Install programs to BIS or SD?

woodbane · 03-09-06, 06:05 PM

OK, so this is bugging me and has been for a while. I'm a self professed 'tinkerer' and love playing around with my Axim.:love:

Previously I never installed anything to BIS, it was all on my SD card. Recently I did a hard reset and clean install as I wanted to try something new. I ended up installing all my programs except a couple (and games) to BIS. I don't have many large programs so still only used about 38MB of the BIS. So here are my questions:

1. Is there any clear advantage to one or the other. It seems kind of ridiculous to have 96MB of BIS sitting unused for some reason. I'm trying very hard to think of it like a 'hard drive' in my Ax. I can't say I really had any gripes about speed versus the SD, it was such a marginal difference as not to bother me.

2. I have this slight concern in the back of my mind about 'read and write' cycles with BIS. When does a program 'write' to BIS? What kind of programs write to BIS? What about something like PocketMusic? Surely that's not writing is it? Anyhow, so what's the score with the cycles? I do tend to keep my PDA's for a number of years so is this going to pose a problem?

3. Storage space on the SD / CF cards is not really an issue, 2GB and 8GB respectively.

4. I had a thought about 'worst case scenarios'. If the worst happened and I dropped/trashed my Axim, wouldn't it be better to have everything installed on the SD which would be more likely to survive. I mean if the Axim gets dropped and smashes, then the SD card may well survive. Seeing as I do full Spb Backups to SD card I'd be able to pretty much reinstall everything that way (apart from those few Today Plug-ins). So, is installing to SD 'safer'?

I know this may come down to personal preference but I thought I'd ask anyway as I respect the advice and insight of all those on this forum.

Cheers.

**ksong12** · 03-09-06, 09:15 PM

Nope, pocketmusic shouldnt wear it out much, unless the music is also on that drive...

There was a thread about this somewhere...

RobMan · 03-09-06, 09:43 PM

I have an x30, thus just one sd slot. I install games to BIS, so that way, on flights, I can play games while listening to mp3's stored in sd.

I also installed Pocket Breeze and Pocket Informant in BIS.

jnev · 03-09-06, 09:56 PM

installing to BIS is fine, that's what it was made for. it won't wear out (unless you read/write to it for like 20 years) and should be faster than SD.

03-09-06, 10:13 PM

I have 29.68 MB of stuff in BIS (1.2 to go!) Wherever possible utilities, applications, and "permanent" games (such as chess) have been installed in BIS. Then I moved as many of the application DLLs as possible from Windows to BIS. SD gets puzzle games that take lots of storage (e.g. Traffic Mania).

solara · 03-09-06, 10:36 PM

I install anything that I absolutely can't live without on the BIS (x51v). Imagine if the SD card goes bad, or the slot/connection goes bad, or you lose the card.

Of course the BIS could go bad too, but then at that point, the whole PDA would stop working, so it doesn't matter where the programs are installed. And with regular backups, it doesn't matter where programs are installed with regards to recovering the programs from a hardware failure.

On my SanDisk Ultra II SD card, programs actually launch very slightly faster than from the BIS.

Edit: The reasoning above applies more for WM5. For 2003SE or earlier, I think of the BIS as a file storage place - more for placing backups of critical things that I want to be able to reinstall from in case of a battery failure away from home.

03-09-06, 10:54 PM

I also put quite a bit of programs to a storage card, but have recently moved everything except music (media) and games to BIS. My overal opinion is it has made things much smoother. Weatherpanel, and programs that run on the today screen run much better from BIS than a storage card. Again, just my opinion and impression from using my x50v for more than a year. :approve:

medgirl2001 · 03-10-06, 07:10 AM

I install anything that I can to SD or CD. I do have some programs that can't be installed to memory cards (AvantGo, Epocrates). I like having the memory free in case I need it, though I realize that probably won't happen for a _long_ time.

woodbane · 03-10-06, 08:16 AM

Thanks for the replies everyone, looks like I'll be keeping it in BIS then. As I said, it all seems to work perfectly and I agree with DSmithZ28, it also appears to be running smoother as well.

thanks all! :D

03-10-06, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by woodbane

Thanks for the replies everyone, looks like I'll be keeping it in BIS then. As I said, it all seems to work perfectly and I agree with DSmithZ28, it also appears to be running smoother as well.

thanks all! :D

Glad to hear it. You would be amazed at the programs loaded up on my BIS. I would not worry about overloading it. :approve: