Samsung Galaxy Fit (GT-S5670):Official Upgrade to Gingerbread and Increasing Internal Memory

Ever since I bought my Samsung Galaxy Fit GT-S5670 in March 2011, I just cant stop loving it. Its a great phone, apt to its name - Easily fits in pocket and easy on pocket. I bought it for Rs.10,000 then.

Only two glitchs, I noticed were, the wifi doesnt switch on after 2-3 times of On-Off cycles. I have to restart my phone, before making it work again. It was Ok for me. Secondly, the 160MB internal memory is very less. With all the new upcoming apps, it is far very less.  Though I install most of the apps in my external memory card, there are some apps like Google Voice Search, Maps, Play Store, Gmail which will install only in internal memory and take up most of it. I used to get, "Phone memory is full, free some space by uninstalling some apps" alert almost always. I thought I can do nothing about it, but to buy a new phone. And also, I always wanted to upgrade my phone to latest Android version. But all that was available was unofficial and I didn't want to mess with my phone. For people like me who love their phone and dont want to mess with it, heres a simple easy working solution for the above two problems.

And now for the good news,

Samsung has now released an official upgrade for GT-S5670 to Gingerbread 2.3.6. You can do it using "Samsung Kies". I would suggest to back up (though not needed) your phone data and then reset it to Factory settings by going to Menu à Settings àPrivacy àFactory data reset. You’ll get brand new as bought state of the phone. Beware to back up your data before doing it. Install the "Kies" software from Samsung website on your computer, connect your phone with the USB cable and it will automatically tell that a new firmware has been released, do you want to install it. Just follow the steps. Believe me, its lot faster and has better UI than the old version.

And for the most important thing you wanted on your phone - "Increasing Internal Memory". I have spent few hours over the internet researching on it. There are 'Apps2SD', 'ClearCache', etc which only free few MBs of space, not much. Then there were some File managers which needed to go into the root folder of the phone memory and delete the google apk files and updates, its messy. Others use Odin and involve flashing, etc which if not done properly can brick your phone. After going through all of them, here's what I found. You can increase your phone's internal memory, as easily as installing some app.

I just yelled "Eureka" after I did it. Its a great leap for me from 160MB to 1GB of internal memory without spending a dime. OK, here’s the step by step guide how I did it:.

1.      Root the phone. (Its similar to giving 'Administrative Rights' in Windows PC.)
 Its very easy. Check this link.

http://www.mobilezworld.in/2012/04/tutorial-how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-fit.html When you see "SuperUser" icon in your phone, your phone is 'rooted'

2.      Download ‘Link2SD.apk’ from here
http://dl.apktops.com/app/201208/Link2SD_2.2.1.apk and keep it aside on your PC for time being.

3.      Download 'Minitool Partition Wizard - Home Edition' and install it in your PC. http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition/3000-2094_4-10962200.html

i)                    Connect your SD to the computer via card reader

ii)                  Open ‘Minitool Partition Wizard’ and identify your SD card.

iii)                Right click on it and choose ‘Delete’.--> You’ll see ‘Unallocated Space’.

iv)                Right click on it and click ‘Create’. Then set as follows:
Create As: Primary; File System: FAT32; Decrease ‘Partition Size’ using down arrow, till ‘Unallocated Space After’ shows your needed additional internal memory space. I set it to 1024MB(=1GB), ‘Partition Size’ decides your external memory and ‘Unallocated Space After’ is your added Internal memory. .

v)                  Press OK.

vi)                You’ll see new unallocated space. Right click it and select ‘Create’. When you get the warning about the partition not being able to be used in Windows, click ‘Yes’.

vii)              Set as flows: Create As: Primary; File System: Ext2; Press OK.

viii)            Click ‘Apply’ on the top left of the Minitool window. Click ‘Yes’ and wait a moment.

4.      Copy the ‘Link2SD.apk’ onto your SD card and eject it from PC’s card reader.

5.      Insert the card into your phone and switch it on. Dont install anything now.

6.      Go to ‘My Files’ in your phone, find and install ‘Link2SD’ on your phone.

7.      When prompted, select ‘ext2’.  You’ll get something like ‘Link2SD has been granted Superuser premission’. If you don’t get it, don’t panic. Turn off your phone, switch it on and reapeat Steps 6 and 7.

8.      Click the menu button in Link2SD and choose "Storage Info" you should see three memory spaces. Internal, SD Card, and SD Card 2^nd Part.

9.      Click Menu and go to Settings and choose "Autolink" to automatically link programs (.APK), dalvik cache files (.DEX) and library files (libs) to your SD Card 2^nd  partition when a new program is installed.

From now, on all your installations will be done in the extended 2^nd partion of your SD card.

Update:

I found that even Windows OS can be installed in your Galaxy Fit. As of now, its older versions of Windows. If I get to install Windows 8, that’ll be great. I’ll share it if there’s an easy way.