can i clone my existing phone memory card contents to a bigger one?

Scruff

I want to upgrade my 8gb micro SDHC card to a 16 or 32gb version. Can i copy\clone all the existing data from it to the new card or how do you go about upgrading with out losing all your app data?

srsly78

Most of the stuff you can just copy. Some apps may put an encrypted cache on the sdcard tho and this complicates things.

Google Music (called Play Music now?) - caches your offline songs on the sdcard in encrypted format. If you switch sdcards it will insist on downloading everything again and making a new cache. This is to stop piracy I suppose.

Most of your app data is stored in system memory tho. Just manually copying sdcard stuff should be fine for 99% of stuff. Move all apps back to system memory first if possible, apps2sd complicates things.

Scruff

can i copy all the hidden folders too or do i need to format the card in the phone first?

srsly78

You can certainly try to copy the hidden folders. However apps may refuse to use this copied data, as they will detect it's a different sdcard.

vibe666

i've done it 3 times now and not had any problems. 8gb to 16gb and then to 32gb and all fine so far.

Scruff

vibe666 wrote: »

i've done it 3 times now and not had any problems. 8gb to 16gb and then to 32gb and all fine so far.

did you use an particular software or just regular copy and paste?

vibe666

literally just copy/pasted in windows explorer.

i actually only had one card reader, so i copied everything to a folder on my PC first and then copied it back to the new card.

it was actually impressive to see how much faster the copy was going to the class 10 32gb card than it was coming from the class 4 16gb one.

PrzemoF

I'm wondering how windows is handling file access rights on a linux system like android...
Did you noticed any problems afterwards like "force close"?

srsly78

The sdcard usually uses fat32. There should be no issues with permissions.

Apps2sd stuff will have problems tho, coz there is drm involved that will detect that it's a different sdcard.

killbillvol2

vibe666 wrote: »

i've done it 3 times now and not had any problems. 8gb to 16gb and then to 32gb and all fine so far.

Same here. No issues.

The_B_Man

vibe666 wrote: »

literally just copy/pasted in windows explorer.

i actually only had one card reader, so i copied everything to a folder on my PC first and then copied it back to the new card.

it was actually impressive to see how much faster the copy was going to the class 10 32gb card than it was coming from the class 4 16gb one.

Do you notice any performance gains on the phone itself, ie general use, from the higher class card?

srsly78

Class refers to write speed only, it's very misleading. Will only help if using camcorder/camera or other recording stuff. Makes no difference for loading data off it.

PrzemoF

srsly78 wrote: »

The sdcard usually uses fat32. There should be no issues with permissions.

Apps2sd stuff will have problems tho, coz there is drm involved that will detect that it's a different sdcard.

I just checked mine and shows vfat. I didn't know that..
Thanks for info!

vibe666

srsly78 wrote: »

Class refers to write speed only, it's very misleading. Will only help if using camcorder/camera or other recording stuff. Makes no difference for loading data off it.

i've found that it makes a huge difference when copying video's and photo's from the new card to my PC (which is also a read operation), so i don't see why it wouldn't improve responsiveness on the phone itself with apps accessing the card.

that said, i haven't noticed any difference on the phone itself, but i tend not to put apps on the sd card if i can help it.

EDIT: whilst you are correct in that the class refers to read speed on memory cards, pretty much any storage media you can think of will read faster than it writes, so read speeds will always increase with write speeds. i guess whoever came up with the class system on sd cards figured that their primary use would be in cameras etc. so didn't feel read speed was important enough to mention.

srsly78

It may indeed be faster at reading, but the class is not a reliable indicator of this.

vibe666

srsly78 wrote: »

It may indeed be faster at reading, but the class is not a reliable indicator of this.

it is when reading from an sd card is always going to be faster than writing to it when class is a solid indicator of write speed. :rolleyes:

srsly78

Nop. A class 10 might have the same read speed as a class 6. Big variation in speeds. Some class 10s might have faster read than other class 10s.

vibe666

srsly78 wrote: »

Nop. A class 10 might have the same read speed as a class 6. Big variation in speeds. Some class 10s might have faster read than other class 10s.

have you got any evidence at all that any microSD card (or any other card for that matter) has a write speed faster than it's read speed?

i only ask as any benchmark i ever remember seeing shows read speeds in excess of the write speeds (inc. a quick google just now), so i'd love to know where you are getting this from.

pickarooney

Maybe try using the linux dd command to clone it?

srsly78

vibe666 wrote: »

have you got any evidence at all that any microSD card (or any other card for that matter) has a write speed faster than it's read speed?

i only ask as any benchmark i ever remember seeing shows read speeds in excess of the write speeds (inc. a quick google just now), so i'd love to know where you are getting this from.

That isn't what I said, you are picking me up wrong. Your mistake is assuming there is a fixed relationship between read and write speed, there isn't. Yes read is always faster than write, but it's not always a fixed multiple of it.

