Database Users

How to use SD card as real Secure card?

Hi!
Could someone point me to info how can I use SD card as real Secure storage of data?
What I need to do - to use it under Win Mobile platform?
is Any 3-rd part software available?
thanks for any information.

ryhor said:
Hi!
Could someone point me to info how can I use SD card as real Secure storage of data?
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it depends on how you define secure?
If you mean 'nobody else can access the data if they get a hold of the card' ... there are many articles on the web discussing this issue - here's a decent (but slightly dated) one: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Securing-Pocket-PC.html
There are a LOT of app's which will provide you with varying levels of encryption for your data - Resco Explorer has an option to encrypt, for example.
Use google (or your preferred search engine) to search for "pocket pc" and "security" (or perhaps "encryption") and you'll get plenty of hits.
I must point out though that we are talking about an extremely portable device. A PDA is just so easy to steal! An SD card is even more so. So if you are talking about data which really MUST remain secure ... you may well be better served by not putting it on your unit in the first place.

Hi
Actually we wanna do a simple thing.
we wanna put our application and data on SD card and allow access to this storage only to someone who have right to do it. (it isn't top secret )
SD category 3 of levels of SDMI security requirements will be fine for us.
http://www.sandisk.com/Oem/DocumentInfo.aspx?DocumentID=1344
But as I understand - there is some problem with it. It is a little bit strange - because every normal SD card has to provide this feature (and it is), but just there is no any suuport of it from OS? even there is no some 3-rd part File System Drivers?
It isn't sounds so hard to implement.

Why do I feel like we got gipped again?
I believe SD is a scam over MMC cards just like 1.44MB 3.5" floppy disks was a scam over the 720KB version... :x

SDMI
ryhor said:
Hi
But as I understand - there is some problem with it. It is a little bit strange - because every normal SD card has to provide this feature (and it is), but just there is no any suuport of it from OS? even there is no some 3-rd part File System Drivers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did some research into SDMI last year, as a part of a contract I was on. I've dug into my notes and found this:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/drm/sdksandversions.aspx#version
It may be of some use to you. Probably not ... frankly I find the whole approach of DRM to be a joke

can u use sd card for program memory?

hi, I'd like to know if you can use the sd card and say partition it so that you can make your xda exec device use the storage on it as programe memory so it speeds the device up. this really is a fab device, but it really lacks the memory capacity that I had on a blue angel.
I have a 1gb sd card and don't mind loosing any storage space to accomplish this. if there isn't a way, can someone try and find a reg tweek for this....
anyway, I leave it with you...
cheers.
joey jojo

I think this is something which should be taken as a clue by developers who make programs such as Memaid, Pocket Mechanic, etc and include this as a a feature. Maybe the concept will be something similar to the Virtual Memory on a regular windows pc.
You are absolutely right, I too really miss the shortage of program memory. I can never open a really complicated web page with lots of images in Netfront before I get the dreadful warning that I have run out of program memory.
I hope some developer picks this up and incorporates this as a feature. I am sure this will increase his sales many many times.
Regards

you can put your internet explorer's cache on the sd-card...
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Cache]
change cache from '\windows\profiles\guest\temporari internet files' to '\SD_MMCard' to achieve this...
however you'll notice that it only slows your device incredibly down if your SD-Card is not set up right
see also http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=50301

There is just no way a third party program can add this. On the windows mobile team blog, there's a post from a few months back talking about doing virtual mem on the SD card, and basically, it's just not in the OS and won't be until at least WM6, and third-party programs can't do it.

JasperJanssen said:
There is just no way a third party program can add this. On the windows mobile team blog, there's a post from a few months back talking about doing virtual mem on the SD card, and basically, it's just not in the OS and won't be until at least WM6, and third-party programs can't do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those are very disappointing news...

Speaking of memory management and the OS itself..I really wonder during the development of WM5, did they try to come up with a better OS, or just building up upon WM2003.
Reason why I say this is my Universal crashed yesterday, and a look into the "Memory" panel in the Settings showed the OLD memory management screen along with the sliders and all... :lol:
Looks like the developers got lazy and just placed a panel on top of the old one :lol:

Ehh.. You guys want to be buying new SD cards every third month?
Flash memory like the SD cards have only a limited number of write operations before they fail.
Using them for storage is good, because you don't write to the cards that much.
Using them as memory would totally screw up the card in a rather short time.
And, I think using SD card for program memory would result in a slower application, because of the read/write speed of the SD compared to the RAM..
--- EDIT ---
3 months is just a figure of speach..
I have no idea of how much time it would take before failure occurs..
It would probably result in slower and slower performance, because some sectors would be worn out faster than others..

