How to increase internal memory on stock ROM

[confusednovice]

Hi all!

I have an HTC Desire with android 2.2 on it. I have recently been facing an internal memory shortage. It results in the phone not syncing as well as preventing me from installing other apps that I really need for work. I have moved as many apps as I could to the memory card with Apps2SD, however I am still running low on internal memory. I searched up on how to increase it and from what I understand, that in order to re-partition the internal memory, I would need to install a custom ROM. However, I am uncomfortable with installing another ROM. Is there any way of increasing the size of the internal memory available on the default HTC ROM?

Thanks!

 

[Rockman]

No, only way is to delete stuff from the phone. There is no way to increase the built in memory as it is hardware..

 

[confusednovice]

Ah! I think I should have phrased my question better. What I meant was , is there any way to repartition the internal memory to assign more space for apps,without installing a whole new rom?

 

[Hadron]

Welcome to the forum

Without rooting there is nothing you can do apart from move apps to SD, delete unwanted apps, and clear up app data and caches. That last can make a difference: try looking at your apps (Settings > Applications > All) sorted by data size, and see whether any of them are using excessive data. Browsers can cache a lot of stuff, and social networking apps can be very bad for this. App data live in the same internal storage as apps, so cleaning up some data may free a worthwhile amount of space.

But if you want a more serious solution you'll need to root. If you root you could try partitioning the SD card and using Link2SD (from the Play Store) to move apps to the partition. That might work with the stock ROM after rooting (I say "might" because I've not tried with the unmodified ROM, which doesn't include init.d script support). If you took a recovery backup (aka a nandroid backup) before trying there's be no risk. Otherwise there are ROMs which support this approach which are very similar to the stock ROM.

Actually repartitioning the internal memory, which is the other way of increasing space, will not work with the stock ROM, or indeed any Sense ROM. The way that increases space for apps is by giving less to the system, and the Sense ROMs are too large to gain very much that way. If you were to try an AOSP ROM (Android Open Source Project, i.e. plain android without HTC additions) that method works well though.

What I'd advise, if any of that interests you, is reading up and making sure you understand what's required before doing anything. In the Desire All Things Root forum there's a sticky post, Desire All Things Root Guide, which collects threads with useful information. I'd suggest reading some of the basic information, the rooting guide, and the root memory FAQ, before trying anything. And if you want to do it but are unsure, just ask - there are still a couple of us haunting this section

 

[nicka3200]

GingerWally's ROM is a stripped down version of Stock Sense based on the official gingerbread ipdate. It fits on the Alpharev Data++ partition table but you have quite a few steps to follow to get there. Follow Hadron's advice and read the guides before attempting anything.

 

[confusednovice]

Welcome to the forum

Without rooting there is nothing you can do apart from move apps to SD, delete unwanted apps, and clear up app data and caches. That last can make a difference: try looking at your apps (Settings > Applications > All) sorted by data size, and see whether any of them are using excessive data. Browsers can cache a lot of stuff, and social networking apps can be very bad for this. App data live in the same internal storage as apps, so cleaning up some data may free a worthwhile amount of space.

But if you want a more serious solution you'll need to root. If you root you could try partitioning the SD card and using Link2SD (from the Play Store) to move apps to the partition. That might work with the stock ROM after rooting (I say "might" because I've not tried with the unmodified ROM, which doesn't include init.d script support). If you took a recovery backup (aka a nandroid backup) before trying there's be no risk. Otherwise there are ROMs which support this approach which are very similar to the stock ROM.

Actually repartitioning the internal memory, which is the other way of increasing space, will not work with the stock ROM, or indeed any Sense ROM. The way that increases space for apps is by giving less to the system, and the Sense ROMs are too large to gain very much that way. If you were to try an AOSP ROM (Android Open Source Project, i.e. plain android without HTC additions) that method works well though.

What I'd advise, if any of that interests you, is reading up and making sure you understand what's required before doing anything. In the Desire All Things Root forum there's a sticky post, Desire All Things Root Guide, which collects threads with useful information. I'd suggest reading some of the basic information, the rooting guide, and the root memory FAQ, before trying anything. And if you want to do it but are unsure, just ask - there are still a couple of us haunting this section

Well I have already moved every app that I could, to the SD card, with app2sd. Is it possible to move even more with link2sd?

