[MDA II, XDA II, 2060 Windows Mobile 2005 Upgrading] sawyer_family:
Hi guys (and gals)

First, thanks to c_shekhar for the Himalaya WM5 roms. Top Job

I'm quite new to WM5 and it has taken a little while for me to work out

how the XDA memory usage has changed from older PocketPC versions.

I thought I'd share how I think it looks for others, like me, who are using WM5

for the first time, thanks to the great ROMS on this site.

I've probably got bits of this wrong. Feel free to correct me

1st we need to understand what memory is in an XDAII:

128MB RAM (non-volatile after soft reset | volatile after hard reset)

32MB Flash ROM - Integrated with CPU (non-volatile after soft or hard reset)

32MB Flash ROM - Disk On Chip (DOC) (non-volatile after soft or hard reset) *

* All or part of this will get formatted if you select YES on the FORMAT STORAGE option on hard reset on WM5

The 32MB DOC Flash Rom is divided into two 16MB partitions by default:

Half goes to extROM

Half goes to persistant storage

Pre WM5 the memory map looked like this:

PRE WM5 - MEMORY MAP

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

...................| Storage (Installed Program Files, My Docs etc

128MB RAM.| Programs (running apps)

...................| Pocket PC OS (i.e. running state)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

32MB Flash / CPU..| System ROM (i.e. where the ROM .nbf goes) (/Windows folder?)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

16MB Flash DOC.| extROM (hidden by default. Contains vendor specific apps / hard reset - system startup)

16MB Flash DOC.| Persistant Storage (/Storage folder on pre WM5)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pre WM5 pocketPC versions allowed you to dynamically select the amount

of (non-persistant) storage / Program space via the memory applet. Obviously

a hard reset would lose any programs installed into this RAM area of memory. Also the file system had a /Storage folder so you knew where to put impotant files that a hard reset wouldn't wipe out.

Things have all changed with WM5. Thus: (Based on c_shekhar 3.50a ROM)

WM5 - MEMORY MAP

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

...................| 37MB Programs (running apps)

...................| 40MB RAMDisk Storage (Non persistant storage /RAMdisk folder)

128MB RAM.| 24MB PagePool (PocketPC OS Cache ares (?))

...................| 27MB Pocket PC OS (i.e. running state)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

32MB Flash / CPU | System ROM (i.e. where the ROM .nbf goes) (/Windows folder?)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

16MB Flash DOC.| extROM (hidden by default. Contains vendor specific apps / hard reset - system startup)

16MB Flash DOC.| Persistant Storage (14MB Formatted space)**

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

** WM5 no longer has a /Storage folder. Now /My Document /Program Files etc

reside in this persistant area

Obviously one benefit to this re-arrangement is that a hard reset does not wipe

out your installed program, assuming you don't FORMAT STORAGE in the WM5 hard reset screen.

If you are using c_shekhar's ROM then the extROM area is not used. In fact its

probably is sitting there invisible to you with the old pre WM5 vendor apps wasting space. There are tools to make this 16MB partition visible and merge it into the existing 16MB DOC partition to give you 32MB of persistant storage.

Instructions >here<

To check how much storage space you have:

Start>>Settings>>System Tab>>Memory

Storage Total will be circa 14.60MB for standard Install

Storage Total will be circa 30.53MB for merged extROM modification

There are also ways to change the size of the PagePool and RAMdisk but they are not discussed here. Search for c_shekhar + PagePool + RAMdisk

I hope this has been helpful

Please post any corrections, or further useful info

Regards

S_F