yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Desire Android Development] mmaacc:
Multi Mount SD has the same effect as A2SD+. It will corrupt your SD card. The issue is not caused by particular 3rd party tools but by Froyo's mounting regime itself. Any 3rd party tool that interferes here potentially screws up.
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
No problems yet :p

Making a backup just to be sure though ;)

-edit- Looks like something is ****ed up though - my lost.dir is full of crap :(
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
I've been using it without problems for some time now. Actually the only real problem I found before using this, was the lack of updates on the file list when re mounting the sd. I never had the card end up read only, or worse and the only files I lost, I lost them while not having a2sd.

I guess everybody has different behavior

Sent from an ipho.../ NETWORK DOWN-PLEASE DON'T TOUCH THE PHONE
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
Um I hope that is not the cause, but did you check it some other times ? Mine is/was always full of crap

Sent from videotext, using the remote
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
Oh, so that's normal? Fine with me :p

Loving the iPhone4 sig btw. ;)
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
Better than chuck norris one, I guess hehe.

I had these lost files without a2sd, with it, and of course now too, with the widget. If I'm not mistaken, I had tons of similar lost files ages ago when I was so daring to use linux on the desktop... Or am I dreaming ?

Sent from videotext, using the remote
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
So nothing to worry about, hopefully :)
[Desire Android Development] Hayzie:
Now I'm scared to ever mount it to my PC again.

Does it make a difference if I use a USB stick for my SD card or is it the software inside the HTC devices that make connecting to PC's so difficult?

I use my USB stick sometimes and I can live with that if that's all it takes.
[Desire Android Development] camperkc:
what about change the step 5 from post #1

5) Eject the disk from windows explorer instead of Close the windows explorer and now select in the phone "Charge Only"
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
I've always done that and at best mitigates the problem sometimes, at worst, I think it changes nothing. I'm referring to the filesystem update issue (the missing new files) however, since my sd card never really became corrupted
[Desire Android Development] DesirableHTC:
yes, this happens to me too. But there again, i don't take pictures while my phone is connected to PC anyway, so this is irrelevant to me. Unless I'm missing the point somewhere........?
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
Take picture, connect and mount usb, edit/delete/copy files, unmount, unplug, take another photo, replug and remount, new photo isn't there.

Reboot and remount and it's there

Sent from videotext, using the remote
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
By using that widget I managed to mount and unmount the sd card without problems many times. the only problem is apparently that 'ejecting' the drive from the computer freezes the widget. I've emailed the developer about it.

Then once in a while, when unplugging the phone, I get a 'sd card mounted read only' notification, with the connected problems. After some seconds, HTC sense restarts and the sd card is remounted read/write and I can keep using the phone normally. No files has been lost apparently.

I think this might only happen when I don't 'eject' the drive before unmounting from the phone and unplugging.
[Desire Android Development] ruleamsterdam:
I really think the title of this thread is wrong, scaring users without too much need and explaining no real "explanation".

There's only an example of how you can mess up your SD and some do manage to run into these situations by chance. A lot of these problems seem to be caused by all kinds of different apps that mess with your SD card so you can mount/unmount it in ways that it's NOT intended to do.

Using these things will always bring risks but how many people are there with A2SD(+ or not) with a correctly configured (and aftermarket?) SDcard, who mount, copy/delete/move/whatever, choose "safely remove" and then simply select the notification in the statusbar to change to "charge only" on Sense ROM's or "Disable USB storage" on Stock Froyo?

What exactly is the benefit of a (re/un)mount widget? Ofcourse, to each their own but i'm cutious about why it's used.
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
You mean the Multimount widget Andycted recommended? It doesn't actually unmount the SD card on the phone... which is what seems to cause the problems when you connect USB storage normally. No idea why though :confused:
[Desire Android Development] ruleamsterdam:
Connecting a storage device to different machines making use of it is bound to create problems, no surprise there. That's why computers use network drives for that, ever tried hooking up an external drive to more than 1 comp at a time?
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
Then why are there less problemswith the Multimount variant? ;)
[Desire Android Development] marcuso:
After finding this thread i now know that i am not completely insane ;-)

I can 100% confirm the described behaviour and it was driving me crazy.

