2

I have messed the ext4 partition resizing it with Gparted, it still works but shows the old size and Link2sd doesn't seem to be able to link all the pieces.

I was wondering if I could backup the content with Titanium or other, format the partition at the correct size with Gparted and then restore the content to the new larger partition.

I know the ext4 cannot be resize but I guess that it can be deleted and created again, what I am not sure if there is something in the current ext data that is dependent on the size of it. I think that is why I should not be doing a backup image directly but instead backup the files individually.

Improve this question
3

Speaking of GParted, I assume you have a Linux computer available. So steps to be performed are quite simple -- speaking of an external SDCard:

  1. Unmount the card from your Android device, and take it out
  2. Put it into a card reader, attach it to your Linux computer. Mount it there.
  3. Copy all contents into an empty directory on your Linux machine. From the command line, you can use the cp command for that to ensure everything is copied: cp -a </path/to/source> </path/to/target> (replace </path/to/source> with where you've mounted the card, and </path/to/target> with your empty directory's path; for details on the cp command, run man cp or see its man-page on the net)
  4. Optional: check that everything was copied fine. If there were no errors displayed in the previous step, it should have worked fine.
  5. If your card has multiple partitions containing data, repeat the previous two steps for each of them.
  6. Use GParted (or whatever tool of your preference) to drop and re-create partitions as needed, and re-create the file systems
  7. Repeat steps 3-5, reverting source and target (to get your data back on the SDCard)
  8. Unmount your SDCard, safely remove it from the computer, put it back into your Android device, and enjoy!
  9. If everything went fine, and all data is available on your device as hoped, optionally remove the "backup directories" created in step 3.

Job done :)

Improve this answer
  • Thanks for the detailed steps, I did the resize with the SD card inside the phone while in recovery mode, but probably it is safer to do it as you said with a card reader. Will find one and try it out. – colonize Jun 3 '13 at 13:03
  • In the end I didn't used the backup, as the current link partition didn't hold all the data I moved the most important apps to the inner memory. Then with phone connected/started I used GParted directly to remove the ext4 partition, and created a new one with the correct size. Reboot phone to detect new partition, launched Link2SD recreated/mount partition and reboot again. Then I could link again all the apps to the new partition with Link2SD correctly. – colonize Jun 4 '13 at 9:11
  • Thanks for the feedback! Technically comparable :) I just a) don't trust doing things like that with the card mounted directly from the device, and b) thought about those having no UMS support anymore :) But glad you've solved your issue! – Izzy♦ Jun 4 '13 at 10:49

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.