MicroSDHC with Memory Stick Duo adapter: good idea?

[cloudropis]

I have a CFWed PSP and many people suggest using branded Memsticks like Sony and SanDisk since it's suggested to not rely on cheap brands.
What about a SanDisk micro SD with a Memstick adapter? Does anyone have experience with that? I don't wanna take the risk of using a not proper Memstick but those are very expensive and rarely go above 8 GB, while a micro with adapter goes as far as 32GB.

[[Unknown]]

I use one, works great. The micro SD cards I use are Transcend iirc. IMHO it's worth getting class-10 / UHS / etc., they're not much more and it's way better than class-4.

I've heard you can actually have 64GB and it works, but have not tried it.

-[Unknown]

[LunaMoo]

Apparently it can go even higher.

[[Unknown]]

Who wants to try a pair of SanDisk Ultra 128GB UHS-I cards? We must know if 256 GB is possible. It's for the sake of emulation accuracy.

-[Unknown]

[LunaMoo]

Joke detector off - I didn't notice this one before you asked. :X Wonder if someone tested higher, the limit as somebody commented there might be around 2TB.

[[Unknown]]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/12/613905...-the-world

I think that's the biggest commercially available, so the theoretical max is still 1tb right now. Definitely doubt it will support > 2tb.

Edit: oh wait, that isn't a micro SD card. I think we're still stuck at 128GB x 2 as I originally thought in the above post.

-[Unknown]

[cloudropis]

How do I check an SD's class? What class should it be?
Also, are SD and SDHC both good?

[LunaMoo]

As you can see here SD standards are based on size, on that last video I linked the largest standard was used without issues, so it shouldn't matter, from 2+ to 32gb, if that's what you're getting all micro SD cards are in SDHC standard so it's not really a case which is better^^.

On the same site here you can check how to recognize speed class and what exactly it is. I would say slow sd cards are painfully irritating:o, so as [Unknown] said, try to get something faster, it's worth the extra money.

[[Unknown]]

Class-10 means 10 MB/s which is pretty acceptable for the PSP. UHS-II can mean much faster.

The Extreme ones from SanDisk are "up to" 64 MB/s I think. I think Kingston has some that are "up to" 90MB/s, and are pretty cheap. So it's usually included in the product specs. Just make sure you definitely don't get worse than class-10 (e.g. lower than 10 MB/s.)

-[Unknown]

[cloudropis]

The one I was keeping an eye on is this:
[oh wow I cannot even link amazon in here? whatever]
the specs say "Class 4 (based on SD 2.00 Specification)"... So 4 mb/s? Way below class 10 then. I guess I'll continue to search.
How should I spread the budget? I've seen some people say they are not as safe as Memory Stick, but I don't get if that's because of the adapter or the microSD. I mean, should I go "good class 10 and above SD and cheap 3 bucks adapter" or "good class 10 and above, smaller SD AND a good adapter"? And why does it create problems anyway? That's what seems weird to me the most, they are just storage cards, unless you buy a chinese knock off it's hard to believe so many people say to just buy an official Memstick instead of a good brand of an SD.
Thanks for your help so far guys, this is pretty interesting, I really want to understand what's the best way to come through this since Memstick prices in my country are INSANE. I really should've had foresight and buy a bunch of them, especially infuriating since I've like 5 PS2 memory cards and only one PSP memory stick.

[[Unknown]]

Well, if you use two micro SD cards, you're basically doubling your chances of something going wrong. If either one breaks, you lose all the data on both. That said, the adapter is probably the weakest link, but they are all cheap. An expensive one is just a ripoff. I got one of the actual PhotoFast ones, and it's been fine.

This is a fast micro SD card at 16GB on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-m...008EODGDM/

Kingston is an okay brand. This one is only a bit more and a pretty good brand and warranty:
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Ad...00M55BX3G/

Dunno if the PSP or adapter will even be able to max that out. I only get 17 MB/s or so on mine iirc.

