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[Q] Optimal SD Card?

I asked this at the end of another thread, but there was no response, so maybe it was lost/buried. I thought I'd try a new thread.
Is there an optimal SD card for the Shift? I know that with my Nook, class 4 or 6 was actually the best thing you could use. Any data on what works best with the Shift?

flu13 said:
I asked this at the end of another thread, but there was no response, so maybe it was lost/buried. I thought I'd try a new thread.
Is there an optimal SD card for the Shift? I know that with my Nook, class 4 or 6 was actually the best thing you could use. Any data on what works best with the Shift?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD cards have classes? lol i grabbed the cheapest 16 gig SD card i could find and never in the 9 months of having it did it fail on me

I use class 4 and it works great
Sent from my Supreme Shift

I have a SanDisk 16 Gig class 6. Never had any issue with it.

Your answer is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220546
Patriot Class 10 16GB Micro SD, $29.99
On ScaryKernel stable with compcache I got the following speeds/scores from Antutu:
sdcard write 9.9MB/s 99
sdcard read 17.5 MB/s 175

Adata 16gb class 10 been working good for me. Also got it on new egg
Sent from your Mom's Jitterbug

VICODAN said:
Your answer is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220546
Patriot Class 10 16GB Micro SD, $29.99
On ScaryKernel stable with compcache I got the following speeds/scores from Antutu:
sdcard write 9.9MB/s 99
sdcard read 17.5 MB/s 175
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Love their pc ram but the micro sd cards they have out have been problematic.
Sportin Transcends 8gb class 6, works great for me.
Sent from my Shifty Speed Brick using xda premium

fallnSaint said:
Love their pc ram but the micro sd cards they have out have been problematic.
Sportin Transcends 8gb class 6, works great for me.
Sent from my Shifty Speed Brick using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never had any real problems. What problems have you had?
edit: I did have to format one time. Just make sure you format the card LBA turned off and you should be all good.
---------- Post added at 04:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=17717904

No matter which card you get. You can use SD Speed Increase or SD-Booster to increase the speed of the Read/Write of the card.

prboy1969 said:
No matter which card you get. You can use SD Speed Increase or SD-Booster to increase the speed of the Read/Write of the card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't know about these apps, thanks for the info. Will these have any ill effects on my card?
Sent from Gingerbread Speedy 4G

Not a one that I've heard of, or noticed. Have been using one or the other for a while. On several Shifts and on my wife's EVO4G. All different types of Micro SD Cards, from 2 gig on up to a 32gig. Different brands, always see an improvement. One thing I will say. Every phone is different as far as the sweet spot. I use SD Tools to find the best number.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys.
For the record, I use SD speed increase on my Nook and have never had any problems. And I use a class 4 Sandisk in it, because smarter people than me determined it was the best. I stand on the shoulders of giant androids, y'know?

flu13 said:
Thanks for all the feedback, guys.
For the record, I use SD speed increase on my Nook and have never had any problems. And I use a class 4 Sandisk in it, because smarter people than me determined it was the best. I stand on the shoulders of giant androids, y'know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sandisk makes great SD cards. But a class 10 sd card is way faster than any class 4.
Class Speed
Class 2 2 MB/s
Class 4 4 MB/s
Class 6 6 MB/s
Class 10 10 MB/s

prboy1969 said:
No matter which card you get. You can use SD Speed Increase or SD-Booster to increase the speed of the Read/Write of the card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alternatively you can create a script and drop it into the /etc/init.d/ folder containing this:
Code:
echo "2048" > /sys/devices/virtual/bdi/179:0/read_ahead_kb;
It does the same thing as those apps without taking up resources.
crump84 said:
Didn't know about these apps, thanks for the info. Will these have any ill effects on my card?
Sent from Gingerbread Speedy 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it just increases the Read Ahead buffer size in Android so data is copied off the sdcard into memory in larger chunks. Constant writing is the only thing that affects the lifespan of a sdcard.

Ron Overdrive said:
Alternatively you can create a script and drop it into the /etc/init.d/ folder containing this:
Code:
echo "2048" > /sys/devices/virtual/bdi/179:0/read_ahead_kb;
It does the same thing as those apps without taking up resources.
No, it just increases the Read Ahead buffer size in Android so data is copied off the sdcard into memory in larger chunks. Constant writing is the only thing that affects the lifespan of a sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is already built in to ScaryKernel and it doesn't make much of a difference.
Differences I noticed with SD card speed:
CPU clock speed/governor
Compcache disabled

A script does use less resources. But the downside is that all devices are different. Because of that some will see a difference with a set script, and some won't. You have to find the specific sweet spot for your individual device. That's where the apps come in handy. They allow you to adjust and test easliy until you get the right number.

