Database Info

Broken SD Card?

For the last 5 hours I have had hell with my sd card I redid my phone with JF new build and wiped out my 8gb class 6 a-data sd card but all of a sudeen it been acting weird
one thing is in paragon it shows the partitions still there (ext2) which takes up the whole card and should not, while windows shows its fat32, and i can access it in windows but it wont show up in in partition program nor delete
while when i mount it into the g1 (where it ask to mount or dont mount when plug it into pc) it instantly unmounts and i click mount again but just makes a noise and unmounts also saying its blank
now my 2gb chip seems to work fine (sometimes well if i unstall the drivers and let them re install then it works for a great amount of time), but this 8 gb,...well
what do you guys think? is it fixable? I can record video of it all (errors and stuff included) if u want
idk if its my chip, my phone or my pc can anyone help?

i think this has something to do with the way windows handles sd cards with no partition table. i assume you formatted the whole card to fat32 using a third party utility? that will totally confuse the system, because it cached a version of the partition table and now there's nowhere to find the new one. a quick solution is to use the build-in format tool to format your sdcard (right click on sdcard's icon and select format...). this should force the system to recalculate the size of the partition. then you have to unplug the card reader and plug it back in. now paragon should work.

billc.cn said:
i think this has something to do with the way windows handles sd cards with no partition table. i assume you formatted the whole card to fat32 using a third party utility? that will totally confuse the system, because it cached a version of the partition table and now there's nowhere to find the new one. a quick solution is to use the build-in format tool to format your sdcard (right click on sdcard's icon and select format...). this should force the system to recalculate the size of the partition. then you have to unplug the card reader and plug it back in. now paragon should work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after a long while, finally got windows to format the whole thing to fat32, but yet still acting weird

what kind of card reader are you using? certain card readers has their own controller and do not allow you to partition properly.
but i am sure mountd in android will allow you full access to the sdcard when it's mounted.
also how much total space do you have in that fat partition after format? a full 8gb sd should have approx. 7.45GB actually space. if your partition table is correct, windows should only format the fat partition and give you a size smaller than 7.45G.
I strongly suggest you try again under Linux using the phone as reader. any livecd with a partition manager will perform much better than windows.

Well i try it both on my phone and a mem card reader, but once I put it on my phone it does not detect a sd card (my 8gb im trying to fix) while detects my fat32 2 gb chip
on my laptop and pc cant format nor delete that ext2 8gb sd card
BUT that 8gb ext2 card im trying to fix loads perfeclty and can access it on ubuntu so im guessing its not physically broken

tanner2007 said:
but once I put it on my phone it does not detect a sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by "it", the GUI. How about doing an ls on /dev/block from the terminal on the phone to see what linux sees?
tanner2007 said:
on my laptop and pc cant format nor delete that ext2 8gb sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, what do you mean by delete the card? You can delete a partition, but not a card: I'm not sure makes sense.
tanner2007 said:
BUT that 8gb ext2 card im trying to fix loads perfeclty and can access it on ubuntu so im guessing its not physically broken
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You say ext2, but yet above you claim to have reformatted as FAT. What does your ubuntu machine think it is? One way to tell is to mount it and try to set permissions on a file, if you can, it is not FAT.
What is your objective, do you want a FAT partition, an EXT2 partition, both?

Well I got it working guys, I dont know what was happening as I said before different programs where detecting different file systems, but soon as I found out how to do it ubuntu I saw it was working and erased the whole card (all partitions and everything)
and now it works again thanks guys ur tips helped

Apps onto SD - problems ive had and things that have helped [for noobs]

