I bought a Kingston 32gb class 10 SD card and copied all my files to it (from the previous SD card). It worked great for a week. Then last night I started getting errors about the card either being damaged or unmounted. Googling hasn't told me much. Is there a special way to prepare a 32gb card, is class 10 too fast for my Inspire, does anyone know anything about this? I did find the following in a discussion on creating a gold card, so I'm trying it now (don't know if it will work--I'm running H2testw on the card right now before trying it in the phone again).
Thanks for any help on this.
QUOTED MATERIAL BEGINS HERE
When reformatting the card, Windows will place the DOS boot record at sector 0 and the MBR after the DOS boot record. The SD Card user module is not capable of working when the DOS boot record is placed in Sector-0.
To fix this issue, follow the steps below.
(1) Download Panasonics SDFormatter V2.0 (free utility)
(2) Insert SD card into Windows PC
(3) Format the SD card with the Panasonic utility, SDFormatter V2.0, using the following options.
- Format Type: Quick
- Format Size Adjustment: Off
(4) Eject the SD Card (**This is an Important Step**)
(5) Re-insert the SD card
(6) Format the SD card using Windows Explorer
- Right click on the SD card and select format
- Set file system to FAT
- Do not select Quick Format
(7) Eject the SD Card
(8) NOW You can proceed through the steps as normal and hex edit using the PSAS image without fear of the dialog box "Please format this drive". =D
In the above method, the Panasonic SDFormatter utility places the MBR in Sector-0 and Dos Boot Record following the MBR. With both the boot records intact, Windows will not alter the position of the boot records and will only initialize the FAT tables during formatting.
Update: I followed the steps listed above through #7 (I didn't need to create a gold card so I didn't go on to step 8). My card has worked fine since then.
Very nice! I followed your instructions and got my 16 GB card back. Thanks.
Is the extra money for a class 10 really worth it for a phone though?
LateralOctober said:
Is the extra money for a class 10 really worth it for a phone though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The faster speed seems to be allowing much better sound and video synch in videos. Not sure about other read/write operations.
Hi, i have some problem. I folow your instructio and all work well until i reboot phone, after that i get message sdcad demaged, only format from android help but after that MBR is gone. Any idea?
bataya said:
Hi, i have some problem. I folow your instructio and all work well until i reboot phone, after that i get message sdcad demaged, only format from android help but after that MBR is gone. Any idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I'm just quoting what I found on the net that seemed to help in my case. I didn't come up with the "fix".
Ok, tnx for reply.
Sent using Tt.
I had to reformat mine again, as last night it just went blank in my phone. Not a big deal as the process took about an hour, but as the process worked, but I'm wondering why the card went bad again?
t4duzan said:
I had to reformat mine again, as last night it just went blank in my phone. Not a big deal as the process took about an hour, but as the process worked, but I'm wondering why the card went bad again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once I went to listen to my music after this last time of fixing the card, I found that it was messed up again. I think the culprit might have been because when you reformat the card and it's put back into the phone, there are certain folders created. I connected my phone to the computer and accessed the card that way. I copied all of my folders back onto the card and in the process, overwrote the new folders. This might have something to do with it not responding and I must have copied over the problem again, so this last time after reformatting again, I only copied over all folders, except for the existing ones on the card and it seems to be working correctly again. I say it's working correctly because I can see my music again. Hopefully this might help someone who's experiencing some problems in the future and give a little insight on trying not to copy the problem file back onto your card, like I did.
Related
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.
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.
Was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what I can possibly do??
The card came as EXFAT, but most roms only support FAT32.
I formatted the card to FAT32 which was fine .. but after copying a few files the card now refuses to write or delete files. I can still open and view media that's on it but that's about it. I can't even re-format it, it will say the disk can not be formated or write error. The card isn't corrupt though, I copied around 30gbs of video on it when it was in EXFAT partition before. J
I'm using an SD adaptor into my card reader, but yes I have ensured the lock switch is off.
edit - oh also, when you place the card into the phone it'll say that the card is damaged/blank.
Any help would be appreciated
Cheers,
thanhson87 said:
Was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what I can possibly do??
The card came as EXFAT, but most roms only support FAT32.
