Micro Drive vs SD Card...simple test.

[mackaby007]

Hi all.

I have read many posts about different experiences and possible issues with hard drive. IMHO & from personal experience of using HDD in Smartphone etc..it is best to install ALL programs to either device memory or SD card. Use your MD solely for data storage and media (photos, movies and Music).

Personally, I would, like wu, install all GPS software to SD card, as it will ensure that the shock resistant technology won't even be needed for sensitive programs.

The HDD is a mechanical device peeps, it will inevitably put more of a strain on the battery.

Simple test for all you owners of the Athena:

1) Choose any movie and transfer a copy to your SD card and a copy to the Micro Drive.

2)Ensure your battery is fully charged at the mains then disconnect the mains and use TCPMP to bench-test the entire movie from MD....look at media properties afterwards and take a snapshot of all the details or note it down....now check battery consumption.

3) Recharge battery to max again and repeat the process using the SD card and record the results.

If you find the MD is performing better (I'd be happily surprised) then technology has moved on considerably in the last few months. If however SD card is performing better, power consumption wise, then you know for sure which will last you longer.

Whatever the result is I will still be setting my Ameo (when I get it ;)) as stated above, but it would be interesting to see from TCPMP what speeds the movie is benched at from both storage mediums.

[wu5262]

Hi all.

I have read many posts about different experiences and possible issues with hard drive. IMHO & from personal experience of using HDD in Smartphone etc..it is best to install ALL programs to either device memory or SD card. Use your MD solely for data storage and media (photos, movies and Music).

Personally, I would, like wu, install all GPS software to SD card, as it will ensure that the shock resistant technology won't even be needed for sensitive programs.

The HDD is a mechanical device peeps, it will inevitably put more of a strain on the battery.

Simple test for all you owners of the Athena:

1) Choose any movie and transfer a copy to your SD card and a copy to the Micro Drive.

2)Ensure your battery is fully charged at the mains then disconnect the mains and use TCPMP to bench-test the entire movie from MD....look at media properties afterwards and take a snapshot of all the details or note it down....now check battery consumption.

3) Recharge battery to max again and repeat the process using the SD card and record the results.

If you find the MD is performing better (I'd be happily surprised) then technology has moved on considerably in the last few months. If however SD card is performing better, power consumption wise, then you know for sure which will last you longer.

Whatever the result is I will still be setting my Ameo (when I get it ;)) as stated above, but it would be interesting to see from TCPMP what speeds the movie is benched at from both storage mediums.

I agress, that is a good way to test it. I have broken my SD card so i can't test it now, but personally i will install all the programs and navigation software on SD, and move the music, movie file to MD.

However i should let you guys also know, i have tested the writting and reading speed between these two using Pocket_Mechanic PRO, and the MD result is much higher than sd for some reason....

[mackaby007]

I agress, that is a good way to test it. I have broken my SD card so i can't test it now, but personally i will install all the programs and navigation software on SD, and move the music, movie file to MD.

However i should let you guys also know, i have tested the writting and reading speed between these two using Pocket_Mechanic PRO, and the MD result is much higher than sd for some reason....

Interesting Wu. seems like MD hardware has made significant improvements.

My biggest concern is that if I install to MD and it by chance fails, I will have lost everything, but to SD, I don't foresee major problems.

I think when I get my Ameo, I will do a full setup between Device memory & MD and do a full backup with Spb Backup to SD card.

Then hard reset and do a full set-up to device memory & SD card, also with a full backup to sd card.

Save both back-up files to PC, just in case. ;)

Then give each method a trial run for a week to see which, if any yields better results.

Hope you get your new SD card soon. So is the Athena SDHC compatible then? I think I read one of your posts somewhere that you had to rename the SD card to 'Storage Card' and then all worked well. Is that right Wu? And what is the largest available SDHC card on the market right now? Is it 8Gb?

