have rooted the phone, and set external 32GB card as the default SD card (i.e. phone thinks its internal memory is 32GB) via changes in /etc/vold.fstab file.
The result is that phone regards the 2.20GB space as external memory.
I can move many applications to 32GB card, however some applications e.g. BusyBox, GCC Toolchain, and Chrome are not movable to Internal storage (32GB) or external storage (2.20GB).
Since the 2.20GB space is of no use for me, and it is mounted under the same device where "phone memory" 803 MB is mounted i.e. :
/dev/block/mmcblk0 = 3909 MB
/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 = 524 MB
/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 = 167 MB
/dev/block/mmcblk0p15 = 803 MB
/dev/block/mmcblk0p16 = 2311 MB
Surely, the last partition "/dev/block/mmcblk0p16 = 2311 MB" is the free storage not being used, and "/dev/block/mmcblk0p15 = 803 MB" is the phone memory, which I want to extend/increase.
My question is:
Is it possible to merge the alst 2 partitions (e.g. by formatting 2.2GB space and then merging it with the 803MB space. This way my phone will have its system memory pretty large, and I will be able to install more applets through BusyBox as well as Chrome etc.
Best regards.
maybe Linear RAID these volumes - linux thing but i didnt seen anybody did that on android
you can use EXT partition and script for apps
found nothing related to device partition management
After further searching, and wasting many precious hours, I found nothing except this old thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1171531
But it is related to an LG machine. Furthermore the process is very much cumbersome for a simple task like this.
I thought a couple of linux commands would do this, as usually we Linux user do, but the only partition tool available for android works only with the external sdcard (mounted as a separate storage, not as the device storage).
uetian304 said:
After further searching, and wasting many precious hours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That time is never waisted, You learned things
uetian304 said:
I thought a couple of linux commands would do this, as usually we Linux user do, but the only partition tool available for android works only with the external sdcard (mounted as a separate storage, not as the device storage).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the problem is that Android is not Linux but something similar or in other words a subset of Linux. Many things that are configurable in Linux are not in Android. That's why many phone companies do funny things with partitions e.g. mount internal partitions as SC cards.
That's how it is as far as I know. Cheers, Ralf
Related
Question
SG S2 has 16GB of internal storage, how can I expose ALL of this to Windows or Linux? At the moment I am only able to see a 11.5GB partition. I need to be able to read(no writing necessary) all of the 16BG in order to perform data recovery.
Prelude
I had "USB storage damaged" problem on a stock handset. Where this message was showing up in notifications and internal storage could not be mounted. I had to format the internal storage in order to make it accessible again.
Since then I've been running various file recovery tools on internal storage by making it accessible to Windows through Settings > Wireless and network > USB utilities > Connect storage to PC. A lof of the data was successfully recovered using this method, but I had no luck recovering content of /sdcard/DCIM , which has family photos.
Problem is, Windows sees the drive as a 11.5 GB device. I understand that internal storage contains several partitions and only one of them is exposed to Windows. I need to run data recovery tools on ALL of the 16GB, how can this be done?
I would greatly appreciate any pointers or suggestions. Thank you.
If you had files on /sdcard, it would be on the 11.5GB partition.
It seems unlikely Android specific software would be better, but you could always give http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1352515 a go.
@oinkylicious, thank you for the link, I'll give it a try.
I don't fully understand how internal storage is partitioned. How is 16 GB divided into different partitions? Camera pictures are stored on on /sdcard/DCIM , which partition would this be on?
Some data recovery tools are finding remains of two partitions, one FAT16 4 GB and one FAT32 12 GB, this seems to add up to 16 GB. I am assuming that because USB internal storage failed and had to be formatted, that all of the 16 GB were formatted.
Found how partitions are done on Galaxy S - http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_Series#Partitions
but no luck finding similar info for S2.
The answer isn't hard to find.
pulser_g2 said:
OMG WTF I was conned. Where's my 16 GB??? I WANT IT NAO!
Answer:
Your device uses 500 MB of space for the actual system software, plus around 2GB for your applications and their data storage. There are other partitions used for other system functions, and these take up some of the remaining space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pulser_g2 said:
OMG WTF I was conned. Where's my 16 GB??? I WANT IT NAO!
