I bought a 2GB Sandisk SD card a few months back. Today I tried transfering about 700MB worth of programs from my PC to the root folder of my storage card, but at around the 500MB mark, it stops transfering, saying there is no more room on the card. When I check the memory, it still says that there is roughly 1500MB free space. Furthermore, when I simply make a new folder on the root folder of the storage card, I can transfer the last 200MB without a problem. So clearly the full size can be transfered onto the SD, but there seems to be a limit on the root folder. What gives?
Thanks.
The FAT filing system used on SDcards is a carry-over from the 'good old days' of DOS, and it had some severe limitations on number & size files that were stored in the root folder of a drive.
This is simply due to (in FAT's case at least) it being developed at a time when 80Mb drives were considered huge...
The simple workaround is to NOT put stuff in the root folder if it's a) huge in size, or b) many, many files.
Just make folders in the root and store the files in there, you should have no problems.
Joe
Related
I know this is weird, or it might be just me not knowing much about this stuff, but here's what happened
Yesterday I was looking for a software for maps/navigation and ended up installing a free one (OsmAnd), and then procceeded to create the maps with Mobile Atlas Creator.
So far so good, I created a detailed map for my zone, consisting of around 95k tiles according to the program, which weighted around 440MB.
So I checked the free space on my SD Card and it said that it had 1.5GB free, so I proceeded to copy it. The thing is, it told me that I didn't have enough space. I thought it was an error, so I tried again, but it just wouldn't let me.
So I then went to check my SD Card and erased a lot of things that were there that I wouldn't need anymore, and I freed around 3.8GS worth of space, and tried again. This time, it did copy the files (which by the way, took bloody ages), and after it was finished, I checked the available space on the SD and it said that it had around 150MB free.
I can't help but think that something is awfully wrong, but I also thing this could be related to some sort of compression or something alike (I used both, a Mac with OSX and a PC with Windows 7).
What do you guys know/think about this?
Sorry I can't help with your problem.
But your in Alajuela Costa Rica? If so awesome I am in Jaco
Are you on kolbi? How's it working out for you?
It's probably because of the block size of the sd card. When you copy lots of small files (like you did) they will therefore take up a lot more space.
On 4GB cards I believe that the block size is larger than for instance a 8GB. that's my experience anyway.
Tech_Boy said:
Sorry I can't help with your problem.
But your in Alajuela Costa Rica? If so awesome I am in Jaco
Are you on kolbi? How's it working out for you?
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Click to collapse
Yes, I'm in Alajuela. And Kolbi, for me at least, is working just fine.
I'm getting like 950kbps download and 300kbps upload (which might suck for people outside CR, but it's quite awesome around here)
Metallan said:
Yes, I'm in Alajuela. And Kolbi, for me at least, is working just fine.
I'm getting like 950kbps download and 300kbps upload (which might suck for people outside CR, but it's quite awesome around here)
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Click to collapse
Yeah I am getting 1056kps download and around 300kps upload too; love it! Working great. Except for waiting for my replacement nexus to get here
It depends on the partitioning of the SD card.
If you have it partitioned with big blocks and copying a huge amount of small files - yes, theoretically it's possible. How many files are we talking about?
Jack_R1 said:
It depends on the partitioning of the SD card.
If you have it partitioned with big blocks and copying a huge amount of small files - yes, theoretically it's possible. How many files are we talking about?
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Around 95 thousand XD
I guess that's it then.
Is there any way to change that?
I just ordered a new 16GB SD card, but if there's anything I could do to prevent something like this in the future, that would be great.
Only to change file system on the SD card to use smaller blocks (less wasteful, but more reads/writes and less performance), or use packed file format (pack all the small files into one bigger file - using tar/zip/whatever), or use compressing file system (it's going to be troublesome - NTFS supports that, but I'm not sure NTFS-formatted SD card will mount on Android, and it's also performance overhead).
The main trouble is that on 16GB card you're going to have those files take 4 times as much space as they did on 4GB card. Since these are very small files, each file is essentially a block - and the blocks grow in direct proportion to SD card size (using FAT32 and considering big cards). So by moving to 16GB card you're not gaining much.
Thanks for the answer.
The problem is mainly due to the fact that my current SD Card is only 4GB, and it's class 2, so I guess changing the partition for smaller blocks would indeed affect the performance.
Perhaps when I get my new 16GB Class 6 one that one will be a better choice.
I'll wait and see then.
UPDATE: Just saw you updated your post, so I'll update mine too.
I searched a little bit more on the dev's page and they warn about that behavior too. But they also indicate a way of creating a different type of file that the app also recognizes, that is like putting all the 95k files in one only file.
It's a bit bigger than the actual size of the 95k tiles (tiles were like 75MB, and the file is like 91MB), but I guess that this will alleviate the issue of it the file size skyrocketing when transferred to the SD Card.
Thank you very much for your explanation, it really helped me, at least it encouraged me to do some more research and find a solution to my problem.
Format with smaller allocation unit size...
