What is the best storage media?

[Fraggy]

Very nice to have the freedom of choice, yet confusing for the newbie, hehehe.

The SL-5500 has 2 slots, one CF that also takes Microdisks and a SD slot that also takes MMC cards...

I suppose it is wise to try to keep the CF slot "free" as much as possible, since that's the slot that is needed for the peripherals (ethernet cards & stuff), this is a bit of a bummer considering the CompactFlash memory cards seem to be the cheapest storage media!!!!

So what are the differences? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different media, when used in a Zaurus (the SL-5500 especifically)?

A Microdrive sounds nice (especially since it's capacity can go way beyond 1 GB), but a 1Gb CF card is waaaaay cheaper, so why would I buy a 1Gb Microdrive? Is it faster? If so, is the greater speed really needed?
SD cards are not only more expensive than CF, but also their copy protection, which has no real added value for the common user, may cause for more problems than pleasure... but using an SD or MMC card does keep the CF slot free for use with a CF peripheral...

So could anybody give their experiences and opinions about this matter?

Thanks in advance!

JM.

[ThC]

let's start with CF vs MicroDrive :
_Some CF cards are faster than microdrives and they all have far better access times ...
_CF are limited to approx 100 000 rewrites as i've seen here and there ... microdrive don't have such a limit as their real micro harddrives BUT microdrives would take damage from a small drop or even too much movements while being used (currently testing ext3 with mine to avoid loosing datas/fsck'ing it 3 times a day)

for the CF vs SD/MMC I think the main difference is the form factor and the fact that SD is a non-open format (SD drivers are the only closed-source binaries in our Zaurus) ... I also think CF are way faster ...

I can't tell you about the pro/cons of CF/SD in SL-5500 as i own a sl-c860 but as they're supposed to be quite similar for the CF/SD slot I think if you don't need to keep CF open for wifi/bt/lan/pcmcia/usb/whatever addon you may need, just buy a CF card as even if they last shorter than a microdrive due to their 100 000 cycle limitation, their price and robustness will make them a better choice IMHO (unless you can obtain a cheap microdrive from a muvo )

[maslovsky]

You'd probably want to have both SD and CF cards. 512 Mb SD is around $100 these days, you can keep it in your SD slot in Zaurus and have enough of storage.

However, you'd also want to have a CF card (512 CF is even cheeper) as well for flashing your Zaurus (don't tell me you don't want to play with different ROMs , and probably for interchange with your PC/Photo Camera/etc.

[Fraggy]

as well for flashing your Zaurus (don't tell me you don't want to play with different ROMs )

That is EXACTLY the reason why I'm looking for this kind of info, because indeed I am going to experiment a lot. I'll be sure to buy a media reader/writer for my PC in order to fool around more comfortably

[maslovsky]

as well for flashing your Zaurus (don't tell me you don't want to play with different ROMs )

That is EXACTLY the reason why I'm looking for this kind of info, because indeed I am going to experiment a lot. I'll be sure to buy a media reader/writer for my PC in order to fool around more comfortably  

Have fun

[Stubear]

Just remember that with SD carsd you loose a certain amount of space the permissions crap that you can't (and most likely don't want to) use on the Zaurus.

On a 256Mb card you only get about 243MB of useable space - the bigger the card the more space you loose.

Stu

[Fraggy]

Damn, that's a lot of wasted space...

Actually, the only reason why I would wanna have the SD is to use the SD to have programs installed or access data, while the CF slot is being occupied by a CF ethernet card...
But the SD slot also takes MMC cards, so how about those?

(Yeah, I know SD brings more sorrows than pleasure with their copyright gimmick...)

[Guest]

Hi,

I found this page by typing "mmc vs. sd cards" into google.

http://www.geocities.com/romidar/mmcvssd.htm

Hope this clears up the question somewhat.

[Fraggy]

Yeah, I read that one just before posting this new thread on this forum...

Appart from speeds and durability, I needed to know "more" than that, like CF is needed for flashing. But since the CF is also *needed* for peripherals, I'd personally try tro keep that slot free as much as possible (for example: downloading files with the Zaurus from the LAN/Internet and store them on CF directly is impossible, since the EthernetCF is occupying the slot  , so you would have to download to ram, take off the CF ethernet, plug in CF memory, and copy from RAM to CF...)

Although I'm gonna buy a media reader/write, so downloads by the Zaurus will be written to shared disks (LAN), then written to CF/SD/MMC using the PC, so there are many ways to use the CF of your Zaurus, so what's the most comfortable one?

