# How to format the SD card storage partition



## Izord (Dec 22, 2011)

Using the latest Axiom ROM I ran into a problem where I can't download into the 'Download' folder of the SD card. It's the default location for the stock browser to download into.
I can pick the save location easily with the opera browser, but don't know how with the stock browser.

Anyway it seems that somehow with the last Axiom flash a new folder also named "Download" was created on my SD card.

One is spelled 'download' and one is spelled 'Download'. One is empty and one has weird contents that isn't readable by most file file managers. That one is actually my original one.

I can't delete either one, and I can't download programs into 'download' from the stock Browser.

So I want to format my SD card partition.

I tried Clockwork partition SD card. and it didn't work.

I tried resetting all user data from within the Android OS and it didn't do anything to the SD card partition either.

I'm looking for the ADB command to do it.

I found a command to do it on the Hero, G2 touch. It's :

First, on your phone, go into Home -> Settings -> SD card & phone storage, then click on "Unmount SD card"
Then, in your shell, do the following.

Code:
adb shell
mkfs.vfat /dev/block//vold/179:1

Looking for a similar command for the Galaxy Nexus. Thanks.


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## nobnoobody (Aug 10, 2011)

What? There's no SD card in the Galaxy Nexus. Also, the FS is case insensitive, there's no way you can have both "Download" and "download".


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## Izord (Dec 22, 2011)

nobnoobody said:


> What? There's no SD card in the Galaxy Nexus. Also, the FS is case insensitive, there's no way you can have both "Download" and "download".


I know there's not a physical SD card. How do you format the SD card partition data.

I did have both a 'Download' and a 'download' and it was preventing me from saving into 'Download'. I did manage to delete both with Root Explorer and reboot and my original, contents intact 'Download' appeared and I was able to save into it.

How to format the SD card partition?


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## nobnoobody (Aug 10, 2011)

Izord said:


> I know there's not a physical SD card. How do you format the SD card partition data.
> 
> I did have both a 'Download' and a 'download' and it was preventing me from saving into 'Download'. I did manage to delete both with Root Explorer and reboot and my original, contents intact 'Download' appeared and I was able to save into it.
> 
> How to format the SD card partition?


Oh, it's not a partition, that's my point. That would defeat the purpose of the large storage area and it if were a partition, you could have block-level access and thus you could have mass storage access.

Anyway, you just delete the contents of /sdcard/. Like I said and you acknowledge, there is no partition.

Cheers.


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## aquariumdrinker (Jul 23, 2011)

I just dealt with something similar on AOKP milestone 3.

Viewing /sdcard/ in Root Explorer, I had "Download" and "download" and "DCIM" and "dcim". The contents of the directory pairs were not the same. Viewing the files in Windows, I was only able to see the versions with the capital letters. Gallery was able to read filenames from DCIM, but not able to create thumbnails or display a selected picture (I just got the spinning circles).

After deleting both "DCIM" and "dcim", I took a picture with the camera. This resulted in /sdcard/DCIM being created. Then opened Picsay, opened an image file for editing, and then clicked "Export". Picsay's default export path is /sdcard/dcim/camera/. Exporting created a separate directory, /sdcard/dcim. I imagine something similar is happening with "Download" and "download" (one program creating one, another program creating the other). For now, however, Gallery is showing me images from "dcim" and "DCIM" as though they were in a single directory.


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## kauthor47 (Jun 7, 2011)

If you do 'fastboot -w' while in fastboot mode, that will erase every partition as part of its run, sd space included.

Alternatively, if you're looking for actual info on it, if you type 'mount' into an adb shell, you'll see that */dev/fuse* is given the address */mnt/sdcard*, so there's your virtual SD card space.

edit: in most Linux builds, the partitions are controlled by a file called */etc/fstab*. In Android, this file doesn't exist directly, but instead the partitions are [IIRC] built from *init.rc* within the ramdisk, which is in your boot.img file.


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