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Thread: Use less space on your mem stick!

                  
   
  1. #1
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    Default Use less space on your mem stick!

    I know this has been mentioned obscurely in some of the threads, but I haven't found any threads specifically dedicated to this topic. I got a new Sandisk 1GB(much faster) to replace my old Sony 1GB. Whenever you buy a new mem stick, it comes pre-formatted with FAT12. It's a poor choice for large media, so let's upgrade to FAT32!

    WARNING! My mem stick would no longer run homebrew initially after I did this, but was corrected with the corrupt files hidden, no less.

    1. First, create a temporary folder on your desktop.

    2. Go to "My Computer" and then select your mem stick.

    3. Select everything on the root of your mem stick and press Ctrl-C (copy).

    4. Open the temporary folder on your desktop and press Ctrl-V (paste).

    5. Once the copy process is done, it's time to format your mem stick.

    6. In "My Computer", right-click your mem stick and select "format".

    7. Change "File System" to "FAT32". Do not put a check mark in any of the format options. Then click "Start".

    8. When it finishes, open the temporary folder on your desktop, select everything, and copy.

    9. Open your newly formatted mem stick and paste.

    10. Disconnect your PSP and check every app you've got to see if it loads properly. (none of mine worked except Universal Remote)

    11. If you have any that don't work, reconnect your PSP and go to the PSP/GAME folder. (This part sucks, so bear with me).

    12. For folders without a "%", right-click and choose "rename". Now move the cursor to the beginning of the folder name and count the letters and spaces until you get to the end of the folder name. Place the cursor at the end of the folder name and, using the spacebar, continue counting while adding spaces until you count to 31. Now, simply add a "_"(underscore) to the end.

    13. For the folders WITH a "%", if the folder is 6 characters or less, add "_~1%" to the end of the folder name. If over 6 characters, rename it using the first 6 characters of the non-"%" folder and then add "_~1%". This SHOULD fix a majority of the apps. If 1 or 2 similarly named folders refuse to run, try using "_~2%" or "_~3%"(see a trend?) Doing this fixed my problem with FlashMod and NesterJ.

    14. If all else fails, remove all the spaces from the non-"%" folder and rename the "%" folder the exact same name, but with the "%" added at the end. This method definitely works, but you wind up with "corrupt data" icons when browsing through your homebrew.

    And some info to convince you to do this if you're skeptical...

    RESULTS: FAT12 - 142MB Free
    FAT32 - 221MB Free

    These are my results when using a 1GB stick. Your results will, of course, vary. The thing to most consider is, "HOW MANY files do I have on my stick?" A large number of files(especially small ones) waste a lot of space on a FAT12 formatted stick.

    To get a rough idea of of how much space is wasted on your stick, go to "My Computer" and open your mem stick. Select everything, right-click any file or folder and choose "Properties". "Size" tells you exactly how much space is required by your files. "Size on Disk" tells you how much space the files take up, plus the space wasted due to the file system. Take "Size on Disk" and subtract the "Size" to find your wasted space.

    In the results section, you can see I regained 79MB just by switching to FAT32. Pretty nice, I'd say...


    Admins - sticky please!

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    Nice.

  3. #3
    PSP Flash Coder IndianCheese's Avatar
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    I wonder why homebrew "breaks" when you do this...it is really weird. I tried something like this and the same thing happened. It's not like it changed the names of any of your folders.
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    I wonder if it is to do with the way the the filesystem handles '%'?

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    i dunno if this has to do with anything, but i remember i had a 8 gig file on my 32 Mb stick called fireworks or soemthing. couldnt be deleted, had to format stick

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    DCEmu Pro YourStillWithMe's Avatar
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    Can you format the stick on your psp? Because in the system settings it is an option. Also, i have heard that formatting the stick reduces the space you have, not increases it. Please, if a few people with a 2GB stick or 1GB stick clarify that this works, that would be fantastic. Thanks!

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    Wait, wait, wait! I thought that you lost memory because of the different measurements of MB, not because of the formatting? Like, the maker of the memory stick sets one MB equal to 1,024 KB, but the manufacturer sets it equal to 1,000 KB, so you essentially "lose" those 24 KB per MB, but then that would just mean that, sure, you have more MB now, but they are smaller, right? Unless...I'm totally going in the wrong direction and don't have the slightest clue of what I'm talking about...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Festizzio
    Wait, wait, wait! I thought that you lost memory because of the different measurements of MB, not because of the formatting? Like, the maker of the memory stick sets one MB equal to 1,024 KB, but the manufacturer sets it equal to 1,000 KB, so you essentially "lose" those 24 KB per MB, but then that would just mean that, sure, you have more MB now, but they are smaller, right? Unless...I'm totally going in the wrong direction and don't have the slightest clue of what I'm talking about...
    That's a very keen observation Festizzio, but it's a little more complicated than that...

    - 1KB=1024Bytes
    - 1MB=1024KB
    - 1GB=1024MB
    - etc...

    When you work out all the math you see why a 1GB stick really only has about 950MB.

    Quote Originally Posted by YourStillWithMe
    Can you format the stick on your psp? Because in the system settings it is an option. Also, i have heard that formatting the stick reduces the space you have, not increases it. Please, if a few people with a 2GB stick or 1GB stick clarify that this works, that would be fantastic. Thanks!
    In order to explain this one I have to get technical, so please bear with me.

    All file systems (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, etc.) break up storage device space into "blocks". FAT12 uses 16KB blocks. (I think) Now, if a file is written to the storage device, it will take up a certain amount of blocks.

    Let's take a 35KB file for example - it will use 3 blocks,(48KB) wasting most of the third block.(13KB wasted!) When another file is written, it can't use the third block's wasted space; it is stored in fresh new ones!

    With FAT32, the blocks are 2KB in size.(don't worry about the small size, there are more of them to allow for the same disk space to be available)

    Here, a 35KB file uses 18 blocks;(36KB) only 1 KB is wasted.(much better)

    This is why I suggest using FAT32.

    And, oh yeah, "formatting" is basically synonymus with erasing, so it just causes you to lose all your save games, emus, apps, and such. Follow my guide closely to avoid this!

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    Oh, I get it now. I'll have to try this when I get my PSP back.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Festizzio
    Oh, I get it now. I'll have to try this when I get my PSP back.
    Err...

    Hope you've got a mem stick with more than 32MB.

    Just a few minutes ago I tried the FAT32 format with a friend's brand-new PSP... It didn't exactly work.

    He got a brand-new (2.50[ugh]) PSP w/32MB stick. It seems I forgot to mention an important piece of imformation...

    FAT32 REQUIRES a certain storage device size. (I think it's 256MB, but I'm probably wrong)...

    Anyway, Windows wouldn't allow me to format in FAT32 on a 32MB mem stick, but I remember something about a minimum storage device size. It allowed me to format in FAT16(just "FAT" in Windows) which is better than FAT12.(of course)

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