I just got a Nexus 4 and have found to my despair that it doesn't have Mass Storage Mode due to the sdcard becoming integrated with normal data.
I really want Mass Storage mode, as I use my phone as a memory stick for various educational purposes, including running various executables directly from the Mass Storage.
Is it possible to create a 1GB, or so, FAT32 partition from the normal ext4 space and allow that to be mounted as Mass Storage?
If someone could point me in the right kind of direction for that, I would be much obliged.
Smashman said:
I just got a Nexus 4 and have found to my despair that it doesn't have Mass Storage Mode due to the sdcard becoming integrated with normal data.
I really want Mass Storage mode, as I use my phone as a memory stick for various educational purposes, including running various executables directly from the Mass Storage.
Is it possible to create a 1GB, or so, FAT32 partition from the normal ext4 space and allow that to be mounted as Mass Storage?
If someone could point me in the right kind of direction for that, I would be much obliged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, im either interested in this, i want to develop a simple application which should achieve this but im new to android so therefore need more information
Regards
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?
I've tested both CM v10.1 and ARHD v18.
Neither has a "plain USB storage mode" for the internal/external storage.
I mean, I would expect the phone to behave like a "usual" USB memory stick when plugged into my PC.
Instead I only get MTP and PTP modes which don't work well with my Linux boxes (my house has no windows at all!)
Any advice?
Uqbar said:
I've tested both CM v10.1 and ARHD v18.
Neither has a "plain USB storage mode" for the internal/external storage.
I mean, I would expect the phone to behave like a "usual" USB memory stick when plugged into my PC.
Instead I only get MTP and PTP modes which don't work well with my Linux boxes (my house has no windows at all!)
Any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theres currently no way to use the internal memory as a USB device since it uses the MTP protocol.
However you can use your external SD as a usb device using SGS3 Easy UMS. Check here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1711009
Search on Google, it's a design of jelly bean, decided by Google, to secure internal emmc and to be able to use dynamically all the internal space for data. Internal sdcard is in fact a folder in data folder virtually mounted as a device by android os. On the contrary before that internal sdcard was a separate partition.
That explain why it can't be mounted as usb mass storage, which is only possible with plain partitions.
There are ways to bypass it either with the above mentioned app, either with a tweaked kernel.
While I can understand the limitation for the internal storage, I don't really get the point with the external storage.
The limit just makes things harder: I could eject the uSD and push it into a reader...
By the way, which kernel supports USB storage mode for whatever storage?
I run cm 9 / cm 10.1 .
Thanks.
You can use Easy UMS to mount the external card in mass storage mode
Yes. But why needing an extra app when it is a built-in feature with other (cheaper) phones and ROM?
Why, if the recovery (PhilZ Touch 3) CAN DO IT?
This was my original question, though.
Hi XDA World,
This is the 1st post and with such Non-expertise in ROMs/Tweaks yet with keen-to-learn thinking, I ask all Seniors a question that might be challenging! (I thought its impossible to my knowledge and not to android swimmers)
Now-a-days most modern Phones see world only with Internal Storage and does not have SD Slot. Users of such devices are popular to MTP/PTP Connection methods used to share Phones data with PC. And everyone knows How is sucks at times!. All phones even with SD Slot have this MTP yet It's difficult to use and hence It's rarely been used.
Till I have learned Android uses the whole internal memory to Partition to /data /system /boot etc, Among which /sdcard is faked to External memory for Apps to save data in Internal memory. My question is since /sdcard exists as a Partition would it be possible to mount the partiion in Mass Storage mode when connecting to PC?
Advantages are huge like Data recovery can be made possible, One could connect their phones to Car stereos that have USB Data-in, One could use Teracopy, etc softwares to transfer data at significantly high speed, Connecting these Phones to Mac won't be a Problem, etc
In Huge Internal memory phones with SD Slot, SD is mounted as /sdcard0 and so. During such mount /sdcard data however is unuseable. As har as I think, there should be no problem in mounting Internal memory's /sdcard as Mass Storage. Is it really possible? Awaiting for dev's to unlesh the knowledge!!!
arvindgr said:
Hi XDA World,
This is the 1st post and with such Non-expertise in ROMs/Tweaks yet with keen-to-learn thinking, I ask all Seniors a question that might be challenging! (I thought its impossible to my knowledge and not to android swimmers)
Now-a-days most modern Phones see world only with Internal Storage and does not have SD Slot. Users of such devices are popular to MTP/PTP Connection methods used to share Phones data with PC. And everyone knows How is sucks at times!. All phones even with SD Slot have this MTP yet It's difficult to use and hence It's rarely been used.
Till I have learned Android uses the whole internal memory to Partition to /data /system /boot etc, Among which /sdcard is faked to External memory for Apps to save data in Internal memory. My question is since /sdcard exists as a Partition would it be possible to mount the partiion in Mass Storage mode when connecting to PC?
Advantages are huge like Data recovery can be made possible, One could connect their phones to Car stereos that have USB Data-in, One could use Teracopy, etc softwares to transfer data at significantly high speed, Connecting these Phones to Mac won't be a Problem, etc
In Huge Internal memory phones with SD Slot, SD is mounted as /sdcard0 and so. During such mount /sdcard data however is unuseable. As har as I think, there should be no problem in mounting Internal memory's /sdcard as Mass Storage. Is it really possible? Awaiting for dev's to unlesh the knowledge!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might give this app a shot:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=os.devwom.usbsharer
But you will have to be rooted, and there is no other way around that part.
I found this well worded explanation as to why android does not natively support USB Mass Storage any more:
"Here are couple of reasons.
