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Running RAM from the SDCard... is it possible?

I did a search but I only have a phone to do this from so hopefully I didn't miss it.
Is it possible to make ram run off of the SDCard in a new partition (or even a current partition) simalar to Readyboost for vista? With all these home screen apps taking up so much RAM is would be helpful.
I am what you would call an advanced noob at this so don't flame me if I'm totally off.

I don't believe android supports something like this, this is sort of like Virtual Memory in Windows. However, the effectiveness of this isn't very good, moreover, the speed of the SD card or even support for this feature is... unknown. So, for now, I'm going to have to say I don't think so.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=483110&highlight=swap

Yeah, it's in the market now too. I haven't tried it out though, I don't want to make my microSD card last even less now... =P

axion68 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=483110&highlight=swap
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Click to collapse
Thank you for that.

amgupt01 said:
Yeah, it's in the market now too. I haven't tried it out though, I don't want to make my microSD card last even less now... =P
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Any idea how much less?

mmafighter077 said:
Any idea how much less?
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Click to collapse
Linux swap partitions aren't designed for flash memory like Readyboost is. Microsoft says Readyboost is designed to make your memory last at least 10 years with moderate use, but Linux swap might stress it more. MicroSDs are really cheap though.

nm page didn't load right, i thought i was the first post with useful info.

mmafighter077 said:
Any idea how much less?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should still last you years.
Each sector on flash media can be written to something like 10,000 times. After that's worn out, I believe it just ignores that sector. Meaning when your mem stick starts dying, you'll just have less space available to you.
I currently run my notebook with a Compact Flash card in the notebooks built in CF slot, and run my swap file on that. It's been a while, and it still hasn't died.

It's quite a long time - a sector isn't written 10,000 times sequentially, the hardware in the chip moves the writes around to avoid wearing out any single element (wear levelling), and if any single element does go it'll just ignore it, as you mentioned.
Any modern SD is likely to outlive the phone, basically. I've got entire computers running off SD and I've never had a failure (hard drives fail way more often, due to their mechanical nature).

my android is running off a SD card.

Read-Only MicroSD cards suck!

Ok, been fighting with my G1 phone for over a month.
First it was the phone shutting down because the battery life was a whopping 5mins of any use. That was killing the OS, so kept having to reinstall.
Now that I got a replacement battery, it seems that something is causing my 8GB MicroSD card to stay 'read only' when I plug it into my usb-flash reader on my Ubuntu system.
I severely need to reformat my whole phone and start fresh but seem to be kinda screwed at the moment because of this damn card issue.
I have scoured the web and it seems this is some sort of stupidly common problem and I am just stunned at the sheer lack of solutions that work.
So, I am hoping that someone here can help and direct me to have a decent phone once again and not feel totally worthless and ashamed when I tell people I am a tech but can't fix my own damn phone.....

30 year-old trick does that job!
http://www.camerahacker.com/Forums/DisplayComments.php?file=Storage/memory_card_locked.html

This is just a guess, but I remember back when I was using linux (Gentoo or Ubuntu I think) FAT32 partitions were mounted read only, it was a limitation of the OS. I remember the documentation saying it was possible to mount it read/write but strongly discouraged.
This was a long time ago though, and to be honest I'm not sure if it was a FAT32 or NTFS partition that I had that problem with.

That's NTFS. Hasn't been any problem writing to FAT32 in a looooooooooong time. Also it has been safe to write to NTFS for some years now.
Are you using a MicroSD to SD adapter? There's a little switch on all SD cards making them read-only. Flip it and you should be good to go.
EDIT: Just saw you just noticed it

Actually wasn't a switch. A poorly designed adapter that broke at some point where the 'switch' is supposed to be. Cheap plastic.

[Q] Computer Vs. Phone

So, phones have evovled alot during the last few years.....
full html browsing, front and back cameras, emulation, and 1080 video playing
The difference between computers and phones have blurred......
so I ask this
"what can computers do that phones can't?"
other then the obvious processing power, graphics, and software designing.....
-I use this "what can computers do that phones can't?"
question to ask what i want my next app to be like so
any help is good help/answers

They pretty much do the same things these days. A PC just does everything a million times better

The issues with phones are input (you just can't beat a full tactile keyboard and mouse combo) and output (small screen). But that's easy to solve - dock. So in the not too far future you'll have all the computing power and personal data in your pocket and be able to do quite many tasks with that. Then, for the big tasks, you'll put the device on a dock connected to a keyboard, mouse and large display.