I formatted the card to FAT32 which was fine .. but after copying a few files the card now refuses to write or delete files. I can still open and view media that's on it but that's about it. I can't even re-format it, it will say the disk can not be formated or write error. The card isn't corrupt though, I copied around 30gbs of video on it when it was in EXFAT partition before. J
I'm using an SD adaptor into my card reader, but yes I have ensured the lock switch is off.
edit - oh also, when you place the card into the phone it'll say that the card is damaged/blank.
Any help would be appreciated
Cheers,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you format it in the phone
Every time I place the card in, it will say the card is damaged or blank
Then it tries to format it but then goes through the same loop of saying it's damaged/blank
thanhson87 said:
Every time I place the card in, it will say the card is damaged or blank
Then it tries to format it but then goes through the same loop of saying it's damaged/blank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unmount SD card before format SD card
ruscan.calin said:
unmount SD card before format SD card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
alright i'll give it a go soon
cheers
i had experienced the same problem i tried my best using several fomat tools. think almost all the tools in the world....failed and bought a new one.....think its better go for new card
Did you try to format it on Linux? I've experienced some problems with SD cards formated on Windows (assuming that you run Windows )
vjz567 said:
i had experienced the same problem i tried my best using several fomat tools. think almost all the tools in the world....failed and bought a new one.....think its better go for new card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pretty much - there's nothing you can do. I decided to email Sandisk and here's their response:
I understand that the error that appear after format is “write protected”. First we would like to apologize for the inconvenience.
I understand that you are getting write protection error while accessing the flash drive. The flash drive has detected a potential fault and become “write protected” to prevent data loss. There is no method to fix this. You will need to back-up your data and replace the flash drive.
So you have to RMA it. I'm abit confused because others on XDA have successfully covnerted their 64gb cards to FAT32 without any issues.
Could it be a faulty batch of sd cards?.
I'll try to keep this as succinct as possible.
Galaxy Note 2, Android 4.1.2, Rooted.
Few weeks ago began having trouble with audio play back. Any file longer than 5-10 minutes (audiobooks, podcasts etc) would either not playback at all or would after playing for 5 or 6 minutes begin jumping and skipping and then eventually skip to the next track. If I tried to select a point in the play back the song would skip.
Found that if I downloaded the files directly to the San Disk 64 gb SD card these problems would happen but if I downloaded them directly to the phone's internal storage it was fine. This pointed to me that the problem was with the SD card. Also noticed at this point that if I deleted files on the SD card then unmounted the SD card and remounted the deleted files would re-appear.
I re-formatted the SD card using my phone which didn't solve the problem all of the files were back again. I re-formatted the SD card on my mac to exFAT and plugged it in only to find all of the files present again. I used my Windows partition on my Mac to reformat the drive using Windows and found the same problem yet again.
This lead me to believe that the problem was with my phone. So I reformatted the SD card using my computer, and then did a factory reset of my phone. Low and behold I plug my SD card back into my phone only to find the 32 GB of files on the SD card present again. At this point it really didn't seem to make sense. I had formatted the SD card on my computer, opened it and found it to be empty. I then ejected it and plugged it in to find 32 GB of files on it. All accessible and playable, except for the skipping as mentioned above.
So I tried one last attempt. I unmounted the SD card, and factory reset my phone again. Then plugged the SD card into my computer and using the mac disk utility I reformatted the drive using the 7-pass erase system (which according to the description on my computer is good enough for the department of defense).
After waiting two and half days for the reformatting to be done I plugged my SD card into my factory reset phone and lo and behold the 32 GB of files have returned.
At this point I have accepted that I need a new SD card but this honestly doesn't seem possible anymore. Does anyone have any advice? Or heard of anything happening like this before?
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this huge message everyone, I really appreciate it.
I've had my Idol 3 for a couple of weeks now and I just love it . . . so do my 'green' friends! However . . .
My Idol 3 got a major upgrade today, and now the phone won't permit mounting of the SD card . . . home of many apps!
The option under Settings/Storage is not greyed out, it's just that when I tap 'Mount SD card' nothing happens. I'm also getting a continuous notice, i.e. "SD card safe to remove".
The card was not removed either before or after the upgrade, but since I have had the above problem I have done reboots, restarts and hard reboots, and and have removed and replaced the card a couple of times . . . . I'm at a loss on this one!
Does anyone have any suggestions that will help me get the SD card mounted please?
Many thanks!
