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SD for file transfer only on the 7.7?

vobguy

vobguy

Well-Known Member
I read on a site that the SD on the Samsung 7.7 apparently is only for file transfer.

Anyone know if that is true? I already have 32 gig microsd cards so no way I want to pay 100 dollars extra for a simple 16 gig increase in capacity.

I dont think this is true of the 7 plus, but since I dont have one of those I could be wrong. Of course it seems that they take different paths on their tablet products, considering the 8.9 has no card reader at all (which is why I didn't buy the 8.9 despite having cash in hand at the time and wanting to buy)
 
Newer phones and tablets that include large amounts (by current mobile standards) Like the Galaxy Tab 7.7 (and my phone, the SGS2) often partition them so that you don't have a huge amount of system memory that wouldn't be accessible for file storage. On the SGS2 (and I am assuming it's similar with the Tab 7.7) Samsung has a 2 GB partition for the system and the remaining 14 GB partitioned and recognized as an sd card by making its mount point /sdcard.

Therein lies the problem. The path to external storage within Android is /sdcard so apps that are installed to external storage will be there, which is the internal sd partition, not the removable sd card. On the some phones the path to the removable sd card is /sdcard/sd_external, on my SGS2 it's /sdcard/external_sd and on my Transformer is /Removable/Microsd.

Since Android assumes the default storage location is /sdcard it will always save files, app data and caches to the internal partition and not the removable MicroSD card. This is generally better in any case as you can't inadvertently lose the card containing important app data and it performs faster and more reliably than a card. You can expand storage on these devices with the external card, but it is only practical for file storage and backups.

That said, remember that if anything should happen to the display on your tablet, you run the risk of losing the files on the internal partition if you do not regularly back them up to another source like a removable card or a PC.
 
If it can indeed be used for media storage and the like that is just fine.

But if it can only be used for "media transfer" as I have read from some places (including Samsung itself, though I cannot find the reference), then the slot is really hobbled, IMO.

I will be peeved if I wait for another Samsung Tab and turns out to have screwy SD support like the 8.9 did.
 
lunatic59 said:
Therein lies the problem. The path to external storage within Android is /sdcard so apps that are installed to external storage will be there, which is the internal sd partition, not the removable sd card. On the some phones the path to the removable sd card is /sdcard/sd_external, on my SGS2 it's /sdcard/external_sd and on my Transformer is /Removable/Microsd.
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BTW thanks for explaining that. IMO it is sort of a , well, non optimal design. I would think it would be better to do use like a separate partition called "/local" or "/data" or something like that rather than to use /sdcard for something that really is not.

I mean that would be like if I named part of one of my server's internal drives /disk1 as if it were an external disk. That is something you really don't do unless you want to confuse the users and possibly confuse future admins. I also recognize compromises are made in any software release :)
 
vobguy said:
If it can indeed be used for media storage and the like that is just fine.

But if it can only be used for "media transfer" as I have read from some places (including Samsung itself, though I cannot find the reference), then the slot is really hobbled, IMO.

I will be peeved if I wait for another Samsung Tab and turns out to have screwy SD support like the 8.9 did.
Click to expand...

I am not sure what "media transfer" means, unless they say you can only use it to copy media from toe the internal partition, although to do that you'd have to have a mount point, which should also make the SD available to the entire system.

If they did hobble the slot, then I'd agree its rather short-sighted.
 
I bought my 7.7 about 3 weeks ago and have no problems whatsoever but unable to move my pictures from internal sdcard to extstorage. Any advice very much appreciated.
 
Well just found on xda that the in-stock file manager (MyFiles) can write to the external SD card but you do need to root to modify platform.xml to grant write permission to other apps.;)
 
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