( HTC Desire Android 2.2 )
I had the same problem with my card getting full because of the big
allocation size. 500MB of files, took all my space on the 2GB SD-card.
I copied the whole card to my computers harddisk, where it used 3.44GB
of space. (because of larger allocation size)
I formatted my 2GB SD-card to FAT32 with an allocation unit size of 512
bytes. I moved all files back to my SD-card, and I now have all my space
back, and my almost 2GB total filesize (before formatting), is down to 500MB.
I don`t notice any difference in the phones performance. I use a sea-map
app. that stores the maps on the SD-card, and it works perfect.
You might want to try a higher allocation unit size than I did, I just don`t
want to waste any more time copying to find out what size is ideal.
Exact numbers now:
52.362 files, 136 folders
Size: 500MB
Size on disk: 516MB
Total capacity: 1,86GB
Free space: 1,36GB
Backup size on PC: 3,44GB
Hope this helps!
Post your feedback and findings
Only had the NC for a couple days. However, after some searching I'm still at a loss over this issue. I apologize if this is a well know issue that I've glossed over somehow. I used AutoNooter 2.12.18 on 12/23 after applying the 1.0.1 update. I assume this typical behavior unless something went wrong. Everything would be appear to be fine otherwise.
Why do apps like DropBox, Awesome Drop etc ignore the internal storage option?
Is there any known workaround to get these apps to use the internal storage?
Is purchasing an External MicroSD card the only way to make these apps work?
DId you let the nook format the DS card after rooting?
edit: Thought you had an SD card installed. I thought there was only 5gb of usable storage. At least when going to settings that is all I have ever seen even on a stock nc.
epakrat75 said:
Only had the NC for a couple days. However, after some searching I'm still at a loss over this issue. I apologize if this is a well know issue that I've glossed over somehow. I used AutoNooter 2.12.18 on 12/23 after applying the 1.0.1 update. I assume this typical behavior unless something went wrong. Everything would be appear to be fine otherwise.
Why do apps like DropBox, Awesome Drop etc ignore the internal storage option?
Is there any known workaround to get these apps to use the internal storage?
Is purchasing an External MicroSD card the only way to make these apps work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfrotunately, i cannot help too much with the drop box question, i but i can give some insight on the internal storage.
There is an 8GB chip, but it is partitioned in a few ways. There is a 5GB partition that is user accessible and is what you see when you connect the computer to the nook. TO the system however, this is the /media folder (using astro explorer, you can see this; navigate to the top directory, and if you open the /media folder, you will see what normally mounts on your computer).
Now, we also have an abnormally large /data partition - 1GB infact. We can install a huge number of apps. /system has 450mb and cache has 350mb - bringing us close to the formatted 8GB internal chip.
So, stepping back to your question - if you can point Dropbox (or the like) at a specific folder, point it to /media, and you will have your 5GB of storage.
That all makes sense now. It's how the partitions are setup on the internal storage that's throwing the apps off. That also explains another question I had why Astro initially showed nothing until I navigated elsewhere.
My file system is totally confused. When I browse to EMMC from a file manager it goes to my SD Card. If I browse to SD Card it actually goes to the internal drive.
I've had my rooted Nook Color for about 5 weeks now (CM7 booted from a SD card). Everything was working great until I tried installing some different launchers. I tried GoLauncher, Zeam, ICS, Honeycomb and maybe one more. The default was ADW. Maybe I confused the system by constantly switching from one to the next but at some point the system crashed and I rebooted.
Once rebooted I noticed that many of the games I installed told me I needed to redownload their data files. I looked on my card, through my Mac, but the original files were still there. Turns out the Nook now installs apps on the internal drive rather than the card as it had been before.
Wouldn't be so bad but, as mentioned earlier, the file system is confused. When i need to manage files I've loaded on my SD card I have to browse to EMMC and vice versa. Makes my head spin.
Is there a way to fix it without starting from scratch? I'm using CM7.2.0.
Thanks for your help
That's not a bug, it's a feature. Anyway, what you likely did is Settings -> Cyanogenmod Settings -> Application Settings -> Use internal storage (checked). If you do this, then it swaps the mount points for the SD and the internal memory, so the SD card is mounted at "/emmc" and the internal memory is mounted at "/sdcard". See the first post in the thread in my sig for more information about this.
If you really want to return it to the original way, wasting 5G of internal storage space, then you can uncheck that box in the settings and it'll go back to normal.
Thanks for pointing that out and glad to see there's an easy fix. Seems a bit confusing though, like it's renaming your hard drives or something. I had been using the internal drive for storing media files, video, music, comics. Does it matter where apps or files are stored?
false1 said:
Thanks for pointing that out and glad to see there's an easy fix. Seems a bit confusing though, like it's renaming your hard drives or something. I had been using the internal drive for storing media files, video, music, comics. Does it matter where apps or files are stored?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the "fix", IMHO, is to leave it with them swapped.
