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Can Vista x64 recognize Micro SD with multiple Partitions

I would appreciate help with creating multiple partitions on my micro sd card. over the past few days I sat for hours reading all about it but still have some trouble. OK, so I know that windows won't allow you to create multiple partitions on removable media. Therefore I created 2 fat32 partitions using Gparted. So far all was well, and my phone recognized it as 2 storage cards. The problem is Windows Vista (or XP and 7) still won't recognize more than 1 partition.
Now if you search around on the internet you will find people referring to the Hitachi MicroDrive Driver which can be hacked to make an SD card (or USB flash drive) appear to windows as a local disc, making it possible to create multiple partitions on your card. That's when Vista x64 gets in the way since the driver isn't x64 compatible. So far I still have not found a solution, and would appreciate it if anyone knows how to do this on a x64 system (including assigning drive letters to each partition). Just to make it clear, using WM5 Storage and USB to PC didn't help either.
Thanks

BIG problem.
i know this is an old post, but did you ever find a solution for it? im having the same problem. my scenario...
using an HTC HD2, i've installed wp7 to the phones memory. wp7 by default re-formats any micro sd card so that it can only be used fully by wp7. there was a work around here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=945565&highlight=micro
and i was able to dual boot wp7 and then an android build from the micro sd card. here's the BIG PROBLEM... both wp7 AND my sd android build WILL NOT see anything else on the micro sd storage card.
furthermore, any attempt to format that card in windows is met with the message of windows will only recognize one partition on a removable data (something like that).
now here's the real kicker... in linux, all partitions are recognized. i have do have 3 partitions on my micro sd card now, 1 for wp7, 1 for my sd android, and 1 that im hoping to find a way for at least one of these builds to read. the idea is to have that final open partition for storage of music, pictures, and video files to share between the 2 systems. i'll be happy if just one of these systems can read it though
im not sure where to post, or really what to do. however, i saw your post and it was the closest thing i've found to anyone else having a similar problem. if anyone can point me in the right direction i'd appreciate it.

best program is EASEUS Partition Master 6.5.2 Home Edition.

Can someone please explain the SD Card issue to me....

What exactly is the problem? Im thinking of getting the focus and I keep hearing these SD card issues but what "exactly" is the problem? I understand that once you put it in, your SD card is done, and that if you want to remove it you have to wipe everything, I understand all that, but what are the problems that arise? I have a 16gb micro sd that I have used on all my devices no problem, do files get corrupted or something? Does it just not read it?

There aren't any problems in that sense. The only real "problem" is that not all MicroSD cards work with WP7. In addition, hot-swapping isn't supported, because in effect, the MicroSD's memory is added to the internal memory, and the system then doesn't differentiate between storing on the sd card and that that's built into the phone, and thus stuff is spread all over all of them.
There aren't any "problems" as such that I know of though.
On an ending note - WP7 is awesome ^__^ Honestly the best user experience I've ever had with a phone (esp. having come from Android >.<) ^__^

loading a microSD card will turn it into a secure card. once this happens no other device will even read it (except a nokia n8) making it extremely difficult to format if it doesn't work nicely with windows phone 7. That is the main issue. rest already mentioned.

GenkaiMade gave his version which is correct but I thought I would explain it my way.
Take your average memory card and device. What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
1) You should be able to get any MicroSD card on the market and be able to put it into your phone with it working.
2) You should be able to remove the memory card from the device and put it in a different device (such as another phone or PC) and have it still work like normally.
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.
1) Many of the higher rated MicroSD card flat-out don't work on WP7. This is because of the method WP7 uses to read/write to memory card. You can find more specific details on why this is but I will just keep it simple. There are many user-created lists which list which MicroSD cards do work with WP7.
2) You can NOT hot-swap your memory card once it is inserted into phone. Why? SD stands for Secure Digital which means there is a security aspect capable on the card. Microsoft takes advantage of this in WP7. Once you put your new card in your phone automatically reformats and locks it down. If you then take out the card and place it in another phone or a PC it will not be recognized, almost as if it is invisible. And the worst part, there is nothing* you can do about it. Once you pair a memory card and WP7 phone they are joined for life.
Why does this suck? If you buy a 8GB card now you simply can't upgrade to a 16/32Gb one down the road without losing all of your data and having a useless MicroSD card. The old card would become a better Frisbee than data storage device. This is why most WP7 phones don't let the users have access to the memory card. Microsoft knew this would happen and thus pushed manufacturers to not have the card easily accessible. There is even much talk that the memory card in the Samsung Focus was meant to be glued to the phone to prevent swapping but somewhere along the line that idea was scrapped.
* Note: Technically there is ONE thing you can do. If you own or have access to a Nokia N8 phone it can read the locked down MicroSD card and reformat to something any device can recognize. Essentially undo the problem. But how many people have easy access to one? The answer, almost nobody.

Quicksilver4648 said:
GenkaiMade gave his version which is correct but I thought I would explain it my way.
Take your average memory card and device. What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
1) You should be able to get any MicroSD card on the market and be able to put it into your phone with it working.
2) You should be able to remove the memory card from the device and put it in a different device (such as another phone or PC) and have it still work like normally.
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.1) Many of the higher rated MicroSD card flat-out don't work on WP7. This is because of the method WP7 uses to read/write to memory card. You can find more specific details on why this is but I will just keep it simple. There are many user-created lists which list which MicroSD cards do work with WP7.
2) You can NOT hot-swap your memory card once it is inserted into phone. Why? SD stands for Secure Digital which means there is a security aspect capable on the card. Microsoft takes advantage of this in WP7. Once you put your new card in your phone automatically reformats and locks it down. If you then take out the card and place it in another phone or a PC it will not be recognized, almost as if it is invisible. And the worst part, there is nothing* you can do about it. Once you pair a memory card and WP7 phone they are joined for life.
Why does this suck? If you buy a 8GB card now you simply can't upgrade to a 16/32Gb one down the road without losing all of your data and having a useless MicroSD card. The old card would become a better Frisbee than data storage device. This is why most WP7 phones don't let the users have access to the memory card. Microsoft knew this would happen and thus pushed manufacturers to not have the card easily accessible. There is even much talk that the memory card in the Samsung Focus was meant to be glued to the phone to prevent swapping but somewhere along the line that idea was scrapped.
* Note: Technically there is ONE thing you can do. If you own or have access to a Nokia N8 phone it can read the locked down MicroSD card and reformat to something any device can recognize. Essentially undo the problem. But how many people have easy access to one? The answer, almost nobody.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're wrong. It has nothing to do with what you said. Lol @ breaking rules. They aren't breaking anything...
SD Card DRM is in the spec, it is only given to people who license it. That's what WP7 uses. It's locks down the storage system with a DRM key and that's why other devices (barring Nokias) can't see it - most SD Card clients don't support SD Card DRM.
Nokia (Symbian, and maybe Maemo, but I'm unsure on that) is the only other mobile OS that supports it, and that's why it can reformat the card (but cannot read any data on it, of course, since it doesn't have the decryption key). When you power on the phone, the WP7 pre-boot environment unlocks the card via a key on the device the same way you unlock an encrypted system drive on a PC. If a device cannot supply this key, they cannot mount the card.
If you swap the card, you have to hard reset the device because the storage is spanned and the decryption key on the device no longer corresponds to the SD card in the device (but due to spanned storage the device would malfunction even if it were to boot up). The new card is encrypted and added to the pool on a hard reset, and the [new] key is put on the device so that it can be mounted when the device is powered on.
It's pretty damn simple, and has been written in plain English in many threads; yet people still FAIL to understand it.
Have you ever thought there must be a reason why they call them SECURE Digital Cards? Or did you think Secure = taking it out one device and just plugging it into the other and taking the data off of it?
The Storage in WP7 was never meant to be swappable. Microsoft has always said it would not be. It's your own business if you want to play around swapping cards like Russian Roulette.
As far as which work with WP7. It requires higher Random I/O speeds than most SD Cards provide, and that doesn't correspond to Class Type. Also, a card can work fine for sometimes weeks at a time and then start to fail, so replacing it yourself is at your own risk.
And most manufacturers and carriers will void you warranty if you mess with the SD Card.

