Database Users

SD card primer, anyone?

Hello,
I just discovered I'm even more of a ignorant farmgirl than I thought... this time it's the MiniSD card I don't know anything about.
I mean: of course you plug it in and you browse to it to add/move/remove files... but it would seem that's not enough. So, can anyone point me to a SD-on-Wiz Faq, please?
A few things I'm looking into:
- How do you get the Wiz to automatically look among SD card-based files from an app? (i.e. "Open" from Word looks into the card first)
- How do you get the camera to save pictures directly onto the SD card, so as not to waste precious device-based memory?
- What are the actual differences between installing apps onto a SD card compared to the device memory? I noticed some apps seem to behave differently according to where they are placed.
- Is there any way to create a card-based auto-multi-installer to do all the dirty work of reinstalling apps automatically after a hard reset?
I'm sure I left out several other interesting and useful things...
Thanks in advance for your contributions!

there´s some reg tweaks you can do so the wizard will store stuff on the sd-card and not in main memorey (i. e. IE cache files, Camera pics, etc.)
just search the forum you´ll find some stuff there.
For the difference between SD-Card and main storage installation. i have no idea. haven´t noticed any change in my apps. maybe just in speed of loading apps. but that´s all i noticed.
for doing backup of your apps. a lot of programms you intall on your sd card don´t need to be reinstalled after a hard reset. just need to put the shortcuts and links back in the folders.
hope i could help.
greets Freez

Making the camera save pictures to the SD card can be done by changing the settings in the camera app under options.
There is no way to automatically have all apps look on the SD card first, every app needs a change in their settings or in the registry to accomplish that.
Installing apps on the SD card has pros and cons. The pros are of course that your storage space on the device (in the ROM) gets used up less, so you can install more apps on your device. It is however not necessary to leave it as empty as possible as it was in WM 2003 SE. In WM 2003 SE (on for instance the Magician) apps were installed in RAM and the more you installed on the device, the more RAM was used up and the less RAM there was available for running apps, resulting in a slow down of the device. Furthermore running out of battery power would result in the device turning off, emptying the RAM and lossing all data and installed apps. In WM5 this is different. Since ROM is used for storage and RAM for executing only, you can fill your ROM to the max without slowing down the device. Furthermore an empty battery will mean no data loss. Concluding, there is no necessity to install as much as possible to the SD card and leave your ROM space empty.
The cons of installing to your SD card are that some apps (e.g. today-plug-ins) don't like being installed on SD card. For today plug-ins this has to do with the start-up process of the Wizard. After turing the device on or waking it from sleep, the device will first load the apps and then initialize the SD card. The device will try to load the apps on the today screen (the plug-ins that is) that are stored on the SD before the SD slot is initialized and the apps cannot be found by the device, creating glitches and problems.
Another con for me is that I like to switch between my SD with TomTom navigation maps and my SD with my mp3/movie collection. If I install most apps to SD, this means that I will have to change my SD again if during a movie or MP3 I want to use one of these apps quickly.
However, if you use only one SD for installing and not much else, this problem does of course not exist.
If your storage in ROM is not full, there is no reason to install aps to SD.

Thak you for the info so far!
Koskie: paint me 'tard... I never even saw the camera Options menu until you mentioned it...

I am about to start getting some cards and here is what I was thinking...
1. a 512 or 128MB card for everyday use. Store IE cache, ringtones, pictures, and some programs (solitaire, puzzles, monopoly etc).
2. A series of 2GB cards for music, movies and TV content when I travel. I was planing on installing TCPMP on each one to avaoid putting that in my device memory.
As far as restoring after flashing or a hard reset, I currently keep a copy of all programs, ringtones, pim backups etc on my home computer. It is organized by file type, utils, games, rings etc. so when I flash I just go through again and reinstall one by one. I've found this is easier than figuring out where to download everything all over again.