VICODAN said:
Never had any real problems. What problems have you had?
edit: I did have to format one time. Just make sure you format the card LBA turned off and you should be all good.
---------- Post added at 04:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=17717904
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry vicodan, should have clarified, not personal experience. I did a lot of research before upgrading my card & went to Patriot immediately, a lot of bad experiences by other users disuaded me from pulling the trigger.
Thanks for the heads up prboy, will definitely have a look.
Sent from my PG06100 using xda premium

VICODAN said:
Sandisk makes great SD cards. But a class 10 sd card is way faster than any class 4.
Class Speed
Class 2 2 MB/s
Class 4 4 MB/s
Class 6 6 MB/s
Class 10 10 MB/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I understand that. But Nook owners/devs have gone to a lot of trouble to test out different classes of SD cards and found the best performance from class 4 or 6. I'm not here to explain it or understand it, I just accept their word. I'll see if I can find a succinct explanation over in the Nook forum.

Ok, too much to pick through. Here is one of the main discussions, with a link to the other.
I just figured that if higher class didn't necessarily equal better performance on one Android device, it was worth asking about the Shift as well.

prboy1969 said:
A script does use less resources. But the downside is that all devices are different. Because of that some will see a difference with a set script, and some won't. You have to find the specific sweet spot for your individual device. That's where the apps come in handy. They allow you to adjust and test easliy until you get the right number.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need an app to find the sweet spot though. All you need is Terminal or ADB and that command in the script while root. Just change 2048 to a different number and run your benchmark. Whether you use one of the Apps or the command line method once the sweet spot is found edit the init.d script and save. Next time the device restarts its automatically applied during the boot process before the Launcher is loaded speeding up the Launcher's startup and App Drawer refresh if you install apps to the sdcard.

Nice price on 64GB micro SDXC!

I cannot post link, but search Amazon:
SanDisk 64GB Mobile Ultra MicroSDXC Class 6 Memory Card with SD Adapter - Retail Packaging
No more switching files because my 32GB card is full!

Does our phone support 64GB modules? I thought 32GB was the max.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Mobil...WIA2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337960142&sr=8-1

New2my8125 said:
Does our phone support 64GB modules? I thought 32GB was the max.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it doesn't.
Sent from my LG-P999

Partition it?
cricketAC said:
it doesn't.
Sent from my LG-P999
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if you could partition it into 2 32gb partitions to make it work?

cricketAC said:
it doesn't.
Sent from my LG-P999
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It Does. There are a handful (so far) of android phones that will - after reformatting the card. Look it up! The G2x happens to be one of them. I know this because I have been running this card for the last 2 days without a glitch.

Here are some pictures. You lose some memory in the reformatting.

Whoa! you loose about 20GB? that's not worth it eh?
what about that partition? that sounds like a good idea...but could the phone read more that 1 or 2 drives... 1 meaning Internal and 2 the SD...

Major Zero said:
Whoa! you loose about 20GB? that's not worth it eh?
what about that partition? that sounds like a good idea...but could the phone read more that 1 or 2 drives... 1 meaning Internal and 2 the SD...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You only loose 4GB there's 59.36GB Total space. He used the other ~35 GB.

Major Zero said:
Whoa! you loose about 20GB? that's not worth it eh?
what about that partition? that sounds like a good idea...but could the phone read more that 1 or 2 drives... 1 meaning Internal and 2 the SD...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROFL. No it was meant to be 64 GB disk but its showing 59.xx hence 4.xx GB gone with the formatting. The available space is what left in his memory card after he filled it partially.
p.S: Still lmao.
---------- Post added at 11:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:19 PM ----------
quita1 said:
It Does. There are a handful (so far) of android phones that will - after reformatting the card. Look it up! The G2x happens to be one of them. I know this because I have been running this card for the last 2 days without a glitch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was going what gsmarena quoted.
Darn i just bought a 32GB sandisk last weekend. Oh well i think 40GB would be enough for me i guess.

