Unmountable SD Card, need help - General Questions and Answers

I didn't know where to post this since it's not device specific.
The other day my GS3 displayed a message saying i can remove my SD card. I went to my file explorer app and I couldn't access my SD card. I took it out of my phone and put it in my pc, my computer made the noise to let you know you know it discovered a new device but then it notifies me that it failed to install drivers or software. I also tried it in my old GS Epic 4G running CM 10 and it gave me the same notification saying i can remove my SD card. So now I have an unmountable micro SD card and i would really like to recover the information off of it. I have run across a couple places that have said to format it then use recovery software but I don't know how to format a sd card that windows doesn't recognize.
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Your card probably died, so unless you have specialized recovery or forensic software that can image the card, you're SOL. You could also try taking to a data recovery shop and see if they can do anything for you.

You may be able to recover your data with a freeware/shareware program but they're usually limited to recovering only certain filetypes.
If you've given up already and just need to format the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool should be able to reformat the drive even if it doesn't appear in explorer.

vianorth said:
You may be able to recover your data with a freeware/shareware program but they're usually limited to recovering only certain filetypes.
If you've given up already and just need to format the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool should be able to reformat the drive even if it doesn't appear in explorer.
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Alright I'll try that
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Related

MicroSD card not working, need help!

I have a T-Mobile G2 with stock 8GB microsd card. I was recording a video about 45 secs into it and all of a sudden the phone froze, I am not sure if it got full caz just before taking the video I checked and there was ~1.8GB free space. After a while an message came up saying "Please insert a SD card" (something along those line), so I figured my card must be full.
So I decided to go try and delete some file on it, only to find out all my apps installed on SD card was now unavailable, this is when I started to worry. I rebooted the phone, no luck. I shut it down and removed and replaced the SD card, no luck.
Plugged it into a Windows PC (Win XP 32 bit), it would see it in My Computers for few seconds and would disappear, even if I try to access it, it was just disappear.
I have some pictures and videos that I had taken on vacation which I really need, any ideas?
Currently as a temp solution I have a 4GB Microsd card in it and everything is fine (obviously, apps still not available), but I need the data from my original 8GB as this is my main concern, please help.
Btw, I have tried using recovery software such as Recuva and testdisk but since windows won't even see the drive I cannot use such software.
Thanks a ton.
if the sd not detected in phone or pc, maybe the sd card already dead.
anyone please?
Thanks
Im not sure what else can be said. If you computer and phone cant see the card, then it's probably dead. All you can at this point is attempt to do a quick format of the card and try to use the recovery software on it to see if you can restore the file structure
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mputtr said:
Im not sure what else can be said. If you computer and phone cant see the card, then it's probably dead. All you can at this point is attempt to do a quick format of the card and try to use the recovery software on it to see if you can restore the file structure
Sent from my Desire Z via XDA App
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Yeh that is my last resort, but the problem is I cannot do anything as the drive disappears 2-3 seconds after windows detects it and when I try to do anything to that drive it just freezes for a while and closes itself.
any ideas??
if you have a digital camera insert the micro-sd via adapter make sure though to unmount the micro-sd via CWM for example, you should now be able to format the micro-sd card over the menu of your camera. if this doesn't work there's still hope you can try to format it on a linux based system but for now try to format it on your cam
Regular recovery methods won't work too good on an sd card, they were meant for spinning drives. Flash memory either works or it doesn't usually. Try cleaning the contacts and using different card reader/adapter combos. Try a linux live cd etc. If it's dead or corrupted, your kinda stuck. Even a format worked I wouldn't trust it again.

Formatted my SD card...and now it won't work

My SD was acting a fool (after deleting many ROMs, it still said I had 73MB free). Nothing I did would change it so I decided to format the card. I used Disk Utility (on Mac) and formatted for FAT32. After I did that, my phone said it was in a format it couldn't recognize, so I formatted it from the phone itself. Now, when I enter recovery and attempt to install zip from sdcard, then choose zip from sdcard, it says "E:Can't mount /sdcard". I don't really know what to do, as I formatted it from my phone. I figured that was sure fire but I guess not so much. I tried to find what format I need the SD card in to work properly but I couldn't find anything.
Can someone help me out?
Fat32 is correct for the phone. Do you have a usb reader for the sdhc microsdcard or one of those sdcards that let the microsd card fit in to read it from the pc?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Reboot in recovery, if it says it can't mount it... pop out the sd from your phone and pop it right back in and see if it works. No need to mess with mount points for it either.
Also, did you check if your lost.dir folder is taking up space? Sometimes that thing can get big.
Could have been a bad flash, try to flash it again. I know I had a problem when I bought a new sd card. You can also try to flash it from a different phone. Otherwise, if you have access to a pc, I can tell you how to format it from the command line, which is, in my opinion, better to do if you're having a problem with the quick format that the phone does.
ericalanMICHAEL said:
My SD was acting a fool (after deleting many ROMs, it still said I had 73MB free). Nothing I did would change it so I decided to format the card. I used Disk Utility (on Mac) and formatted for FAT32. After I did that, my phone said it was in a format it couldn't recognize, so I formatted it from the phone itself. Now, when I enter recovery and attempt to install zip from sdcard, then choose zip from sdcard, it says "E:Can't mount /sdcard". I don't really know what to do, as I formatted it from my phone. I figured that was sure fire but I guess not so much. I tried to find what format I need the SD card in to work properly but I couldn't find anything.
Can someone help me out?
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Click to collapse
Sounds like what i did one day when i wanted to wipe everything so i did including formatting my SD card through recovery. so it left me with nothing on my phone including a bootable rom! lol. if this is the case with you. Here is what i had to do. Download a new rom to my PC then plug my phone into my PC via USB/ Boot into recovery/ Mount storage/ Mount SD card/ Copy the Rom to SD card then Flash the Rom. Not too sure if this helps, I hope it does, again it sounds like the same problem i had.
Sometimes SD cards break...for some reason they will just stop working, probably due to manufacturing techniques. My old 256mb card went bad, I just tossed it yesterday as a matter of fact. it had no name brand. I still have a 4gb pny that works perfectly and a SanDisk 32gb which also works great. If you do have to get a new SD card, I would recommend getting the highest class you can afford highest out the right now I believe is C10. That will increase your transfer speeds....both of my current cards are class4 and it can take a little bit of time to transfer gigs of data between the phone and computer. If you have any other device that can accept the "card" put it in there and check if it can send and receive data/ format to proper disk size, if not then your card is broken.
Once you go class 10 you don't look back lol
Loving my Lexar 32gb class 10 microsd.
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New memory card swap??

Any way to get my information on my current micro to another micro without damaging root?
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Swapping microsds won't mess up your root access.
Zombies ate my Inspire
Swapping cards won't breath root. If you want to transfer info over just use the computer. Take everthing off of the old one, format the new one, then put everything back on the new one.
I got your 10char right here
thedailyl3af said:
Any way to get my information on my current micro to another micro without damaging root?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
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Click to collapse
SD Card content (your files) has nothing to do with rooting your device. Obtaining root may have involved flashing a file that you initially saved on the SD card-- that's it.
I swap cards in a straightforward, rudimentary way. I place one card in a reader on my pc and either put the other card in another reader or just leave it in the phone with "disk drive" as my "Settings-->Connect to PC" setting. I just drag whatever files I want, or everything, from one card's window to the other. I have never needed any more sophisticated method for 4/8/16/32/64 GB microsd cards over dozens of swaps.
mightydr said:
SD Card content (your files) has nothing to do with rooting your device. Obtaining root may have involved flashing a file that you initially saved on the SD card-- that's it.
I swap cards in a straightforward, rudimentary way. I place one card in a reader on my pc and either put the other card in another reader or just leave it in the phone with "disk drive" as my "Settings-->Connect to PC" setting. I just drag whatever files I want, or everything, from one card's window to the other. I have never needed any more sophisticated method for 4/8/16/32/64 GB microsd cards over dozens of swaps.[/QUOTE
just what I needed to hear ty and everyone else
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How do I format a 64g?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
Your computer will most likely want to format it exfat or ntfs. Go ahead and format it with exfat. Then place it in your phone. Then use your phone to format it again. I think you have to go to settings > storage > unmount the card > then format it. Then you can place it back in your pc or use a cable to copy all your files back.
Agoattamer said:
Your computer will most likely want to format it exfat or ntfs. Go ahead and format it with exfat. Then place it in your phone. Then use your phone to format it again. I think you have to go to settings > storage > unmount the card > then format it. Then you can place it back in your pc or use a cable to copy all your files back.
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^^Agoattamer speaks with wisdom.
However, I went the lazy route and just stuck my 64 GB microsd in my HTC Inspire (red) to format since I don't like opening/closing the Inspire's covers too much. The phone formatted the new card and it showed up as having 59.3 GB available, IIRC.
I always do a full format on a pc with all my cards first. I just want to make sure they are completely wiped clean first.
Inspire will most likely report the card as damaged and needing a format when you first insert it.

[Q] Damaged SD card / won't mount - fix?