The question is now: what is the best solution to get around this (other that rebooting the phone before mounting sd on PC).

Is remounting sd on the phone (using any app/widget) the way to go ?

And as there seem to be fixes in some roms - does anyone know if there is something to apply to other roms (running MCR r8 here) ?

Marcus
[Desire Android Development] desire888:
with ext 3 I kept getting that stupid windows message saying that there may be an error and to scan and fix, and it would never find anything wrong. Would happen after a few connects with the pc, after a fresh format.

switched over to ext 4 and never got the error message although sometimes it would take a while to recognise the sd.

then decided to switch back to ext 3...and sure enough, after a few connects/disconnects with the pc, back with the error message again.

think I'll be switching back to ext 4.
[Desire Android Development] ruleamsterdam:
less problems compared to what?

I don't use any mounting tool/widget whatever and never had any issue so it's hard to have less than none
[Desire Android Development] ruleamsterdam:
The problem seems to be that people are very unclear about what they're doing and how this is caused.

-Connecting ANY storage device (SD/HDD) to MORE THAN 1 machine (PC/phone) is BAD, don't even try this. You might succeed but it WILL cause issues at some point

-Using apps that are on your SD while the SD is not mounted on the phone is BAD. The app might try to read/write data which is not availble an the result is glshjihesreiguflrshrgkihxhrbvxedrv....or something like it.
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
So please state:

ROM you are using

which A2SD(+) version (if not bundled with rom), cachesd or not

type of ext partition

swap partition ?

and if you can't replicate this:

- take photo

- plug phone, mount usb

- see said photo, cut and paste it to pc

- unmount, unplug

- repeat, a couple of times if necessary

at some point you won't be able to see the new photo, if not by rebooting
[Desire Android Development] ruleamsterdam:
I'm on MCR r8, A2SD+, ext3, no swap

I've been running a number of different ROMs, Sense and NonSense.

In your example you should put:

- take photo

- plug phone, mount usb

- see said photo, cut and paste it to pc

- choose "safely remove hardware" on pc

- unmount, unplug

- repeat, a couple of times if necessary

I think you'll see a lot less issues then already. You can ofcourse assume people ALWAYS do this and every single user is aware that they should but the truth is that they don't.

Issues might still occur but somehow i never needed to plug/mount/unmount/unplug my SD over&over&over. Just inform people of the proper way to use their equipment and issues should be at a minimum.

I think that if i would start plugging/unplugging my HDD over and over really fast, like 2 sec in / 2 sec out, it'll give up at some point too.....even though i don't even need to "safely remove" it because it's set up that way.
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
I always eject from the computer before unmounting and I can confirm that I had this issue many times, regardless. There are however reports that this could be somehow fixed, so I'm asking you if it's your case.

I need to plug and unplug, mount and unmount the phone many times and so far the only reliable way to avoid that problem has been the multi mount widget

Sent from videotext, using the remote
[Desire Android Development] ruleamsterdam:
I see, that's clear. I was confusing different tools. Others are using tools like "Dual Mount SD" which connect SD to both PC and phone which, not surprisingly, causes issues.

That said, i've never needed to fix it. Curious to see where it comes from but to determine this we have to make sure everybody's using a function in the same way so please include the "safely remove" if you tell people to try replicating it.

And indeed, would help if everyone would state the environment (ROM, ext, swap, type SD and such) when they're testing.
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
Like I've mentioned, I haven't had any problems since I switched to the Dual Mount SD apps...

Before, with regular Froyo SD card mounting, using safely remove hardware and then unmounting each and every time, I'd regularly get Windows 7 telling me it needed to check the disk for errors when I connected, as well as the symptoms listed in this thread (files that were just added not showing up on the PC-mounted SD card)...

I know it's contrary to everything you've ever heard about the topic, but I didn't just make this stuff up ;). I was skeptical too when Andycted suggested the multi mount apps, but hey... strangely enough, they work.
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
Hell,I was skeptical myself of suggesting it,hehe

Sent from videotext, using the remote
[Desire Android Development] marcuso:
just because some people think this is not a real issue because of people making strange things ;-)

I can definitely confirm the behavior as described in the OP.

