Database Develop

Whats better: installing on sd card or device?

hey everyone,
did a search on google and here but didn't find what i was looking for.
what keeps a ppc faster? installing programs on the device or the storage card?
thanks,
georgios

neavissa said:
hey everyone,
did a search on google and here but didn't find what i was looking for.
what keeps a ppc faster? installing programs on the device or the storage card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally, program would run faster if it was installed on the device, but to save space....storage card is for that.

It depends on the program and your personal habbits.
If you are one that has multiple memory cards and swaps them in/out or uses wm5torage, I would suggest programs you use often to be installed on the device.
if you're like me and just leave a card in the phone, then either way

i never swap cards. so i guess it doesnt matter huh?

Nah, I install all the important ones onnthe phone and all the ones that are not so important on the SD, right now there are none. I guess Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, and Dig Dug are important .

With some roms over 140+ mb space, it definitely won't hurt to install your programs to the main memory. Also, I've run into errors and duplicate folders, ect. from installing to the SD Card.

If you install to sd card, you won't loose anything, except registry entries/configuration, after a hard-reset/rom-reflash. I put all my stuff there that I hate restoring.

I install everything to the sd card, only install apps on the phone memory if the program requires it or an app doesn't like running from the sd card.

No its almost the same, if you have an external HDD, then they will show up in controll panel remove programs, and it will be on the desktop, but when you remove the HDD it will be there but wont run.

They way I do it is if the program runs all the time, lets say a complete system overlay like SPB Mobile Shell or PocketPlus, a real system type program I'll install it on the device. But if it's just an app I run once in a while say Google Maps I'll install it on the card because it only runs when I choose to run it..
Hope that helps!
-RT

I do find that programs like mobipocket run much better when I install to the phone. Seems to hang alot from the card. To me it appears that the phone memory has much quicker access time, but not every program is affected.
I think of it more as the difference between a portable app installed on a usb stick versus the same program running off the desktop.

One other thing to consider (at least it was the case with WM2003SE devices) is if the program/util was run at startup, automatically, it made a lot more sense to put it phone memory, as otherwise the delay in waiting for the SD card to be accessible could cause a slowdown/even hangs!

I install the majority of applications onto my 8GB storage card.
However, I've just discovered that whenever I remove my 8GB memory card, my device memory rises incredibly...

I guess it depends on the type of app you're installing. Something like MagiCall I put on the device so there's no problem blocking calls, but Mio Maps right on the memory card with just a shortcut in the /Windows/Startup Programs folder. If the apps important, then device, but if it's just Pac Man for example, card.

Interesting responses. I've installed apps that the instructions say "Must NOT install on SD card" in the instructions. Some say "You may install on SD card, but be aware that it may be unstable".
comments?

ewingr said:
Interesting responses. I've installed apps that the instructions say "Must NOT install on SD card" in the instructions. Some say "You may install on SD card, but be aware that it may be unstable".
comments?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats there for your safety, it means that if you have any data loss of any kind it wont be the applications fault. It may need to be next to the registry but it really doesnt matter. Games and such, SD card, system tools and registry editors may need to be in the main memory but don't have to.

I install applications on the storage card, and Today plugins on the device. The only "Application" I have on my device itself is Slide 2 Unlock.
-Jay

Fix for USB Mass Storage...

I've recently installed Android to NAND and was looking for a way to mount the sdcard as a usb mass storage device in windows from within Android. I came across an interesting widget on the Android market called "Dual Mount SD Widget":
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-protocol-usb-jBAw.aspx
So I downloaded and installed it to see if it really works... well, IT DOES!
I used voguimg-320x480-17-02-10.nbh and Plemens Android Feb 8th build.
Here's what I did.
1. Download widget. Install. Add to Android desktop.
2. Tap on it. It will say "SD Split"
3. Plug in USB cord to the phone.
4. Notification area says "USB Connected". Don't do anything (ie. Mount it).... Instead, wait about 30secs to a minute.
5. Vista pops up the default actions window for the sdcard. My Computer also lists the sdcard as a removable drive.
I've transferred files back and forth with no problem. Not only that, Astro can see the SD card contents as well at the same time.
Now, the interesting part is that the description for the widget says:
"This widget Modifies a setting that will allow you to mount your SD card to your phone and PC/Radio/ect at the same time."
I'm wondering what setting was modified and if it is possible to build this in so that we don't need to use the widget anymore.