Yes, it matters where apps are stored and it matters what is mounted at /sdcard. Apps use space on the /sdcard partition for settings, temp storage, downloads, etc. Mounting that 5G partition at /sdcard instead of /emmc allows these apps to use that space rather than cluttering your actual SD card. And apps are going to wind up on your 1G partition, not on either the /sdcard or /emmc mountpoint.
You can go read up in my guide on my recommendation on how to best use this space. The normal way is inefficient and wasteful of internal memory, IMHO. But you know, maybe you like it that way
mr72 said:
You can go read up in my guide on my recommendation on how to best use this space. The normal way is inefficient and wasteful of internal memory, IMHO. But you know, maybe you like it that way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think efficiency is more in how you choose to utilise the spaces rather than fundamentally in which switch option you use. For example, I choose to completely fill the 5GB of internal with sound and picture media as they get included in the normal app scanning process. Leaving the SD card to hold yet more media, app data and back ups.
It's still good to have the choice offered by the switch.
I was having issues with my phone and accidentally deleted some system apps so I restored my phone using the fastboot files and cleared my internal SD card storage. Upon reboot (with no apps installed), there is only 2.88GB of application storage available.
If I remember correctly, 8GB is allocated to the internal SD card. Does that mean 8GB goes to application storage? If so, where is my other 5GB?
2.88 for Apps, 8 for internal, and the rest(no more than like 4 gig) for the OS if IIRC.
The OS takes up that much space?
Your internal storage is divided up in to three separate sections...
Apps (your app storage), Media Storage (this is actually like extended app storage or Apps2SD) and SDcard. Not sure the split but I think 8 for apps and media storage (split there however) and the other 8 for /sdcard.
An external SDCARD added would be /sdcard-ext
OS space is never listed as part of a phone's available storage so the 16 GB is has is dedicated to Apps/Media Storage/SDcard
tcrews said:
Your internal storage is divided up in to three separate sections...
Apps (your app storage), Media Storage (this is actually like extended app storage or Apps2SD) and SDcard. Not sure the split but I think 8 for apps and media storage (split there however) and the other 8 for /sdcard.
An external SDCARD added would be /sdcard-ext
OS space is never listed as part of a phone's available storage so the 16 GB is has is dedicated to Apps/Media Storage/SDcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So under storage it lists:
Total Phone Storage
Total Space 16.00GB
Application Storage
Available Space 2.73GB
Internal Media Storage
Available Space 8.00GB
Windows Media Sync
Windows Media Sync Storage Internal Storage (8.00GB/8.00GB)
The phone is stock with no updates/market apps. No pics, music, etc (Was backed up and formatted). I should still see 5.27GB somewhere right?
This summed it up pretty well for me. I think I answered my own question. This is exactly what my phone shows.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/motorola-droid-4-advertises-16gb-internal-storage-only-reports/
Straight from Moto with a little more detail: https://motorola-global-portal.cust...r_detail/a_id/76066/p/30,6720,8302/kw/storage
Awesome, thank you. I don't know why Motorola does that. They should advertise the amount of space that I can use, not how much is in the phone.
They inflate the phone's storage capacity to fool you into buying it, thinking you're really getting that much. It's an old trick.
core2kid said:
Awesome, thank you. I don't know why Motorola does that. They should advertise the amount of space that I can use, not how much is in the phone.
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Click to collapse
Repartition the phone and flash with custom OS and you can use all that space, right?
Yea, that's probably why Moto Mobility is going down under.
I think a custom OS takes up space from your media partition.
Sigh, this is exactly what I was worried about when upgrading from my EVO 3D.
I noticed my new M8 has a sdcard0 and extsdcard folder. And of course, the apps and games which download hundreds of megs of data in order to run are downloading to the 24 gig internal sdcard0 mount point instead of the nearly empty 64gig extsdcard0 mountpoint. I really REALLY hate how so many Android phones seem to do this, why can't it just be partitioned as internal instead of faking a sdcard, thus making large apps install to internal with no option of installing to the actual external card?
Anyway, without rooting my phone, is there any way I can somehow set it so apps download and install their data to the actual SD card? The whole reason I didn't get the M7 was because I don't want my data to be stuck on the phone's internal memory in case anything happens, as well as to not waste internal memory space on several hundred megs or even gigs of data when I can use a large sdcard for that.
I believe u can go to manage apps and move apps to the sd card. Some may not be able to if it's not comparable but a lot of them should.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
aaron130 said:
I believe u can go to manage apps and move apps to the sd card. Some may not be able to if it's not comparable but a lot of them should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that, it only moves the app executable to the SD card, not the hundreds of megs of additional data it downloaded. The app management screen even tells me how much of this additional data is on the internal memory and how much of it is on the SD card (it's all on internal), but moving the app doesn't move the additional data to the SD card.
One would assume that the ext sd 's bus interface would be quick enough to not bog any app which would be using it. That being the case htc has no excuse for not having interchangeable symbolic mounting points between the two sd's. Ive physcally moved some of the data from app's (dcim, and random music ) directories to the extsd, and at least it unburdens the internal sd.
The apk resource fork in these systems could be processed better in android and it's sdk, or even the runtime.
F yes it sucks.