Optimal use of MicroSD Card

thuber

New member
Oct 30, 2012
6
0
0
Visit site
New Surface Pro 3 user here. I have a i5 w/ 128GB SSD and just purchased a 128GB MicroSD card. Coming from a laptop with a 500GB SSD, I'm cognizant of needing to watch drive space closely.

Can anyone share any best practices for using the MicroSD? My plan is to leave it in at all times, and use USB card reader if I need to access other MicrosSD's...

Thanks in advance!
Timothy
 

walcolm

New member
Nov 13, 2012
15
0
0
Visit site
there's no best practice...leave it in there if you bought it specifically for the surface...thats what i do and i'm about a month in with my surface
 

anon(7901790)

New member
Aug 5, 2013
2,108
0
0
Visit site
New Surface Pro 3 user here. I have a i5 w/ 128GB SSD and just purchased a 128GB MicroSD card. Coming from a laptop with a 500GB SSD, I'm cognizant of needing to watch drive space closely.

Can anyone share any best practices for using the MicroSD? My plan is to leave it in at all times, and use USB card reader if I need to access other MicrosSD's...

Thanks in advance!
Timothy

My setup is identical to yours. I put all of my files on the MicroSD. I also changed the location of my OneDrive folder to the MicroSD card. That leaves plenty of space on the SSD for apps. I have over 1TB of data on my OneDrive so I selectively set which folders are available offline. I currently have 34GB of free space on my SSD and 48GB of free space on my MicroSD. I also have a card reader as well for things like image and video downloads. I also have a 500GB USB 3 external drive for the times I may need extra storage while on the road.
 

stephen_az

Banned
Aug 2, 2012
1,267
0
0
Visit site
My setup is identical to yours. I put all of my files on the MicroSD. I also changed the location of my OneDrive folder to the MicroSD card. That leaves plenty of space on the SSD for apps. I have over 1TB of data on my OneDrive so I selectively set which folders are available offline. I currently have 34GB of free space on my SSD and 48GB of free space on my MicroSD. I also have a card reader as well for things like image and video downloads. I also have a 500GB USB 3 external drive for the times I may need extra storage while on the road.
No offense but there is no worse use of a MicroSDXC card than to rely on it as your primary storage and have OneDrive constantly syncing to it. . They have a high failure rate and, in my experience, relying on it for heavy read/writes exacerbates the issue. They are bulk storage and nothing more. I do hope you keep a constant backup.
 

anon(7901790)

New member
Aug 5, 2013
2,108
0
0
Visit site
None taken.

Yes. My OneDrive is the back up. If my MicroSD card fails then I just get a new one. I keep minimal data on my SP3, so if I have to replace the card, then I've lost nothing but the time it takes to resync the data from my OneDrive. The stuff in my local OneDrive folder itself is not affected since it's just a copy of what's on the server.

So far, I haven't run into any problems (knock on wood) and the amount of data being transferred is actually minimal (after the initial sync). It just checks for changes every so often. If it finds any then it syncs. For my photos and stuff, I transfer those to my 12TB NAS. I'm also in the process of copying my photos to OneDrive as well. I have a 10TB allowance (which I can as to increase) and I haven't come close to reaching that yet.
 

hotphil

New member
Nov 14, 2008
2,008
0
0
Visit site
It depends on what kind of files you access. And how they're used.
SD is hugely slower than the SSD. Personally, I've got a MicroSD card, but can't remember the last time I accessed it. With everything in OneDrive and some sensible selective-syncing I've no need.
In fact, I've just talked myself into ejecting it and sticking it on eBay for a couple of $.
 

James8561

New member
Dec 3, 2012
1,282
0
0
Visit site
Best practice is to put all of your personal files on the SD card and leave the fast internal memory for apps to get max performance.
I suggest moving document, picture, videos, music, downloads libraries and OneDrive folder to the SD
 

Simacca

New member
Apr 8, 2015
9
0
1
Visit site
Best practice is to put all of your personal files on the SD card and leave the fast internal memory for apps to get max performance.
I suggest moving document, picture, videos, music, downloads libraries and OneDrive folder to the SD
This is exactly what I have done with mine.
 

tboy2000

New member
May 29, 2012
279
0
0
Visit site
I think its bad to put personal files on sd card. Let's assume your tablet gets stolen. The thief just takes out the sd card and has access to all your personal data. However if personal files were on the SSD, I would assume that the Surface is pin/password locked so getting to the files would be more difficult for the thief.
 

hotphil

New member
Nov 14, 2008
2,008
0
0
Visit site
Encrypting it with BitLocker should just be a case of open My Computer right-click the SD card and select Turn On Bitlocker (or similar), read all the dialogs then click go.
Virtualizing it as a different disk seems overkill. But fun.
Word of warning though - stuff like that is going to make it orders of magnitude more difficult for the genuine owner to inspect/recover anything​​ when that SD card barfs. And it will. At some point. Sooner rather than later.​
 

hotphil

New member
Nov 14, 2008
2,008
0
0
Visit site
Best practice is to put all of your personal files on the SD card and leave the fast internal memory for apps to get max performance.
I suggest moving document, picture, videos, music, downloads libraries and OneDrive folder to the SD
^but I'm a pro so I virtualize my microSD into a hard drive and encrypted it with BitLocker ;) You can do it too


I doubt you'll find many "pro"s advocating either of those strategies. But what's right for one person, ain't necessarily right for another.
 

BGrewer

New member
Feb 11, 2015
276
0
0
Visit site
Even though I have over 200gb of free space I save all of my files to my Micro SD card. A good brand to use is Samsung (evo) as its relatively cheap and is more reliable than SanDisk
 

Bagzton

New member
Feb 9, 2013
297
0
0
Visit site
Encrypting it with BitLocker should just be a case of open My Computer right-click the SD card and select Turn On Bitlocker (or similar), read all the dialogs then click go.
Virtualizing it as a different disk seems overkill. But fun.
Word of warning though - stuff like that is going to make it orders of magnitude more difficult for the genuine owner to inspect/recover anything​​ when that SD card barfs. And it will. At some point. Sooner rather than later.​

Okay. Thanks.
 

3earnhardt3

New member
Oct 19, 2012
194
0
0
Visit site
In my opinion, it is best to get a router that allows network attached storage. The microSD card should then back up to the NAS on a regular schedule. This gives you the ability to bring all of your personal files with you, without having to worry about data corruption/loss. You could use the cloud as well as others have mentioned, but that is a serious security risk if you use your tablet for work purposes (I work in healthcare so anything in the cloud without an enterprise Azure subscription is considered a HIPAA violation.)
 

anon(7901790)

New member
Aug 5, 2013
2,108
0
0
Visit site
Word of warning though - stuff like that is going to make it orders of magnitude more difficult for the genuine owner to inspect/recover anything​​ when that SD card barfs. And it will. At some point. Sooner rather than later.​

Like I said previously, since all of my files I worry about are on OneDrive, then if my SD Card "barfs", then all I do is replace the SD Card and resync OneDrive. No files lost since the masters are on the server. What's point of having OneDrive if you don't use it?
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
322,915
Messages
2,242,889
Members
428,004
Latest member
hetb