In that respect using memory cards is nonsense on WP7.
If you cannot do what you want with this, what was a rule and still is a rule on the market today,
they should just build devices with inbuilt memory like iPhone and don't talk about memory cards anymore. That would be simple.
Current situation is a mess.

So what cards are compatible now? I Googled it and the first response was 'San Disk Pulls WP7 compatible memory cards' and I figured that wasn't a good sign.

williammel said:
So what cards are compatible now? I Googled it and the first response was 'San Disk Pulls WP7 compatible memory cards' and I figured that wasn't a good sign.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they only pulled it because MS wants to do official testing and release an official list.
refer to this webpage for more info: http://mobilitydigest.com/the-sd-cards-that-dodont-work-with-windows-phone/

Here it is in KB form from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2450831

N8ter said:
You're wrong. It has nothing to do with what you said. Lol @ breaking rules. They aren't breaking anything...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was a figure of speech. I know Microsoft didn't break any real "rules". This is what I posted:
Quicksilver4648 said:
...
What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
...
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I said "rules" I implied "expectations". Microsoft did nothing wrong, outside of communicating with the end users, with how WP7 manages MicroSD cards.
And I clearly know why certain MicroSD cards will or wont work. I just didn't feel like explaining it because it would take a lot of time.

It's time to start expecting people to use these technologies in a secure manner.
The media industry does not support platforms that leave them open to be attacked by software pirates.
Information is power, and no one likes their info stolen.
There are many reasons.
iOS phones encrypt their storate. And the reason why they don't support external storage cards is probably the same reason why Microsoft uses the SD-DRM and encrypts the WP7 storage.
I don't know how Symbian handles its storage, but I'm pretty sure that OS at least supports Encrypting the file system on SD cards. It supports pretty much everything ele.

Right, let me give my own perspective on this.
Until recently I was a WM6 user. I regularly upgraded my phone, and the last one was an HD2. WM phones never came with any real amount of storage, just a piffling amount of internal memory (what, 500MB?). I was therefore faced with the added cost and hassle of having to purchase a memory card and insert it into the phone. This was a bit like buying a PC without a hard disk and having to buy and install your own. It was an added hassle and expense.
Once you had your SD card inserted, you were then faced with the decision of where to store the data for each of your apps. Take email - do you store all your emails and attachments on the internal memory, thus using up a good chunk of that precious resource, but having it work quickly, or do you store it all on the SD card, where there's a lot more room but it's slow and clunky, and if anyone steals your phone they can pop the card out and get at the data? When you install apps, you're again given the choice of where to install it. Do you go for the speed of internal storage? Do you put it on the SD card, knowing if you ever pop out the card, your app will be unavailable? Decisions, decisions.... Too much damned complexity. The average user shouldn't be faced with these choices, if I install an app, it should just go on the phone wherever, period.
Not only that, once my card was in there, I never once removed it. The majority of my apps were on it, my emails, and all my media. I totally filled it with media. Popping out that card would more or less break my phone. My apps wouldn't work, my emails would be missing......so I never did. Nor did I ever use it as a mass storage drive....because there was never any free space on it. Instead I had a 32GB USB memory key hanging from my keychain - that was my portable mass storage solution.
Not only this, if I wanted to put media onto the card, I had to connect to the PC and drag and drop my stuff directly onto the phone. What a hassle! Doing this didn't optimize the size of the photos for the phone's screen. It didn't drop the bitrate of my mp3s, it didn't convert videos to the right size and format. All that had to be done manually, and I never bothered, so my media took up a lot more room than it had to. So inefficient.
So, given that I never removed the card, and that doing so would hose my phone, and that it was always full, so never got used as mass storage, and that it was insecure, and an added expense and hassle, and putting media on the card was a manual process, what would I have done in a next generation phone to cure all these issues?
Well, I would have made sure the phone came with plenty of onboard memory, and I would have removed the distinction between internal memory and the "card" so it was all one storage container. I would have secured the memory so even if it could be removed, the data couldn't be read in another device. I would have made sure the memory was fast enough to deal properly with a modern OS. I would automate the process of converting and downsizing media by using software on the PC to automatically perform those tasks. I'd also make the process wireless and fully automatic. I'd.......oh wait, that's what Microsoft already did in WP7.
So I'm happy, even if you lot ain't.

