yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[EVO 4G General] ChitownWingMan:
Dual Boot with Windows Mobile 7 in Nand and Android on SD

I am running a dual boot HTC HD2 with Windows Mobile 7 in NAND and Android on the SD card.

Windows Mobile 7 creates a dedicated and non-standard partition on the back half of the card.

Android is booting from a FAT-32 partition on the front of the card.

The partition table looks something like this for the 16GB Class 10 card I am using:

FAT-32 Partition from 0 to approx 7.3 GB set as primary.

Type 4 Partition from 7.3GB to the end of the card.

When running Android from a dedicated SD card the SD card can be found at /mnt/sdcard and everthing is hunky dorey.

However, when the Windows 7 partition is also on the card /mnt/sdcard is empty (there is nothing mounted there). All of the applications that look for an SD card cannot find it. I did find the entire contents of the SD card in /bootsdcard.

I tried creating a soft link between from /bootsdcard to /mnt/sdcard and that did not work.

Does anybody have any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks,

Mike
[EVO 4G General] danielt14:
how do you know if a2sd is working?
[EVO 4G General] jminor4326:
I want to say Dredz that you have been terrific about answering questions and correcting incorrect answers... thanks. Along the lines of Post 76, I don't see anything in /sdcard. You say to backup SD. Do you mean System/SD? I'm a little uneasy about switching ROMs and reinstalling apps - I use TB, but you say that can be problematic. If I change ROMs I don't want to have to reload all apps one-by-one. What directory(s) needs to be backed up? And to restore apps, just copy that directory(s) back? thanks
[EVO 4G General] sanjsrik:
You can put the card in a MicroSD adapter and format it on your desktop machine.

Make sure you copy everything off the card to a safe place first.

Then, format it to one partition using FAT32.
[EVO 4G General] dpilcher:
I've had that happen before with a 16G C6 Transcend card and spent countless hours thinking a process I was using was in error. However;

My phone would partition to whatever I wanted, but never upgrade to ext3 and always give me that 'oops' error. The phone would also show the correct 16G's of allowable storage (take away whatever size of ext partition I created). My computer would also show it as a 16G card. I later figured out that a section or two (usually four 4g chips on a 16g card I believe) had gone bad. Running the h2testw program verified that it now only had 8G's of reliable space on it. Once it tried to write and verify above 8G's, it posted errors and stopped. I've sent it back to them to verify it has gone bad with it being under warranty.

Summary: 'oops' may be a bad board within the card or the card may not be the actual size stated.

EDIT: Received my replacement Transcend card in the mail last week. For me..the "oops" was a faulty card, but Transcend sent me a brand new one without question and it works like a charm. Very happy with the customer service from them after being over a year old card! (will be back up for now).
[EVO 4G General] Hammerfest:
thanks for the guide... if only i had found it a few weeks ago :P

but im happy with my end result!

4GB Fat32, 3GB ext4, and 1GB Swap!

works like a charm! getting the swap partition to work was a ***** but still :P

*WARNING/CAUTION/DANGER!!!, if anyone reads this and looks into using a file or partition for swap, note that it DRASTICALLY shortens the lifespan of your media (MicroSD in this case), so if you decide to do it, know that depending on the quality of your media, you could be looking to replace a DEAD card in 1-24 months (thats right, some people have had fried cards in the first MONTH!)
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
You're quite welcome, I just started my own business so I can't be on as much as I like now.

Backing up your SD means to basically copy ALL of the card to your hdd. Connect the device to your pc as a hard drive. When the window opens up, everything you see is on your SD card. Do a <ctrl>+<a> to highlight everything and copy to a safe place(preferably it own folder) on your hdd.

What ROM are you coming from? You may not have a choice but to wipe everything! You don't want restore your info from a previous rom, if it's not the same base.

I ALWAYS do a complete wipe. I use my device for so much that It has to work. The only way I can guarantee that is a full wipe and install it like the Dev's intended.

Hope that helps. Questions? :cool:
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
Easiest way, how much internal space do you have free?