Using MCR r8 with Apps2sd+ (from mcr kitchen) and no other "mount-tools" or anything else interfering with the sd.

When i took a pic it can be seen on the phone. Once i connect it to pc (without rebooting the phone) the pic is gone.

I did not do any repair-options from windows or anything else.

This can be reproduced many times.

My solution is currently rebooting the phone before connecting to pc - but i guess there must be a way to fix this - and if it is fixed in some roms already there must be a way to apply it to others (like mcr)

Marcus
[Desire Android Development] the_rebel:
Guys, would this be a solution to the EXTn partition problem?

APP2SD+ won't be needed, huh?

Desire owners have posted success, doesn't even require root.

ps .. not tried yet, just read and posted here. thanks
[Desire Android Development] ruleamsterdam:
Erm...been doing that all along. I pretty much assumed others did the same as it's mentioned quite a bit on all the ROM pages.

I don't really see how it would contribute to solving issues though. It mainly creates them if people use it wrong.

but anyways...sorry to hear if people are having issues, needs to be looked into but please don't go around saying "A2SD+ corrupts SD" as a proven fact while there's no definitive answer yet. If it was, everyone would have the same. We need to look at how the people who have it are set-up vs. the people without issues.
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
That's just the normal Froyo Apps2SD function.
[Desire Android Development] the_rebel:
True, but wouldn't this procedure negate the requirement of the developer adding option of 'Move to SD' to each app?

Meaning whether or not the developer added that support, all apps end up in SD, and for widgets, live WPs etc one would move them back to phone to ensure functioning while SD card is mounted.

Please correct if I mis-understood. thanks.
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
Correct. However, this function has been known for months... most custom ROMs already have a built in option for moving all apps to the SD card via FroyoA2SD, even ones that the developer hasn't made moveable.
[Desire Android Development] khaytsus:
Uh, no, files in LOST+FOUND on a typical Linux system is not normal. Not sure about in Android but I would imagine it's the sme.
[Desire Android Development] czzer:
Maybe that's why you're not seeing the issue. If you're using that "force install to external" mentioned, then you're not using A2SD+...you're actually using the Froyo Apps2SD method. With A2SD+, apps are installed to "Internal" as far as the phone is concerned.
[Desire Android Development] Bl@ck:
I've been using the latest cyanogen rom for a couple of weeks and got this issue, first time i saw it was when i made a couple of photos and try'd to move them on my pc, i couldn't see them.

My report:

Rom: Cyanogen 6.0.0 and 6.0.1

Mods: Darktremor a2sd 2.7.5 RC3c

Issue: File disappearing, LOST+FOUND folder full of missing files.

Sdcard: Sandisk 16gb class2

Partitions: 14,3gb FAT32 - 512mb EXT3

This looks like an a2sd script issue, maybe we should report it to the creator?

atm i'm formatting the fat32 partition, then i'll try to reinstall the rom+a2sd make some photos and see if the issue is still present.
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
If I remember correctly, even when you don't have an ext partition, but you have the script, the issue occurs.

I might be wrong though, however I can remember that having the partition without script didn't produce the problem

I'm quite happy with multi mount at the moment

Sent from videotext, using the remote
[Desire Android Development] Bl@ck:
You're talkin about this Dual mount? http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.protocol.x.USB
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
No, multi mount widget. Guess it's the same stuff though

Sent from videotext, using the remote
[Desire Android Development] Bl@ck:
Reportin' in!

I think this still needs a bit of testing but looks like the fat32 corruption is gone after a full format (no quick format) and wipe/reset of the rom.

Now i'm running a rooted stock rom (2.10) with a2sd+, made a photo and in the gallery details i could see his location (/100MEDIA), afterwards i plugged the phone on a pc and i could see and copy the photo. Gonna test more.
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
You have to repeat the shooting - plugging/mounting - unmounting/unplugging process at least a couple of times, if not more, to get the problem.
[Desire Android Development] terryhau:
The first time you mount after a reboot will always work properly. It only starts to screw up from the second time onwards.

