SDCard Transfer Speeds - Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Picked up a Patriot 16 GB card (class 4) and while I know its a class 4, it seems the transfer speeds are fairly slow. Unfortunately I'm in XP so its not telling me what the transfer speed is.
I first put the card in the N1 and let it format it. I then tried to bring over all the data on my old card and it was super slow (like 50kb a sec-was at home and Vista so it told me). Now I'm at work and this time it brought over all my old data more quickly but it still seems slowish (Gonna copy over a couple GB of music today).
Do they just have this slow transfer speeds? Its cool if thats the way it is, I don't mess with SDCards so don't have any experience with them.
Right now I'm bringing over a little over 500 MBs and it looks like its gonna be 30 mins for it to do it at least. The mins remaining is all over the place.
Also, the phone formatted the card in fat32.
I tried the SD Card Formatter download I've seen mentioned on here but it wouldn't install for me on my computer.

Use an sdcard reader. It will be much faster to transfer data.

Yup, faster transfer now.
I knew that but had a brain fart.

Related

slow copying to SD card

how is it possible that copying files to sd card over wifi or usb is much more slower than copying to memory of phone. and how to fix it?
because wifi transfer speeds aren't speedy at all since it's very similar to direct downloading off 3g/hsdpa and usb transfers through activesync is nothing compared to the blazing speeds of copying files from a card reader
i know that card reaader is fast but i asked why is coping files to main memory faster than copying to sd card over wifi. because when i download to mainmemory the speed is 250kB and when i download to sd card the speed is 30kB.i want to know why is it so?thx
I noticed this today when trying to send some large files to my SD card. Almost made me feel like the phone is not USB 2. It was going to take several hours but once I yanked the memory card out and put it in my pc it only took a couple of minutes. Good question.
Go for USB and Softick Card Export for Windows Mobile for file operations.
raiisak said:
Go for USB and Softick Card Export for Windows Mobile for file operations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This seems like WM5Storage with a UI make over. Looks like its for Windows Mobile 2003 2005 and 2006... probably a typo on 2005 and 2006. Anyone have them both and can compare speeds?
WM5Storage looks a bit lighter, cab is less than 50 kb... I have the cab attached if you want to check it out! It was working on my last flash (Duttys Hybrid WM 6.1), i haven't installed it yet on this one.
Slow for me too
I thought I was having a real slow copy this morning using USB cable to copy to micro-sd in phone. For camparison, I was copying a little under 4gb of music files to the 8gb micro-sd card and it took like 2 hrs. I would have popped it into the memory card reader on the PC, but for some reason either the reader or the PC (vista 64bit) does not like the 8gb SDHC card.
Mine copys pretty fast if you install du meter I think it will show you the transfer speeds. Maybe you have a generic MicroSD ?
Jonathan1683 said:
Mine copys pretty fast if you install du meter I think it will show you the transfer speeds. Maybe you have a generic MicroSD ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, I'm using SanDisk. Do you happen to be using a SDHC card? I never noticed this speed issue copying to a regular 2gb card. Of course, it could be that I am copying 2-3 times more data now and just didn't pay close enough attention in the past.
cardreader works only after flash a new rom a thats all. and wm5torage doesnþt work at all
peto01 said:
how is it possible that copying files to sd card over wifi or usb is much more slower than copying to memory of phone. and how to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This could be because when you download something the device will write little bits of data every time a few kBs are downloaded, so many little writes. Memory cards are VERY slow at writing small blocks.
Downloading to phone memory and then moving to the card with an explorer might be worth a try.
Same problem with many little files, memory cards don't like those.
BTW, the speed of the Kaiser's USB port IS USB1.1-like. Maybe the hardware is USB2-compliant, but as all traffic has to go through the CPU the effective speed isn't any higher. It will take a good 20 mins to copy a 950MB file.
I have a tiny keyring microSD reader that's lightning fast. I have a 2GB card inside that I can use like a common USB disk, and when I need more space or want to transfer stuff to the phone I remove it and put the phone's 8GB card instead.
stevelion said:
I thought I was having a real slow copy this morning using USB cable to copy to micro-sd in phone. For camparison, I was copying a little under 4gb of music files to the 8gb micro-sd card and it took like 2 hrs. I would have popped it into the memory card reader on the PC, but for some reason either the reader or the PC (vista 64bit) does not like the 8gb SDHC card.
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Click to collapse
Hotfix for Windows XP that adds support for SDHC cards that have a capacity of more than 4 GB
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934428
Not sure that'll work directly for you in Vista 64, but you might find related items. I had to do that to my laptop to get my Tilt's card to read in my work laptop which is running XP 32. I need to get a new card reader at home unfortunately, no matter what I do to it, it won't read SDHC.
Hello all,
I am trying to copy files from my computer to my storage card. I'm currently using WM5Storage. Everytime I try to move the files over, it indicates that my storage card is not formatted, and asks if I wish to format it. I always click NO because I have several cab files on the storage card that I can use in case something happens and I need to reinstall something.
When I try to move things via Windows Explorer (the mobile device folder), I get the same result.
Anyone know how I can accomplish this?
Thanks so much.
when connecting the kaiser to the computer (xp sp3), you can see a new network connexion created and opened at 10 Mbts. That means the usb link is usb 1.1, a poor performance for a material as the kaiser.
Big files, using usb 1.1 are very long to transfer.
Best regards
Autourdupc said:
when connecting the kaiser to the computer (xp sp3), you can see a new network connexion created and opened at 10 Mbts. That means the usb link is usb 1.1, a poor performance for a material as the kaiser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Kaiser provides USB 2.0 'Full Speed' specs which means up to 12 Mb (as opposed to USB 2.0 Hi Speed which goes up to 480 Mb) BUT it's not the hardware that accounts for the poor file transfer speed, it's Activesync/WMDC. Anyone who has ever seen files transferring across to from a PC with a healthy (but old) 10 Mb NIC will realise the Kaiser via Activesync offers nowhere near that level of performance.

