SD card Partitions and Stuff

One of the nice things while buying a Froyo phone was the knowledge of installing apps to SD .Concept was awesome.We were excited. Limitless apps on phone was our target !! After a while we woke up to a rude shock.All apps cant be transferred to SD .And the transferred apps leave a foot print in internal memory.

So if  you install some 3-4 20-30 MB apps and few launchers and themes ,You are out of space and cry .

Enter Dual Partitioned SD cards and App2SD scripts

Life and space savers Dual Partition SD cards offer  limitless app support.Even non transferrable apps like skype and launchers can be run from SD card

Though app2SD scripts are more of personal preference. I usually toggle between Link2SD and Darktremors’s a2sd.

Link2SD

:has a GUI

can link all dex ,lib and app files

has auto link feature !!

Simple,easy ,Awesome

DT a2sd :

Terminal app

One command and all apps straight to SD card .Fast and Furry.

Advantages of Dual Partitioned SD cards over Froyo app2SD:

A.)Speed of apps : FAT32 was used by dinosaurs and linux system are optimised for ext2 (android uses linux kernel !).Froyo app2SD is just slow

B.)Complete transfer of apps .

How to do this cool stuff.:

1. Look in the mirror and say I can do it 50 times just for confidence.
2. Get a SD card reader if you dont have one.(Laptops have it inbuilt)
3. Download Mini Tool Partion Wizard for Windows
4. Connect your SD card via SD card reader only.Yes USB cable WONT DO
5. Back-up SD card contents.(If you want to…….)
6. In mini tool parition wizard ,delete partion
7. Create PRIMARY partition  of 85-90 p.c of SD card with FAT32 file system
8. Next in the space remaining Create PRIMARY partition with ext2/3
9. Click apply changes and count till 700 or bake a cake till the formatting finishes
10. Put the SD card back in the phone .Your space should now be reduced and it should be correctly mounted.
11. Install Link2SD from marked.
12. On starting select the second partition (ext2/3) you created
13. Reboot phone
14. Now Link2SD should show you a second partition and you can directly link apps to second partition.

There it’s simple and easy .

On Linux use gparted instead of Mini tool.

Some people create three partitions with additional swap space.Dont do that.It will not only slow the speed of apps but also shorten your SD card’s life. Swap space should only be used if You have a class 10 SD card and you are a speed freak.On class four you are damaging the SD card by increasing the read/write cycle rapidly . On class 2 ,you are insane ,apps will run like a snail and SD card wont last 6 months.

I had 300+ apps with ADW in ROM on Stock KD4 and no loss in speed .

So Long Folks