Properly Partition SD Card For App2SD+ Android ROMs
App2SD+ is a famous way to run Android apps on your SD card without losing access to them when you mount your SD card. In this guide, we shall feature how to properly partition your SD card to make it work flawlessly with APP2SD+ based ROMs.
App2SD+ works great for running Android apps from the SD card without them crashing or becoming inaccessible when the SD card is mounted for USB storage. However, it requires partitioning your SD card in a specific format and that can be tedious for someone who doesn’t know about the requirements. XDA-Developers member ssjmilos has shared a guide with us that is easy to follow and uses a Live Linux CD version of our previously featured GParted partition editing tool to partition the SD card correctly for use with App2SD+ based ROMS.
For advanced users
Note that it is not absolutely necessary to use GParted and we are using it for this guide only because this method will work the same for all users on all platforms. If there is another partitioning tool that you are more comfortable with, feel free to use it as long as it supports ext2, ext3 or ext4 formats. Just make sure you know how to use it properly, fully format the card first and when partitioning, keep the first partition primary with FAT32 as the file system and of such a size that 1 GB is left after it, and make a second partition in that 1 GB with ext2, ext3 or ext4 as the file system. ext2 is recommended because of high compatibility with most ROMs.
For Beginners
Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if you end up losing any data on your SD card or computer by not following this guide properly.
The SD card you use will be wiped clean so backup all data from it first.
Before you begin, make sure you have an SD card that isn’t already partitioned, as well as a card reader to access your card from your computer while booted in the GPartED Live CD.
- The first step is to grab the GPartED bootable Live CD image from the link given below and burn it to a CD or DVD using your favorite CD burning software.
- Now use the card reader to connect the card to your computer and format it with FAT32 file system, using the default cluster size.
- Reboot your computer from the GPartED Live CD that you created in Step 1, following any on-screen instructions till the GPartED interface is fully loaded.
- Now select your card from the dropdown at the top-right region of the GPartED interface.
Note: This step is EXTREMELY important. If you end up selecting one of your computer’s hard disks or any connected USB Flash drives, the next steps will wipe all data from them WITHOUT ANY WARNING. Proceed only after you have made sure that the SD card is selected. - Now you should see one FAT32 partition being displayed. Right-click on it and select delete it, confirming any prompt that you get.
- You will now see unallocated space there. Right-click on it and choose to create a new partition.
- Set it as ‘Primary Partition’ with ‘fat32’ file system. Make sure to set ‘free space following’ to 1024MB, leave everything as it is, and click ‘Add’.
- Similarly create another new partition in the unallocated space but set this one as ‘Logical’ with ‘ext2’, ‘ext3’ or ‘ext4’ as its file system, leave everything else as default, and click ‘Add’.
Note: ‘ext4’ is the latest ext format but several ROMs have issues with it while fewer have issues with ‘ext3’ and ‘ext2’ works with almost all ROMs out there. - You should now see two partitions in the GPartED main interface. Click ‘Apply’ to start partitioning your card according to these settings.
- Once the process is complete, reboot your computer into Windows and safely remove the SD card.
- Power your phone off, insert the SD card into it and you’re done.
Now you can flash any APP2SD+ enabled ROM and install your apps to SD card safely – they will be accessible while your card is mounted via USB.
[via XDA-Developers]
Dude! is there anyway to partition the SD Card with internal memory? Like many others, I too facing Low Internal Memory issue in my HTC Explorer.
P.S. Do not wanna root it at the moment.
Regards
Just to clarify , after having properly configured an SD card for App2SD as above. Will new APK installs need to to done directly to Device or SD card ? Some forums say to install to Device as that will automatically install it to the SDcard “Linux” partition.
I have a ascend m860 with cm7 rom and a 16 GB SD card the questions are can I partion it in this format, Fat32, Linux swap, Ex2 & what’s the Linux swap?
It may not be necessary to delete and recreate your fat32 partition, gparted may be able to resize the existing partition to leave unpartitioned space for a new extX partition. That way you would not need to copy stuff off and restore after.
Yes, and you dont need OS windows at all 😉
Hey, I found a step by step demonstrated article in web:
http://www.osbuzzer.com/f5/help-me-how-make-sd-card-partition-install-android-123/
guys i should point out something
i have tried partitioning my SD card using ROM Manager, and it has BRICKED my phone. DO NOT USE ROM MANAGER TO PARTITION SD CARD
in then end i found you didn’t even need to do this, i’m using the flb-froyo-rom and it just apps2sd just worked. So maybe this guide is not necessary anymore?
Hi,
Thanks again for your wonderful guides. Just in case this might help others: I did the same thing as tom who commented before in order to set the ext3 partition as a logical partition. However the custom rom I used would not work with the card. The only way I could get it to work was to set the ext3 partition as Primary. Thought this might help anyone who was struggling, as I was!
I wish I read this comment a few days earlies 🙂 The author should update his article with this nfo
Ah worked it out i think, you have to create an extended partition in the space first
Logical Partition option is greyed out for my card when i try, any idea?