Gusar321 said:
The issues with phones are input (you just can't beat a full tactile keyboard and mouse combo) and output (small screen). But that's easy to solve - dock. So in the not too far future you'll have all the computing power and personal data in your pocket and be able to do quite many tasks with that. Then, for the big tasks, you'll put the device on a dock connected to a keyboard, mouse and large display.
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Click to collapse
You forgot about storage.

It would be great if you could dock your phone, have the screen project onto a wall, and have a wireless keyboard that synced...you'd basically have your computer..minus the hard drive space and all

I'd agree with Gusar, the input device is what really sets them apart IMO.

Unfortunately, Photoshop. The mobile app is a joke - I'm talking about layer editing, adjustment layers, masks, etc. If it weren't for Photoshop, and the ease of typing my school documents in Word, I'd never open my laptop.
There are a lot of things that run better on a computer, but I find myself using my phone for almost everything.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

theo80 said:
You forgot about storage.
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You forgot about Moore's Law.
Which states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. (Thank you wikipedia )
This basically means that storage capacity doubles without becoming more expensive or bigger. Considering the fact that my Galaxy S II has 16 gb ( and 32 gb is possible ) of internal storage and another 32 gb of sd storage. Storage capacity will be 256 gb in 4 years. Of which 128 gb is really fast, for OS, and 128 gb is considerably fast, file storage.
When looking at the bigger picture other problems will be solved too. Because most of the specs will quadruple you are able to use photoshop and such.
And thereby the cloud computing will have evolved tremendously too in four years, rendering all the storage capacity useless.
So by the time we'll see docks as a standard, other problems will be solved too. Unless software requirements are raised too, but that seems unlikely, since my old 1.5 ghz 1 gb ddr 2 RAM laptop runs windows 7 fluidly. ( except for aero, damn you intel! )
Back on topic, I still haven't found a real good all in one VPN app, which also mounts my NAS as an SD card, or any external medium.

gangsterjoop said:
You forgot about Moore's Law.
Which states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. (Thank you wikipedia )
This basically means that storage capacity doubles without becoming more expensive or bigger. Considering the fact that my Galaxy S II has 16 gb ( and 32 gb is possible ) of internal storage and another 32 gb of sd storage. Storage capacity will be 256 gb in 4 years. Of which 128 gb is really fast, for OS, and 128 gb is considerably fast, file storage.
When looking at the bigger picture other problems will be solved too. Because most of the specs will quadruple you are able to use photoshop and such.
And thereby the cloud computing will have evolved tremendously too in four years, rendering all the storage capacity useless.
So by the time we'll see docks as a standard, other problems will be solved too. Unless software requirements are raised too, but that seems unlikely, since my old 1.5 ghz 1 gb ddr 2 RAM laptop runs windows 7 fluidly. ( except for aero, damn you intel! )
Back on topic, I still haven't found a real good all in one VPN app, which also mounts my NAS as an SD card, or any external medium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know my next science project, a wireless keyboard made specifically for droid
As for output it would need to record its own screen (which I have no idea how to do) and output it to a wireless device such as a laptop or maybe a google tv with android......
does it sound within the depths of realism?

gangsterjoop said:
You forgot about Moore's Law.
Which states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. (Thank you wikipedia )
This basically means that storage capacity doubles without becoming more expensive or bigger. Considering the fact that my Galaxy S II has 16 gb ( and 32 gb is possible ) of internal storage and another 32 gb of sd storage. Storage capacity will be 256 gb in 4 years. Of which 128 gb is really fast, for OS, and 128 gb is considerably fast, file storage.
When looking at the bigger picture other problems will be solved too. Because most of the specs will quadruple you are able to use photoshop and such.
And thereby the cloud computing will have evolved tremendously too in four years, rendering all the storage capacity useless.
So by the time we'll see docks as a standard, other problems will be solved too. Unless software requirements are raised too, but that seems unlikely, since my old 1.5 ghz 1 gb ddr 2 RAM laptop runs windows 7 fluidly. ( except for aero, damn you intel! )
Back on topic, I still haven't found a real good all in one VPN app, which also mounts my NAS as an SD card, or any external medium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
32GB is nothing much compared to TB harddisks available on the computer. Cloud storage is good, but if you want real performance the file being edited should still be in your local drive.

