Tekkies Unite . . . SD Card Defrag a Pain

D

Devy D

New member
This subject was addressed about 4 months ago but rather than dredge up an old thread I would like to ask the following:

Norton Uitilities will defrag external drives, but on both PC and/or external FAT32 drives, it will NOT defrag directories.

PerfectDisk will defrag a PC FAT32 with directories but not external drives. If you have a newer PC with XP, it probably has an NTFS volume, which WILL defrag directories with the "stock" Windows defragger. I found this out because I run Win2kPro with FAT32 -- also the SDCards are FAT32 as well.

I am finding that the "best way" to defrag an SD Card with lots of material sorted in different folders over time is not defragging at all . . . it's copying to the PC, formatting the card and simply reinstalling the lot - no fragments then. Of course a week later it's a different story, especially if you add/remove files all over the place including BACKUP files which may or may not need more "room" on the Card.

Dizzy yet? So was I. Frustrated too. I've done it 3 times. My question is:

Is there an EXTERNAL DRIVE defragger OTHER than Norton that will defrag an SD Card WITH DIRECTORIES? This would avoid almost immediate fragmentation around those little yellow squares all over the optimization map. I'm finding that the DCIM folder and subfolders, containing maps of different areas and AcidImage AIThumb files are what's getting fragmented IMMEDIATELY.

The reason I care is AcidImage will crash if those AIThumbs get too "mixed up;" the solution there is delete them all and run AcidImage to recreate them . . . but that's a temporary fix.

One partial solution is instructing Norton to put all KINOMA movies at the END of the SD Card; that buys time since those files are the largest on the card . . . but then the 2nd largest (bmps/jpgs) start fragmenting immediately or within a few "add/remove off the card" sessions."

Any input would be helpful . . . I've googled it to death 6 ways for Sunday but come up with nothing. I'm betting one or more of you use such a program and could recommend it. Those with PPC can use "Storage Tools," $14.95, available at:

http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html (I need PC based)


THANKS!
 
ARRGH! Don't ever use Norton to do anything to a card you are going to use in a Palm. The SD cards need to be formatted in FAT16. Norton will try to put FAT32 on the card and rearrange the clusters in FAT32 format. If you're only going to use the card in a PC, that's OK, but there's no quicker way to destroy an SD card for use with a Palm than using Norton Utilities on it. I know that the T3 can read Fat32 but that's basically an afterthought. It's meant to run on FAT16. If you look up benchmarks, you'll find that FAT16 is also slightly faster for both read and write operations than FAT32.

Your method for copy the files off with a card reader, reformatting the card in the Palm, and then reloading the files is about as effective as any method for deframenting. Frankly, the amount of fragmentation that occurs on relatively small cards (512 mb or less) is so small that the performance hit is usually several milliseconds at most. You'd have to have a benchmark program to even see the difference and most humans would never even notice it. It's far more important to get a card with the fastest throughput than worrying about fragmentation.
 
have given the most UNEXPECTED answer of the year and the most knowledgeable.

I've been using Norton defragged cards for 2 years but won't again on your say-so. In fact, just for laughs I tried defragging (I like Kinoma last) and it said I didn't need it.

I had no idea about the FAT16/32 thing, so right now I've got the PC switcheroo/paste going, and I'll leave it like that.

I noticed that when you "re-slam the files on" there aren't any fragments . . . and that may be why in fact Norton seemed INCAPABLE of defragging them ALL THE TIME . . . after 2-3 passes (every other month or so) you get fragments somewhere . . . and I remember a CardBackup restore FAILING (I keep two backup files, 2nd one worked) after a Norton defrag.

MOST EXCELLENT.

I hope you got my email last week.

Thanks for your help and terrific advice - another member of this forum argued against defragging with me a few months back - seems he was right and you've confirmed it.

THIS MEANS A GREAT DEAL to me . . . lot of time saved and good "comfort zone" knowing I'm "formatted correctly." I guess that's why you have the PALM format the card, and not do it on the PC??
 
Paul,

Yes, I did get your e-mail and replied last night. Thank you for your kind thoughts.

The FAT16 issue is especially important for people who swap their cards between their Palm and things like digital cameras. All portable devices use FAT 16 so formatting a card using FAT32 will make the card unreadable in any other device. The safest method of reformatting an SD card is to always use your Palm or a digital camera in a pinch. As I said, file fragmentation on a card is really a very small problem and even daily reformatting and copying files back to the card is unlikely to make any noticeable difference in performance.
 
A little off topic, but this seems to be the SD knowledge crowd. I have an Sans Disc (sic) 128 that I use in my Minolta DX and view them in my T3 using Acid Image Pro. Well the card won't read in the camera, or desk top (Mac OSX) won't mount just swirls and spins the rainbow forever! But I can still view the pics in the T3 using Acid Image Pro. How can I get these pics somewhere else to use? tat :(
 
I know virtually nothing about the Mac OS but I presume it is not able to read the format on your card. Some cameras will read FAT 32 cards as will the T3 but I think a Mac will only read FAT16. You might try formating the card in your TC, copy a picture to the card, and then see if it can be read on your Mac.
 
Aaah this is where the problem lies! If I format the Sd I loose the pics. I don't care about the card as much as I care about the pics. I now have tried ir and bt to my SE 610. A no go!
 
Do you have bluetooth on your mac? That might be an easy way to transfer the pics...

Or hey, if you have an apple store nearby, you could go in and connect via bluetooth to one of the display models and then send them to yourself via email.....
 
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