I just got 2 Focus's for the Wife and I. Using the SD card sticky in the Focus forum here as a general help, I purchased a PNY 8Gb C4 for the Wifes, and a Patriot 16Gb C2 for mine (Frys, and the Patroit was the last one in the store from the Display! No one buys C2 anymore).
The back overlay on both devices mentions memory cards, and quick startup quide shows you how to install them and what happens if you remove them.
I put the Cards in last night (phones just arrived yesterday), formatted (hold the Power/Camera/Vol Down at the same time, answer questions) and in a few seconds each system was formated. Both are working fine right now.
Right now though doesn't mean much, many in the SD thread are having issues after several weeks, though it seems it more prevalent with the 32Gb cards. YMMV...

What I find goofy about the whole thing is that it has been stated that 7 needs random read/write, which is not measured by class rating, and can vary even within the same type of card, but very few people have posted numbers showing that they tested their cards at all before gleefully sacrificing them to the hungry maw of the Focus. Seriously guys, do more testing and post more numbers before rendering your cards unreadable to a PC. It'll help us all to better understand what works and what doesn't.

This bites.. I always knew that the card inside the wp7 was secured, but I always had faith in the power of this forum. Especially in recovery situations. Now I have lost a lot of irreplaceable data, like dozens of pictures of my young child. It seems I had a little too much faith.
Thank you for this information. it was very helpful. I have already moved away from Windows phones to android, and am going to start using nandroid. Hopefully this won't happen again.

Formatting the SDCard from a 7 Trophy

How can I format the SD Card from my old 7 Trophy. Because the damn thing is damaged beyond repair I butchered the thing and want to use the sdcard in my android phone. Can someone explain how I can format the card?
In my pc the card isn't recognized even in the maintenance tools there is nothing.

Use a Symbian device to format the card
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

You need a partioning program. Don't remember the exact name if the program but you can search the hd2 wp7 forum and look for the thread on dual booting android. The programs in there will work.
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express

reeg420 said:
You need a partioning program. Don't remember the exact name if the program but you can search the hd2 wp7 forum and look for the thread on dual booting android. The programs in there will work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Partitioning won't work. (The way an HD2 running WP7 uses the SD card is different from how a native WP7 uses the SD card, so the experience on an HD2 does not inform the experience on a native WP7 device.)
Using a Symbian phone is still the only known way at this point.

Symbian is Nokia? I have a E65 but in this it says the card is damaged or something like that (its in german).
Even diskmgmt.msc shows only an empty line without any partitions.

Drake008 said:
How can I format the SD Card from my old 7 Trophy. Because the damn thing is damaged beyond repair I butchered the thing and want to use the sdcard in my android phone. Can someone explain how I can format the card?
In my pc the card isn't recognized even in the maintenance tools there is nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same situation and did a pretty thorough research, so here's what I found:
WP7 uses the hardware encryption functionality of SD cards. That's why the memory is not even recognized by Windows, no matter what app you use for that matters. Nokia' Symbian smartphones also implement this functionality so they are able to format the card (but not read its contents since they are password protected)
Don't get misled by people claiming that they have successfully low-level formatted their cards with Panasonic's Sd format app. Those are likely to be users of HD2 devices so those cards didn't come out of an actual WP7 device.
Bottom line: You need a Symbian Nokia Smartphone to format the card. Search this forum for the precise instruction that you need to follow on the Nokia device to be able to format the card.
Some has reported some other devices being able to format the cards, such as photo cameras, but again it's very likely that those cards did not come out of a real WP7 device.
The dilemma is that an 8 gb micro sdhc card may not worth the effort of finding somebody with a Nokia device.

