Help Explain internal storage and internal sd and possible partition

[MustangLife]

So the reason im confused. Is my phone has internal memory and internal sd and external sd divided into 3 sections. This is new to me. The droids ive had had internal memory and external sd but not 3. Ive been on iphone for the past 3 years. Im on 4.1.2 zte boost max rooted.
Internal storage 1.5 gb
Internal sd 4 gb
External sd 16 gb

Now ive deleted bloatware etc and moved some apps to sd that only root could do. But what apps/data/etc are on internal storage vs internal sd thats what has me confused because i want to partition a 32-64gb hard drive for internal memory. I want 16gb internal and maybe 16 gb internal sd and the rest on external. Thanks in advance
Josh

ps But please explain wha goes in internal memory vs internal sd

 

[EarlyMon]

Welcome to the forums!

You want to start right from the horse's mouth. Get Terminal Emulator, free in the Play Store and begin by issuing the Linux command to show free space on disk partitions - disk free iow -

df

That will show you what's where, and it's supported on most non-rooted Android devices.

We begin there because thanks to symlinks (symbolic links, Windows has the equivalent as shortcuts) most all top level tools will fool you - the same storage can be pointed to in different, multiple ways.

Later versions of Android have all internal storage the same and pointed to differently. Earlier versions, and I suspect that applies to yours, has a separate /data partition from the internal storage /sdcard partition - and that's what's confusing if my guess is correct.

Post back with what you find out.

Btw - your apps and data will go to /data, the OS and built-in apps are in /system.

 

[Crashdamage]

Let me try to put what Early Mon said in even simpler terms...you may already know, but some other readers of this thread may not.

Internal storage, aka System memory, is where the Android OS is installed, also apps, emails, texts and some other stuff are there.

Internal SD, aka Internal memory, is where user data such as photos, videos, music, documents, misc downloaded stuff (not apps) and some other stuff are there.

External SD is the removable SD card, also intended for user data such as photos, etc.

When you moved apps to SD, you probably moved part of those apps, not entire apps, to your internal SD, not the external SD.

 

[EarlyMon]

Yes, many thanks Crashdamage!

Once upon a time, all system and protected storage was built-in and small - and all user storage was on an SD card - and that was standard for all Android.

Then internal storage got bigger and there was no guarantee that the device would have an actual sd card - so a part of internal storage was given away to be addressed the same as the old memory cards - called /sdcard - so that no apps would break.

Crashdamage - if I'm being obtuse, please help me with my many thanks in advance.

 

[MustangLife]

Thanks guys. So basically from what I've read and programs used I can't really transfer anything to my external SD drive. The only thing I've been able to move to my external sd drive is screenshots from the phone. Regular photos are stored internally somewhere.

With a partition external sd ext 2/4 and fat 32. The ext2/4 is what will be internal memory or internal sd? And fat32 is external sd of course. But which one is?

I'm ready to use MiniTool to do a partition now and Link2SD I guess. Seems what program to use to move apps is very opinionated. Mount2SD or Link2SD or Data2SD

 

[EarlyMon]

Internal sd is just a partition of your internal storage - it's usually all ext, except of course for the physical, separate, external sd card.

You can see the fs types in Terminal Emulator by saying -

mount