32Gb SD card problem, android 2.2.

[shadow_fi]

Hello guys,

I really need your help now.

I bought few days ago brand new 32Gb Kingston microSD card, which is CLASS 4. I was happy, until I inserted it in the phone. First my phone did't freeze at formatting it, then it did format it, and I copied all old data from 2Gb microsd to this one. After that my apps, which were on my SD card, I mean apps2sd option with Elelinux 6.2.0 (andoid 2.2), sometimes did freeze and often then made phone to do soft reboot, after what my sd card was recognized as empty or incompatible. I didn't believe that, and did full reboot, and again my sd card was back in game for a 10min, after what again rom crashed.

This looked strange, and I did try different ways to format my sd card. I did that in Linux (ubuntu + gparted), made one Fat32 partition with 32k clusters. I tried in DOS. I tried with bootloader, clockwork mod. No help.

It also freezes phone when i try to unmount it.

Well I thought that I have a fake 32Gb sd, and did scan it. It is good. All 32Gb are working. So card is 100% ok. And looks like it's real Japanese Kingston.

I think about few things. Before when I had old 2Gb SD, I did not have any ext2 partition for app2sd, but maybe with this huge SD card I need?

And maybe I need full ROM reinstall? How safe is to reinstall from this unstable 32Gb SD card?

I mean if installation will fail, bootloader (clockwork mod) will still be alive, and I can try again and again? Or am I wrong? What are my risks?

So gurus, what you have on your mind?

 

[Slug]

I don't think the card itself is faulty. From your description the phone works for a short while, then it restarts and the card isn't recognised. A hard reboot solves this however, which to me indicates a problem either with a kernel module or the OS. Additionally, you say it's tested okay and is obviously correctly identified by other OS and disk tools.

Boot into ClockworkMod Recovery, connect to your PC with the USB cable and select "Mounts and storage" then "Mount USB storage". After a few seconds the sdcard should be available as a removable drive in Windows Explorer. Navigate around for a minute or two.... if things remain okay then I reckon it's worth trying a fresh install of the ROM after a full wipe and reformat of the card from recovery. I'd recommend partitioning it to give a 512MB ext2 for app2sd and the remainder as FAT32 - the ROM will use the ext2 partition automatically when it's detected at the initial boot. Once you've done that, "mount USB storage" again and copy the ROM ZIP file to /sdcard, then flash as usual using "install zip from sdcard".

p.s. yes, the recovery will remain safe no matter what you do.

 

[shadow_fi]

I don't think the card itself is faulty. From your description the phone works for a short while, then it restarts and the card isn't recognised. A hard reboot solves this however, which to me indicates a problem either with a kernel module or the OS. Additionally, you say it's tested okay and is obviously correctly identified by other OS and disk tools.

Boot into ClockworkMod Recovery, connect to your PC with the USB cable and select "Mounts and storage" then "Mount USB storage". After a few seconds the sdcard should be available as a removable drive in Windows Explorer. Navigate around for a minute or two.... if things remain okay then I reckon it's worth trying a fresh install of the ROM after a full wipe and reformat of the card from recovery. I'd recommend partitioning it to give a 512MB ext2 for app2sd and the remainder as FAT32 - the ROM will use the ext2 partition automatically when it's detected at the initial boot. Once you've done that, "mount USB storage" again and copy the ROM ZIP file to /sdcard, then flash as usual using "install zip from sdcard".

p.s. yes, the recovery will remain safe no matter what you do.

Yeah, I have now 2048Mb ext2 at the end, and rest fat32. Now I'm testing card while mounted in recovery, and copying 5 gigs of files. If that will be ok, I think I'll try reflashing rom.

Strange but elelinux creator said to flash amon ra recovery. I don't really see a reason why. They are almost same with clockwork mod.. I think.. Maybe not? Don't really get why I should use amon ra?

If AmonRa is better, is there safe and easy way of switching the recovery rom?

 

[Slug]

Yeah, I have now 2048Mb ext2

That's a heck of a large partition for app2sd - you'll never come close to needing a quarter of that.

Strange but elelinux creator said to flash amon ra recovery.

It may be simply that he's never tested it with CWM himself.

Don't really get why I should use amon ra?

For a long time that was the only recovery available for the Hero. Tbh they're much of a muchness - one thing to watch though is that nandroid backups are (a) stored in different locations and (b) aren't reliably compatible between recoveries.

I switched to CWM because that's what I use with my other devices, but I keep a copy of the most recent RA_rececovery .IMG file on my sdcard and flash it back (if required) with ROM Manager.