MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Upwards of 32gb sd cards and SDHC format (SD 2.0) in the clear for DR?

harryE123 · 12-24-2008, 11:48 PM

"Well, external HDs are different, but the "bozos" probably had the same thing in mind I mentioned for SD cards: it just works on any OS. I deal a lot with users, and many of them don't even know the concept of filesystem. It's plug and play. If it was NTFS and they connected it to a Mac, they would try to return it as broken. And vice-versa. No such problem with FAT32. If you format the drive for your OS-preferred filesystem (NTFS, HFS+, ext3) you get all the benefits (4GB+ filesize, better reliability through journaling etc.) at the cost of compatibility. It's a trade-off and a choice has to be made, one not necessarily better than the other.
SD card formatting: haven't tried NTFS, but ext3. It works, but unless used with a Linux system, quite useless. Plus the card will wear out quicker because of the I/O overhead. (Again an issue adressed in SSDs through enhanced wear-leveling, at higher cost)"

Oh I see, very explanatory, I thought they introduced some sort of wear leveling algos in the cards too. But we have differing views on the file system issue, I do think they are indeed "bozos" at wd for releasing a drive with fat32 preinstalled which is aimed at windows pcs sincel ALL the software they bundle is for them only, in any case macs can read ntfs with no problem whatsoever.

That's my experience too with digital cameras that a fast card is an absolute must have.

"I was referring to a single file, not a library as whole, of course that'd be much more. The question that raises is: does one really need ALL of it at once, at any given moment. With a largish card and a fast reader, it should be possible to have more than enough for at least one day's work. I think a lot of people suffer from "hamster syndrome" where they want to stuff in everything if possible "just in case" (not just electronically, but in the real world too) When ask them if they have ever used such and such thing, the answer is very often negative. The DR1000 is a portable device, not an archival unit. One could always use a real laptop if that was necessary, and maybe throw in a 1.5 TB external drive..."

True I guess it's a matter of insecurity of being always able to have what you MIGHT need but never get to use anyway with you. But a day's work can include a lot of bulky reference books that you might or might not use but that you ' ll be looking for most possibly, and also it might include "spare time material". I am thinking more of this device as a (mini at least) library where at your leisure you can browse your collection, read a few pages on and off, see what each thing you have is about, get a taste, as a real library would work. I could NEVER do that in a computer, I can't focus reading more than a single page of a book in an lcd screen, if it's light browsing I can do that, but if it's reading with some concentration and intentionality my eyes get too tired too quickly, then again others have said in these forums they have no problem with that...different strokes for diff. folks.

"Samsung, but it's actually rather old news. The only reference to a 64GB SDHC card I could find was an (uninformed) article's speculation after the release of 32GB cards. BTW. the only class6 32GB I could find was launched at $700 this spring and still retails for around $400 from -reputable- sources. No thanks!"

hmmm, yeah the price is pretty steep, I ll settle myself for the 16gb one and complement it with a usb flash drive.

12-24-2008, 11:48 PM	#9
harryE123 Banned Posts: 272 Karma: 70 Join Date: Dec 2008 Device: irex reader	"Well, external HDs are different, but the "bozos" probably had the same thing in mind I mentioned for SD cards: it just works on any OS. I deal a lot with users, and many of them don't even know the concept of filesystem. It's plug and play. If it was NTFS and they connected it to a Mac, they would try to return it as broken. And vice-versa. No such problem with FAT32. If you format the drive for your OS-preferred filesystem (NTFS, HFS+, ext3) you get all the benefits (4GB+ filesize, better reliability through journaling etc.) at the cost of compatibility. It's a trade-off and a choice has to be made, one not necessarily better than the other. SD card formatting: haven't tried NTFS, but ext3. It works, but unless used with a Linux system, quite useless. Plus the card will wear out quicker because of the I/O overhead. (Again an issue adressed in SSDs through enhanced wear-leveling, at higher cost)" Oh I see, very explanatory, I thought they introduced some sort of wear leveling algos in the cards too. But we have differing views on the file system issue, I do think they are indeed "bozos" at wd for releasing a drive with fat32 preinstalled which is aimed at windows pcs sincel ALL the software they bundle is for them only, in any case macs can read ntfs with no problem whatsoever. That's my experience too with digital cameras that a fast card is an absolute must have. "I was referring to a single file, not a library as whole, of course that'd be much more. The question that raises is: does one really need ALL of it at once, at any given moment. With a largish card and a fast reader, it should be possible to have more than enough for at least one day's work. I think a lot of people suffer from "hamster syndrome" where they want to stuff in everything if possible "just in case" (not just electronically, but in the real world too) When ask them if they have ever used such and such thing, the answer is very often negative. The DR1000 is a portable device, not an archival unit. One could always use a real laptop if that was necessary, and maybe throw in a 1.5 TB external drive..." True I guess it's a matter of insecurity of being always able to have what you MIGHT need but never get to use anyway with you. But a day's work can include a lot of bulky reference books that you might or might not use but that you ' ll be looking for most possibly, and also it might include "spare time material". I am thinking more of this device as a (mini at least) library where at your leisure you can browse your collection, read a few pages on and off, see what each thing you have is about, get a taste, as a real library would work. I could NEVER do that in a computer, I can't focus reading more than a single page of a book in an lcd screen, if it's light browsing I can do that, but if it's reading with some concentration and intentionality my eyes get too tired too quickly, then again others have said in these forums they have no problem with that...different strokes for diff. folks. "Samsung, but it's actually rather old news. The only reference to a 64GB SDHC card I could find was an (uninformed) article's speculation after the release of 32GB cards. BTW. the only class6 32GB I could find was launched at $700 this spring and still retails for around $400 from -reputable- sources. No thanks!" hmmm, yeah the price is pretty steep, I ll settle myself for the 16gb one and complement it with a usb flash drive.