I have a 256MB card, and when I go to start>settings>system>memory, and click on storage card, it says I have a 242.23MB card. I understand this difference, but what I dont understand is this: It says I have 149MB used, but when I go into a file explorer (total commander) and highlight all the files on my storage card, it only accounts for 85MB (with no folders hidden). In memaid, im told i am using 124MB used.
What's going on?
Reformat your SD-card.
Block Size
Files on disk (or storage cards) are stored in blocks. Off-hand I can't remember what the block size would be on a (FAT) storage card, but 4K rings a bell.
Two files can not occupy the same block, so if you have a two one-byte files, they will be using 8K of your storage card (two 4K blocks).
Typically, programs that count files will only be counting the file sizes - so in my example above, that would be two bytes, whereas 8K will have gone from your card.
Usually this makes next to no difference to life. However, if you happen to have lots of smallish files on the card, this can account for some very large differences.
Not quite sure it explains what you are seeing, but I offer it up as a possible reason...
Umm ok. Cheers for the replies. Any other suggestions before i reformat it?
Cheers
Put your card in a cardreader, copy all files to a temp folder on your PC. Format the card an copy all files back to the card.
Few minutes work, probably problem solved.
What other suggestions do you need?
Related
Hello,
I have 3 items on my plate and I'd appreciate any feedback regarding them:
1) i'm using a 512 mb card; i was having some difficulty because the memory of the card would only go up to around 300. at first i thought there was a problem with the card itself so i had to constantly erase the contents to make mp3s, files, pics, mpegs, etc fit. then i stumbled upon the pc command for formatting disks; there were 3 options to format the sd card: FAT, NTFS and FAT32. when i used fat32; the behavior was the same and the memory usage would only go up to 300 max. when using ntfs; my xda2 refused to recognie the card (it wouldn't show up in the explorer app). when i formatted using FAT, everything was great. i can now use the sd card to it's limits and am no longer restricted to the 300-mb trouble i was having.
question: what's the difference in the 3 formats? obviously using FAT was the best thing to do, but what's with the other formats?
2) i was having some problems with loading up mpegs in the sd card. i created folders (example: mp3s, movies, pics, etc). naturally i placed the mpeg files in the "movies" folder; when i used pocket tv to play them the files were not recognized. when i used pocket mvp video came out but a sign kept flashing "error in audio". when i loaded the mpeg files straight to the sd card (no folders assigned), pocket tv and pocket mvp played them perfectly.
question: anyone else experiencing this and if yes what's the story? the mp3 files are in a folder and i don't stumble into any issues with those items.
3) anyone know of a good vcd-ripper program where i can extract clips or create my own small mpeg files? i'd like to extract some of the more memorable scenes in some movies...rather than waste space by seeing scenes which bore me.
cheers mates
robson
Some hints
Hi,
i also have a 512 meg sd card for my XDA 1, without any problems.
Try to format the card using the storagetools freeware:
http://www.pocketpccity.com/software/pocketpc/StorageTools-2002-4-5-ce-pocketpc.html
I also have mp3's and mpeg's on this card. Make sure that you use the latest version of activesync to tranfer the files to the sd card or use a sd card adapter (i use a pcmcia adapter).
here is how to produce your own media files for the ppc:
http://www.mathiaspohl.de/mda
There are 2 sections, 1st is about "How to create DIVx files" for the PPC, the second one is "How to create media files" (i.e. wmv) for this.
regards, Koponet
Not too impressed with storagetools.
It only detected my XDA-IIs 14MB of ROM and not my 512MB SD card.
maybe you should try ....
format SD card within external SD reader attached to notebook, using some desktop application ... or try using
http://www.cnetx.com/Format/download.asp
and verify SD media for errors ...
regards, monika
Robson said:
question: what's the difference in the 3 formats? obviously using FAT was the best thing to do, but what's with the other formats?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FAT (File Allocation Table), FAT32 and NTFS (NT File System) are file systems originally made for disk partitions. FAT (also called FAT16) was the original file system used in DOS and has a partition size limit of 2 GB. FAT32, an extended variant of FAT16, was introduced first in Windows 95 OSR2 and increased the partition size limit to 2 terabytes. NTFS, a totally different file system, was introduced in Windows NT. Unlike the FAT file systems, NTFS has security and transaction rollback features. Random access to a huge file is also more efficient in NTFS. Moreover, while the file size limit on FAT32 is 4 GB, a file on NTFS can grow up to 16 exabytes (16 billion gigabytes).