[bredroll]

re sd card wasted space :

i was under the impression that this was not due to the protection mechanism but due to the fact that SD cards are measured using the wrong data method

128Mb of data (video, program etc)
----------------------------------------------
128 x 1024 x 1024 = 134,217,728 bytes


128Mb SD card capacity
------------------------------
128 x 1000 x 1000 = 128,000,000 bytes
128,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 = 122Mb

[Twisk]

Hi Fraggy,

I have both SD and CF, 256MB each.

I have found it essential to have both:
CF card is faster, so transferring files to-from PC with Reader/Writer goes quickly. An internal, USB2.0 compliant, 7-in-1 R/W unit cost me just $21.95 - Whoa!

SD card quietly sits there in its slot, working as a good location to install and run hog programs like HancomWord, and as a place to keep large-ish files like .jpg .wav .mp3 ... (while simultaneously CF slot sees lots of action from wifi/LAN/modem/GPS/etc., as mentioned by ThC).

512MB would be even nicer

[Fraggy]

Yeah, thanks for the advice, Twisk. You just confirmed my "doubts".

I was thinking about buying a 1024Mb CF memory card, because they are "relatively" cheap, but then I realized that that space could not be used to INSTALL programs, because I have to remove the CF storage in order to access my LAN...
Of course I could compensate by "mirroring" what's on the CF card on my LAN, but if we're talking about installed programs, it's a bit tricky.

Linux offers the possibility to "mount" a ftp site so it can be transparently used as a filesystem, so theoretically speaking, this would be an option, however, that's not my definition of COMFORT, hehe.

A 1024 Mb CF card would be great to hold mame roms, mpeg movies, pictures and other "non operating system" data that you can "take on the road", but I think I'm going to use the Zaurus quite intensively for "offdesk" work and programming.

When I'm talking about "non operating system" data, I'm talking about "independent" data (or "standalone" programs if you wish).
Or the other way around: what I mean with "operating system data" is the OS + all the utilities that are "embedded" into the OS, like ftp servers / clients, apache & php, and proggies like Hancom Word or even the full Open Office suite for that matter... Those need to be "always present" in order to have a functional working (productivity) environment...

So yes, for that stuff I NEED a SD card...  That was what I though and you confirmed it for me.
Too bad they are so much more expensive than CF...
Sharp should have given the Z TWO CF slots, hehe, instead of 1 CF + 1 SD

Yet I'm happy they didn't because having both a CF and a SD slot makes the Z more flexible and it's only a matter of time before prices will drop and one can buy both a 1024Mb CF + a 1024Mb SD, hehe. That's about 2 Gb of storage
I remember my first 486 PC had less horsepower and only 250Mb HD space, my Toshiba laptop has 233Mhz, 96Mb RAM and 3.9 Gb HDD, so a Zaurus SL-5500 with 2Gb of storage comes quite close to the laptop!!!! Except that the Zaurus doesn't do floating point operations, but well, with programs that are optimized for fixed point operations, that should compensate

But right now, I will have to spread my budget over 1 CF + 1 SD... Which means that the 1024Mb CF is out of my reach...

I think it's gonna be a 512Mb CF (in order to be able to watch Shrek on the Z ) and for some ebooks & my favorite mame roms, and an 512Mb SD card to hold programs only (eg. apache, php, mysql and the dynamic website files that I'll be working on...)

I hope that in the next 6 or 7 months the prices will drop considerably,  so I will buy a 1024 CF.
512Mb for the SD should be more than enough for now... But I'm thinking about a 256Mb SD to reduce the costs...

[Fraggy]

I just found out that there are Wireless LAN SD cards!!!

Like the SanDisk 256MB + WiFi SDIO Card or the
Socket Wireless LAN (WiFi) SD Card

So basically, this solves my "occupied CF slot problem"... (it even would allow you to use a GPS and LAN on the Z at te same time!)

I wonder if those Wireless Lan SD cards are compatible with the Z and with the Linksys WAP11 (Wireless access point). And SDIO is not the same as SD, so...

[pakman]

Fraggy wrote:

I wonder if those Wireless Lan SD cards are compatible with the Z

I'm afraid that they are not. The important thing is the 'SDIO' bit, which is used to support peripherals (WiFi, Bluetooth etc) in a SD slot.

The Z does not support SDIO, so no card that depends on this will work. See
this topic.

Regards,
P.

[Fraggy]

In answer to pakman: yeah, that's what I thought too, but the other Wifi card I mention uses SD, not SDIO. The reason it uses SD is because many PDA's do not have SDIO and not even a CF slot...

In theory the Socket Wireless LAN (WiFi) SD Card should work in any device with a SD slot, however, I wonder if there would be drivers for the Z.

I'm reading the other thread now...

I'll play safe and buy a linksys cf lan card, but still I'm curious about the possibilities of SD lan cards