4GB mini SD cards - Motorola Q Forum

ridiculogic · 12-11-2006, 12:18 PM

So now that real 4GB mini SD cards are out, when will we be able to use them on our Q's? My understanding is that all future miniSD cards that are larger than 2gb will be a new format, called miniSDHC. I also understand that Motorola will have to upgrade the firmware in order for us to be able to use the cards in our phone. Till then, we're stuck with 2gb (which isn't bad, just not quite enough for the music/movies I want to watch).

The exciting thing is that this technology supposedly can take minisd cards up to 32gb, which would be awesome!

So anybody heard anything on this front? Is it true that we need a firmware upgrade to use the high-capacity cards?

robertguyser · 12-14-2006, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ridiculogic

So now that real 4GB mini SD cards are out, when will we be able to use them on our Q's? My understanding is that all future miniSD cards that are larger than 2gb will be a new format, called miniSDHC. I also understand that Motorola will have to upgrade the firmware in order for us to be able to use the cards in our phone. Till then, we're stuck with 2gb (which isn't bad, just not quite enough for the music/movies I want to watch).

The exciting thing is that this technology supposedly can take minisd cards up to 32gb, which would be awesome!

So anybody heard anything on this front? Is it true that we need a firmware upgrade to use the high-capacity cards?

judging from other devices ive had it depends on more than firmware and new formats.. like a manufacturer trying to sell their next product and stop supporting past products... the new black q may help though... but i doubt it..

companies like to put new features on new devices.. it is too bad noone who knows more has responded.. where are the experts?

Still, I too am hopefull there will be a way to put more memory in this thing eventually.. i wonder if someone could make the usb port work for a memory module... that wm5storage program documentation hints that the USB IO lines are fairly flexible.

braeleure2 · 12-15-2006, 09:50 AM

Check:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...8081319AA0y68p
http://www.happytech.net/Articles/Ke.../Fat32Info.htm
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/partSizes-c.html

robertguyser · 12-15-2006, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by braeleure2

Check:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...8081319AA0y68p
http://www.happytech.net/Articles/Ke.../Fat32Info.htm
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/partSizes-c.html

so, your idea is that fat dosent support disks over 2gb, so neither does wm5.

sad. MS. sad. real sad. why use the f'in DOS ddisk format? it is like 18 years old!

dipgolf · 12-15-2006, 01:19 PM

Yeah, these new cards are amazing. 32gb on a miniSD card, my first computer's hard drive was only 4gb. It's stupid that they force you to buy new devices in order to use them. I mean is it that difficult to make a patch or something to enable them to be used on current products?

ridiculogic · 12-15-2006, 01:21 PM

Motorola -- get on this ASAP!

Quote:

Originally Posted by robertguyser

so, your idea is that fat dosent support disks over 2gb, so neither does wm5.

sad. MS. sad. real sad. why use the f'in DOS ddisk format? it is like 18 years old!

ridiculogic · 12-15-2006, 01:23 PM

Wow. My first computer hard drive was 80 MB!

Quote:

Originally Posted by dipgolf

Yeah, these new cards are amazing. 32gb on a miniSD card, my first computer's hard drive was only 4gb. It's stupid that they force you to buy new devices in order to use them. I mean is it that difficult to make a patch or something to enable them to be used on current products?

robertguyser · 12-16-2006, 07:00 PM

Weird really.. I didnt know FAT supported long file names.. as far as a patch or frmware update fixing the problem - i dont know. i have never had a PPC or smartphone device before. It would seem to me that if other WM5 devices support large memory cards, the OS itself can support larger cards. The specific factors could be alot more than just firmware though.. Like specific IO portions of the OS code that work only with different drive formats? I dont know.

The best thing would be for someone to try it!

Pony99CA · 12-16-2006, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robertguyser

so, your idea is that fat dosent support disks over 2gb, so neither does wm5.

sad. MS. sad. real sad. why use the f'in DOS ddisk format? it is like 18 years old!

You're worrying about nothing. Windows Mobile can support more than 2 GB -- I have an 8 GB CF card formatted with FAT32 in my iPAQ hx2795 running WM 5 to prove that.

(I suppose that HP could have different drivers and that WM 5 itself doesn't support FAT32, but I think that's unlikely.)

However, the file system isn't the only important thing to consider. Some controllers can also limit how much data you can access. For example, my iPAQ 5550 running Windows Mobile 2003 worked just fine with my 2 GB SD card, but my Mobile Crossing Waypoint also running WM 2003 didn't see the card at all because its controller (or something in the system) was limited to 1 GB cards. My Fujitsu laptop can read and write to the first 1 GB of the card, but not the second.

The big question is whether Windows Mobile Smartphone's SD card support allows FAT32 and whether the Q's hardware and drivers support more than 2 GB. Unfortunately, I don't have a 4 GB MiniSD card, so I can't answer that.

As for SDHC, my understanding is that it's one part hardware (for speed) and one part software (for size). If SDHC cards basically just use FAT32, the Q may be able to support them (at worst with a software update). If the SDHC hardware is required, I doubt the Q will ever work with them (well, current Qs).

Caveat lector (or "Let the reader beware"): I'm a high-level software guy, not a hardware or driver geek.

Steve

robertguyser · 12-16-2006, 10:12 PM

from working with programminh more simple microcontrollers to access eeprom memory, i know that to make 'modules' that could be different size eeprom a routine to get total memory size is needed. because memory is in banks usually, the code has to do a bunch of little things. this code would be alot different for different data formats... i dont think you can use fat32 formated memory cards in the Q? surely someone has tried to stick their fat32 memory card into their Q?

my idea that it cannot do fat32 comes from using pocketDOS fdsik.

not a very good asumption really, as the makers of pocketdos may simply not have put in fat32?

dont listen to me!