Database Develop

Which is better....Maxing out phone memory or SD memory

Ok so I have been looking for an answer for a little bit and have found very little so...
Is it better to load programs onto the phones memory or onto a SD card?
I would think it would take a lot more memory/power to pull files off of a SD card rather than from the device itself, but then you dont have a lot of memory on the phone?
pros and cons of each. THANKS

I put "device" programs (eg quick menu, oto etc) onto main memory and games, apps onto the sd card. That way I figure the apps which are in use alot will already be in memory and easier to open and the apps/games I don't always use can be pulled from storage card when I want to use them.

If you max out the Storage memory on your device, many programs won't be able to run (they still need room to store temp files, etc.), and you'll start getting warnings.
I've found the performance hit in using SD-base applications to be negligible...

You want as much room on your phone as possible. WM will run faster, and if you max out your phone memory, you'll notice a decrease in performance not to mention the low memory warnings you'll get.

The question is do you ever remove your microSD? If you do, you need to install the softwares that you use all the time into the phone memory. Otherwise, I found the performence different is very little between the 2 memory location.

EkS said:
You want as much room on your phone as possible. WM will run faster, and if you max out your phone memory, you'll notice a decrease in performance not to mention the low memory warnings you'll get.
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It used to be true with WM2003, but I don't think it applies to WM6. The storage and running memory areas are now separated.

I will try to keep the device memory as free as possible, because the phone will run faster, so only system program will be installed on the device, also programs like pocket cm and worldmate uses more power to startup, so I also put them in the phone and not memory card, as this will create less errors.
kms

Reformatting Internal Storage improved performance 25%

I reformatted the Internal Memory (4GB) with the trialversion of CnetX Flash Format, using FAT32 with 16k clustersize (as opposed to 4k clustersize).
Starting large applications from the Internal Storage is now 25% faster. TT7 took 17 seconds from start to 100% route calculation, after formatting it takes 13 seconds.
Remember to backup internal storage first.

Format the internal storage is a good thing to do from time to time, i defrag it with Perfect Disk

omaga said:
Format the internal storage is a good thing to do from time to time, i defrag it with Perfect Disk
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Perfectdisk - sounds interesting...where did you get that from?

neilsupermac999 said:
Perfectdisk - sounds interesting...where did you get that from?
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http://tinyurl.com/awwxn3

JonInAtl said:
http://tinyurl.com/awwxn3
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The reason for asking the question is that googling 'perfect disk windows mobile' doesnt bring up anything particularly obvious in relation to defragging handset storage.
I'll refrain from passing any more comments on your post..but thank you...no...really.

omaga said:
Format the internal storage is a good thing to do from time to time, i defrag it with Perfect Disk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Defrag a Flash based memory? This is absolute unnecessary:
Flash memory isn't accessed by a single read/write head. So it doesn't need its contained files to be made contiguous and moved closer together to speed access. This means that there is an unexpected - by me at any rate - benefit to flash memory compared to hard drives. You don't need to do so much house-keeping.
You may have applications that assume or require files in flash memory to be contiguous. In that case defragging would be a good idea. But wait, there is a problem. Flash memory only supports a finite number of writes and defraging involves a lot of writing. So by defragging flash you are shortening its working life.

neilsupermac999 said:
The reason for asking the question is that googling 'perfect disk windows mobile' doesnt bring up anything particularly obvious in relation to defragging handset storage.
I'll refrain from passing any more comments on your post..but thank you...no...really.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same results but after going ahead and looking at the demo version it's still not clear how Perfect Disk works with the Diamond internal storage.
--Never mind--
Figured it out, forgot I could use Settings/USB to PC to set device as a "removable disk". Works fine.