I tried wiping the sd, repartitioning, formatting, wiping and flashing rom clean. Didn't fix it.
[Desire Android Development] Bl@ck:
That was quick, i did some other tests before reading here and the sdcard started screwing the files again... ffs i'll have to install that widget and live with it, i need a2sd+ atm.
[Desire Android Development] Bl@ck:
So... apparently the only workaround is this "double mount" widget? i've tested it right now and it works even thou windows 7 still wants to fix my sdcard.

meh this is really, really, really annoying i want to keep a2sd for the extra space but it's not worth risking the data on my sdcard, this already happened a couple of times with my old touch hd, when testing android i lost everything on my sdcard, 2 times, i don't want to repeat this again since now i've 6gb of mp3s, 1,5gb of photos, some video and other stuff.

Is anyone "outside" this thread having this issue? i don't see much people complaining.

I don't really know what to do.
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
I haven't had the "fix SD card" prompt on Windows 7 since I started using the dual mount widget. You need to allow it to check your card once to get rid of the message though... it just doesn't appear again with the widget.
[Desire Android Development] epakman:
Hi,

I'm using Leedroid 2.0a, but I face that problem (Losing photos and videos ONLY!!! in 100media folder (which camera saves)) even I restart my phone, I mean not connecting to Mac. So for me this is not related to safely unmount thing etc. I can only recover my files by using photo recovery programs, any solutions will be appriciated :)
[Desire Android Development] choccy31:
I lost a ton of pics and vids earlier today out of the blue! :-(
[Desire Android Development] fanello123:
This fault occurs with all 2.2 Roms.
[Desire Android Development] mmaacc:
Sorry.

I really don't understand how often it need to be said. You all can read. Do not use a ROM with A2SD+. Problem solved, simple as that.
[Desire Android Development] mmaacc:
Wrong, it only occurs when buggy scripts mess around with Froyo's internal mounting. Such as A2SD+ or Dual Mount SD.
[Desire Android Development] fanello123:
You are right, I meant this fault occurs with all 2.2 Roms with APPS2SD+ enabled
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
Happened when my sdcard was slowly dying. Didn't have A2SD+ at the time.

Never had any problems in the last 3 months with A2SD+, never had a problem with multi-mounting.
[Desire Android Development] padlets:
Is this problem occur with the Darktremor Apps2SD script too?
[Desire Android Development] jodamm:
I use the "[ROM] Official 2.2, with: busybox, old A2SD+, OpenVPN (TUN), EXT4 support, 802.11N" and the problem occurs with that image for me too.

Then I installed the Darktremor Apps2SD 2.7.5 Final script, and the problem still exists.

After some testing I changed the partition in /etc/vold.fstab from auto to partition 1.

When I select "Disk Drive" now, only the FAT32 partition is mounted not the whole SD card. After selecting "Charge Only" making a photo and selecting "Disk Drive" again, you will see the new photo without a restart.

Flash vold.fstab-signed.zip in recovery.

Link to modified vold.fstab: http://mff.das-eckchen.de/vold.fstab-signed.zip
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
Nice finding! You did test it with multiple plugging/unplugging, right? Because sometimes it took two three times in my experience...

Having A2SD+ already cooked in, I don't know if I can use the same trick...

Edit: my line is like this

# Mounts the first usable partition of the specified device

dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.0 /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.2/mmc_host/mmc1

Similar to yours (before modification)?

Sent from videotext, using the remote
[Desire Android Development] jodamm:
Yes, I had exact the same line, and I changed the auto to 1 .
[Desire Android Development] padlets:
So, is this fixing the problem?
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
Yep, seems so, at least for me.

Thanks for the fix, you might want to tell the A2SD+ author (DT) about it. I'm still using the multimount widget though, as I find it more convenient. By the way, do you happen to know how multi-mounting a partition works ?
[Desire Android Development] jodamm:
I have created a zip that contains only the modified vold.fstab file, this should work with any a2sd+ script.

Copy zip file to SD card and flash in recovery.

Link to modified vold.fstab: http://mff.das-eckchen.de/vold.fstab-signed.zip
[Desire Android Development] Bl@ck:
yay for fix!

Well this is a nice finding, thanks for the fix mate!

Let's test it for a while.