octaedro7 said:
Bottom line: You need a Symbian Nokia Smartphone to format the card. Search this forum for the precise instruction that you need to follow on the Nokia device to be able to format the card.
Some has reported some other devices being able to format the cards, such as photo cameras, but again it's very likely that those cards did not come out of a real WP7 device.
The dilemma is that an 8 gb micro sdhc card may not worth the effort of finding somebody with a Nokia device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a dumb question isn't it the problem that the system the card goes in supports the hardware encryption functionality of SD cards? Wouldnt any older device that didn't support hardware encryption work ? Say a old Moto phone with SD support?
I'm tempted to upgrade mine to 32gb from 16gb just to try this to see if one of the dozen + devices that support SD(with a MicroSD adapter) or MicroSD that I have will do it. Crap, even my Wii has a SD slot.
Maybe this is this wrong disucsion for this but, I am really wondering what is blocking it. If a device does not support hardware encryption, it should just show the drive as a invalid file system and be able to format it.

is this correct, that wp7 can't format and setup a microsd card for itts own use ?

ohgood said:
is this correct, that wp7 can't format and setup a microsd card for itts own use ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
of course it can... oy vey.
Sent from my Focus using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Well I have a Nokia device but the card wont allow tro format itself either in that phone. So what can I do to use th e8gb card from the WP7 in my android now.
that I wont buy a new one for a fortune of around 12 Euro is completly clear. Isn't there a program for reprogramming the sdcard from sandisk anywhere. You that kind of program which is only available in the factory of sandisk etc. to kill that damn card and recreate it.

ohgood said:
is this correct, that wp7 can't format and setup a microsd card for itts own use ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, a WP7 can format it's own memory card, there's no issue there.
The problem starts when you want to reuse the card, hence format it again without the encryption layer.
Drake008 said:
Well I have a Nokia device but the card wont allow tro format itself either in that phone. So what can I do to use th e8gb card from the WP7 in my android now.
that I wont buy a new one for a fortune of around 12 Euro is completly clear. Isn't there a program for reprogramming the sdcard from sandisk anywhere. You that kind of program which is only available in the factory of sandisk etc. to kill that damn card and recreate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, the encryption we are dealing with is done through hardware, meaning that a WP7 phone has a hardware component in charge of the encryption, so do certain symbian Nokia phones (you can search and find which ones, the Nx line on top of my head). Not every nokia phone with a microsd slot will do the trick.
Bottom line you need a device hardware-capable of dealing with this encryption in order to be able to re-format a WP7 card but this time without any encryption.

WP7 lock cards via internal SD2.0 protection feature (CMD42). It's done inside SD card.
So after removing card from WP7 phone, you need find device which can detect that card is locked and which can apply force erase to it.
Unfortunately, most device can't handle this feature.
WP7 on LEO is using unlocked card to allow use Android / other OS together with WP7.

Thanks ! It has help me a lot

Hi, I also got your problem and just got my answer by trial and error.
Format won't help since it won't unlock your sd card and won't delete the internal protection. You need to do the following:
1. start linux (install ubuntu besides windows or something)
2. put card in computer
3. unmount sd card with "umount"
4. format sd card with "mke2fs /location-of-sd-card/"
5. go to windows and format as fat32 or just put it in your phone.
6. thank me
Windows or your phone will say it's broken or something and will repair.
The mango security is no more and your sd card is revived.

SD Card Formatting After Mango Update

I just upgraded the SD Card in my Venue Pro to 32GB, and was wondering if I Could format my 16GB Sandisk that was in it before Mango upgrade.
I followed each step but was unable to proceed. Please any help would be appreciated. Or please point me to a Thread I can follow.
Thanks

This probably belongs in the Q&A forum, since it's not at all development related, but...
WP7 MicroSD cards use a security feature (the "S" in "SD") to lock the card to the phone, so its data can't be read by anything else. However, this process also means that the majority of SD card readers can't access the card at all, even to format it. You need a tool that can remove the security mode. I've heard such tools exist for Linux and Windows, or if you have a Symbian-based device they can supposedly do it too.

