Database Users

Help Request- Partitioning a 8GB SD Card for Mytouch 3g, Have Cyanogen 4.0.2

Hello XDA Developers.
I have hit a brick wall trying to partition my 8gb SD card for my MyTouch3g, and could use a little help, i can getting very frustrated and any help will be appreciated .
Questions:
1) Is there any way to partition the 8GB SD card on the computer, then just put it into the MyTouch3g?
2) How do i know what size partitions should be for my 8GB card?
I cannot get adb set up on the computer properly to do it, also many of the guides are for the G1 and involve typing things in the recovery console with the hardware keyboard.
I have googled for hours trying to find a guide specifically for partitioning with the Mytouch3g without using adb, but could not find one.
Side note: I rooted my phone using the 1touch method.

you can use Amon_Ra's recovery and it'll do it for you automatically.
http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/22/how-to-root-the-mytouch-3g-or-g1-in-one-click/

...
maybe dumb question, can i flash the Amon_Ra's recovery img after already having the cyanogen recovery img...or do i need to start with a clean slate?...and any advice if im using the stock 4gb SD card as far as partitioning/format for better performance?

i need help too...
please help a noob!!!
i'm in the exact same boat. using cyanogen 4.0.2 also and an 8gb sd card too.
please help...

Same
Yeah im worried about flashing another recovery image over the Cyanogen recovery image.
I rooted using the 1-touch method that auto installed Cyanogen Recovery image....dont know if flashing another recovery image would brick it or not

if you guys have the myTouch and unsure, unroot then root again using the Amon_Ra method on unlockr
http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/22/how-to-unroot-your-mytouch-3g/

I use Amon_Ra's recovery and I know it does the partition for me automatically, but how do I know what size my partitions are ? For example, there are some roms that require 96Mb's for Swap...Any help will be greatly appreciated and thanx to all the Devs for their hard and continous work on the G1 and MT3G....

unk2009 said:
I use Amon_Ra's recovery and I know it does the partition for me automatically, but how do I know what size my partitions are ? For example, there are some roms that require 96Mb's for Swap...Any help will be greatly appreciated and thanx to all the Devs for their hard and continous work on the G1 and MT3G....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ask this in every thread?............search please!!!!
Cyan's recovery should have an option to auto format your card

you can use Amon_Ra's recovery img without flashing it to your phone!
Just boot it, instead of flashing it.. and select the option to partition the sdcard and then reboot...
No changes to your phone... just a partitioned sdcard!
use the following commands with fastboot loaded on your phone (back + power)
fastboot boot your_recovery_img.img
Hope this helps

philicibine said:
you can use Amon_Ra's recovery img without flashing it to your phone!
Just boot it, instead of flashing it.. and select the option to partition the sdcard and then reboot...
No changes to your phone... just a partitioned sdcard!
use the following commands with fastboot loaded on your phone (back + power)
fastboot boot your_recovery_img.img
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does this really work? first time i have seen this reported. Have you done it? If you have could u give me some more detailed instructions on how to do it. Please and thank you. If this is a totally noob request I apologize,I am new to this.

Follow this guide and you can partition the card how you like.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535914
It really is easy to do, just try.

Here's what I am doing. I'm a complete noob and it took days and days of tinkering and reading through this site to refine this. I've done it multiple times now with experimental ROMs and it works great for me.
Put your SD card in your computer's reader, or a 3rd party reader device. Copy all the files to your hard drive in a backup folder of some kind.
Go get GParted at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
You can download the iso image. Use a program like http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn the iso image to a CD which will be bootable.
Once you have the Boot CD with GParted you can boot your computer up with it in the disc drive. Make sure your BIOS settings have the CD before your hard drive to check for boot sequence.
GParted will start up, I pick the defaults. It reads my SD reader with my 8GB Class 6 inserted. Make sure you select your SD card from the drop menu, the default is my computer hard drive which you don't want to touch!
I delete all the partitions on the card.
The first partition is your FAT32 and it will be the largest partition.
The next Partition you want to make is an ext2, ext3, or ext4 partition. I use ext3. I make this partition about 800 MB. This is where the Cyanogen ROM will copy your apps to automatically when it detects it.
The last partition is going to be a Linux Swap file and should be about 32 MB.
I've seen where some people use a 64 MB swap file but I think the general consensus of 32 is fine.
Once you are done, close out GParted and pull the CD out when it ejects your tray. When you reboot the computer without the CD in it, your Windows OS should boot right up like normal.
In Windows you should see the large FAT32 partition on your SD card. Windows won't see the ext3 or swap partitions. Copy your SD card files back to your SD card and eject the card.
When you put the card in your MyTouch3G, turn on the phone. Leave it alone when your screen comes up. The Cyanogen ROM will detect your ext3 partition and begin copying all your apps to it. At first it will look like you have no apps but they will begin appearing as they are copied to your SD card. It may take a couple minutes depending on how many apps you have.
The GParted CD is an easy way in the future to wipe out partitions on your card and set it up for you.

