You probably wondered if you should maintain your flash memory cards for the N95 or similar phones having flash memory.

The answer is YES. For example the file system gets heavilly fragmented. But what to do?

Do not defragment flash memory, it is bad. I was shocked when i read a webpage with this: 'defragment your flash card, it will smile to you and be as brand new!!' :wrong:

You should understand how flash memory works. Flash memory cells can only be written a number of times. If you start defragmenting it wears out rapidly. It is very bad to defragment. :forsaken:

The solution is simple. You should download a program named TERACOPY. It is a windows program wich makes it very simple to copie files. Download and install this program for windows.

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Make a temporary directory on your harddrive. Make sure that explorer shows HIDDEN and SYSTEM files, make sure to set the right options in FOLDER OPTIONS for explorer. If you forget to do this system and hidden files will not be copied.

Now insert the MEMORY flash card in your memory card reader for the PC, or connect your phone to USB. Copy ALL your files on the FLASH memory to your PC in the just made temporary folder. Remember make sure it all goes as said.

You will understand what we are doing here. After copying we will going to FORMAT the flash memory, and write ALL DATA back.

You can look how heavily the FLASH memory is fragmented with this:

Start CMD.exe type in: C:\defrag -a X:

Where X is your memory card drive letter. You might have to connect your phone in USB MASS STORAGE mode if you have only build in FLASH.



C:\>defrag -a F:
Windows Schijfdefragmentatie
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corp.

Analyserapport voor volume F: KAART

Volumegrootte = 7.60 GB
Beschikbare ruimte = 5.86 GB
Grootste hoeveelheid vrije ruimte = 5.86 GB
Percentage bestandsfragmentatie = 25 %


My card was fragmented for 25 %. Now read carefully to get the speed boost. :excited:

Determining the optimal CLUSTER SIZE.
-------------------------------------
Flash memory cards are very different compared to hard drives. If you change a single bit in a cluster usually 4096kBytes you have to read in the whole 4096kBytes change the bit and write it back again. You probably would say well 'just reformat it with a smaller cluster size', but that isn't the whole picture.

It is much FASTER to change two single bits in a cluster size of 8192Bytes than to change it in 2 clusters of 4192Bytes. :ninja:

You can determine your current cluster size with this:
Start cmd.exe type in the following commands.
c:\chkdsk X:
Where x is your drive letter for the memory card. It will name the cluster size.

7.965.184 kB totale schijfruimte.
256 kB in 31 verborgen bestanden.
1.104 kB in 136 mappen.
1.814.336 kB in 1.106 bestanden.
6.149.480 kB beschikbaar.

8.192 bytes per cluster
995.648 clusters in totaal op schijf
768.685 clusters beschikbaar op schijf

You can see i allready formatted it into 8192 bytes per cluster. Before i used 4096 bytes per cluster, but it was slow, but it was the way the card came as default.

I would recommend change it to 8192 bytes per cluster. You should have backupped and copied all your contents of the card to your harddrive so now do this. :roflmao:

press your right mouse on the memory card in explorer. Choose to format the card, SELECT the cluster size you want, in this case 8192. Press OK to format your card.

Voilla, your card is ready. Before i had 2 megabytes per second, after formatting i putted everything back from the temporary folder. It increased the speed to 7 megabytes per second. That is 3 times as fast. It really works!!.

Now check your flash memory fragmentation again. Don't be surprised!!
:urtheman:



C:\>defrag -a F:
Windows Schijfdefragmentatie
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corp.

Analyserapport voor volume F: KAART

Volumegrootte = 7.60 GB
Beschikbare ruimte = 5.86 GB
Grootste hoeveelheid vrije ruimte = 5.86 GB
Percentage bestandsfragmentatie = 0 %


Its fragmentation went down to 0 %. This time i will tell you, 'your card will probably -i hope so- smile to you and say 'thank you' ' You did not overwear or damage your card by using defragmenter. It was a simple trick.

Now insert your memory card back into your phone, DO NOT BE SURPRISED.

I was shocked, it now works almost INSTANTLY again, just 3 seconds where before i had to wait almost 20 seconds before the card was ready again, and apps showed up inside the phone. :excited:

The downside: If you have a few million files smaller than 8192 bytes all those files will use 8192 bytes. But i do not assume you have this. You probably have Mp3 and video files, and the Symbian OS files and software on it.