I think this is what I'm using now, I got it a while ago though when SanDisk was more expensive:
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MicroSDH...00CBD0XSI/

As far as the adapter, this is at least the right picture:
http://www.amazon.com/PhotoFast-MicroSDH...001B6EAOY/

You want one that actually says CR-5400 on it. Unfortunately, PhotoFast is not selling it directly on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_pc?ie=...ode=541966

See this page for more information to avoid knock-offs:
http://www.photofast.com/products.asp?pid=79

-[Unknown]

[cloudropis]

Thank you! So any one of the three SDs is good? Roger that.
About the adapter, are double slots the norm now? When they were first mentioned in this thread I thought they were for enthusiasts and pretty much everyone went for singles, but I guess I should just get one this way?
The one in the first link from amazon DOES say CR-5400 on it, why isn't that one good? Also is PhotoFast the only company that produces adapters?
Reading the last link, I saw:
Don`t take out the microSD or microSDHC card(s) and perform direct white operations from PC to single card(s).
If you do YOUR DATA WILL BE CORRUPT.
REUSING YOUR microSD or microSDHC CARDS FOR OTHER DEVICES THEN CR-5400
WTF does this mean? That I can't just put one of the two microSDs into an SD adapter to the PC otherwise it corrupts? That's... Weird. Dumb question, but I guess linking straight from the PSP to PC through the XMB USB Mode is okay, right?

[[Unknown]]

The PhotoFast CR-5400 is dual slot. I don't know if there are single-slot ones, and don't know about their quality.

Note that most micro SD cards will come with an SD card case (e.g. non-micro.) This is a single micro SD card reader for devices that can't handle the tiny micro SD cards, such as PC card readers. This isn't compatible with the PSP's Memory Stick PRO Duo slot.

Other companies produce knock-offs but I don't know their quality. I don't think there are any other "brand name" adapters. I think the link I gave on Amazon is the right product, it's just not from a seller that seems recognized.

So, when you use two micro SD cards, it's essentially pretending they are one big one. The important thing is that computers store information in areas of the card. Here's a brief example:

+-------------------+
Filenames
Folders
+-------------------+
Games
Videos
Savedata
+-------------------+

If you split up the two cards, you might end up with all the filenames, but none of the data. Or, the data, but none of the folders. That's a simplified explanation, but the result is that separating the two cards (or even putting them into the reader in the reverse order) will mean certain death for the data.

Best to just consider the adapter a "single card" and pretend the micro sd cards don't come out.

Linking from XMB to USB mode works great and is what I do.

-[Unknown]

[cloudropis]

Thanks for the indepth explanation
Wow, all this time I didn't know the adapter "merged" the two SDs into one. But I guess it makes sense, I doubt the PSP firmware is programmed to recognize two data storage units at the same time since you can't supposedly put two memory sticks at the same time.
Just to be safe I can't even switch the SDs in the 2 slots? Seems dangerous. But does that mean that I can't use the adapter with only one SD? Or if I can just use one for now, wouldn't filling the second slot with another SD after a while corrupt everything since this whole system seems to be pretty fragile? Same thing, if I buy 2 ASAP and start using them at the same time, removing one would screw everything up?

[[Unknown]]

You can just put one card in, it should work fine that way too. I assume that if you insert a second card later, you'll have to reformat the whole thing and start over from empty.

Basically, as long as you're okay with all your data going down the tubes, you can do whatever you want. It won't stop working, you'll just have to reformat and start over with an empty memory stick.

If you want to keep your data, don't do any of the following to be safe:
* Go from one micro SD to two micro SD cards.
* Go from two micro SD cards to only one.
* Swap any micro SD card for a different one.
* Put any micro SD card into a different slot than it started in.

If you want to keep the data on it, here's the list of things I would limit myself to:
* Leave it be, close your eyes, and pretend it's a memory stick pro duo card with no removable components whatsoever.
* Pull the micro SD cards out and put them back in EXACTLY as they were to make sure they're snug (and you'll probably never do this.)

And yes, it will show up on the PSP as just one big memory stick pro duo card. You can see this in the video LunaMoo linked to.

-[Unknown]