Jufjufjuf said:
You only loose 4GB there's 59.36GB Total space. He used the other ~35 GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't "lose" any space. That's how data works.
If you get a 320gb hd, you're only able to use about 95% of the total space.
Go to Google and ask why that happens, it explains it somewhere. Don't just jump to conclusions without first trying to solve/educate why some things are how they are.
Even on the back of some memory cards/hard drives it'll also tell you that you won't be able to use the entire space.

buru898 said:
You don't "lose" any space. That's how data works.
If you get a 320gb hd, you're only able to use about 95% of the total space.
Go to Google and ask why that happens, it explains it somewhere. Don't just jump to conclusions without first trying to solve/educate why some things are how they are.
Even on the back of some memory cards/hard drives it'll also tell you that you won't be able to use the entire space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I second this. A 64GB USB isn't meant to have the amount of 64GB free space
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

buru898 said:
You don't "lose" any space. That's how data works.
If you get a 320gb hd, you're only able to use about 95% of the total space.
Go to Google and ask why that happens, it explains it somewhere. Don't just jump to conclusions without first trying to solve/educate why some things are how they are.
Even on the back of some memory cards/hard drives it'll also tell you that you won't be able to use the entire space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand how it works, I'd appreciate if you didn't jump to conclusions either.

According to ScanDisk they are listed as a Class 10.
http://www.sandisk.com/products/mob...crosdhc-and-microsdxc-uhs-i-cards-for-android

It's because computers can't devide by 1024 or something like that. I think.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

FatalityBoyZahy said:
It's because computers can't devide by 1024 or something like that. I think.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Computers see 1GB as 1024mb
Humans see 1GB as 1000mb
When they market their card as 64GB they do it the human version (64000mb)
When your computer sees it, it counts a GB as 1024mb, so obviously it wont end up being 64GB counting that way.
Hope that helps

You actually do get the full 64gb...if you paid attention enough. But it's a matter of the discrepancy between binary numbering and decimal numbering schemes used.
If you do a right click and hit "properties" of your hard drives (where you see the pie chart), and look under "capacity", you'll see a value that hits what you're looking for, if not close. Be it 64gb or 320gb.
My laptop drive is 120GB and shows: 119787220992 bytes (read, 119 billion, just a hair below 120), for a capacity of 111GB. You're not losing 9gb, it's just information being represented differently.

I didn't know we could use 64 GB cards... are there any drawbacks?

Karala said:
I didn't know we could use 64 GB cards... are there any drawbacks?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I switched from a 32GB Pny class 10 to this 64GB Sandisk card. I don't see any difference in performance or speed. I use my G2x to stream audio files to my bluetooth headphones all day at work. I have watched a full length movie, taken and watched other videos with my phone during this week. I dont see any drawbacks at all. It took a long time to transfer 29GB from my old card to the new, but this is understandable and normal

I bought this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007WTAJTO and my G2X refused to mount it. not even in recovery.

Increasing performance via MicroSD?

I've seen a few posts about people saying the NAND controller in the TF700 is slow and that is what causes a number of performance issues. Is this NAND in charge of both the internal and external cards or did they select a poor one just for the internal memory and went with a better quality controller for the external?
One reason I'm asking is that I saw a few people under the CleanROM thread mention that they moved a bunch of their apps over to a fast USH-1 MicroSD and it make a huge difference. But, if the controller was slow and shared across all cards, then that shouldn't help as the bottleneck would still be there. So, are they mistaken or does moving apps (Data2SD was the app they mentioned allowing them to do this) alleviate performance issues?
If it did alleviate issues, couldn't we use this to our advantage and install the OS to a USH-1 card and use internal memory for storage only? Or, come up with a good way to strategically place all applications on the available storage card as a part of rom installation.
OR, people are wrong and there's no way performance could be improved as the NAND is shared.
Can anyone speak to this?

I think one of the advantages is that the USH-1 cards are much faster than the NAND memory in the TF700. I plan on picking one up when time permits to find out for myself.
However I'll admit I have no real understanding of how it works. Many seem to be supporting it though, and I think Scott plans to implement it into his kernel so there must be something to it.
Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2

You must be talking about the Data2SD mod in the development section.
I'm planning on doing this when my Sandisk 64gig UHS1 card gets to me.

Thats OK said:
You must be talking about the Data2SD mod in the development section.
I'm planning on doing this when my Sandisk 64gig UH1 card gets to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess maybe I'm mixing up terminology or what I've read.
I thought what people were saying is slow, wasn't the memory in the TF700, but the memory controller that manages the memory. I've seen people say "NAND Chipset", as saying that the specific chipset is cheap and they should have went with a higher quality.
Now, if the controller is not bad but hey went with cheap and slow memory, then this makes much more sense. Using that mod to move apps to a UH1 card would drastically improve performance. I also ordered one (this morning) from Amazon which should get in tomorrow. From there it sounds like I'll be playing with that mod.

I'm more interested in the performance bump than extra storage.
Is this the proper card?
http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail.jsp?skuId=3695074&pid=1218427115873
If so, its a great deal.
Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2

Biohazard0289 said:
I'm more interested in the performance bump than extra storage.
Is this the proper card?
http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail.jsp?skuId=3695074&pid=1218427115873
If so, its a great deal.
Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I ordered:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...treme pro uhs-1 microsd&qid=1351174744&sr=8-5
According to benchmarks its the fastest of the microSDs you can get at 90mb/s.

spinaldex said:
According to benchmarks its the fastest of the microSDs you can get at 90mb/s.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can the MicroSD Card slot read/write at 90mb/s?
Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2

Mmmmm....
My understanding is, that the Hynix (formerly Hyundai) controller used for data built in has deplorable read\write speeds.
Hynix just brands certain products and some unknown maker stamps out the hardware.
Evidently moving the data partition along with system cache to a speedier better quality external SDcard plugged into the tablet will hopefully double read\write speed.
The system ram is another story.
It's all about getting system data to move a lot faster from system disc to ram to cpu.
Kind of like changing a hard disc out in a PC.
I have no idea how these devs are doing this with coding, yet if it works and stays working I'm gonna have a party!
As far as the cards go I'll have to do a lot more reading around these forums to judge what may be best.
I've read the "Ultra Hi Speed" cards work well.
It's weird tho they come in class 6 and 10.
I believe the key for a good card is being able to write small files 32kb or so very quickly on random calls from internal processing.
I keep confusing myself with all this...it will straighten out after two more pots of coffee...

Biohazard0289 said:
Can the MicroSD Card slot read/write at 90mb/s?
Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In theory yes, but in real life, NO. I have tested a few digital cameras using card with 90mb/s and I never achieved this speed, (it hits 90 for like a second then quickly dropped to about 40-44mb/s). A good example is a 30mb/s you are getting less for read and even smaller for write. But if you get the 90 card, it's still better than the 30 (must compared with same manufacture and same class).

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/SDCardSpeedTests
Here is a link to some SD card speeds.
A couple on the list I've tested and my results were about the same as this list.
As always there are newer cards out that read faster that aren't on this list.

Thats OK said:
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/SDCardSpeedTests
Here is a link to some SD card speeds.
A couple on the list I've tested and my results were about the same as this list.
As always there are newer cards out that read faster that aren't on this list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a good resource, however at the bottom it says those speeds are established by a large file transfer. Since we are replacing internal I/O we need small file transfer right? I'm still researching and I could be wrong though.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app

Biohazard0289 said:
That is a good resource, however at the bottom it says those speeds are established by a large file transfer. Since we are replacing internal I/O we need small file transfer right? I'm still researching and I could be wrong though.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True!
Small file fast writes are best.
Android won't have to deal with massive files.

Based on this, it sounds like there is an improvement in performance when using the cards. Now I just need to read the thread on that mod so I can take full advantage of it.

spinaldex said:
I've seen a few posts about people saying the NAND controller in the TF700 is slow and that is what causes a number of performance issues. Is this NAND in charge of both the internal and external cards or did they select a poor one just for the internal memory and went with a better quality controller for the external?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I researched a bit and came up with this:
The internal storage is connected to the CPU/SOC roughly like this:
[ Tegra 3 ] --- MMC interface --- [ NAND controller ] --- NAND-specific interface --- [ NAND memory array ]
Everything beyond the MMC interface is inside the eMMC chip. So the NAND controller that is slow is part of the Hynix eMMC.
Tegra 3 has 4 SD/MMC interfaces. One of them is connected to the internal eMMC, the other one to the microSD slot. The full size SD card in the dock is connected to the tablet indirectly via USB, very much like a cardreader on a PC.
There is also a NAND flash controller inside Tegra 3 - AFAIK this is not used in the TF700. The advantage of using an eMMC is that wear leveling can be offloaded to the eMMC and the software doesn't need to care.
spinaldex said:
If it did alleviate issues, couldn't we use this to our advantage and install the OS to a USH-1 card and use internal memory for storage only?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The internal eMMC is not that slow for reading, its main performance bottleneck are random writes. So keeping the system apps on the internal storage is probably good enough since the ROM is read-only in normal use, but putting the data on an external card apparently helps a lot.