Help me. I'm an amnesiac. [Figure out partition layout w/o removing SDCard]

Here's the deal. I can't remember how I partitioned the SD Card in my Nexus One
at the time of setup. I have an 8GB card which I pulled from my G1, formatted it
via Amon-Ra and got my N1 all set.
This was in January.
Now that I'm looking to try out the Sense ROMs, I need a swap partition.
And I don't know now if I'd added a swap partition or not
I know that I can use a memory card reader, fire up Paragon
Partition Manager (or boot into Ubuntu) and figure it out.
But is there any way to figure out my current partition layout
without swapping out the card?
_

Boot into recovery. AmonRA's recovery allows you to partition/restore the SD card--think it's the third option down the list or so.

grainysand said:
Boot into recovery. AmonRA's recovery allows you to partition/restore the SD card--think it's the third option down the list or so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I'm aware of that. As I've noted in my rather long and rambling post,
I used Amon-RA to partition the card, back in January.
The question now is, how do I figure out the partition layout
withOUT repartitioning the card?
EDIT: Thanks, grainysand. I took a look at the wording of the first post
and have changed it, so that it's more specific about what I'm looking for.

I suggest getting a microSD to usb adapter and plugging it into your computer then getting partition magic. This shows you any partition on any device. It also lets you modify them. Otherwise if you use linux, get gparted.
Hope this helps.
Vonapets

vonapets said:
I suggest getting a microSD to usb adapter and plugging it into your computer then getting partition magic. This shows you any partition on any device. It also lets you modify them. Otherwise if you use linux, get gparted.
Hope this helps.
Vonapets
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This wouldn't work, because the USB mount (via regular prompt or Recovery)
option mounts the FAT partition only. And this is what the Partition Manager
would see.
Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

bump
10chars.

[Q] CM7 SD Boot - Can you expand EXT4

I've had a lot of success creating a bootable CM7 using the size agnostic preparation instructions. (Here) I want to keep the Nook at stock, for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I created a very nice installation on a 16gb uSD card and did a lot of work setting up LP+ and my hundred-odd android apps. (I also have an Evo 4G). I was fortunate enough to get a 32gb uSD at a great price and want to move my installation over to that. The most successful by making an image with the Win32DriveImage and flashing that back to the 32gb uSD card, which leaves a large area of un-partitioned space. I've tried a couple downloaded tools but have been unsuccessful. Is there a command I can use in Terminal Emulator to to do that? I know I can use the agnostic procedure to start from scratch, but I'd really hate to do that.
The only thing that would make starting over is if someone can point me to instructions that would allow me to have an installation that boots from uSD and has fully functional CWR and Rom Manager. I love how it works on my EVO to download and install updates with a couple clicks. (Everything I've tried there seems to mess with the core Nook).
Thanks a lot!
Rob

Use Minitool Partition Wizard, or another windows partition manager to expand the last storage partition.

LBN1 said:
Use Minitool Partition Wizard, or another windows partition manager to expand the last storage partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried a few partition managers and run into the same problem including with MiniTool. It will start the process of expanding or copying and expanding in one step, but it will eventually say "file system error" just before it finishes. It suggests repairing the file system, but none of the tools can do this with the ext4 partition. Still trying though. Gonna give the Acronis partition manager a whirl.

bitbearmi said:
Is there a command I can use in Terminal Emulator to to do that? I know I can use the agnostic procedure to start from scratch, but I'd really hate to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can edit partitions with fdisk from the terminal emulator. I suggest googling, it's a pretty old school tool and isn't very friendly. You should easily be able to resize your "sd" partition with that. Actually more accurately you should be able to delete that last partition and then create a bigger one in it's place. won't keep your data, but you can just copy it over to your computer and resize, then copy back.
Another option would be gparted which comes with basically every live linux cd ever. That one can actually do true resizes and should handle ext4 partitions easily (it is a linux file system after all)
bitbearmi said:
The only thing that would make starting over is if someone can point me to instructions that would allow me to have an installation that boots from uSD and has fully functional CWR and Rom Manager. I love how it works on my EVO to download and install updates with a couple clicks. (Everything I've tried there seems to mess with the core Nook).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to start over. Get a new uboot.bin for your cards boot partition from here.
Then get the clockwordmod kernel and ramdisk from the zip at the end of this post. Put the uImage and uRamdisk on the sd card as uAltImg and uAltRam.
Now when you choose sd:alternate from the boot menu it will boot you into clockwork.

Thank you so much. I think that will do the trick.
..rob

ylixir said:
You don't need to start over. Get a new uboot.bin for your cards boot partition from here.
Then get the clockwordmod kernel and ramdisk from the zip at the end of this post. Put the uImage and uRamdisk on the sd card as uAltImg and uAltRam.
Now when you choose sd:alternate from the boot menu it will boot you into clockwork.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. All is well and the dual-boot solution is super-convenient. But I'm a little perplexed as to how to work with CWM in this environment. Ideally I'd like this to work just as it does on my EVO, Rom Manager lets me know there is a new version, I select it, it downloads asks if an want Gapps and backup (yes please) then it does its thing. Maybe that is way too much to ask. If so, then the main things I need to know are how to instal an updated build that I download separately? Do I just copy it to the root of the boot partition.
Sorry for being such a n00b with the nook. Its funny but I'm much more confident messing with my phone, which if bricked, is pretty catastrophic. (LOL)

The instructions for updating CM7 for the agnostic build is in the OP's post for that build.
"How to update to a new build:
put the new build you want to try on the first partition. (the name must be update-cm-*.zip or cm_encore_full*.zip or just update-*.zip)
Boot from the SDcard in the recovery mode (see above) and the new snapshot would be installed.
The partition layout would be preserved, filesystems are NOT reformatted, so your data should be safe."
Also, Easeus Partition Manager is supposed to be able to resize partitions w/o destroying data. YMMV, of course. I used it to extend ext 4 but prior to putting anything there.

Didn't have any luck with easus either, but ended up using a gparted boot which worked great. Normally I would use recovery nandroid to backup the rom before installing the updated, but when I did that by booting into alternate, I ended up backing up the nook rom to the root partition, so I think the safest thing to do is to use win32diskmanager to image the entire sd card.

ylixir said:
You don't need to start over. Get a new uboot.bin for your cards boot partition from here.
Then get the clockwordmod kernel and ramdisk from the zip at the end of this post. Put the uImage and uRamdisk on the sd card as uAltImg and uAltRam.
Now when you choose sd:alternate from the boot menu it will boot you into clockwork.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, just to make absolutely sure, if I already have CM7 installed on an SD card, which I've been using as a daily driver, installing apps, downloading Kindle books, PDFs, and the like, but I want to put CWMR onto the SD card, the steps you outlined should be OK?
NOTE: I know, I know, if I'm confused I probably shouldn't be screwing around with things...But the size-agnostic SD CM7 method was so bloodless that I thought the other stuff would be pretty easy to do. For whatever reason, adding stuff like the OC kernel and CWMR has been a little confusing.

[Q solved] cannot mount sdcard in recovery

So this was solved by using a tool from sdcard.org to format my sdcard in a PC. Once formatted with that tool cwm started seeing correctly.
-------
I'm running 3.1 rooted
I've flashed Thor's 1.4.2 recovery.
I have two sd cards: a 2g and an 8g.
Both work when accessed on a PC and on the iconia.
Neither work in cwm so I can't flash any roms.
I have tried formatting the sdcards on two different PCs. for the 2g I tried both fat and fat32. The 8g is fat32. In every case cwm says it can't mount it.
Additionally, I can't seem to use a USB key, although that may be that i don't know how to use it.
Thanks for any help.
-Bert

When in CWM and you go to install zip from sdcard do you see any folders where you choose the zip. Just wondering if it isn't mounted already. Physical sdcard is in /mnt/external_sd
and not /mnt/sdcard.

