Database Users

XDAIIi & Best SD Card

Hi.
I have many questions which have been skimmed across on quite a few other topics in this forum, I wish to ask more in depth questions for all you IT Brainiacs which I lookup to greatly 8)
I own a XDAIIi and a 512MB Kingston SD Card.
Using 'Storage Tools' by softwinter...
http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html
The SD Card is formatted:
FAT 16 (Backup FAT)
Cluster Size (The Largest Size)
I also use TomTom Navigator 3.07 with GPS 3.07.
I experience frequent lockups whilst driving.
What I am asking you guys is what is THE BEST AND ULTIMATE SD CARD to use in my XDAIIi with TomTom.
I know about all the Sandisk Ultra II/Extreme III but pocketgps.co.uk...
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/storage-card-compatibility.php
Do not advise using Sandisk cards due to their poor performance.
Do any of you guys recommened how to tweak my SD card but increasing/decreasing the cluster size or formatting the card with FAT32 !? Or are there any REG Hacks that people know of how to increase the stability of the XDAIIi using the SD Card slot.
Also are there any solid specs of HOW fast the XDAIIi SD Slot can Read/Write to SD Cards?!
Sorry to ask such harsh, to-the-point questions but I have learn so much from this forum and will be donating money soon as if I were to ask or ring the customer services of the products I own they would charge a bomb on phone calls and not answer my questions.
This forum does neither of those
Thanks in advance,
lydiachris

SD Ram XDA IIi
The only card that I have found to reliable with the XDA IIi is the Kingston, I have the 1GB version currently formated FAT16 32 Secs, 512 bytes per sector and Tom Tom functions perfectly...Hope this helps...

Hi there. thankyou for VERY quick reply.
Please could you explain more about the way you have formatted your card.
I understand the FAT16 bit but what do you by 32 SECS and 512 bytes per sector.
Thankyou again,
lydiachris
ps. I take it that you are using the standard Kingston (blue), not the elite pro version (white)

The Kingston "Elite Pro" range is miles faster than the standard kingston SD cards, and only about 20% pricier (at http://www.picstop.com/securedigital.htm). Just replaced my Kingston 256 with an Elite Pro 1GB, and Tomtom flies! (5 times faster to load)
PS if you're using Tomtom's GPS 3.07, you might wish to change to one of the earlier versions that doesn't hijack your BT stack (Pocket GPS world has loads of info and downloads for this)

Hi there. Are you serious?!? Do you have a XDAIIi ???
I am currently using a standard blue kingston 512MB SD.
But I have just bought an Elite Pro 512MB SD Card for £33 which I am quite pleased with
Please could you post some more info on the formatting question I have posted above.
How did you format your card Fredrick_Fredrickson.
Also what does the 'Cluster Size' of an SD Card mean. I understand that if you have many large files i.e. like TomTom maps (all the individual files) then it is better to have a larger cluster size than say if you have many little files like photos.
Am I correct in saying that!?
Cheers,
Lydiachris
Ps. has anyone got one of these?!?!?!
http://www.kingston.com/digitalmedia/sdultimate.asp

Very serious!
5 times quicker to load.
Just did a quick back to back ABA test, starting up Tomtom.
Kindston Elite Pro (1GB): 15 seconds
Kingston Standard (256Mb): 53 seconds
Both cards formatted FAT32 with default cluster sizes.
Test on an XDAII (not XDAIIi)
Note that the new Elite Pro cards are also blue, like the standard ones.

Hi thankyou.
That is really amazing!!!!
Could you please look further into how your cards are formatted, i.e. cluster sizes.
Why FAT32??? Doesn't this cause lockups whilst your using tomtom????!!!!!
I thought that SD Cards usually work better with the FAT16 file system?
Actually, do you experience any lockups at all with tomtom???
Regarding the colour of the cards, what colour is your elite pro card???
Because if you go on the link that I posted above, they are actually the ultimate kingston card.
With 133X read / write etc...
Cheers,
lydiachris

The manufacturer of Storage Tools says (http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools_faq.html):
Q: What file system I should use FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32?
A: It depends on the storage card size. For larger cards, 64MB and up, the answer is almost always FAT32. FAT32 can be incompatible with digital cameras.
My cluster size is:
256MB standard card: 512 bytes
1GB Elite pro: 4Kb
I've not had any trouble with lockups (touch wood)
My card colour is blue, but it is definitely an Elite Pro, not an Ultimate.

