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SanDisk 128 GB Format for Speed?

JeffBusse

New Member
I purchased on of the SanDisk 128gb SDXC which claim 30 mb write speed.
I'm only getting around 15 in the Surface Pro 2. Is there a best way to format this to get better speeds at writing?
It's great for read and that's whats important as I put all my music and videos on it but it just takes a bit to transfer over.


Surface Pro 2 i5 8gb 256gb
Type Cover 2
incipio feather case
SanDisk Ultra 128GB
 

Jeffrey

Active Member
Welcome to the Forum. I believe the speed is limited to the speed the SD slot supports. The SP2 may not support 30mb.
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
exFAT will give you the best performance as you don't carry all the extra stuff from NTFS.
Please note that exFAT format may not work on other devices. Windows Vista and up, no problem.

You must remember that write speed mentioned on the package is the absolute best the chip can get to under absolute ideal conditions. Not an average and real word results.
 

be77solo

Active Member
SanDisk Ultra's are slow, you're getting about all it can do. I've got a 64gb and it writes the same as what you are seeing regardless of formatting I've tried.

By comparison, the Extreme Pro level cards are faster and get 50-70 writing like Benjitek mentioned... but they aren't available in 128gb yet and are usually about twice as expensive.

I have also had great luck with the Samsung Extreme cards for others curious, not quite as fast as the fastest SanDisk Extreme Pro but almost and totally stable and cheaper.
 
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Rvacha

Member
I can't speak for speed since I stopped using SD due to the high CPU issue, but I can say this - if your machine exhibits freezes/crashes I wouldn't touch anything other than NTFS, regardless of speed impact (if any). NTFS is the only format I have used/would ever use on an SP2
 
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J

JeffBusse

New Member
Thanks for the info here, I'll check into the high CPU but I don't think its effecting me. Battery life is good, fans rarely run except for after effects or premiere rendering.

Great forum here, and thanks again, I guess I'm waiting for an extreme version, but till then this seems to work. I'm using exfat, but may run tests then switch to ntfs and see if there's any difference.
 

benjitek

Active Member
...if your machine exhibits freezes/crashes I wouldn't touch anything other than NTFS, regardless of speed impact (if any). NTFS is the only format I have used/would ever use on an SP2
Maybe the freezes/crashes were a problem with the older 4200 CPU SP2's -- I've had my 4300 520GB SP2 for a couple months now and I've not experienced a single lockup -- had the exFat-formatted card inserted since day 1.
 

be77solo

Active Member
Maybe the freezes/crashes were a problem with the older 4200 CPU SP2's -- I've had my 4300 520GB SP2 for a couple months now and I've not experienced a single lockup -- had the exFat-formatted card inserted since day 1.

Nah, exFAT works just fine on all the Surfaces, from my old Pro 1 to my original Pro 2 with 4200 and a replacement with 4300.... all worked the same, 100% reliable.

Only issue with SD cards and the Surface Pro 2 (both 4200 & 4300 cpu's) is an annoying random 20-30% CPU usage problem with System/System Interrupts... almost impossible to notice unless you keep Task Manager open all the time, which I do until this problem is fixed.
 

MCube74

Member
So exFat is better for Surface Pro 2 then NTFS and Fat32?

I have a Samsung 64GB MicroSDXC UHS-1 card rated at 70mb/s read and 20mb/s write.

Just wondering which file system do I format my MicroSDXC card?
 
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