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what happened - my SD card formatted itself?

So I get on the train, go into my MP3 player, and none of the tunes there. I check file explorer and the whole 1 gig SD card is blank.
It's a kingmax platinum 1gig sd
What could have happened?

Are you using an XDA1 with a 2003 ROM? I used to get this on mine, it's a bug apparently. Someone suggested a way to fix it, but it didn't work for me, I just kept it write-protected!

I am using an XDA IIi

DID U USE IT INANOTHER PDA DEVICE
if u used the SD card in another PDA device it may cause problems. or if u resart ur PPC a couple of times then it might format itself as well.

I haven't used it in anything else, or even taken it out. I reset the machine occassionally when it hangs...
Thanks for the replies, I'm still not sure what happened, but it hasn't happened since, so fingers crossed

sho ryu ken said:
So I get on the train, go into my MP3 player, and none of the tunes there. I check file explorer and the whole 1 gig SD card is blank.
It's a kingmax platinum 1gig sd
What could have happened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi. I have a SanDisk 1Gb SD card. Something very similar happened to me. Several times.
I felt quite sick the first time this happened but here are some things I have discovered.
1. It's a good idea to copy your entire SD card - lock, stock and barrel - to your hard-drive, or some other storage medium. (Er...except an SD).
2. Your card may not have formatted itself - try this: remove the card, (I blow on the metal contacts for luck,) replace it, access |Start|Settings|Today|Items, then alter the Today Timeout value on the Items page. Exit to the Today screen. Check your card using a file browser (File Explorer is OK for this).
Sometime this is enough to force your PDA to read the card.
3. Sync with your PC using ActiveSync (assuming you have this facility). Find a lightweight installation file that may be lying around undeleted on your pc and attempt to install it to the storage card. You may get arsey messages from ActiveSync or from your ppc saying it can't be done. You may not. You may even have to soft-reset your ppc BUT you may find that your Storage Card contents have *miraculously* reappeared!
WEIRD!?! But it has been said that truth is stranger than fiction.
4. It may be that after all this tinkering about the contents of your Storage Cards still reads as nada. Consider doing a proper format of the card and copying back the contents of your Storage Card that you, with great foresight, copied to your hard drive on your PC.
Or consider blowing out your card manufacturer and asking for a replacement.
Regards, The Gog.
PS Please don't ask me why this often works. Obviously it is magic, quasi-magic or SD is short for 'Satanic Devilry' and your data is possessed.

TP2 Tilt can not read SD card and always in silent

I have been trying to install Android on my HTC TP2 (tilt) for a couple of months and managed it with the last version, 2.2, and it appears to work great. Looks the Dogs B*... Very pleased.
Now the crunch. I can not use it because there is no sound. If there is an alarm, a notification, a call, nothing happens. I have checked the settings and everything is on "SILENT" and can not be taken off..
I have another, less important issue, which may be the cause of the first. The phone states taht there is no music, videos, pictures or documents, etc. Further investigation it states I have no storage card installed. Clearly there is as I use it in the Windows mode and to load Android!
I have seen threads here and there that talk of reformatting the SD card to FAT 16 or 32, but would that then prevent it working on my Windows mode?
Is there another fix, alternative?

It is recommended to format in Fat32, this will not cause any problem to the device, but make sure to back up your files

I had a nasty feeling you'd say that. I have ordered a new, much larger SD card, so will format that and the copy all the files over, that way if anything goes wrong I still have the origional... I'll feed back

Diamond_dawg said:
It is recommended to format in Fat32, this will not cause any problem to the device, but make sure to back up your files
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't wait for the new card, so I copied the contents of the current one to the desktop of my laptop. I then reformatted to FAT, though I noticed it was already FAT.... copies the files back, then rebooted in to XDANDROID. I then tried to open the media player. It stated I had no Memory card installed....
It did not work. What next?

jonners59 said:
Couldn't wait for the new card, so I copied the contents of the current one to the desktop of my laptop. I then reformatted to FAT, though I noticed it was already FAT.... copies the files back, then rebooted in to XDANDROID. I then tried to open the media player. It stated I had no Memory card installed....
It did not work. What next?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you format it in Fat32 or Fat? also it is recommended that after you format on PC, format it again on the Phone

