WM 5.o and storage card strategies

[Sooner Magic]

In the pre-Windows Mobile 5.0 world, we used our storage cards in a variety of ways....installing applications, data storage, etc.

Now that we have WM 5.0 and it's persistent memory, how has the use of storage cards changed? I would assume that the installation of an application to the card is now not necessary for back up purposes, but what about performance? Preserving main memory is very much drilled into my head.

With my pre WM5.0 device, I used the card for Feeder Reader podcasts, PIE cache, Pocket Weather radar images, various applications, etc. Is it recommended that I continue this practice to preserve as much main memory as possible?

Thanks in advance.

[Sven Johannsen]

I personally haven't changed my philosophy much. Everything that can go on a storage card does, apps and files. There are still those apps that need to be installed to the device, just because they need to be available at soft reset, like some today screen enhancements. There are still some files that need to be on the device to take advantage of AS files sync.

I do miss the availability of the 'extra' on board flash RAM though; the HP File Store and the Dell Built-In-Storage. I found those a great place to load apps, so I could leave the flash cards purely for files and not worry about swapping them in and out. On my Dell Axim I had 90+M of BIS to load apps to independent of the OS ROM and internal RAM. On my WM devices I get the OS portion and 64M of stuff that gets eaten up pretty quickly by what is required for the OS to run and the files that need to be there.

The good news is that flash prices are dropping all the time. You can regularly get 2G for $40, 4G for under $100. Each of my devices has a 2G something that might as well be internal. They never come out. Works for me.

[yardcat]

Wow, until reading the posts yesterday, I hadn't realized that most apps should probably go to storage card. I'm going to need to do a bunch of relocating!

Sven wrote:
There are still some files that need to be on the device to take advantage of AS files sync.

What kinds of files does AS reguire to be in ROM? Can you give some examples. It seems the shared folder in WM5 does, but would any Synced Document or Music folder or Phatnotes & All PIM data I assume?

-yardcat

[salem]

most of my software has been installed on the card, unless it's required to run on the device. The exception is made to any software which i have the great need even after the battery level is very low, thanks to power starving Pocket PC.

[Janak Parekh]

Wow, until reading the posts yesterday, I hadn't realized that most apps should probably go to storage card. I'm going to need to do a bunch of relocating!
Just to be clear -- you don't have to. I personally dislike putting apps on storage cards, for two reasons:

1. If I want to swap/remove storage cards, the apps become unavailable unless I replicate them across cards;

2. Many WM5 devices "close" the files on a storage card when the device goes into standby; this means that, once the device is resumed, the app needs to close and be reopened again.

Ironically, the 700w has lots of storage space (60M free!) and I've never run out.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

Is it recommended that I continue this practice to preserve as much main memory as possible?
Just to be precise, in WM5, the two types of main memory are separate. Reducing use of the storage space on the device (ROM) does not affect the available RAM for use on the device. Therefore, I personally believe there's nothing wrong with using the ROM for apps, so long as you don't completely fill it up. In my perspective, this is significantly different to the way I used earlier Pocket PCs.

--janak

[Menneisyys]

Is it recommended that I continue this practice to preserve as much main memory as possible?


If you have a native WM5 device (HTC Universal, Wizard, TyTN, Jamin; Dell Axim x51, HP iPAQ hx2x9x etc), then, you don't.

If you have a WM5-upgraded Dell Axim x50, HP iPAQ hx2xxx or hx4700, then, yes.

[MTIW Podcast]

The thing about ROM is that when you do install applications on external memory cards (SD cards, compact flash, etc.), space is also taken away from the Pocket PCs ROM for system files. Although this does not typically take up much space, sometimes demanding applications can hog up a lot of ROM space (for system files).

[Menneisyys]

The thing about ROM is that when you do install applications on external memory cards (SD cards, compact flash, etc.), space is also taken away from the Pocket PCs ROM for system files. Although this does not typically take up much space, sometimes demanding applications can hog up a lot of ROM space (for system files).

Yup, they an; this is why I recommend relocating \Windows\AppMgr and deleting all *.htm(l), *.gif, *.2bp, *.bmp, *.jpg files from \Windows (help files)