Develop Bugs

Sd card upgrade problem

So I recently ordered a 16 GB micro sd card off Amazon since I've been using my MT4G for music and leaving my ipod at home, and wanted to bump up my capacity. Anyway, it's a Patriot Class 4 card, and I'm having some trouble. I inserted it into the phone, and selected 'format sd card' from settings, did it, but when I mounted sd card via usb to transfer files, it was going SO SLOW. Like, 50 minutes to transfer 200 MB or so. So...my question is, is there something I'm supposed to have done and didn't do? Or is it a bad card, or what? Because my 8 GB stock card was only class 4, and was MUCH faster.
Thanks for any insight!

Try using windows to format it using the default allocation size. I have seen some talk in the "32gig class 10" thread that doing this really sped up the transfer speeds of the cards over what you get when letting the phone format it.
Good luck.

rrrjr said:
Try using windows to format it using the default allocation size. I have seen some talk in the "32gig class 10" thread that doing this really sped up the transfer speeds of the cards over what you get when letting the phone format it.
Good luck.
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Thanks for the help. I'm really unsure about what to do, been searching and can't really figure out if the card is bad or if I haven't formatted it correctly. Unfortunately, I'm on a macbook, so don't use Windows. Usually, there is a mac equivalent for anything windows can do, so I'll see what my options are. It's just driving me crazy, because it'll take DAYS to transfer all my music lol. Not sure why no one else has jumped in to help me out. Either no one knows anything about it, or it's such an obvious answer that I'm embarrassing myself. Either way, I'd love to hear which it is so I know how f-ed I am.

sunsean said:
Thanks for the help. I'm really unsure about what to do, been searching and can't really figure out if the card is bad or if I haven't formatted it correctly. Unfortunately, I'm on a macbook, so don't use Windows. Usually, there is a mac equivalent for anything windows can do, so I'll see what my options are. It's just driving me crazy, because it'll take DAYS to transfer all my music lol. Not sure why no one else has jumped in to help me out. Either no one knows anything about it, or it's such an obvious answer that I'm embarrassing myself. Either way, I'd love to hear which it is so I know how f-ed I am.
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try doing a full format instead of a quick format with windows.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00413PF6G
I ordered that card last week and had the same issue you had. Max of like 2mbs transfer whether I mounted it through the MyTouch 4G USB, Included adapter or my USB card reader. I tried the panasonic formatting tool and half the time it would kill my card reader or just fail. Messed with it for like 4 days and couldn't find anything that helped. Must be a incompatibility, It was returned and I just received a Transcend 16gb Class 4. Transfer average 4-6mb depending if it's a large file or tons of smaller files.

sunsean said:
So I recently ordered a 16 GB micro sd card off Amazon since I've been using my MT4G for music and leaving my ipod at home, and wanted to bump up my capacity. Anyway, it's a Patriot Class 4 card, and I'm having some trouble. I inserted it into the phone, and selected 'format sd card' from settings, did it, but when I mounted sd card via usb to transfer files, it was going SO SLOW. Like, 50 minutes to transfer 200 MB or so. So...my question is, is there something I'm supposed to have done and didn't do? Or is it a bad card, or what? Because my 8 GB stock card was only class 4, and was MUCH faster.
Thanks for any insight!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done alot of testing for sd cards and android because i had similar issues with my patriot SD card and I've found that a 32K cluster sizes gives great speeds. Only time you really need smaller is if u are using a actual hard disk or if your average file size are around 3-10 Kb but with mp3 and most other files being around 3-10Mb you lose alot of and speed as a result of having smaller clusters.
Now say u use maverick maps and have cached over several million tiles all of which are 1kb each then use a smaller cluster size to save space or those millions of 1k tiles could fill a entire 8 gig card as opposed to actual size of 700Mb but it will take a horrendously long time to transfer to those card. so its a trade off.
So bottom line use a 32k allocation table. It will give you good optimization of space and speed.

I have also found that formatting the sd card with the phone rather than with my mac also causes slow transfer rates so I format all my sd cards on my mac (or pc) before putting them in my phone. Transfer rates are much quicker that way.