GoodDayToDie said:
This probably belongs in the Q&A forum, since it's not at all development related, but...
WP7 MicroSD cards use a security feature (the "S" in "SD") to lock the card to the phone, so its data can't be read by anything else. However, this process also means that the majority of SD card readers can't access the card at all, even to format it. You need a tool that can remove the security mode. I've heard such tools exist for Linux and Windows, or if you have a Symbian-based device they can supposedly do it too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about posting it in the wrong place. I appreciate the tips. I have tried all of the suggestions on the forums except for the Nokia phone as I do not have one. But I will keep it around anyway, just incase in the future someone comes up with something. This is really a sad thing. U paid good money for this card.

Yeah, the whole experience with microSD cards in WP7 is pretty lame. They weren't supposed to be user-accessible, so apparently MS put no effort into making the experience of changing them pleasant. That's really too bad, because all the first gen devices (except a gen1.5 DVP) ship with really crappy capacity. The fact that it is technically epandable is going to override the difficulty of doing so for a lot of people when the retail size is so small.

Sad
Still have no means of formatting the card. Really wanted to use this with my Camera. :-(.
Hope someone comes up with a way or refer to some Linux Distro that allow for it to be formatted.

Hi, I also got your problem and just got my answer by trial and error.
1. start linux
2. put card in computer
3. unmount sd card with "umount"
4. format sd card with "mke2fs /location-of-sd-card/"
5. go to windows and format as fat32 or just put it in your phone.
Windows or your phone will say it's broken or something and will repair.
The mango security is no more and your sd card is revived.

[TIP] Cloning Your Micro SD Card

I recently bought a new and faster Micro SD card for my Epic 4G. I tried to copy the files on my old Micro SD card over through my Windows computer; however Windows Explorer failed. I have a number of applications installed on my SD and Windows was just not happy with .gz format files, etc.
A number of back up and cloning utilities were suggested at various forums; the one that I found be the best, in terms of small footprint and ease of use, is the HDD Raw Copy tool from HDD Guru. It is free, so small and light that you can run it as a portable app, easy to use and did I mention free?
You can find the app on the HDD Guru website. (Forum rules prevent my including the link in this post.)
It is going to be part of my tool kit from here on out. I hope this helps someone.
Here you can download a free copy

Thanks for the post! Was looking for a solution to this, tried copying in OSX, Windows, TeraCopy no luck so far... Your solution looks promising!

This program will only work for two SD cards that are the same size. I tried to clone my 8Gb SD4 card to my new 16Gb SD10 card and it did exactly that: it turned the 16Gb into a 8Gb SD card.

That's because it directly copies the partitions. You need to resize them afterwards. I used minitool partition wizard (can't post links, google it), which did the trick nicely. For moving the contents of my 2GB SD card over to a 16GB one, the procedure was pretty straightforward: write contents to an image using HDDRawCopy, use the same tool to write the image to the new card, and then resize using the partition wizard.

noouch said:
That's because it directly copies the partitions. You need to resize them afterwards. I used minitool partition wizard (can't post links, google it), which did the trick nicely. For moving the contents of my 2GB SD card over to a 16GB one, the procedure was pretty straightforward: write contents to an image using HDDRawCopy, use the same tool to write the image to the new card, and then resize using the partition wizard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Minitool Partition would make my laptop go bonkers , making it run in emergency grub command prompt with no help
This was sent from a Galaxy Ace. Problem?

thanks for this.. im bizarrely going a backward route.. from a 32gb class 4 card, to a 16gb class 10 card.. (work that one out)
Which involves the fun of reducing the partitions on the 32gb first, and then raw copying :S

BhNeP said:
This program will only work for two SD cards that are the same size. I tried to clone my 8Gb SD4 card to my new 16Gb SD10 card and it did exactly that: it turned the 16Gb into a 8Gb SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a good example of someone who would like to help, but only gives a half solution, thus misleading the inexperienced user.

Mazarin07 said:
This is a good example of someone who would like to help, but only gives a half solution, thus misleading the inexperienced user.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heaven helps those who help themselves.
It's a nice tip. Everyone interested should read the all thread (1 page!). 4th post.

Alternative
Using ADB, has in my experience, always! been the best and most secure way to pull/push from and to my LT18i.
It's simple, light and secure.
get sdk-tools and extract it to your ROOT drive on Windows (EG. C:/)
(Im not experienced enough on this forum to post outside links, so use google and search for Android SDK.)
In your sdk-tools folder,now make a folder called:
sdcard_{today's date}
Example - sdcard_08042013
Plug in your phone, leave it on Charge only.
Now -
Step 1 - get a DOS window (Start - Run - cmd)
Step 2 - in that window enter (use copy/paste): cd c:\sdk-tools
Step 3 - in that window enter (use copy/paste): adb devices
(that ensures that adb is running, and your device is connected)
Step 4 - if using ICS, in that window enter: adb pull /mnt/sdcard sdcard_{date}
If using JellyBean enter: adb pull /storage/sdcard0 sdcard_{date}
Wait....done!
And when you are ready to push the backup to your phone again:
adb push sdcard_{date} /mnt/sdcard
Just for the record, if you break your phone or sdcard doing this, I hold no responsibillity. You do this, it is your doing.
I am not an expert in ADB nor android phones in generel. This information is something i've picked up along the way.
This is an ALTERNATIVE, and not to be mistaken for the ONLY CORRECT way.
There are plenty of other options to achieve the same goal, this is just one of them.
Good luck and Godspeed!

Using Linux / Ubuntu to copy / clone
I'm currently moving from a 16GB to a 32GB UHS-I microSD card...and I'm just copying the files over in Ubuntu Linux (with Show Hidden Files enabled in Nautilus [the file management system])...simply enabled SHOW HIDDEN FILES in the VIEW menu.
The phone is on and active...connected by USB to my laptop.
I'm hopeful it will work, and I'll re-post / update this if it does.
== UPDATE ==
Yep...that all worked sweetly! The problems other people have experienced might be simply down to the fact that a RAW copy is not taking place, so some of the "hidden" system files etc. are not being copied in Windows etc.

sorry in this old and stupid topic but I think it should be deleted because I tried the tip and didn't read the other posts and end up screwing my sd cards.
the thing is that you really don't need anyting to clone an SD card and to work it with android.
the problem is that people don't actually copy all the files because there are hidden files. they have to check "VIEW HIDDEN FOLDERS" on windows explorer or something like that. and then copy. it will work flawless.
no need for 3rd party stupid clone moron programs that screw your sd cards. this topic is just useless and missleading and will trick the ones who don't read the entire topic.
I think it should be deleted asap.

__-_-_-__ said:
sorry in this old and stupid topic but I think it should be deleted because I tried the tip and didn't read the other posts and end up screwing my sd cards.
the thing is that you really don't need anyting to clone an SD card and to work it with android.
the problem is that people don't actually copy all the files because there are hidden files. they have to check "VIEW HIDDEN FOLDERS" on windows explorer or something like that. and then copy. it will work flawless.
no need for 3rd party stupid clone moron programs that screw your sd cards. this topic is just useless and missleading and will trick the ones who don't read the entire topic.
I think it should be deleted asap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No this is the best way of cloning SD cards. If you have a basic seup of your card then sure you might get away with just copying files over. If like me however you have a partitioned card with an ext2/3/4 partition this is the better way of cloning cards.

baggio4378 said:
No this is the best way of cloning SD cards. If you have a basic seup of your card then sure you might get away with just copying files over. If like me however you have a partitioned card with an ext2/3/4 partition this is the better way of cloning cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's the same ****. you just have to partition before copying,

noouch said:
That's because it directly copies the partitions. You need to resize them afterwards. I used minitool partition wizard (can't post links, google it), which did the trick nicely. For moving the contents of my 2GB SD card over to a 16GB one, the procedure was pretty straightforward: write contents to an image using HDDRawCopy, use the same tool to write the image to the new card, and then resize using the partition wizard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I copied everything using HDD Raw copy. Now I am mini tool partition wizard. The problem i am facing is that I want everything to be present in exFat format so I can copy stuff bigger than 4GB. Now I when I create partition on the unallotted part of microSD ( I am going from 32GB to 64GB) it's not letting me use merge command as is saying it's not available in free home edition. Also the format or the microSD is showing as other not exFat.
I am trying to go from 32 to 64GB and keeping exFat as the format of the card.
Thanks