Other way, use a terminal and type, # a2sd check. :cool:
[EVO 4G General] jminor4326:
" Backing up your SD means to basically copy ALL of the card to your hdd" I'm looking for a way to save time since it takes so long to copy the SD card. Are there specific files / directories that are necessary, or conversely ones that are NOT necessary? thanks again. forgot to say I'm running MikG v2.2 Re-Engineered GB Sense 2.1 + 3.0. Also Forgot to ask: when it's suggested to do a full wipe to upgrade ROMS, MikG 2.2 to 2.3, does that mean wipe the top three items in RA 2.3, data, delvik and cache only?
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
You don't need any of the files associated with your SD card. The back up warning is there in case you have files(pics, docs, music, etc...) that you don't want to lose.

The term 'full wipe' has many definitions, for some it is just dalvik cache, cache and data. For me and many others, it is everything except SD Card. YMMV, but I like a fresh start. :cool:
[EVO 4G General] jason370:
i have this same question ( i think).

you state that the entire contents of the sd card will be wiped but in the case where one is dual booted wp7 Nand and SdAnd will it only wipe the entire android portion of the card?

if not then i'm not sure how this can work on this type of dual boot config, since installing wp7 also wipes the entire card clean.

thoughts?

thanks

jason
[EVO 4G General] ChitownWingMan:
Windows mobile 7 was installed on a 2GB SD card and the partition was copied to the end half of a 16 GB card and increased in size to 7.4 GB. A FAT-32 partition was then created at the beginning of the the SD card.

This is how I got WM7 to boot from NAND and Android to boot from SD.
[EVO 4G General] tgeigel:
can I also go into rom manager and click on where it says "partition sd card"? is it the same thing?
[EVO 4G General] internetpilot:
There's talk in the main Synergy thread that putting dalvik on the SD card will slow this ROM down quite a bit. For me lag is already SOMETIMES pushing my tolerance (compared to speedy Warm 2.2 RLS5).

I have a Class 4 16GB SD card and I have a 141mb of free internal (and doubt I'm going to be installing any additional apps anytime soon). So...

1. Would I see any benefit to partitioning?

2. Would more free internal memory improve Synergy performance?

3. Would having dalvik on my Class 4 SD card slow things down?
[EVO 4G General] wings9130:
I'm a little confused about this. If you partition your card you will get more internal memory but it will be used on the card on one of the partitions? Also if you start your rooted phone without your sd card will it still bootup properly? Also im wondering if it needs the rom file that is on the root of the sd card to bootup the phone with the custom rom properly?

I'm still a little confused by what you mean by default A2SD. Does that mean after partitioning the card or something else?
[EVO 4G General] aburgthing:
Some ROMS have a2sd built in. There are two main players in the a2sd game right now. Theres CM a2sd (cyanogen mod) and DT a2sd (Dark Tremors). Synergy has the CM script built in to utilize the CM a2sd. This is automatic IF and only IF your card is partitioned to take advantage of it. If your card is not partitioned your apps will go to internal memory as well as the Dalvik cache going to internal memory. What this means is because the ROM is so large you will have a very low amount of internal storage remaining for your apps. Once you get below 50mb of internal you will begin to get the low memory warnings. Hence if you partition your card BEFORE you flash the ROM all of your apps both system and downloaded will automatically go to the SD card. On your initial boot you will have anywhere from 350 to over 400mb of available internal memory.

Now as stated there is the DTa2sd script available in the Synergy updater. You can flash this right over the built in CMa2sd. What benefit does this have you ask? Well this puts the Dalvik cache back into internal memory. For some including me, this makes the phone run faster with no lag even though I use a Class 6 32gb SD card. YMMV. Be advised however you will notice that instead of the 300 to 400 available internal it will be anywhere from 200 to 150. That's because the Dalvik is taking space on the internal memory. However, even when you install new apps, this number will change very little. Over time you can wipe the Dalvik to free up space but really not necessary.

While no one says it is imperative to partition your card, it is not the daunting process it seems. The hardest and most time consuming part is copying your files to your computer to save them BEFORE partitioning. Depending on how much you have on your card, give your self about an hour free time and follow the directions. Use AmonRa if you don't have it. For months I was a diehard Clockwork user but the switch is well worth it. Taking the time to partition your card and use either the built in utility or the DT script will save you much time and will forever avoid the low memory message downloading as many apps as you want (unless you download every app on the Market).