I picked up an 8gig Ultra Class 10 at best buy for $11.00. I'll give it a go when I get home.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app

[Q] Can the partitions of a Galaxy Tab 2 be resized?

We all know that an 8GB Tab 2 has half of its storage for the system and the other half acting as a virtual SD card.
Is it possible to shrink the system partition and increase the the size of the virtual SD card? I know there are several partitions in use, but I hope you can see where I am coming from.
Thanks

I was thinking of having 2gb for the system and 6gb for the virtual SD card, like on an S2. Wouldn't that make more sense?

Seems nobody has an answer...
With so many posts complaining about the 4gb of user data I would have thought my post would have attracted some responses.
As it stands other devices have had their partitions resized. It seems to be a case of using ADB and using the "parted" command. I might give it a blast when I'm not so busy at the moment, but surely others must have thought the same as me.
Am I really the only one who thinks that 4gb for the system is way excessive?

sulligogs said:
Seems nobody has an answer...
With so many posts complaining about the 4gb of user data I would have thought my post would have attracted some responses.
As it stands other devices have had their partitions resized. It seems to be a case of using ADB and using the "parted" command. I might give it a blast when I'm not so busy at the moment, but surely others must have thought the same as me.
Am I really the only one who thinks that 4gb for the system is way excessive?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been watching this thread because I am curious as well. However, I unfortunately have an answer.

Actually curious about this too.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda app-developers app

sulligogs said:
I was thinking of having 2gb for the system and 6gb for the virtual SD card, like on an S2. Wouldn't that make more sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is they have a JB rom that supports apps to extsd or they have swapped the extsd for sd, so that the external is the main http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1961097 there are tons of solutions to this and getting past file sizes greater than 4 gig. Just use the search engine http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php

Swapper 2 with their Atrix 2s??

Hi, I am using Swapper 2 on Atrix 2 with Paranoid Android rom, I have made a 256 mb swap partition, Although most I have seen it used is 111 mb.
Its working fine. But I have noticed that phone sometimes freezes a while (very rarely) but certainly when boot up till I see the message that 'swapper 2 has been granted superuser perm'
What I wanted to know is that,
Are there any real advantages here, using that swap partition??
Can it lead to problems with my SD Card?? (32 gb UHS1 Sandisk)
Does it really slowdown phone??(Or Am I hallucinating?)
Thanks for reading. :good:

NHS2008 said:
Hi, I am using Swapper 2 on Atrix 2 with Paranoid Android rom, I have made a 256 mb swap partition, Although most I have seen it used is 111 mb.
Its working fine. But I have noticed that phone sometimes freezes a while (very rarely) but certainly when boot up till I see the message that 'swapper 2 has been granted superuser perm'
What I wanted to know is that,
Are there any real advantages here, using that swap partition??
Can it lead to problems with my SD Card?? (32 gb UHS1 Sandisk)
Does it really slowdown phone??(Or Am I hallucinating?)
Thanks for reading. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything that utilizes the SDcard will slow things down. The type storage that an SDcard is, is not a fast high quality storage. It was always meant to just store your person files on.
A second swap file is not needed. Android already has one it uses as part of the kernel and it is on your internal storage (much faster this way).
I would say yes it is using this swap file on the SDcard that is most likely causing the slowness and freezes.

jimbridgman said:
Anything that utilizes the SDcard will slow things down. The type storage that an SDcard is, is not a fast high quality storage. It was always meant to just store your person files on.
A second swap file is not needed. Android already has one it uses as part of the kernel and it is on your internal storage (much faster this way).
I would say yes it is using this swap file on the SDcard that is most likely causing the slowness and freezes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info! I will take it off and compare for few days.

Swapper 2 can severely degrade your SD card if you use it all the time.
I wouldn't recommend using it because I see no reason for it
Sent from my MB865 using xda app-developers app

GlitchedSoul said:
Swapper 2 can severely degrade your SD card if you use it all the time.
I wouldn't recommend using it because I see no reason for it
Sent from my MB865 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got rid of it. Thanks for the info though.