There are many storage locations in an Android device (specially in Samsung Galaxy - series)..
Storage Locations which don't require root access:
External SD: If your device supports removable MicroSD card, its mounted on /mnt/sdcard/external_sd
(also hard linked at /sdcard/external_sd
).
Internal SD (also labeled as USB Storage): This is mounted at /mnt/sdcard
(also hard linked at /sdcard
).
You can access File System of device over Wi-Fi. To reach storage locations, just follow the paths. Here, you can write anything without problem, but there may be problem deleting files/directories here due to limited FTP permissions (follow last part of answer to remove this limitation). If you access file systems using USB connection, there shouldn't be any permission problem.
Storage Locations which require root access:
System Storage: Its protected storage of system reserved for apps. e.g. /data
partition.
ROM: Its the storage where firmware files can be located. e.g. /system
partition.
To write here, you do need root access. If your device isn't rooted, you are out of luck. If you are rooted, you can use Root Explorer or ES File Explorer to write anything here. Note: You need to mount some partitions with R/W access to write. e.g. /data
partition is already mounted with R/W access, but /system
and /dbdata
partitions are mounted with R/O access.
Accessing them on PC is somewhat tricky: Use Terminal Emulator to mount the partition with R/W access permanently (if its not). Install a native linux FTP server & execute it under root user. Make sure to configure FTP server for accessing the location you want to access. Done! You can now access this location over wi-fi using any FTP client.
Update:
Its not a concern for questioner, but its worth mentioning: When internal SD is not present, removable MicroSD card might be mounted on /mnt/sdcard
(also hard linked at /sdcard
). And, all these mount points are decided by manufacturers, firmwares and may be different. So, its always better to check with mount
command in Terminal Emulator.