@bubism: no problem, took me a while to figure it out too, that option is well-hidden!
@dcdivenut: Good plan. Those small size cards are really cheap. Why don't you install TCPMP on your device memory? It is not too big. Or have you crammed your mem so full that you have no more place for it.
I also have all apps I ever installed still on my desktop, including a list with all the reg edits I did and all apps I have currently installed with a short explanation for most apps and installation instructions when a standard install is not good enough (e.g. TomTom 5.21)
In case a hard reset is needed,I just grab the list and install all apps again, then do all the regedits. Still a lot of work, but quicker than having to search all apps and edits online. I recommend this approach to everyone.

Hey Koskie:
Can you post that list and what to do? I have a new 8125 and miniSD card and have no idea what to use the card for. I won't be putting music, pictures or videos on it since it is a work phone.
Ski

@ Skijackz: I use my SD card for music, TomTom 5.21 maps and video's only, all my apps are installed in main (=device) mem. I have approx. 16 MB free of Storage mem. If you have no use for your SD card and your storage mem is sufficient to store your apps, you can take it out and replace it with the plastic dummy that came with it. In that way your card slot is protected against dust and dirt, but the SD card will not use any power, thereby lengthening your uptime. If you use your device for navigation, you have to use the card to store the maps on it, since they are too big for your device mem.
The list I made is partly in Dutch, especially the notes, so it might not be very useful to you. Furthermore the list is a mess, since it works through my personal filing system (copy and paste wherever my cursor happens to rest). It is a mostly chronological list, I mostly added everything I found at the end. I'll attach it anyway, perhaps you'll find it useful. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask them here or through PM.

Thanks a lot for the tip on storing pics to the storage card!!! That's a real find! ....and much appreciated!!
This place is the BEST :!: :!:

Thanks Koskie!! This is a real help.

Storage card as Prog mem

So maybe this is asking for a lot or something that can’t be done, but has anyone found a way to remap or ADD a storage card as possible program memory? This would add so much more support for these phones if it could be done.

When you say "program memory" do you mean RAM? If so, there doesn't appear to be any way this is possible at this time. There would be too much lag between accessing the sd card and using the RAM, among other things.
If you mean storage of Apps and such then you can do that with heaps of programs, though some DO require being put into main memory. The windows files can't be put on he SD card for the same reason and there wold be no drivers to tell the Hermes to access the sd card. Things like Tomtom and other apps sometime do install to main memory but are able to be moved to the storage card, you just need to re do the shortcuts.
Cheers...

I meant as ram, I know you can do program installations to storage card, most of my large ones are done that way, but I was simply referring to when you are doing something and you just want to open the com manager and its like Not enought memory, close a program... but since it sounds like it wouldnt be fast or even possible then scratch that idea.
I referred to it as "program memory" because in the memory watcher ram is listed as that.

Install in Storage Card or Internal Memory?

Where do you guys usually install your apps to? Are there any benefits in installing to the Storage Card vs. installing in the internal memory of the phone?
Is the phone faster if all apps are installed on the storage card?

some apps definitely would not respond well if you install it in the storage card, especially if the app needs to 'wake up' from the power standby, due to the battery saving mode for external storage.
with X1, the phone storage is plenty that it doesn't make any difference for you to install in phone storage versus external. Upon fresh hardreset, my phone would have at least 204MB after deleting away the demo videos, etc. And this is standard ROM, not custom ROM.

Tri3Dent said:
Where do you guys usually install your apps to? Are there any benefits in installing to the Storage Card vs. installing in the internal memory of the phone?
Is the phone faster if all apps are installed on the storage card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The truth is that it is "horses for courses"
If you regard the device as a phone with a bit of residual computer capability, then 300Mb of Storage will last a lifetime
If you regard it as a computer with a phone segment attached, then use the SD card for everything you can. The tnyynt SD tweak for speeding card access is brilliant to the point where I am unable to tell the practical difference between Storage and card use.
I use mine as a work computer with a phone attached. My 16Gb card is already 55% full (ie. just under 9Gb of data and programs) - this cannot fit in Storage.

man what kind of programs and data that you have that takes over 8 gigs on your phone.
music and videos i can understand, programs and data???? i got a 4 gig card and the only program that i have that takes up 1 gig is the maps for tomtom 7.910
hopefully the 32 gig card will be compatable with the x1 in the near future.