Diamond_dawg said:
Did you format it in Fat32 or Fat? also it is recommended that after you format on PC, format it again on the Phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. My new card arrived today, which is puzzling being a Sunday. That was a FAT32 and I copied the files I had saved on my desktop on to the card, and it works!!! GREAT... Only prob is some files WOULD NOT transfer, the card was locked even though listed as me as the owner, and I don't know how to change that. But it works
The old card. I have tried reformatting time and again. And am in the process of just copying the files back over and will give up at this point. It works in Windows and RUbuntu, if not Android
I do NOT think it is as simple as JUST format to FAT32, as both cards were FAT32 and only one would worked, and that only some, including Linux/Android files at that would copy over. The Android install needs to be less discerning.

jonners59 said:
OK. My new card arrived today, which is puzzling being a Sunday. That was a FAT32 and I copied the files I had saved on my desktop on to the card, and it works!!! GREAT... Only prob is some files WOULD NOT transfer, the card was locked even though listed as me as the owner, and I don't know how to change that. But it works
The old card. I have tried reformatting time and again. And am in the process of just copying the files back over and will give up at this point. It works in Windows and RUbuntu, if not Android
I do NOT think it is as simple as JUST format to FAT32, as both cards were FAT32 and only one would worked, and that only some, including Linux/Android files at that would copy over. The Android install needs to be less discerning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of people have had trouble with certain makes of cards (sandisk wouldnt work for me, transcend class 6 did). I know that my sandisk card had a few problems previously and was heavily used.
FAT will not work as DDawg said above, must be FAT32.
What card did you get out of interest?

timmymarsh said:
A lot of people have had trouble with certain makes of cards (sandisk wouldnt work for me, transcend class 6 did). I know that my sandisk card had a few problems previously and was heavily used.
FAT will not work as DDawg said above, must be FAT32.
What card did you get out of interest?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All FAT32....
I do not know what the 8Gb card is as it does not say and I do not recall. the new 16Gb is a Kingston and that works fine, bar it was locked and some files would not transfer.
PS. How do I brows the devices folders.....?

If some files are copying and others not then those files could be the reason the phone is not working. Cards don't have a lock unless it's on a adapter with a lock option. And your mystery of your card coming today is that your card came yesterday but went to somebody elses house lol

Diamond_dawg said:
If some files are copying and others not then those files could be the reason the phone is not working. Cards don't have a lock unless it's on a adapter with a lock option. And your mystery of your card coming today is that your card came yesterday but went to somebody elses house lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The files that did not copy did not do so on the new card which was locked, or so it said it was. I could not fathom out what made the difference between files that copied over and those that did not. The types and permissions did not seem to be the difference.
As for the lock being on the adapter, maybe. I transferred the files over using an adapter and inserted directly in to the laptop. Might try the same with the old card and see if the lock appears, just for curiosity.
As for the post, you may well be right. Beep annoying though as I planned to do it all on Friday! loL

jonners59 said:
The files that did not copy did not do so on the new card which was locked, or so it said it was. I could not fathom out what made the difference between files that copied over and those that did not. The types and permissions did not seem to be the difference.
As for the lock being on the adapter, maybe. I transferred the files over using an adapter and inserted directly in to the laptop. Might try the same with the old card and see if the lock appears, just for curiosity.
As for the post, you may well be right. Beep annoying though as I panned to do it all on Friday! loL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what i meant is that were there only certain files that were copying or nothing is copying in the new card? if there are certain files that are not copying then the problem is with the files and those could be the files causing the problem on the phone and for formatting, if you used a 8 gb card,it formatted in Fat as Fat32 is only there for cards up to 4gb, therefore i would recommend formatting it in the phone as well

Diamond_dawg said:
what i meant is that were there only certain files that were copying or nothing is copying in the new card? if there are certain files that are not copying then the problem is with the files and those could be the files causing the problem on the phone and for formatting, if you used a 8 gb card,it formatted in Fat as Fat32 is only there for cards up to 4gb, therefore i would recommend formatting it in the phone as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, with you.
The files that did not copy, I believe were working fine, because the apps they worked in worked and those that were just documents also worked. now the apps have been copied over without these elements they do not work or work properly. Also some were within the Android OS itself. There did not seem to be any differentiator between those that would and those that would not copy over. I'm certain there is something else.
FAT: Mmm Not sure I want to go through all that again, but I guess i'll have too.!!!! The phone works with my new 16Gb card, and MUST be accessing it because it has ring tones which are stored on the card and it has found my music and videos. BUT it does not see everything and I do not know how to browse the card... It also does not show up within the available memory. Whilst looking better than my WM, it seems a bit flaky
Also i have notices the red light is on the mute button an the rear of the phone.
Just tried to Format the SD Card from within the phone... Won't. Just flashes. Also will not Unmount.

