When I upgraded my N95's MicroSD card from 1GB to 2 GB, I noticed when I copied some folders back to the new card, they took up twice as much space.
Now I just copied a folder of maps (many very small files) to the 2GB card, and the growth in size is surprising - the 120MB folder (on my computer) has grown to almost 500MB on the card.
What's going on here? Is it a Symbian system inefficiency (perhaps a too-small file allocation block number), or the wrong spec of card perhaps?
I'm hoping there's a simple solution, but otherwise, if this is what happens, what's the point in putting larger cards into the phone?
re-format your card to make it fat 32......this is a cluster size issue that has been covered many times before ! A 2 Gb card formatted under fat(16)will make cluster sizes of 32 Kb ,with fat(16)each file will take at least 32Kb even if is only 1Kb...if you format in fat 32 you can make the cluster sizes 4 Kb with a 2 Gb card.
my understanding is maps is lots of very small files!
Wirelessly posted (Sony Ericsson M600i: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.0.8462/20; U; en))
jim115 wrote:re-format your card to make it fat 32......this is a cluster size issue that has been covered many times before ! A 2 Gb card formatted under fat(16)will make cluster sizes of 32 Kb ,with fat(16)each file will take at least 32Kb even if is only 1Kb...if you format in fat 32 you can make the cluster sizes 4 Kb with a 2 Gb card.
my understanding is maps is lots of very small files!
Is that applicable with other 2gb memory card formats e,g. Minisd,memory stick duo,.Microsdhc etc ?
Thanks for that solution Jim115!
I did wade through pages of search results, but didn't find that nugget.
Just returning to say that it worked brilliantly (thanks again), and also to post a possibly useful hint for other Mac users:
You can format FAT16 and FAT32 in Apple's Disk Utility (in Utilities folder) - just select your memory card in the list of volumes, go to the erase tab, and it will give you the option of many formats - including MS-DOS (which is FAT32) and MS-DOS FAT16. Reformatting my 2GB card only took a few seconds.
Once you have re-formatted, the card will re-mount, and the information at the bottom of Disk Utility's window will confirm that it is FAT32.
jim115 wrote:re-format your card to make it fat 32......this is a cluster size issue that has been covered many times before ! A 2 Gb card formatted under fat(16)will make cluster sizes of 32 Kb ,with fat(16)each file will take at least 32Kb even if is only 1Kb...if you format in fat 32 you can make the cluster sizes 4 Kb with a 2 Gb card.
my understanding is maps is lots of very small files!
Just be aware that if you use fat 32 with the smaller cluster you gain in available space but loose in terms of speed of file access!
This can show up if playing video and sounds and to a smaller extent when accessing other data on the card!
If you have installed apps to the card (which I always advise against) you slow things up even more and games may stutter in play.
That's interesting (though not entirely welcome!) pa49.
Neither is really a happy choice - if you choose the FAT16 route, then getting larger memory cards is almost no advantage, because everything takes up so much more space, but if you liberate the space on larger cards, then there are severe useability penalties.
Although I know that this is not a problem which is specific to the N95, but it is one of the many compromises which do affect the day to day use of this phone.
I would be much happier if Nokia would put a lot more effort into getting its features working properly, rather than adding features just for the sake of it.
pa49 wrote:Just be aware that if you use fat 32 with the smaller cluster you gain in available space but loose in terms of speed of file access!
This can show up if playing video and sounds and to a smaller extent when accessing other data on the card!
If you have installed apps to the card (which I always advise against) you slow things up even more and games may stutter in play.
i have also heard this rumor ! though i dont think its a problem on an N95...
i have AVI,MP3,and games on my memory card and have suffered none of these problems,and i dont have one of these ultra fast cards
jim115 wrote:i have also heard this rumor ! though i dont think its a problem on an N95...
i have AVI,MP3,and games on my memory card and have suffered none of these problems,and i dont have one of these ultra fast cards
Be assured it's not a rumour!
It's well documented as a physical characteristic of all media storage!
However, whether you encounter a problem is down to so many factors that it would be impossible to know if you would get issues.
It'a matter of being aware in case you get strange happenings.
Changing the file system to FAT32 is a great tip. There really isn't any problems with reading mp3's, mp4's or other files. And the amount capacity increases a lot.