ckl_88 said:
I've recently installed Android to NAND and was looking for a way to mount the sdcard as a usb mass storage device in windows from within Android. I came across an interesting widget on the Android market called "Dual Mount SD Widget":
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-protocol-usb-jBAw.aspx
So I downloaded and installed it to see if it really works... well, IT DOES!
I used voguimg-320x480-17-02-10.nbh and Plemens Android Feb 8th build.
Here's what I did.
1. Download widget. Install. Add to Android desktop.
2. Tap on it. It will say "SD Split"
3. Plug in USB cord to the phone.
4. Notification area says "USB Connected". Don't do anything (ie. Mount it).... Instead, wait about 30secs to a minute.
5. Vista pops up the default actions window for the sdcard. My Computer also lists the sdcard as a removable drive.
I've transferred files back and forth with no problem. Not only that, Astro can see the SD card contents as well at the same time.
Now, the interesting part is that the description for the widget says:
"This widget Modifies a setting that will allow you to mount your SD card to your phone and PC/Radio/ect at the same time."
I'm wondering what setting was modified and if it is possible to build this in so that we don't need to use the widget anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GREAT find! I am testing right now...
EDIT: Works excellent! It doesn't seem to be in the market for me...maybe because qvga, but I found it online.
I'm running:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
ADB Drivers installed by PDANet (not that it affects the SD mount)
Sourceforge 2-14-10 NBH (240x320)
Myn's Warm Donut with Hero theme.
This is awesome!
EDIT2: I can also run ADB/tether with PDANet and use mass storage simultaneously.

This is Fantastic!! It works. Great find man. didnt find it on the market but i did find it on the net. im using version 1.6
EDIT: you should take off the "possible" from your title as it is a perfect fix

Working perfect with Myn's Warm Donut + Windows 7 64 bit. Thanks for the tip!

Definitely works! (Using Ubuntu Karmic)
I was only able to find version 1.0 on the net - couldn't find it on the market.

ckl_88 said:
I've recently installed Android to NAND and was looking for a way to mount the sdcard as a usb mass storage device in windows from within Android. I came across an interesting widget on the Android market called "Dual Mount SD Widget":
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-protocol-usb-jBAw.aspx
So I downloaded and installed it to see if it really works... well, IT DOES!
I used voguimg-320x480-17-02-10.nbh and Plemens Android Feb 8th build.
Here's what I did.
1. Download widget. Install. Add to Android desktop.
2. Tap on it. It will say "SD Split"
3. Plug in USB cord to the phone.
4. Notification area says "USB Connected". Don't do anything (ie. Mount it).... Instead, wait about 30secs to a minute.
5. Vista pops up the default actions window for the sdcard. My Computer also lists the sdcard as a removable drive.
I've transferred files back and forth with no problem. Not only that, Astro can see the SD card contents as well at the same time.
Now, the interesting part is that the description for the widget says:
"This widget Modifies a setting that will allow you to mount your SD card to your phone and PC/Radio/ect at the same time."
I'm wondering what setting was modified and if it is possible to build this in so that we don't need to use the widget anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you get it on the phone? Then how do you install it? All I have is a .apk file...what do I do with it? Vista does not recognize my phone, and I do not have a card reader. Thanks.

$1 in market. works great.

crobs808 said:
How do you get it on the phone? Then how do you install it? All I have is a .apk file...what do I do with it? Vista does not recognize my phone, and I do not have a card reader. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5579322&postcount=14

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttt Luv it luv it and luv it some more...

Man do us a favor and pl take off "Possible" from the title. This is THE fix.

Could you remind me why it's not possible without this app? is it a kernel or user space issue?
A long time ago, dzo told us that this could be solved when nand boot would be ready. Now, that's ready, what avoid solving this problem?