I have Kingston 16gb class 10 and I would only average 1-2mb/s when copying files over.
I reformatted in via Windows to a few different cluster sizes and did some testing with my phone.
For my usage I went with a 64k cluster size. My copy speeds to the card average 13mb/s. I don't really store small files on the card so I'm not worried about excessive space use right now.

[Q] InsertCoin MAX size for ext?

Hello !
Sry for posting this here.. I'm still too new to post on dev threads =(
It's a question for ppl who use InsertCoin..
I got a 16gB microSD yesterday, so I want partition it for more ext..
But I saw this.. www[dot]miui-au[dot]com/faq/a2sd
If you go over 2Gb you may experience SD Card corruption and the Market will not operate properly!
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And I saw somebody saying that the maximum ext that I should get is 1.5 gB at InsertCoin's main thread.. I'm not sure.. (I couldn't find that post anymore =\)
Does anyone know if there's a limit for MAX EXT using InsertCoin?
Thanks a lot !

ercliou said:
Hello !
Sry for posting this here.. I'm still too new to post on dev threads =(
It's a question for ppl who use InsertCoin..
I got a 16gB microSD yesterday, so I want partition it for more ext..
But I saw this.. www[dot]miui-au[dot]com/faq/a2sd
And I saw somebody saying that the maximum ext that I should get is 1.5 gB at InsertCoin's main thread.. I'm not sure.. (I couldn't find that post anymore =\)
Does anyone know if there's a limit for MAX EXT using InsertCoin?
Thanks a lot !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1GB ext is enough mate
Tried and tested

vashishtuday said:
1GB ext is enough mate
Tried and tested
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Click to collapse
I concur, more than that is a waste of space and decreases the r/w speed.

1 GB is recommended, in my case i use 2GB as i need space to sync my emails and other data. As rightly mentioned by paul.c more the space the more the time it takes to read and write and eventually the performance decreases. It also depends on what type of sdcard you are using, like class4, class 5 and so on.......

I had 1GB but wasn't enough 2GB will have a lot of problems, 1,4-1,5GB is max I recommend you for insertcoin.. I don't have any problems , 1.43GB ext

paul.c said:
I concur, more than that is a waste of space and decreases the r/w speed.
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Sry for my noobility.. but why is that?
I mean.. flash memory allows random access, so why does it decreases r/w speed?

TopGear63z said:
I had 1GB but wasn't enough 2GB will have a lot of problems, 1,4-1,5GB is max I recommend you for insertcoin.. I don't have any problems , 1.43GB ext
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Thanks for your reply..
Could you point out what are the problems with 2GB ext?
And why do they happen?
Thanks !

I don't know why but Insertcoin became laggy as hell, never thought a class 6 16GB msd from Kingston could be the problem, but when i partioned it again i did just a little bit more than I had on my 8GB 1,3GB< and it helped a lot, Insertcoin is now working flawless.
Also another thing, idk if that's what they mean with sd card corruption but i could not move (almost) any files to my sd anymore since 2GB Ext. Got the whole time an error from windows, But why idk You should ask an expert I just don't recommend it

ercliou said:
Sry for my noobility.. but why is that?
I mean.. flash memory allows random access, so why does it decreases r/w speed?
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Click to collapse
Ok, here is some geek talk!
EXT is really really slow! Why, becose its on your SD card, most SD cards used in phones are Class 2 cards, they have a read/write speed of 2MBs....
Your phones internal RAM/ROM have read speeds upto 1500MB/S and write speeds of about 500MB/S (depending on what type of chips used, PC RAM is much faster)
As you can see, there is a bit of a speed difference, even a Class 10 card is slow at 10MB/s
Also the SD card speeds are restricted by default, so if you are running a Class 2 card i would say you get about 1MB/s Read/Write speed (unless you use a SD card booster)
So the bigger the EXT, the slower the software is because it will take longer to read all the information, at 2GB of EXT (2048MB) takes the phone a long time to read going at less then 2MB/S on a class 2 card

[Q] Quick question on stock sd card size

Hi Guys,
I am having a problem loading some of the new 3.0 roms that are out now...and I was wondering if this might be the issue.
I have the stock SDCARD that came with my evo4g (8gb)...but when I insert it into a card holder in my PC, it only comes up as 5.67gb total. Even when I try to format it...it only says 5.67gb.
Is that normal?
Thanks!

