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Happy New year to all
I've been following with this site for quite sometime until i decide to switch from HP 6365 to o2 Mini/Magician.
I've successfully mod my Mini to BS with TMob 1.13 rom & 1.13 Radio. I'm just wondering if there's any possibilities to hack the default My Documents which resides in RAM to Storage. After all I still have 17MB free Storage after BS even having all my apps install in it.
I've tried few apps with registry editor but can't find anything that relates to My Documents location. What i mean is like Windows XP where you can change the default My Doc's from \Doc..& Settings..\User...etc to the folder that you want . eg: D:\My Documents
This will actually save a little time to backup the My Documents contents in the event you get a corrupted or format your C:\ in Windows Xp or Hard Reset in the case of PPC. Simply do a restore & I have the last state that i wanted or backup.
My intention is to configure my PPC with alll the customize apps, settings & etc and do a backup. In the event i need to do a Hard Reset, i'll just need to restore my OS from backup without the needs to backup or lose anything especially the My Documents. Like i said, restore & i have the last state of OS & cofig of the last state that i wanted to.
Been searching this forum but the search functions doesn't find me any results that relate to this. Anyone have such a wild idea?
Here's my apps in storage.
SPB Pocket Plus 3
Sprite Backup 3
PocketX Photo Contact Pro 4
Cab Installer
Vcard Receiver
Flexwallet 2006
Resco Explorer
Sk Tools
Tweaks2K
Ampda Camera
kanryu said:
I'm just wondering if there's any possibilities to hack the default My Documents which resides in RAM to Storage. After all I still have 17MB free Storage after BS even having all my apps install in it.
[...]
My intention is to configure my PPC with alll the customize apps, settings & etc and do a backup. In the event i need to do a Hard Reset, i'll just need to restore my OS from backup without the needs to backup or lose anything especially the My Documents. Like i said, restore & i have the last state of OS & cofig of the last state that i wanted to.
Been searching this forum but the search functions doesn't find me any results that relate to this. Anyone have such a wild idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wild Idea: Leave your "My Documents" folder where it is. Use Sprite Backup to do regular (scheduled, automatically running) backups of your device and save this backup to storage as an compressed exe. That way, after a hard reset you only have to launch File Explorer, start the backup file, restore, reset, takes less than 2 minutes. Depending on how many programs are stored in RAM (non-BS) and how many/how large documents are on your device it should work flawlessly.
Thanks for the info & kind attentions. I do practice a good backup.
I'm just looking at the hack/mod as a "bonus" if it is possible.
Cheers!
kanryu: since you suggested it, try to test this out.
I suggest you do this before installing any other app, because My Documents is a system setting used in many installations and they may get confused.
HKLM > Explorer > Shell Folders > My Documents
The storage card isn't always available at boot up, so again, it might cause problems. Storage might be a better idea then storage card. But this can already be configured in the options menu in Notes, at least.
V
Perhaps you can move all of the stuff to the storage ( not the card) and then put a shortcut from main memory to the storage card directory?
with some registry modifications as well. Some software only default the storage of data to \My Documents folder so merely moving everything to Storage and creating a shortcut won't do.
O2mini_noob: which registry mods did you use?
Have you guys tried the registry keys above?
V
I have tried this hack long time ago, wishing I counld change BT dir, but it did not work.. Storage Card & Storage, both failed...
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Templates"="\\Storage\\My Documents\\Templates"
"Windows"="\\Windows"
"StartUp"="\\Windows\\StartUp"
"Recent"="\\Windows\\Recent"
"Programs"="\\Windows\\Programs"
"Program Files"="\\Program Files"
"My Documents"="\\My Documents"
"Fonts"="\\Windows\\Fonts"
"Favorites"="\\Windows\\Favorites"
"Desktop"="\\Windows\\Desktop"
"Application Data"="\\Application Data"
as you can see.. only templates works ( since it's not related to the OS it self )... I tried changing Fonts dir as well, did not work either
I guess this has to do with the OS it self... so it is impossible to change it..
sorry Vijay, I was merely adding to stevedebi's quote of moving the entire \My Documents to storage. Obviously you have to do some registry changes to make it happen but wouldn't be as easy as that.
