SD Card Partitioning, is there a point to it?

[Guest Lister Of Smeg]

Hi Guys,

Sorry, please dont flame/kill me.... I've tried to look this up, but cant see any posts about what its all about, or why you would need it??? Other than, careful it may fry your SD Card... lol. So I see warnings, but no posts about why you would need to do this??

So from my assumtion, I assumed this basically carried on from the phones own internal memory. Since I had my phone (like couple months now) I used it with supplied 2Gb card, then went and bought a 8Gb card for it, and ran it as normal.. all seemed fine.

Then I started getting signs of running out of space on phone (again) so I thought I would try partitioning, and see if it goes from phone to card automatically...??? it appears not?

Phone: ZTE Blade, B10

Model: Gen1

ROM: CM7 N60 (using converter)

<SD Card> Partitioning layout...

1) 1Gb (ext, I assume for apps)

2) 128Mb (VM/Swap)

3) 6GB (whatever is left as normal visable storage)

So have I done it right, or is it all pointless, and not needed these days?? Is there a way to get Apps to work from SD Card, and if I change ROMS or wipe the phone... do I have to re-install them again... does the phone wipe them, even if on SD Card... its all a bit greek to me...

iPhones I know inside out, but dont want to go down Apple route as they over charge and kill their products off as soon as they release them... :mellow: lol

Cheers, Lister

[Guest Flumpster]

I basically partition my card with a FAT partition first and then an EXT3 partition of 512 meg at the end of the card(that's plenty)

Now because you are using Cyanogen the easiest way to get your apps to use the EXT3 partition is to install S2E Here and to tick on what you want moved to the EXT3 partition in the app.. You only have to do this once and then all future apps will go there also.

It will also require a reboot after using app.

Edit.. I just notice that S2E now supports EXT4 partition which it never did before.. You might be better off using that instead but I know the EXT3 one works fine.

Edited May 5, 2011 by Flumpster

[Guest Lister Of Smeg]

Hi Flumpster,

Thanks for the fast reply, and useful info....

I took all my existing data off, and copied it to desktop of my computer. I then rebooted into ClockworkMod (v4.2.0.2 I think??) with Recovery (v3.0.1.4 I think??) I then used CWM to partition my card, and followed as it said.. so I couldnt really choose what order they came in!! I hope this part isnt important, or do they have to be a certain way??

You say 512Mb is plenty? and I think thats the limit for the Android OS version, where as the boot to recovery allows upto 1Gb/1024Mb, which I chose that as I thought I might install a lot of Apps in the future...? Have I done an overkill here???

Also, I am not sure as to what the Ext is, I think its Ext3, but as said... the App led and did it for me... you say it now support Ext4, do you know what the benifits of this one is, would I be wise to upgrade to that??

Thanks for the handy tip on S2E, sounds great... this is exactly what I need, if it moves the rest automatically. Does Market still see the Apps, and if it needs updates? Gonna download FreeSpace while I am there too...

thank you so much...

Cheers, Lister