Is it possible if I installed apps/data on SD card to switch to another card and install apps/data on it? I removed my current card and my phone stopped working. I will take help from anyone who has it.
if you want to, you should be able to copy everything to a backup folder and upload to another sd card. you need to do this in linux cause windows does not natively read ext2 partitions. shut down your phone, remove the micro sd card, put in your computer, copy everything to the backup folder, then re-partition your new (hopefully bigger) micro sd card. put back in the phone and boot it up. i have never tried this, but it should work, just as long as you have the ext2 partition the system can read from. good luck.
I agree fully with corp769. In addition, two important things to remember are:
* ext2 must be the second (primary) partition
* you must preserve UNIX access permissions by copying apps and data directories with cp -rp ! That's the reason apps on SD doesn't work without repartitioning.
* you must use a separate card reader, you cannot do this while the card is plugged into your G1. (Unless you can do some fancy mounting/unmounting stuff on the phone, that is. It's certainly easier and safer to use a card reader).
I too have never tried this, but it should work.
creid2352 said:
Is it possible if I installed apps/data on SD card to switch to another card and install apps/data on it? I removed my current card and my phone stopped working. I will take help from anyone who has it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did this on linux from a 2G card to a new 8G card .. my partitions are named so i utilize naming to distinguish one partition from the other:
make two folders on your linux desktop .. "SDD1" and "SDD2" .. the FAT32(sdd1) can be click-and-drag to the desktop folder .. the EXT2(sdd2) needs to be run inside Terminal to retain the permissions (unless someone know a better way)
ie: sudo cp -a /media/sdd2/* /home/LucidREM/Desktop/SDD2
then switch cards
ie: sudo cp -a /home/LucidREM/Desktop/SDD2/* /media/sdd2
obviously substitute your name for mine unless you call yourself "LucidREM"
In the exact same process when you have an error nfs :
In linux with the card reader
unmount both vfat and ext2 partitions and type :
fsck -p /dev/yourext2partition.
fsck.vfat -p /dev/yourfatpartition
that's how I manage to recover 2 MicroSD card
If you want to go the GUI route - go grab a copy of the GParted Live distribution. Put that on bootable media (whatever your case may be, USB or CD/DVD) then boot into GParted and use the GUI to copy and paste the partitions over. GParted will do a consistency check and fix any errors in both partitions first, then copy over into the new SD card.
Thanks a lot for the help everyone. I will give this a shot when I get home. Appreciate all the quick responses.
no prob man, just let us know if it works for you or not.
If you don't have linux, is there a program for windows or mac I can use to do this? Thanks
legaleye2005 said:
If you don't have linux, is there a program for windows or mac I can use to do this? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes download Wubi (which is like Linux in a box, and can be installed in like 10 minutes and ready to use and removed like a normal program) or download Paragon Partition Manager 9 Trial Version, it must be version 9 not 10. I recommend Wubi however, much easier, and who knows, you might fall in love with it like I did.
I tried the LucidREM instructions and it is looping on startup.
Is there a different way to do this?
Simplest Method
Just in case people still want to know how to change SD cards (ext partition and all), which I suspect will happen a lot since the 16GB cards are going to start dropping in price soon, here's the simplest and best way I know how to do it. I have done this a bunch of times without any issues. I've even used this to go from a G1 to a myTouch (with minor compatibility changes, of course). But simply changing/upgrading SD cards is a breeze.
First thing's first. You will need bart.sh which can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=562292. If you are using a myTouch or simply don't want to bother typing commands, use Amon_RA's wonderful recovery menus with bart.sh already built in. The Nexus One version can be found here (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=611829) but there are links to the recovery menus for the G1, myTouch, Hero, etc. on that page.
You will need to be familiar with how bart.sh works and this is way beyond this post. There is a ton of information on the bart.sh thread. So here are the steps that need to be done.
1) Run bart.sh, either in recovery console or via recovery menu, to backup your entire ext2/3/4 partition (as well as nandroid for simplicity).