I have done that before and yes it does seem to speed up the phone

MarcLandis said:
Defrag a Flash based memory? This is absolute unnecessary:
Flash memory only supports a finite number of writes and defraging involves a lot of writing. So by defragging flash you are shortening its working life.
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Click to collapse
So you would recommend not using the built in capability to use the Diamond memory as a removable disk or is there something in the defrag process that is substantially different than user read/writes related to working life?
Interesting that your post is a direct quote from a Nov 05 Techworld posting (for which you may have been the author). Here is a more contemporary and empirical exercise on the subject of fragmented flash memories:
http://www.lagom.nl/misc/flash_fragmentation.html
Having said all that, I didn't expect much just thought there might be some overhead cleanup, and I didn't worry over shortening the life of the memory, but could be convinced otherwise.

d-e-l-e-t-e

Reformatting with bigger cluster size will give a bit better performance at the cost of space. You wont notice much unless there's loads of small files though. A 1 byte file will still take up the same amount of size on the disk as the cluster size. If a file is 1 byte larger then the cluster size it will take up the same amount of space as 2x the cluster size. In other words it will always round up.
Defrag a flash unit however I don't think is wise. I red that you should not defrag SSD drives for pc as it may affect the life span on them, and it makes no sense defraging them anyway since they are not accessed like a harddrive.

[SOLVED] Apps2SD problem with sd

I had apps2sd by lucidrem running on my phone and it was fine. I was out today and my sd card was 'removed' although I didn't touch it. This ended up bricking my phone, because the sd is removed and there is no data or delvik etc. Is there a method to use apps2sd without it being permanently affected when an sd is removed?
A reinstall of rom has fixed it however I have lost everything off the phone now
Thanks
Tucka

LucidRem's Apps2SD uses symlinks which I believe is now preferred over the one used by MarcusMaximus (forgot what its called ) only way to remove a sdcard safely without screwing up your phone is if the phone is turned off. No idea how the sdcard was 'removed' if you didn't touch it. Happened sometimes to me, but never found out what caused it. Hope this helps.

Best to apply Apps2SD again really or use a ROM that automatically enables it by default if a partition exists (Cyanogen/Dude).
Also a small sidenote... The term "brick" means your device would no longer be functional at all, I.E Unable to turn it on using any method. A more suitable term would probably be "crashed" instead.
I only mention this because the term bricked is being used far too loosely to describe the wrong symptoms.

Sorry for loosing brick loosly, just presumed that was what it was when the phone won't get past the G1 splash. So, say I want to watch a movie or something on a different memory card (won't be able to fit all my stuff on one) all I have to do is switch phone off, remove memory card, insert different one (preferably also with a2sd configured for meridian video?) and that will work?
I think the problem is with movement and sudden knocks that the card comes out. I was running through a storm when it said memory card was removed.
Thanks

No worries about the terms as there are an awful lot of them in the world of technology! Long as we're all learning then we can't argue ^_^
To be honest, hot swapping SD cards is a bit long winded... Its best to save up and invest in a larger memory card if possible (Class 6). Not sure what size your SD card is, but if it can't hold a movie then it could be time to buy a new one.
Also if you use the older Apps2SD program (1.1 I believe) it uses Symlinks as alritewhadeva mentioned and it shouldn't cause your phone to crash totally if the SD card is removed.
Best solution though is to buy a new SD card, you should be able to find one on the cheap on the net.

its an 8gb C4, however I am travelling and will be on a 10 hour flight later this month, and was wanting lots of films and tv shows etc. May just compress and squeeze them onto my 8GB.
Thanks a lot
Tucka

using a2sd and 2 memory cards doesnt work. All your app data and cache is on your sd card and the phone wont be able to boot without the right sd card in the phone (trust me i have tried). I suggest buying a new card maybe 16 gb.

Hope they have a charging point on your flight! It would kill your battery watching a movie for that long haha. Better off with an iPod/MP3 player I reckon.
But yeah, you can either add more compression or reduce the resolution/framerate to fit more on your SD card. Quality will drop but at least it will keep you entertained.

2 batteries plus a portable battery charger ftw

Haha, that should be sufficient then! Very well prepared ^_^ I was thinking about getting one of those wind up backup chargers for emergancy use once... No idea if its any good.
If everything is sorted tuka, could you please edit the title to add "[SOLVED]" so people know? Thanks!