Answer:
Your device uses 500 MB of space for the actual system software, plus around 2GB for your applications and their data storage. There are other partitions used for other system functions, and these take up some of the remaining space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any way to mount this 2GB partition(apps+data) on Windows/Linux?
Hi guys,
i just went to media markt a german electronics store to check out the Razr. I was reading a lot on here and in online magzines, also german once, about the razr.
but i was suprised as i checked the internal memory it only showed total of 8GB and available something about 6GB
in another online magazin the wrote it has 16GB internal memory but only 12 GB available for the user. I also contacted amazon.de, because they didn't had anything on the product details how much memory. and the guy told me that it is 16Gb but 8GB already reserved for Motocast...
can you help me with this? Why does motocast need so much storage?
Motocast is the app, where i can access the media on my pc and stream it to the device, right?
thanks a lot.
I have this doubt too.I bought mine in Brazil, and it shows only 8GB of internal memory and 6 available, although after you put the SD card it runs an 'internal memory optimizer' and frees all the 8GB.
I think that maybe some sort of reservation, because if it was only the 8GB, some part of this memory would have the system files, and no matter what card you put in the system would be in this memory.But when you put the SD it frees "all" the internal memory.Someone knows how is this possible???
There's 16gb memory on board.
About 4 gigs are reserved for the system, the other 4 gigs are for apps internal storage.
The internal app 2 sd partition is due to many android phones suffering from slow app loading through the SD port.
The system has 4gigs reserved due to the webtop interface, temp storage for the browser and such. And the full android system of course.
The available storage partition, that saves photos etc should be exactly 8 gb free, unless you've downloaded stuff to it. You are free to format the internal storage so nothing important is on that.
Verizon adds a 16gb sd card too, most other markets do not get a sd card.
But they're cheap.
it is just weired because i was reading in an reaview that they hat 12gb for user use...? and somebody else was claiming the other 8gb are reserved for motocast. what is this anyway?
but if the make announcments like this: 16 internal memory, i expect something like 11-12 for the user. i know the system needs stuff and so on. but what does it helf me if the write 124 gb internal memory and they use 120, so i only would have 4 left...they should expand the storage then. it is irritating...
Snake-Plissken said:
it is just weired because i was reading in an reaview that they hat 12gb for user use...? and somebody else was claiming the other 8gb are reserved for motocast. what is this anyway?
but if the make announcments like this: 16 internal memory, i expect something like 11-12 for the user. i know the system needs stuff and so on. but what does it helf me if the write 124 gb internal memory and they use 120, so i only would have 4 left...they should expand the storage then. it is irritating...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that review considered the app2sd partition as "user available"
Sorry, but there's always an SD port, up to 64gb extra
Snake-Plissken said:
it is just weired because i was reading in an reaview that they hat 12gb for user use...? and somebody else was claiming the other 8gb are reserved for motocast. what is this anyway?
but if the make announcments like this: 16 internal memory, i expect something like 11-12 for the user. i know the system needs stuff and so on. but what does it helf me if the write 124 gb internal memory and they use 120, so i only would have 4 left...they should expand the storage then. it is irritating...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have 12gb for use
4 only for apps, and 8 as internal sd...
that's 12gb
Several gigs are also taken up by Webtop.
If you run df command, you can see hw the 16GB is being partitioned.
Code:
$ adb shell 'df '
Filesystem Size Used Free Blksize
/dev 464M 328K 463M 4096
/mnt/asec 464M 0K 464M 4096
/mnt/obb 464M 0K 464M 4096
/system 770M 458M 312M 1024
/pds 3M 1M 2M 1024
/preinstall 8M 1M 7M 1024
/data 3G 164M 3G 4096
/cache 708M 16M 691M 4096
/osh 1G 836M 474M 2048
/mnt/sdcard 8G 1G 6G 8192
/mnt/secure/asec: Permission denied
/mnt/sdcard/.android_secure: Cross-device link
/mnt/sdcard 8G 1G 6G 8192
But, after filtering,
Code:
$ adb shell 'mount' | grep 'ext3\|vfat' | awk '{print $2}' | while read d; do adb shell "df $d" | grep $d; done
/system 770M 458M 312M 1024
/pds 3M 1M 2M 1024
/preinstall 8M 1M 7M 1024
/data 3G 164M 3G 4096
/cache 708M 16M 691M 4096
/osh 1G 836M 474M 2048
/mnt/sdcard 8G 1G 6G 8192
IMHO, the reason /mnt/sdcard partition is on VFAT is, because, it make easier for Windows PC to access the /sdcard content via mass storage support. That's why GNex doesn't support Mass Storage mode, because of the exclusion of vfat FS.
Note; The /osh directory has the UBUNTU distro for webtop. Coool!
ok, and if i have a sd card inserted and apps want to write to sd card, like for their temp-files or whatever they usally store on a sd card, they will write to the internal memory first (sd-card) and if this one is full they will automatilly write to the micro sd (sd-card-ext)? or how does it work? because i would like to use for the app settins and stuff the internal memory, because i think it will be a bit faster...but if this one is full what happens, if i install another app?
Dont know much , but I have seen when I insert the SD card, then the phone starts up something called Memory optimizer, which would copy the contents from the internal memory to the SD card free up the internal memory....
So I think , the preference is like, SD-card(ext) first and then internal memory...
Hope I understood ur query correctly..
App storage is always internal, never on ext-sd, MAYBE if you made an ext-partition?
But IMO, best solution since then apps won't break if you pull out your SD card.
And your apps with data stays throughout system updates.
temp files, android data, general folders with rubbish random names, like extra downloaded game data, is on the internal SD partition.
I found my SD card being Very hard to navigate on my old XT720 because of all the extra folders.
Music from motocast defaults to internal as well.
As it looks to me, any data that is replaceable defaults to internal memory.
In case phone breaks, this is always good.
Ext-sd defaults with irreplacable data, like photos and videos.
Really thought through stuff.
BTW, installed apps are stored in /data 3GB partition, and we still need to do the 'housekeeping' to keep it at a healthy and usable free space size.
After reading this thread, I am wondering if anyone can help me understand this a little further. According to these posts, I should see approx 6gb available. I just purchased my RAZR today, and I do indeed see both total space and available space at 8gb. But above all of that is the Application storage available space, which reads 2.4gb. Can someone explain to me this allocated storage?
---------- Post added at 04:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:31 AM ----------
I think I just answered my own question...
Anyway Android can push some portion of the apps to /sdcard partition, similar to APP2SD. Look at Manage App for yourself.
Sent from my XT910 using XDA App
i have one question......there is a folder name Android/data which contains all the data needed for apps and games but it is present on internal storage ie mnt/SD but the game size is 1.5GB so i was wondering how to move this folder aka Android/data to my 16GB SD card which is mounted as SD-ext.....so any solutions for this? and after moving this folder will it effect the other apps?
Snake-Plissken said:
ok, and if i have a sd card inserted and apps want to write to sd card, like for their temp-files or whatever they usally store on a sd card, they will write to the internal memory first (sd-card) and if this one is full they will automatilly write to the micro sd (sd-card-ext)? or how does it work? because i would like to use for the app settins and stuff the internal memory, because i think it will be a bit faster...but if this one is full what happens, if i install another app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i don't think you will never have memory problems...
i have 30 40 games installed, some with 3d data....
and 1gb navigator maps
and i have 5 gigs left
i think it's really hard to go over 8gb... if you have 10 gameloft games, you are going to occupy somewhere near 4gb...in the remaining 4gb you can install entire market Lol
navigator and games are the only apps wich have more than 100mb data...
and for those there are mods (for example sygic in a xml file) or apps (for many gameloft games for example) wich move data on external sd...
usually i use sd for my data, photos, videos, music etc
if i will ever need space, i'll move gps and games on the external sd
a class 10 external sd is much more than enough for every app
Snake-Plissken said:
it is just weired because i was reading in an reaview that they hat 12gb for user use...? and somebody else was claiming the other 8gb are reserved for motocast. what is this anyway?
but if the make announcments like this: 16 internal memory, i expect something like 11-12 for the user. i know the system needs stuff and so on. but what does it helf me if the write 124 gb internal memory and they use 120, so i only would have 4 left...they should expand the storage then. it is irritating...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100% agree with u. i checked memory details of moto droid razr's specification on net and motorola mentioned everywhere there this device has 16 gb memory but when i got it yesterday and after starting m shocked that motorola cheated me. :-( i have used many other mobiles including iphone4 which has 16 gb memory and i can use 13.7 gb. rest of 2.3 gb is used for applications/software installing and ''iTUNE''...but what is the point to mention that device has ''16 GB'' even mobile shows total space is 8 gb....
xdakam said:
100% agree with u. i checked memory details of moto droid razr's specification on net and motorola mentioned everywhere there this device has 16 gb memory but when i got it yesterday and after starting m shocked that motorola cheated me. :-( i have used many other mobiles including iphone4 which has 16 gb memory and i can use 13.7 gb. rest of 2.3 gb is used for applications/software installing and ''iTUNE''...but what is the point to mention that device has ''16 GB'' even mobile shows total space is 8 gb....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They confuse specs IMO, it's 16GB on die, but "user accessible" should always be declared (Usually is)
Also, the Verizon phones get a free 16GB SD card, which is where most of this confusion lies.
it has 8gb internal memory and nearly 3.6 gb for applications and remaining for the system and os
navdeep2716 said:
it has 8gb internal memory and nearly 3.6 gb for applications and remaining for the system and os
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep, it actually has 16gb. its just partitioned out :/
Hello guys,
I've recently been sold a supposed 16Gb Flyer that shows the following in its settings:
Internal storage:
Total space: 3.94GB
Tablet storage:
Total Space: 8.69GB
Could anyone please elaborate on this. Where the heck is the advertised 16GB storage?
Thank you.
There is another storage area reserved for the operating system … that area doesn’t show in settings.
If you use Titanium Backup you will see it.
Thank you, but i'd have to root the device to install Titanium, I can't. Besides, a whole 8GB of missing space just for the Android OS? that would be NUTS.
photoassign said:
Thank you, but i'd have to root the device to install Titanium, I can't. Besides, a whole 8GB of missing space just for the Android OS? that would be NUTS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you figure that 8gb is missing?
3.94gb + 8.69gb = 12.63gb
16gb - 12.63gb = 3.37gb
Obviously the storage is actually a little less than 16gb to start with even before the OS is put on it (since storage is always like that). Plus, you've probably got a few things currently installed and/or stored on the tablet. So the OS and other related files are taking up less than 3gb of space.
bsweetness said:
How do you figure that 8gb is missing?
3.94gb + 8.69gb = 12.63gb
16gb - 12.63gb = 3.37gb
Obviously the storage is actually a little less than 16gb to start with even before the OS is put on it (since storage is always like that). Plus, you've probably got a few things currently installed and/or stored on the tablet. So the OS and other related files are taking up less than 3gb of space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for replying. I'm a bit confused. It would be fine if the total storage indicated slightly less than 16GB, short by 2 or 3GB, sure, but the total shows 8.69, is total memory not a sum of internal and whatever system storage there is? I currently have no SD card in the unit.
Also, I've dealt with a Nook Color before, which the manufacturer decided to partition strangely, but even in that case you could see the entire amount of the space present, if fragmented.
photoassign said:
Thank you for replying. I'm a bit confused. It would be fine if the total storage indicated slightly less than 16GB, short by 2 or 3GB, sure, but the total shows 8.69, is total memory not a sum of internal and whatever system storage there is? I currently have no SD card in the unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC partitions the single 16gb into two user-accessible sections - "Internal" and "Tablet." "Internal" is where apps and related files will be stored by default, and "Tablet" is what is allotted for you to use to store personal files (music, videos, pictures, documents, etc.). They're both parts of the same 16gb. They show up as different drives because you different levels of access to them. You have to add them up to get your total available amount on storage on the tablet itself.
Also, if you believe the 8.69gb is the total storage for the entire tablet, and you know you don't have a microSD card in there, where do you think the 3.94 comes from?