I hope so. That would effectively give us in excess of 15Gb of storage space. Woohoo.....that's almost comparable to the Sony UMPC with 16Gb in-built Flash memory!!

Makes one wonder what is truly possible to do with the Athena.....dual boot O/S's? WM6 & Linux (when they get it functioning as reliably as WM O/S's).

This all getting quite exciting....possibilities possibilities. :)

[wu5262]

Interesting Wu. seems like MD hardware has made significant improvements.

My biggest concern is that if I install to MD and it by chance fails, I will have lost everything, but to SD, I don't foresee major problems.

I think when I get my Ameo, I will do a full setup between Device memory & MD and do a full backup with Spb Backup to SD card.

Then hard reset and do a full set-up to device memory & SD card, also with a full backup to sd card.

Save both back-up files to PC, just in case. ;)

Then give each method a trial run for a week to see which, if any yields better results.

Hope you get your new SD card soon. So is the Athena SDHC compatible then? I think I read one of your posts somewhere that you had to rename the SD card to 'Storage Card' and then all worked well. Is that right Wu? And what is the largest available SDHC card on the market right now? Is it 8Gb?

I hope so. That would effectively give us in excess of 15Gb of storage space. Woohoo.....that's almost comparable to the Sony UMPC with 16Gb in-built Flash memory!!

Makes one wonder what is truly possible to do with the Athena.....dual boot O/S's? WM6 & Linux (when they get it functioning as reliably as WM O/S's).

This all getting quite exciting....possibilities possibilities. :)

Yes i am very exciting as well, Athena has got lots of possibilities.
Anyway, i think SDHC still not function very well,, or it could just be my card is fake ! so i go for the sandisk ultra 2 GB this time (non SDHC). The one i bought before is transcend SDHC 4G. don't know is there any bigger one, but i will suggest all Athena here but the normal mini-sd now, and wait a bit until there are more choice for SDHC. i think it's not very stable at this moment either to do with card or rom or machine.

[mackaby007]

Yes i am very exciting as well, Athena has got lots of possibilities.
Anyway, i think SDHC still not function very well,, or it could just be my card is fake ! so i go for the sandisk ultra 2 GB this time (non SDHC). The one i bought before is transcend SDHC 4G. don't know is there any bigger one, but i will suggest all Athena here but the normal mini-sd now, and wait a bit until there are more choice for SDHC. i think it's not very stable at this moment either to do with card or rom or machine.


Thanks for that Wu. Standard SD card it is then. They come up to at least 4 GB since last year, so a bigger version is imminent if not already on the market.

[mackaby007]

Oh am I sorry to report that I am having serious issues with this Micro Drive of the Athena.

SD wins hands down for me...like MD is snails pace in comparison.

[wu5262]

Oh am I sorry to report that I am having serious issues with this Micro Drive of the Athena.

SD wins hands down for me...like MD is snails pace in comparison.

Also i notice one thing, even you got your Ameo later then i do, but my ROM version is newer for some reason :)

Here is mine: ROM 1.24.709.3
Strange....

[mackaby007]

Also i notice one thing, even you got your Ameo later then i do, but my ROM version is newer for some reason :)

Here is mine: ROM 1.24.709.3
Strange....

That may explain why I'm having problems then. Well I suppose it's not that negative after all then as it seems that the Ameo ROM may be suffering similar issues to the X7500 Rom. Still hope for the future then.

[wu5262]

That may explain why I'm having problems then. Well I suppose it's not that negative after all then as it seems that the Ameo ROM may be suffering similar issues to the X7500 Rom. Still hope for the future then.

well, actually you want to avoid the same problem that the Advantage have right now, basically, if you take Advantage on the road, you are likely to damage some sector on the Micro Drive when you come back, that's their ROM problem, as you can see, it's quite a big issue, so that must fix it before they release it.

I don't think Ameo has the same problem, but it so, it's bad because until you update the Rom, you probably damage the Micro Drive already.....