Why
If you are using a Android Phone you probably know how fast things change , how Video’s , music and apps are going to eat up all your memory in just few months . To our surprise a member of XDA forums reported 3.5 GB of memory consumption by apps on his month old EVO . Due to the fact that quality and quantity of apps are improving, we can see apps with higher memory requirements coming up each day on Android Market .The only option you are left with is switching to a higher memory card with both memory and speed .
Choosing a Memory card :
Before we take a look at migration / transferring contents from one memory card to other lets understand what kind of memory card you should buy . Try to purchase a memory card with thrice the capacity of your current memory card , at-least two times the speed of your current memory card and a reliable brand which doesnt cheat you with specs as seen on troubleshooting forums of many products . The speed of memory card is termed as class , as shown in the picture below . A class 2 memory card has a writing speed of maximum 2 MBps , while a class 4 can write at 4MBps as so on .The example below is a Kingston SDHC 8GB Class 10 memory card which write at high speeds of upto 10MBps , though you dont necessarily need a class 10 , with a Android phone. You can use memory cards from class 2- 6 depending upon the performance you require while transferring data to and from card .
Migrating /Moving / cloning data to new memory card – Select your Process >>>
Simple backup for unrooted & unmodded devices :
If you are using an un-rooted , un-modded phone ( without any custom ROM’s ie. using a default HTC sense , Touch Wiz or any any other Stock ROM) , the easiest method to move to another memory card is use a memory card reader or go to Disk Drive mode from device , copy the entire list of files and folders from memory card and paste it to the new memory card before inserting it into the phone with the help of a Card Reader , also rename the new memory card to the same name you have on the old card. If you dont have a card reader you can purchase one at Amazon or any other online store . Then insert the new memory card and power on your device . All your files are safe and as they were .
Caution : Do not clear phone memory .
Advanced backup for custom ROM users :
Coming to a more advanced version of migration where you have a rooted phone with custom ROM , a partitioned memory card with a secondary partition (to help you save space with apps that do not have ‘Move to SD Card ” option because the developer turned lazy while coding or did not update the app for Android 2.2( No A2SD )) and loads of other customizations like battery percent bar , custom icons , boot animation and anything more .
- Install Clockworkmod ROM Manager app if you dont have one included with your ROM or you need the latest version .
- Complete the installation and power off your phone .
- Power on holding Power button + Volume Down button
- Go to recovery mode by using volume down/up as arrow keys , press power button to select it .
- Now go to backup & restore using joystick (which works in recovery mode, so does back button) .
- Select backup and confirm by pressing yes on the next screen , now you will see an android and unpacking logo .
- Wait for backup to finish , once you see Backup completed successfully , you are done with backup .
- Now go back pressing back button and select reboot .
- Let the device restart completely now using Disk drive mode copy the backup file to your computer .(if you are not using partition on old memory card you can skip steps 10-16)
- If you know how to partition a memory with linux based ext3 partition do so from computer and insert your memroy new memory card else follow an easy procedure below
- Copy your ROM zip file ( for example Defrost ) and place it on new memory card root(do not add to any folders) . (The rom is a zip file which you can find here for the devices listed ) – We are doing this because there are no apps on phone memory and the must required apps Android Market and Clockworkmod are no more on your phone when you remove your memory card .
- Flash the ROM zip file (How to flash a ROM ? <<READ HERE)
- Now open ROM manager , scroll down , tap on Partition SD card .
- Enter any size of partition you want to store apps (use 512 of u have a minimum of 8GB card else go for 256MB . (basically only for apps which are meant to be installed on MBphone memory and cache which eats up your memory ).Enter Swap size as 0MB(zero) .Accept permissions and wait for device to reboot and finish the process itself .
- Now reboot the device by going back and selecting the option in the menu .
- Wait for the first boot it may take upto 10 minutes . But if your device gets stuck in a boot loop dont worry you still have the backup to go back where you came from .(In such case you can insert old memory card and restore backup )
- Now after the phone has been restarted , go to disk drive mode and paste the backup in same folder as it was in old memory card (cloclworkmod/backup/10.03.2010.xxxxx) , paste the whole clockworkmod folder to new memory card in root .
- Power off device > Power on holding Power + Volume down > Go to recovery by using volume and select by power button > select backup and restore by joystick or trackpad > tap on restore >select the cloclworkmod folder >navigate to backup then your file and select > accept permission to yes and confirm .
- Wait for restore to finish , check if it displays restore completed successfully .
- Go back using back button and then Reboot .
- The same call log , messages , contacts , apps , each setting on phone , and in app settings , browser histories are intact .
- Feels good but if it isn’t as i said no need to worry . You still have the backup which can be restored on the old memory card .
- Copy the music , picture(DCIM) , video and other personal folders from the old memory to new one by simple copy paste operation .
And you are on a upgraded memory space with the same phone , same files and everything you needed .