So don't worry, all of your storage is there. A lot of people often wonder and ask about this though, both with tablets and phones.
Quite helpful, chap, your time is appreciated. Thank you, and thanked.
Also, i will go back to school to learn my mobile device partitioning habits.
At the risk of becoming a bother, could anyone with an actual 16GB Flyer please confirm that the above info holds true? Thank you.
photoassign said:
At the risk of becoming a bother, could anyone with an actual 16GB Flyer please confirm that the above info holds true? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a 16Gb, but do have the 32Gb one, and I have:
Storage: Internal: Total: 7.88Gb
Storage: SD card: unavailable (because I don't have one in)
Storage: Tablet: Total: 19.61 Gb
19.61Gb + 7.88 Gb = 27.49 Gb
32 Gb - 27.49 Gb = 4.51 Gb (assuming the all the measures are the same)
... sidenote ... if I connect my Flyer in Disk Mode, then windows shows the Tablet as 19.6 Gb (21 053 489 152 bytes), so I guess the measures are are all binary, not decimal ... which is great.
If I go into my Revolutionary CWM & Mounts & Storage, I see mount commands for:
/system
/misc
/data
/cache
/sdcard (This is your "Tablet" storage)
/internal_sdcard (This is your "Internal" storage)
So /system, /misc, /data & /cache between them share the 4.51 Gb
If I fire up Titanium backup, I see:
System ROM: 1.05 Gb (317 Gb Free)
Internal: 8.45 Gb (7.91 Gb Free)
SD card: 21.00 Gb (19.6 Gb Free)
21+8.45+1.05 = 30.5 Gb (looks like decimal measures here, if so, there's 3.86 Gb unaccounted for, which would be the /cache, /misc and /data, which are not shown)
So, although the figures are different, I'd guess that bsweetness is spot on.
pmbellis said:
I don't have a 16Gb, but do have the 32Gb one, and I have:
Storage: Internal: Total: 7.88Gb
Storage: SD card: unavailable (because I don't have one in)
Storage: Tablet: Total: 19.61 Gb
19.61Gb + 7.88 Gb = 27.49 Gb
32 Gb - 27.49 Gb = 4.51 Gb (assuming the all the measures are the same)
... sidenote ... if I connect my Flyer in Disk Mode, then windows shows the Tablet as 19.6 Gb (21 053 489 152 bytes), so I guess the measures are are all binary, not decimal ... which is great.
If I go into my Revolutionary CWM & Mounts & Storage, I see mount commands for:
/system
/misc
/data
/cache
/sdcard (This is your "Tablet" storage)
/internal_sdcard (This is your "Internal" storage)
So /system, /misc, /data & /cache between them share the 4.51 Gb
If I fire up Titanium backup, I see:
System ROM: 1.05 Gb (317 Gb Free)
Internal: 8.45 Gb (7.91 Gb Free)
SD card: 21.00 Gb (19.6 Gb Free)
21+8.45+1.05 = 30.5 Gb (looks like decimal measures here, if so, there's 3.86 Gb unaccounted for, which would be the /cache, /misc and /data, which are not shown)
So, although the figures are different, I'd guess that bsweetness is spot on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. Regardless of the amount of storage, all of the Flyers and the View, along with several other HTC Android phones (as well as Android phones from other manufacturers like Motorola) all partition in the same way. I speak from experience with several, including the View that I currently own and the Flyer that I've extensively used. I have no reason to make it up.
Thank you, pmbellis, for taking the time and posting such detailed breakdown. It seems a bit of a strange partition scheme, but it pretty much confirms that I likely do have the 16GB model, rather than something smaller.
Thanks bsweetness and everyone, hopefully others will find this thread of use.
Hello,
I would like to buy the Xperia Sola but I would like also to known how the internal memory is partitioned... if I switch to this phone, it's because my actual phone doesn't have enough internal memory, so I had to use a sd-card to extend the internal memory but the phone is less responsiveness with this method.
Here is what I suppose:
Total internal memory = 8 Go
System memory = 4 Go
User memory = 4 Go (mount as /sdcard)
We can add an sdcard and it will be mount as /sd_ext.
When the phone is plug to a computer, we can access to /sdcard and /sd_ext as two seperate disk.
If all of this is correct, I found a disavantage on this. Because many program will recognize the folder /sdcard as an extention of the memory but not the folder /sd_ext.
So for example, if I use a GPS with local map, it will be stored into /sdcard and so all the available space will be use quickly.
Actually, the solution that I found was to unmount the "user memory" on /sdcard and mount the external sd on this folder. And then use the "user memory" for something else like storing /data folder.
Probably it could be a solution?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2085487
Yes, I already saw this possibility, it's nearly the same thing. So maybe that's the only possibility... anyway, thanks for the information.
But I still would like to known if there is 4 Go for system memory + 4 Go for user memory (/sdcard) or if there is less space for system memory.
Here is the answer... That could maybe be useful for other people in future. :cyclops:
1Go for /system
2Go for /data
4Go internal memory
I have a generic Allwinner A13 7" tablet essentially identical to this one. The internal memory is set so that part of it is seen as internal, and part as a fake SD card mounted on /mnt/sdcard. Actual SD cards get mounted to /mnt/extsd.
I find this very annoying for a number of reasons, and would like all the internal memory to be seen as internal with no fake SD cards, and SD cards to be mounted to /mnt/sdcard. If this were one of those tablets capable of running Linux I'd run gparted and do the job from there, but it isn't.
Is there any way to merge the two internal memory partitions into just one?
I'm aware I can edit vold.fstab and invert the two mount points, and I'll keep it as a fallback solution, but I hate the idea of wasting a gig of useful internal space like that.
Fallingwater said:
I have a generic Allwinner A13 7" tablet essentially identical to this one. The internal memory is set so that part of it is seen as internal, and part as a fake SD card mounted on /mnt/sdcard. Actual SD cards get mounted to /mnt/extsd.
I find this very annoying for a number of reasons, and would like all the internal memory to be seen as internal with no fake SD cards, and SD cards to be mounted to /mnt/sdcard. If this were one of those tablets capable of running Linux I'd run gparted and do the job from there, but it isn't.
Is there any way to merge the two internal memory partitions into just one?
I'm aware I can edit vold.fstab and invert the two mount points, and I'll keep it as a fallback solution, but I hate the idea of wasting a gig of useful internal space like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course your tablet is capable of running Linux, it's an Android. All Androids are running Linux. I guess you are referring to GNU/Linux. You can extend any Android device with GNU/Linux as well, but this is another topic.
You want to merge the internal space today allocated for /data and /mnt/sdcard? If your device memory is of type MMC, you can do this by using qparted or similar partition utility. Depending on what utility you are using, and the layout of the partitions, you may have to redo the entire partitioning, saving and restoring the contents of the partitions.
If your device is using a MTD memory type, there's no partition table, but they are hardcoded. This way, you most likely have to reverse engineer your boot loader, changing the partitions sizes. This is much more complicated.
Another easier way, is to simply ignore the usually quite small internal storage used for /data and create a new partitions on the SDcard, and mount this as the new /data partition. This way you can allocate as large /data partition you like (at the cost of less SDcard space). The drawback is that you always must have the SDcard inserted for the device to work.
you can insert to you tablet sdcard with preinstalled debian. And after that you can do everything. I tryed dd of=/dev/nand and cleaned all nand.
Plan A:
1) You can find some prepared rootfs image (i cannot post links), unpack and dd this image to 2Gb sdcard.
2) mount -t vfat -o rw /dev/sdX1 /to_somewhere/, and copy to first partition you're precompiled kernel and initrd (optionally), script.bin from tablet's /dev/block/nanda.
3) Shutdown your tablet
4) insert sdcard with debian into tablet, also you need usb keyboard
5) power on. login: root; password: password. And do what ever you want! (in command line)
Plan B (my favorite):
1) Unsolder Nand memory chip (you need some solder, heatgun)
2) Solder Chip to some USB Flash drive.
3) Insert USB Drive to the computer.
4) Unsolder nand from USB Flash and solder it back to tablet !