Missing 35MB of user storage after ROM flash? (Harmonia)

[Ticojpunk]

I posted this question in the Harmonia thread first, but I don't want it to get buried in there and overlooked.

I just flashed Harmonia for the first time the other day onto my Optimus V. And I'm pretty sure I checked my free storage right after the first boot and it said 176MB, just as described in the Harmonia thread.

I had some problems with my Busybox installation, so I wiped everything and flashed Harmonia again. But this time, upon checking my free storage, I found that I only had 141MB free. So there's a missing 35MB somewhere. For kicks, I flashed a third time, but it was the same as the 2nd time, 141MB free.

I'm not sure where the 35MB could have gone, or if there's any way to retrieve it. When wiping before any flash I've been wiping the Dalvik Cache, the Cache, and doing the system reset, all from CWM recovery.

Any ideas how to reclaim my space? Perhaps some backup files got dumped onto my user storage? I have ES File Explorer, not sure if that will let me browse to the proper place to look for un-needed files.

 

[zedorda]

I had a similar issue early on when I started messing with custom recoverys and ROMs. At the time Obijohn had in the Bumblebee thread this flashable wiping file because some of the recoverys did not do full wipes completely leaving some things behind and borking some people's phones. Not sure if this is what ur experiencing but they may help but will require u to reflash everything.

Debug_wiper_1.3.zip - Will wipe most everything along with trying to wipe the sd-ext but not the FAT-32 sd card partition. So everything u have on ur sdcard is ok but everything the ROM may of put on the sd-ext may get wiped.

Debug-FormatSYSTEM.zip - Will wipe the /system this is good for the times when ur just upgrading with the same ROM just a new version.

I flash one or both of the files after I do the recovery's wipe option.

I take no credit for these I know I got the Debug_wiper from Obijohn's thread but the FormatSYSTEM one I am not completely sure it has been awhile but I know it was from android central so I hope it is ok to post them here.

 

[Ticojpunk]

Thanks for the info. Out of curiosity I just flashed Bumblebee, and to my surprise, the full 176mb advertised was available after flashing. It seems only Harmonia is "losing" this 35mb. Bumblebee seems to have no problem claiming it.

I'm only days into this whole rooting and custom rom thing, so I haven't a clue what's happening. For the time being I think I'll just use Bumblebee for a while, as that 35mb is precious on a phone like the OV.

Thanks again.

 

[zedorda]

There are ways to increase ur internal storage.




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[Ticojpunk]

There are ways to increase ur internal storage.




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Right.

But I'm talking about a 35MB chunk that has gone missing from available memory in a freshly flashed ROM.

 

[LeslieAnn]

Right.

But I'm talking about a 35MB chunk that has gone missing from available memory in a freshly flashed ROM.

Most likely something didn't get wiped that should have.

 

[Ticojpunk]

Most likely something didn't get wiped that should have.

Not sure what else could have been missed (though I'm new at this). I wiped cache, dalvik cache, and did factory reset. And actually tried 3 times. All 3 times I had 142MB free on first boot.

Then when I flashed Bumblebee, I had 176MB. That I did NOT expect, I was sure no matter what I flashed whatever was taking up that 35MB would still me taking it up. I'll try to flash Harmonia again in a few days after I get settled in with Bumblebee. I'm curious to see if the 35MB goes missing again!

 

[Ticojpunk]

I know at least one other person has come across the "bug" (if we can call it that). Anyone else encounter this? I'd love to figure this one out.

 

[DF3]

I have encountered problems of internal space suddenly disappearing when I tried restoring a nandroid back. I was on CWM recovery, but when I tried Xiona I got back my internal storage space. You might want to give Xiona a shot to see if it works for you.

 

[Ticojpunk]

Thanks for the suggestion. Are there any downsides to Xionia Recovery, or incompatibilities with certain ROMs?

 

[vee]

Said it to you I believe in another thread..go to mounts and wipe system and boot. Cache, data, dalvik. You need to wipe everythin when flashing new roms, just because they work properly doesn't always mean its working properly.

 

[jdcnosse]

I've got the same issue.

I've posted in the Harmonia thread here: http://forums.androidcentral.com/op...ticks-10aug11-edify-fixed-96.html#post1202283

but basically I have used Xionia, Thunderc, CWM, and IHO recoveries to flash Harmonia 1.5 and I go through and wipe all the data/factory reset under recovery, then wipe the cache, then wipe the dalvik, then I go through and format each partition, and then after that I use obijohn's wiper that he includes with the bumblebee ROM: http://forums.androidcentral.com/op...nel-bumblebee-2-4-6-25-2011-a.html#post844290.

On top of that, before I flashed the different recoveries (starting with CWM, then IHO, then Xionia, and finally Thunderc) I flashed 3 different ROMs (Bumblebee, Backside IHO, and Harmonia 2.0 GB beta). Backside and Harmonia 2.0 both state I have 179MB total space, and 172-175MB free space just after installation. Bumblebee states 176MB free after installation.

Harmonia 1.5 still says 142MB free after installation. I'm going to try and flash/wipe through ADB, but otherwise I've done everything I can think of to try and get those missing MBs but I haven't been successful yet.

 

[LeslieAnn]

Can some of you who have done a lot of experimented with this, such as Jdcnosse, try flashing the older 1.3/1.3.1 (or whatever) version and see what you get?

Just trying to figure out some consistencies here.

To use 1.3 you will need Xionia, but it is essentially the same, just the installer is different. Which makes me think maybe Busybox is having an issue, but it doesn't seem that way and 30 megs is a lot to account for from a program only a few megs in size,

 

[jdcnosse]

Can some of you who have done a lot of experimented with this, such as Jdcnosse, try flashing the older 1.3/1.3.1 (or whatever) version and see what you get?

Just trying to figure out some consistencies here.

To use 1.3 you will need Xionia, but it is essentially the same, just the installer is different. Which makes me think maybe Busybox is having an issue, but it doesn't seem that way and 30 megs is a lot to account for from a program only a few megs in size,

Yup, I'm actually just finishing up the suggestion left by bigsupersquid here using cat to fill the system and data partitions with zeros to try and get a clean slate...but sadly nope. that didn't work. Guess I'll flash Xionia again to flash some of the older builds.

EDIT: I flashed 1.3 and then the 1.3.1 patch, both of them report 176MB of free space after installation so the problem must be somewhere within 1.5, since 2.0 doesn't have this problem. I'd almost say don't worry about it. lol I mean besides from the fact that 30MB of usable space just disappeared, the ROM works, and works well.

 

[LeslieAnn]

Yup, I'm actually just finishing up the suggestion left by bigsupersquid here using cat to fill the system and data partitions with zeros to try and get a clean slate...but sadly nope. that didn't work. Guess I'll flash Xionia again to flash some of the older builds.

EDIT: I flashed 1.3 and then the 1.3.1 patch, both of them report 176MB of free space after installation so the problem must be somewhere within 1.5, since 2.0 doesn't have this problem. I'd almost say don't worry about it. lol I mean besides from the fact that 30MB of usable space just disappeared, the ROM works, and works well.

Strange, once I get done with 2.0 b2 I'll look into the installer and see if I can find the problem. Probably something not formatting or something.

Thanks.

 

[jdcnosse]

Strange, once I get done with 2.0 b2 I'll look into the installer and see if I can find the problem. Probably something not formatting or something.

Thanks.

No problem. As someone said on here, how will I know which ROMs I like until I try them...and I had a ton of free time on my hands. lol

Strange thing though...I'm able to get the new market on 1.3.1. I assume this is normal however.

 

[LeslieAnn]

1.3.1 had the new market installed, though that exact one has been superseded, probably due to problems with it, which 1.3.1 had, which is why 1.5 didn't have it.


Unfortunately, tonight my server decided it wanted to take a vacation from working. I almost took a vacation as well... With a hammer.

 

[newtechie]

I encountered the same issue, only 141 MB available after flash the ROM.

 

[jdcnosse]

To help figure out where this missing storage is going I went on a little photoshoot.

I flashed both 1.5 and 1.3 and took screenshots of what was using up the space on my phone. Both ROMs had only Screenshot and DiskUsage installed on top of the base ROM. The only difference between the two was I flashed 1.5 with IHO Recovery and 1.3 with Xionia CWMA (as I forgot 1.3 uses the old scripting and can't be flashed by the newer Edify only recoveries)

I also decided to take a screenshot of the "App Storage" option (shows how much space each app takes up)

Here's the Harmonia 1.5 screenshots: Picasa Web Albums - James Cnossen - Harmonia 1.5 ...

and here's the Harmonia 1.3 screenshots:
Picasa Web Albums - James Cnossen - Harmonia 1.3 ...

I'm going to go through them now to see if I spot anything, but if anyone would like to take a closer look feel free.

EDIT: Just from first glance, it almost looks as if how things are arranged in 1.5 compared to 1.3 that is the cause.

For example:
There is a folder called "dalvik-cache" inside the cache folder on 1.3, but in 1.5 it is inside data (however there is a /data/dalvik-cache folder that is listed to have 110.1 MiB inside data...but 1.3 and 1.5 both list data has having 178.9MiB total space)

Also, in Harmonia 1.5, the "App Storage" option lists only 178.9MiB for apps, but in 1.3 this same option lists 195.3MiB.

I'm not entirely sure why these two things are like this, But I'm sure this info might be of use to LeslieAnn (unless she already knows all about this) considering she's the one who made the ROM. But my guess is it's how things get installed in 1.5 vs 1.3 that is the cause of this loss of MBs.

 

[Ticojpunk]

I noticed this in the Harmonia ROM description from it's thread...

"Mvdalvik, this gives you 175megs of storage space (about 40 more than previously available)".


"about 40" is what's missing. Could this have anything to do with anything, or just a coincidence?

What was the scenario before this one that took up an extra 40MB?