mount virtual drive (VHD/EXT4) on sdcard within android - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi all,
I want to gain a bit more usable space on my phone without reformatting and repartition my sd card, the best way I can think of doing this would be to place a virtual hdd file of some sort(VHD or equivalent) on my sd card, format it EXT4 and then mount it within android.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?
I've searched everywhere but keep getting completely irrelevant results so if this has already been asked and answered then I'm sorry and would you mind pointing me in the right direction?
Many thanks

Wondering same and looking for the answer since long.
Got any response or found a solution?
Link2SD is a working solution for increasing internal memory i.e. by linking apps to 2nd partition on sd card. But I don't want to partition my sd card. Just a virtual partition (ISO or IMG file placed somewhere on sd card) should be mounted at /data/sdext2/ to which apps are linked.
I don't think it's an impractical idea.

Related

[Q] partitioned sd card

did some searching and couldnt find an exact answer I was looking for about this.
Rooted my G1 back in the day and partitioned the sd card. have since upgraded to vibrant and im looking to root. will this partitioned sd card have any negative consequences to rooting my vibrant. how do i know which partition to place the .zip files in, or does that matter as long as i can find them in a file manager?
thanks in advance.
hope you not partitoning through clockwork cause u will brick internall memmory , unless u partitoning external sd u good to go i use program called paragon partiton manager for my ext2 ext4 fat32 rfs jfs needs iv partitoned my ex sd to ext4 so i ccan have dedicated partition for my apps insteadd of placing them on internall memmory. good luck.
never ever ever partiton your internal memmory unless u know what you are doin ,knock your self out regarding external sd and no it wont affect rooting process. (you can replace external sd ,u cant repllace internal sd and iv heard stories of people that ruined internall memmory by partitoning internal sd, hard brick bc of sd failing from partitoning)
ok, i think i understand. since i have just partitioned the external sd card i wont have any problems rooting. is that correct? not even sure how to access the internal memory yet. have to look into that. now if i want to load a custom rom on here. which part of the partition would i put the .zip file in.
wrong put the zip file on your INTERNAL SD not EXTERNAL ...clockwork dont mount exteranl sd in recovery so externnal sd doesent get even mounted in recovery meaning its usles.....zip files it belongs just on INTERNAL SD no folders just file by it self . simple .
Ok thanks youve beena great help.
thank you.it was great talking to You too .

[Q] gtablet not reconizing the internal sd...

i have done alot of nonsense to my tablet, but for some reason i don't think my tablet is recognizing my internal sd card as memory. I tried downloading a file from a website and it said that i needed an sd card to download the file...this never happened to me before recently. I remember the tablet recognizing the 16 gigs of internal memory as essentially an sd card on the system. I think it now recognizes it as maybe internal memory and needs to show it as an sd... i don't know for sure... is there anything i missed. do i need to partition something? i just flashed cyanogen 7.0.3..
so it happened just after flashing, or already before? in cm in a file manager do you see sdcard?
Dunno about thekafka, but I have just flashed the same version of cyanogen to my G-tab, and am now experiencing the same issue. This did not start until after the installation. File Manager and CWM do find the SD card.
Is there an optimal partitioning scheme to use when flashing this ROM?
In CM-7.0.x, the internal SD card is mounted at /mnt/emmc and the external SD card, if one is attached, will be mounted at /mnt/sdcard. They're not trying to make things difficult for new users--it's just what's sensible for the wide range of devices that CM runs on: internal SD cards at /mnt/emmc and removable SD cards at /mnt/sdcard, whether on phones (remember, most phones don't have internal SD cards) or tablets.
If you're coming from another ROM where the internal SD is at /sdcard (or /mnt/sdcard) and the external is at /mnt/sdcard2, you, and some of the applications that you use, might get confused.
It's easy enough to switch the mount points so that internal SD is at /mnt/sdcard and the external will be mounted under /mnt/emmc. There is even a CWM-installable zip file floating around to do this easily. Search around here or at the cyanogenmod gtabet forum.
Thanks for being helpful and smart and stuff.
Here's the address of a thread with fixes, including the ZIP file that rajeevvp mentioned:
forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/19492-no-sd-card-apps-fail-to-use-emmc/

[Q] understanding ext4 on SD card

Hi there. most of the threads about this here revolves about the steps of getting it working and not much on the reasoning.
My main question is if I format my SD card as EXT[2,3,4] it is available early during boot?
I am under the impression that with the basic linux knowledge i can change my init scripts to mount my app install area on the sd card and have more space.
Am i right on this? or having ext[2,3,4] on the SD for a completely different purpose?