Earlier Android used to have /data partition for app data and /sdcard for movies, music and rest. Say you are an app freak and have installed lots of apps, what happens in /data fills up but still you can't use space from your /sdcard as it's a separate partition. Now what Google has done is used unified file system. So that you can share space between /sdcard and /data. USB mounts storage on host and gives entire block level access to the host. If this is done the partition is unmounted from your phone. It was fine when /sdcard was separate now since both /data and /sdcard reside on same partition Android can't afford to allow full block access to another host. This is solved with MTP.
Another reason, Microsoft holds patents for long file name support on FAT filesystem. That's one patent for which they demand royalties from OEM's. If you use USB mount, you need to format your /sdcard as FAT because most users use windows. If you use FAT, you need to pay MS or risk a lawsuit. With MTP, Google can use ext3/4 btrfs whatever they please and there is no risk of lawsuit.
Finally, formatting filesystem with ext3/4 instead of FAT gives lots of read/write improvements since Android uses linux kernel."
es0tericcha0s said:
You might give this app a shot:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=os.devwom.usbsharer
But you will have to be rooted, and there is no other way around that part.
I found this well worded explanation as to why android does not natively support USB Mass Storage any more:
"Here are couple of reasons.
Earlier Android used to have /data partition for app data and /sdcard for movies, music and rest. Say you are an app freak and have installed lots of apps, what happens in /data fills up but still you can't use space from your /sdcard as it's a separate partition. Now what Google has done is used unified file system. So that you can share space between /sdcard and /data. USB mounts storage on host and gives entire block level access to the host. If this is done the partition is unmounted from your phone. It was fine when /sdcard was separate now since both /data and /sdcard reside on same partition Android can't afford to allow full block access to another host. This is solved with MTP.
Another reason, Microsoft holds patents for long file name support on FAT filesystem. That's one patent for which they demand royalties from OEM's. If you use USB mount, you need to format your /sdcard as FAT because most users use windows. If you use FAT, you need to pay MS or risk a lawsuit. With MTP, Google can use ext3/4 btrfs whatever they please and there is no risk of lawsuit.
Finally, formatting filesystem with ext3/4 instead of FAT gives lots of read/write improvements since Android uses linux kernel."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your given Output. I had some basic knowledge on android partitioning and has I though it was impossible.
I'm obviously rooted and hence good to know about Usb Sharer [Root]
But from your data, I got a new workaround. Lets say I create a partition /usbms of predefined size (some 4GB) from free space of Internal memory, can I mount this Partition as Mass Storage when I connect to PC? In this way one could eliminate FAT problem (NTFS/FAT32 on USB-OTG are easily readable) and android could provide entire block level access to the host. Is this practical or??
arvindgr said:
Thank you for your given Output. I had some basic knowledge on android partitioning and has I though it was impossible.
I'm obviously rooted and hence good to know about Usb Sharer [Root]
But from your data, I got a new workaround. Lets say I create a partition /usbms of predefined size (some 4GB) from free space of Internal memory, can I mount this Partition as Mass Storage when I connect to PC? In this way one could eliminate FAT problem (NTFS/FAT32 on USB-OTG are easily readable) and android could provide entire block level access to the host. Is this practical or??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not possible to make that kind of partition from internal. The mounting for the external as USB will only work if it's a real separate drive.
Hello,
I know this may have been covered already, but I'm somewhat confused.
I have cm11 installed on my SGP5 and it runs fine. However, I'm up to my storage
limit on the internal storage (~1.5GB) even though most of my apps are on USB
storage, and USB storage still has a couple of GB available. What are my options?
I've tried to digest references to Link2SD but I wonder whether I have to format
and partition the external SD first. I have quite a bit of data on the external SD card,
so I don't want to format, if possible. I have also seen references to flipping internal
and external storage or joining both. They confuse me even more!
Is there any way to access that free 2GB of USB storage? Can I resize any of the internal partitions?
I do have experience with partitioning tools on Windows.
Thank you,
System Cleaner Root App
rjolbrich said:
Hello,
I know this may have been covered already, but I'm somewhat confused.
I have cm11 installed on my SGP5 and it runs fine. However, I'm up to my storage
limit on the internal storage (~1.5GB) even though most of my apps are on USB
storage, and USB storage still has a couple of GB available. What are my options?
I've tried to digest references to Link2SD but I wonder whether I have to format
and partition the external SD first. I have quite a bit of data on the external SD card,
so I don't want to format, if possible. I have also seen references to flipping internal
and external storage or joining both. They confuse me even more!
Is there any way to access that free 2GB of USB storage? Can I resize any of the internal partitions?
I do have experience with partitioning tools on Windows.
Thank you,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has anyone used the app System Cleaner Root? I tried it, and it freed hundreds of MB
on my internal storage. Could someone explain exactly how it works. I did a search
on Google Play for "dalvik cache" and this app led the list!
Thanks
help!! I need an application that allows me to handle the internal memory of my phone samsung s3 international version from the PC as a mass storage device and not as multimedia .
If your trying to say to convert an sd card into internal storage, change your rom to to an android 6 based one (i.e CM13) and there is this sd card setup allowing to let you use it as portable or mass storage.
Jericho Arcelao said:
If your trying to say to convert an sd card into internal storage, change your rom to to an android 6 based one (i.e CM13) and there is this sd card setup allowing to let you use it as portable or mass storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm around trying to say that I want to use internal storage memory of the phone as a mass storage drive , I tried some apps does not work
Oh, that isn't really possible. A phone cannot be converted into a mass storage drive for PC. You will need a proper hard drive in order to do it.