(Surface 3) Use microSD as main hard drive?

[illegaloperation]

I know this is probably one of my dumber ideas, but has anyone tried using microSD card as her main storage (ie. Windows drive)?

 

[xandros9]

Oh no I don't think that's gonna fly. (very far at least)

I don't think the eMMC is THAT slow.

Just keep the Windows bits on the main drive (minimizes hassle, futzing with boot stuff, etc) and install other things to the SD card.

You can redirect stuff to the card, whether a Starcraft II install or OneDrive I believe.

 

[hotphil]

Even if possible to boot from, it'd be waaaayyyyyy slower. If space is an issue, you could look at deleting unused files, selective OneDrive syncing or moving some unimportant files to SD.

 

[pankaj981]

It's not dumb but a good point. Microsoft should at least allow installing modern apps on external storage. For desktop applications yes, the internal eMMC would be the better option

 

[hotphil]

The drawbacks of using external storage make it unattractive as a location for running apps from. I'm with MS on that one.

 

[pankaj981]

Hows is that then not a drawback for windows phone?


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[Jas00555]

Hows is that then not a drawback for windows phone?


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Because how could an optional feature possibly ever be considered a drawback?

 

[hotphil]

If anything, it's more of a drawback for Windows Phone. Granted, the performance differential in a phone device is less than in a PC, but the other issues still make it an unwise choice these days. SD in mobiles is going the same way optical (and floppy before it) went in PCs.​

 

[seremify]

I know this is probably one of my dumber ideas, but has anyone tried using microSD card as her main storage (ie. Windows drive)?

How about the faster MicroSDXC cards out there? I'm asking in another thread so this is a bit of a duplicate question but am curious if they could be faster than the eMMC. That being said, the card may be fast but I am guessing the bottleneck might be the Surface 3 hardware?

 

[hotphil]

I've not looked at the exact specs for the Surface 3, but the storage in the Surface Pro 3 was (in at least some shipments) an OEM version of Samsung's EVO 840. Read speeds for those are in the region 500MB/sec (depending on how it's tested). The best a MicroSDXC can get to is just under 100MB/sec.​

 

[pankaj981]

Because how could an optional feature possibly ever be considered a drawback?

Similar to how that optional feature may not be a drawback for the the tablet OS

If anything, it's more of a drawback for Windows Phone. Granted, the performance differential in a phone device is less than in a PC, but the other issues still make it an unwise choice these days. SD in mobiles is going the same way optical (and floppy before it) went in PCs.​

As much as I agree with you, Microsoft's direction does look otherwise. The phone OS takes about 2.5-3GBs on a 8GB phone, relatively the desktop/tablet OS takes about 4GB on a 16GB tablet, add the larger size of the metro apps compared to that on the the phone along with 4-5GB Office 2013 one doesn't get much room to install apps on the main storage anyways. Adding the microSD might not make things better but it's definitely helping reduce cost of the tablets. Again having options is always better (not all may agree)

 

[OberstDanjeje]

I've not looked at the exact specs for the Surface 3, but the storage in the Surface Pro 3 was (in at least some shipments) an OEM version of Samsung's EVO 840. Read speeds for those are in the region 500MB/sec (depending on how it's tested). The best a MicroSDXC can get to is just under 100MB/sec.​

The S3 don't use SSD mut eMMC very slowly then an SSD

 

[hotphil]

If that's the case then, yes, the speed difference between the "main" and additional storage will only be around 50%.

 

[Geodude074]

GPU and NAND Performance - The Surface 3 Review

Surface 3 hits 128 MB/s read and 33.64 MB/s write, so if a micro SDXC can hit up to 100 MB/s read, the difference isn't that extreme.

 

[Geo Hutchings]

I run far cry 4 of MicroSD 128gb by Sanddisk and it runs perfect on my surface pro 3, Yes you can use a MicroSD as your main drive

 

[fatclue_98]

For this to work you would need to have the card identify as "fixed disk". Windows will not boot from a "removable drive" which is what the SD card shows as. Tablets are not as user-serviceable as slates and laptops so I doubt you could run an IDE adapter to the card controller.

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[TechFreak1]

I run far cry 4 of MicroSD 128gb by Sanddisk and it runs perfect on my surface pro 3, Yes you can use a MicroSD as your main drive

Oh please, your reading data of the MicroSD card not writing to it, using a MicroSD card as your main drive is just silly as you will cook it pretty damn quickly as they have limited number of read / write cycles.

The same principle applies to USB sticks, try running something like XP on that and it will a paper weight pretty sharpish (yes, you can run a fully functional xp, 7 and 8.x off a usb stick if your willing to go through the hassle) Windows 7 / 8.x would probably kill it quicker due to the indexing.

Therefore your better off using the current setup and just using the microsd card as additional storage.

 

[P_Devil]

GPU and NAND Performance - The Surface 3 Review

Surface 3 hits 128 MB/s read and 33.64 MB/s write, so if a micro SDXC can hit up to 100 MB/s read, the difference isn't that extreme.

The read speeds of 100 MB/s are burst speeds. They are more like 60-75 MB/s sustained reading speeds which is about half of what the eMMC is capable of in the Surface 3. Write speeds are much slower, more around 15-20 MB/s.

Either way, whether it's a new microSDXC card or not, using it as a main drive is not recommended. Not only would the speeds be slower but memory cards have a limited number of read/write cycles before they crap out. You can use a microSDCX card for media storage, that would be fine. I wouldn't use it for anything beyond that, even for storing older games.