Saturday, October 2, 2010

Cruz Reader Howto: Upgrade the internal microSD memory.

First, we need to open the device, start left and right of where the SD/MMC slot is, use your fingernail (if stable enough) or a flat plastic tool, in order to start popping the back off:


Second, work your way all around the back, carefully lifting the part close to where you already haveopened it a little. You will hear are little popping noise, be careful not to go to fast, or you might break off one or more of the little plastic hooks on the inner side of the back cover.

Third, once you worked your way all around and you have increased the space between back and front frame carefully, listening for the popping sounds, you can take off the back.

Fourth, locate the small opening where the micro SD card sits. The card is held by a metal clamp that locks by sliding to one side, and opens by sliding it to the other side. Slide the metal clamp open, remove the 4GB card, and put the new faster, bigger card in (shown here with an old, slower, but larger 8GB class 2 card, buy 16GB or 8GB, but class 6...)

 
And here is the new card:


Finally, if someone is interested in the wifi card, this shows what is written on the sticker:



Replace the back, essentially by doing the reverse, push the back carefully on to the frame, it will pop again, work your way carefully around...

Good Luck!

6 comments:

  1. do you need to copy the entire contents on the old SD card to the new one?

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  2. This was extremely helpful in replacing the stock 2gb card in my reader to one with more capacity. Still doesn't help the sluggishness of the device but it helps to keep from getting the low disk space warnings. Thanks Cycologist!

    To Khanh, you may already have your answer but I upgraded the card and surprisingly I didnt need to copy the contents to the new card to get the device to boot. The apps are another issue as I am not sure that they would carry over when removing the internal storage. Hope this helps!

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  3. Judd,
    checkout the forum at slatedroid (xda may also have some) to install custom ROMs that will make the device faster and better in general. http://www.slatedroid.com/forum/156-vm-cruz-reader-firmware-development/

    JGM ROMs are some of the easiest to install and they have root access (no need to execute commands to get root) and has app2sd, so you have lots of space

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  4. This article was just what i needed. I wrecked the internal memory trying to set app2sd on the reader, and I was worried I would never get it back. I replaced the 4gb stock card with a 16gb I had. Now my r101 has 32gb combined (or 28bg usable) and running great.

    using JGM rom and it is working great.

    one thing i learned is to keep the apps on the light side, to keep the reader working great.

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  5. how do i save apps or anything to the internal sd card? everything i download goes to 256mb memory and i have music and movies on external sd card but i cant get anything on internal card

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  6. One word of warning...app2sd will slow down your apps a lot compared with internal ROM, unless the faster internal sd card is a lot faster than the stock one, it will be a snail on some apps.

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