Use internal memory to have more RAM space

Hello everybody
First, plz excuse my very bad english..
I would like to know if its possible, and if yes, how, to use internal memory to make the same thing than a swap linux partition, but on the phone memory, not on SD
I would like to know if there is a tutorial or anythings that speak about this..
It could be very interesting to save SD card life and i don't care about to loose memory for my apps
Thx for Help
Fabulous, speaking for a few members of Smartphone France community

I thought about this myself (putting swap partition on internal storage), since it should be faster.
After thinking for a while though I realised that wearing out an SD card is one thing, destroying the internal flash is far worse.

even with a swap partition on your phone the sdcard will still last around 2 and a half years. i thought people had quit this about sdcard life. My sdcard will probably be around then my phone.
besides when the sdcard doesn't just die on day. the "dead parts" parts of the sdcard will just no longer be used. meaning there will be less overall storage space on the card but it will still function

I don't think that's a particularly good idea. The sd card might stay longer with you than your phone, but if your phone's internal memory breaks you can't just shrug and buy a new one.
That said, if you're set on doing this, you could probably put a swap file in /cache. Without OTA updates that doesn't get used for much anyway.

Afirejar said:
I don't think that's a particularly good idea. The sd card might stay longer with you than your phone, but if your phone's internal memory breaks you can't just shrug and buy a new one.
That said, if you're set on doing this, you could probably put a swap file in /cache. Without OTA updates that doesn't get used for much anyway.
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i wasn't suggesting what the OP said, i have a linux-swap partition, i was simply that the card will most likely last longer than the phone but why ruin internal phone memory, that would make it unusable. I agree that you should put the swap file on the sdcard

is it possible ? yes
but like everyones sayd just don't do it , you might break your phone very fast and you won't gain any significant speed either

a class 6 card is about the same speed as internal storage and theyre relatively cheap now

Even if you could it probably wouldn't be worth it and there is already a very limited amount of memory in the phone. It would be safer for the phone and you would be able to have a larger swap file by using the sdcard.
If you are dead set on it, about 5 minutes of googling didn't turn up any howto's on making the swap on the system memory but here are a couple howto's one is the linux swap file and the other is adding the swap to the sdcard. The instructions shouldn't be hard to adapt for the main system flash memory
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-add-a-swap-file-howto/
http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f8/adding-swap-space-ram-to-g1-16325/

i still don't understand why people insist on using sdcard for swap space. It'd make sense if the sdcard were used exclusively for swap, but with all the r/w operations going on (app read, media read/write, and swap read/write), not even a class 6 card provides enough bandwidth for doing swap operations effectively... I'm with cyan on this one, and a good compcache setup is the best choice atm.

jubeh said:
i still don't understand why people insist on using sdcard for swap space. It'd make sense if the sdcard were used exclusively for swap, but with all the r/w operations going on (app read, media read/write, and swap read/write), not even a class 6 card provides enough bandwidth for doing swap operations effectively... I'm with cyan on this one, and a good compcache setup is the best choice atm.
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I have around 15-20 mb free internal memory when using cyanogen rom but around 1 to 2 mb free when using hero rom
sd swap use around 50 mb on hero rom with swapiness at 70%
you absolutly need to swap in hero rom

samygent said:
I have around 15-20 mb free internal memory when using cyanogen rom but around 1 to 2 mb free when using hero rom
sd swap use around 50 mb on hero rom with swapiness at 70%
you absolutly need to swap in hero rom
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Click to collapse
If Apps2SD is running correctly you should have 89mb free on Cyanogen and about 50-70mb on Hero :-S

AdrianK said:
If Apps2SD is running correctly you should have 89mb free on Cyanogen and about 50-70mb on Hero :-S
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apps2d doesn't have anything to do with swap partition or does it ?
# free
free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 97860 95896 1964 0 360
Swap: 104412 57060 47352
Total: 202272 152956 49316
#
swapiness at 70 and everything run's very smoothly
edit : yah i love tabulation

increase ram
Fabulous691 said:
Hello everybody
First, plz excuse my very bad english..
I would like to know if its possible, and if yes, how, to use internal memory to make the same thing than a swap linux partition, but on the phone memory, not on SD
I would like to know if there is a tutorial or anythings that speak about this..
It could be very interesting to save SD card life and i don't care about to loose memory for my apps
Thx for Help
Fabulous, speaking for a few members of Smartphone France community
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
please tell me how to convert internal memory into ram. I will be very thankfull to you

[Q] Hero Internal Memory Continues To Go Away - Possible Leakage?

