Virtual Memory using SD cards, an OS5 version of MSMount?

[poInt]

Hi people,

Does anyone know of a decent program that is like MSMount for OS5+ devices?

I'm still using a T|T so I'm hindered by the 16mb ram limit, and I remember on my old m505 I could use MSMount to have applications believe their databases were loaded in RAM when really they were reading off the SD card.

That was amazingly useful - but I haven't been able to find a similar program that works on OS5!

MSMount works on OS3 and OS4 but alas not OS5.

In my searching I came across:
- PowerRun
- MemHack

PowerRun I downloaded and tried, and thought it was actually really quite useless - because it requires you to essentially move EVERYTHING you would want to use to your SD card, and ONLY swap it in when you want to use it. Which is just irritating to be honest.

MemHack - well, I couldn't find this ANYWHERE. The developer's site appears to have gone offline. And there are no mirrors for the file "memhack.zip". So I have no idea what it does and if it is any good.

If anyone has it - PLEASE TELL ME, I want to try it out.

Or if anyone knows of an alternative that functions as amazingly as MSMount did, then also please inform me.

Is no one else who uses a Tungsten T constrained and frustated by 16mb?? I don't know how I've put up with it for so long... but... I need more space...

Cheers guys,
poInt

[palmguy-again]

Try ZLauncher. It will let you move one or all the files associated with the app to the SD card. In turn, when you launch the app, whatever you moved to the SD card will be moved back into RAM for use. All will automatically return to the SD card when you close the program. Also, Zlauncher will create a shortcut to the program that you can store in any category.

I have found that the space that ZLauncher takes up is made up several times over by the space that it can save you by moving programs and associated databases to the expansion card.

[poInt]

Cheers Palmguy, but I've found that it doesn't really move the databases. It seems to leave the databases in RAM and move the application back out to the card.

But ZLauncher still doesn't really achieve what I need. Because I have some databases which are about 10MB in size - and with that sort of thing I'd have to move almost everything out to the card just so I can use that one applicaiton occasionally.

What I'd rather is if that one application ran slower by swapping in chunks from the memory card - it's just too bad the developer hasn't made it properly VFS aware.

Anyone know of any other solutions?


Anybody got "memhack" lying around?

Cheers,
poInt

[poInt]

Well, just so people know, MemHack doesn't provide the functionality I was looking for either.

MemHack simply copies the entire database into RAM when an application is run, and then deletes it once you exit it. (It doesn't write it back because it is meant to be used with read only databases).

So I still can't find something that functions like MSMount.

Maybe migrate backwards?

poInt

[jkevinwolfe]

poInt,

I haven't seen anything for OS5. Palm's method of handling external memory is not ideal. If I'm not mistaken, every app must be yanked off the SD to run. If a DB is to be revised, it needs to be moved into RAM, changed and then send to SD to replace the file there.

More an more apps can now do this natively. Wordsmith, QuickWord and the freeware CRS Memo all have the ability to work with documents on the SD, move them to RAM and move them back when edited. Many things that require no editing, like eBooks can usually stay on the card. kReader is a tiny freeware app that can read Doc files right off the card. I think Palm Reader has card support too. Voice Memo also can store it's files on a card instead of RAM. And alomost every app can be launched from Ram, though many data files need to remain in ROM. Shortcutz will create an icon for SD apps that you can put in any category.

I think the best bet you've got right now is to evaluate each file and decide if it should remain in ram or could be moved to the SD. You might find you'll free up a lot more memory than you think you will.

Kevin