jolined said:
It would be great if you could dock your phone, have the screen project onto a wall, and have a wireless keyboard that synced...you'd basically have your computer..minus the hard drive space and all
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Click to collapse
Great idea. Later on Mobile phone is just like small computer but just need external device e.g monitor,keyboard,mouse etc.
Seems cpu,ram,storage technology is growing fast.
See macbook air is very thin.may be in the future we just carry thin tablet and can be integrated with our phone.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA App

theo80 said:
32GB is nothing much compared to TB harddisks available on the computer. Cloud storage is good, but if you want real performance the file being edited should still be in your local drive.
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Click to collapse
An even broader perspective, just for you.
In four years entire Europe will have an LTE network, so cloud storage up and down speeds shouldn't be too much of a problem. And besides, 32 gb is enough for caching all the stuff you're working on.

when i move, i use smartphone, when i'm home, i use computer

Most computers can run multiple operating systems. Most phones cannot.
And then there's the issue of battery life, where innovation crawls at the speed of a snail on tranquilizers.

rogier666 said:
Most computers can run multiple operating systems. Most phones cannot.
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There is no inherent design characteristic preventing that, it's all about hardware drivers. If the hardware makers release documentation, then drivers can be written. But the problem is, especially in the embedded world, closed hardware is the norm.
On the other hand, Nvidia has released Meego compatible tegra2 drivers that, while closed, allow installing Meego on tegra2-based Android tablets, for example.

You can build your own computer. You cant build your own phone but I wish one day we can do this
Also games but that's due to power of the device and accessibility and screen size all of which were mentioned
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

rogier666 said:
Most computers can run multiple operating systems. Most phones cannot.
And then there's the issue of battery life, where innovation crawls at the speed of a snail on tranquilizers.
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Click to collapse
Any one else notice this?
Battery-life as stayed the same for years.....Just enough for people to be satisfied......but maybe that is just me since i have only use the one provided by the Cellphone provider.....
maybe there are high capacity batteries that aren't being incorporated here?

Gusar321 said:
There is no inherent design characteristic preventing that, it's all about hardware drivers. If the hardware makers release documentation, then drivers can be written. But the problem is, especially in the embedded world, closed hardware is the norm.
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For the end user (that means almost everybody) it doesn't make any difference whether the limitation is due to hardware or software.

rogier666 said:
For the end user (that means almost everybody) it doesn't make any difference whether the limitation is due to hardware or software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but we're talking here about differences between PCs and phones. The ability to run multiple OSes isn't one. Because when you have the drivers, phones can run multiple OSes. People porting Android to Windows Mobile 6 phones, as an example.

The result of porting a mobile OS is nowhere near the result of porting a desktop OS.
If you install Linux on a PC designed for Windows it will usually work without any trouble. If you port a mobile OS you downgrade your smartphone to a toy.
Availability of drivers required for porting is a major difference between phones and computers. That's why ported mobile OSs rarely work as they should. There are always missing features, reduced performance, and broken functions.
That's not a hardware limitation, but that doesn't matter. What matters is the result. As long as ported mobile OSs are not suitable for real life use phones are not able to do everything that computers can do.

Will This Trend Continue?

Manufacturers are removing the ability to take out the battery and add your own micro SD cards, will this trend continue?
Will Google step in put a stop to that like they did when manufactures began locking down too many bootloaders?

Don_Perrignon said:
Manufacturers are removing the ability to take out the battery and add your own micro SD cards, will this trend continue?
Will Google step in put a stop to that like they did when manufactures began locking down too many bootloaders?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that Google will try to put a stop to the MicroSD issue; the Galaxy Nexus has no MicroSD slot and I find it hard to believe that Google was not involved in that decision.
Regarding the replaceable battery, I believe that this is an issue for too few users for Google to step in. A lot of people never have to do a battery pull and many (including me) have never bought a spare battery. Can't really see the point in batteries not being easily replaceable, though, but that doesn't matter.
I think this trend will continue.

I really wish it wouldn't , what if the phone stalls ? We would need the battery pull to fix ****
This was sent from a Galaxy Ace. Problem?

I want to know whether the news is true....