Nope
__-_-_-__ said:
sorry in this old and stupid topic but I think it should be deleted because I tried the tip and didn't read the other posts and end up screwing my sd cards.
the thing is that you really don't need anyting to clone an SD card and to work it with android.
the problem is that people don't actually copy all the files because there are hidden files. they have to check "VIEW HIDDEN FOLDERS" on windows explorer or something like that. and then copy. it will work flawless.
no need for 3rd party stupid clone moron programs that screw your sd cards. this topic is just useless and missleading and will trick the ones who don't read the entire topic.
I think it should be deleted asap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... You mistakenly did something with your cards w/o first double checking. The post wasn't bad. It's actually pretty straightforward and the best way to CLONE your cards. Don't blame the post for your mistake.

norman619 said:
No... You mistakenly did something with your cards w/o first double checking. The post wasn't bad. It's actually pretty straightforward and the best way to CLONE your cards. Don't blame the post for your mistake.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure if you are a troll or if you are just stupid. who the **** are you to call me a liar? I nothing to my cards. I've confirmed that what I said is completely true. you don't need to clone. you just need to copy the information. obviously you need to copy ALL of the information so if you stupid retard don't understand what hidden files are it's not my fault.

__-_-_-__ said:
not sure if you are a troll or if you are just stupid. who the **** are you to call me a liar? I nothing to my cards. I've confirmed that what I said is completely true. you don't need to clone. you just need to copy the information. obviously you need to copy ALL of the information so if you stupid retard don't understand what hidden files are it's not my fault.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well obviously you are the stupid one indeed, I get the feeling that you are a horse with eye-flaps on dude, don't you read what the other dudes here are saying ? It looks like you are total noon without even a basic knowledge of filesystems.. Just so you know: android is based on LINUX and WINDOWS IS NOT - IT IS A STANDALONE OS THAT IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM LINUX... So there it goes - windows uses FAT32 or NTFS - Linux DOES NOT and nor does ANDROID, and what you don't know at all is that WINDOWS FILE SYSTEMS DO NOT SUPPORT FILE PERMISSIONS THE WAY THAT THE ANDROID SYSTEM SUPPORTS IT.
So people, what I am trying to say is that, if you are a basic user and use your SD for pics and music only - the windows way would work (probably) BUT if you are using your SD for apps and etc, actually the ADB way might just be the best for you
And finally - I don't mean to be mean or to offend anyone, it's just that noob uneducated guy that expresses his non-proffesional "beliefs" in a way that is offensive to the users who actually have contributed to the thread and he tries to get a very useful thread deleted, which is driving me crazy nuts! I hate flaming other people and I hate seeing a noob that flames good guys for the sakes of post number and a stubborn hatefull debate - that's why I am flaming the flamer.
And some advice - dude, please don't use the f-word on forums - its not cool - its kiddish - you're probably thirteen y-o

Still a good way to clone and resize and partition! Thank you.

On my AndroidOne Nokia 7.1 I noticed that the SD card is mounted as /storage/XXXX-XXXX where XXXX-XXXX is the volume's serial number.
Here's how I cloned my smaller SD card onto a larger one:
Formatted the 200GB µSD using http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm (Windows says it’s too large)
Copied using ROBOCOPY /S /ZB /V g:\ f:\
Changed the volume serial number using SysInternals’ VolumeId.exe:
PS> cmd /c vol f:
Volume in drive F is LUMIAUSD200
Volume Serial Number is 1F04-2747
PS > Volumeid.exe f: B14F-130C
VolumeId v2.1 - Set disk volume id
Copyright (C) 1997-2016 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
Volume ID for drive f: updated to b14f-130c
PS > cmd /c vol f:
Volume in drive F is LUMIAUSD200
Volume Serial Number is B14F-130C
After that I inserted the new card into the phone, and voilà! all apps were happy (since the mountpoint had not changed).
HTH