Yes, in reality class 10 cards will probably have faster read than older ones - but there is no 100% guarantee that this is the case. Class says nothing about read speed. Indeed class only says what the minimum write speed is, some manufacturers exceed the specification, and others only just barely it. Similarly there is a large variation in read speed of cards from different manufacturers (and indeed between batches in some cases).

edit: some benchmarks in this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=656908 (I think that guy was testing bad cards tho) Note this is a very confusing subject, and there have even been fake cards sold on ebay etc. Cards are supposed to have a seperate "read rating", which should be on the manufacturers spec sheet, but is difficult to find!

edit2: Better benchmarks http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/microsdhc-memory-card-performance,3011-11.html ---> conclusion: A specific class 4 card beat the pants off a load of expensive class 10s in certain read benchmarks

"The big surprise from this test is the SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC, which takes the performance crown with its 22.8 MB/s sequential read speed in spite of being labeled Class 4."

vibe666

now you're saying something different entirely.

what you originally said was:

srsly78 wrote: »

Class refers to write speed only, it's very misleading. Will only help if using camcorder/camera or other recording stuff. Makes no difference for loading data off it.

whereas my point was that the read speed of pretty much any card you care to test will always be faster than it's write speed, therefore if you are buying a faster card to use in your phone, the read speeds from it will be faster as well as the write speeds, contrary to your original assertion.

srsly78

Dude I give up :P See example of class 4 being faster than class 10 for read.

vibe666

srsly78 wrote: »

Dude I give up :P See example of class 4 being faster than class 10 for read.

already seen and read before you posted it, but it bears no relevance to your previous incorrect assertion that i quoted above.

and if you were going to give up, it should have been when you were wrong in the first place instead of trying to argue your way out of it. :rolleyes:

srsly78

vibe666 wrote: »

therefore if you are buying a faster card to use in your phone, the read speeds from it will be faster as well as the write speeds, contrary to your original assertion.

Class 4 card faster than class 10 card :P:P

vibe666

srsly78 wrote: »

Class 4 card faster than class 10 card :P:P

are you acting stupid on purpose?

you can keep saying it all you like, i've already agreed that it's true that some class 4 cards perform better in benchmarks than class 10 cards and have never said otherwise, but it doesn't change the fact that that isn't what you said.

this is what you said (again) and i've highlighted the relevent bit for you so you can read over it a few times and let it sink in.

srsly78 wrote: »

Class refers to write speed only, it's very misleading. Will only help if using camcorder/camera or other recording stuff. Makes no difference for loading data off it.

this is as simple as i can make it for you so try to keep up.

the faster a card writes, the faster it will read, end of story.

you can troll away until the cows come home, but you can't change what you've already written which was wrong in the first place and arguing a different point that nobody is disagreeing with isn't going to change that.

srsly78

vibe666 wrote: »

the faster a card writes, the faster it will read, end of story.

It's clear to everyone from those benchmarks that this is not true. Cards with faster write speed can have exactly the same or even less read speed (compared to different "class"). This is not difficult to understand. You are just contradicting yourself!

Also, it is you that has not provided any backup for his points.

Simplified example:
Class 10 card: write 10mb/s, read 20mb/s
Class 4 card: write 4mb/s, read 21mb/s

Here we have faster write, but slower read. End of story! Today I got up and decided to engage in pointless arguments on the internet \o/

vibe666

oh, now i see.

so what you mean is that by taking an extreme one off anomalous example in one benchmark test of a single card to prove that its possible for a very fast class 4 card to have a faster read speed than another different class 10 card, that the thing you said earlier which was wrong, might in some extreme cases actually be sort of right sometimes if you ignore all the other data in the benchmarks so you don't have to admit that you didn't have a point in the first place?

sorry, i didn't realise. :rolleyes:

but, despite all this, you must have seen whilst pawing though various benchmarks in the vain hope of finding a single thread of evidence to try and support your previous assertion that in the overwhelming majority of cases, my quote that you copied is true and a single anomalous result in a single benchmark test doesn't change that despite your hopes to the contrary.

aside from anything, by posting the links to the benchmark tests, you've proved yourself wrong by showing that there are vastly different results in read tests across the board with any number of micro SD cards so your original proclamation that it "Makes no difference for loading data off it" is clearly not true at all, which you've now actually proved yourself, so congratulations.

srsly78

And again: the point is the class of the sdcard refers to write speed. Your assertion about read speed was disproved for the general case - it only takes a single example.

Hyperbole won't get you anywhere when you are simply wrong.

Here is a smiley for you ->

vibe666

srsly78 wrote: »

And again: the point is the class of the sdcard refers to write speed. Your assertion about read speed was disproved for the general case - it only takes a single example.

Hyperbole won't get you anywhere when you are simply wrong.

Here is a smiley for you ->

wrong how exactly? you haven't shown a single example of any sd card that has a write speed faster than it's read speed, just two totally separate cards with different read speeds where the read speed was also faster than the write speed for each card, again proving my point, rather than refuting it.

and putting a smiley on a pointless post doesn't make it any less pointless.

The Corinthian

srsly78 and vibe666: Can you both take this handbag-fest elsewhere please? It's largely OT and not really adding to the thread, even in terms of entertainment. You're both pretty, OK?

vibe666

The Corinthian wrote: »

srsly78 and vibe666: Can you both take this handbag-fest elsewhere please? It's largely OT and not really adding to the thread, even in terms of entertainment. You're both pretty, OK?

really, you think so? aaw thanks.

but yes, agreed.