Using Micro sd card for storage


  1. Posts : 208
    Windows 10 Home 64bit
       #1

    Using Micro sd card for storage


    Good day to all.
    I have this hp laptop with a ssd drive with the operating system, All my documents photos etc are on an external ssd in an enclosure connected with USB cable.I'm quite happy with the setup works okay I'd does what I want it to do.
    Friend of mine has a similar setup but he uses a 128gb micro sd card fitted in to the card reader slot in the side of the laptop. H reckons that the transfer is much faster then my setup.
    what would you experts say regarding my setup vers his setup.
    Any thoughts Please.

    Regarding while typing this posting is it normal to have the advance suggestions and spelling on screen, Excellent idea for spelling yes.
    Also the cursor has gone from a thin black line to a very bold line?
    Many thanks.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 15,031
    Windows 10 IoT
       #2

    If you use a good quality Micro SD you will get better performance than a junk card you buy on e-bay for next to nothing. You get what you pay for. Is it faster than an external USB SSD drive? I'm not sure? You'd need to benchmark each and compare them. Reads will be pretty quick, writes maybe not so much.
    One advantage to the Micro SD card is it should always be there, no forgetting to plug it in etc. No extra cable and case hanging off the side of your laptop.
    My Raspberry Pi single board computers use a Micro SD card for their OS drive / hard drive. I try to buy good quality name brand class 10 cards. They will be faster and last longer.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #3

    Assuming you are using the USB3 ports (on the left hand side according to HP 255 G6 Notebook PC Product Specifications which is the laptop in your specs) then your setup will be faster.

    USB2 - has a theoretical maximum is 53 MB/s, but you will normally get less. See usb - Whats the maximum typical speed possible with a USB2.0 drive? - Super User
    USB3.1 is about 10-20x faster and will be limited by the speed of your SSD. See USB 3.1 Speed Latest Drive Benchmark | Everything USB
    SD - can be faster or slower than USB2 (up to 30-90MB/s) depending on card. See : The best SD Cards of 2018: comparison, benchmark, fastest, top 10 | TechFunology.com

    Yours will also be more reliable as SD cards have far more limited writes than SSD.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 2,717
    Windows 10
       #4

    The micro SD Card and Reader will be much slower than a USB 3 connected SSD, so he is wrong.

    All my SD cards and Micro SD cards are class 10 U1, and reputable ones, they are slow. I test them all in case of fakes etc. Approx 20 MB/s with a file size 1 GB, real world test, they would be even slower with smaller files. The packaging says 45 MB/s (but we all know about such claims...).

    It depends on your USB 3 hardware, SSD, and interface in your enclosure how fast, but it should be at least 10x faster.

    Why not devise a simple test. I would use a large file sizes of around the 1 GB mark.

    I don't do benchmarks, much prefer a real world test with real files.
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  5. Posts : 1,309
    Windows 10
       #5

    I could achieve a transfer rate of 80 MB/s on a USB 3 card reader which is close to hdd performance , but with ssd least i could get was twice that , of course those speeds are benched over 1 GB file transfer
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  6. Posts : 208
    Windows 10 Home 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Many thanks to all very interesting points. Think I will stay with my ssd drive connected to the USB three.
    Once again Many Thanks.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 11,247
    Windows / Linux : Arch Linux
       #7

    Hi there
    advantage of a microsd card is that you can also read it in a typical phone so you can just take the card out of computer and into phone.

    I wouldn't worry about data transfer speeds as you surely aren't using it as an ssd or regularly transferring large amounts of data via it.

    In any case I'd always backup the data as well -- sd cards don't have the same sort of "duty cycle" as HDD's / SSD's or even USB drives -- i.e they can wear out quicker so backing up data that you have stored on these devices is essential.

    I use a 64GB micro sd card in a phone for simply storing music on it - I can change / add / delete from my NAS server when I want different music. VLC on android also plays the files just fine.

    My laptop also recognizes the built in SD reader as a boot device so it's easy testing a linux distro or whatever from a micro sd card (not Windows as Windows would be too slow -- Linux essentially once loaded doesn't need to access the SD card again unless saving data- on a live distro everything is contained ion memory anyway). You could use the SD card though if bootable as a bootable Macrium restore / recovery system with a restore image on it.

    Cheers
    jimbo
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 15,031
    Windows 10 IoT
       #8

    IMHO SD cards are a lot more reliable than they used to be. provided you buy a good name brand card from a reputable dealer. Not a fake on e-bay etc. I've had one card fail out of the two dozen or so cards I have on the go here at home.
    I have a couple of my raspberry Pi's running 24/7 using a Micro SD as thier hard drive. Any time I've had issues its because of a power bump or the Pi not being shut down properly etc. I just reimage the card.
    If your using that laptop like a desktop and hardley ever moving it the current setup is likely fine. I move my laptop around from room to room too much for that to be something I'd want to do. Thats just me though. My laptop has dual drive bays and two SSD drives in it so the only time I connect a USB hard drive is when I'm backing up files etc. Even so, I think I'd take the convivence of having my second storage internal over external, given that I move it around a lot. Even if its a bit slower. For me it would be my user folders so not a really big deal. Its just documents, pictures, and some MP3 files etc. Long story short, what you do depends on what you do with your laptop, how you use it. What works for you.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 15,031
    Windows 10 IoT
       #9

    Another option is. If that laptop has an optical drive you never use, and its a SATA dive. There are drive bays out there you can put your SSD in, and swap it out for the optical drive. You'll lose the portability of your second drive though.
      My Computer


 

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