HowTo extend HTC Desire internal memory to 2Gb using CyanogenMod 7 and Data2SD
Posted on Sat 13 August 2011 in HowTo
Introduction
Even if it's not a new model, the HTC Desire is still a very good Android device, thanks to its 1Ghz CPU and 512 Mb RAM, but one of the biggest problems of this phone is that it comes with only 148Mb available in the ROM. Once the operating system is installed (ROM I mean), after installing few useful applications you'll end the available space very soon. There are many apps available, like App2SD that move your applications to the SD card, but it's not enough because only the application is moved, not the data. To move the data to the SD card, there is a very nice utility called Data2SD. Please note that this procedure requires you to reflash your device and partition your SD card, so please do a complete backup before proceding.
What you need
- a rooted HTC Desire (you need to have a rooted phone with a recovery already installed)
- a 4Gb (or bigger) microSD, at least class 4 (class 6 is even better while class 10 is reported not working with this phone)
- a microSD card reader
- CyanogenMod 7: http://download.cyanogenmod.com/get/update-cm-7.0.3-Desire-signed.zip
- Data2SD: Data2SDInstallerX1.zip and Data2SDReInstallerX1.zip
- Google Apps: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Latest_Version#Google_Apps
- GParted: you can use the version available on Ubuntu Linux or you can download a live Linux image with GParted installed: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
Backup your data
Before following these instructions, please do a complete backup of your microSD, of your original ROM (using Nandroid or similar) ecc...
Prepare the microSD card
- Open GParted on your Ubuntu Linux or use the GParted Live CD/USB.
- Delete all partitions on this microSD
- Create the first one using FAT32 filesystem, leaving 2Gb (2047Mb) available at the end.
- Create a second partition using ext4 filesystem.
- Confirm your changes
- Copy CyanogenMod7 rom, Data2SD installers and Google Apps on FAT32 partition
CyanogenMod 7 installation
- Reboot your phone into Recovery (turn it off then press volume down + power)
- WIPE all data (userdata, cache ecc...)
- Choose "Install from SD card" and select CyanogenMod7 installation zip
- when finished reboot your phone
- Enter your Wifi settings, language ecc.... DO NOT enter your Google account settings.
- reboot your phone
Data2SD installation
- Boot into Recovery again
- Choose "Install from SD card" and select Data2SDInstallerX1.zip (please note, you may have to turn off the signature verification in Other->Turn off ecc...)
- when finished reboot your phone
- now you should see 1,97Gb if you go in Settings->Storage->Internal Storage->Total space
Google Apps installation
- Reboot your phone into Recovery
- Choose "Install from SD card" and select the Google Apps zip file
- reboot your phone
Conclusion
You now have 1,97Gb total space available instead of 148Mb. Enjoy your HTC Desire!