The biggest problem with our SD cards is the type of card it is. our "class" is really low. they SHOULD have put real cards in our phones like class 10. I personally did test both on read and write speeds while in the phone and the class 10 was MUCH faster than the stock. get a 16GB.. btw, it'll never reach 8gb, or 16gb. it'll always be less.

runcool said:
The biggest problem with our SD cards is the type of card it is. our "class" is really low. they SHOULD have put real cards in our phones like class 10. I personally did test both on read and write speeds while in the phone and the class 10 was MUCH faster than the stock. get a 16GB.. btw, it'll never reach 8gb, or 16gb. it'll always be less.
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Yes, I understand all that...class, etc...and I know that after formatting it will not be 8gb due to 1024 equals 1gb...but 8gb down to 5.67gb? That seems a little low right?

no. because as soon as you format it and put it back onto the evo... it re-adds its stuff to the sdcard. and also.... the math isn't right. you forgot about the partition table which takes even more away. Depending on how you format it if it is fat32, NTFS, WinFS*I REALLY WISH MICROSOFT WOULD DO THIS! LOL* well, the size of the disk will change. well, I mean the amount you can use. oh and also the unit size can change it.

Do you have an ext partition on the card (for apps2sd)? That's the most likely place the extra space would go. The space you're seeing reported in Windows is the FAT32 partition.
If you don't think you have one, have you ever had one? If you thought you had gotten rid of it, it's also possible you didn't really get rid of it, depending on what you did. Just reformatting it in Windows won't get rid of it.
An 8GB (marketing) card will normally have about 7.45 GB of actual space. So you're missing roughly 1.75 GB.

[Q] swap partition on eeprom

Can I use a part of the 1.5gb of rom in the desire z/ G2 to make a swap partition?!
It's dangerous to the eeprom life?
Performance would be much better than microSD I think..

nagash91 said:
Can I use a part of the 1.5gb of rom in the desire z/ G2 to make a swap partition?!
It's dangerous to the eeprom life?
Performance would be much better than microSD I think..
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Click to collapse
As far as I know such a thing does not exist, though like you suggested it may be dangerous due to data corruption (though if properly partitioned you can fix it)
On the other hand using microSD for swap has been nothing but good for me, it has significantly improved speed, cause it is only a couple hundred Mbs of data on the swap partition so it can transfer quickly and smoothly, also it's only used when absolutely necessary.
What class microSD do you have?

noneabove said:
As far as I know such a thing does not exist, though like you suggested it may be dangerous due to data corruption (though if properly partitioned you can fix it)
On the other hand using microSD for swap has been nothing but good for me, it has significantly improved speed, cause it is only a couple hundred Mbs of data on the swap partition so it can transfer quickly and smoothly, also it's only used when absolutely necessary.
What class microSD do you have?
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Click to collapse
I have class 6 microSD, but I think it's fake (trasfering speed is 2 - 3 mbps).
I think that the most important propriety for a good swap is the access time.. but the problem is that I can't find a site where I can see the access time of microSD tested by someone.
I want to buy a 32gb microSD class 10 or class 6, but if I can't find the access time..
I find that mustang and samsung microSD class 10 are cheap..
BTW I would love to know if I can make the swap file in /data or in /temp.
Access time in ROM is a lot faster that in microSD.
I don't think that rom can be damaged by a lot of writing, so why I can't use that support for swap. It would not faster as RAM, but absolutely faster than microSD class 10.
PS: I tried to make swap file on microSD with swapper2 and cyanomod 7.1. I get an error on swapon.. does cyanomod kernel support swap!? Thanks