Are there any custom ROMS that have already increased the internal memory's total size?

 

[Hadron]

Well I have already moved every app that I could, to the SD card, with app2sd. Is it possible to move even more with link2sd?

Yes.

app2sd can move apps if the developer has enabled the option. With Link2SD (or other solutions built in to custom ROMs) you can move all apps, plus the dalvik cache. It works in a different way: a partition on the card is used (rather than a hidden directory in the normal fat32 partition), the apps are moved to the partition and links to them put in the internal storage. So the phone OS doesn't do the moving and to the phone they look like they are still in internal storage.

Are there any custom ROMS that have already increased the internal memory's total size?

There are many that include scripts to do what Link2SD does. So if you partition the card before installing the ROM it will automatically move the apps (or in some cases you type one command on a terminal emulator app to start it up).

There are no ROMs that actually change the internal storage partitions. There are ROMs that can work in a smaller system partition, which then allow you to make more room, but a ROM cannot change the partitioning of the internal storage itself - you need to make that modification at a lower level in the phone (the bootloader), and will generally need to reinstall the ROM after doing that.

 

[confusednovice]

Right! Link2SD sounds like a much easier option than installing another ROM. Can I use link2sd on the 'by default-installed' HTC ROM or do I need to install a custom rom? I have android 2.2.2 running.

 

[Hadron]

Once rooted you can try it and see. I expect it to work when you first run it, not certain whether it will carry on doing so after a reboot (because I'm not sure the stock ROM supports init scripts).

What I'd recommend is after rooting you take a backup from recovery. Then try Link2SD, and check it works OK after a reboot. If it fails, restore the recovery backup (simplest way of pressing reset) and try a custom ROM.

You need to partition the card before Link2sd can work - make sure you back up the whole card first, because partitioning is likely to wipe it. And do not use Minitool Partition Wizard, it does a lousy job of Linux format partitions (ext2/3/4). 4Ext recovery can partition cards, or else GParted is recommended.

 

[confusednovice]

Ok. Thank you so far for answering my questions
Another concern I have that, after having partitioned my SD card, if I do restore the recovery backup, do I need to partition the SD card back to the way it was before link2sd?

 

[Hadron]

No, you don't. If you don't use the partition the card still works, just with less space. But if you then use a custom ROM with an a2sd script (most of them do) then they'll use the partition.

 

[confusednovice]

Right.
So from what I have understood, below are the following steps I should follow -

1) Root my HTC desire - any nice,simple guides?
2) Make a backup of my current stock rom with Nandroid
3) Make a backup of my SD card
4) Make a second fat32,primary partition on my SD card with GParted
5) Install link2sd
6) Use link2sd to move whatever I can from the internal storage to the second fat32,primary partition.

Have I missed out anything?

 

[Hadron]

A good starting place is this thread: http://androidforums.com/desire-all-things-root/503471-desire-all-things-root-guide.html. It has links to 2 rooting guides, plus other useful threads. These days I'd say you may as well use Revolutionary to root rather than the older Unrevoked, unless your phone's software is too old for Revolutionary.

Otherwise what you list seems fine, except with 2 quibbles. First is terminology: you make a nandroid backup using the custom recovery, rather than make a backup using nandroid. The second concerns point 6, where you say that the second partition will also be fat32. Actually Link2SD can use fat32 for this, but no other tool can, so personally I'd suggest using ext3 or ext4 for the partition. This is so that if you later change ROMs to one that already has a2sd built in you don't need to remake that partition for it to work.

 

[confusednovice]

Right. That confuses me a bit.

What's a custom recovery? Is that the software that actually roots my phone?

 

[nicka3200]

Your phone comes with HTC recovery. You can access it via the bootloader (hold vol- & press power) but the stock recovery wont do much other than a factory reset.

A custom recovery will allow you to flash .zip files to update, modify or overwrite your system (HTC Sense) software. It can also make a full (Nandroid) back up which is a snapshot of the entire phone.

You will need to use Revolutionary to S-off your phone then flash a custom recovery via fastboot commands (4EXT Touch recovery is recommended). Once you have a custom recovery you can use it to install the Superuser app on to your system which is the rooting process.

Incidentally 4EXT recovery can also partition your sd card for you. Do not be tempted to use other recoveries or Minitool partition wizard. The only recommended partitioning methods are 4ext or Gparted.