8GB Micro SDHC HELP!!!

Hi, I purchased the Transcend 8GB Micro SDHC TS8GUSDHC6 about 3-5 Mo ago, for my AT&T tilt/8925, The issue I am having is that after about 1.9Gb, has been written to it, the transfer will either fail, or it will just sit and the completion will raise indefinitely. I do not have a SDHC compatible reader for my Pc, nor do I have another card over 2Gb. I was wondering if the phone cannot address over 2Gb, or if there may be something wrong with the card?
Hy
maybe i ma wrong, but i think you must format the card in "FAT 32". if you formated the card in "FAT" you can't get it over 2 GB... i don't it for sure
Greets, DrWinston
drnoobfragger said:
The issue I am having is that after about 1.9Gb, has been written to it, the transfer will either fail, or it will just sit and the completion will raise indefinitely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are attempting the transfer using Activesync:
You are very patient
Activesync is incredibly slow for large file transfers
Activesync has a bug where it appears file transfers are starting again continuously even though they do go through (eventually).
If you don't have a compatible card reader and have not partitioned the card, it should have already come with a Fat32 partition so DrWinstons concerns shouldn't be an issue. If you've put it in another (old) device to wipe it though, this may well be what's happened. Where has the card been?
The card was bought for this phone, and has only been in it. as far as active sync, it will write 1.5gb in about 35-40 min, then if I try to add another 1.5gb file, it will say 35min and count down for a few minutes, then suddenly the transfer bar, seems to stop and the timer goes up to over 2Days, and will continue to raise, I have left it for 10Hours one night and it made it no further.
Update, I am formatting with pocket mechanic now, Fat 32 4k cluster Low level, Backup Fat
Update2 Well format failed, now the card cannot be read by the OS, I am going to RMA the card. Guess that will fix it
1. I have encountered the same problem and rectified with an SD reader. My SD reader works for SDHC 8GB card. So perhaps if you can find an SD card reader, try it.
2. As for formatting with pocket mechanic, it doesn't seem to work for me as well. What I did was to use error correction in Win XP using the SD card reader. This worked for me.
3. You could also try downloading some usb host software bypassing ActiveSync totally and use your 8GB card like a regular flash/thumb drive which should dramatically improve your file transfer time.

Micro SD card speed

Does the speed of the card determine the transfer speed between the Phone and PC or within the Phone itself?
I'm wondering if it's worth the extra 20 to get a class 6 over a class 4.
This has been discussed before. The phone dictates the data transfer speed between the PC and SD card.
So what transfer speed does the Nexus One dictate?
Well..when tommyarmour and I were discussing this in his thread a month ago..neither of us got more than 2mb/s or so using class 4 and 6 cards. Plugging my class 6 directly into my computer's card reader got me over 6.5mb/s.
There are 2 distinct things about SD card performance:
1) If one roots and uses APP2SD method, where N1 stores apps on an EXT* partition on on the _card_ , instead of its own, built-in and very limited flash storage, then one would probably want faster performing card so that apps load faster. Especially if you have a game with tons of textures/scenery
2) Unrelated to #1, faster cards should allow faster transfer rates from one's computer to the N1's SD card - so when you have large music/image libs, those
could be moved on/off device quicker. But it appears that N1 limits such external transfer rates, making it moot to go for faster cards (unless you use APP2SD) . One can get faster rates by yanking the card out and using an external, proper, reader - so that might help if one needs to move say 10GB of music onto the card.
Bottom line: you can spring for 16GB Class 6 Card (Adata's are good, about U$60 on Amazon), save few bux and get slower card or wait another month for 32GB cards to appear in stores and make your decision _then_
rashid11 said:
There are 2 distinct things about SD card performance:
1) If one roots and uses APP2SD method, where N1 stores apps on an EXT* partition on on the _card_ , instead of its own, built-in and very limited flash storage, then one would probably want faster performing card so that apps load faster. Especially if you have a game with tons of textures/scenery
2) Unrelated to #1, faster cards should allow faster transfer rates from one's computer to the N1's SD card - so when you have large music/image libs, those
could be moved on/off device quicker. But it appears that N1 limits such external transfer rates, making it moot to go for faster cards (unless you use APP2SD) . One can get faster rates by yanking the card out and using an external, proper, reader - so that might help if one needs to move say 10GB of music onto the card.
Bottom line: you can spring for 16GB Class 6 Card (Adata's are good, about U$60 on Amazon), save few bux and get slower card or wait another month for 32GB cards to appear in stores and make your decision _then_
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Click to collapse
I got lucky. I won my 16GB class 6 micro SD card. I do, however, wish to get another 16GB card but don't want to spend the money so I'm waiting for the 32GB to come out and the 16GB to drop in price. 8GB is just not enough for music, apps2sd and nadroid/ext backups. I've been having to compromise and either keep only one nandroid on my SD card or cut down on my music (which I hate doing). A 32GB card would be GOLDEN but I don't even want to think about what that's going to cost.
rashid11 said:
There are 2 distinct things about SD card performance:
1) If one roots and uses APP2SD method, where N1 stores apps on an EXT* partition on on the _card_ , instead of its own, built-in and very limited flash storage, then one would probably want faster performing card so that apps load faster. Especially if you have a game with tons of textures/scenery
2) Unrelated to #1, faster cards should allow faster transfer rates from one's computer to the N1's SD card - so when you have large music/image libs, those
could be moved on/off device quicker. But it appears that N1 limits such external transfer rates, making it moot to go for faster cards (unless you use APP2SD) . One can get faster rates by yanking the card out and using an external, proper, reader - so that might help if one needs to move say 10GB of music onto the card.
Bottom line: you can spring for 16GB Class 6 Card (Adata's are good, about U$60 on Amazon), save few bux and get slower card or wait another month for 32GB cards to appear in stores and make your decision _then_
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the explaination. Now do you think anybody out there is trying to 'open' up this limitation of the N1's transfer speed? Hope so...I thought I had an adapter...so I ordered a card without an adapter...but, now I can't find it!
BTW...I sprung for a 16GB class 6. Was a present...so why not.

