Hey all, I've been browsing around the forums trying to find answers but I must not be fully comprehending what's being explained.
I recently got a HTC HD2 (Person sent wrong phone on eBay - Purchased a HTC Desire after 4 weeks receive HD2 can't be without a phone for another month or 2). After playing around with Windows Mobile OS I have decided that I don't enjoy the experience of using the phone and have decided to try and flash Android to the device (thus why I am here).
I'm about to update the ROM to the latest official ROM from the HTC website (to update the Radio to get ready for flashing) however my problem lies after this.
I currently have a 2GB MicroSD card. "A breif guide to installing and maintaining Android" recommends a 4GB MicroSD card where others say I may use a 512MB MicroSD card. Thus leading to my confusion in flashing my device.
If anyone could point me in the right direction with the size of the sdcard I need and a "fool-proof" guide to flashing, or even a guide written for the average Joe to understand I would appreciate it.
Kind regards.
Well firstly, it doesnt matter what size of card you have aslong as it can hold the android files and your data.img (internal storage file).
Second, You can not currenly "flash" any android to your phone, You only have the ability to reboot your phone into android OS and this would be ran from your sd card, Your phone in no way will be altered or flashed with any rom.
I will not attempt to tell you how to accomplish this as its a ridiculous question to ask as its obviously a faq and has been asked too many times and answered too many times..
Read, guides, read build topics, learn!
TheATHEiST said:
Well firstly, it doesnt matter what size of card you have aslong as it can hold the android files and your data.img (internal storage file).
Second, You can not currenly "flash" any android to your phone, You only have the ability to reboot your phone into android OS and this would be ran from your sd card, Your phone in no way will be altered or flashed with any rom.
I will not attempt to tell you how to accomplish this as its a ridiculous question to ask as its obviously a faq and has been asked too many times and answered too many times..
Read, guides, read build topics, learn!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the quick response. I've been reading all I can here, however, it seems that everything is going over my head (such as things like SPL and Radio Versions). I'm not looking for a free ride with doing this, I'm just trying to find some assistance in a way I can understand.
Mods, please close this thread. I have solved my problem.
Kind regards.
Thread update.
I am now working on providing tutorials for the following.
One card method - I am looking to improve this if I can.
Two card method - This is for micro SD cards over 8gb. There seems to be issues when using 16gb card with the one card method so I am now extensively looking into this to provide tutorial to make larger Android partitions than WP7 if you wanted (As WP7 takes the largest partition with the one card method)
Android SD Magldr Builds - More support and more intuitive tutorials for setting up all known SD Magldr Builds.
I am also looking into alternative ways to the above. I have lots of ideas and theories to improve speed, functionality, setup and configuring you PC/Laptop for convenience to performing the 2 card method, not just for now but for when you do this again in the future. For example, you may wish to install the latest WP7 ROM. The tools are already included in Windows operating systems later than XP. I am now experimenting this and so far, it looks good.
If there are any requests on what else I should provide support or tutorials for, the please feel free to leave you comments either by private message or through this thread.
Please be patient with me as I am trying out the above to make it as clear and hassle free as possible. I have learned a lot from Xda and this is my way of giving back and helping others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In this thread I have put together a tutorial on how to dual boot WP7 and Android using the one card method. To use Android, the build must be one that has been adapted to work via Magldr. Builds which has been kindly adapted by zarathustrax are on Post 2 so please show your thanks to him for taking time to convert them for us to use.
This tutorial presumes you already know your way around Magldr and know what buttons to press to select etc. If you need any help then let me know. I will help the best I can but cant always promise to be online. The tutorial recommends you use a SD card reader instead of Mass Storage in Magldr as Mass Storage is not always reliable.
1/ Download a WP7 and Android Build (Maglrd Build) you want to use.
2/ Run DWI.exe to install WP7 to your phone.
3/ Go through the setup and once it tells you that you have a new SMS which is welcoming you to WP7 go to Settings - About - Reset Your Phone and once phone restarts hold power to enter into Magldr.
4/ Remove SD card and insert it into the computer.