What you say about the writes before failure is right, but when you are faced with a £300 PDA that has the same amount of RAM as my little finger, you have to do something.
SD cards are cheap enough these days, and money grows on trees. I'd rather be able to leave programs open and not worry about how much it will slow the machine down to have more that three big apps running than I would be about coughing up for a new SD card every 3 months.
I have seen a 4GB card on Ebay for less than £80, Tescos sell 1GB for £30 these days.
The great thing about Tescos is their guarantee. You buy the card, write it to death, take it back for a full refund, no questions asked.

eWallet vs CodeWallet Pro

Thinking of getting one of these, any one here have experience of these two apps and any recommendations ?
Thanks.

Hello,
Actually I have pretty much experience with CodeWallet, eWallet and FlexWallet. I've been using eWallet for many years and recently switched to CodeWallet. There is a serious security issue with eWallet. It appears the Category names are in plain text unencrypted format !! Altought the actual cards are encrypted, I wouldn't be so happy for a thief to be able to see what I am hiding inside (i.e. Bank Accounts etc..) Sometimes the category name itself is something you would want to protect. That's why I switched over to CodeWallet even though CodeWallet provides only 128 bit encrptiong while eWallet provides 256 bit, though again with no category encryption.
MOBILER

Thanks for pointing that out.
I agree with you , eWallet is now off my list.
The other option I am looking at is instead getting Sentry 2020 which creates an encrypted mount. Then just have my sensitive info in Excel spreadsheets on that mount encrypted. Perhaps the encrypted mount can be my external storage card.
http://www.softwinter.com/sentry_ce.html
http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/wince/sentry/index.htm
Any opinions on this ?
Gut feeling , CodeWallet seems best all rounder so far.

hey linuxgeek
from my own personal experience, I've used many encryption programs and found all to have flaws except for this one: CryptoStroage which I eventually purchased.
It's key benefits is unlimited size - most other programs have limits of a few Mbs. with this program I can mount a few houndred MB volume on my SD Card where I put all my scanned documents in and view them with acrobat reader.
Another key benefit it has a desktop version so you could use the same volume to mount on your desktop pc. very neat, instead of going to the ppc each time. It is the most fast I've tested and is super easy to use. It looks like another SD card storage.
I think I've tested Sentry 2020 and found it was inconvenient for me.. but i'm not sure.. I may have not tested the recent version so I don't know. but I see Sentry costs $50 and Cryptostorage costs $20.
Let me know if there's something else i can help you with.

Great tip thanks for that.
Cryptostorage looks fab , definately going to get it.
Do you think its worth getting CodeWallet also or shall I just get Cryptostorage and like metioned earlier keep all my info in excel/word files inside the safe ?
Thanks for all your input.

Looking at Cryptostorage website it doesn't mention it works with Windows Mobile 5 .
Are you or any one using on a Universal with WM5 ?

LinuxGeek said:
Looking at Cryptostorage website it doesn't mention it works with Windows Mobile 5 .
Are you or any one using on a Universal with WM5 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
Yes it works on my Universal just fine. I found it to be the most convenient program among the encryption programs.
I do suggest getting Codewallet as well. It is not convenient to mount a volume each time, then fire up excel if only to check for a password. I personally have all my passwords, maybe a hundred stored with Codewallet and I also enjoy the Desktop version, which is easier to use when working on the desktop PC. I use my wallet file on the Synced My Document folder and then the desktop version and the PDA version are synced with the latest wallet file each time.

Thanks for reply.
I am moving towards getting eWallet and using cryptic category names because of its 256bit encryption.
I am definately going to get Cryptostorage too now that u confirm it is fine under Universal.
Thanks for all your input mate.

Anyone used cryptocard? I've been thinking of changing from myCodes Lite to this. myCodes seems OK but is a little slow.

Anyone ever wondered, how comes that CodeWallet can sync your Desktop/Mobile wallet without any password entered?
I guess they encrypt the data by record and keep a timestamp unencrypted. But this way if you often use the same login name and have many similar forms (Username, Login, URL), an attacker could get the password somehow, I think, since there is always the same beginning of the records.
It's something like security vs. sync-without-password-prompt. Where as 128bit RC4 isn't "strong" encryption nowadays anyways. I'm a bit concerned about the *real* security of this app...
Cheers,
-mARKUS

CodeWallet insecure
CodeWallet now is a NO GO for me. Found some patched EXE-file of its Desktop-version, where you can enter *any* 3-digit password to open your file. This is not security, this is INsecurity par excellence.
Cheers,
-mARKUS
UPDATE:
- Windows Mobile Security Software fails the test (info about header-copy to open files)
- mininova (first mention of this security flaw)
- PxDxA (detailed infos about this flaw)

New reg-hack: MemHack. Pre-Alpha.

