[Galaxy Tab General] ChrisCTX:
Intro:

This is a no-nonsense guide for running your Samsung Galaxy Tab with only an external SD Card.

This guide is a compilation of other (more experienced) user's solutions, as such I take credit only on gathering presenting them on a single easy to follow post.

I don't make any guarantees, specially since this guide involves hardware modification, proceed at your own risk.

I did this procedure on a Sprint CDMA version, but all Galaxy Tabs should be more or less the same.

Why would I do this?

Because your Galaxy Tab 7 no longer works (bootloop in GB Roms or Encryption Unsuccessful on ICS/JB).

Pictures of common symptoms that this procedure fixes:

Special Thanks to (from XDA Developers and Rootzwiki):

Black6spdZ: Who originally posted this method.

derekwilkinson: Who helped me out with the update.sh changes.

xz124: For making me custom kernel for a couple of tests (No longer needed with hardware hack) and overall being very supportive.

cgugino: Who guided me to use vold.fstab hacks to fix the device (sadly it didn't work).

iFixit: For their step by step images.

Every single Android hacker and hack user who makes this community great.

Procedure:

Summary:

- Open up the device and take internal SD Card out.

- Re-assemble the device.

- Partition the external SD Card (3 partitions, two small ext4 and one big FAT32)

- Modify ICS or later ROM's update.sh to use partition 3 as external SD Card.

- Flash modded ROM via CWM (and Google Apps optional).

- Enjoy

Taking it appart:

Don't panic!, if you can use a screwdriver and build with Legos you are qualified to do this!

iFixit does a wonderful job of showcasing how to open the device up that I rather link to them than try to out-do them.

Follow their guide until step 13 then refer back to this guide. http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-Teardown/4103/2

To actually remove the Internal SD Card (that is not soldered to the board but in-fact glued to it), I recommend you take an exacto knife (or other small blade or thin screwdriver) and slide it around the edges gently; once the edges are loose, take your screwdriver under the chip and just pop it up.

There will be adhesive residue on the board, I recommend using some gentle solvent to remove it (I used a cloth with a little paint thinner).

Put everything back together (just follow the iFixit guide on reverse) and feel proud that you are done with the hardware mod.

Partition your external SD Card

I used three partitions (all primary, not logical) , two 500 MB ext4 and a FAT32 with the rest of the space.

Linux users will probably not require much help on deciding what software to use, but for Windows users MiniTool Partition Wizard does a good enough job.

Do note that your device will perform according to your external SD Card, so it's not a bad idea to invest in a category 10 SD Card.

Modifing the ROM:

Download your ICS / JB ROM of choice, unzip it and open update.sh

Edit both line 31 and 35 to be as bellow

SD_PART='/dev/block/mmcblk0p3'

Save and zip back.

Loading the Modded ROM to the SD:

Because we messed with the SD Cards, CWM will have a bit of trouble finding the external SD Card (until we flash our ROM).

Go ahead and connect your device to your computer and ADB the following command:

adb shell "echo /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 > /sys/devices/platform/usb_mass_storage/lun0/file"

That will allow you to access your SD Card from your PC, just copy your modded ROM to it.

Now, issude the following command:

adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /sdcard

This will allow you to install the .zip file from CWM, go ahead and do that.

After checking partition types, your device will reboot and appear on a countdown to find the external SD Card, go ahead and reboot it manually before it does automatically (reboot to recovery with volume up).

Flash the .zip again, this time the installation will go successfully and you will have a working device.

Optionally, flash your desired Google Apps.