I doubt that the MicroSD capability will be lost since so many potential customers opt for another device, since the other device has the MicroSD slot, thus the market sets the trends.
Vendor wise - the less user accessible parts the better for them, resulting in less warranty cases and more profit for them.
However. As the NAND memory sizes increase and production costs decrease we are bound to see more high end devices with 32GB storage and even more and so the requirement for the MicroSD card slot may turn out to be irrelevant.
And on the grounds of the replaceable battery - There isn't much of a competition on the battery market OEM batteries are still 90% of the sales and the only reason to swap batteries would be when on the go and no other means of charging the device.
In the most cases, extended capacity charging packs cost maybe 10% more than the OEM battery off of ebay.
But as time goes along we shall see.

I hope this trend stops. I like the ability to add more space by buying an SD card. And, yes it is true we never buy a spare battery, but if my phone freezes or something like that I can pull out the battery turn it on again and it works.

Frankly i don't care. When the phone is build right it's fine with me.
I will not marry it and spend the rest of my life with it. Every 1-2 years i buy a new one.
If even the battery is gone rouge and you can't put it out that doesn't mean you can't change it in service......
Regardless the SD, well i listen to music most of the time and 16 GB is enough for me. Some games, some books etc. Don't wanna carry 1TB in the pocket

How do you solve the need to do a battery pull with non replacable batteries?
However, while the counties these manufactures come from and sell to have consistent electricity and not having extra batteries is somewhat ok, there are a few countries that still need manufacturers to not go that route yet. I just spent the last year in a country that doesn't give its people consistent electricity. There were times that I needed multiple batteries.
I see one of the reasons why BlackBerry is still hot in that county, because better OSs take much more energy.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA

My x8 can take its own battery out kidding,battery can be changed.but the phone seal plan doesn't kake sense.then microSD companies will have less earnage.I just buyed a 16 gb class 10 microSD for 30 $.
Sent from my E15i using XDA

I don't mind having a non-removable battery if they improve battery life enough to make the phone last a day or two, but I would still prefer having removable memory. I thought 16gb was enough until I started trying out different roms and the backups filled my card fast...
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA

In some ways, I can see benefits of non removable batteries - all-in-one form factor means there are less parts to come loose etc. I've had battery covers that slide off all too easily in my pocket before. Probably also allows manufacturers to trim down the size of phones a bit, as the battery doesn't have to be in an easily accessible position, so it can fit between other components more so etc.
But the lack of micro SD seems silly to me. Sure, give plenty of internal storage, but still give the option for more, some people will need it. A micro SD slot isn't going to greatly add to the cost of manufacturing the phone, nor will it take up too much space in the phone physically.
Personally, I like having both removable battery and micro SD card slot (on my phone, micro SD is essential given the puny internal storage - about 50MB free for installing apps etc. when I got it)

I could *probably* live with non-replaceable battery *if* the phone's built-in battery had life comparable to a 3600mAH battery today, but worry about establishing it as a norm. Manufacturers just can't be trusted to not trim and trim and trim their battery capacity year after year in the holy name of satisfying "design queens" who aren't happy unless their new phone is as thin & light at the latest abomination from Apple.
IMHO, the *ideal* compromise would be *two* batteries... one that's a user-swappable 3-for-$10 1700mAH commodity on eBay, and a built-in battery that fills every cubic millimeter of open space with lithium ion gel.
I value microSD partly as a convenient medium for rom images, but mostly as the closest thing to user-repurposable GPIO lines (and SPI bus) you can get in a new Android phone. IOIO & ADK are nice, but USB has latency, and I get warm fuzzies from being able to touch and program "bare metal". And it's hard to beat the cost of a hacked micro-SD card w/soldered on wires running through a hole drilled in the back controlling your 'bot without spending $65-80 for an ADK board. Wires and solder are cheaper & have better latency

I never used a spare battery on any of my phones ever nor do I know any of my friends ho did so either. Manufaturers can make a stronger sturdier device and have more space inside (for lets say a little bigger battery) if it's non replaceable.
Same goes for the microsd. I think it uses a lot more space to have a nand + card reader + microsd + space to access microsd then to have a bigger nand.

EmoBoiix3 said:
I really wish it wouldn't , what if the phone stalls ? We would need the battery pull to fix ****
This was sent from a Galaxy Ace. Problem?
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Click to collapse
I think when there are no removable battries, the way to enact a battery pull is to press and hold the power button for instances of 15 secs? At least that's what I have for my Android-run-Cowon which have irremovable battery.

i think its a thing from the manufacturer and there are advantages for the case, but i dont like it.

