Hey i want to know how to format SD-Card ideally:
for example which allocation unit size ?
lg
tonga
Edit:
I was told in IRC to use SD Formatter 2.0
You should turn "format size adjustment" on
Higher allocation sizes are always higher in performance, but you loose capacity depending on the contents of your card. (small files occupy more space then their real size and you waste some space)
Panasonic sd format tool properly formats your sd card. Setting ERASE ON should also help with performance degradation.
If you want highest performance and do not care about some wasted space, format your card with panasonic sd format tool 2.0 or 3.0 with ERASE set to on. Panasonic tool usually formats with 32K size by default. (Larger cards)
After panasonic tool you can reformat your card with 64K cluster size in windows format.
High allocation size also lowers stutters under many android linux kernels. (especially evo based ones)
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/index.html
I used SDFormatter 2.0 with adjustment on. It formatted the card to FAT32, which is what pretty much everyone says is the correct format for Android.
how do u know if the sd card is formatted to FAT32 ? i have no option while using the software. the only two option is a/ full format, flash erase on/off b/format size adjustment off
plz disregard above question, once the program complete fat32 will appear in notification. (i post that question while formatting my card !!!!)
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
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
Right now its FAT, I never formatted it, I just jammed it into the device.
Should I format FAT32? Anyone know?
TIA.
Best to stay FAT if you format to FAT32 your device may not recognize your card. If you ever do format it - do it on the device using storage tools or sktools.
I've used only one of my two 1gb mini-SD's to hold PocketMusic program files and MP3's. I think it was formatted FAT to begin with, but I was unable to copy more than 400mb to the card until I reformatted it to FAT32. It then loaded up with MP3's and there have been no problems. I did the formatting on the PC, not the MDA.
Any card >2gb will require FAT32 formatting, as 2gb is the limit for FAT16.
I want to format my miniSD card and I can choose FAT or FAT32.
What is the difference between them and what is beter to use for the trinity?
Thanx a lo!
John
jjplayground said:
I want to format my miniSD card and I can choose FAT or FAT32.
What is the difference between them and what is beter to use for the trinity?
Thanx a lo!
John
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know the technical aspects, but personally I found FAT32 to be more reliable (and quicker).
The primary reason for creating the FAT32 system was to alleviate the 2GB limitation of the FAT system (or rather FAT16 as it is).
In addition to this, FAT32 does not have a Root Directory Region as FAT has, and therefore it does not have the (in practice) 512 limit for entries in the root directory.
Also FAT32 allows for more files to be stored on the system than FAT, in practice 268,435,437 vs. 65,517.
For a SD card I don't really see any reason that FAT32 should be superior to FAT, unless you run into the 512 or 65,517 limits.
There should be no difference in neither performance nor reliability between the two.
hi.
how about the choice of cluster syze when formating? is this important? in what way?
I tried to create an image backup and the file stopped at 4gb,
(both for 8gb and 32gb cards). I was able to boot a Linux
OS and use DD to image both cards successfully. Windows
refused to NTFS format a 16gb flash drive, I had to use
Linux to create it .
It seemed like the maximum file size win32imager.exe
could create was 4gb, (like it was stuck with fat32
rules , even though it was outputting to an NTFS
disk).
Thanks
EDIT: Sorry, didn't realize you meant you wanted to do an image backup (unless you mean from within CWM, then my post stands).
I just do what I need to do with disk imager, and when I'm done, format within Android to give it the full 16gb back. I've read some threads where CM7 didn't format the SD card correctly and wound up formatting the boot partition instead, so I formatted in my phone instead to be safe.
A couple noteworthy bugs...
4GB limit:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+bug/724102
Incorrect device size (potentially truncated images even < 4GB):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+bug/786060
Yes exactly my issue
win32imager.exe can't image > 4gb cards.
I guess I'll have to boot to Linux to image
the big cards, unless there is a working
win32 tool?
If you have enough space on the card so that you can use EASEUS to reduce the size of the last partition so that 4G or less is used on the card you can then make the image file. I did this to copy a CM7 install to a faster Sandisk card.
how?
I am trying to back up 8gb card
last 4.3 gb are unallocated
dd still fails "file too large"