How To Recover Unused Ext2/3 Partitions

[Guest robinhud2010]

Recently I had allocated a large space in my SD card to a Linux Ext2 partition, only to discover that my ROM does not support A2SD. Moreover, this partition wasn’t detected by my PC, rendering the space useless. If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, here is a simple guide on how to get back that extra bit of memory:

CAUTION: Do not try this if you have any apps installed on your Linux Ext2/3 partitions as they will no longer work.

Step 1: Download and install MiniTool Home Edition 6.0.

Step 2: Mount your SD card via your phone or a card reader.

Step 3: Make a complete copy of your SD card on your hard disk. (Take care to copy hidden files as well!)

Step 4: Fire up the MiniTool Partition Wizard. Your SD card should be displayed as an additional Disk (usually “Disk 2”, if you don't have more than one hard disk or any other removable disk drives) and having both FAT32 and Ext2/3 partitions. If you have a swap partition, it should be displayed as “Linux Swap”.

Step 5: Delete both the FAT32 and Ext2/3 partitions by right-clicking on them.

If you have a swap partition, delete it as well.

Step 6: Now, you should see a single unallocated space. Right-click on it and select “Create”. In the new window that opens, select FAT32 as the File System and click OK.

You should see a FAT32 partition now occupying most of the space.

Step 7: Ignore any remaining unallocated space and Apply Changes. (At this point, all data on your SD card will be formatted. So ensure you have made a copy of it).

Once pending operations have been applied, close the program and restore the copy of your SD card from the hard disk.

Voila! You now hopefully have an SD card with slightly more space.

Disclaimer: Try this at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for exploding PCs, bricked phones, dead apps, formatted SD cards, cracked monitors etc...

Edited May 17, 2011 by robinhud2010

[Guest]

Nice one

I had 483mb of unused partition.

Just one question,can we get back partitions 2/3 with this tool

Edited May 9, 2011 by Guest

[Guest Flumpster]

You might want to edit that first post. Just because you only have one hard disk connected to your computer doesn't mean others will as well.

"Step 4: Fire up the MiniTool Partition Wizard. Your SD card should be displayed as “Disk 2” "

That "Disk 2" part could be any disk.

[Guest robinhud2010]

Nice one

I had 483mb of unused partition.

Just one question,can we get back partitions 2/3 with this tool

You should be able to get back Ext2, Ext3 and swap partitions with this tool. Just delete em all!

You might want to edit that first post. Just because you only have one hard disk connected to your computer doesn't mean others will as well.

"Step 4: Fire up the MiniTool Partition Wizard. Your SD card should be displayed as “Disk 2” "

That "Disk 2" part could be any disk.

Point taken. :unsure:

Edited May 9, 2011 by robinhud2010

[Guest Mushroom_Lord]

Good work! Quick pointer: convert the images to .png or .jpg so they show in MoDaCo (well - im sure PNG does :unsure:)

[Guest robinhud2010]

Good work! Quick pointer: convert the images to .png or .jpg so they show in MoDaCo (well - im sure PNG does :unsure:)

DONE!

My first topic - so any tips appreciated! :)

[Guest popoyaya]

Be careful when copying the contents of the SD card to your hard drive as some files will be hidden, and thus not copied, i.e. any that begin with "." (a dot)

[Guest robinhud2010]

Be careful when copying the contents of the SD card to your hard drive as some files will be hidden, and thus not copied, i.e. any that begin with "." (a dot)

Added to the first post.

[Guest irishpancake]

First, you don"t seem to have a partitioned SD card. The actual space in the shipped SD card is 1.85GB, not 2GB as advertised. You seem to have all of 1.85GB for the FAT partition - so there is no need to repartition.

Second, FAT32 should work fine on your phone, and restore all apps saved to the SD card (at least mine did).

Third, to get more external space, do the obvious - buy a new SD card! If you want more internal space for you apps try repartitioning your system, data and cache partitions by following this guide.

Thanks indeed.

So is there any advantage, either in extra free space, efficiency or speed, in converting the existing SD Card to FAT32?

I am indeed intending to buy a new 16GB Card, using the various guides available here, but apparently one must be careful, as not all cards work, not to mention 32GB cards, which were advertised originally as compatible with the OSF/Blade.

When I do get the new 16GB card, can I simply restore my back-up to that card, or should I ensure that the card is partitioned for maximum efficiency?

Sorry for the questions, and I will indeed read your linked guide.....when i get a chance.

Thanks again for the reply.

[Guest robinhud2010]

Thanks indeed.

So is there any advantage, either in extra free space, efficiency or speed, in converting the existing SD Card to FAT32?

I am indeed intending to buy a new 16GB Card, using the various guides available here, but apparently one must be careful, as not all cards work, not to mention 32GB cards, which were advertised originally as compatible with the OSF/Blade.

When I do get the new 16GB card, can I simply restore my back-up to that card, or should I ensure that the card is partitioned for maximum efficiency?

Sorry for the questions, and I will indeed read your linked guide.....when i get a chance.

Thanks again for the reply.

There is absolutely no advantage in partitioning your SD card. Only thing which might affect efficiency are the read and write speeds - so choose cards of class 4 or above. And yeah, simply restoring the backup of your old card to the new one would work fine.

[Guest irishpancake]

There is absolutely no advantage in partitioning your SD card. Only thing which might affect efficiency are the read and write speeds - so choose cards of class 4 or above. And yeah, simply restoring the backup of your old card to the new one would work fine.

OK, understood......about partitioning :unsure:

what about using FAT32 rather than FAT16, as my card is FAT16, not now asking about partitioning, bot converting existing FAT to FAT32....

I know on Windoze, there is an advantage related to the cluster size, i.e. bigger cluster with FAT16, wasting more space as opposed to FAT 32 (32k vs 4k clusters, I think).

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc940351.aspx

I am new to Android, and know little of Unix, so i am just asking how to utilise the storage I have most efficiently, without wastage.

The question only arises because i discovered my SD Card was formatted with FAT16.

I do plan to replace this, ASAP, but there is quite a debate on these forums about which 16GB card to use, and I think >Class 4 cards do not get a good press here:

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...efinitely-work/

so one has to be careful which card is bought, and supplied by on-line sellers.

looks like Sandisk Class 4 gets the vote for the Blade.. :)

[Guest robinhud2010]

OK, understood......about partitioning :unsure:

what about using FAT32 rather than FAT16, as my card is FAT16, not now asking about partitioning, bot converting existing FAT to FAT32....

I know on Windoze, there is an advantage related to the cluster size, i.e. bigger cluster with FAT16, wasting more space as opposed to FAT 32 (32k vs 4k clusters, I think).

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc940351.aspx

I am new to Android, and know little of Unix, so i am just asking how to utilise the storage I have most efficiently, without wastage.

Dunno much about cluster sizes, so you pretty much lost me there. But I don't think you need to convert to FAT32 unless absolutely necessary as I doubt it will make your device visibly faster :) .