Ok, so since I went from my nice name brand 4GB class4 to a patriot 4GB class6 I have had all kinds of issues trying to get my apps to my SD. When ever I tried to reformat the card through windows vista or win7 it would disconnect, and when trying to launch computer management it would freeze until the phone was disconnected. I would also connect it, right click to format, i would get the popup asking if Im sure I want to format the card, and then when you click format it would fail immediately and the phone would disconnect as external media. So nothing I could do could reformat the card even tho at the time there was a 3.5GB FAT32/.4GB ext2 so I stuck it in Ubuntu. Same weird issues trying to format with GPartition. So I tried Partition manager which would only allow me to delete all the partitions and create ext2 but whenever I would create a FAT32 it would fail at the last 90% of the job and the phone would disconnect form the comptuer, I could then reconnect it and complete the job. I tried this about 20 times after number reboots in Vista and Win7 to no avail. I tried every updated ROM with every type of Apps2sd conversion and nothing is working, everything keeps installing to the phone even after all the commands are successful in the terminal. Finally this morning I got to work and tried with XP and it formatted first try, and now I am midway through resetting everything up. My major issue is that once I install a new build it will work until I setup the apps on the sd card, once I do that I hang on the second slpash screen.
In short I dont know what is going on but I wanted to report my issues incase anyone else was having similar problems. It would seem XP is my savior but that seems really odd.

I have the same issue in Vista. If I need to format the card I just use a reader instead.

Symptoms:
- SD card not recognized by Windows Vista or Windows 7
- If SD card is detected if you right click > format, that operation will instantly fail and the SD card will become disconnected.
- Opening Admin Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management will hang until you disconnect the SD card
- SD comes up as unallocated and needing a format but any attempt to format it will fail
- After installing Apps2sd it hangs on second splash screen
- After installing Apps2sd it hangs on android logo
- Cyclic Redundancy Check error when copying files to SD
- Phone and computer both not recognizing the SD card
Attempted fixes:
- Installing JFv1.5
- Installing 1.5Hr3Apps2sd
- Installing Dudes Apps2sd
- Installing everything imaginable from radios to RC29 and re-rooting
Chain of events that worked:
- Installed JFv1.5 - get a fresh download, install and wipe. You can do this by using another SD card, putting your SD card in another computer, or using a combo of adb or fastboot. Depending on how I messed up my phone determined which of those ways I could do it.
- Format your whole SD card to FAT32 - Same as above, depending on your situation you may need to use a card reader or a computer with linux or Paragon partition manager. I had more issues in Vista and Win7 than XP just FYI incase thats an option to you.
- Split your partition into FAT32/Ext2 - Take your total card size formatted to FAT32, mine was 3.8GB and I wanted .4GB (400MB) so in the below coding where it says "size" I used 3400M, make sure you use a capital M, for more info on this topic click here. Then, with an internet connection open up your terminal emulator and type each line and then enter:
su
cd /data
wget http://64.105.21.209/bin/lib/droid/sdsplit
chmod 555 sdsplit
/data/sdsplit -fs size -nc
reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- NOTE - The above 2 steps can be skipped if done in Paragon Partition Manager (which I owe thanks for saving my SD card when the Disk Management in all versions of windows and Gpartition in ubuntu failed to see the card, but not PPM)
- Part 1 of 2 for setting up Apps2sd - First step is to download this file. Extract those 2 files onto the FAT32 (windows visible) partition of your SD card. Then open up your terminal emulator and type out each line and hit enter:
su
mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cp /sdcard/init.rc /data/
cp /runme.sh /data/
cp /sdcard/a2sd.sh /data/
reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- Part 2 of 2 for setting up Apps2sd - Once fully rebooted download this file and copy the AppstoSD2.apk to your SD card. With a file manager program (ASTRO for me) install AppstoSD2 off of your SD card. When it is done launch the program and select, Copy Apps to SD. Once that is done your phone will reboot. Once its back up and running choose the second option, Copy dalvik-cache to SD. Once that is done you will need to manually reboot.
- DONE!!! - Once I was done rebooting my phone now reports as having ~400MB of internal storage and it feels much snappier. I hope this guide helps someone.
Huge props to Stericson and MarcusMaximus for their help in fixing my phone. I suspect others may run into similar issues not knowing you need to split the sd card, then create those links with init.rc and a2sd.sh, and THEN install the appstosd program so maybe this will help someone else.

