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MemoryStick increase space |
_LAU_
Joined: Sep 10, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Zeta Reticuli Phones:.P1;.P910
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Hi
Has anyone tried formating the MemoryStick with a card reader on Windows/DOS with settings to reduce the cluster size?
It should improve a lot the free space, depending on the number of files you have.
Question is: Will the P910 recognize the MS after the format??
[ This Message was edited by: _LAU_ on 2005-06-27 17:51 ] |
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Vick
Joined: Sep 03, 2003
Posts: 115
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I think the only way is to format it with FAT. |
abe2000
Joined: Jan 08, 2005
Posts: 51
From: Sweden
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My K750i reads the card (standard 64MB duo) perfectly when formatted with FAT32, so it should be the same with P910i. |
_LAU_
Joined: Sep 10, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Zeta Reticuli Phones:.P1;.P910
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I thought the Sony MemorySticks used FAT (or FAT32) |
abe2000
Joined: Jan 08, 2005
Posts: 51
From: Sweden
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Normally, yes. But the limit on FAT is 2GB, so cards above 2GB must be formatted with FAT32. That also means all devices that supports over 2GB must support FAT32.
So I tried formatting my card with FAT32 to test it, and it worked. |
trublu
Joined: May 20, 2005
Posts: 14
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Worked for me. Take a look at this thread.
excerpt from my-symbian.com
http://my-symbian.com/forum/v[....]t=sony+stealing+memory&start=0
Quote:
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Sony is stealing memory from your MS-duo by the way they format the memory stick on the P800. When they format the stick they do this by using a cluster size of 16384 bytes which really gives a lot of slack space.
This means that a file which is only 100 bytes in size will take up 16,4 kilobytes on your MS-duo, which really is a waste of memory.
So when you have the possibility to format the stick on a memory card reader on your PC then do so. It will save you a lot of memory.
Below you see a table of formatting the stick with different cluster sizes and the free memory you will have when you install about 7220k of data.
Cluster size/ Free / Total
1024 / 8111k / 15717k
2048 / 7746k / 15748k / (my preference for 16M and 32M MS-duo)
4096 / 6904k / 15764k / (my preference for 64M and 128M MS-duo)
8192 / 5128k / 15768k
16384 / 1392k / 15776k / (This is the Sony default)
There is however one disadvantage to decreasing the cluster size and that is speed degradation. Therefor my advice is to format your MS-duo with a cluster size of 2048 or 4096 which gives a good balance between free memory and speed.
Notes:
1 This trick will also work with on a 32M, 64M, and 128M MS-duo
2 The increase in free memory will be a lot less when you have only large files on your MS-duo
First make a backup before you start with this
To format the MS-duo on your PC use the following format command in a command window.
FORMAT S: /A:2048 /X
or
FORMAT S: /A:4096 /X
where S: is the drive letter
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ersatz0906
Joined: May 02, 2004
Posts: 135
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how about ms duo pro?
How to format it on our PC? |
_LAU_
Joined: Sep 10, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Zeta Reticuli Phones:.P1;.P910
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Thanks for all the great advice !! 
I just formated my MS 256MB with a cluster size of 4096 (original was 32K, as reported by CHKDSK)
Tried 2048 but FORMAT said that FAT can not hold that many clusters.
Copied all the contents (including hidden files) back to the MS and the result is:
Before:
- Free space: 62.881.792
After:
- Free space: 91.693.056
----> A 27.5 MB difference !?!? WOW !! =:-0
My P910 does not seem to mind the new disk format, and I can not see any noticiable performance degradation.
Cool! 
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Silkwood
Joined: Mar 27, 2005
Posts: 218
From: England
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So, potentially, my 128MB cards could become about 170MB?
Has anyone noticed any degradation of their mp3 files after doing this? |
_LAU_
Joined: Sep 10, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Zeta Reticuli Phones:.P1;.P910
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No, you understood all wrong.
Clusters are like bricks in a wall. All bricks have the same size, and you can not change their size.
Every file uses at least one brick in the wall, even if the file would only need 10% of the brick. If a file uses several bricks, they need to be rounded to the nearest brick above.
What happened was that the original MS cluster size (brick size) was too big, and most of the files had too mucch slack space at the end.
When I decreased the cluster size from 32K do 4K, the files became more "compressed" (less free space between them), increasing the free space.
As a side bonus, that same free space in 4K clusters will also potentially fit much more files than the same free space in 32K clusters.
Cool
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About the MP3 degradation... no degradation wile playing.
File & directory access maybe, but you probably will never never notice anything.
[ This Message was edited by: _LAU_ on 2005-06-29 12:19 ] |
Silkwood
Joined: Mar 27, 2005
Posts: 218
From: England
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thanks _LAU_ I understand now and will give it a try. |
chemos
Joined: May 14, 2004
Posts: 111
From: Z0M3H)
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I just tried this on my 32MB stick, formatted no problem but now it isn't recognised by my P905. It won't even let me reformat it on my phone. Anyone any suggestions how to get it working again?
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_LAU_
Joined: Sep 10, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Zeta Reticuli Phones:.P1;.P910
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- What parameters did you use?
- Did you copy all the contents (including hidden files) back to the the MS after the format? (does the MS has a Label?)
- Try a CHKDSK [drive] /F
If only windows recognizes the MS and you can't see any problems with it, I recommend you try formating with a bigger cluster size. Maybe it's some < P910 limitation...
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chemos
Joined: May 14, 2004
Posts: 111
From: Z0M3H)
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- I used FORMAT S: /A:4096 /X
- Yes, I copied everything back including hidden files. I tried with & without a label.
- chkdsk reports no problem (the card reader has no problem with the card).
Formatting with anything above 4096 reports "The specified cluster size is too big for FAT16/12."
Any other ideas?
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_LAU_
Joined: Sep 10, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Zeta Reticuli Phones:.P1;.P910
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Do you know what was the original FAT format?
Do you know what was the original cluster size?
Try playing with the /FS parameter in FORMAT (FAT/FAT32)
If it fails I suggest you start trying the cluster sizes reported by trublu.
If there is nothing wrong with the MS in Windows, then must be something wrong with the format.
Also try searching past posts in Esato about formating MS in Card Readers.
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Posted: 2005-06-27 18:48