How fast is USB Mass Storage with the Vogue? Does anyone remember the transfer speeds it's rated for?
I'm using a class 6 MicroSD so I guess the card reader method will still be faster for me?

osilvan said:
Could you remind me why it's not possible without this app? is it a kernel or user space issue?
A long time ago, dzo told us that this could be solved when nand boot would be ready. Now, that's ready, what avoid solving this problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as I recall the notion was that running from nand would allow us the option of dismounting the sd card from the system so it could be used by USB mass storage. currently, nand still uses a cache on the sd card, so this is not yet possible.
this program allows both the system and the usb mass storage to access the sd card at the same time. I'm sure if someone cared enough to backwards engineer this we could incorporate something similar. however, why bother when there is a perfectly usable program already.

So this won't work using ext2 or fat for haret users I assume?

myn said:
So this won't work using ext2 or fat for haret users I assume?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running haret on a partitioned card (fat 32 and ext2) and it works great for me - just tested it.

berardi said:
How fast is USB Mass Storage with the Vogue? Does anyone remember the transfer speeds it's rated for?
I'm using a class 6 MicroSD so I guess the card reader method will still be faster for me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
~500kb write and ~800kb read (with class 4) results may vary

slapadabass said:
I'm running haret on a partitioned card (fat 32 and ext2) and it works great for me - just tested it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I confirm this also, running fat32 and 2 512Mb ext2 partitions. this is very handy. I found the 1.65 version doing a Google search, and that is what I have tested.

I would love to find out what this widget is doing so we can add the functionality to the base roms. I haven't had a close look at this yet but does anybody know exactly what it's doing?

jamezelle said:
~500kb write and ~800kb read (with class 4) results may vary
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem that if your SD card is class 4, this will still be grossly slower than simply taking the card out and using a card reader, no? 800 kb vs 4 mb / sec? or do I have the figures wrong... For small files this is convenient but for large amounts of music files etc it probably is less practical - granted not eveyone has a card reader

berardi said:
So correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem that if your SD card is class 4, this will still be grossly slower than simply taking the card out and using a card reader, no? 800 kb vs 4 mb / sec? or do I have the figures wrong... For small files this is convenient but for large amounts of music files etc it probably is less practical - granted not eveyone has a card reader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right - unless you're running off SD card and can't take your SD card out . . .

[Q] saving backups/photos to SD card on D3

Why the hell won't my phone save my songs from Spotify, my photos from Vignette, videos from the camcorder, and anything other data the apps create??
Where the hell is the option to save on SD card?

Simmah down.

The actual SD card is mapped as /sdcard-ext/ in the filesystem. The /sdcard/ mount point is the internal storage. Apps need to be written so you can choose the storage location, and this will only be a larger problem going forward because as internal storage space goes up, more and more manufacturers will be doing this.
The built-in camera app does ask if you want to use the real SD card when you put one in and load the program.

elkay said:
The actual SD card is mapped as /sdcard-ext/ in the filesystem. The /sdcard/ mount point is the internal storage. Apps need to be written so you can choose the storage location, and this will only be a larger problem going forward because as internal storage space goes up, more and more manufacturers will be doing this.
The built-in camera app does ask if you want to use the real SD card when you put one in and load the program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, see I use Vignette so that doesn't help... geez.
Guess I'll have to make sure the main camera app is at least on SD card storage. I don't remember if the video files are automatically saving to the SD card (I did notice the SD-ext difference and figured that was the external vs internal memory).

pekosROB said:
Yeah, see I use Vignette so that doesn't help... geez.
Guess I'll have to make sure the main camera app is at least on SD card storage. I don't remember if the video files are automatically saving to the SD card (I did notice the SD-ext difference and figured that was the external vs internal memory).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they're not being stored to the external on the stock app, boot the phone without the SD card in the phone, launch the camera app, then shut the phone down. Pop the SD card back in, boot up and launch the camera app again. It should say as soon as you launch that a new SD card is found and ask if you want to use it.
Going forward, /sdcard-ext/ is going to be more common on more phones, so app developers need to start providing an option for where users want to store data files. I'd contact the Vignette developers (they're pretty responsive) and let them know that they need to add a feature to choose the storage location of saved pics because most likely all Motorola devices will be set up this way going forward, with other manufacturers following.

Internal vs SD menory?