Update: Phone froze during a call, I pulled the battery, and it hung at the second splash screen, and the JF1.5 update.zip file on the SD card could not be found. I went and found my old reliable SanDisk 2GB, put the update on it from my computer, flashed, wiped, and once everything was good to go I tried to put the 4GB class 6 card I have been using but now the phone, linux, xp, vista, win7 all fail to recognize the card at all. I dont know what happened but my issues started when I got that card. I am taking the new Patriot 4GB class 6 card back to fry's and Im running my 4GB class 4 that I had before I upgraded. Everything is setup now and working fine so hopefully I just had a bad SD card.

I wouldnt use the phone to format your sd card. I had no issues formating on vista, winxp, win7 when using a sd card reader. I think it has something to do with the fact that you dont have direct access to the sd card when formating from the phone. I think Android just mounts the /sdcard partition and makes it writable through the usb. if that is the case then you dont have access to the partition tables on the card. Not a linux or android guru, just a theory.

1: Don't try to format the sd card using your computer when it's in your phone, if you need to format it, use a card reader.
2: ext2 isn't readable by Windows, so if your ext2 partition isn't showing up on the computer, that's normal.

i had haykuro adp 1.5 but flashed jf 1.5 to put apps on sd and its stuck on tmobile g1 screen.

Yes! The easiest way for me was throwing the card into my Ubuntu laptop and both the FAT and Ext2 partitions pop up on the desktop so you can backup or partition them easily.
And when my card crapped out last night and I put the class 4 back in I was not recognized on any computer but I could at least format it from the phone. From there Partition manager could see the drive and partition but the format was invalid. I then ran the SDSplit method and was able to get the partitions visible in Ubuntu (but not in Windows). From there I copied files (wallpaper, ringtones, etc.) to the SD card and rebooted and when it came back up Windows was able to see the files on the SD and now everything is setup again and good to go.

I have had 2 Patriot 4gb Class 6 cards that both have bad sectors within the first month...as well as randomly getting "bad_removal" from my phone with them. And then it finally losing the filesystem!
I am now using a Kingston 4GB Class 4 card and havent had any issues in 2 weeks.
Patriot isn't all that bad but I think these cards are duds.

Hi,
Just wanted to add:
I purchased a kingston 16 gb class 2 from ebay - working apps to sd no problems. I used it for 1 month.
Then I upgraded to an Adata 16 gb class 6 from newegg.com. Using it for 2 weeks now with no problems. Apps to sd and dalvik-cache to sd.
My firmware Haykuro 5.02H r4.
These 2 brands seem to be reliable.

I just ordered the A-Data 16GB cl6 card off newegg.com. When I get it I will see what happens and report back.

SD card stuck at searching for errors

Hey guys,
I need a lil help! Searched all over but couldnt find a solution. So I was trying to go back to stock. I formatted my SDcard via gparted to FAT32 and rebooted my phone into bootloader. Flashed an SBF with sbf_flash. Now when my phone starts up the SD card is stuck at Preparing SD card searching for errors. If I allow my screen to time out, it gets stuck and pressing the unlock button only gives me flashing lights for the buttons below. I remember some other people having this problem but for me I think it has specifically to do with the SD card because when I remove it and boot everything seems to be fine.
So I tried connecting the phone via USB to my computer. I set the screen to never time out to avoid the black screen and flashing lights thingy. Gparted does not recognize the SDcard, when I select mass storage. Strangely the disk utility in ubuntu recognizes that something is mounted /dev/sdb/ but cannot format or anything and it doesnt show the size of the directory.
In the phone options the card is not mounted so I cannot format via the phone. I dont own a carder reader and where I live itll be really hard to find one. I tried on a windows computer but that didnt recognize the phone at all.
One thing though, I rooted the phone and I can get into adb shell. In adb it shows me an /sdcard/ directory. I was wondering is there any way I can format my SD card using adb?
Thanks for all the help! Cheers!

Never mind, I fixed it. Seems like rooting and logging into adb shell did something to mount it in the phone. Thanks!

sohrab.naushad said:
I dont own a carder reader and where I live itll be really hard to find one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you could buy a card reader online...
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...13&_nkw=card+reader&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Hello guys. I am a first time rooter. I followed this root guide, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1016084 all worked and I have tried 3 different roms. The only thing that faile dto work was Gparted, it does not recognise my SD card. I only see my PC HD.
I have tried restarting it, using a different SD card but still the same issue. The whole point of me rooting my desire was so that I could free up space. Is there another simple program I can use to partition my SD?
Thanks
Ryan

I use MiniTool Partition Wizard to partition my SD cards. I like it better than GParted b/c you can format an EXT partition without any data loss on the FAT partition.