Got it?
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
Depends, what recovery is RM using? If you are not 100% sure it's AmonRa, you may have issues. :cool:
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
1. It is possible, devices vary. I have dalvik on my SD with no ill effects. The DT script in the Syn-updater will put it back on the device.

2. Technically yes, however there are too many variables that can affect performance to call this the fix.

3. See last part of 1. :cool:
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
1. The ONLY thing partitioning your SD will do is create logical drives. The SD is able to act like it has different drives basically.

2. The device will boot-up w/o a SD Card.

3. You do not need the ROM zip file on your SD for it to work.

The amount, or lack there of internal space depends on the version of Apps2SD you use and what, if any, settings you change with the script. See OP for link with example of DT. :cool:
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
+1. This guide/tutorial was written based off of using Project Synergy RC1. The default A2SD is the CM Script which the Dev's baked into the ROM. :cool:
[EVO 4G General] internetpilot:
Thanks for the reply and for the how-to. One of these days when I don't need my phone for an hour or so I'll give this a try and see if it speeds things up for me. I can always restore if it doesn't, but even if I don't see marked improvement, I'll probably still leave it. For Evo 4G users it's likely going to be the larger GingerSense ROMs from now on.
[EVO 4G General] showbo:
You should just have to reformat your card. Pull it out and pop it into your pc and reformat it. Make sure you save everything on your card before reformating, that goes without saying but you know. Correct me is I am wrong guys. Thanks.
[EVO 4G General] thebeast614:
ok so after patitioning and flashing synergy, flashing dta2sd script should fix the a2sd problem with the rom, correct?

Edit: sorry didnt look a few posts up...disregard
[EVO 4G General] ewmccraw:
A NEW sd card

Okay, after reading through this thread, I've come to the conclusion that to install a brand new card, I can follow the same steps and then re-install my previously saved files to the new card?

Also, what about a nandroid backup(Amon-Ra), can I use this?

I've already ordered a 16gb class 10 card for my EVO.
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
First question, yes.

for question 2, hmmm. Theoretically, yes this can be done. However, I haven't tried it out to test and wouldn't suggest it. That isn't a 'clean' new install of the ROM and the file structures have change since the nand.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] ewmccraw:
Yeah, my gut feeling kinda told this also, but it never hurts to get another point of view. Thanks!
[EVO 4G General] wings9130:
Thanks for this great info. My phone is already rooted with fresh 4.1. Can I still do this since I already flashed the rom because it says here you have to partition before flashing the rom. What do I do now because I consistently have no memory at all in my phone and it is very annoying and frustrating.
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
Partitioning your card will erase everything on your SD Card. If you back up your SD to hdd, after the partition is completed you should be fine once you move you files back to SD.

I always suggest and perform a full wipe and install of ROM after a partition. If fresh 4.1 can take advantage of EXT3 by itself, a re-install is necessary for it to utilize it.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] gilbert1920:
5. When the process is complete, go to the wipe menu and wipe EVERYTHING in it.------what does this means???? help!
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
On your recovery menu (AmonRa2.3), there should be a option that says 'wipe'. Inside you will find several items (dalvik cache, cache, data, etc...), wipe them all!

Hope that helps.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] mooney1184:
Is there a way to change the swap size after partitioning? I set mine to 0, but it needs to be larger to decrease lag in sense 3.0 roms. I've tried searching for terminal emulator commands with no success.
[EVO 4G General] rajas_evo:
point of clarification, when you say Wipe ALL, are you talking about the option Wipe ALL (Green)? or are you saying Wipe each item on the list. Here are the choices available on Amon Ra 2.3

Choose wipe item.

- Return

- Wipe All userdata/factory reset

- Wipe CACHE

- Wipe DALVIK-CACHE

- Wipe Data

- Wipe SDCARD:.android_secure

- Wipe BOOT

- Wipe SYSTEM

- Wipe SDCARD

- Wipe SDEXT

- Wipe DATA:battery stats

- Wipe DATA:rotate settings

From what i have read, Wipe All does the following: wipes /data + /cache + entire ext partition + all apps installed on your sdcard

But that doesn't mention anything about BOOT & SYSTEM. I understand that everyone keeps saying Wipe everything on the Wipe screen. But I just wanted to be sure before I wipe BOOT & SYSTEM and find myself in a tricky situation.

