Partitioning SD Card And Set As Default Install Location On Android Device

No doubt. An android device with a low application memory would be somehow unfriendly to use because of the inability to install enough and bigger apps on it.

Also, owing to the low application memory, such phone operation would be very sluggish however, if any such android device could be rooted, there is a big possibility that you can have space as much as you might want partitioned ONLY for your applications thereby increasing the space obtainable for each application and enhancing the phone's performances and operations.

How Does it Work?

Obviously, you can't increase the internal memory of any android device but the good news is, you can partition your SD Card and have the phone use the partitioned space for apps installations.
By so doing, you can install as many applications and games as you may want on the phone and also; enhance the phone's performance.

To achieve these goals, there are just two (2) necessities that you must have made ready for/on the phone and they are;
1- You must have rooted your android device;
2- You must have Link2SD application installed on the phone.

Rooting Android Device

Rooting android devices has become a very common and usual process these days and as a result of this, you can easily find the tutorials and guides for rooting virtually all android devices on the internet.
You may check the tutorials here for guides on how to root most android devices.

Once you have successfully rooted your android device, you are good to proceed to the next step, Link2SD, which is where the actual trick is being done and applied.

How Link2SD Works
Link2SD is an android application downloadable from the Google PlayStore or wherever available on the internet. Link2SD works best on android devices with root privileges thus; rooted android devices.

The major purpose of the Link2SD application is that it helps install all the games and applications (except system apps that have to remain on the phone memory) on SD card’s second partition which you may have created by linking them to this SD Card's second partition.

Now, Partitioning your SD Card
You can create the second partition on your SD Card in just two ways, at least; as known to me.
1- The ClockWorkMod Recovery (or, most custom recovery) method,
2- MiniTool method (requires your PC)

How to Partition your SD Card using CWM Recovery
1- Boot the phone into the recovery mode using the key combinations or by using command lines. You must use a phone that has custom recovery installed. It could the same with which you will be using the SD Card or another phone; we just need ClockWorkMod recovery to carry-out the process.

2- Now, go to the Advanced Menu from CWM recovery options.

3- Go to Partition SD card option. Select EXT2 and 512 MB or 1024 MB depending on the size of your installed SD Card and how much space you want partitioned for your application.

4- Select your swap size and then; wait for the partitioning process to begin. It may take a while. Just excersice patient until the process is complete.

Once the partitioning process is complete, you can simply reboot your phone.

Partitioning Your SD Card Using MiniTool
In the case that ClockWorkMod recovery is not available for you or that you can't find the partioning option in your ClockWorkMod recovery, you may use this alternative method to partition your SD Card.

First you have to download Mini Tool Partition Wizard Manager. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition from here.

Starting the Partitioning Process
1- Insert your SD Card into a card reader and connect it to your computer (Windows).
2- Open the MiniTool program on your PC. If not already installed, you can download the MiniTool application from the link above and then; install it.
3- Locate your SD Card from the list of the available storage being displayed by the MiniTool program.
4- Select your SD Card, right-click and select "Delete".
5- Now, right-click the same SD Card again and select "Create". Take this as your Primary Drive and select FAT as your file system type (FAT32 if the size is more than 2GB).
Remember to leave some space to serve as your second partition e.g 512mb, 1024mb etc.
6- Now, select the unallocated partition and use the whole of the remaining space for this (it would be your second EXT partition). Choose Primary Drive and EXT2 as the file system for this.

Now, click OK and then click the Apply button from the top left of the window. It might take some time for the operation to finish.

Congratulations! Now that your SD Card has been configured, all you have to do now is to configure Link2SD to connect to this second partition and link most of your apps apps and games.

Configuring Link2SD
1- Open Link2SD application on your android device (download it from Google Playstore if not installed yet).
2- Grant Link2SD root access (if your phone is rooted and that that was the first time you would open Link2SD on the phone). Remeber, your phone must be rooted to properly use Link2SD.
3- Link2SD asks for the partition you wish to use as your second partition. Here, simply select "EXT2"
4- Wait few minutes for Link2SD to complete the configuration then, restart your phone or wait for it to be restarted.
5- Now, open Link2SD again choose "OK" on the dialogue box that shows up. You can now configure Link2SD to using your "EXT2" as your default install location and automatically linking all apps and games to be installed on phone to the same partition.

Remember that you can also move the already installed applications to this new partition.
With this successfully done, you will never have to worry about the low-storage of your android device again.

CAUTIONS AND NOTICES
1- Make sure that you backup all the content of your SD Card before you begin that partitioning at all.
2- Do have it in mind that you will loose (or have them broken) all the apps moved/linked to the second "EXT2" partition if you remove the SD Card from the phone.