PsychosisNC said:
When in CWM and you go to install zip from sdcard do you see any folders where you choose the zip. Just wondering if it isn't mounted already. Physical sdcard is in /mnt/external_sd
and not /mnt/sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. I'm prety sure It's not mounted already.
I'm attaching a screenshot to show the exact message I get when trying to browse for a zip. I get a similar message when I go to mounts and storage and try to mount the sdcard.

im bumping this because I'm really becoming concerned that the device is defective in some way.
I'm hoping that someone can give me some guidence on what I may be doing wrong.

So, brosell, did you figure out a solution? I have the exact same problem - cannot mount sdcard in recovery and I get the exact same message.
When the system is booted normally, the internal storage mounts ok as /sdcard
EDIT:
It seems CWM treats the external sdcard as /sdcard, not the internal storage. So, to flash an update, you need to place it on an external SD card

I always get that error, and I never had to mount anything using cwm, just booted it selected the zip to flash and flash. I still don't mount anything...?
And the zip goes on the external sd not the inturn

Can't format SC Card in Window. If won't mount.
Guys,
Unfortunately SD cards for Android must be formatted by Android. If the card is not properly formatted CWM can not mount it, nor can CWM format it. The best way to get it properly formatted is to put it into an Android Phone and use its format functions. There really is no way on the Icona Tab to reformat an improperly formatted card or a new formatted card. If you don't have an Android phone borrow a friends. You will know that it is properly formatted when you see a lost files folder created on the card by the Android phone formatting process. This is a common problem that many people encounter when performing their first ROM flash. If it was formatted under windows as FAT 32 you can access it and store on it in normal operation mode. But ClockWorkMod can not mount it in recovery mode. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Can mount SD card in Recovery
I should have also mentioned last night in my post here, that my experience has been that it is much easier to flash a new custom ROM from a USB thumb drive. Flashing a custom ROM from USB seems to be less problematic than from an SDCard that appears otherwise to be good and formatted with FAT32, but CWM can't mount it. You can fast format the thumb drive on Windows to clean it off. Then copy your custom .zip ROM to be flashed on to the thumb drive from within Windows then insert it into the USB port of your Icona Tab, boot into CWM recovery (I'm assuming you know how to do that so I won't go into it here.) I forget exactly where in the CWM menu it is, it might be under the CWM advanced sub-menu but it say's something to the effect of Install zip from USB. It always works for me with no problem. The advantage is that you do all your prep work on Windows and then flash from the thumb drive which I believe has an ISO standard across all platforms and usually comes already per-formatted. This is an alternative method if you can't get your SDCard properly formatted (see my previous post in this thread for how to get it properly formatted so that it will mount under CWM.) Again, good luck!

I want to cry!!
I tried re formatting! Nothing! Cmw is not on sd card! Nothing is working! Still stuck on acer start screen! Yes i am a noob! But i read alot into this stuff b4 i do it! I wish there was someone i can have come to my house and do this for me! I have tried everything!!!!!!!!!!! So frustrated!!! Someone pls help me!!!!

in CWM recovery, there are 2 options,sd and "internal sd" i think(for me atleast). i chose the internal sd and it mounts.

brosell said:
So this was solved by using a tool from sdcard.org to format my sdcard in a PC. Once formatted with that tool cwm started seeing correctly.
-------
-Bert
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You Sir! been looking for this fix for a long time

brosell said:
So this was solved by using a tool from sdcard.org to format my sdcard in a PC. Once formatted with that tool cwm started seeing correctly.
-------
/QUOTE]
thanks brosell, for the solution,
I have a 512MB SD card in the g5360, was FAT formatted. reformatting the sdcard with the tool from sdcard.org worked for me as well, afterwards it could be mounted by the stock recovery
and could install update.zip (prior to install CMW)
kr, Erik
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] CM7 boot partition Size

Hello,
Complete noob here and I am not ashamed to admit it. I did create a bootable sd card with CM7 stable on it and the card is partitioned into 4 spaces. The boot space only has a capacity of 117.63 MB, while the 4th partition named CM7 SDCARD has a whopping 28.21GB available.... 112.14MB used..... Im guessing for application. Anyways, I am trying to put books and videos on my NC and there is not enough space that is accessible. Any way to make that boot partition spave larger? Maybe move some of the extra space from the 4th partition? I have EASEUS Partition Master but I have been unable to get it to work..... Any help is greatly appreciated.
I did search for a post like this but did not find any answers which I understood.
Thanks in advance,

What is it that you are trying to do?
Homer

I am trying to put books on my sdcard that I downloaded on my computer for school. When I copy to the directory boot/myfiles/books it says that there is not enough space. So I want to enlarge the size of the boot partition

After you burn the partition image using Win32Image, the size of the boot partition is roughly 117mb. At this point use EASEUS partition to expand the boot partition to the size you want. In my 32gb SD card, I created a 16gb partition. Then I copied CM7.1 and Gapps to the partition, booted NC and CM7.1 was set up in the remaining space, with /data at 5gb and /media at 9gb.