[Q] Link2SD for moving apps to microSD card?

I have been using Link2SD to move apps to the external microSD card. But not many apps and I still hit the internal memory limit. Then I discovered that Link2SD can effectively increase the internal memory if I created a second partition on my microSD card and let the Link2SD use that partition as a virtual extension of internal memory. So I created two partitions on my microSD card.
The problem is that my phone (rooted, 4.4.2 stock ROM) refuses to recognize this arrangement and complains that the SD card is damaged. When I let the phone's default app format the first partition, it removes the second one and formats the whole card as partition.
Anyone has a solution or suggestion for me? Thanks,
szaim said:
I have been using Link2SD to move apps to the external microSD card. But not many apps and I still hit the internal memory limit. Then I discovered that Link2SD can effectively increase the internal memory if I created a second partition on my microSD card and let the Link2SD use that partition as a virtual extension of internal memory. So I created two partitions on my microSD card.
The problem is that my phone (rooted, 4.4.2 stock ROM) refuses to recognize this arrangement and complains that the SD card is damaged. When I let the phone's default app format the first partition, it removes the second one and formats the whole card as partition.
Anyone has a solution or suggestion for me? Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download sdcard fix from play store run it. If you're trying to move big files use foldemount
RealityFails said:
Download sdcard fix from play store run it. If you're trying to move big files use foldemount
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please explain with a bit more detail? I have checked the Play Store, there are several apps called "sdcard fix" or similar, but they all say they solve the microSD write problem with KitKat. My problem is that when I create the 2nd partition on my SD card, the phone does not even recognize the first partition. Link2SD recognizes the 2nd partition, but it does not recognize the first partition either.
I have checked foldermount, and it seems to do the same thing as Link2SD but it looks like a lot of manual work, identifying folders and creating symbolic links on the SD card.
szaim said:
Could you please explain with a bit more detail? I have checked the Play Store, there are several apps called "sdcard fix" or similar, but they all say they solve the microSD write problem with KitKat. My problem is that when I create the 2nd partition on my SD card, the phone does not even recognize the first partition. Link2SD recognizes the 2nd partition, but it does not recognize the first partition either.
I have checked foldermount, and it seems to do the same thing as Link2SD but it looks like a lot of manual work, identifying folders and creating symbolic links on the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No folder Mount does it automatically it moves file to SD card and tricks the system. Its fairly simple.
Use app analyzer and click yes to everything. Seems to me you're putting too much thought into this.
1st partition must be fat32 and 2nd partition ext2, both partitions set as primary.
But as sugested, download a sdcardfix from playstore (makes external writeable again), download foldermount paid version, a lot easier.

Apps2SD

Hey all,
Has anyone had success using Apps2SD or similar? I have a rooted Z3TC and have been trying to partition and create mount scripts for the microSD card in the app but keep running into an error.
Error:
Mount: mounting /dev/block/mmcblk1p3 on /data/sdext2 failed: No such device
I have posted on the dev forum but wanted to check if anyone in the device specific forum has speciality knowledge. And devs are often worked off their feets!
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Solved.
2nd partition needed to be formatted as ext4. Still a whole load of other issues to sort through, but I have a working version. (Will never buy a device with this small internal memory again!!!)
Soulfulgrey said:
Solved.
2nd partition needed to be formatted as ext4. Still a whole load of other issues to sort through, but I have a working version. (Will never buy a device with this small internal memory again!!!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello.
I have the App2SDPro app and have not been able to get it to work. Can you explain in more details how you did it? 16GB is always making me delete stuff...but there is no phone that can match this size so I just need to find a way to move apps.
Thanks!
Hi,
I use App2SD since a while due to the ridiculous amount of memory of this device. I have something around 320 applications installed with games, gps/maps... all locally installed.
I don't use the "Link apps to SD card" option but only the "Folder Mount" one.
I barely move everything on the root of the internal SD to a dedicated folder on my external SD card.
The trick is to find the folder on which App2SD has the write permissions. As there is a several location for both internal and external storage location it can require some try/fail tests...
I'm on LineageOS and I use these links to move all the obb folder to the external SD card:
Source=/storage/emulated/0/Android/obb
Destination=/storage/NNNN-NNNN/DCIM/App2SD_folders/obb, with NNNN-NNNN the internal SD name
I have unchecked all the options as I normally prefer to move them manually with a file explorer to make some cleanup in the same time.
For some reasons there was some limitation to move directly the Android folder, so do the same for the /Android/Data folder.
Cheers

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