5/ I used Minitools Partition Wizard which you can get HERE, the Home version is free. Start the program and you will see two partitions on your SD card. Right click and delete the largest partition, this will leave you with Unallocated partition.
6/ Now right click the Unallocated partition and select Create. Leave 'Create As' as Logical and 'File System' as Unformatted. Under 'Size and Location', slide your Unallocated space to the right to roughly half the size of your SD card so the blank grey area is on the left. Click OK.
7/ Now click on Apply (The tick) and when it comes up saying Successful (This may take a while), remove your SD card and put it back into your phone and shut down Partition Manager.
8/ Boot up WP7 and go through the setup again. Once the message beeps again to say welcome to WP7, go to Settings - About and look at the 'Total Storage' and 'Available Storage'. These values should now be roughly the same.
9/ Hold Power button to restart and hold Power to enter into Magldr. Remove SD card and put it back in your card reader. Open Partition Wizard again, right click on the 200MB Other partition and select Delete. Right click on the new Unallocated partition and select Create. The File System should be Fat32 and set as Primary. Click Ok and Apply (The tick).
10/ When all the changes has been applied click OK and right click on the Other partition and select Modify and then Set Partition As Primary. This is important to run Android as well as WP7. If Partition were still Logical then once Android Build was loaded it would not recognise anything off your memory card . Put the SD card back into your phone and boot WP7 and exit Partition Manager.
11/ In WP7, go to Settings - About and double check the Total Storage and Available Storage to see if they are the same as before, they should be except the one should now be 200mb larger.
12/ Power off and insert SD card back into your card reader.
13/ This time start Computer or My Computer depending what version of Windows you are running. Move the Android Magldr folder to your SD card and read the instructions to set boot settings in Magldr. This time I will Boot MarkinXHDExtraClean Magldr Build but DL Desire Magldr build worked for me just as good as Nand. You can also use one of the builds in Post 2.
14/ Once Android folder has been copied, remove the SD card and put it back into your phone. When in Magldr, press the volume buttons up and down until you get to Services - BootSettings - AD SD Dir. For MarkinuXHDExtraClean Build the zImage and initrd.gz are on the main directory of the SD card so select <->. Always read the chefs installation instructions.
15/ You should now be in the main Magldr menu. Press vol buttons and select Boot AD SD.
Congratulations.......you know have WP7 and Android dual booting on your device. If this tutorial helped you, then please hit the Thanks button.
I'm beginning to turn this post into a collection of the builds that I've edited to work with magldr to dualboot with wp7. I am keeping these builds in my dropbox for quick and easy download... just right click the download link and select "save link as". I am just including the entire build for most of these for convenience, because some of the builds needed the init.rc file edited after the build was booted up once, as there were updates and files that get installed on first boot and the init.rc file was changed back to normal... so all the builds here have any updates or files in a root folder already installed, so they are all ready to go... just unrar and copy build folder to root of sd card, and be sure to tell magldr which folder to boot android from. Most builds include a new 1gb data.img or they create one on first boot, in which case it may take 5-10min.
All credit for the builds go to the chefs of each build... all I did was modify the init.rc file so it could be successfully booted with magldr. If any chef does not want me posting a download link of your build here, and would prefer I just post the edited files or not post anything about your build at all, please pm me and I will remove the link immediately. I am not trying to take credit for any of these builds... I am just trying to make it easier for people to install and run.
So, here's the builds:
JDMS- Edited build: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10979883/JDMS.rar Build thread:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=782301
HD2One 3.6- Edited build: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10979883/HD2ONE.rar Build thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=885933
PhireMod SkinnyEvo 2.1 Edited build: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10979883/phiremod_SkinnyEvo_v2.1MAGLDR_Edited.rar Build thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=791835
Cedesmith's Desire HD2 Edited build: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10979883/Cedesmith DesireHD2 Magldr.rar Build thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=857261
EVO Carbon Remix 0.6 Edited build: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10979883/Motoman234_EVO_Carbon_Remix_V0.6MAGLDR.rar Build thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=839410
EVO Black&Blue Remix v0.4a Edited build: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10979883/Motoman234_Evo_Black&Blue_V0.4aMAGLDR.rar Build thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=847631
Darkstone SuperRam Build and Sense RAM build Edited by LeTama This is not edited by me, but by Letama. I am putting links here for easy download for convenience and so all the edited builds can be collected in this one post. These builds will take a couple reboots sometimes before they fully boot up, but once you get them fully booted and going, they should boot up everytime afterwards. DS SuperRAM 1.5: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10979883/DSsuperramMAGLDR.zip DS SuperRam SENSE 0.1: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10979883/darkstone_ram_sense_magldr_sd.zip
Remember, to download, just right click link and select save link as.
I have more edited, and will be adding more to this post as I get time to organize the post and builds and make space in my dropbox. If you have requests on what builds I should add next, or have any questions, feel free to pm me. I have gotten most builds I have tried working well booting from SD with MAGLDR. ENJOY!
ALSO.... I've had a few problems recently with my computer corrupting some of my edited rootfs.img's... I think all of the one's listed so far are ok, but if anyone has a problem with any of them running, please pm me and let me know so I can fix it. I'm re-editing some more builds soon, so I will add the rest of the builds I've got running to this post soon.
Very nice tutorial and easy to follow. I had problems before when I tried it and almost gave up.
Thanks
I used the original posted guide to get mine working, albeit I struggled initially due to not reading it properly. If your new guide helps more persons to get WP7 and Android dual booting then that is great BTW I am using this CM7 Gingerbread build on my android partition and it works great, just need to follow the additional instructions in the install folder for getting it to boot via MAGLDR http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=898831
aenedor said:
I used the original posted guide to get mine working, albeit I struggled initially due to not reading it properly. If your new guide helps more persons to get WP7 and Android dual booting then that is great BTW I am using this CM7 Gingerbread build on my android partition and it works great, just need to follow the additional instructions in the install folder for getting it to boot via MAGLDR http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=898831
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your feedback and I have to agree that with the original tutorial, I did struggle with it myself. Also it shows a few ways to do it. The one is a very long process copying one partition to another which dont apply for most people.
I posted this to try and make it clearer and easier to follow. I also focused on using only application for partition management where the original told you to use two.
Thanks for letting us know about the CM7 Gingerbread build. Most builds can be modified in a Linux Distro where just editing one line will make the SD build boot in Magldr.
Thanks so much for the guide and the Android Rom recommendation.
I got a question...
I got Android successfully booted, however under Android environment, it says no SD card is present. I'm using the DL Desire Magldr build.
Do I need to make another partition???
Any help is appreciated
Thanks!
out of curiousity,
Can the both of them share the same set of media files? or do you need two sets of it, one for the android partition, one for the WP7 partition.
Jackuuuuu said:
Thanks so much for the guide and the Android Rom recommendation.
I got a question...
I got Android successfully booted, however under Android environment, it says no SD card is present. I'm using the DL Desire Magldr build.
Do I need to make another partition???
Any help is appreciated
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You forgot to change the wp7 partition from logical to primary. That will solve that.
desperation52 said:
out of curiousity,
Can the both of them share the same set of media files? or do you need two sets of it, one for the android partition, one for the WP7 partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, they can't share files. WP7 only reads it's partition and android only reads it's partition.
That's why I like to use dropbox with both of them. I can keep music or files in my dropbox and access them easily from both OS's. There's several dropbox apps for both wp7 and android. It also makes it easy to transfer files to my phone without having to hook it up to the computer or take the card out or deal with zune. Use my referral link below in my signature to get an extra 250mb added to the initial 2gb you get for free when you sign up and install the dropbox app to a computer.
zarathustrax said:
You forgot to change the wp7 partition from logical to primary. That will solve that.
No, they can't share files. WP7 only reads it's partition and android only reads it's partition.
That's why I like to use dropbox with both of them. I can keep music or files in my dropbox and access them easily from both OS's. There's several dropbox apps for both wp7 and android. It also makes it easy to transfer files to my phone without having to hook it up to the computer or take the card out or deal with zune. Use my referral link below in my signature to get an extra 250mb added to the initial 2gb you get for free when you sign up and install the dropbox app to a computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking time to answer the questions in my thread. I normally would have been around to answer them myself except I am doing a very long and painful task of backing up over 150gb off my hard drive before I restore my notebook to factory settings.