Everything should be faster. Installing/Removing software.

I didn't try with a higher cluster size.

Here are some very nice files you should install on your memory flash cards root directory. It will organize your whole filesystem. :triodance:

I hope this is the right place where this mainainence guide for your memory flash cards for your phone should go.

:dance2:

You should know that for example on thing is important. If you have scanned your mp3 files with your phones mediaplayer, you have to renew them all with the options menu. The phones has to rescan all your media files. You might have to try this a few times.

I would use the edit button if ip mart would not be very difficult to reach for me now, sometimes the connection falls away, while the rest of the web works fine. If i would edit the main post i could loose it all.

It would be better to copy back your personal documents like music and video after you installed the special layout included .rar file to place in the root of your memory flash card.

It will save you most work by doing that. You will understand where to place your documents after extracting the .rar file into your memory card.

Besides that will place your system symbian files in the beginning of the flash memory card. (=faster)/

When formatiing just use QUICKFORMAT.

Nokia recommends not to format the memory card on ur pc ....

am i right guys ?

there where only small sized flash cards when they wrote that. Please maesure benchmarks. It worked much faster now. N95 is specified upto 4 gigabytes and i have 8.

You are very WRONG!

It doesn't matter it the memory card is 100% fragmented because on flash memories, ALL files are accessed at the same time, no matter if they are separated.

Here is a quote from Wikipedia:

"Defragmentation tools are used on hard disks to optimise the file system access speed. On an SD card, this is pointless, as any block can be accessed as fast as any other. Doing this will wear the card out slightly, as only so many writes can be made before failure."

The cluster size maybe can do something, I don't know. But the defragmentation is pointless.

Cheers!

EDIT:

A bigger cluster size can make the card faster but the free space can be constrained.

I mean, if you have a cluster size of 4KB, and you have a file of 1KB, that file will use that complete cluster and 3KB will be wasted. On the other hand if you have a file of 6KB, it needs 2 clusters of 4KB each, but 4+4=8, so, you will waste 2 KB of free space.

Remember that in a cluster, one file (or part of it) can be allocated there.

Imagine if you use a bigger cluster size. The waste of space will be bigger.

Conclusion, if you don't care about space and want performance, go for a bigger cluster size.

I have a class 6 8GB microSDHC with all the default settings and it works really fast.

Hi, thank you for your message, what is your cluster size? In my case the little waste i might get if i use larger clusters isn't important, have only video and mp3 and the symbian installs from symbian programs.

It worked for me much faster as said, i went from cluster size 4096 bytes to 8192 bytes.

I am sure it works fast, but did you try to find out what is your ideal cluster size?

I looked for reviewers doing exactly that, and best cluster sizes depend from flash card to flash card.

The most important thing i noticed is that when i insert the flash card in the nokia it all applications popup back again inside the menu within 3 seconds.

As i wrote, DO NOT DEFRAGMENT. Totally defragmentation is a side effect of backing everything up and putting it back after format.

DEFRAG -A only ANALYSES!!! But does not defragment.

Anyone looked inside the little file i gave you? There are television stations in it.

Cheers ;) lol...

Without trying you never know if it can be faster for you.

Hi, thank you for your message, what is your cluster size? In my case the little waste i might get if i use larger clusters isn't important, have only video and mp3 and the symbian installs from symbian programs.

It worked for me much faster as said, i went from cluster size 4096 bytes to 8192 bytes.

I am sure it works fast, but did you try to find out what is your ideal cluster size?

I looked for reviewers doing exactly that, and best cluster sizes depend from flash card to flash card.

The most important thing i noticed is that when i insert the flash card in the nokia it all applications popup back again inside the menu within 3 seconds.

As i wrote, DO NOT DEFRAGMENT. Totally defragmentation is a side effect of backing everything up and putting it back after format.

DEFRAG -A only ANALYSES!!! But does not defragment.

Anyone looked inside the little file i gave you? There are television stations in it.

Cheers ;) lol...

Without trying you never know if it can be faster for you.

I'll give it a try.

As you said, people doesn't have to defragment, but it's the same if you copy all the files (fragmented) from the SD card to the PC and then from the PC to the SD. They will be copied defragmented.

Cheers!