I fiddled around with my wm6'd hx4700 (thanks kuzuhara!) and a registry editor and found a way to make it regard SD as ram and xip from it.
This renders my device to achieve usage smooth enough i allow myself to reffer to the device as a mini-umpc^_^
For SD only atm, miniSD may or may not work depending on your devices driver. No MMC for the time being.
I sooooo hope this isn't old news
Here's to me not ****ing any of your devices up, it worked wonders for me.
P.S
IMPORTANT!
Delete the Program Files folder and reset again once you see the SD's been renamed to Program Files2.
On the next boot it'll mount as Program Files and everything will load from it.
Excuse me, my brains are stuck in google translator mode
4.11.2007
It seems i was rather in the wrong and am taking a whole new direction.
One which involves reading more carefully before i charge head into the guts of windows embedded.
Will take me a while until next post, and it might become hx4700 exclusive, but i promise you some cool stuff to come yet.
Anybody wanting to make their SD into Program Files to save space,
just start resco reg editor and change hklm\System\StorageManager\Profiles\SDMemory\Folder: Program Files.
(Originally is SD Card).
You can also try messing with it, making it into diffenent sys folders, just be careful
Mine is currently application cache (Volatile) and [email protected] Files.
(Running sweet with what i got to with the enablement of complete graphics accelaration, except for a minor hang up when returning from sleep).
Sooooooooooo...
ONLY DOWNLOAD AND APPLY THE CURRENT PATCH IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR'E DOING AND WANT TO GIVE BEATING ME TO IT A SHOT!
I'm hoping for a next release in a day, but not necessarily of this project but of an off-chute.
BTW, is it just me or is WM real *nix like?^^

anyone tried this ?

ranasrule said:
anyone tried this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downloaded, but waiting to see what others think.
Want to know what it does to the SD card and device as the readme does say to move the devices contents of its program files folder to the sd card?????

downloaded it too. but i notice its his forst post.

Lol... it's my first post, sorry..
All it does is make the device call the card drive "Program Files" and set a swap file that's used as most device memory (don't worry, it's faster than most none-nand flash). i had to leave a small buffer in device memory though.
The memory file is unallocated, so just don't forget to leave 528MB free at all times.

Re-read the original post
It is and will be updated with periodic updates should they come.

I've been using it for 72 hours now.
It takes the odd reset to free up memory, but nothing worst than what we had before.

well if all thing got wrong.. anyway to revert it back?.. well ofcourse hard reset is one of it. uhmm.. lets put hardreset aside first..

well.. cant wait to test this.. i made a whole backup of my registry so if thing went wrong.. ill just restore the registry backup..

Good point doube_ofour.
Just export the StorageManager registry key before applying the changes, and if worst comes to worst restore your backed up original.

So, anybody else installed and can connect to tell the tale?

DuperMan said:
So, anybody else installed and can connect to tell the tale?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made a cab with the regs and installed it But I'm still experimenting .. Nothing bad happened so far how do i know the device is faster ?!! how did you measured your device's speed ?

So let me get this straight -- it will use the microSD in my TyTN as RAM -- the icky sticky stuff I run out of because internet explorer, pocket player, and spb mobile shell grab it all for themselves?
Is there any way to specify how much of the SD card is used as RAM -- since I don't really need 1 GB of RAM on my device.
I saw your post about 558 MB free but didn't quite understand it. You also said you need the odd softreset to free memory? but why would you need to free up a few MB when you have access to hundreds?
But thanks for sharing with the community -- if this really does work out well for us, that's pretty freaking amazing.

@DuperMan
Does this hack simply make our "Storage Card" transform into "Program Files"?.. Thats it?.. cant see any speed improvement.. besides my memory usage increased by that means my device will perform slow..
My "Program Memory and Storage Memory" Stays the same as 47mb total on both memory..

Exactly Ragart!
Only it's set to use miniSD, i think you'd have to mess with it a little to make it work on miniSD... if response is good i'll make a mini version.
Remember - It's only been tested on wm6 hx4700!

double_ofour said:
@DuperMan
Does this hack simply make our "Storage Card" transform into "Program Files"?.. Thats it?.. cant see any speed improvement.. besides my memory usage increased by that means my device will perform slow..
My "Program Memory and Storage Memory" Stays the same as 47mb total on both memory..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in my case my program memory decreased by something around 10mb ! and I can't see any improvement in speed too ...

miniSD, hmm? Well that's the slightly-larger brother of my 1GB MicroSD. So I guess I'll just watch the thread and see others' reactions before I try anything (though I do have fullbackups)
Thanks for the quick response. So how much RAM does your hx4700 'have' now? and did you set it to 558 extra for a reason? Just curious questions from a person who doesn't understand the intricacies of reg editing

@doube_ofour:
Use it for a while, constant usage should be smoother. Did you free the space up by deleting the old Program Files as well?
Use it to surf for a while, multiple windows style, and you'll notice the difference.
Also, don't be mean to my hack Don't load it to spite, wait for each app to load and keep on starting apps without (majorly) worrying about a system crash.
@hma4:
The age old method of feel
It doesn't boost anything per say, but your device shouldn't be as compaction ridden as it was, so less mem degradation over time=more time between resets under heavy work loads. and i mean heavy. also, multi-tasking is MUCH more usable.

@ragart:
I set it to have a 512Mb paging area on the SD, plus 512kb in main for caching and another 16Mb for caching on SD, so that's a total of 528.5Mb overall mem, 16.5Mb cache and half a gig paging (good for them internet chaches etc..

i check on the registry that u have made in ur reg hack. seems like all the folders etc is the same even for a miniSD card ... so do u think it will work on miniSD too?

How to increase the memory?

I have only a few things loaded into my phone and most of the programs are loaded into the memory card (8 gig). so why is it out of no where, i have only 9 Megs of memory left for storage!?!!?
since i'm on SPB Mobile Shell 3, can i just uninstall HTC's home thing? it's really obsolete now that the Shell 3 is not only beautiful but easy to use and very well laid out (which basically saying i did a good job laying it out).
what can be done to increase memory size? what is needed and what isn't?
thanks!!

chivas228 said:
I have only a few things loaded into my phone and most of the programs are loaded into the memory card (8 gig). so why is it out of no where, i have only 9 Megs of memory left for storage!?!!?
since i'm on SPB Mobile Shell 3, can i just uninstall HTC's home thing? it's really obsolete now that the Shell 3 is not only beautiful but easy to use and very well laid out (which basically saying i did a good job laying it out).
what can be done to increase memory size? what is needed and what isn't?
thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude, you must have a heap of stuff installed on your device. I install a fair bit of stuff with each new ROM, but generally have between 60 - 80 mb free.
you sure you haven't downloaded some stuff accidentally to your device instead of your storage card?

Sounds like your card could be corrupt.You could try put it in a card reader right click on your card in my computer click properties on under the tools tab click error checking.You could also try http://www.wizcode.com/products/view/pocket_mechanic_professional this is a demo but will let you scan your disk and fix cross linked files or corrupted volumes.

cr1960 said:
dude, you must have a heap of stuff installed on your device. I install a fair bit of stuff with each new ROM, but generally have between 60 - 80 mb free.
you sure you haven't downloaded some stuff accidentally to your device instead of your storage card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, i started off with 6.0 and upgraded to the oem 6.1 rom. i've stuck with it since it's simple and didn't seem to have much problems based on feedbacks on this board. i'm not sure if the OEM rom is bloated or not. maybe... hum... i'll have to look into that.
meknb said:
Sounds like your card could be corrupt.You could try put it in a card reader right click on your card in my computer click properties on under the tools tab click error checking.You could also try http://www.wizcode.com/products/view/pocket_mechanic_professional this is a demo but will let you scan your disk and fix cross linked files or corrupted volumes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have SK tools but i've also used Pocket Mechanic before but i don't remember if it made any difference. i'll give it a try and report back. Thanks!

Hello
Try the just released ScanDisk Mobile, this is an improved version of the ScanDisk version used in Pocket Mechanic that can detect and fix much more issues than Pocket Mechanic. It will become an integral part of Pocket Mechanic v3 soon! By the way if anybody is interested in beta testing our newest product - Unformat Mobile please drop me a message. Unformat Mobile scans the card sector by sector and uses zero assumption data recovery algorithms for reconstructing pieces of files found without even relying on the file system. Basically it is able to recover files from a formatted or severely damaged storage cards and so far alpha testing gives lots of promises!
Cheers,
Anton Tomov
Wizcode

chivas228 said:
I have only a few things loaded into my phone and most of the programs are loaded into the memory card (8 gig). so why is it out of no where, i have only 9 Megs of memory left for storage!?!!?
since i'm on SPB Mobile Shell 3, can i just uninstall HTC's home thing? it's really obsolete now that the Shell 3 is not only beautiful but easy to use and very well laid out (which basically saying i did a good job laying it out).
what can be done to increase memory size? what is needed and what isn't?
thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
r u talkin about the phone memory or the memory card

syto203 said:
r u talkin about the phone memory or the memory card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the phone memory.
i did the unthinkable for me today. i did a hard reset so i'm starting from scratch. i'm not sure what happened but now i have what i suspect is the "normal" amount of phone storage size which is 78 megs.
i think when i did a restore on the phone, it doubled what was in storage thus causing the low amount of memory.
i guess sometimes it's good to do a hard reset to clean things up though i had my phone setup perfectly... exactly the way i want it except for the memory part.