Boot OS from SD card? - Acer Iconia A500

Does anyone know if it's possible to boot the A500 from an SD card rather than the internal RAM? I've seen the capability with other tablets (Nook Color, ASUS Transformer, etc.). It seems to me that accessing my external class 10 SD card is much faster than accessing the internal memory so I figured running the entire system off of the external SD might produce a performance boost. I don't mean just moving some apps there like apps2sd - I mean running the entire OS there.
In the case of the Nook Color it seems to be inherent in the hardware. If the SD card is prepped properly it will boot from it rather than the internal memory. This allows you to have two different ROMs available so you can test out one without goofing up the other. In the case of the TF701 Transformer some XDA ROM builders have moved the OS to the external SD due to the poor performance of the internal RAM.
Anyone ever looked into this? Maybe a small mod to Skrillax's boot loader or a small bootloader on the SD card called update.zip (since the system seems to run that if it's present.) I'm not an android dev so I don't know the ins and outs. Just curious to know if it might be possible.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium HD app

Related

Is 2gb sd card enough for a A2SD?

I was just wondering would the sd card that the hero comes with (2gb) be worth it to parition it for A2SD?
thats what im using have about 40 something apps on it
Absolutely worth it. I was getting low space warnings without a2sd, but I'm running just fine now.
If you're one who loads a lot of music and video on your phone, you'll probably want to upgrade to a larger card anyway, but if you don't fill it up with that sort of thing, then you can install a2sd and still have plenty of space left for other things.
question: doesent a2sd fry your sd card overtime?
It's not so much the size you should be worried about, it's the speed. You want a class 4 or better, preferably class 6, 8 or 10.

[Q] Internal SD

I don't mean to cause any alarm, but does anyone know if the internal 16 GB SD card in the Nexus S is the same as the one in the failure-prone Bell SGS?
Hoping it's not...
fast1fred said:
I don't mean to cause any alarm, but does anyone know if the internal 16 GB SD card in the Nexus S is the same as the one in the failure-prone Bell SGS?
Hoping it's not...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...the memory failure from the SGS on bell was caused by leaked software that wasnt ready
Is the memory on this a soldered SD card or proper flash which would give better read/write speeds? e.g. the WP7 devices with flash memory load apps and games faster.
Mujja said:
Is the memory on this a soldered SD card or proper flash which would give better read/write speeds? e.g. the WP7 devices with flash memory load apps and games faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iFixit had a teardown and it is flash memory soldered on the PCB

[Q] Honeycomb on Nook running very slow

I'm running deeperblue's honeycomb off an 8gb sd card on my Nook Color. Everything runs extremely slow, even things as simple as checking email, accessing the web, etc.
Any suggestions?
nking79 said:
I'm running deeperblue's honeycomb off an 8gb sd card on my Nook Color. Everything runs extremely slow, even things as simple as checking email, accessing the web, etc.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try a different SD card. Cheaper cards are generally better for running a rom because they have a faster small block read/write speed. More expensive cards are better in nearly every other aspect then what you're trying to do. I run HC (Madcat's Hybird) of a class 2 4GB Sandisk card (about $15 at Wal Mart) and it runs great. My wife's running CM7 off an identical card. Both are perfect.
I'm running HC off a PNY 8GB class 4 card, which was $24 from Best Buy. Maybe I should try to format the card and start over? Should I install CM7 on the card as well? Not sure of the process to follow - can you provide a link?
I'll bet you need a different MicroSD card to solve your performance issue, as hockeyfamily737 mentioned above.
See this thread: SD Strange-results - or - How I learned to love CM7 on SD
to find out why.
This software : Crystal Disk Mark is what we are using to test card speed.
Office Max is having a sale on SanDisk class 2/4 MicroSD cards, 8 gig size, for 12.99 a piece until saturday, might want to see if there's one around you.
Having been in the situation you are in, the MicroSD card used makes a significant difference.
Also, try downloading the app "SD Speed Increase" by Diego Stamigni. Setting the cache size to 2048kb can dramatically improve performance on the card you are using now. It's one of my must-have apps for running android from the SD card on the Nook.
Edited to add:
I used to run the same honeycomb version you are, but I swapped over to Dualboot Phiremod / Honeycomb Image. I run it from the sdcard, and the phiremod version of cm7 is my new daily-driver. It's a great image, you might want to check it out.
also honeycomb isnt fully reeased for AOSP so the nook version is just a port of the SDK, also maybe try a class 6 sd card? you can get a class 6 8gig for like $18 of amazon, i use a class 6 and its very fast

[Q] help. none of the app to SD card apps work!