sdhc 8 gb slow write speed

Hi all,
I have a SDHC 8gb (Class 4). I tested its speed with J-benchmark. Frequent test shows that the write speed of this SD isn't any better than class 2 sd card i used before(4 gb).
I usually get write speed of 1.5mb/s and read speed of 2.5mb/s. Today I decided to change the buffer size to 8kb and got 4mb/s write speed. This is what a class 4 card should normally hit right?
So, I'd like to know if there's any way i can increase the buffer speed while transfering files from my PC. I'm really having a hard time copying movie files to my sd card. Files transfer of larger than 100mb take ages and even get disrupted at times.
Thanks for the help!!!
pradeepkc said:
Hi all,
I have a SDHC 8gb (Class 4). I tested its speed with J-benchmark. Frequent test shows that the write speed of this SD isn't any better than class 2 sd card i used before(4 gb).
I usually get write speed of 1.5mb/s and read speed of 2.5mb/s. Today I decided to change the buffer size to 8kb and got 4mb/s write speed. This is what a class 4 card should normally hit right?
So, I'd like to know if there's any way i can increase the buffer speed while transfering files from my PC. I'm really having a hard time copying movie files to my sd card. Files transfer of larger than 100mb take ages and even get disrupted at times.
Thanks for the help!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Random no-name brand? No surprise.. Lots of cheap, slow, unstable storage cards out there these days.
J-Benchmark isn't of much use if you don't know what the real workd transfer speed is, so you might want to try testing it against the computer... Send a large file, time it, see how long before you can safely remove the device.
khaytsus said:
Random no-name brand? No surprise.. Lots of cheap, slow, unstable storage cards out there these days.
J-Benchmark isn't of much use if you don't know what the real workd transfer speed is, so you might want to try testing it against the computer... Send a large file, time it, see how long before you can safely remove the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, it says transcend but i'm doubtful. Bought it at very cheap price from a wholesale market.
But there's something I've noticed, the transfer speed is slow through usb only...if i unmount the card and use it through a normal card reader its quite fast...I tried sending a 800mb movie file and it took just above 4 mins....
So, I don't think its the card that's the culprit. puzzled!!! could it be the rom i'm using or froyo itself?
I'm sorry that I can't be of any help, but i got the exact same problem. Bought a 16gb card, kingston brand, class4 (don't expect that much of it, but the stock was class 2, so i figured that it would be ok..)
I get horrible write speed, around 200-250 kb/s (or whatever it's called). Don't remember what the old one did, but it wasn't that bad.
I've plugged the card directly into the PC, and it gets much higher speeds..
Exactly the same problem, as u guys..
Come on, an hour to copy a movie to the phone, that's just not acceptable!
PS: have you tried this?
Mine was allready at 128, but it's probably worth a shot..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=921530
Hope anyone has some solutions to this, it's just seriously annoying
Oh, and i've got the desire with cm7 on it, it's not that different from the n1..
It's the phone not the cards. It just doesn't appear able to acheive transfer speeds higher than you'd get with a Class 2 SD card.
In the link i posted, there was a guy who found out a way around the limits of android on a EVO 4g device. I was hoping for a similar fix.. Or just something
Bought a Class 10 Kingmax and disappointed that write speeds are still maxing at 1.5 MBps Waste of money
2.5Mbps in recovery.
SOOOOOO SLOW copying videos over yaaawn.
Using a card reader means switching off the phone, which is not really an option IMHO.
You can benefit from the faster rated cards if you use a card reader, and even better if you buy a second card so that you can load up one while using the other. Quick swap, job done!
I have a Transcent 8GB class 6. I get speeds from 6mb/s-8mb/s.