question to JARGON please
today I have tested sandisk 512MB SD card ....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have 512MB SD card and am allowed to fill it up to the full limit of roughly 484MB and not 512MB, ok .. it is a matter of formatting plus a consequence of the fact that 1MB equals 1024kB but I am curious about the other thing .... I remember old times back with IPAQ + PCMCIA sleeve with inserted flash card 1280MB of sandisk - the size written on the back of the card WAS EXACTLY matching what PPC2002 was showing .... 1280MB
to me it seems like either different "disk geometry" or disk format - can anyone explain it to me pls
regards,
monika
An SD card uses a portion of its memory for its security data. That's why you can't use the entire capacity of the SD card. That's also the reason why an MMC, which doesn't have the SD card's security features, has more available memory than an SD card with the same total capacity.
uuups, you are right ...
according to Sandisk SD card manual
http://www.sandisk.com/oem_sd_memorycard.html
user can access only 940,864 bytes plus 10,240 secure area (which are not accessed by user) ... what a rip-off on 512MB card format .. upppps :wink:
regards,
monika
Before upgrading to the AKU 3.3, I thought I would re-format my MicroSD on my laptop (Vista) so it will perform in optimal mode (to avoid fragmentation).
So, I copied all the programs, pictures, videos and TomTom maps to my laptop, formatted the MicroSD with FAT format (16k segments).
When I was about to transfer the files back, the copy command complained that the files are too big for the 1Gb SD I had. I was surprised since these are the same files that were on the MicroSD before. I looked at my laptop and I was surprised to see that the total memory of the same files is now 1.3Gb. I assume the copy command added some extra garbage to the files due to segment size of my disk, am I right?
Is there a way to eliminate any extra space added to the files when they were copied to my laptop? I really want all these files back on the MicroSD as they were all on this MicroSD to start with (and I even had few tens of Mb free!)...
Help...
Format it as FAT32....
I have bought a new Sandisk 32 GB class 4 sd card
I formatted it as fat32 with the windows normal utility
the strange thing is that when I look at each single file in it with a file manager it shows its size correctly
however the system reports that the space occupied in the card is twice as much as what it really is.
For example I copied in it all of the content of my old 8 GB card, and after copying
the system said that the occupied space in the new card was 15 GB, which is impossible.
Could it be a formatting related problem?
Format it from the phone, from Settings -> Sd card or something like that.
Thanks for the help
anyway I fixed following a different method
Made a long format
then copied the data from the old card to the computer and then those into the new card
Before I copied directly between the cards after a quick format.
Now I see that any new file that I add occupies the right amount of space
After rooting with TouchNooter 2.1.31, including re-formatting my SD Card, I find that I have only 75 megs available on a 2 G card. Running check disk shows a total of 75 megs with no bad sectors reported. Searching the forums indicates this is not an uncommon problem, but I didn't find anything specific to TouchNooter.
One solution suggested for other systems is to copy the files of the SD and then reformat. Is this the correct procedure for TouchNooter?
Another was offered at:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1863222
but, that one has me a tad baffled as to how to find hboot on a NST (and, no, I'm not buying an iPhone).
Bear in mind chkdsk indicates the TOTAL space on the 2G SD is only 75 megs -- it does not show that the SD card is actually has 2G of total space. If it means anything, I used Win32DiskImager to write the .img file to my SD card when I first started the rooting process.
Thanks!
When you write the .img on the card, it creates a 75M partition on your card because it is the size of the image and the remaining space is unallocated, that is why it doesn't show up on windows explorer.
You have to use a partition manager to delete the 75M partition and create a new one with all the unallocated space.
I use MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition
Right click on the 75M partition->delete
Right click on the unallocated space ->create
Choose the settings you want for the partition, click OK
Then click apply
That worked exactly as advertised. I had copied all my files from my SD to a backup folder on my computer. Once I resized the partition on the SD card with MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, I put it back in the NST which wanted to format the card. I reformatted, pulled the card, transferred my files back to the SD card and everything worked.