EDIT: This seems to have fixed the problem... finally :)

i'm going to test it a bit more but right after flashing and making a recovery reboot the problem "vanished", since the problem was easily reproduced even in recovery by pluging the phone and mounting it as a USB Drive, simply copy a file on the sd card from the pc and then unplug the USB Drive, browse for a ".zip file to install" and you can't see the new file, after this fix eveything worked fine and i could see the files copy'd from the pc.

Btw atm i did 4 plug/unplug while taking pictures and the files where always visible on the SD Card both from pc and the phone.

EDIT2: This also fixed a "lag" problem i was having with the dalvik cache moved on the sdcard, right after unplugging the phone all the widgets i placed on my desktop had a force reset and the phone started to lag a lot, now this doesn't happen and the widgets continue to show properly.
[Desire Android Development] justinkb:
nice find. are we sure this won't prevent A2SD+ from working though?
[Desire Android Development] qbus00:
I'm using it since yesterday with APP2SD+, heavily tested mounting/unmounting FAT32 partition and other apps. Everything works like a charm :).
[Desire Android Development] FloHimself:
Can someone explain why this should solve the problem?

If part is set to "auto" it would use the first usable partition. If part is set to 1 it uses the first partition. So auto==1 on my sdcard.

BTW: This problem never occurred here with OSX.
[Desire Android Development] Nitin985:
Van someone make an flashable zip to fix a2sd
[Desire Android Development] jodamm:
When set to auto the value "/dev/block/vold/179:0" is written in /sys/devices/platform/usb_mass_storage/lun0/file and the complete SD card is shared over USB.

If changed to 1 the value "/dev/block/vold/179:1" is written in /sys/devices/platform/usb_mass_storage/lun0/file and only the first Partition is shared over USB.
[Desire Android Development] jodamm:
A flashable fix is out since 15.09.2010 and a link to it is only a few posts before yours.
[Desire Android Development] tkirton:
I have mirrored your file:

http://www.darktremor.info/files/misc/vold.fstab-signed.zip
[Desire Android Development] kls1974:
Great... Solved it for me too... Thanks :D
[Desire Android Development] Rastaman-FB:
does anyone know if this fix is already integrated into leedroid 2.1?
[Desire Android Development] inamak:
Great fix - if indeed it is a permanent solution to the problem then the OP should append the thread subject so that everyone will be able to see this...
[Desire Android Development] akpe:
Great news! Gonna try this out when I get home! No wipe/data loss is needed, correct?
[Desire Android Development] Rastaman-FB:
flashed this anyway just incase
[Desire Android Development] simemu:
==========================================================

Thanks to jodamm, this problem was solved. Thanks again.

See the post http://xdaforums.com/show...&postcount=114

==========================================================

I have updated the top post.

Regards
[Desire Android Development] kecinzer:
This solving issues with missing files, but I have still problem with speed. When I partition my SD card and then connect to PC as mass storage, transfer speed is very poor (upload files 800kB/s), but when SD card isn't partitioned, speed is 12MB/s.

Where can be the problem?
[Desire Android Development] bemymonkey:
o.O

Can anyone else confirm this?
[Desire Android Development] kewvention:
i dont know what my transfer speed's are if i didnt have my sd card paritioned, but i can say that the transfer rate from my pc to my phone is maxing out at 1.4MB/s, but i dont really mind that i can wait.
[Desire Android Development] andycted:
Uhm sort of. Not so bad though and if I don't have anything on a2sd almost no difference
[Desire Android Development] kecinzer:
This can be card related. For now I have 16GB Kingstone Class10. Before I had Sandisk 8GB Class6 with no problems.

But this is very disapointing for me. When I using A2SD+ phone is much slower - booting spand much more time.

Becouse of this I using stock non-rooted ROM and everything is fine even apps on SD (by FroYo app2sd). So I don't understeand where is problem :(

Is there anybody with 16GB card having no problems? Any tips?
[Desire Android Development] Alex-V:
the slower you mean (booting time etc)..what you not have on original....is related to deodexed...try a custom rom that is odexed and you see what i mean

with kind regards..Alex

edit: and most of the apps don´t use froyo a2sd for now
[Desire Android Development] terryhau:
Didn't fix the problem for me. Still have to reboot for new photos to appear.

On CM6 with darktremor 2.7.5.1.