You answered them beautifully lol
Jackuuuuu said:
Thanks so much for the guide and the Android Rom recommendation.
I got a question...
I got Android successfully booted, however under Android environment, it says no SD card is present. I'm using the DL Desire Magldr build.
Do I need to make another partition???
Any help is appreciated
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer to the question and the how to is in the tutorial above. I have copied it for you for your convenience.
Make sure you have switched off your phone because you will loose info if you just extract the SD card in WP7, insert SD card into a card reader on your PC. In Partition Manager.....
'Right click on the Other partition and select Modify and then Set Partition As Primary. This is important to run Android as well as WP7. If Partition were still Logical then once Android Build was loaded it would not recognise anything off your memory card.'
Thank you I'll be trying it soon
AndHD2 said:
Thanks for taking time to answer the questions in my thread. I normally would have been around to answer them myself except I am doing a very long and painful task of backing up over 150gb off my hard drive before I restore my notebook to factory settings.
You answered them beautifully lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem... I was very active in the other dualboot thread, too. You did a good job writing this tutorial up, so hopefully there won't be too many people confused, but I'll be around to help answer peoples questions, too. I figure once a thread is public, it's up to everyone who knows to help everyone out who's having problems... that's what this community is about... plus the more people that get involved in problem solving, the more we find easier and better ways of doing things. It was actually hyellow and me that figured out that you need to change the partition from logical to primary when I was having the problem of not being able to mount the card in android. It was fun watching and helping the method that you have posted evolve over several days and get easier and quicker to do.
Also, I was thinking that I might collect all my edited SD builds (I've got almost every build working) in to my dropbox and post the links to them in the second post to make it easier for people following this tutorial to grab a build that's already edited to work with magldr. What do you think?
htc hd2 overheats when dual boots
I have dual booted my HD2 using an 8 GB and 16 GB SD card. I got everything up and running and the bottom one third of the HD2 gets hot and freezes or reboots every time . When I placed one rom on the device, the device runs normally. Can anyone advise what might be the problem and the solution.
Randy Hoover said:
I have dual booted my HD2 using an 8 GB and 16 GB SD card. I got everything up and running and the bottom one third of the HD2 gets hot and freezes or reboots every time . When I placed one rom on the device, the device runs normally. Can anyone advise what might be the problem and the solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you provide a bit more clarity to your problem.
Does this happen with both the 8gb and 16gb cards? Also what build are you using when your phone gets hot and restarts or freezes?
I find it strange that it is fine when you are using either Android or WP7 without dual boot as you are using only one build at a time when dual booting. You are only gaining access to different partitions on your card, pretty much the same as you would if you have an EXT2/3/4 partition for data saving in Android. Do you still have the same problem if you partition you SD card for a EXT2/3/4 for data saving?
From what you have said the only possible reason is somehow your phone might have a problem dealing with partitions because in theory dual booting runs either one or another and shouldnt be different if you were using only Android or WP7.
Using Minitool's Partition Manager, you might also want to try formatting the Fat32 partition by right clicking on Fat32 partition, click on Format and choosing the cluster size to 32. Save these changes and try again.
The solution could be setting up Android to work properly. In DL Desire's build, there are quite a few options as to how you save your data. You have the save to Data.Img file which must be placed inside the directory for the build, and without going through every type there is also save to EXT2/3/4. You must alter the values in the Config.txt file for the build to know where to save data. Double check you have setup the Config.txt file correctly as you could be telling the build to save to EXT2/3/4 when there is not one. I dont know but it could affect the WP7 partition so it corrupts it and causes the above mentioned problems. Always read the chefs installation notes. Try installing MarkinXHD Extra Clean Magldr Build instead of DL Desire just to make sure.
Can anyone else throw any solutions to this problem?
zarathustrax said:
No problem... I was very active in the other dualboot thread, too. You did a good job writing this tutorial up, so hopefully there won't be too many people confused, but I'll be around to help answer peoples questions, too. I figure once a thread is public, it's up to everyone who knows to help everyone out who's having problems... that's what this community is about... plus the more people that get involved in problem solving, the more we find easier and better ways of doing things. It was actually hyellow and me that figured out that you need to change the partition from logical to primary when I was having the problem of not being able to mount the card in android. It was fun watching and helping the method that you have posted evolve over several days and get easier and quicker to do.
Also, I was thinking that I might collect all my edited SD builds (I've got almost every build working) in to my dropbox and post the links to them in the second post to make it easier for people following this tutorial to grab a build that's already edited to work with magldr. What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree with the community sharing knowledge and that was one of the main reasons for me posting this tutorial. I am a strong believer in if you give a man a fish, then you have provided one dinner but if you teach that man to fish, then he has a lifetime worth of meals.
It would be very generous for you to share the builds you have converted to boot into Magldr as it would give people more options to what build they can choose to dual boot WP7 with. As a matter of fact, being certified in Microsoft, I was looking into doing this myself and was the next mission for me. I have limited Linux use but I am starting to sink my teeth into it and become fluent.
I post a video here if you like to follow by visualization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-cUdB4_5f4
Hey which would be the best way to do this activate my phone when i get it then flash, or flash and activate the phone service after i install the Os's.
jab12 said:
Hey which would be the best way to do this activate my phone when i get it then flash, or flash and activate the phone service after i install the Os's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by activate? Do you mean get your activation code? If so, get it anytime... you will need the activation code to use live services in wp7 anytime you flash a new wp7 rom. If you mean activate your cell phone service, that can be done at any time, also.
georo said:
I post a video here if you like to follow by visualization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-cUdB4_5f4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the YouTube link to the same process as described in this tutorial.
I have watched the video and it does not mention that you have to change the Unfomatted partition from Logical to Primary. This is essential if you want to use the camera and to gain access to other files such as music from you SD card. Also in the video it is being demonstrated in Easeus Partition Manager. This is a good program but with it you cant change the Unformatted partition from Logical to Primary. This is the main reason I chose to use Minitool Partition Wizard. With this program everything can be done.
AndHD2 said:
Thank you for the YouTube link to the same process as described in this tutorial.
I have watched the video and it does not mention that you have to change the Unfomatted partition from Logical to Primary. This is essential if you want to use the camera and to gain access to other files such as music from you SD card. Also in the video it is being demonstrated in Easeus Partition Manager. This is a good program but with it you cant change the Unformatted partition from Logical to Primary. This is the main reason I chose to use Minitool Partition Wizard. With this program everything can be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you look in the description there is a link to the minitool and a description why you have to use the tool. The original thread is here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=913815
Yesterday I looked through my phone and all my music was gone. The space showed available too. . . . WTF?
I noticed a message about a hour before saying the SD card is unmounted. Which came on its own, I didn't do anything at all, I just exited the browser.
Now, I am just putting all the stuff back on after formatting my card.
What gives? I never seen this one yet.
i assume you are using android...?
probably "just" a FAT32 glitch that grew beyond its critical mass and caused the file system to crash.
i say "just a glitch" because all of us sd-card using folk should understand the lack of reliability and lack of fault tolerance inherent in the FAT32 file system...thus the need to backup important stuff periodically before one has to learn the value of a backup the "hard way".
now, regarding android...you know there are TWO styles of android with respect to how you "boot" them:
a. sd-card based ROM - usually booted by first letting WM6.5 load up and then running some CLRCAD+haret voodoo to get the android on your sd-card to boot
b. NAND based ROM - usually just boots with no user intervention (assisted behind the scenes by MAGLDR or clk)...this mechanism REPLACES the WM6.5 on the NAND
it is generally recommended for style (a) users to avoid removing the sd-card while android is running from it.
style (b) users can more freely remove the sd-card while android runs from NAND (i do this all the time because i use a NAND android ROM).