c_legaspi said:
man what kind of programs and data that you have that takes over 8 gigs on your phone.
music and videos i can understand, programs and data???? i got a 4 gig card and the only program that i have that takes up 1 gig is the maps for tomtom 7.910
hopefully the 32 gig card will be compatable with the x1 in the near future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, well 1) as I said, my device is used as a computer with a phone segment attached, so having >8Gb "on my phone" is not really accurate. I have >8Gb on my card (ie. HDD) and growing
2) Music and video ?? None of them, I use hifi and TV for those when I'm home
3) I use the device for geological/geotechnical mapping on a world-wide basis, together with CAD/3D modeling of collected and supplied data. So high-level topo data, drillhole data, outcrop data, survey data, engineering constraints, zillions of reference reports etc etc + the slew of large programs needed to run these data collections
So for me, smaller, faster ROM = better and better
4) you bet I'm hanging out for the 32Gb cards

problem with having too little phone storage is some program use storage as temp
currently i have about 40gb storage free but still
the comic book reader crash often because the .net program in question
unzip the whole comic to some temp dir in phone storage
when it operates and apparently the comic use more then 40gb
would be easy for the programmer to fix so it didn't unzip all or did it to
the sd card but..

I put pretty much all programs that can be installed onto the card on the card... I also have shedloads of files on there mainly for language learning (I am learning Chinese and also have some Russian stuff)... from 16gb I am down to 7.7 and thats only cos I deleted a few tv shows from China...
PS I am reposting this due to the deletion bug thing... I did have a longer post but cant remeber all my witty reply...

flip a coin

aaaagggghhhhh!

ive put a 2gb sd card in my xda,im trying to send mms,but it keeps telling me theres not enough memory to send the message the storage card has in use 20.09mb free1863.69mb free? i can see this phone getting smashed with a hammer...its totaly frustrating...wish i never bothered with it...

thunderider said:
ive put a 2gb sd card in my xda,im trying to send mms,but it keeps telling me theres not enough memory to send the message the storage card has in use 20.09mb free1863.69mb free? i can see this phone getting smashed with a hammer...its totaly frustrating...wish i never bothered with it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How much storage is left on the phone? That is where you need to look, if the phone storage and program memory are full, then you don't have enough to do anything. The sd card won't help, it's just a place to store things.
You might be able to install your add on programs to the sd card to free up the phone's resources.
Or run something like sk tools to clean up the phones internal storage.

Internal Memory Full - How could that happen?

Hi i have my HTC HD2, relativly new one, i have installed stuff ofcourse to it, and always picked memory card cause i know the internal memory aint so greate, anyway when i go into remove programs there are lots of stuff but are they the ones that are installed to internal and not external? i removed little that oly gave me like 600k more but that affect the internal.
And i know that you wondering whats the problem beside my memory is full,
the problem is i always like i said before pick to install to external cause of memory, how can then my internal be full?
like 3 of 30 stuff i could pick myself where to install.
So someone plz help me? i know i neeed to like reinstall the device and install everything again.
I have like skype, tomtom, hd2 tweak, games hdwall bu i iunistall case it didt work. etc.
sorry for my english

I think your main problem is HTCAlbum cache
go to application data-->htc-->htc album and check how much space occupies the cache folder
In some cases it's larger than 10 mb
So, if it is the problem, you can cancel the cache and then try this tip
Another possible problem could be the cache (or temp files) of other programs, such as opera, internet explorer, google maps and so on
One advice for saving more space in the internal memory:
if you don't use copilot and navipanel, you can remove the copilot folder from the folder "program files": it occupies almost 14 mb
regards

Ok i will try but it seems as the internal memry goes full everytim i insall stuff even i i pick memory card, i will soon reset it and do it over again and check + do the things you advice me to.
just questions about it
if i cancel the cache does it make album slower?
ty in advance

if i cancel the cache does it make album slower?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe a little bit...but I don't notice this problem with the mod I adviced you.
...and for your problem...
Before you think to Hard-reset your device, You have to know that when you install a program, even if you install to the microsd, a piece of the install information goes on the internal memory anyway (and occupies some memory space, obviously)
regards

ok, here is what to do;
1. install total commander to phone memory (not sd card)
2. eject sd card
3. on total commander file>find files then find files greater than the default 64k or or 1mb if you want the search to be quicker
4. click on 'size' to sort files into descending order
5. delete or copy any unwanted files
in my case i had some videos that were already on my pc, so i deleted them.