Hi,
For those experiencing lockups using TomTom 3 and XDA2i please look at my thread, its not the SD card its the Phone that causes the lockups.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=21002&highlight=
Cheers
Blue

Hi thankyou.
But how the hell do you turn your bluetooth on with flight mode enabled?!?!
It is impossible on a XDAIIi.
UNLESS your using a wired gps receiver?!?!?

SD Card and Formatting
I don't know if anyone is interested but I have done extensive testing on my XDAIIi with my Kingston Elite Pro 512MB SD Card.
Using Spb Benchmark
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/benchmark/?en
and softwinter's storage tools
http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html
I have tried formatting my SD Card withmany various differnt set-ups.
I.e. differnt cluster sizes, FAT 16 and FAT 32, back-up FAT or not.
And by using the 'storage card' benchmark option on SPB Benchmark I have found that my Kingston Elte Pro card functions best and fastest by formatting it like this...
FAT16
512 byte Sector Size
64KB Cluster Size
Backup FAT - NO.
Hope this helps some people, maybe other people can try with their makes of storage card and post their results.
The next 'best' format was with..
FAT32
512 byte Sector Size
32KB Cluster Size
Backup FAT - NO
Also another observation I made was if you format the card using the first set up but have
Backup FAT - YES
There is a significant decrease in speed operation.
As I said above I format my cards in my XDAIIi or through my laptops media card reader.
Hope this helps!!
Happy testing 8)
Cheers,
lydiachris

SD Card which format

Hi there,
my 2GB SD card has just arrived and I am wondering which format is safer/faster with WM5, and which cluster size is recommendable...
Thanks,
Manuel
P.S: I benchmarked the card with Pocket Mechanic (it is an extrememory 133xSpeed) and for reading I get a value of 0.96 M/sec - thats quite slow for a 133x Card, isnt it?

IMHO the larger FAT means seek times are much slower for small file writes. In my personal experience, my old old 128MB Panasonic SD card is much faster for general usage than my 1GB Sandisk Ultra II.
Of course, if you copy movies and music onto the card, the 133x would be faster for sustained transfers...
All that, and I can't really answer your question

Write speed of MicroSD very slow.

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has benchmarked their storage cards using SKtools ?
I have a 1GB Toshiba microSD and SKtools shows that the average
Read is about 10000KB/s while write is incredibly slow at 200Kb/s
The card is currently formatted using default specs (FAT). I tried formatting at FAT32 before at 8K cluster size but write speed was even slower than ... 60KB/s.
I plan to upgrade to 80x MicroSD but not sure if it will make any difference.
Any advice or figures to share as well ?
cheers
fy

If you mean that it's slow when transfering via the usb it's because HERMES only has USB1.0

formatting for android

ok so apparently its best to format to FAT32 32cluster right? but is FAT32 the same as just FAT 32cluster size or not? having problems achieving both
you cant choose these options through sd format on the phone and if i try to do it through my pc via usb Disk Drive connection, on windows format i can choose either -
file system: FAT (default)
Allocation unit size: 32 kilobytes
OR
file system: FAT32
allocation size:lots of options but not 32!
also tried a pc card formatter i saw in another post but that doesnt give many options and when its formatted it says its just to 32
card is a sandisk 2 gig not sure of the class? just came with the phone

maybe a 2gig micro sd doesnt support 32k clusters in fat32?
try upgrading to a 4 or 8 gb card. maybe even a class 4 or 6

yeah maybe. might have to invest in one. surely that would then make android more reliable also???

I've read and found through my experience that my Roms run best with a 4096 cluster size. Any time I tried another size I would get stuck in the crazy fsck check with a large amount of those files all over my card. Though I have also been told that bigger is better.
Basically all my sd cards have been formatted like this.
format x: /fs:FAT32 /a:4096 /v:android /q
x - being whatever drive you have assigned to your phone
android - being whatever label you wish
Never a problem since.

I use 64 cluster size formatted using pc and it works great for me. Supposedly it gives you less space but faster r/w speed. I've never had an issue with space using stock 16 gig class 2 card and runs every build I've flashed great.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

Defy - What's the Fastest SD card speed?