2) Back up the fat32 portion of your SD card as you normally would by mounting your SD card to your computer. Make sure that this includes the new bart.sh backup which should be located in the bart folder in the root of you SD card.
3) Partition your new SD card using the method of your choice. Amon_RA's recovery menus have an easy and painless method for this but you can use parted or any other method you choose. If you use your device to partition your new SD card do NOT boot your phone after you partition the card. You will want to finish Step 4 first. Amon_RA's recovery allows you to mount your SD card from recovery to help you complete Step 4 if you do not have a SD card reader.
4) Using Amon_RA's recovery menu or an SD card reader copy the fat32 partition, which includes your bart.sh backup, from your PC to the fat32 partition of your newly partitioned SD card. From the recovery menu, restore your bart.sh backup.
5) Voila. You now have all of your partitions moved to a new SD card.
This process can be simplified into one sentence. Do a bart.sh backup and restore it to the new SD making sure the SD card has the proper partitions and that you don't forget about the fat32 partition. The above is just a list showing the proper order so that you don't lose any data during the process.
Related
i searched and my eyes hurt from being on this forum for the last few hours. i just got a new sd card that i partitioned using the parted method, and also flashed my g1 with CM 4.0.1. Realized that my new card doesnt have the apps from my old card. How do i transfer the files from one sd card to another? They both have ext3 partitions. I have an sd card reader, but i also have adb. Just need the easiest way. thanks
freaklt1z said:
i searched and my eyes hurt from being on this forum for the last few hours. i just got a new sd card that i partitioned using the parted method, and also flashed my g1 with CM 4.0.1. Realized that my new card doesnt have the apps from my old card. How do i transfer the files from one sd card to another? They both have ext3 partitions. I have an sd card reader, but i also have adb. Just need the easiest way. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The easiest way is to clone the old sdcard to the new one and then readjust the partitions (if necessary). This works easiest if that the new sdcard is at least as large as the new one (you got a bigger one, right?).
You can do this either using usb to your computer, or by using a dedicated card reader (preferred). If using the phone as the card reader, you MUST BE SURE that NONE of the card partitions are mounted on the phone and then either way proceed as follows;
Connect the phone_with_old_card or old_card to your computer (must be LINUX/BSD/other_unix -- use a livecd if necessary).
Check the output of the 'dmesg' command to determine the device file, i.e. sd?. You need to know '?' and substitute that character throughout the rest of the instructions. Note: if you see, for example, 'sdb1', 'sdb2', then you are looking for 'sdb' which represents the ENTIRE DISK -- the numbers represent the partitions within the disk and are of no interest at this point.
As root (or other member of group 'disk') run the following:
dd if=/dev/sd? of=/some/place/with/enough/space/sdcard.img
When it finishes, swap in the NEW card (be sure to unmount if it automounts), check the output of 'dmesg' again (though unlikely, it could assign a different device file), and run the following;
dd if=/some/place/with/enough/space/sdcard.img of=/dev/sd?
The new card has now been cloned and will work as the old card, BUT, if the new card is LARGER than the old, the additional space will not yet be accessible....
To increase the accessible space, use a program called 'gparted'. Most livecds should have this installed, or you can google for 'gparted' and download their livecd. Use gparted to move/expand your partitions as you desire, then you'll be done.
Note: in the unlikely event that the new card is SMALLER than the old one, run gparted FIRST to shrink the partitions on the card such that they are SMALLER than the partitions THAT YOU CREATED on the new card, then use the dd command to copy PARTITION to PARTITION (i.e. use 'dd if=/dev/sd?1 of=...', etc.), then rerun gparted to adjust the filesystem sizes within the partitions.