I have read about Memory Leakage and I think that is the best way to describe what is going on with my Hero. I am Running Damage Controls last ROM and my memory keeps going away until I get the low memory icon. This has been going on for a few months now. Three months ago the problem first showed its head. So I start cleaning everything out. I do not store ANY email, texts, SMS or anything that I have control of on the phone. I do not sync with facebook, Gmail, Twitter or any of those other services. But my memory keeps "leaking" away. I got a cache cleaner, I have dumped all but three programs that I put on off the phone and while I first beat this back to 40mb to 30mb to 20mb and now I can't get it above 18mb. It's like every time there is a program up date from the Market it loads a whole new program and the old one stays. At least that is what it seemed like. I have been told to dump DC's rom and move on to something else but I like the phone and what it does when it works. I have the usual problems with slow dialing and bluetooth connection problems and that kind of stuff but all in all the phone works pretty good except for this memory problem. No I don't have apps2sd working but I don't think that would matter at this point as I have mentioned I have had this phone back up to 40mb and that memory over time just leaks away. Any idea's??? Is there another rom like Damages where the phone looks pretty stock? I am really used to the way it works and hate the idea of setting it up again. But if that is the recommendations I get from this forum I gather this is where I will have go.
Any help or idea's will be greatly appreciated. As I mentioned installing a new ROM is a last resort for me and if that is where I have to go then some suggestions would be appreciated too.............
Thanks so much.........
Lisa

That's not memory leakage, that's just from apps. Install apps2sd... then you won't have to deal with that problem.

Or use Firerat's custom partitions to free up a ton of space in data.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

Okay, aps2sd is the way to go. Being I'm not a total computer wiz I have to study how to do this. So, Firerat was mentioned and how do I do the apps2sd thing? I realize I have to back up my sd card to my PC and that is no problem and the Damage Control Rom that I have has a toggle that I can check to move the apps to the SD card so I think I'm okay there. But I have to partition and reformat my SD card. I have never done that before. Could you give me a link that I can go to so I can read all the instructions on how to do this. I have Titanium so I am well backed up there and I have recent Nandroid backups but partitioning the SD card is the trick I haven't done yet. Can I take the card out of my phone and do it with a card reader on my PC or do I have to do it through the phone? You can see the kind of help I need here and while I have resisted doing any more to my phone I think if I can free up this internal memory ALL my issues with the HERO and Damage Controls last ROM will go away for me.
As usual I appreciate the links and all you help............
Lisa

To partition your SD card:
BACK UP SD CARD CONTENTS TO YOUR PC
boot into recovery
partition sdcard
partition sd
follow instructions
i personally set the data partition to 256 MB, but even with ~100 apps i still have like 100 MB free. there are many other size options.
i forgot the other numbers it asks for (like cache or dalvik partition), but you can leave them at zero.
back in the Partition sdcard menu, choose SD:ext2 to ext3
reboot
now you can enable a2sd and retransfer your backed up sdcard contents from your PC. you will probably need to reboot for a2sd to move your apps and take effect

Were you using Damage Controls ROM?
You're instructions are very straight forward and that is kind of the way I saw the process too. I'll back up everything before I start and I'll give it a go when I get a chance.........

I was not using DamageControl ROM, but I have a hunch that's how it will work.

Interesting thing, I was just looking through Damage Control's "control panel" and apps2sd is checked already. Looking at Titanium Backups "control panel on their latest version it shows memory or storage usage for Phone Memory, Apps2sd and SD card usage and it shows that I have stuff in there already even though I have NOT partitioned my SD card. How can that be??? I guess these are the kind of things that come up when you use a ROM that has been abandoned by the developer. I really like everything about this ROM But this memory thing has gotten to be a real problem. I guess if I partition the SD card I will get it working faster? Or working completely? But this is an interesting question I think..........
Any feed back on this discovery would be helpful too..............