Programs stored on 128gb Micro SD possible?

[NancyH1990]

I am moving from laptop with big hard drive.
I don't play game. I don't design requiring Photoshop, adobe....
Basically I use the laptop to program Megapixel surveillance cameras into Video Management softwares.
I use several VMS such as Milestone, Exacq....
Debating whether I should spend extra $$$ for the 512 hard drive. This means I have to get the i7.
I am thinking of i5 with 256Gb. Purchase $130 128gb Micro SD card to store the softwares.
Is this possible? IF yes, what is the negative of this approach?
Thanks for your help.

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

Many if not most program installations can be redirected to attached storage. With that said, by design, many of the support files will still be stored on internal storage. You will still save a lot of storage space but the negative would be if the SD card was removed or went bad.

 

[glx]

I tried this with my Surface Pro (there were only 128GB availible ) .. SD-Cards are VERY slow, even compared to harddrives. I got a 64GB SanDisk (I think it's a SanDisk, I'm not sure at the moment). It's ok to store your pictures, music and such things, but I don't recommend to install any programs. I have some old games installed on it but if you try to use any newer software it will be extremly slow. I once had VisualStudio installed on the SD and it took about an hour until an update was installed (on normal HDD about 3 Minutes).

 

[leeshor]

I tried this with my Surface Pro (there were only 128GB availible ) .. SD-Cards are VERY slow, even compared to harddrives. I got a 64GB SanDisk (I think it's a SanDisk, I'm not sure at the moment). It's ok to store your pictures, music and such things, but I don't recommend to install any programs. I have some old games installed on it but if you try to use any newer software it will be extremly slow. I once had VisualStudio installed on the SD and it took about an hour until an update was installed (on normal HDD about 3 Minutes).

Welcome to the forum
You're absolutely correct but smaller programs, way smaller than VS, will work. There are even some portable apps that work very well.

 

[tuchas]

Any videos or music files, which take up a lot of space, are kept on my 128gb microSD card. Some installer files as well. As these cards are far less reliable than internal flash, I make a habit of backing the card up frequently. This gives me a lot of extra space on my internal drive and helps a lot.

 

[glx]

Thanks .. I'm registred since a while but I hadn't anything to write until now .. But it's a nice forum to read .

Back to topic ..
I have my downloads, pictures, some music (I mostly use Spotify), my OneDrive-Folder and some old games on the SD. By the way some programs don't like to be installed on a removable device but you can easily walk around that: Create a folder on your C:-Drive. Go to the 'disk management' tool, click on the volume on the SD-Card, rightclick on it, select 'change drive letters'. In the new window click 'Add', 'Provide in an NTFS-folder, select your created folder on C: and click ok .. Then you can install any program into that folder and it lands on the SD-Card. Ah, if you want to use the SD-Card as storage for the OneDrive. you have to format it as NTFS.
I hope ou understand everything and I don't know if everything is exactly named like I did, I just translated it because I'm no english-guy ..

 

[FlySwatter]

For starters, I'd recommend going with a cheaper 64GB card, unless the 128's have really come down in price. Once you've got your data written to the card, the read speeds should be quite tolerable for a good card. I have a Lexar Class 10, Sandisk Ultra, and Lexar High Performance 600X. They scored sequential read speeds of 21.45, 45.57, and 87.51 respectively. Not as good as the SSD on the SP3 itself of course (509.9 if you're curious), but 87.51 on the 600X is respectable. Full CrystalDiskMark bench marks attached. If your needs are modest, I wouldn't try to talk you out of it.

Append. On my older Dell Venue Pro 11, I installed a lot Steam Games on an SD card. Not Battlefield 4 of course; stuff like Plants vs Zombies, and Tower Defense. Slow to install, but ran well enough -- remember, the Venues are Atom tablets, so this was pretty respectable IMO.

 

[glx]

Ah, my Starcraft II is also on the SD-Card ..

The Lexar-Card looks pretty good ..
Do you use any typ of drive-encryption? I have Bit-Locker enabled on the SD-Card.
This is mine:

 

[wynand32]

If I'm not mistaken, those better microSD card read scores are roughly equivalent to a decent 7200RPM spinning disk drive. So, not SSD speeds, but equivalent to what you'd get from an HDD once the programs are written, as FlySwatter mentions. I think I agree, though, that the bigger issue might be the potential for data loss (I've had bad luck with the microSD cards in my smartphones); that could really muck up a system if a bunch of programs were installed to an external card and it failed.

 

[FlySwatter]

... I think I agree, though, that the bigger issue might be the potential for data loss (I've had bad luck with the microSD cards in my smartphones); that could really muck up a system if a bunch of programs were installed to an external card and it failed.

I can't disagree with that warning. There's always the potential for data loss. You could install your programs on the card, and save your project files and other documents on the SSD. In a worse case scenario, you're reinstalling programs, but your work is safe.

Ah, my Starcraft II is also on the SD-Card ..

The Lexar-Card looks pretty good ..
Do you use any typ of drive-encryption? I have Bit-Locker enabled on the SD-Card.

Nice scores on whatever card that; especially if you have bitlocker running. No, I don't use bitlocker on my personal gear. Work requires it, and I understand why. My personal stuff, however, is encryption free.

 

[GreyFox7]

Ever consider a USB SSD? I have use them not so much for programs although a possibility but particularly for VMs. I have tested this and you can get about 50-60% of the native SSD performance. Definitely much better than an HDD.

BTW I use a 64gb Samsung Sd card (90 mbps).

 

[glx]

I looked again, I also have a Samsung SD in my SPro (this one http://www.amazon.de/Samsung-microSDXC-Class-Speicherkarte-MB-MGCGBEU/dp/B009HPFUGI) .. The SanDisk is then in my phone.

(...)
BTW I use a 64gb Samsung Sd card (90 mbps).

Is the write-speed as fast as advertised? I thought about buying one of these cards..