jonners59 said:
Just tried to Format the SD Card from within the phone... Won't. Just flashes. Also will not Unmount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have to Format in Windows,ot android lol , as android is on the card, it cant format
also maybe ask this in the Tp2 sections, we got some good guys who will put in the help

OK, WM does not have a format facility/tool, so I put the card back in the laptop. Deleted it and then put back in the phone. The phone then formate it.
I then plugged the phone in to the laptop and copied all the files over, they all went bar 3, but then when I checked the folders all had gone over without hitch.
I then disconnected and started the phone.
In windows mobile it works, though CoPilot has lost its maps!
My Ubuntu and Android will not start. They stop in the script where it tried to open the SD Card, both of them.
I tried reinstalling Android and got the same problem. Now I am back to base

Back to start
OK, I am back where I started. I raised a different thread last night, because after al this I had a different problem, that it would not boot at all. It would get part way down the script and then stop, stating it could not open the card.
Since I plugged in to the laptop, deleted the SD card and reformatted as per all the threads using gParted. Again to FAT32
Now I am back where I started. Android boots and looks great, but there is no access to the SD card so no ringtones or media and all my files. A phone that won't ring is not very useful!

jonners59 said:
OK, I am back where I started. I raised a different thread last night, because after al this I had a different problem, that it would not boot at all. It would get part way down the script and then stop, stating it could not open the card.
Since I plugged in to the laptop, deleted the SD card and reformatted as per all the threads using gParted. Again to FAT32
Now I am back where I started. Android boots and looks great, but there is no access to the SD card so no ringtones or media and all my files. A phone that won't ring is not very useful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DAmn, wish i could help more, try to post in the TP2 section, we have great helpers there

Issue with SD card on Dexter's Froyo 1.3 - Help

I've been using Dexter's froyo v1.3 for a week or two now, with basically no real issues. About 3 days ago or so, when I powered on my phone - you know how the sd card symbol appears in the status bar right when u turn on phone, it's loading sd card - so I see that symbol, but unlike how it usually is, it doesn't go away after a second (after it's loaded). So I pull down status bar and the icon says "checking for errors" and it doesn't go away at all. SD card just won't load. Oh I should mention -just remembered - I turned it on and I got "error with sd card, you may have to reformat" (or something like that) right before and then it just changed to "checking for errors" after I took out the sd card and reinserted.
Anyways, so my SD card isn't loading, right. I figured it might have something to do with the fact that I was using the SD card that came with it which is low class (2). I tried putting it in an SD card reader and put into my computer and it showed up and worked with no issues. But it just wasn't working on my XT720. So what I did was, I happened to have an extra micro SD card lying around (this one class 4) and I put it into the XT720. It worked just fine. That was a few days ago.
A few hours ago, I was using my camcorder on XT720. After using for quite a while I got "sd card not present, sd card must be present to use camcorder". I left the application and went to settings and my sd card was registered as present. I then went to gallery but I got the same "sd card not present" thing. My phone felt very hot at the time, which I assumed because I was using it for a while. I figured it might be an issue of overheating causing weird things. So I decided to power off my phone for a while and see what happens.
Upon turning on my phone, I was greeted with the SD card icon in the notification bar and upon pulling down; "Checking for errors". Now this new SD card won't load.
This is a really big issue for me, because I really need the SD card for stuff. Both SD cards seem to work fine in SD card reader on PC. Please let me know how I can fix this...
(sorry for making this so long, just wanted to have all info available).
....
Apparently this looks like a huge, long unresponded to issue for many people and not specific to Dexter's Froyo: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2500
I'm going to try some of the solutions people posted, but problem seems unfixed for majority of users .
Gaaaaaah. My Android experience has been plagued with far too many issues....
What sucks is that if I want to flash back to stock to try to use warranty, I'm going to have issues if I need an SD card....

It seems you've already determined the issue, you have excluded the SD card(s) as the source of the problem. This leaves one thing - your phone is defective.
Flash it back to stock and send it in for service.
This issue has absolutely nothing to do with what software is on your phone.

R-D said:
This issue has absolutely nothing to do with what software is on your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, I've determined that as you can see in my edit... :-/
How can I flash back to stock without SD card?

syrenz said:
Yup, I've determined that as you can see in my edit... :-/
How can I flash back to stock without SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need the sdcard to flash a stock SBF with RSD lite.

I kept having same problem. If u are using move 2 SD or anything like that select auto and not Justin external I had to reformation my card about 3 times b4 I figured it out. Dexter posted somewhere not to use these apps.

similar issue with sd card
The only problem I've had with my sc card is that most of the time after my phone has been rebooted, the sd card will show up as not present once the phone has completely finished booting. Sometimes I can just reboot again and it will pick up on it but usually what I have to do is shut it down, remove the card, start it up and then once it indicates the sd card is not present I can reinsert and it loads just fine. I have an 8gb class 4 that came with the phone.

3rdstring said:
You don't need the sdcard to flash a stock SBF with RSD lite.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is very good to know. Thanks.
easye420 said:
I kept having same problem. If u are using move 2 SD or anything like that select auto and not Justin external I had to reformation my card about 3 times b4 I figured it out. Dexter posted somewhere not to use these apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, not using anything like that.
pillar2004 said:
The only problem I've had with my sc card is that most of the time after my phone has been rebooted, the sd card will show up as not present once the phone has completely finished booting. Sometimes I can just reboot again and it will pick up on it but usually what I have to do is shut it down, remove the card, start it up and then once it indicates the sd card is not present I can reinsert and it loads just fine. I have an 8gb class 4 that came with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that once (it was something mentioned in that link I posted) but it didn't work. I'll probably try it out again before attempting to use warranty.

I would also try reformatting the sdcard, just because Windows can read it doesn't mean there aren't issues with the card.

K, so I put it in SD Card reader and into PC and began transferring all the files on the card to a new folder. During this process I got a pop-up a bunch of times telling me specific files were corrupted and unreadable and couldn't be transferred (mostly music filer for the most part). I then formated the card to delete the remaining corrupted stuff. Now put into phone and it registers as being there and now things like camera are working.
Gonna have to see how it fares when stuff are actually on the card, but for now things are looking good.
Thanks for the help guys, will update if I encounter further problems.
EDIT:
And after transferring some music on to it, it still seems to be working fine. Needless to say, I'm quite happy I don't have to go through the hassle of flashing stock and then trying to get a device exchange for warranty...
Though I am slightly worried that the device itself will corrupt things again (since my other SD card also worked fine for a few days). But I did also do a complete factory reset so perhaps there was some app causing issues that no longer will... Guess we'll see what happens.

I had problems with my stock (Cincinnati Bell) SD Card doing a similar thing -- showing up as no card inserted. Sometimes rebooting did the trick in fixing it. Then my phone fried and quit working. I thought it was related.
After I received a new (refurb) from Motorola as a warranty replacement, I used that same card and was getting the same error. So I upgraded to a new 32GB class 4 card and still got the error. I upgraded to Dexter's ROM and it still continued. I'd keep rebooting (three to four times sometimes) and eventually it would go away.
Then I decided to pull everything off the card, reformat & give it an ext3 partition using the method in the video tutorial in these forums. I haven't had the issue since -- it's been about a week now.

[Q] Cannot delete or add to SD card

A few days ago, I tried taking some pictures with my Droid Charge and the pics would not save. I tried in the stock camera app and in CameraZoom EX. CameraZoom gave me an error message "failed to save photo to SD car (error code=2). I figured I was out of space.
My Titanium Backup scheduled backup did not run the next day. So, I assumed I was out of space.
I connected the phone to my PC and deleted some pics and music. WHen I was in WIndows explorer, it said I had about 2 GB free after doing all of this.
When playing music today, I noticed files that I had deleted before still present on the phone. I thought this was weird. I went back and checked and all the stuff I thought I deleted was still there.
I searched on the CameraZoom EX error code 2. It directed to remove and reinsert the card and reboot. I tried that. I have tried unmounting and then mounting with no success either.
My phone seems to be working fine, but I cannot delete or add anything to the microSD card (the original that came with the phone). It does not matter if I use my WIndows 7 laptop, desktop, or various file managers on the phone itself.
ANy idea what is going on?