Hi fellow Defyers,
Didn't get any answers to my last post, so I obviously asked the wrong question.
I'm wanting to know what's the correct, fastest speed Class microSD card for my Defy. Nobody really seems to know.
There should be a spec, but I can't find it. I've searched all over this forum, but haven't found a answer. There are lots threads about which brands and classes work and which don't, but nothing much about real world speeds. I know that speeds vary. It depends on the Hardware, ROM and other Software running, but there must be a "best" answer.
I suspect my Defy SDHC card slot is really Class 6 speed, but lots of people report using Class 10 SD cards. What I want to know is are they actually faster?
I've installed the free "SD Tools" SD card Speed Tester app from the Market - Google Play. It's a very simple app, but gave me no problems. Except, speeds vary. I suggest a Reboot, don't open anything else and wait 3 minutes before running, to get the best result.
I get 9.3MB/s Write and 14.4MB/s Read from an ADATA 4GB Class 6 card.
I'm running Android 2.2.2. Can't really root it 'cos it's the Company-supplied phone.
Anyone getting much better than that out of Class 10?
Please post your results [Defy Model, Android ver, Card Make, Size, Class, Test App, Write MB/s, Read MB/s] here!
Mine:
MB525, 2.2.2, ADATA, 4GB, Class 6, SD Tools, Wr: 9.3MB/s, Rd: 14.4MB/s
Cheers,
D

DefiAnt2 said:
It depends on the Hardware, ROM and other Software running, but there must be a "best" answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's apparently another factor that I haven't tested myself and forgot to mention, but that's SD Card format. Seems the cluster size also makes a difference, though that will (should, may?) depend on the type of test. Sustained, large reads and writes (as done by SD Tools) should be faster with a larger cluster size, and I think sustained speeds are what matters for shooting video, or playing HD movies.
To determine your card Format and Cluster size (one way - are there better ways?) is to connect to USB, go to a Command prompt and run CHKDSK X: where X is the Windows Drive letter for your SD Card. The first line gives the Format type. Further down, the Cluster size is the number of "bytes in each allocation unit."
BTW, if CHKDSK says you have errors on your SD Card, well, be careful! You may have errors. Or, you may have a Card Compatibility issue. But I wouldn't go Fixing them with CHKDSK. I'd investigate carefully as to the cause before going further. Like, take the card out of your phone and connect it to a PC using an SD Card Reader, and check it again. If there errors aren't still showing, you definitely have compatibility problems. And, if there are still errors, it very likely means your SD Card data IS corrupted, and was probably caused by a compatibility issue or some other problem like a phone lock up while writing data, or maybe a Battery Pull (VERY BAD IDEA) also while the card was being written.
I'm not exactly sure about how to determine the Sector size for SD Cards (which is why I'm talking Cluster size), but for Hard Disks it's normally 512 bytes / sector. SD Cards could, I suppose be different as they are not rotating media, but I haven't yet figured out how to get that data out of them. Anyway, assuming 512 bytes / sector, 32k sectors (32,768 bytes) per cluster is obviously 32,768 / 512 = 64 sectors per cluster.
Please feel free to post your results [Defy Model, Android ver, Card Make, Size, Class, Format, Cluster size, Test App, Write MB/s, Read MB/s] here!
Mine:
MB525, 2.2.2, ADATA, 4GB, Class 6, FAT32, 32k clusters, SD Tools, Wr: 9.3MB/s, Rd: 14.4MB/s
Cheers,
D
P.S. I found a cheap 8GB Class 10 card... Interesting!

just tested my configuration:
bayer mb525, cm7.2 (2.3.7), kingston class 10 16gb sdhc, formatted fat32 with 64k cluster size, and my results are 10.7w/25.2r.
sent from my cm7 defy...

Please ask all questions in Q&A. Thread moved there.

I get 4.5mb/s write -14.3mb/s read on an class 2 sd I think, not sure, MB526 2.3.6 stock Android

Hi Feche, zakoo2
Thanks for that.
Turns out, nothing is simple. I have now found that it depends a lot on what "services" are also running when you run the test.
For example, if I have Data enabled, Bluetooth enabled and Satellite enabled (but none active), I get significantly lower readings, especially for Read.
On top of that, SD Tools seems to give more consistent results if you ignore the first test and run it a second and third time.
However, I have also found that my MB525 DOES get faster Read results with a Class 10 card. Only slightly faster for Write though.
I guess this means the MB525 Hardware is (more-or-less?) Class 10 capable. At least, for Read. Or, it may also depend on the individual card Manufacturer. A-Pacer not being a Top of the Line brand.
My best results, with all the services turned off:
MB525, 2.2.2, A-Pacer, 8GB, Class 10, FAT32, ??k clusters, SD Tools, Wr: 9.7MB/s, Rd: 20.7MB/s
(Forgot to check cluster size, sorry.)
I'll post other results later.
Cheers,
D2