I don't like the idea of not having a removable battery / SD card. After the degradation of a battery I would opt to have the option to replace the battery myself rather than send it in for warranty work. Especially when I have sensitive information on my phone.

gtdtm said:
until I started trying out different roms and the backups filled my card fast...
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Delete some backups, you shouldn't need so many.

I've got mixed feelings About non removable storage, on one hand the extra space for "stuff" is nice but on the other hand if USB On the Go really takes off then most people will probably use their existing memory sticks whatever to just quickly plug in if they really need the extra headroom for say a backup or some massive clump of files. And with how everything is more and more commonly stored in the "googleverse" for say your docs music and all that guff the only bottleneck then is mobile data limits assuming you're off Wi-fi.
Batteries are a different story if they're not easily accessible but still changeable with a tear down I don't see the problem with that too much. It allows manufactures to in theory be more inventive with their form factors and placement for all those adorable little android organs.
Anyhow that's my two cents.

Edit: @I am Marino...
I do delete my backups and keep only one or two, but with that, boot manager and various other apps I find myself with just a couple gb left at any given time. If I didn't have expandable memory I wouldn't be too happy. As It is I can see myself upgrading in the near future without having to spend loads.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA

Innovation on Storage in Mobiles - IDEA

Hello Everyone,
In present times, if a company does not "innovate" or CREATE then its done for them..
But innovation has taken on to mobiles like anything.
You have OSes, you have hardwares the might of a mini-supercomputer wrapped into the mobile phones, and you have accessories to take that to the next level as well.
Above all if something lacks then it might be compensated by an application to some extent.
But of late these mobile manufacturers have started making fun of the very consumer who buys it from them and gives them business.
Cost competitiveness is the forte for a mobile phone company, but I simply do not understand why this ridiculous 16gb and 64gb variants for specifically the versions WITHOUT AN EXPANDABLE STORAGE..
FRUSTRATING AND @@[email protected][email protected]$$ what not...
YES this thread is about the LIMITED STORAGE ISSUE, you guessed it right..
Well you now have companies offering accessories which can personalize your device with NFC, extended battery, Music centric features, slider keyboards and stuff like what next.. in the back panels/ back covers.....
I have a innovative idea myself, well they dont call me the strategist just like that.....
What if an accessory was to extend the storage of your device....
like make a 16gb non external sd storage device get extra from a back cover or plate.....
If something can be possible, then this would be awesome because we people who need that extra storage wont have to clammer for a OTG or Pendrives.....
Pls some BACK Cover for this purpose to extend the storage so that we dont have to fiddle with an OTG option which is an extra and this will also be like fixed/ permanent with the mobile ...
let me know your thoughts on this people....
Warm Regards,

I have a cool idea, what if we could have an access port on each phone that could accept the cards of your choice.
Like first you buy the hardware (phone) then you can have your choice of cards that the memory for the entire phone would use, the only internal memory installed on the phone would be what was needed to hold the rom, the card would have two seperate modules, one for the ram, the the second for the storage.
As far as making it universal to all phones manufacturers would set forth a common socket to be used (much like a crazy microsd slot)
This would make manufacturing the hardware alot cheaper and add more customization at the consumer level
So the card would come with say a standard 2gb ram/14gb storage and as you go you could have say 16gb ram/16gb storage,
Design could be based on the current class 10 microsd only with it having 2 different module set and having direct access from the cpu via a memory manager.
O and when we switch phones all our information would go with us because we could put it in our new phone and our phones numbers, apps, (granted will need reinstalling,) txts, pics, ect

Sewrizer said:
16 GB ram is impossie due to other hardware limitations. Internal memory must be embedded to the motherboard to prevent disconnection and to maximize speed, because you will have your system in there, after all.
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Click to collapse
Ram dose not haft to be hard wired to the board, look at pcs with expandable memory. My point is you would have 2 physical cards in one with access point for both witch will be controlled by a memory manager that is directly connected to the cpu. We are on the move to ddr4 witch means memory will hit the 22nm scale so packing 16, 32, 64, ir even 128gb would be no problem. Also with high transfer rates of ddr4 module lag between card, manager, and cpu would all be dependent on the set bus speed for the cpu and throughput of the manager
Edit
Yes physical hardware problems right now. I mean in the next batch of phones. This is mainly just for r&d and it is possible. Ya know 10 years ago 4gb of ram was unheard of in any pc, now we have it in a phone