Is there anyway to FORCE the apps to use the MicroSD memory instead of the Internal storage?
It seems every app I've installed ( Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, etc) uses the internal memory. I have a 32GB MicroSD that seems to be useless right now. I tried moving all the apps to SD, but they still use the Internal Memory to store cache/files

I have yet to see a fix for this as well. The way I work around this is if the app saves files to the internal storage there is usually a setting in the settings menu that will allow you to change where it saves files. For instance with the TapeRecorder app. It automatically saves files to the sdcard (which Motorola stupidly named the internal storage for). I go to the settings and change the "sdcard" to "sdcard-ext", then it works!

For the time being, you can use the SD-EXT microsd card for music, videos, pictures, TiBU backups, downloads, etc., but in some cases you need to change some settings to do so. Apps cannot be installed on the external microsd card for now and you should make sure you 'move to phone' any apps which are check marked in the 'media' area or you are subject to losing them.

Sorry this next generation android phone just like Droid X it has dedicated app memory. That memory is used strictly for those apps. U can put 500 apps and not run out of room. SD card is used for media music movies etc
.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

Groid said:
For the time being, you can use the SD-EXT microsd card for music, videos, pictures, TiBU backups, downloads, etc., but in some cases you need to change some settings to do so. Apps cannot be installed on the external microsd card for now and you should make sure you 'move to phone' any apps which are check marked in the 'media' area or you are subject to losing them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this why When I selected "Move to Media Area" the application shortcut disappears from the "All Apps" menu?
I moved 2 games to the "Media Area" and now they are gone... they are still installed, but I have no way of accessing them. (I know they are still installed because when I went to reinstall, it said something about it replacing an app thats already install)

After researching more, and fumbling through the phone I discovered that Motorola has deemed the 8GB of Internal memory as an SDCard.
Another FAIL for Motorola, and I doubt there will ever be a fix for this. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
Stated on the Motorola Forums:
Folks, it's the storage naming system in Android. If you go to any forum for any phone with internal and external memory you'll see the same complaints. There are multiple threads about it here.
Even though in Motorola's file manager you see "internal phone memory" and "SD Card", the internal memory is actually "sdcard" and the external is "sdcard-ext". Like I said, it's like this on every brand of phone with this set up.
So, what's happening is the apps are saving to the internal memory because it is, in fact, the SD card. Motorola has tried to remedy this confusion by discontinuing to say "move to SD" and instead now calls it "Move to Media area".
And no, your external SD is not useless. You can still set your photos from the camera to save directly to your external, you can still put music and movies and all kinds of media on your external and your phone will see them just fine. This is why there is a 16GB card included with your phone, so you can use it for media and if you want to move your apps off of the system memory to save space you move it to the 8GB internal area. Of course 8GB is still plenty of space for apps and other media as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT: BFirebird101 stated this to, I don't know why, but when I was scrolling it passed over his post. Didn't mean to restate what he said.

I've been *****ing about this problem for weeks and nobody seems to care, and it also seems to not bother anybody either.
Its a crock of sh1t. Yea you can save media files on the real SD card, but how many apps actually find them? Smooth move Motofùckingrola!
Fortunately with some coaxing and about a month of messing around, DoubleTwist can find media files on sdcard-ext. Its about the only worthy music player that can.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

Tornlogic said:
I've been *****ing about this problem for weeks and nobody seems to care, and it also seems to not bother anybody either.
Its a crock of sh1t. Yea you can save media files on the real SD card, but how many apps actually find them? Smooth move Motofùckingrola!
Fortunately with some coaxing and about a month of messing around, DoubleTwist can find media files on sdcard-ext. Its about the only worthy music player that can.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Stock Music App seems to find the music files just fine on the MicroSD (just add some to try) and the Gallery Finds the Pictures. But I don't give a damn about Music or Pictures.
I have 123MB of the "Internal Memory" (SDCard) left - after I loaded all my work documents (spreadsheets, powerpoints, etc) & E-books. Right now I have to Move the file from the SDcard (InternalMemory) to the SDCard-Ext(MicroSD) after I've edit it and reuploaded it to Google Docs, then if I want to Edit it agian, I have to move it back to the SDCard(Internal Memory) Just so Google Docs will see it again.

