Web User - UK (2019-08-07)

Discuss SD memorycardsatwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 7 - 20August 2019 51

click Start to format the card. Once

formatting is complete, right-click the

drive icon again, choose Properties and

click the ReadyBoost tab. Select the

option ‘Dedicate this device to

ReadyBoost’ to use the maximum

available space for speeding up your

PC, then click OK.

You may see a messag e saying ‘This

device can not be used for ReadyBoost’

because your computer is already fast

enough. Although you can overrid e this

by tweaking the Registry, it may prove

more trouble than it’s worth!

Downloadmaps to

browse offline

Saving photos, videos and music to an

SD card (whether micro or st andard

size) free s up valuablespace on your

phone, bu t it’s equally useful to

download maps to the card, so you can

browse them even when you lose your

internet connection. To do this in

Google Maps, first tap the thre e-line

menuicon in the top-left corner and

choose ‘Offline maps’. Pres s the settings

cog in the top-right corner, select

‘Storage preferences’ and choose the

‘SD card’ option. Search for the location

you want to explore offline, then press

the white taskbar at the bottom of th e

screen and choose Download. Swipe

and pinchwithin the blue rectangle to

select the desired area, then tap

Download. You can search the

downloadedmap and get directions

from one point to another, just asyou

would online.

Run aportable

operatingsystem

As we explai ned in our ‘Run anything

from a USB stick’ cover feat ure in Issue

477, you can instal l Linux on a USB stick

to boot a portable operating system

wherever you go. The sametrick applies

to SD memory cards, if they offer

enough capacity (at leas t 4GB is

recommended) and your PC has a

memory-card slot or USB card re ader.

Download or create an IS O file for the

Linux distro you want to instal l, run the

free tool Rufus (rufus.ie) and inse rt your

SD card. Select ‘Disk or ISO image’ in

the ‘Boot selection’ menu, click Select

and choose the ISO file (you may need

to search for ‘All files’ to find it). Ensure

that FAT32 is se lected in the ‘File

system’ menu and ‘Quick format’ is

ticked under ‘Show advanced formatting

options’. Click Start, then ‘Write in ISO

image mode’ and Rufus will format your

memory card and instal l the Linux distro.

Boost your PC’s memory

If your PC often struggles with

resource-heavy activities such as

gamingand video editing, you can use

an SD memory card for extra RAM,

thanksto a built-in Windows feat ure

called ReadyBoost. Insert the card in

the relevant slot on your computer, then

open Computer or This PC (depending

on which version of Windows you’re

using), right-click the card’s drive icon

and choose Format. Select NTFS from

the drop -down ‘File system’ menu, then

Don’t bin your old SD cards.Robert Irvine reveals

five clever ne w uses for the tiny removable media

Store portable programs

and apps

As with a USB stick, you can stor e

portable versions of your favourite

programs on a formatted SD card

by downloading the PortableApps.com

suite (portableapps.com). Instal l the

softwareon your card and choose from

hundreds of popular tools.

You can also save Windows apps from

the Microsoft Store directly to your SD

card. Open Settings from the Start

menu and choose System, Storage,

‘Changewhere new content is saved’.

Click the drop -down ‘New apps will save

to’ menu, select your SD card’s drive

and click Apply. To move apps you

already have instal led, go to Settings,

System, Apps, choose an app and click

the Move button.

Repurpose your

memory cards

AnSDcard is anessentia

requirement for setting u

the RaspberryPimini

computer. You need to

formatthe card onyour

desktop PCorlaptop,

then downloadand inst

the NOOBSsoftwarefrom

theRaspberryPiwebsite (bit.ly/

noobs 481 ). The latestmodel, the Pi

4,usesa Micro SDcard,soyou may

need aMicro SD-to-SDcard adapter,

ora Micro SD-to-USB adapter if your

PCdoesn’t havethe right slot. See

ourWeekendProject on page 58 for

full instructions.

RASPBERRY PI SETUP

al

up

r

tall

from

Use Rufus to install a bootable version of

Linuxon an SD card

Speedup your PC by using an SD card to

increase its memory

Save spaceby downloading Windows

appsto your memory card