Here's what I am looking to accomplish. I wanted a backup sd card just in the event mine goes bad. I ran a search with 'SD Card" in the title and read each thread. Here are my roadblocks.... I installed DiskInternals Linux Reader and although it let me copy the ext3 partition files to my pc, it does not allow me to copy them back to the new card. Partition Manager does not have a 64-bit free version. Installed Ext2 IFS for Windows, however, it refused to see my sd card when mounted. I used RA-dream-v1.5.2 recovery to do a Bart + Ext Backup and verified the ext-backup.tar is on my sd card. I was going to install ADB, however, it doesn't say it works on Windows 7 64-bit. I have already partitioned the new card and have everything copied to the Fat32 partion. How now is the easiest way for me to get the ext-backup.tar untarred to my ext3 partition on the new sd card? Please don't flame me as I have been reading threads since 10 this morning. Thanks for any help!
The best thing I've found for managing the Linux partitions is a GParted Live disc. Just download and burn to a bootable CD. Pop it in and reboot your machine and you're free to do pretty much whatever you want with your SD card partitions without having to worry about Windows getting in the way.
Appreciate it. Gonna try it now. Thank you!
Well, I did as instructed. However, it failed to "Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 57107. Any other way to accomplish what I am looking for?
any possibility that your USB port is flakey? Any way to try it on a differenty machine? I've got one PC that has USB problems and has been known to give similar kinds of error messages.
It seems fine for everything. It's a brand new Dell, only 2 months old. It was kinda freaky when I booted from the cd...lines of text scrolling on my screen for a couple minutes, lol. I was like...this better not be wiping my pc out Then at the end it just died on that error... The one thing I notice in reading threads...people keep giving console commands to do things on the phone using adb, however, I tried and it says adb isn't found... Here is an example. I can't believe there isn't an easy way to do this with so many folks rooted, etc.
----------------------------
best thing to do is this while in recovery, use adb and type
Code:
adb shell mount /system/sd/
adb pull /system/sd/ system_sd_backup
turn off phone, change sd card, go back into recovery, then
Code:
adb shell mount /system/sd/
adb push system_sd_backup /system/sd/
ok so I have copied an EXT from one card to another and this is how you do it. You need to be using RA recovery. Go into your console from recovery and type "bart -e -s EXT" that will create a back up of your EXT in a folder called "bart" on the fat32 partition of your SD card. Plug your phone into your PC and copy the bart folder to the PC. Now take the SD card out of your phone and put in the one that you want to restore the EXT to in. Copy the bart folder from your PC to your new cards fat32 partition. Make sure you partition the new card so that it has an EXT partition on it and then go into the recovery console and type "bart -e -r" it will ask you to select which back up to restore. Input the number for the back up that says "EXT" and restore it.
Joe333x said:
ok so I have copied an EXT from one card to another and this is how you do it. You need to be using RA recovery. Go into your console from recovery and type "bart -e -s EXT" that will create a back up of your EXT in a folder called "bart" on the fat32 partition of your SD card. Plug your phone into your PC and copy the bart folder to the PC. Now take the SD card out of your phone and put in the one that you want to restore the EXT to in. Copy the bart folder from your PC to your new cards fat32 partition. Make sure you partition the new card so that it has an EXT partition on it and then go into the recovery console and type "bart -e -r" it will ask you to select which back up to restore. Input the number for the back up that says "EXT" and restore it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worked flawlesly! Your help coupled with a PM I received from 'shadowch31' made this seamless. Thanks so much!
I tried to run the BART backup via console, but I keep getting an error message as following:
Storing app data...
tar: empty archive
Error occurred during storing of app data...
tar operation failed.
Do you have enough space on the /sdcard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have about 4 times more free space on the SD card then my ext-4 partition is. What could be the problem?
Since I've read much about this in different threads (people who couldn't find out how to do it), I thought I could share some light on it in a separate thread...
For starters: DO NOT PARTITION YOUR SD CARD WITH ROM MANAGER!!! This will partition your internal memory, and will brick your phone... To get back to stock please follow this thread.
Okay... First off to the linux users out there. There already exists a very nice tutorial on how to partition a SD card in ubuntu(the steps will be very similar in other distros too). For the ones that want to use gParted, theres an live cd here.
For myself, and all the other windows users, read on
1. Get yourself a copy of "Paragon Hard Disk Manager".
2. Install it through it's instructions.
3. Mount your SD card to your computer, and make sure it's recognized.
4a. Probably the fastest way: Go to "my computer", right click on your SD card, click format, choose FAT32 and format your card.
4b. Launch PHDM, and select "format partition", choose your SD card (next), choose FAT32 (next), "Yes, apply" (next) and your card is beeing formated to FAT 32.
Now your going to make the ext2/3/4 partition.
5. Go back to the main menu of PHDM again.
6. Click "create partition", choose your SD card (next), make the new partition size (I picked 1GB for my ext) and pick ext2/3/4 (next), "Yes, apply..."(next) and your card is partitioned and formated to ext2/3/4.
Good luck
Or if you're like me and have a previous phone with Amon_Ra's recovery. Put the SD card that you're using in the Vibrant into the G1 and load into the Recovery and "partition sd card" and all you'll have to do is set up the size of the partitions. It'll take less than a minute to do this. Far more easier and im sure a lot of people from the Vibrant community were upgraders from the G1.
And partitioning your SD card does what exactly?
Novek said:
Since I've read much about this in different threads (people who couldn't find out how to do it), I thought I could share some light on it in a separate thread...
For starters: DO NOT PARTITION YOUR SD CARD WITH ROM MANAGER!!! This will partition your internal memory, and will brick your phone... To get back to stock please follow this thread.
Okay... First off to the linux users out there. There already exists a very nice tutorial on how to partition a SD card in ubuntu(the steps will be very similar in other distros too).
For myself, and all the other windows users, read on
1. Get yourself a copy of "Paragon Hard Disk Manager".
2. Install it through it's instructions.
3. Mount your SD card to your computer, and make sure it's recognized.
4a. Probably the fastest way: Go to "my computer", right click on your SD card, click format, choose FAT32 and format your card.
4b. Launch PHDM, and select "format partition", choose your SD card (next), choose FAT32 (next), "Yes, apply" (next) and your card is beeing formated to FAT 32.
Now your going to make the ext2/3/4 partition.
5. Go back to the main menu of PHDM again.
6. Click "create partition", choose your SD card (next), make the new partition size and pick ext2/3/4 (next), "Yes, apply..."(next) and your card is partitioned and formated to ext2/3/4.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The operation *apply changes* isn't available in demo mode. It cost 49.00?.........
stepinmyworld said:
The operation *apply changes* isn't available in demo mode. It cost 49.00?.........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download a gpartd boot cd and use that. Free, open source, easy.
MRCLrider said:
And partitioning your SD card does what exactly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Allows you to use the data/cache to SD mod to speed up some stuff on the phone. For most of us, it has nearly eliminated the lag.
Novek said:
Since I've read much about this in different threads (people who couldn't find out how to do it), I thought I could share some light on it in a separate thread...
For starters: DO NOT PARTITION YOUR SD CARD WITH ROM MANAGER!!! This will partition your internal memory, and will brick your phone... To get back to stock please follow this thread.
Okay... First off to the linux users out there. There already exists a very nice tutorial on how to partition a SD card in ubuntu(the steps will be very similar in other distros too).
For myself, and all the other windows users, read on
1. Get yourself a copy of "Paragon Hard Disk Manager".
2. Install it through it's instructions.
3. Mount your SD card to your computer, and make sure it's recognized.
4a. Probably the fastest way: Go to "my computer", right click on your SD card, click format, choose FAT32 and format your card.
4b. Launch PHDM, and select "format partition", choose your SD card (next), choose FAT32 (next), "Yes, apply" (next) and your card is beeing formated to FAT 32.
Now your going to make the ext2/3/4 partition.
5. Go back to the main menu of PHDM again.
6. Click "create partition", choose your SD card (next), make the new partition size and pick ext2/3/4 (next), "Yes, apply..."(next) and your card is partitioned and formated to ext2/3/4.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ttabbal said:
Download a gpartd boot cd and use that. Free, open source, easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried this and its not as easy as you state. The instructions aren't clear either. I have blank CDs, added the file but it also says download something else which wasn't there. Whe you try to open the app from the cd, it doesn't know which program to choose to open it.
Ubuntu comes with a disk utility that is really easy to use.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
stepinmyworld said:
i tried this and its not as easy as you state. The instructions aren't clear either. I have blank CDs, added the file but it also says download something else which wasn't there. Whe you try to open the app from the cd, it doesn't know which program to choose to open it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do know you have to burn it as a CD IMAGE not as a file, right? If you're on Windows, Infrarecord is free and works well. Linux and OSX come with software that can do it. Then you boot from the CD, there isn't a need to open an app, it should launch itself once booted. Then select the SD card and partition. It even formats the partitions for you.
It's not as easy as some, but it's a whole lot easier than fdisk. Free software is generally not going to be as "pretty" as paid stuff. If you want the pretty, pay for Partition Magic, Paragon, whatever, there's a few options out there.
+1 for gparted boot cd
It has saved me several times when I've screwed up my hackintosh installs.
Paragon is saying it cant format my sdcard....
LovellKid said:
Paragon is saying it cant format my sdcard....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the paid version or the demo? To format you'll have to have the paid one...
/edit
Updated first post with link to gParted live cd...
Paid version (Thx Utorrent), but so just to clarify, so do I go straight from Fat32--> to Ext4 option? Or do I have to choose ext2, then create another partition (ext3), then ext4?
stepinmyworld said:
i tried this and its not as easy as you state. The instructions aren't clear either. I have blank CDs, added the file but it also says download something else which wasn't there. Whe you try to open the app from the cd, it doesn't know which program to choose to open it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to boot this cd once you burn it. Be careful not to partition your PC's hard drive
LovellKid said:
Paid version (Thx Utorrent), but so just to clarify, so do I go straight from Fat32--> to Ext4 option? Or do I have to choose ext2, then create another partition (ext3), then ext4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can go straight from having the whole SD in FAT32 to partition your card to ext4
Sumner info on how to do this with a mac would be nice. Or even via the command line from a rooted vibrant.
Sent from my Vibrant using the XDA app.
Typos, incorrect words, gibberish, and other nonsense brought to you courtesy of Swype.
Arr MiHardies said:
Sumner info on how to do this with a mac would be nice. Or even via the command line from a rooted vibrant.
Sent from my Vibrant using the XDA app.
Typos, incorrect words, gibberish, and other nonsense brought to you courtesy of Swype.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no experience with macOSX so I can't help you out there... If someone writes a guide here I'll update the OP, but I believe that you can use gParted Live cd with mac's too...
sjk;ddasmdaljl;akjwmj
i spent the better of the night trying to format my card. sandisk 16gb class 2.
i fire up PHDM after formatting the card through my computer. i keep getting an error message when i go through the create partition wizard saying that my external sd card has four different partitions including an extended one, which doesnt make sense because i just formatted it. ill attach a picture when i wake up.
i then tried to use paragon partition manager. my sd card shows up. yay. i proceed to create two primary partitions: 13.6gb fat32 and 1.5gb ext3. everything goes good. now, when i unmount my sd card, the phone then says that the external sd card is corrupted and that i need to reformat. reformatting takes me back to square one. 14.8gb fat32. i tried letting the phone format the memory card and then use ppm to do just a 1.5gb ext3 and success. it worked. i installed deodexed rom and saw that my boot time was 2-3 min as compared to the general 10-12 min i was reading about. downloaded quadrant and registered a beautiful 897. i also went to go put back all my files onto my memory card and it asks me to reformat the card. square one again.
last resort i used gparted. tried using 13.6gb fat32 and 1.5gb ext3 and gparted gives me an error saying it cannot complete it. i dont remember exactly the error because im not too familiar with linux.
if anyone has any ideas or alternatives that ive missed, please chime in.
EDIT: i tried using two different memory cards and they didnt work as well. there has to be something im either missing or doing wrong. =(
Can't believe none of you guys have a previous Android phone with Amon_Ra installed. It practically makes partitoning a SD card a joke.
Fellow rookie to rookie step by step guide
This is my first Android phone and really my first experience with “programming.” I am using a Windows 7 PC, a rooted phone and a 16GB class 2 external SD card. Here is my step by step guide to partition your external SD card (That is the one that has/had Avatar on it) using free software:
1. Download and install the ISO recorder from alex fineman. Just Google “alex fineman iso recorder.” If you don’t have his program you will not be able to burn ”gparted live” as an image to a CD which is the next step
2. Google “gparted live” and select the sourceforge site. Next select “To install GParted Live on CD, download the .iso file and burn it as an image to a CD.”
3. I tried the most recent stable version but it would not load so I ended up using the most recent “Testing release” which worked on my Windows 7 PC
4. Download the gparted-live-0.6.2-2.zip which will now have an ISO extension since you downloaded and installed the ISO recorder in step 1
5. Open the gparted-live and follow instructions to burn a disc image
6. Connect you phone and enable USB mass storage (I used my work BB rather than the Vibrant in case I messed things up. Others have recommended an old phone)
7. Start your PC with the gparted-live disc in and get ready to hit the “esc” key to get into boot up. Select “boot from cd”, “gparted live default setting”, “don’t touch keymap”, 33 (for English), and “0”. You should now get the gparted-live interface and there should be two devices connected. Your PC and the phone with its external SD card
8. Delete the existing SD card partitions but make double sure you are on the phone and not your PC before you do this. Next, create the primary, fat 32 partition and leave no more than 2 GB of space for the next partition. Create a primary, ext3 partition and select accept to create the new partitions. That is it. Exit gparted and reboot your computer without the disc
I did the repartitioning so I could apply the custom ROM from anomalous3 over in the development section. I would highly recommend his ROM as a next step in your development as the phone is incredibly fast after installing it. As I said, I am a 100% rookie but the phone is now blazing fast (over 1,400 from low 800 on Quadrant. I really have no idea what it means but the difference is fantastic). Best of luck to my fellow rookies/noobs/nbs/newbies
so i either don't fully understand how images work in the SDCard itself (not on the nook), or i did something wrong and don't know how to fix the card, but at any rate, i managed to burn a 128meg image onto my 8gig sd card, didn't like the image, and now can't figure out how to get the card back to a regular 8gig card!
would love some direction. tried to search but must not be using right keywords.
didn't see any kind of format or clear option in the winimg program we're using.
thanks!
byproxy said:
so i either don't fully understand how images work in the SDCard itself (not on the nook), or i did something wrong and don't know how to fix the card, but at any rate, i managed to burn a 128meg image onto my 8gig sd card, didn't like the image, and now can't figure out how to get the card back to a regular 8gig card!
would love some direction. tried to search but must not be using right keywords.
didn't see any kind of format or clear option in the winimg program we're using.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On your Nook I believe you can go to Settings, Device Info, Mount the SD card if it's not mounted and then format it. It'll erase it and you'll have a blank SD card. If you're going to put a different image on the card I don't know if you even need to bother formatting, but I' not sure about that stuff.
does the nook format work differently than a computer format? because i burned a 128meg image onto an 8gig card and now even a computer format won't get the whole 8gigs back... just the 128 megs. it's like it's got invisible partitions on it or something.
Partition
Try EASEUS Partition Manager to change the partition size/format card.
byproxy said:
so i either don't fully understand how images work in the SDCard itself (not on the nook), or i did something wrong and don't know how to fix the card, but at any rate, i managed to burn a 128meg image onto my 8gig sd card, didn't like the image, and now can't figure out how to get the card back to a regular 8gig card!
would love some direction. tried to search but must not be using right keywords.
didn't see any kind of format or clear option in the winimg program we're using.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
byproxy... here is the easy way...
1) Go and download "EASEUS Partition Master 7.0.1 Home Edition" --- just google it (the home edition is free and downloadable)
2) Put your microSD card into a card reader and plug into your computer
3) install EASEUS onto your computer and run the app
4) Once app is started, located your microSD card amongst the list of drives listed
5) select each one of the partitions on the SD card, and delete them individually
6) Once all partitions are deleted, make sure that you are still selecting the microSD card, and select the option to create partition (it may just say create)
7) Make sure you select FAT 32
8) Then select FORMAT
9) Lastly, click on APPLY and it will do all the things above. So in short you select all the actions that you want... and only in step 9 will it execute all those actions.
Please make sure that any changes you make are to the SD card and not any of your other drives. Last thing I would want is for you to accidentally format your Computer, NAS, or your non-SD card. =)
Enjoy...
sweet. exactly what i was looking for. thanks gents!!!
hvuong2 said:
byproxy... here is the easy way...
Enjoy...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, but isn't it easier just to do it in the Nook or am I missing something here?
...worst case there's a low level SD card formatter from Panasonic (IIRC might be Toshiba) that will do a complete low level format and has recovered uSDs for people using them with Nintendo DS dev carts...
A Google search should turn it up, or a thread on a DS site which might have a link to it. It'll be a little windows program...
(I believe that windows and most devices just do sort of a quick format of the uSD, and so can't recover from some problems like re-partitioning of the card... so monkeying around with a partition editor and assigning the card to be one big partition then re-fromatting under windows or some other device MIGHT work as well...)
[EDIT]
oops, I see post #5 has the re-partitioning solution as well... another way to do it would be to backup an image of the card BEFORE burning something like autonooter on it then restore that original image to card once finished with whatever you were trying out... it's what I did when I tried autonooter w/my old 128MB card, in linux in my case a
dd if=/path/to/sd/card of=./somefilename
dd if=./autonooter.img of=/path/to/sd/card
then later
dd if=./somefilename of=/path/to/sd/card
sd card path under linux is likely to be /dev/memc<device ref characters?>
You should also be able to do this under windows with the utility recommended for windows users to use with the autonooter image, as I'm guessing that it's just a GUI wrapper and a windows compiled version of the dd utility...
[/EDIT]
Varying opinions
BarryR1 said:
OK, but isn't it easier just to do it in the Nook or am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some believe that there are issues with formatting on Nook... depending which ROM you are running. The surefire and safe way, is to do it from a PC.
Nook should format, but may not partition correctly.
hvuong2 said:
Some believe that there are issues with formatting on Nook... depending which ROM you are running. The surefire and safe way, is to do it from a PC.
Nook should format, but may not partition correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, the Nook will format the *device* and not a partition, so it always works. But you don't want to do it if you've installed NC or HC to eMMC.
If you're using Stock rooted, just boot without the card in the device, put it in, format. Done.
Or if you're on a real os just format the device... mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX
Introduction I wanted to put this into a thread since there are multiple questions about the same topics here. I'm simplifying here, Verygreen and others could give you a lot better detail. But if you are confused about some of the directions in other threads, this may help.
For most purposes, the SD card is treated as a simulated hard disk. So much of the control and terminology used is the same as HD.
For the Nook HD/HD+, the easiest (and so far only) way to access control of the machine is through an SD card. This is because the bootloader will check the SD card and boot an acceptable OS it finds there. So for now at least, ALL CM versions for these Nooks will be booted off the SD card. For those familiar with flashing their phones, it is no different except all ROMs will reside on the SD card. The internal memory, called EMMC (or internal SD) is available for use with these ROMs as of 12/28 releases so it isn't wasted, and data (not programs) you want available from both Stock and CM can be placed there.
ROMs are placed into memory with a program generically called Recovery. This is a small OS which can provide access to memory, update ROMs, wipe memory partitions, make backups of your ROM, provide access to partitions from your computer via ADB, etc. The version that we are using here is called Clockwork Mod (CWM). You will need to load this into the boot sectors of your SD card.
Burning CWM In order for the bootloader to load this program, the exact placement of bits in the SD memory is critical. So instead of copying this program over to the SD card, you must burn an 'image'. This is an exact replica of the specific bits mapped to correct sectors of the SD card. The term is usually 'burn' an image. To burn an image from Windows, the recommended program is Win32DiskImage (http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/) but other "image writing" software will work.
When you write an image, your SD card will contain a partition exactly the size of the image you just wrote. A partition is a formatted and ready to use portion of a hard disk or something simulating a hard disk like your SD card. In windows, you might have seen instances where multiple partitions are allocated to different drive letters (e.g. C: and D: ) both on the same physical device. In Unix or Android, partitions are often known by names such as /system or /sdcard. However, native Windows installs are only able to see the first partition of a SD card. Therefore, if you write a 500MB image to a 32 GB card, at that point in time only 500MB is usable and 31.5GB is no longer available. For the CM10 installs on this thread, the rest of the card is automatically partitioned as new drives for the ROM and DATA and so becomes available (linux/android don't have the partition disabilities of Windows).
If you are using Leapinlars' CWM zips to root, etc, you can simply copy the files over after writing the image. There is room in the imaged partition for these files. IF you are using Verygreen's CM10, and possibly others, you can't copy the files over as the CWM partition is too small to start with. After the CM10 SD boots in the Nook, it will create partitions to use the rest of memory. But these new partitions are not easily accessible with Windows. This is why Verygreen's instructions include using ADB to push the zip file to the /sdcard partition.
Partitions For those writing CWM images for update zips (e.g. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2062613), you will either want to use a smallish (e.g. 4G) SD card or repartition the card after you are done. The images by Leapinlar are large enough to load a few zip files for flashing in addition to the CWM program and a couple of backups (sometimes called 'nandroids'). But if you want to access the rest of the card, you'll need to repartition. The main reason you would want to do this is to return your 32GB card to full size, either with or without CWM on it; simply reformating on windows will not restore the unused data. For this, you will need to use a partitioning tool like Easeus (http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-Home-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html) or Minitool (http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html). Note, this is generally NOT needed by the instruction sets on these fora, but is just provided as information, or if you wish to return to SC card to an initial state.
Copying files to partitions For the Nook HD/HD+, you must have the boot partition in the first partition of the SD card. This will NOT be the /data partition or the /sdcard partition. Therefore, you need a way to write to these partions on the CM builds. The easiest way is to boot CWM and use your computer to write to the these partitions via Android Debug Bridge (ADB). The process is boot to CWM, then go to mounts and storage, mount the /sdcard, THEN adb with CWM running and copy the zip over. ADB is a command shell that can execute commands on a remote android machine. Leapinlar's tips thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34168454#post34168454 gives a lot of detail about setting it up and getting it to run. If you are using Windows, there is a way (Update: this does work to see the sd card partition on CM10 SDs) to see all partitions on a SD card. See this tutorial: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1585572. When done properly, you should be able to write your zips directly to the /sdcard partiton of the sd card (if that sounds confusing, please reread all that stuff above.) Note, there are partitions formated in unrecognized formats which are NOT seen with this method.
SD Formats SD cards are 'formatted' in different ways, just like hard disks. Formatting refers to data structures and directory structures used to keep track of files on a hard disk. In fact, any hd format can be used, but the typical format (data/directory structure) on smaller SD cards is FAT32. These are limited to a max filesize of 4GB and are fully compatible with Windows XP. For the larger cards, they often come formatted to a new format called exFAT (extended FAT). These allow larger files but are not native to Windows XP. However, a driver is available from M$ that will support exFAT. Because it is unexpected, you will get an error talking about the likely damage to your hardware if you proceed when writing an image to the exfat formatted SD card. You can ignore the error, the image is written bit for bit correctly.
Lastly to completely reboot the Nook HD/+, you need to hold the power button down for 10 seconds ignoring all prompts. Then hold it down again until it turns on.
I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to post comments and corrections below if I've made any mistakes and I'll update the op. I'll also try to answer questions if you have them.