Stock? That's okay, I'll pass. I froze those apps with TiBackup.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

i use videovault and when i pulled my video vault folder from my old backup and loaded it to the external SD, the VideoVault did not find them. There is no way i will load 4GB of videos into my Internal 8GB card just so i can haz my pronz!

What I noticed is this seems to be very similar to how the Xoom and Honeycomb handles sdcards and internal storage (minus the fact that we still cant write to sdcards on stock honeycomb....) so it could be Motorola setup the phone this way for a smoother migration to Ice Cream Sandwich when it comes out?

If ICS looks anything like the "leaked" video then ill pass.
It seems that MOTOROLA Android devices are the only ones with the MicroSD issues.
I have an Asus Transformer android tablet that has absolutely NO trouble at all when it come to read/write access of the MicroSD.
Motorola seems to fudge everything up. But verizon doesnt off any better phones (IMO)

You would think with all the Smart/Nerdy People on this site, someone would come up with a way to Rename the partitions Motorola has setup.
If it was just possible to rename the "SDCard-Ext" To "SDCard" ...

The reason you have no issue is Asus did a hack mod to get the SD card to work. Moto did the same on European xooms but on USA version its a google product there fore moto has no control on software manipulation. As for apps to SD card there is no need the device has dedicated app storage stritctly for apps.
KoolAidJunkie said:
If ICS looks anything like the "leaked" video then ill pass.
It seems that MOTOROLA Android devices are the only ones with the MicroSD issues.
I have an Asus Transformer android tablet that has absolutely NO trouble at all when it come to read/write access of the MicroSD.
Motorola seems to fudge everything up. But verizon doesnt off any better phones (IMO)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

[Q] Apps on SD with Interop Unlock?

With Interop Unlock, there's any chance to install or move apps on SD cards?

Currently testing this out. Games won't work too well on an SD card unless you own a class 10

Could you post which registry key to change to install on SD?

Its not simply a registry key.

It's not even about wether it is class 10 or not. WP7 devices had huge problems with their internal SD cards due to the fact that the random access time was terrible. The SD card class tells you only about transfer rate though.

StevieBallz said:
It's not even about wether it is class 10 or not. WP7 devices had huge problems with their internal SD cards due to the fact that the random access time was terrible. The SD card class tells you only about transfer rate though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep. random access is worse on most (big) class 10 cards afaik

It should be possible. You might have to install the app on your phone. Create the directory on the SD card and move the files to the SD card. And find a way to redirect all entries from the phone to the SD card. Access time shouldn't be a big factor, because windows phone apps load into the phones memory. This is all speculation though. I don't think you can install from the store to the phone. Unless there's a way to change the install path of apps in the registry. Again, all speculation.
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 8 App

Access time was a huge issue with SD cards on WP7. And it was "supported" there. I don't assume it would have become less of an issue on an OS that does NOT support it.

aclegg2011 said:
It should be possible. You might have to install the app on your phone. Create the directory on the SD card and move the files to the SD card. And find a way to redirect all entries from the phone to the SD card. Access time shouldn't be a big factor, because windows phone apps load into the phones memory. This is all speculation though. I don't think you can install from the store to the phone. Unless there's a way to change the install path of apps in the registry. Again, all speculation.
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 8 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got the same thought recently. If it would be possible to create a junction link in Phone\Data\programs, then it should work, cause windows doesn't really "know" that junctions are only links, it handles this as a directory...
on a "normal" Windows it must be a shell command like
mklink /j C:\Data\programs\{GUID from App} D:\{copy of the entire GUID-App-Directory from C:\Data\programs}
sorry for my "poor" description, but maybe someone got an idea...?

You all are missing a really critical problem: apps (unless they have ID_CAP_PUBLIC_FOLDER_FULL or similar) cannot actually access the SD card (ID_CAP_REMOVABLESTORAGE goes through an out-of-process RPC service; the app itself still can't access the card). Trust me, moving an app's binaries and data files to a location that the app cannot access does *not* end well (in related news, I can't launch Calculator on my phone anymore).

Oh, by the way, symlinks require some registry tweaks (in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem) to work. Otherwise, you get these nasty and useless error messages about the link being "disabled" if you try to do anything with it (creating it works, but not much else). This probably won't affect hardlinks or junctions, though.