Help Virtual SD vs. _external sd?

[John Redcorn]

My wife just got a thrill last week and something I'm not understanding about it.

In the SD and phone storage settings page it shows a "phone storage" of about 5gb with 4gb free.

It shows sd storage as 7.xxgb free (nothing used)

It shows system storage of like 500mb free.


Phone storage? It looks like this is a virtual sd card like a nexus s has.

If I look with a file explorer /mnt/sdcard has a folder inside called _externalsd that I'm guessing is the normal SD card mounted inside /mnt/sdcard. If I click unmount sd I can still see stuff in /mnt/sdcard so it's virtual sd for sure I'm thinking.

What's the reason for this and am I right about what it is?

what's the 500mb free system storage? is that the /data for apps that would be called "internal storage" on any other phone in that settings page?

 

[BigCiX]

External SD - Micro SD
Phone memory - internal sd
System memory - I believe keeps contact numbers and small info stored

 

[illegalblaq]

From my understanding.....

External: Memory Card
Internal: Built in memory for videos, music, etc
System: For apps installed on the phone

From what I understand all the memory on the phone is not available for apps and even phone's with built in memory only have a little over 1gb of storage available for apps. Most people don't notice because android apps take us less data then iphone apps.