[Q] Milestone highest SD Class I can go with

I know it has been asked a lot in the past, but searching didn't provide Milestone specific answer.
So If I buy Class 6 or Class 10, will the milestone be able to utilize the full write speed? I am running Cyanogenmod 7 RC0 (latest). At the moment I have 8GB class 4 Apacer microSD and tbh its a terrible card. All I get is 2.5 mb/s write on large files, but I am getting the same speed when the card is in card reader too so its not phone issue.
Thanks.
Maybe I'm wrong, but what I know is that the card class is the limit. It doesn't mean it will read/write at full speed all the time.
How are you testing your speeds?
Maybe SD Speed Increase help you.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5zZGluY3JlYXNlLml0Il0.
I don't know how to test my speeds, but were getting 24mb/s read and 8mb/s write speeds in SD Tools ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/...1bGwsMSwxLDEsImFsZXMudmVsdXNjZWsuc2R0b29scyJd ). I'm using a Samsung 16gb Class2. I think the app is not calculating very well. Don't know.
I am using the SD card as USB mass storage instead of carrying separate thumb drive. I transfer a lot of large 1+ GB files.
I tried SD Speed increase last week and it does make a difference on smaller files, but when copying 2GB files it seems to start fast (like a burst mode), but if timed it takes exactly the same time to write something on the card.
I am going to change my 8GB card for 16GB today anyway I just wondered if class 10 is worth getting or should I get class 6 and save some money. Whatever I buy I will report back and test the speed.
I went ahead and bought Patriot LX 16 GB class 10 microSD. Now I get variable speeds from 3.5 mb/s to 8 mb/s depending on the file sizes. As I read somewhere this is due to fact that the phone is using MTP protocol to act as mass storage device.
Anyway with the old card I was topping only 2.5 mb/s no matter the file size, so it's definitely an upgrade and since class 6 was only 5$ cheaper I saw no reason not to buy the faster one, even if the milestone can't utilize its full capability. In the end its an old phone and I believe there weren't any class 10 cards out in 2009 anyway.
And one more thing, the camcorder isnt lagging anymore when recording videos
EDIT: After booting in recovery and clearing dalvik and cache partition I am getting 9.5 + mb/s, but it does start around 4.5 mb/s and then rises to its full speed. Cheers.
Except for the improvements in video recording, is there anything else that runs smoother for you when using the phone?
maango said:
Except for the improvements in video recording, is there anything else that runs smoother for you when using the phone?
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Click to collapse
I think everytime any app need to access your sd, it will be smoother, like gallery, taking photos, loading maps cached in sd, music apps indexing songs, etc. Accessing apps installed on sd card may be loaded faster too.
extrem0 said:
I think everytime any app need to access your sd, it will be smoother, like gallery, taking photos, loading maps cached in sd, music apps indexing songs, etc. Accessing apps installed on sd card may be loaded faster too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats right. Gallery loads faster, applications and games moved to SD start up faster etc. Don't know about maps, but I suppose they cache faster too.
However the main difference is when copying stuff to phone in mass storage mode. Thats why I got a higher class card in first place. While all other stuff related to reading from SD do seem snappier, the difference is not all that great since even Class 2 cards can read with high speed, but when it comes to apps that are writing the difference is obvious.
I'm using a Samsung Essentials 32GB Class 10 Card.
Gave me some troubles at first, something with sector sizes seemed wrong - but after formatting it with this tool https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/ it worked.
Someone in these forums suggested the tools - search for the link to find the recommended settings.
Alright, thx for the answer. For someone not using the phone the same way as you, do you think it would be worth the money to get a faster card?
Sent from my Milestone using XDA
The difference between class 6 and class 10 right now is only few bucks. I don't see why not. You never know, may come in handy.
Here check this out, less then 1$ difference in price.
16GB microSDHC CARD Class 6 - Transcend
16GB microSDHC CARD Class 10 - Transcend
I wouldn't go below class 6 since the camera is lagging when recording videos.
Is it true that if a formatted microSD often will make it slow microSD?
It' unlikely, but possible.
My Samsung Essentials 32GB Class 10 card gave my Milestone hiccups at first (rebooted several times when powering on, rebooted every time I left USB mass storage mode) so I re-formatted it using these instructions: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23494134&postcount=7417
Now everything works fine and I still get a little more than 10MB/s when copying movies via USB - so no loss here.

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