Ok i will try i have movies and pic but are they by default placed on sd card? anyway i think mine are but they arenot taking upp space on the intern? like installed programs.
forgat to quote but i answerd you xboxdevil

qllkevuoi said:
maybe a little bit...but I don't notice this problem with the mod I adviced you.
...and for your problem...
Before you think to Hard-reset your device, You have to know that when you install a program, even if you install to the microsd, a piece of the install information goes on the internal memory anyway (and occupies some memory space, obviously)
regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok same as on computers, but that means they are limited stuff you can have on your phones and i mean i dont have so much, standard win 6.5 sense and changed icons, installs tweaks and some games like 10 :S thats bad, i want the at&t version wtf thanks anyway for the answers

toxicstone said:
Hi i have my HTC HD2, relativly new one, i have installed stuff ofcourse to it, and always picked memory card cause i know the internal memory aint so greate, anyway when i go into remove programs there are lots of stuff but are they the ones that are installed to internal and not external? i removed little that oly gave me like 600k more but that affect the internal.
And i know that you wondering whats the problem beside my memory is full,
the problem is i always like i said before pick to install to external cause of memory, how can then my internal be full?
like 3 of 30 stuff i could pick myself where to install.
So someone plz help me? i know i neeed to like reinstall the device and install everything again.
I have like skype, tomtom, hd2 tweak, games hdwall bu i iunistall case it
didt work. etc.
sorry for my english
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never been able to understand why people won't use internal storage!
I have 27 apps installed and this leaves me with 127Mb free which would allow a further minimum of 20 more that I could install assuming an average size.
Why would I want to install to mem card?
It's slower, causes difficulties of all sorts and the internal mem was designed to be used for your apps in the first place.

Although I understand what you are saying pa49 I personally install on my sd card so that
A) I can move from one to another phone if needed or
B) If I have to hard reset then I dont have to load the apps up again when I restore a backup
C) makes backing up and restoring the phone faster and smaller
D) I make a backup of my sd card so that if somthing goes wrong its all there.
I think its a personal preference. I dont fine that my phone is slower or faster one way or the other.

InRBigness said:
Although I understand what you are saying pa49 I personally install on my sd card so that
A) I can move from one to another phone if needed or
B) If I have to hard reset then I dont have to load the apps up again when I restore a backup
C) makes backing up and restoring the phone faster and smaller
D) I make a backup of my sd card so that if somthing goes wrong its all there.
I think its a personal preference. I dont fine that my phone is slower or faster one way or the other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I know all these arguments.
But we don't (as a rule) use our PCs this way.
It would not be good practise to install all your PC apps on an external hard drive.
If you applied your four points you'd end up with a mess and I don't see our phones as any different.
We expect our phones to function robustly and then we go out of our way to destabalise the whole thing.
I just don't get it.
This thread
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google Mobile/thread?tid=1163588d699c01d4&hl=en
is just one example of what can happen and the problems were solved by installing on the phone mem!
"Sounds like for at least some folks, installing on phone memory successfully works around this. If you'd prefer to not use phone memory, I'd also try borrowing or buying another memory card as it is potentially due to a portion of your old memory card being corrupted." Quote from Google employee.
What should be most allarming, to those who install to mem card, is the statement, "it is potentially due to a portion of your old memory card being corrupted".
This is the very reason why I always install to phone mem, reinstall all apps after a ROM flash or hard reset and limit my mem cards to only storage of data.
It's not a personal preference.
It just makes sense.