Would you then access the files while booting from the SDcard or internal memory (eMMC)?
If you want to see them when booting from SDcard, don't put them on /boot as you have found out there is not much room. You want them on partition 4. Remember that Windows will not mount partition 4 without some heroic efforts. I use either NookColor UMS (free, see here) or WiFi Explorer Pro (paid, check either Android or Amazon Market).
If you want to see them when booting from eMMC, that is slightly more advanced. You don't have to root, but there is a file on the system on eMMC that needs to be edited to mount partition 4 rather than partition 1. It would take some time to search for it, but someone posted a guide a while back. Search for something like sharing SDcard and/or editing vold.
Homer

Ok...... So I got the boot partition resized to around 20gb and I have copied the books from my hd to the sd card E:\My Files\Books...... Problem is I now cannot acess them when I boot CM7..... Any fix to this or will I have to boot from the eMMC?

Ok....
You're making the easy stuff hard...
You want a large partition that is accessible by CM7 running off the SD and your windows PC. Like Homer said, it is nigh impossible to get windows to mount secondary partitions off of an SD card reader. What he forgot is that CM7 allows you to access partitions 3 and 4 over USB. CM7 can access the boot partition but most apps won't look there and it won't be accessible over USB.
I would recommend that you restart from scratch. Allow verygreens installer to set up the default partitions. Plug your device into your PC and transfer your pdfs to partition 4 that-a-ways. That way you won't have to remove the sd card anytime you want to access your pdf folder.

Even when you plug the CM7 booted NC into your PC, you still need to mount the /sdcard partition to Windows. I find it is easiest to use NookColorUMS on the NC to mount that partition, see above. Otherwise, when you plug into the Windows machine you only get /boot mounted.
Homer

Homer_S_xda said:
Even when you plug the CM7 booted NC into your PC, you still need to mount the /sdcard partition to Windows. I find it is easiest to use NookColorUMS on the NC to mount that partition, see above. Otherwise, when you plug into the Windows machine you only get /boot mounted.
Homer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, when I plugged a nook running CM7 from SD card, I get access to /media and /sdcard. I had to move the gapps.zip from /sdcard to /boot manually using a file explorer.

I'm offering an apology to gall and Homer first so pls don't jump on me.
You guys harden a simple issue and confusing the OP.
To OP,
I assume you got a 32GB uSD card, using verygreen's image. You got 117MB on boot.
LEAVE the boot partition ALONE. The only thing you should put there are the ROM (CM7 zip file) and the GApp zip file. NOTHING ELSE. Your music/ebook/video, etc. should NEVER go there. You will place them in the left-over storage created by CM7, normally called CM7SDCARD.
How do you access CM7SDCARD so that you can transfer files over?
The only way is
+ NC on
+ connecting NC to PC (windows)
+ look at the NC notification bar, usb icon should be displayed
+ tap on it, enable usb mass storage (connect to PC for file transferring....)
+ Windows PC should by now recognized the CM7SDCARD and ready for use.
That's the ONLY WAY and the correct way.
If you use that bootable CM7 uSD and plug directly into PC, you only see the boot partition which only 117MB. Again, the boot partition is NOT meant for personal stuff.

What may confuse some people is that when they plug the device into PC then it does not by default auto-mount so you don't get a drive in the PC until you use the USB notification and turn on USB storage.
For non-techie users I normally install the automount USB app from JRTStudio so the drive pops up straight away on the PC and there is no confusion over this point.
The other good reason for using the USB (or alternatively wireless connections like ES File Explorer) is that it reduces taking the SD card in and out and any risk of damaging the socket.

My apologies, I never checked out the USB notification. I sort of ignored it. It seems a handy implementation of the basic functionality of NooKColorUMS.
What is MyNOOKColor though? CM7 SDcard is the one I typically use. Nevermind: it is the eMMC. I never bothered with that one since going to SDcard boot.
Homer