To OP.
I *think* I have a similar problem to you.
Basically I want to sync my files to/from my PC/PDA but the ram on my blueangel is way to small where as my 1 gig SD ram has vastly more than I need.
Now, i have managed to relocate my Sync briefcase on the PC to d:\briefcase. All well and good, this now trys to sync to the Pda's volatile ram way to much data .... so, im half way there.
Now, how can I tell the sync software or PDA's OS to sync to a folder on the SD RAM card?
I know I can put the SDcard into my PC but this is not what I want to achieve, i want it to be seemless and done in the craddle much like contacts etc are done.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
vijay555 said:
kanryu: since you suggested it, try to test this out.
I suggest you do this before installing any other app, because My Documents is a system setting used in many installations and they may get confused.
HKLM > Explorer > Shell Folders > My Documents
The storage card isn't always available at boot up, so again, it might cause problems. Storage might be a better idea then storage card. But this can already be configured in the options menu in Notes, at least.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried this before. Everything under this tree has been rename to \storage\my documents But after a soft reset, some of the key will revert back to default. ???
Seems like only those template folder are moveable. I'm started to suspect \My Documents are not fully handled by registry.
I'm wondering how clean the system can be if you need a 3rd party software to edit the registry such as Resco, PHM & etc. I know it's best to do it with a clean system but.... unless there's a way to edit the registry out of the PPC, or there's a standalone executeable software, which I have yet to found.
I'll see what can be figured out next. Hopefully this idea is not a 'fat hope' :?
Don't you guys try to create another "My Documents" folder in the BS and link to it a shortcut (from today)?
I have put to c-launch a link to /storage card/my documents and all is well!!!
how do i get to the extended rom directory? i have a t-mobile mda and have total commander (reg editor) installed. I can't find the /extended rom/ directory and also don't really understand what is or what it is there for. i know this might sound like a remedial question to HTC Wizard experts, but if someone could help me I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, if it matters, I'm running xelecin's custom 2.26 ROM.
Thanks.
You won't see it by browsing.. just type in "/extended_rom" and TC will open it. Don't forget the underscore (_) character..
Gee - my first post!
thanks. i entered "/extended_rom" and it brought me to the directory. now that i know how to find it, what is it exactly there for? What is it's purpose. Also, can you access it from activesync? Thanks again for answering these questions.. i'm a beginner with PPCs, but I'm curious about how they work.
Thanks again.
Use the advanced search feature (under the search option tab) to look within the wizard updating forum for the term "extended rom", and you can start to understand how some of the rom developers utilize it (There are 12 pages of entries). These guys are the real 'wizards' - I could not begin to explain the way they do (I'm too new myself).
Your extended ROM contains all of your customizations. If it is a stock ROM it will have all of your carrier customizations. If you have a cooked Ext ROM it could have lots of things. One of the benefits is that if you have to completely clear out the storage it would re-install all the customizations that were in the ext rom.
barrydavisjr said:
...One of the benefits is that if you have to completely clear out the storage it would re-install all the customizations that were in the ext rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so, in simple terms, if you were doing a hard reset (or clear storage in settings), the extended rom directory retains the files, and installs them if they are .cab files.. am I getting warm? Thanks for the info.
you got it. The carriers put it there so that one wouldn't have to call into tech support if you had to do a hard reset.
ok. i get this now. just a couple more questions..
-Do the .CAB files have to be in the main directory (/extended_rom/) or can they be in any subfolder?
-I was reading somewhere that it's a read-only directory.. is there a way to delete files, if so, can you delete the files one at a time or all once?
-finally, can you access the directory from active sync?
Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.
As far as I know it is unable to be accessed through Active sync. And yes you can delete them off one by one. I would reccomend reading up on it. Faria has produced a wondrful guide on how to cook your extended ROM. When you delete a cab you also have to change the config settings in the notepad file. I have dabbled a little but Faria's guide will help you more.
