Pulling my hair out over a micro SD

Mon Mar 22 19:40:03 EDT 2010

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if fdisk fails and mkfs fails, it's probably a bad card.

Georgina Joyce wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Thanks, to you both.
> 
> The original fs was fat32 not ntfs.  All attempts in windows to format
> fail, hense reading forums and learning of the HP tool which also fails.
> 
> Micro SD's don't have a tab.  If it did I wouldn't be able to touch and
> delete a file.
> 
> On Mon, 2010-03-22 at 18:21 -0500, Glenn Ervin wrote:
>> Also, if you cannot delete anything, maybe the little tab on the card is 
>> switched to protect.
>> Glenn
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "JP Jamous" <JP at Jepelsy.com>
>> To: <r2gl at o2.co.uk>; "'Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.'" 
>> <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
>> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 5:43 PM
>> Subject: RE: Pulling my hair out over a micro SD
>>
>>
>> Jeni,
>>
>> Looks like Windows corrupted the NTFS. Although NTFS is better than FAT as
>> they say, It has major problems on the low level.
>>
>> Try to put the card in the same Windows machine. Use the same profile you
>> used when you tried copying the files in the first place. Then, try to do a
>> complete format on the card without  enabling compression.
>>
>> Right click on the drive letter and make sure under properties the security
>> tab has everyone in it. It is a Windows profile if you have XP Pro or any
>> other Windows greater than XP with an edition higher than home. Then, use
>> your phone or MP3 player to wipe the card.
>>
>> I hope those help. If not, feel free to e-mail me off the list if the
>> members do not want to cover Windows on here. At this point, it looks like a
>> file system problem, but it could also be the device itself. You have to
>> isolate the possibilities one by one.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca]
>> On Behalf Of Georgina Joyce
>> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 6:19 PM
>> To: speakup at braille.uwo.ca
>> Subject: Pulling my hair out over a micro SD
>>
>> Hi
>>
>>         I wondered if anyone could help?
>>
>>         I've purchased a 16Gb micro SD Sandisk card for a MP3 player.  I
>>         purchased one with a SD adapter because I don't have a micro HC
>>         compliant reader.  I put the card in the player and was able to copy
>>         files onto the card via Windows.  But I got tired of copying my oggs
>> so
>>         stopped after copying about 6Gig.  But what ever I do now I can't
>> add
>>         any more.  Furthermore, I can't destroy it either.  If I run fdisk
>> and
>>         press 'o' for a new partition table the linux machine sits there for
>> a
>>         minute or two and returns me to the prompt.  Then when I list
>> devices
>>         'fdisk -l' it's vanished.  I've been reading forums about Sandisk
>> cards
>>         and my head is spinning.
>>
>>         What logs or switches should I observe what is going on?
>>
>>         I found ufiformat a low level format tool but it refuses to identify
>> the
>>         SD as a floppy, obviously because it's not.  So is there another
>> tool I
>>         need?
>>
>>         BTW: There's a HP USB storage format tool that doesn't touch it
>> either
>>         on the Windows platform.  This is why I thought I've have better
>> luck on
>>         linux.
>>
>>         I've tried mkfs.vfat again it returns me to the prompt after several
>>         minutes having not touched the file system on the card.
>>
>> I could touch a test file and rm that file.  But If I attempt larger file
>> transfers the device craps out with read write errors and the device has
>> vanished.
>>
>>         As Micro SD's don't have a locking switch how on earth do I get this
>>         thing formatted and start again?
>>
>>         Something has had some effect as it's currupted something as the
>> mp3
>>         player just crashes when I attempt to use it with the card inserted.
>>
>>         I'm waiting for a new card reader but I don't think that's going to
>> make
>>         any difference because I've tried to get my phone to format it.
>> My
>>         Victor Stream too.  None of them can touch this card.
>>
>>         Well I have destroyed partition tables with dd before now but
>> wouldn't
>>         have a clue on whether this would help in this situation.
>>
>>         Any help would really be appreciated.
>>
>>         Yours frustrated.
>>         -- 
>>
>> --
>> Gena
>>
>>
>> four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
>>
>>     * The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
>>     * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your
>> needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
>>     * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor
>> (freedom 2).
>>     * The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements
>> to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access
>> to the source code is a precondition for this.
>>
>> Richard Matthew Stallman
>>
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