Storage Card Questions (2)

quote:Originally posted by jhettena

Follow up question:

I'd like to install a backup program (either Sprite or something else) and, separately, either Pocket Player or another audio application.

Should those applications be installed in main memory, the file store or could they reside on an external storage card. My hunch is that the answer will be 'main memory', but confirmation would be appreciated.

Thanks -

Well, neither of them are boot-time applications (except, maybe, for Sprite, if you use it in the scheduled mode - after automatically powering your device on, it's possible Sprite won't start off a memory card) or apps that frequently write to their home directory, so, I'd say you can install them all in an alternative memory area. If they don't run there or seem to be buggy (which I don't think), just reinstall them into main memory.

Follow up question:

I'd like to install a backup program (either Sprite or something else) and, separately, either Pocket Player or another audio application.

Should those applications be installed in main memory, the file store or could they reside on an external storage card. My hunch is that the answer will be 'main memory', but confirmation would be appreciated.

Thanks -

Thanks for all of the valuable information and links!

Jonathan

quote:Originally posted by jhalsey205

Thanks. Any experience installing Pocket Informant into SafeStore?

I haven't personally tested this as yet. Some people said it's (or, was it AF?) much slower off the File Store. I don't know for sure - you may want to give it a test ride.

Thanks. Any experience installing Pocket Informant into SafeStore?

John

quote:Originally posted by jhalsey205
Presuming everything that can be loaded on SD is loaded there (my exceptions would be WA2, Today plugins (phoneAlarm, Pocket Breeze, and iLauncher) and Pocket Informant), what should/can be loaded in the Safe Store (and why).

Quite a few plug-ins can be hacked into the File Store because the system already sees its contents during booting, unlike that of storage cards. So, its highly possible your Today plug-ins will continue working off the File Store if you relocate them there. Please read, for example,http://www.firstloox.org//forums/showthread.php?t=3752 on relocating Spb Pocket Plus.

I will some day make a list of most Today plug-ins that can freely be relocated to the File Store. Until then, you will need to experiment with this yourself.

Other (non-Today plug-ins) programs: again, there're no hard and fast rules. It's impossible to predict that a given application will work OK (or, on the other hand, will work very slow) off a storage card/ the file store. It's the best to install the app in the main memory first, test its features to see how speedy it is, and then, relocate it to an alternative memory. Then, you'll already be able to compare the speed of the two locations. If it's not (very) different (which will be the case in 99% of cases), you can safely leave them there. Also, please note that the reading speed of the File Store (as with memory cards) is very fast, around 1 Mbytes/s. That is, programs that don’t write anything in File Store will run only a bit slower (during their loading – afte rthat, they’re in RAM so there won’t be any speed difference any more) from there than from the main memory.

This method (always compare the speed of an app when installed to the main memory and to the File Store) also takes care of protecting your File Store. Some devices (most notably, the HP iPAQ rx3xxx series) have extremely fragile File Stores (please see my posts at, for example,http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41365 on this.). This means they can’t even stand several hundred (!!!) rewriting cycles. That is, it’s best to put programs in the File Store of devices like these that don’t write back to the File Store at all. Because it’s programs that consistently write to their home directory (which is, if they run off the File Store, is also located in the File Store) become much, in cases even an order of magnitude slower than when run in the main memory, you won’t ever install anything in the File Store if you don’t install anything that becomes much slower there. Killing two birds with one stone as one would say [:)]

Menneisyys,

Presuming everything that can be loaded on SD is loaded there (my exceptions would be WA2, Today plugins (phoneAlarm, Pocket Breeze, and iLauncher) and Pocket Informant), what should/can be loaded in the Safe Store (and why).

I ask in that I am about to hard reset my Samsung i730, as I am running out of program memory (everything loaded in main memory).

Thanks

John

quote:Originally posted by jhettena

Hi,

I just bought an HP iPAQ hx2755 (which has a lot of memory), but would like someone's (anyone's) opinion about whether to install programs to the device itself of the storage card?

In some cases , it's desirable to install software into the main memory instead of a storage card or File Store:

- some applications are much slower when run from a storage card. An example is the NetFront browser and SimpleSMS. They both do massive writing behind the scenes in their home directory; this is why they become so slow when run off a storage card.

- at bootup time, external storage cards are not accessible (the iPAQ File Store, on the other hand, is!). Therefore, Today plug-ins should be installed in the main memory (or, if they work off it, the File Store). These programs also include bootup time programs like the StowAway keyboard driver or the Pocket Controller application.

However, no matter how much main memory you have, you should install everything that runs off a storage card/File Store well to there instead of the main memory. The reason for is is very simple: the WIndows Mobile operating system really slows down if there're too many files in the main memory. I've posted some benchmarks on this athttp://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36376

quote:Originally posted by jhettena
If the latter, what is the best approach for determining whether to go with SD memory or Compact Flash for external storage?

It all depends on their speed. As I've pointed out in my article(s) linked above, storage cards have different writing/file creation speed. Some apps, which may run off a, say, very fast CF or SD card fast, may behave much worse when running off the (otherwise, write speed-wise, very slow) File Store.

There're no hard and fast rules for this; you need to evaluate every programs in this respect. Please note that only programs are affected by the write speed that actually do write/store something somewhere: for example, the above-mentioned Netfront stores its cache files, SimpleSMS stores its SMS messages etc. Most games, book readers etc., however, don't write anything to the file system and, therefore, run (almost) equally fast off any storage card or the File Store.

You may also want to read my comments athttp://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36674