!!!WARNING!!! if you delete the files from your ext rom and do a hard reset none of the carrier customizations will be installed.. furthermore.. you will not gain any extra space by deleting the cabs, it is a read only partition.. also with that being said, if you try to delete a file from there or add one you take a great risk of corrupting the ext rom and you will be forced to reflash the rom in order to get them back.
just one more question.. I have xelecin's 2.26 custom rom on my MDA. I'm thinking of switching over to either molski's or faria's latest rom. when i flash those roms, the extended rom from the current rom i'm using gets replaced with the custom rom's extended rom, right? does that make sense? Thanks for putting up with my dumb questions and actually answering them! Oh yeah, when i installed the rom i'm using now it did a CID unlock before flashing, so i assume my phone is still unlocked, right?
Thanks again for all the help. i really appreciate it.
thats right. - you'll get the new extended rom.
Extended Rom Contents
I only install a portion of the T-Mobile customization, which I accomplish by preventing the install of the extended rom. I have copied onto my miniSD the files I want to install, and then I just manually run the cabs from there. (Actually, that would erase them, so I copy them first.)
Then you can experiment with other ROMs, still getting the customizations that you need. Here is my thread on this topic:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=272613
I no longer install MP-Shorcut-MMS1-Voice-CV-TMUS-060404.CAB because that just adds MMS to the Messaging app and a shortcut for making voice tags and I don't use MMS.
By the way, it is really useful to install things like Total Commander, Memmaid, weather programs, RSS readers, Zagat, and so on to the miniSD, because then they don't need to be reinstalled after a hard reset. The only thing I have to do is add the shortcuts back, because shortcuts are erased after a hard reset. These programs will no longer auto-update, since nothing can run automatically from the miniSD, but with memmaid you can create automatic updates if you like.
Your backup program should always run from main memory! Also, programs that affect the today screen should also be run from main memory for increased speed. Pretty much everything else can go on the miniSD.
Recently I installed NetFront 3.3 to the SD card on my Dopod 818 Pro (using the latest official ROM) and I noticed a significant slow down in the boot up time (around 3 min). The only things I found that were installed on the device's main memory were JV-Lite2 demo and a large number of small HTML help files (about 84 of them) in the Windows folder. I doubt it was a memory problem because I still had more than 20MB of Storage Memory before I tried deleting them later.
I first deleted the JV-Lite2 demo and there was no change in the boot up time. Next, I navigated to the Windows folder in an attempt to delete the help files. At this point in time, I noticed the loading time was 3 to 4 times slower than usual when File Explorer was listing all the files in the Windows folder. (By the way, sorting of files was never changed, i.e. by Name.) I went ahead to delete all the nf33*.* files and as expected, the boot up time was back to normal (about 1 min plus). Hope this finding may help those who complained about slow opening of the Windows folder after installing NetFront.
Anyway, my questions are:
1) Why does the number of files in the Windows folder affect the boot up time? It just doesn't make sense to me...
2) Are there any known applications that instruct WM5 to navigate to and/or list the Windows folder in the background upon start up?
3) Or could this be a default behavior of WM5? If yes, any registry tweaks to disable it?
Thank you.
Slow Boot Up
Actually the boot up time depend of the number of program that need to be started at boot time. you can look at these programs in the windows\startup directory . the more programs . the more time to start.
Try this...
I understand that the number of programs required to load upon start up will also slow down the boot time. But it's a different issue I discussed earlier. By the way, I've only 6 shortcuts in my Windows\Startup folder.
The problem was I installed only one program, that is, NetFront version 3.3, and this one program doubled my boot time prior to the installation. Correct me if I'm wrong, but NetFront does not load itself, plug-ins or any other extensions by default during boot up. I'm pretty sure NetFront doesn't even need all those 84 help files to be loaded when running.
Actually, you can try out this little experiment to see if a bloated Windows folder (regardless of size) will in fact affect WM5 boot up time or not. Create about 100 empty text files and copy them into the Windows folder of your Prophet's main memory. Do not copy them into a sub folder of Windows. 100 blank files will probably take up only a few kb of memory space for the file structures. Make 200-400 files if you're using a faster PDA. Do a soft reset and watch your device choke during start up.
Please be reminded to do a backup just in case your device refuses to leave the Windows Mobile splash screen.
So... back to my questions. Any clues?