I have tried every app to SD apps I can find and none of them work on my 3.1 tranformer.
All of them take me to the built in app management page and do not provide any move to SD BUTTON. I m nub to android .
android 3.0/3.1 manages the space for apps and data itself, you can use the space however you like, fill the whole 16/32gb up with apps if you like, or have just a few and tons of movies etc fill the space.
apps2sd isn't necessary or possible in honeycomb.
I was talking about the micro SD slot.
Are you saying that when it runs out of space on the internal storage it starts using the micro
SD if not how no I move apps onto the micro SD? That seem to be what those app to SD do. This is confusing.
The apps were for android 2.x devices that only had a small amount of storage and used SD cards for extra. Your transformer has 16GB of space to fill. If you keep your media on sd cards you'll have a hard time filling 16GB with apps.
CarsnGadgets said:
android 3.0/3.1 manages the space for apps and data itself, you can use the space however you like, fill the whole 16/32gb up with apps if you like, or have just a few and tons of movies etc fill the space.
apps2sd isn't necessary or possible in honeycomb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying that when it runs out of space on the internal storage it starts using the micro SD if not how no I move apps onto the micro SD? That seem to be what those app to SD do. This is confusing.
Pre Honeycomb, you generally had a limited amount of space to install apps (say 512mb Max). With Honeycomb, pretty much all the space you have can be taken up by apps if required, but the SD card is still available for media.
Regards,
Dave
rilot said:
The apps were for android 2.x devices that only had a small amount of storage and used SD cards for extra. Your transformer has 16GB of space to fill. If you keep your media on sd cards you'll have a hard time filling 16GB with apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank. I got the 32 GB version.
mclout99 said:
thank. I got the 32 GB version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
honeycomb is different from android 2.x ...the whole internal storage is like the old microsd....it will take quite a bit effort to fill in its 16 or 32gb space ....
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
magicpork said:
honeycomb is different from android 2.x ...the whole internal storage is like the old microsd....it will take quite a bit effort to fill in its 16 or 32gb space ....
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just add sat nav programs.
Copilot, Aura and Google Nav, theres almost 10gig. lol..
Even the Froyo A2SD doesn't help much to clear up internal space as only the app itself get move, any data related to the apps still reside in the phone.
Like already stated, even the 16G TF there's a lot of space.

Adoptable storage problems

I was just wondering how many of you have had problems/success with the adoptable storage. I have had two Moto x pures and both have messed up memory cards. I have lost 3 cards total that I could not access even when I tried from my PC. If you have had success I would love to know what card you are using. I've used a SanDisk ultra 64gb. A Samsung Evo 32gb and a lexar 32gb. The blue and gray ones. I'm not sure what the model was. All three of those are dead now pretty much because I can't access them.
What have you done to kill them? Are you rooted and flashing Roms or is this with the stock rom and no root? If the later do they just fail randomly or is there a specific trigger?
Running completely stock. No root. No Roms. I've never flashed anything on these particular phones. I never saw anything in common when the memory cards stopped working. It would just say the memory card was removed and then I would not be able to access it or anything stored on. When I would insert it into the computer it would say I needed to format the card.
Adopted storage puts a lot of stress on SD cards, unofficially even Motorola recommends against it (look in the Lenovo Support forums, several Motorola representatives recommend not to use adopted storage if you can get away with it). The problem is consumer microSD cards are not intended for constant read/write use that adopted storage puts the card though, thus they fail much earlier than "typical" usage situations. Again, this varies by card and it's quality, some will go a very long time, others not so much.
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Moto-X...ard-Portable-or-Internal-storage/td-p/3536596
Did you then format the card and test it? Either the card failed due to read write degrading it or it really lost connection and that damaged the file structure.
It may just be the file system not recognised by Windows. Use a low level SD card formatting tool and check after doing a full format.
Sent from my XT1572 using Tapatalk
An SDcard formatted for adoptable storage is encrypted and won't be readable on your computer.
Also, there are a bunch of counterfeit cards for sale these days. They work, sort-of. They're 4-gig cards modified to report a higher capacity. Once you put too much data on them, the filesystem can get corrupted.
Even if the cards are good, I've had nothing but issues with adoptable storage. I've only used it on a Moto E with 4 gigs of storage. My Moto X uses portable storage, and I've had no issues.
Adoptable storage for the most part had been a failure in my opinion. Some OEMs disable the function, such as Samsung. If you read around, you see many bad stories about the storage as well. Granted some people like it, but it is just not worth it all things considered. Personally, I think the original concept of saving select apps to the sd card worked better. If the app performance was poor, you could move it to internal. Would love to see that option come back.
Sent from mTalk
I used apptosd for years and it worked well.
So I guess next time I should just get a phone with more internal memory. I figured since I already had memory cards and adoptable storage was an option I could just save some cash and get the 16gb phone. I'm still hoping someone shares a positive story and what memory card they are using with success.
Me and my wife both had our 1st cards ruined in the Moto x pure. I don't remember the brand but since off eBay they could have easily been knockoffs. Wasn't using them as addoptive storage. I am now. PC would not recognize them. There are programs that I have had success with for free on PC to retrieve your photos from the cards even though the PC doesn't read them
affiatic said:
Me and my wife both had our 1st cards ruined in the Moto x pure. I don't remember the brand but since off eBay they could have easily been knockoffs. Wasn't using them as addoptive storage. I am now. PC would not recognize them. There are programs that I have had success with for free on PC to retrieve your photos from the cards even though the PC doesn't read them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my personal preference, I back up my photos to a PC monthly. But just to be sure I lose very little should my card go south, I use Google photos to backup while charging and on wifi. The unlimited option for photos means a slight reduction in size, but I also have peace of mind that I will still have them.
I was using adoptable storage for about a year in my old moto e lte without issues (sandisk 16gb), it was working great although I wasn't moving any apps to card. One time when I messed something up (definitely it was my fault) I couldn't acces my card but all I had to do was to put card into sd card reader and format it using partition wizard (you have to delete partitions that windows can't acces on it's own).
I have noticed my phone seems a bit slower launching some apps since I started adopted storage. Maybe an extra second to launch so it doesn't bother me. I am using am emtec u1 class 10 gold card. I don't know anything about the brand and am almost embarrassed to admit that I bought it at the hardware store lol
I have been using a SanDisk Ultra 32gb for 6 months without issue on stock non- rooted ROM. I don't take many pictures so no big deal for me if it gets corrupted. Amazon has the SanDisk 64gb Ultra for $16.00. Sadly I have the 16gb Pure.
I have the 16gb version with a Sandisk UHC-1 64gb as adoptable storage for about 2 months. Haven't had any issues so far and I moved the majority of my apps to the sd. Also haven't noticed any significant delay or performance impact either. I'm a casual user, no games or heavy demanding apps installed.

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