even then, several times a month, i have to perform a file system check on my sd-card. usually, my desktop windows just prompts me to run a check when it senses something wrong in the sd-card file system when i insert it into the desktop card reader. the message you saw in android (something like "sd card mounted read only" or some such) indicates that android also senses a problem with the file system.
now, both android as well as desktop windows are CAPABLE of finding and fixing FAT32 file system errors. my gut feeling is that the desktop windows disk checking and repairing is more reliable. bad disk checking and repairing routines CAN cause data loss, which might have occurred in your case because the file system errors were possibly detected and corrected by android. and thats the kicker...while desktop windows leaves the decision up to the user to grant a disk check and repair, android will just try to fix the errors as soon as you insert the sd-card back into the HD2 and this behavior can muck up your data.
still, i would also suggest reading the thread of the particular android build you are using to see if other users are facing (or have faced in the past) the same problem you are describing. just to clarify, the message about your sd-card:
1. just appeared all on its own in android? this might indicate a hardware problem or a problem in your particular android build's kernel and/or drivers or a close-to-death sd-card
2. or you had physically reinserted the card shortly before the error occurred? this might indicate a file system problem that android couldn't quite fix properly
It is running a NAND based Android ROM.
I guess it could be a glitch. We shall see.
Hello,
I am looking for some advice with regard to a speciifc problem I have with my HD2 which is running Android from SD using haret.exe etc to start the system from within Windows Mobile 6.5. The android files are currently held on a 8GB sandisk card. I have prefered this method of using android basically because I find it useful to remove the SD card and create a backup of the files onto my PC, which gives me peace of mind before installing new tryout software, just incase something goes wrong, I know I have the option to go back to a working system very quickly by reloading the files back to the SD card from the PC backup.
Recently I have been thinking that it might be easier if I could backup the files using the phone directly, so I decided to buy a 16GB card in order to partition it into two virtual 8GB drives and load my existing android os files onto one partition, whilst using the second partition to save a backup of android. I thought I should be able to create a backup of android from within WM6.5 instead of having to remove the card and rely on a PC all the time to do this job.
So, using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, I formatted and partitioned the new 16GB SD card, I used FAT32 for each partition and proceeded to copy my android files to the first partition of the new card. I installed the card into my HD2 and started the phone up which booted into WM6.5
From within WM6.5, I used the file explorer and could see both partitions appearing as separate SD cards, the first containing all my android os files etc, and the second partition was empty of course. Just as a test I thought I would try a copy and paste of a couple of files from the android partition to the empty partition, and this worked just fine. I thought to myself I am onto a winner here : ) Read on....
With that I decided to boot into android by clicking on haret.exe.
The system started to boot as normal and everything appeared to be going very very well. Booting completed and the system was ready to use..... Then I thought I would have a look around and see if it was running ok. OH DEAR.... It was reporting that it couldn't find the SD card, even though it had booted from it ! All my files and folders inaccessible and any programs that had been moved to SD card wouldn't start up or were missing from the list of installed apps. I still cant understand why the system has booted from an SD card that it cannot find once the system has booted......
This whole excercise was basically motivated by the need to be able to backup and restore the system from one partition to the other without the constant need to remove the SD card and do the job from a PC. (Constant removal of the SD card is starting to bother me incase I end up wearing the card slot out)
So basically my question is can this be done using my existing android install? (I wouldn't want to start again and install from scratch because the system is highly customised, and has took me a long time to get where it is now) I want to be able to have two partitions on my SD card, one which boots, runs android and holds all my files associated with android, and a second parition which I can use to create and restore a backup from within WM6.5.
This is not a desperate requirement, but I feel it would be a lot better than needing to rely on having my PC to hand all the time. This idea has come from my longstanding history of creating backups using GHOST and similar applications in Windows XP. I would like to do the same with my phone. Obviously I would still periodically make a backup to the PC for safekeeping but it would be more convenient to do it with the phone itself.
Any advice on where I am going wrong would be very useful. Also if you can suggest any other ways of making a strong reliable backup that makes an image of 'EVERYTHING' as is from within android directly, please let me know. I have had a look at Titanium backup, but not sure if it would make a mirror image of 'EVERYTHING' the way I would like to do it (like Ghost does in windows). The way I am doing it at present works fine, except for having to constantly remove the card and rely on having a PC about.