nagash91 said:
I have class 6 microSD, but I think it's fake (trasfering speed is 2 - 3 mbps).
I think that the most important propriety for a good swap is the access time.. but the problem is that I can't find a site where I can see the access time of microSD tested by someone.
I want to buy a 32gb microSD class 10 or class 6, but if I can't find the access time..
I find that mustang and samsung microSD class 10 are cheap..
BTW I would love to know if I can make the swap file in /data or in /temp.
Access time in ROM is a lot faster that in microSD.
I don't think that rom can be damaged by a lot of writing, so why I can't use that support for swap. It would not faster as RAM, but absolutely faster than microSD class 10.
PS: I tried to make swap file on microSD with swapper2 and cyanomod 7.1. I get an error on swapon.. does cyanomod kernel support swap!? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should but for the life of me I have no idea why, I'm assuming you were just testing it out but if not, swap is NOT needed for most AOSP ROMs and could in fact slow down your phone and kill your battery.
Also swapper is not the most recommended way of doing it as if something gets corrupted there goes your whole SD Card.. :/ safer to make a partition on it.
As for speeds, the speed from the phone to the SD Card compared to the SD Card to the computer (through the phone/data cable) will vary significantly, and so will read/write times. For me through my phone I can read at around 15 Mb/s (class 10) and write at 3 Mb/s, but if I take it out and put it in a Micro SD Card converter then I can write at speeds of at least 10 Mb/s.
As for access time.. If I'm not mistaken, after RAM, SD storage is one of the fastest digital reading and writing in terms of access time. I have noticed no discrepancies in speed where it would have to read or write to my SD Card's swap so I think that'll be okay.
As for finding out if the ROM can be used... Quite frankly, not a clue, but I would tread lightly there if you want to start experimenting

i am thinking about the same question... Maybe it 's to be safe to use your sd card and make a swap partition. However i am on miui which doesn't require a swap so i don't have to use a swap partition. And the sense 3.5 and 3.0 are to slow and to heavy for me for the old desire z with a such amount of ram memory ..

[Q]Any way to swap external memory to internal?

Hey guys
Im looking for a mod to swap my 64gb microsd to internal memory.
Is there any way to do this?
I've tried existing mods and app but nothings happened.
Thanks for guiding me.
sent by myself without help )

arses said:
Hey guys
Im looking for a mod to swap my 64gb microsd to internal memory.
Is there any way to do this?
I've tried existing mods and app but nothings happened.
Thanks for guiding me.
sent by myself without help )
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Click to collapse
why don't you use folder mount? is an amazing app!

Why???
I just don't understand why anyone in their right mind would want to swap fast internal memory for slow external memory.
External memory will always be slower than internal. I have over 300 apps and half of my internal storage space. As for my 64gb sd card, I have 54 gb used in mp3 The rest is for uploading movies and photos.
No issues with app speeds and video and audio playback.

Well gooberdude, it is possible to get pretty darn quick UHS-I cards now. With a USB 3 port and adapter, mine is darn fast for like $25 off Amazon's gold box. Problem is how fast the actual slot is lol.
In some products it can actually be better to do a swap. On the old Transformer Prime (TF201) and perhaps many Tegra 3 products, the flash chips are so crappy that even a good external card and some duct tape (to keep it in) can be a performance improvement. I've not seen a Samsung device use such crappy storage but then again, I've only used Galaxy S and Galaxy Note, not their budget fair.
In regards to the OP - rooting your tablet and using FolderMount as gooberdude suggested, it is a far less involved procedure. It is best if you just want to move some stuff from internal /storage/emulated/0 (aka /data/media, /sdcard, and /storage/sdcard).
Towards a real swap, it is usually possible by modding your system to think the external is the internal and doing some appropriate partitioning/data magic wand waving. This is an involved enough process vs what the typical PC user understands how to do that I generally DO NOT RECOMMEND unless you are a developer and comfortable building Android from source, hacking the source, and flashing code. In which case, you can also use Google and find out how to do it and how Android handles mounting file systems. Hint: look at Sony and ASUS mods.