Just maybe a very strange coincidence here. I have been using the same 32gb sd card since I bought this phone and never had a single issue with the card or the phone (related to the sd card). This morning I checked to see if there was an update, I did not download or install it (since I'm rooted) but man ever since that moment I have been having f-ed up sd card issues. The same types of problems with it randomly unmounting the card and telling me the card is safe to remove, finding the card unmounted and touching the Mount button does nothing and just now I removed the card and my Chromebook is asking if I want to format it... WTF?
All this makes me wonder if Alcatel secretly installed some updates in the background today even though I did not intend for a system update. Hmmm.
I had similar issues with a sandisk microsd.....with it randomly losing everything on the sd....I switched to a samsung microsd and the issue went away so I think it's just very picky with the cards and you should try different manufacturers...also fat32 seemed more reliable than exfat. Samsung and Adata are two I had good results with outside sandisk which I previously considered the gold standard.
Thanks folks.
At this time I don't think it's an SD card issue unless the update corrupted it.
I mean, it was fine before the upgrade guvnor!
phototraveler said:
Thanks folks.
At this time I don't think it's an SD card issue unless the update corrupted it.
I mean, it was fine before the upgrade guvnor!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Backup the data to pc...format the card in the phone...copy the data back.
Same happened to me on the first OTA update and on this OTA update. I took my SD card out, put in a computer, copied all my files to a desktop folder, re-formatted the SD card, moved all my files from the desktop back on to the SD card once the format was complete and the phone mounted the card no problem. Total PITA and will consume about an hour and a half of your time to do all this. Not sure why this keeps happening on OTA updates, but next time, if Alcatel releases another OTA update, move all your apps back to the phone and remove your SD card prior to initiating an update. Only think I can think of?
Thanks both. Formatting is apparently the only way to go except that my computer wouldn't read the card via the phone.
Soooooo, I have mounted the micro SD in an adapter, and the card is currently being copied to my computer.
I'll let you know how that goes after I've done the format and copied things back.
Maybe just removing the SD card prior to an upgrade will prevent corruptions, or do you think that the upgrade 'needs' the SD card in place?
phototraveler said:
Thanks both. Formatting is apparently the only way to go except that my computer wouldn't read the card via the phone.
Soooooo, I have mounted the micro SD in an adapter, and the card is currently being copied to my computer.
I'll let you know how that goes after I've done the format and copied things back.
Maybe just removing the SD card prior to an upgrade will prevent corruptions, or do you think that the upgrade 'needs' the SD card in place?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As the external sd is considered "optional" there is no reason you can't pull it prior to doing an upgrade to eliminate the chance of it getting corrupted.
If you have TWRP flashed and your situation is like mine was you'd find IT could read the card just fine and adb access while in TWRP copied off the data for me so seems related to the actual rom.
The solution
As some of you may have expected, and suggested, I was able to resolve my issue by . . .
1 Backing up the data on the SD card
2 Formatting the SD card
3 Copying my data back to the SD card
However, the .android_secure folder on the SD card was 'locked' by the phone, so I removed it and using Windows Explorer I copied the contents - all my apps that had been moved to the SD card - manually.
If you go this route yourself, your 'favorites' that you dragged to the home screen will be missing, so you'll have to re-do that process. It only takes a matter of minutes.
I want to thank those of you who responded with suggestions that pushed me all the way to the top of my 'success' mountain. The view is great!
Now if only the upgrade hadn't corrupted my SD card in the first place. Grrrrrr!
However, for those that don't realize it, the Idol 3 is a terrific phone that is soon to increase in popularity and recognition.
phototraveler said:
As some of you may have expected, and suggested, I was able to resolve my issue by . . .
1 Backing up the data on the SD card
2 Formatting the SD card
3 Copying my data back to the SD card
However, the .android_secure folder on the SD card was 'locked' by the phone, so I removed it and using Windows Explorer I copied the contents - all my apps that had been moved to the SD card - manually.
If you go this route yourself, your 'favorites' that you dragged to the home screen will be missing, so you'll have to re-do that process. It only takes a matter of minutes.
I want to thank those of you who responded with suggestions that pushed me all the way to the top of my 'success' mountain. The view is great!
Now if only the upgrade hadn't corrupted my SD card in the first place. Grrrrrr!
However, for those that don't realize it, the Idol 3 is a terrific phone that is soon to increase in popularity and recognition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might consider installing syncthing and running it on the pc and phone...it uses p2p technology to sync folders between devices....open source version of bittorrent sync. Glad you are back up and running.