I am sure i am not the only one confused by this :-D

and to give you a background on my flashing habits, i have been using Clockwork since day 1 and these options don't exist in that recovery, which adds to my confusion.
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
Each item on the list. No worry, you are amongst friends.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] internetpilot:
Well, that settles it! With Synergy RC2, I might as well jump right in and partition the SD card, right? Yes, I was just looking for an excuse to justify the little bit of extra work. ;)
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
GO FOR IT! You'll love the results.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] wings9130:
If i backup everything on the card and make the partition and put the files back on my card will I have any more memory on my phone without a wipe? I really don't want to wipe as it takes forever to get the phone back the way it was. What about partitioning, then wipe, then nandroid restore?
[EVO 4G General] internetpilot:
Grrr....I don't think I was really meant to have anything other than a Froyo based ROM on my Evo. The end result of long hours of reconfiguring everything and I ended up with under 200mb internal memory! :eek:

I partitioned it with 0 cache, 2048 Ext4, and the rest of my 16GB card as fat. Flashed Synergy RC2. Checked the memory and had about 360+ mb, so I figured everything was going well so far.

I let most of my apps download from the market, then manually downloaded any that were missing. Checked memory and it was still above 300mb.

I did use Titanium Backup to restore some data (not apps) where I couldn't get it back any other way. Checked memory and it was still above 300mb.

I then copied the important parts of my SD card back to the fat partition from my PC (music, photos, videos, nandroid, a little data, etc.). Memory was still above 300mb.

But after using the phone for about an hour just testing things out, verifying apps were working and data was there, I checked the memory again it was around 180mb! I booted to recovery, cleared cache and dalvik, and rebooted. The memory went back up to around 280mb, but then even though I didn't use the phone other than to check available memory about every 10 mins. it quickly dropped back down to the 180mb range.

Something definitely went wrong, but I have no idea what. I can't be without a phone, and I was worried about the reliability of this new configuration so I deleted the partitions, wiped everything, and restored my Synergy RC1 nandroid. Now instead of being the usual 142mb of memory available (non-partitioned SD card) using the stock a2sd, I have around 120mb.

I realize that I've screwed the pooch by restoring to my old configuration, but, again, I have to have a reliably working phone, but any ideas what went wrong that would cause my available memory to go below 300mb with a partitioned SD card? I definitely think that partitioned SD is the future of custom ROMs on the Evo 4G, so I'd like to get that working reliably.

I'm probably just going to go back to Warm 2.2 RLS5 or maybe CM7. Synergy (at least at this stage) just seems to be too heavy for the Evo 4G. Maybe after Synergy gets to a true RLS1 I'll try it again.
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
Depends. All the partition will do is set up the SD Card. I don't recommend a nand restore because partitioning changes the directory structure of the SD. If you are on a 2.1/3.0, the market should be able to restore your apps. for you.

Bottom line, I have no clue what will happen if you wipe all. I always do. Hope that helps.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
Wow buddy, you gave it the old college try! Your post has lead me to believe the root of your troubles are connected to that TB data restore. When you get where you can tinker, try it again without the TB data restored first (1-2 hours) to see if results match. Post results here.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] rajas_evo:
done! thankx for your help.
[EVO 4G General] rondietz1:
Off the wall question, but is there a way of partitioning by using a card reader and doing this from windows 7 desktop computer?
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
Good question! I have not tried that but I can offer you my opinion (might be worth testing though for s&g's). The partition being created is an EXT which for all intents and purposes, is a LINUX file system type. I guess if you had a system running LINUX you could do it that way. But again, this is all in theory.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] internetpilot:
There was definitely some strange stuff going on there. For me, with the way I use my phone, I don't honestly know if I'll ever be able to do this if I can't restore data. TB has a restore preference setting where you choose from Default Location (Chosen by Android), Original Location, Internal Memory, External Memory. I told it to restore to the default location because I figured that the apps2sd would grab it and put it where it should/can go. But like you said (which is my guess, too), it seems that didn't quite work right for whatever reason.

Today I went back through my nandroid backups and found my most recent Myn's Warm 2.2 nand and restored it. Guess what -- 130mb of internal memory free! Even using Synergy RC2 with a non-partitioned SD card I end up with more than that! So I'm sticking with Synergy RC2. Now my problem is just how to get everything over to a partitioned SD card configuration. Hmmmm.....

Thanks again for the write-up on this and for your help. I'll get it going eventually.
[EVO 4G General] xpdcn:
HELP

I have completed the instructions in the OP. Now, I am trying to verify it is working. I see over 300 MB for Available Internal Storage but when I go on Terminal Emulator and type in a2sd check, it comes back with "not found". Also, I don't see a DT script in the Syn-updater that everyone is talking about. I'm only seeing Black Lock Ring available. I am running Synergy RC2. Please Help!! thank you.
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
You can also try restoring your data, one item at a time. Very time consuming, but can help you find out if something is corrupt.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
In the Syn-Updater where the lock ring is, click the awkward looking down arrow and it's in the scroll down menu. With over 300 MB free, it was successful. Installing the DT script will lower that because it will automatically move /dalvik to internal storage.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] wings9130:
So when i partition will I pretty much lose my nandroid backups even if i put the files back on the sd card after partitioning? Also can I just use titanium backup to restore my apps and data or will that cause a problem with the new partition?
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
You won't lose them, they just may not be compatible. Using TB to restore apps has been successful for some, but data restored from TB has been the root of much evil with some ROMS. It's a pain in the azz but I always install new from the market. The ROM I'm using is a RC, I can't properly test it without a full wipe and fresh installs. Hope that helps.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] jminor4326:
God Mode

Does anyone have any knowledge about God Mode mentioned in xda developers on 20 July? They say it’s in essence a new yaffs2+ext2 partition made in the rom which drastically improves the I/O performance on a device. Is this partitioning compatible with the SD card partition Dredz does?
[EVO 4G General] jminor4326:
Got an issue and not a question - I wiped my phone and tried to perform a nandroid restore. didn't work. I had two backups of MikG 2.3 with the partition in this thread, and neither restored. The restore was quicker than normal and when the ROM was started, it had no apps - none of my downloaded apps - and the market would not work. I had to reinstall my ROM from a .zip. What did I do wrong? What prevented the restore from working. I use RA 2.3 and I wiped the top three items. pretty frustrated.
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
Hey jminor, I have no insight on the 'God Mode' partition you speak of. I can try to investigate and update FAQ'S with results.

If you made a fresh nand (after partition) and this happened you may have your SD going bad. It could be a lot of things. This process does not bork your card. PROMISE! It may show you that your card is flawed. That being said, perform a nand of the new install you did and try again. If problem still exist, perform error checking with your pc. If that passes, try re-installing AR 2.3.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] rajas_evo:
Ext4.. isnt that the cause of his problems? i noticed that it was mentioned somewhere in the posts that ext4 was not supported.
[EVO 4G General] jminor4326:
I don't have a good understanding of this partition file system / framework, i.e. what has been added and where a new partition / directories are located, or what is visible to Astro or Root Explorer, but I have a newer SD card I will use. Can I partition the new one then directly copy-paste everything from my current (old) card? Can you answer my questions about directories? when formatting an SD card on my computer, what is the optimum allocation unit size. There is a wide range from 512 bytes to 64 kbytes. Thanks
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
True, if he is using Pro-Syn. EXT4 isn't supported by this piece of 'sense' awesomeness:D. There were a few that used it (in FroYo I believe) but I haven't messed with them.

Good catch.

:cool:
[EVO 4G General] Dredz:
1st Q: Yes, one of the final steps is moving your info back to the SD (which would be the new one). If your previous card was not partitioned, you still need to do a wipe of everything and re-install ROM.

2nd Q: You can't think of your card as a windows based drive when partitioning. EXT partitions, for all intents and purposes, are LINUX based drives. Your EVO and AmonRa 2.3 are the best options for creating the partitions on your SD. Hope that helps. Questions?

:cool: