Thank You Again Svim for taking lots of your time to explain and educate! I've found your explanations very interesting, indeed.
I learned a lot from the articles you linked. As you mentioned, I was somewhat familiar with OS X file structure and knew the basics of Unix. But Android was a mystery to me- so much of a mystery that I was afraid to explore too deeply for fear of wrecking something.
Your explanation of how Android is not more complicated, just different puts everything into clear perspective. One would think, since I have worked with Mac, Windows, DOS and a little Unix that I would have realized that Android is "simply different". (Now that I've read your linked article, the Android file system structure makes a whole lot more sense to me than Windows ever did. But DOS still is my favorite file structure.)
Actually, before the SD card problems, I had been having phone booting trouble and had to do a factory reset. Before I nuked the phone, I dived (dove?) deeper into the file system than I have in the past. (There was nothing to lose at that point.) The exploring was interesting.
Of course, some of my applications don't store things where I would expect (Example = Camera ignores DCIM and goes to Pictures). I was also surprised to see apps that I moved to SD have files on the phone storage as well. The small ones I attribute to the app's "get going" files, but the larges ones are a mystery.
Thank You Again. I sure learned a lot from your posts. And thanks DannyDet for your thoughts on the SD card. (You were right, it is intermittently bad, as tested with read-write cycles on the computer.)
When I get brave enough, perhaps I'll try a root to get rid of the AT&T apps that don't work, but track anyway. (Not to mention run in the background whether started or not, like Hot Spots.) I'll also be happy to be able to delete the ZTE apps that also don't work. (Disabling does not stop AT&T or ZTE apps. I guess they own the phone, not me.)
Enjoy This Day!
Paul