Oh by the way the android version on my SD card is Froyo 2.2 incase this matters (I have never bothered upgrading because it works and does what I need it to do)
Many Thanks
Tony
Brookbond said:
Hello,
I am looking for some advice with regard to a speciifc problem I have with my HD2 which is running Android from SD using haret.exe etc to start the system from within Windows Mobile 6.5. The android files are currently held on a 8GB sandisk card. I have prefered this method of using android basically because I find it useful to remove the SD card and create a backup of the files onto my PC, which gives me peace of mind before installing new tryout software, just incase something goes wrong, I know I have the option to go back to a working system very quickly by reloading the files back to the SD card from the PC backup.
Recently I have been thinking that it might be easier if I could backup the files using the phone directly, so I decided to buy a 16GB card in order to partition it into two virtual 8GB drives and load my existing android os files onto one partition, whilst using the second partition to save a backup of android. I thought I should be able to create a backup of android from within WM6.5 instead of having to remove the card and rely on a PC all the time to do this job.
So, using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, I formatted and partitioned the new 16GB SD card, I used FAT32 for each partition and proceeded to copy my android files to the first partition of the new card. I installed the card into my HD2 and started the phone up which booted into WM6.5
From within WM6.5, I used the file explorer and could see both partitions appearing as separate SD cards, the first containing all my android os files etc, and the second partition was empty of course. Just as a test I thought I would try a copy and paste of a couple of files from the android partition to the empty partition, and this worked just fine. I thought to myself I am onto a winner here : ) Read on....
With that I decided to boot into android by clicking on haret.exe.
The system started to boot as normal and everything appeared to be going very very well. Booting completed and the system was ready to use..... Then I thought I would have a look around and see if it was running ok. OH DEAR.... It was reporting that it couldn't find the SD card, even though it had booted from it ! All my files and folders inaccessible and any programs that had been moved to SD card wouldn't start up or were missing from the list of installed apps. I still cant understand why the system has booted from an SD card that it cannot find once the system has booted......
This whole excercise was basically motivated by the need to be able to backup and restore the system from one partition to the other without the constant need to remove the SD card and do the job from a PC. (Constant removal of the SD card is starting to bother me incase I end up wearing the card slot out)
So basically my question is can this be done using my existing android install? (I wouldn't want to start again and install from scratch because the system is highly customised, and has took me a long time to get where it is now) I want to be able to have two partitions on my SD card, one which boots, runs android and holds all my files associated with android, and a second parition which I can use to create and restore a backup from within WM6.5.
This is not a desperate requirement, but I feel it would be a lot better than needing to rely on having my PC to hand all the time. This idea has come from my longstanding history of creating backups using GHOST and similar applications in Windows XP. I would like to do the same with my phone. Obviously I would still periodically make a backup to the PC for safekeeping but it would be more convenient to do it with the phone itself.
Any advice on where I am going wrong would be very useful. Also if you can suggest any other ways of making a strong reliable backup that makes an image of 'EVERYTHING' as is from within android directly, please let me know. I have had a look at Titanium backup, but not sure if it would make a mirror image of 'EVERYTHING' the way I would like to do it (like Ghost does in windows). The way I am doing it at present works fine, except for having to constantly remove the card and rely on having a PC about.
Oh by the way the android version on my SD card is Froyo 2.2 incase this matters (I have never bothered upgrading because it works and does what I need it to do)
Many Thanks
Tony
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Android looks at storage (and cards and file systems) differently. Assuming you created the partitions okay, you would have to use the Linux mount command (sorry, more reading).
A simpler way to accomplish your goal would be to have everything in one partition on the card. Create a folder and call it "Backup_Folder" or some other name meaningful to you. You will be able to copy/paste in Windows or Android.
Having said that you might want to read more about NAND installations when you have time. It would likely run better and give you more choices. Although a learning curve, once mastered it is as simple and safe as what you are now doing.
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