Maybe something to do with RAM defragmenting or whatever WM5 does to improve runtime performance?
Hmm... I'm afraid memory chips in PDAs do not work in the same ways as harddisks in our desktops.
Yes I know but I read somewhere that WM5 performs some RAM management to improve access times... I don't know what that means but it could be that since you are putting a lot of small files in RAM then they get moved at boot time.
I bet it has something to do with the Filesystem our devices use... It's not very efficient handling lots of small size files.
So, in conclusion, you are saying that if I delete all the "useless" help files in the Windows directory my device will speed up it's boot up?
What I noticed is that if I do a Hard Reset and skip the Extended rom stuff, the boot takes just under 1 minute to complete. Even after installing all my fav apps.
Peace!
Rayan
Rayan said:
I bet it has something to do with the Filesystem our devices use... It's not very efficient handling lots of small size files.
So, in conclusion, you are saying that if I delete all the "useless" help files in the Windows directory my device will speed up it's boot up?
What I noticed is that if I do a Hard Reset and skip the Extended rom stuff, the boot takes just under 1 minute to complete. Even after installing all my fav apps.
Peace!
Rayan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
compare this to the window folder;
1 jar with 100 beans ---could be heinz /......hehe
another jar with 200 beans.
witch one takes you longer to count?
the same apllies to files in any folder ,the more files im a folder the longer it takes to enumerate them.
regards.
It is also the ROM. I just installed the new Qtek S200 rom, and the boottime is dramatically shorter, and no it is not because the pda is still empty, because I first put all files and programs back. With my Dopod Rom the system took minutes to boot, and I even had to put it on mains to prevent it from hanging on me.
If I delete the large number of empty files from the Windows folder in my experiment mentioned previously, I notice the boot time is faster but not as fast as before I started the experiment. If I do a full backup now (using Spb Backup), hard reset and then restore, I will see a better improvement in the boot time. Does this mean that the files are never destroyed after deletion in WM5? File Explorer still counts but hides the files? WM5 is a really puzzling OS...
Anyway my conclusion is, the more files you have in the Windows folder, the longer WM5 takes to boot up.
mamaich discussed this some time back.
Regards,
Jason
In the beginning I want to thanks all the people responsible for this wonderful forum. It is extremely helpful for the kind of N00bi like me.
My last windows Mobile machine was the HTC Universal and before it I had the Wallaby and Blue Angel after those machines I ended my relationship with windows mobile until I saw the HTC HD2 which brought me back form symbian and iPhone.
Now to the strange problem, I have been using the hd2 for 3 weeks and I am very happy customer until I have noticed something which is very odd. Losing internal memory space as the time passes. although I did all the tricks to transfer the temporary cache memory to the Storage Card it did not help me at all and I am still loosing space over time.
I did transfer the opera cache to the storage card and that saved me about 3 MB and that is it
I looked for more tricks in the forum but all I found was the opera thing and nothing else. so can anyone please help me with this problem
Thanks
mrnet_01
how do you transfer the opera cache to the memory card? and for internet explorer as well???
and how do i clear temporary files/cache/etc. ??
electrix_85 said:
this maybe can help u
the default directory of opera cache is
\Windows\opera9\cache\
so u must change this default directory
1. open opera browser
2. type on address ---->> opera:config
it will open advance opera configuration setting
3. tap userpref
4. find opera cache and change ur cache directory 4
I prefer to \Storage Card\Program Files\opera9\cache\
dont forget to tap save button
sory for my bad english
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
little search won't hurt anyone
Can anyone help me please. I am bleeding space.
It might be due to Youtube temp file? I noticed a 20+mb sized temp.3gp file in my youtube folder after watching quite a number of videos.
^^^^
has been done but still the same
Please guys I really need help.
mrnet_01 said:
Losing internal memory space as the time passes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying that your storage space is disappearing, without you installing software or using applications that cache data?
i believe that is what he is saying
Try to connect to your HD2 with ActiveSync.
From Windows Explorer on your PC, you can browse the folders on your device. Make sure that you can view Hidden Files, system files etc.
Right Click each folder and request the properties. This way you can view which folder is taking so much of your precious RAM.
In my case for instance, the folder \Application data\HTC\HTC Album\Cache is 28Mb.
Don't know if I can remove these files though
I think that folders that are actualy part of the ROM will show 0 bytes.
Anyway, hope this tip can help you.
johncmolyneux said:
Are you saying that your storage space is disappearing, without you installing software or using applications that cache data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, exactly
Pappagallo said:
Try to connect to your HD2 with ActiveSync.
From Windows Explorer on your PC, you can browse the folders on your device. Make sure that you can view Hidden Files, system files etc.
Right Click each folder and request the properties. This way you can view which folder is taking so much of your precious RAM.
In my case for instance, the folder \Application data\HTC\HTC Album\Cache is 28Mb.
Don't know if I can remove these files though
I think that folders that are actualy part of the ROM will show 0 bytes.
Anyway, hope this tip can help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is about 14 Mb for me.
mrnet_01 said:
it is about 14 Mb for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you find other folders that take up a lot of space ?
I know it's a pain to check all folders manually, but your storage must be disappearing somewhere...
Have you downloaded anything from the MS MarketPlace, all apps from there get installed onto the device as default and this cannot be changed. The app can be moved usine file manager (or any other alternative). I would go to add/remove programs and remove all unnesscary ones and start installing again ensureing they are going to the Storage Card. Also stay away from MS Marketplace (until this is resovled)
My albums cache and google maps cache were about 40Mb... Both in Application Data. Deleted it, hadn't had any issues.
I wish I could move HTC album and Google Maps cache to the memcard.
have you installed HTC hotfixes for messaging and camera - these take up close to 10 - 15M and you wont be able to see these as they replace DLL's and files in the ROM by using user memory.
Very interesting! I just reclaimed 39MB space by deleting 2 files in the Google Maps cache. I ran Google Maps again without any problem and after closing the application still had the same amount of memory.
Hello,
I am currently using an xda touch diamond that I have been configuring and
maintaining etc. with much devotion over the last ~two years... For that reason, I understandably fear flashing. However, I am running into the hardly-any-space-on-internal-storage-left-problem, and subsequently have been heavily searching for solutions that might enable the deletion of individual rom-files. I think I read twenty times, no, it's not possible. So my question is: Would it be possible to clone the complete device without any data/config loss whatsoever into a file (simililar to what sprite backup does), and in advance of flashing/whatever you will call the complete restore process actually DELETE certain files that used to be undeletable on the device itself.
Thanks for answering this....
Matthias
me1235 said:
Hello,
I am currently using an xda touch diamond that I have been configuring and
maintaining etc. with much devotion over the last ~two years... For that reason, I understandably fear flashing. However, I am running into the hardly-any-space-on-internal-storage-left-problem, and subsequently have been heavily searching for solutions that might enable the deletion of individual rom-files. I think I read twenty times, no, it's not possible. So my question is: Would it be possible to clone the complete device without any data/config loss whatsoever into a file (simililar to what sprite backup does), and in advance of flashing/whatever you will call the complete restore process actually DELETE certain files that used to be undeletable on the device itself.
Thanks for answering this....
Matthias
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You yourself are describing a 'playful' method of building a new ROM!
This is what ROM cooks do when a ROM is made. They remove or edit - files or folders that are inbuilt and add their custom folders to it and 'cook' it. So in a sense the answer is 'YES' you can remove what you don't like in your ROM. But NO you can't do it by your suggested method. You can cook a ROM yourself or ask a cook on forum to do you a favour and delete unwanted files from your ROM and you can flash custom ROM with better space on it - Flashing is not that bad to be honest! I have done it on my WinMo - uncountable times! More than the number of times you might have changed your wallpaper!
So just make sure you read instructions on how to do it. Back up all your data on storage card and contacts too! - there you are ready to go!
After first flash of new ROM you won't take more than 2 hours making your phone as it is! (and you get faster with each flash!)
yes, drupad2drupad is right,
what I would add, I know what you mean, been facing the same decision. Spend year customizing and didn't want to loose it, on the other hand phone become slow and full. Well if there was a simple solution to this, this forum would be 95% smaller. there isn't any universal solution.
you will loose something. some settings, (registry or config files), some customizing. etc.
by using different backup programs or by setting them differently, you can trigger how much to backup, and how much to revert. BUT if you backup everything, (all registry and all files) after flashing you are right where you was. no big change.
what I do is I copy all int.memory to SD card, export all registry, backup only messages (contacts and calendar are in file pim.vol, if you end all programs and disable today plugins, you should be able to copy there and back this too, not loosing nothing by backup converting)
then flashing new rom, restore messages, copy pim.vol back and then slowly, restoring setting for each program I care to do so.
it's either a file in \program files or in \windows or a part of registry. there you open your big exported reg file, search for a name of program and cut,paste to empty reg file and import.
I made a backup script to do this automatically, but it's not possible to make it universal, it will backup only those programs it's set to backup.
back to you question about deleting rom files. you can, after a fashion, but deleting such will only add info to ignore this rom file. which means, rom file stays, but is not visible. thought, you can clean your int memory. removing temp and accumulated useless files, moving programs you use rarely to SD, but this is very time consuming and advance thing to do.
thanks
first of all, thanks to the two of you for such devoted answers! thanks a lot , really.
My guess is it will take me (I'm quite obsessive) 6-10 hours -- research etc. to make sure everything will definitely go fine and finally restore everything to the prior state. Never having messed around with flashing etc., I think it's too much effort to gain some lousy 20 mb.
I still really appreciate your answers. It's a shame there is no universal method to do this is a few steps, with some utility, for everyone...
So I was wondering, what do you think, on a system like the touch diamond, running windows mobile 6.1, with I think ~100 mb internal storage, how many mb should in your opinion at any point in time be free space, to ensure things are running smooth? (And, I suppose/hope flash memory deterioration due to little space left is not that much of an issue...)
Else I'd go as far as "donating" some chrismas bucks to some kindred spirit in guiding me through the process, I just don't have the nerve to do this, for 10 mb... never again will I buy a device that has too small internal storage!
thanks to everyone...
matthias
(edit) ps.: I find it funny that the files in rom can store data (like the 16 MB mxip initdb.vol which is said to carry contacs I believe) - for the novice, like myself, it's kind of difficult to understand why files can be written to, but not decreased in size to free up memory somehow - or do they have a "size limit" / "fixed size"?) but anyway, you need not comment on this.
There is a way that you can reduce your file storage size quite easily....
Thanks to AnDim, see here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=377514.
Do the following steps:
1. Use a back-up tool such as Resco Backup and make a back-up on your storage card.
2. Use Total Commander and copy all of the files in your Windows directory that are NOT part of the ROM. You can do this quite easily by chosing the "Hide files in Rom" part. Then copy and save these files on your desktop.
3. Use AnDim's HTC ROM Image Editor. Open your original rom with this (I hope you have it).
4. Add the files you copied from your desktop to the rom you opened with AnDim's tool.
5. Delete any duplicate files that were in the original rom from the ones you just copied.
6. Save the new rom and flash it.
7. Use Resco Back-up to restore your original rom.
8. Use Total Commander to delete the files created by Resco Back-Up in your Windows folder that you had previously added to the rom.
After all of this, you will find you have much more storage space and a quicker rom because all of the files you added that overwrote a rom file will no longer have duplicate files and also rom files take up less storage space.
Good luck!
hi mitsi,
thanks for that post, highly appreciated! this looks like a solution to the problem I described -- After doing some time-consuming cleanup, I now have some ~10 MB free, so I think I'll wait for this to decrease down to let's say 5MB in the future, and then follow your steps -- which seem to be advanced, but feasible. This is really a great hint. Hope others who run into the same problem will find this thread helpful too. I'm really impressed with quality and helpfulness in this forum, outstanding. Will have to go out and help others where I can now to compensate for my bad conscience
Grüße nach Berlin aus dem Schwarzwald!
M.
I recommend using SPB backup.
I used that program to do what you wanted to do ever since I used Axim x5 (currently TP2).
I have it set up so it automatically make a backup every week on Sunday, so just in case if something goes wrong (bad cab or driver) I can have most of important changes and not LOSE a thing.
So, good luck : )