Speed up a 4GB SD in you Axim

[PaulSM]

My Transcend 150X 4GB SD is very speedy now after formatted with FAT16!
Axim can not handle an SD with FAT32 well.

[LocutusBorgMan]

My Transcend 150X 4GB SD is very speedy now after formatted with FAT16!
Axim can not handle an SD with FAT32 well.

I thought if you format with FAT16, then the maximum memory that can be recognized is 2GB.

[patw111]

i didnt know that the axim could handle FAT32

[EngrPaul]

Limit of FAT16 is 2GB, perhaps your card is faster because the entire card is not formatted.

For smaller cards, I've tested LOTS and FAT16 vs FAT32 makes a negligible difference in speed.

[badbob001]

Limit of FAT16 is 2GB, perhaps your card is faster because the entire card is not formatted.

I think you can have a FAT16 4GB card if you format your card with 64K cluster, which is a pretty exotic scenario. If you put large files on your SD card like movies or photos, then 64K clusters is not so inefficient.

Windows NT and above can support and format FAT16/64K drives. I think you can do the same using sktools on the device.

[ksong12]

Well, I'm keeping mine at FAT32. Activesync is so slow anyway......

[PaulSM]

I thought if you format with FAT16, then the maximum memory that can be recognized is 2GB.

2GB is not a FAT16 limitation, it's an OS limitation. 4GB is the limit for FAT16.
If you have Win 2K, you can format your 4GB card in FAT16.

The difference between FAT16 and FAT32 is 19 seconds vs 147 seconds to copy a 10MB file in an Axim X51v.

[PaulSM]

Limit of FAT16 is 2GB, perhaps your card is faster because the entire card is not formatted.

For smaller cards, I've tested LOTS and FAT16 vs FAT32 makes a negligible difference in speed.

See post #7.

[PaulSM]

Here's a link to MS KB:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/118335/EN-US/

[PaulSM]

Well, I'm keeping mine at FAT32. Activesync is so slow anyway......

SD card was not designed for FAT32. And a 4GB SD card is not a standard either.

[pr5owner]

the axim SUCKS as a card reader, why would you not be using an SD reader? 150x is 22MB/s my car reader is capable of handling 9MB/s the axim cant go faster than 1MB/s

[DanmanX]

I use a USB 2.0 SD reader and *WRITER* device that I bought for $6.99 final price.

BEST INVESTMENT EVER.

[0gopogo]

I have switched to 64k FAT16 on my Transcend card a while ago, after reading an article by Menneisys on the topic of card formatting. This format clearly improves benchmarks. I have not noticed any improvements in my practical, daily experience, though, which requires, I admit, mostly read and small file write access.

[randomwalk101]

okay, i have Windows XP with x51v and Transcend 4GB SD...how do I format it to fat 16 or whatever to make it faster? Thx.

[0gopogo]

There is the "format" utility which can be run from the command line only. But since it did not work for me I won't bother describing how to parameterize it.

I use Softwinter StorageTools and SK Tools, both of which are able to format 64k clusters, but are not freeware.