Need some advice - Formatting/Re-installing

[sghere]

Hello!

I guess I need some expert advice here. My Droid has become increasingly slower due to multiple ROM's I've installed. I noticed that when you uninstall an application, the directories and misc. files are left behind on the SD card.

Is there a way to format the SD card and phone then re-install everything, or do you have to leave certain directories/files in place?

Not sure if normal wear-n-tear is making the phone slow, if it's the new 2.1 release or what. I do have quite a few apps installed, but don't use all the time. I reboot the phone a few times a day (battery pull) and that helps...but just sitting there it will start lagging. When going in and out of a program, it could take 5-10 seconds before the home screen populates.

I'm not using any Live Wallpapers...just a plain black background. Nothing running and it constantly shows 50-60mb free in memory. I am running SetCPU overclocking it to 1Ghz...but that's it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Shayne

 

[UBRocked]

This should be in the rooting forum...can a mod move this please? (you'll get more help in there anyway for this type of issue).

Having said that...here are a couple of observations:

1) Unless your using apps2sd, you should not see performance issues due to your sd card. Save data is sometimes stored on the sd card but not any of the system files.

2) What recovery are you using (SPRecovery or Clockwork)? You might want to back everything up (if you haven't bought Titanium Backup...you should) and then wipe and start fresh with a clean copy of your ROM. Before you do that, you should format your SYSTEM, DATA, CACHE, and BOOT partitions.

To do this in Clockwork...it's easy cause when you boot into recovery, the partition menu has all of these commands (format DATA, format SYSTEM, etc.) in there for you to use.


If you are using SPRecovery, you need to know ADB and have your phone configured to use ADB...if not, check out this link...it will hook you up (just the parts for the SDK tools). http://androidforums.com/all-things-root-droid/45764-guide-s-everything-root-related.html

The code for formatting those partitions will look like this (with your phone booted into recovery)

adb shell
# format DATA:
# format SYSTEM:
# format CACHE:
# format BOOT:

Note: You HAVE TO use the caps for the partition names or it wont work.

Now you can install a new rom or even backup your old one (I'd start fresh...just my 2 cents).


Anyway, doing this will clear out some of the junk that gets left behind after installing different ROMs (especially if you don't wipe data before each new ROM).

I go through this procedure before installing any new ROM...even an upgrade. I don't have any of the problems that most people seem to have...and I think this is the reason.

 

[shadowdude777]

It's good practice to wipe /boot, /system (important), /data, and /cache before making a major change in ROM. Generally it's okay not to wipe anything when you go from say CyanogenMod 5.0.5.5 to 5.0.5.6 or 5.0.5.7, but from 5.0.5.7 to 5.0.6.2 (fairly major changes) or even more importantly, from different ROMs like CyanogenMod x.x.x.x to Bugless Beast x.x. You really should wipe all 4 of those before switching ROMs.

In ClockworkMod you can do this in the Partitions menu. I don't know how to do this in SPRecovery. Frankly, who cares about SPRecovery anymore? It's dead as DroidMod.

 

[sghere]

Thank you for such a detailed explaination!!

I'll give what you advised a shot. I'm running Clockwork (just downloaded it yesterday), so hopefully it'll go smooth.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

Shayne