SD Card Issue

Big problem. I have a Lexar 32gb sd card and today it seems to have went corrupt.
I noticed it when my ring tone change from a song to default. if i put the sd card in my PC and try to read from it it says card needs to be formated. Please tell me there is a way to recover the info on the card??? when i put the sd in the phone it says preparing then says safe to remove sd card.
TIA
JC

Hopefully just a format is all you need. I lost a 32g USB drive recently, and fortunately Corsair has great warranty service.
Sent from my Bricked Energy Sensation.

My wife's sensation did the same thing, I had to take out the SD and put it into my SD card reader on my laptop, format it and then put it back in the phone. The phone then wanted to format it again which it did and now it seems fine.
By the way, the data was intact when I put it in my SDcard reader. I was able to back up the data before I formatted it.

He said he wanted to recover the files on the SD card, not how to get the **** thing working.
You might want to check if all of the connections are clean. If they're not, a format the ****-error is likely to happen. Pure alcohol might do the trick.
If it doesn't, you could search Google or the forums for terms like 'recover corrupted micro SD'.
Good luck!
Edit: Maybe this guide does the trick?

I've an other question. I made the mistake to format my SD card with CWM and now it's only a 4 GB card (it should be 8 GB). Does someone know how I can force format it to 8 GB (with Windows or Mac OS disk utility, I can't expand the size anymore, just reformat it) ?

you can use sdformatter, a great and simple tool for those types of things, or you can download easus partition manager, its free and pretty good software for drive management.

If you want to make a linux disc, such as Ubuntu, gparted is one of the best tools available for examining, repartitioning, flagging, and fixing disks. I believe you can just download gparted and boot it from a CD or flashdrive, but I think just downloading a linux distribution is easier.

Any idea how to format a corrupted sdcard?

I got a class 10 micro sdcard yesterday but when I tried to put music on it the write was like 2M/s. The computer froze in the process so I took the sdcard out before the process was finished. After I restarted my computer the computer wouldn't recognize the card anymore (no show in Computer). It wouldn't be recognized on my phone neither. It did show up on my friend's computer but if I clicked on the disk icon, it asked me to insert a card.....so I guess it might be corrupted because I got it out before the transfer was done.
So is there anyway to format the sdcard (micro sdcard)? I know there are many software that can format the sdcard but they won't work since the computer won't even detect the sdcard....

Wish I knew this as well. I have a corrupted 16GB Micro as well. Trying to format using SDFormatter tells me that it's in read-only mode or some nonsense like that.

Try this first:
http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/
Even though windows won't say anything when it's inserted, doesn't mean it wasn't detected, just means windows couldn't mount it. Insert the sdcard and theh download and run the program, selecting the proper drive to wipe.
If that doesn't work u both could try linux. Download any live distro, I recommend slax. Burn it to a CD and boot ur computer from it with the micro sdcard inserted via adapter.
Then use this command with variation to ur specific hardware setup
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/???# bs=1M

icenight89 said:
Try this first:
http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is an official tool by the SD Association https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/

You could try right clicking my comupter>manage>storage and look for your card and format it from there may work may not.

kishke said:
You could try right clicking my comupter>manage>storage and look for your card and format it from there may work may not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wont work, need a low level format
zefie said:
there is an official tool by the SD Association https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for this specific task, the fs is corrupt, I think my methods would be better

icenight89 said:
for this specific task, the fs is corrupt, I think my methods would be better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD Formatter has revived many of my cards, it will also re-partition them and format it to a single FAT32 (or FAT if its a small card) partition. All you need is the PC to see the device (such as the card reader) in device manager. Also, if you have a supported card reader (90% don't though) it can do low-level functions such as Flash NAND (of the SD Card) erase.
If it doesn't show up, I would agree to try the /dev/zero method under linux, followed by a SD Formatter wipe once the card is back to appearing in device manager.