FlashFormat or StorageTools

[rwolf]

Which of these software should I get?
I believe the SD card needs to be defrag or verified some time depending on usage. Any advice??
Thank You

[Dave Beauvais]

I find Storage Tools (http://www.softwinter.com/) does everything I need without any of the extra "fluff" that FlashFormat adds such as AutoRun. I very rarely swap out storage cards, so AutoRun is of no use to me. (It's somewhat ironic that as I type this reply, there's a FlashFormat banner at the top of the page. :))

I'd also like to add that while defragging is good in theory, I don't personally believe it's necessary when dealing with flash media. On hard drives, there's a physical, mechanical reason why defragmenting is a good thing to do: If a file is fragmented, the drive heads must physically move across the disk to gather together all the parts of the file. This takes time -- granted, only milliseconds -- and on a badly fragmented volume, can have a significant and measurable impact on performance. As with pocket change, little bits add up over time.

With flash media, where access times are measured in nanoseconds rather than milliseconds, a fragmented file just simply doesn't matter. There are no moving parts to position over a precise sector on a disk platter while seeking data fragments. For all intents and purposes, accessing data from flash media is virtually instantaneous and I'd challenge anyone here to detect a difference between a storage card that contains fragmented files and one which has just been defragged.

I tried the defrag routine in Storage Tools once on a 256 MB SD card with only 410 KB in fragmented files and it took over two hours to complete. A quicker way to achieve the same result is to copy the contents of the card to a PC, format the card, then copy the files back. Since they're being written to the card one at a time, there are no "gaps" for file fragments to fit into.

That said, FlashFormat is cheaper than Storage Tools by a few dollars, so if price is a concern, go with Flash Format. Both products offer essentially the same basic features with the exception of the -- in my opinion -- useless defrag feature, but FlashFormat adds several advanced options.

--Dave

[andrei]

Resco Explorer 2003 can format the flash cards and the iPAQ File Store. And it's a great file explorer too :wink:

[seidler]

Which of these software should I get?
I believe the SD card needs to be defrag or verified some time depending on usage. Any advice??
Thank You
I think it is even very bad :evil: if you defragment flash cards. As the number of write cycles of a flash card is quite limited (10 Million), I would avoid anything that lowers the lifetime even more.

Apart from that, I go with StorageTools, it's just that I find it nicer ... personal opinion 8)

And AutoRun you can have with PHM AutoRun (http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/PowerToys/#PHMAtPly), and I personally doubt if I would ever want to use this feature, because it always activates when I switch my Pocket PC off and on again, because the CF card slot is re-activated and thus the software thinks I just inserted a new card :(

Stefan

[rwolf]

my SD card show that its full, when I had only a few files, and it shows 93% full, even as I delete and move all the files a way it shows its full.
So I use RESCO to format the 128 SD card, and move the files back it and it now shows 7.10 % used. What happen? will it repeat again? Faulty card or connections?

[rnuqui]

Defragging might be a good idea if you use a CF microdrive. I have a 2.2GB microdrive, but I haven't had a successful defrag even if there's only a couple of small files inside. It even hang on me one time, or maybe I just need to be more patient, and wait a couple of hours for it to finish. Of course, once I soft-reset my PPC while defragging, I lost all data inside the microdrive.

I think I'll go with moving all files to a PC using a CF reader, formatting the drive, and moving the files back. Safer!

[corrosive]

I'd go for Storage Tools if repairing corrupted flash cards is important - my SD corrupted whilst I was on holiday and FlashFormat didn't seem to be doing a good job repairing it, so I downloaded Storage Tools (thankfully a CAB file was available) and managed to rescue quite a bit of the data (which included all my CityMaps maps). No idea what keeps causing my SD card to corrupt, all I know is Storage Tools seems to do a better job of repairing this particular corruption than Flash Format.

[christheswiss]

Andrei,

I do not see any format option on the Resco 2003 file explorer, am I missing something ? :roll:

[Anthony Caruana]

Andrei,

I do not see any format option on the Resco 2003 file explorer, am I missing something ? :roll:

I am using 4.20 If I do a tap- hold on my SDCard l get a format option in the context menu.

[christheswiss]

Dear Anthony,
Thanks, I had version 4.1 that came installed on my 1945. I upgraded to their latest version 4.3 (just released) and the format feature is included, cool... :lol:
However, now I have an unregistered version and I am trying to find out how I can get around it.

[Anthony Caruana]

Dear Anthony,
Thanks, I had version 4.1 that came installed on my 1945. I upgraded to their latest version 4.3 (just released) and the format feature is included, cool... However, now I have an unregistered version and I am trying to find out how I can get around it.

You can enter the reg code from your previously registered version if it is less that 12 months old. Otherwise, you can ourchase a new code at a 50% discount. This info is based on what I just saw on their web site.

[rwolf]

so I gather, if the SD card is corrupted, it is best to move all the available files or data from the card away to the ipaq or to a flash drive and eventually to the pc or notebook.
And format the SD card.
Then, if I have Resco, I don't need flashformat or StorageTools?
How often does the corruption happen on the SD card, or is all SD card the same?

[Anthony Caruana]

so I gather, if the SD card is corrupted, it is best to move all the available files or data from the card away to the ipaq or to a flash drive and eventually to the pc or notebook.
And format the SD card.
If the data on the card is important, then you should try to get as much data as possible off the card. I would recommend that you get an SD card reader for your PC for this. If the PPC can't read the data you may not be able to use it to get data off the card.
Then, if I have Resco, I don't need flashformat or StorageTools?
Correct
How often does the corruption happen on the SD card, or is all SD card the same?
It's never happened to me. I've had 3 different Sandisk SD cards on two different Pocket PCs.