To me, it sounds like the SD card is going bad. Not a common occurrence but it can happen. You're lucky you can still read from it... I would suggest getting a new SD card (Verizon might even give you a new one free) and copying your data to it before sectors start going bad. By the way, how did you manage to full up 32 gb?
Or I could be blowing this out of proportion and it's just a matter of write protection on the card.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium

Another option is to copy everything off the SD card, format it, and try to write everything back. Sometimes a format can joggle a bugged card.

It is mostly music that I have on there. I am not sure how write protection would have gotten on the microSD card or how I would remove it. It does not have a physical togge like an SD card does.
I think I may have to try re-formatting. Ugh.

It is mostly music that I have on there. I am not sure how write protection would have gotten on the microSD card or how I would remove it. It does not have a physical togge like an SD card does.
I think I may have to try re-formatting. Ugh.

Corrupted SD card. Call VZW and be nice on the phone, explain the situation, hopefully they send you a new one.

Hmmm, this is interesting. I cannot even format the microSD card. I tried to do it through Windows Explorer. It looked like it worked. I then tried to copy files back on and it choked halfway through on a movie, I think.
Anyway, what was more interesting is that when I looked at the drive again, everything was back where it originally was. So, the re-formatting must not have actually worked.
I then tried to erase the SD through the options in Android. I unmounted. I then selected Erase SD card. After rebooting (to just be safe), the SD card still is untouched.
THis microSD card has become an impenetrable force. More realistically, it must have write-protection enabled somehow as that is the only thing I can think of.
The question is how do I find out if write protection is enabled and how to disable it? Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks.

Removed SD card before unmounting

Okay, so it was a emergency and I had to remove my Micro SD card, so I couldn't unmount it.. Later that I day I was about to play some music when I realized all my songs where gone! .... The same with my pictures that were on the card! (ALL MY NYC PICS FROM MY TRIP I JUST WENT ON ARE ON THERE).... Did removing it from the phone actually make the date unusable or was it when I accidentally hit format SD card but, as soon as I hit it, I hit stop!!! This is crazy, for this had all my NYC pictures on it :/
On a Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, that is not reading sim cards, but the sim works in other phones. Could it be that I left it in Airplane mode so long? I am not rooted, or anything like that. Any fixes?

double_jn_it said:
Okay, so it was a emergency and I had to remove my Micro SD card, so I couldn't unmount it.. Later that I day I was about to play some music when I realized all my songs where gone! .... The same with my pictures that were on the card! (ALL MY NYC PICS FROM MY TRIP I JUST WENT ON ARE ON THERE).... Did removing it from the phone actually make the date unusable or was it when I accidentally hit format SD card but, as soon as I hit it, I hit stop!!! This is crazy, for this had all my NYC pictures on it :/
On a Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, that is not reading sim cards, but the sim works in other phones. Could it be that I left it in Airplane mode so long? I am not rooted, or anything like that. Any fixes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the PC reconize the card? If it does but doesnt open you might have chance recovering your data from it, if it shows up as empty your chances are pretty weak (tho with some software you still may be able to get your files back, i have even got my files back after formatting my hdd and renstalling OS). if it shows up as empty, do not copy new content on there

If you go to Transcend website they have a recovery program called recover rx. You can recover lost files with this. I had also once faced a similar problem where all my photos got wiped out by trying to download using a cheap sd card adapter. I used this software to recover all my photos.

try to explore the sd from the pc,mabye it's simple a bug

I have LG P990, which install ICS4.0.4, when i insert new SD card, i dont have mount or format option for new SD card, is that normal, i did download bind application for Music and Movie application to find my song and video. i need bind it every time, what can i do to mount new extra SD card to internal SD card?

This software is really simple free and I have found really good. Recuva.
Install on a PC and connect card select drive on recuva, and start it.
Very simple
If the problem is just deleted data or formatted drive
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium