Essential disk Utilities and a netbook

[markdeppe]

Anyone say whether EDU (essential disk utilities) is worth getting as I do not have access to a pc or mac now, and also is it useful for a 1GB microdrive or only for CF cards. Also that it functions OK with the DiMM upgrade besides not recognising the internal memory?

[cshandley]

Originally posted by markdeppe
Anyone say whether EDU (essential disk utilities) is worth getting as I do not have access to a pc or mac now, and also is it useful for a 1GB microdrive or only for CF cards. Also that it functions OK with the DiMM upgrade besides not recognising the internal memory?

Yup, EDU works great on both a Series 7 & 7book, both with & without the memory upgrades, for a 1Gb Microdrive.

Just beware that scan/repair of 1Gb of data is real slow - it could take about 1 hour. Windows via CF card reader is way faster, but I have found that it creates NEW problems when fixing the disk - whereas EDU has always been entirely safe.

And don't even consider Optimising 1Gb of data, as this will take about 24 hours. You could be better backing-up to a PC, formatting on the Psion, then copying the data back!

---
Chris Handley

[markdeppe]

Hi Chris, Thanks for the reply I have only just found it for some reason. Can you say what you use for formating CF cards and what sort of a difference you notice in comparison to standard psion formatting, and what you feel is the best feature of edu to warrant buying it. Additionally as I have the 32MB DIMM upgrade I gather I can not use any of the EDU features on the C:/ does this then limit its usefullness or was there little use for it with the C;/ as nothing seems to ever go wrong with them and they run Optimally?

Thanks

[MartinG]

Hi Mark,

You might be interested to read the Compact Flash section on my website (www.pscience5.net) which gives a fairly detailed breakdown of the tradeoff in speed v's usable capacity on a CF card. All the timings shown are for 5mx's - but the principle's the same.

Best regards,
Martin

[wanman]

Hi Mark,

As Chris confirmed, EDU will work on any CF card without problem. The size of the CF card will greatly impact the speed. Optimize (Defrag) is really slow on the bigger cards. My 128mb card usually takes over 30mins. You can also use EDU's functions on the C: Drive aswell, as long as you have not upgraded the memory. When upgraded, you cannot use the format, check disk or optimize on the C: but they are still of great use for any CF Cards you own.

In addition to this, you can also have EDU installed on either your c (upgraded or not) or a CF card and everything is fine. My copy is installed on my D: Drive and it has no problems with either checking or optimising the D Drive.


Martin:
Have checked out your CF card info and was wondering if you had any experience of these new Fast CF Cards such as the Simple Tech X Pro CF Card as per the attached link? I was wondering if the netBook would benefit from the increased read/write speeds or if these speeds are controlled by the actual port?

http://www.simpletech.com/products/consumer/flash/flash_prox.php

Regards

Si

[cshandley]

Mark,

All I can tell you regarding the 1Gb Microdrive formatting is that the clusters are so large that the effective size can be as low as (say) 400Mb!

My Microdrive was supplied formatted at maybe 1025Mb - by reducing the partition size to 1022Mb (using FDisk under DOS in Windows - take extreme care!), I was able to reduce the cluster size from 32Kb (64 sectors per cluster) to 16Kb (32 sectors per cluster).

This means the effective size is more like (say) 800Mb! Windows is required to repartition the Microdrive *once* - after that EDU can happily (re)format it with a custom cluster size.

Quite why IBM supplied it badly configured I do not know!
---
Chris Handley

[MartinG]

Originally posted by wanman
Have checked out your CF card info and was wondering if you had any experience of these new Fast CF Cards such as the Simple Tech X Pro CF Card as per the attached link? I was wondering if the netBook would benefit from the increased read/write speeds or if these speeds are controlled by the actual port?



I haven't unfortunately - I've tended to follow the cheap'n'cheerful technology trend as far as memory goes rather than the bleeding edge of technology... ;)

I suspect that it'll be a combination of factors on the netBook: card formating, netBook bus/port speed, and actual CF physical speed...

Originally posted by cshandley
Quite why IBM supplied it badly configured I do not know!


</cynical mode on/>
Well let's see now... Storage manufacturer sells cards poorly formated = they appear to fill up quickly = storage manufacturer sells more cards...?
</cynical off/>

:eek:

Just joking of course!

Martin

[Fred_R]

I was going to post this on a thread on the 7Book forum, but the discussion on this thread is more relevant. I was having problems with a 1Gb Microdrive. Now read on ...

Having done a search of the fora for anything about ‘microdrive’ that might help, I gave up and reformatted my microdrive using Atelier Essential Disk Utilities. After reading Martin’s website about Compact Flash cards, thought that FAT16 32 Sectors per cluster would be the most efficient.

The reformatting process was relatively painless – only taking about 12 hours. My intention was to reuse the disc for data only, but when the formatting was complete, I tried to copy data from my internal C drive onto the microdrive in D drive, and it is ‘corrupt’.

What now? I don’t want to reformat it, not on the Psion anyway – I may try on the PC, using everyday disc format, but it seems as though there is something amiss?

Fred

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by MartinG
</cynical mode on/>
Well let's see now... Storage manufacturer sells cards poorly formated = they appear to fill up quickly = storage manufacturer sells more cards...?
</cynical off/>

:eek:

Just joking of course! Can't fault your logic, though, Martin! :D :D

Julie

[MartinG]

Originally posted by Fred_R
What now? I don’t want to reformat it, not on the Psion anyway – I may try on the PC, using everyday disc format, but it seems as though there is something amiss?

12 hours - wow! Sounds like the disk didn't like being formatted in that way (could be a manufacturing restriction). I'd be suprised if there's any permanent damage done (if there is, I'd complain to the supplier unless it's supplied with a warning saying "don't format in this way", etc.).

I'd try it on the PC as you suggest. I believe both Windows 2K and XP will format 'removable drives' in various formats - but I'd start with the default Windows format to begin with!

Martin

[cshandley]

Originally posted by Fred_R
I was having problems with a 1Gb Microdrive.

I gave up and reformatted my microdrive using Atelier Essential Disk Utilities.
After reading Martin's website about Compact Flash cards, thought that FAT16 32
Sectors per cluster would be the most efficient.

The reformatting process was relatively painless - only taking about 12 hours.
My intention was to reuse the disc for data only, but when the formatting was
complete, I tried to copy data from my internal C drive onto the microdrive in D
drive, and it is `corrupt'.

Fred,

Something is *seriously* wrong here. A full format should NOT take 12 hours -
I'd guess 1 hour is a maximum.

Are you sure you didn't try to optimise the disk?

From my experience of optimising (24hrs!), after a long time the Microdrive gets
very hot, and that this can cause the optimisation to fail. A similar problem
may occur if formatting takes such a long time.


The next step is to format the Microdrive using Windows - be sure to select
a *full* format using FAT16!

If that works, then your Microdrive is probably fine, although it is a bit of a
puzzle. If formatting under Windows fails (or takes a long time), then I'd
suggest that your Microdrive is *BROKEN* - and needs to be replaced.

Regards,
Chris Handley

[Fred_R]

I suppose in a way I should have gone with my intuition in the first place!

Formatting through the PC took less than 1 second and now the microdrive is being backed up! I did a 'checkdisk' on EDU and it found, and removed, one 'damaged file' presumably placed by the formatting?

Thanks for the help guys, now I just hope this gets rid of the 'Not Found' error message I get everytime I start the 7Book!

Fred

[nmbaker]

I have used without any problems a Microdrive 1GB. I formatted it originally on a Casio QV3000, or rather, inserted it and found that there was oodles of room. Then I placed it in the series 7 and had 1,024 MB. Fine, then as an experiment, formatted on the PC and had 1027MB. Since I thought that the Psion may prefer its own format, did it that way. The result was 1027MB. So back into the camera, took a few pictures, then back into the Psion, which is now a Netbook and I still have 1027MB reported.

Since then, i've removed loads of files, but the net result is i've used only 113120kB and there is 938528kB remaining.

Would I get more available space with AEU that would still allow connectivity with the camera and the PC?

Besides taking several hundred pictures at a time (main use) it also contained all of the towns for StreetPlanner and now CityMaps, though because they are now sis files, I haven't installed nearly as many as previously, hence all the spare disk space.

I agree that these Microdrives are slower than much small CF cards, but I use the C drive to run the programs with the data on the microdrive and this trade off seems to work sufficiently well for me

[cshandley]

Originally posted by Fred_R
Formatting through the PC took less than 1 second and now the microdrive is being backed up! I did a 'checkdisk' on EDU and it found, and removed, one 'damaged file' presumably placed by the formatting?

I would suggest that the PC did *not* do a FULL format, but rather a quick format. Thats not to be recomended if you have just had major problems, so try to format fully.

Formatting can sometimes cause EDU CheckDisk to find a minor fault which can be correctly harmlessly.


Thanks for the help guys, now I just hope this gets rid of the 'Not Found' error message I get everytime I start the 7Book!

I would suggest your System folder on the Microdrive is screwed-up. I hope you did not just copy a System folder off a 5mx/etc?

Without detailed experimentation, the only solution would be to:
(1) Uninstall *all* installed programs & components using Add/Remove from the Control Panel,
(2) Rename/delete the old System folder, and
(3) Finally re-install all your programs.
(4) With a bit of luck, you might be able to copy over your old preferences/data from the old System folder - but only do this if you have some idea what you are doing!

[victormarchand]

Not so much a reply on the previous, but more a follow on question. Since this thread is about disks and formatting.

I´ve been reading the psience5 page on formatting CF cards with great interest.

Now, I want to play around with formatting my disk, with various numbers of sectors/cluster. On my series7 my Sandisk 128 MB is very slow in writing....so I want to try to optimize it. I don´t care if I loose space, I´m not filling the disk up.

I do not have EDU, and consider $50 too much for trying this.

So I have been digging around for PC utils which can format disks, which allow one to specify numbers of sectors etc.
After trying like 10 or so, I´m giving up. None of them seem to have it these days.
SO do any of you know an easy (and cheap) way of formatting (other than the standard Psion, or Windows format) ?

Thanks !

[cshandley]

You can quite happily use the DOS format command to play with the number of sectors per cluster. It has the hidden option /Z:n where n is the sectors per cluster.

E.g. Format E: /Z:32

Where E: is the drive in question. MAKE SURE YOU USE THE CORRECT DRIVE LETTER!



If you manage to seriously screw-up the CF card using Windows (such that it cannot be formatted on the Psion), then FDisk will allow you to remove the problem partition & put a blank one it it's place. I do not recommend using FDisk unless you are very experienced, as you could easily wipe your Windows harddisk :-(

[victormarchand]

Right. I went out of my way trying to dig up an old DOS, with Format which would support this. Couldn´t find it though on the web...

Turns out that the format which is in the command prompt in my W2K also supports changing the #sectors/cluster.

So I was able to change the clustersize on my CF disk. I has indeed increased thew write speed considerably, for the bigger files I am using. It´s worth fiddling with this.

Thanks again.