Thanks!
Whats he best/easiest way to replace my sd card. At the moment it is a 64 gb and I'm upgrading to a faster Samsung 128GB. The current card is formatted as internal memory. I can easily move/ delete/backup some files to a pc. I'm wondering about app files and data that might be n the sd card if I just reformat it as a media card as someone suggested
Thanks.
You must first change the card to external, the phone will move all the system files for you. If you don't have enough room on the internal to do this you will just have to temporarily move pictures video and music to a pc/cloud/usb etc.
Once you have it set to external just swap them over, do not take the SD out while set as internal.
I thought as much. Thanks kudos1uk for confirmation.
kudos1uk said:
You must first change the card to external, the phone will move all the system files for you. If you don't have enough room on the internal to do this you will just have to temporarily move pictures video and music to a pc/cloud/usb etc.
Once you have it set to external just swap them over, do not take the SD out while set as internal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi All,
I am having same issue now. I want to replace my 32GB with 64GB card. Firstly, HOW do you change the card to external? There is no option doing anything like this. I can only see option to format the card as internal, which means all data will be lost.
For some reasons, i can copy the files from the 32GB out via USB to PC, but if took out the 32GB and put in the 64GB and format as internal, i have no way to access it or put the files back into the card.
Does it have something to do with formatting? Initially i format my 64GB to exFAT, but after putting into the phone, i formatted it again as required by the phone which i assume it will be formatted to whatever that is compatible by the phone.
All i want to do is to migrate the stuff on my old sdcard to my new sdcard and use the phone as usual.
Please help!
Thanks
I now have a 128 gb card in my A1
As far as I can remember you can copy your docs/media etc files on to your pc but not any app files which you will need to reinstall on your new card. The system files should stay on the internal card.
I changed my card before the phone updated to pie and now es file manager only sees the new card.
Update.
I just checked in settings /storage/apps and there is an option to move them to internal though with limited space only a few could be moved.
I'm not impressed with the A1. Sometimes it hangs or crashes. My redmi 6 is more reliable.
slammy O said:
I now have a 128 gb card in my A1
As far as I can remember you can copy your docs/media etc files on to your pc but not any app files which you will need to reinstall on your new card. The system files should stay on the internal card.
I changed my card before the phone updated to pie and now es file manager only sees the new card.
Update.
I just checked in settings /storage/apps and there is an option to move them to internal though with limited space only a few could be moved.
I'm not impressed with the A1. Sometimes it hangs or crashes. My redmi 6 is more reliable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm...i am not sure whats the phone OS version now, not sure if it's Orea or Pie. Maybe i can check later. The internal storage has about 23GB user/32GB. The old 32GB micro SD card has about 10GB used/ 32GB. Even if i took out the whatsapp media and DCIM folder media, there is still a couple of GB of files in the microSD card. So far i can only see i can move the apps back to internal, which i have only 1 (which i uninstalled anyway). So there is still 10GB of files in my 32GB microSD.
How do i move the DCIM folders back to internal? Another problem, in the Camera app, i can't find anywhere to point the camera storage settings at all!
Thanks for your feedback.
Matrixlyn said:
Hmm...i am not sure whats the phone OS version now, not sure if it's Orea or Pie. Maybe i can check later. The internal storage has about 23GB user/32GB. The old 32GB micro SD card has about 10GB used/ 32GB. Even if i took out the whatsapp media and DCIM folder media, there is still a couple of GB of files in the microSD card. So far i can only see i can move the apps back to internal, which i have only 1 (which i uninstalled anyway). So there is still 10GB of files in my 32GB microSD.
How do i move the DCIM folders back to internal? Another problem, in the Camera app, i can't find anywhere to point the camera storage settings at all!
Thanks for your feedback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never mind. I have solved the problem.
I keep looking for the options in the 3 dots in my SDCARD menu. Instead i should select the INTERNAL STORAGE. Clicked the 3 dots, there is a MIGRATE option. :silly: This will copy back the files from the SDCARD to the internal memory (provided enough storage...i have to uninstall some games first). Then i can swap out the card and put in new card.
Thanks anyway, hope this will help other people in the future!