So in short my Droid Charge's SD card is screwed up.
I keep getting the message Damaged SD Card message in my notifications and I click it every time to format but then it doesnt do anything. When I try to view my photo gallery it says the sd card is blank or that there is no sd card. It wont let me use the camera because theres no sd card.
I'm rooted running Tweaked 3.0 with the latest FP5 updates after unrooting back to stock in order to get them. Tried to Odin back to stock a few times and then reflashing Tweaked a few times and still the same thing. Did factory/data reset, cache wipe, dalvik wipe a thousand times as well.
I am able to mount the sd card briefly in ClockworkMod Recovery, to view the files on the sd card but then about a minute or less later the sd card seems to unmount itself and becomes unrecognizable. Same for when I connect the phone via USB to my Windows 7 PC. If I pull out the physical sd card from the device, put it back in, hit connect to storage...the PC will recognize it for about a minute basically teasing me, letting me transfer a couple small files...and then unmounts itself and stops being read. Because of this I cant seem to partition the sd card in Windows 7 nor can I get it to complete and Check Disk.
I even bit the bullet while trying to format the sd card in CWM, and then while connect to the PC and I cant even get the card to format...
Obviously I'd prefer to some how save all the files on there before having to format if possible.
Tried searching around the forums but nothing seems to be similar to my problem. The ONLY thing I can come up with for the cause was that I mistakenly flashed the charge.PIT file while flashing Tweaked 3 in Odin. Not sure if thats the cause...
Any help and suggestions would be great. Thanks!!
It sounds to me like it's actually dead, or on its way. Try plugging it into your computer. Make note of the file name (eg F:\) Go to command prompt and type this:
Code:
chkdsk (drive letter with colon and backslash) /f /p
If that doesn't work, your last shot is probably this:
Code:
chkdsk (drive letter with colon and backslash) /r
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Can you mount your SD card directly to your PC (i.e., pull it from your phone and use a card reader)? I've had troubles with SD cards in the past and by using a non-phone card reader have been able to save what was on the card or resurrect it back to the point of usability in the phone.
jusliloleme said:
Can you mount your SD card directly to your PC (i.e., pull it from your phone and use a card reader)? I've had troubles with SD cards in the past and by using a non-phone card reader have been able to save what was on the card or resurrect it back to the point of usability in the phone.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I forgot to say be sure to do this with an SD or USB adapter rather than through your phone.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium
This actually sounds a lot like what can happen to SD cards on some HTC devices if the S-OFF goes bad. The two ways to fix it were to put it in a card reader and reformat it in Windows as FAT32, or there is a way to repartition and reformat it on the phone, but it requires you to know the pull /dev path to the SD card, and I don't know it for this phone.
Still no dice...
Ya I tried using an SD adapter that held the micro SD card, put that directly into my laptop's SD card slot and still had the same experience...it briefly reads and mounts...where i have enough time to dig few a couple folders on there and drag a couple small text docs off...then stops working.
I tried using those command prompts in CMD (chkdsk D:\ /f, chkdsk D:\ /p, and chkdsk D:\ /r) but none of them did the trick. Also the "/p" seems to be an invalid command for chkdsk? I cant seem to get it to partition in any utilities either.
Still cant format it using the adapter either in CMD or the regular Windows 7 interface.
There may also be an issue stemming from the possibility that I think its just acting as read/only. Is there a way to make it read/write? The option doesnt seem to show when i right-click on the briefly mounted sd card for its properties.
My last attempt last night was using Sandisk RescuePRO Deluxe. I started it around midnight and by 7am it was only at roughly 6.5% complete for some reason...arg.
Thoughts?
Did you try the disk management in Windows? Or diskpart?
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
I did try disk management in windows and the sd drive label wouldnt stay showing long enough for me to get that to work. I dont understand why its able to mount and then shortly after just unmount itself.
Havent tried diskpart, is that a command in CMD?
JihadSquad said:
Did you try the disk management in Windows? Or diskpart?
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
ultimatdan said:
I did try disk management in windows and the sd drive label wouldnt stay showing long enough for me to get that to work. I dont understand why its able to mount and then shortly after just unmount itself.
Havent tried diskpart, is that a command in CMD?
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Click to collapse
Yeah its a terminal level partitioning tool.
Do I just type in "diskpart" to cmd?
JihadSquad said:
Yeah its a terminal level partitioning tool.
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Click to collapse
ultimatdan said:
Do I just type in "diskpart" to cmd?
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Click to collapse
IIRC you will want to run cmd as administrator (by right clicking on its icon in the start menu). You should also look up some sort of guide if you haven't used it before.
Ughhhh
Still not working Im getting error messages not letting me format. It will select the disk though but then when i try to go further i get "diskpart has encountered an error"
JihadSquad said:
IIRC you will want to run cmd as administrator (by right clicking on its icon in the start menu). You should also look up some sort of guide if you haven't used it before.
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Click to collapse
Ever tried HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool?? Its supposed to work but dont have a card reader to find out ..>(
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool.shtml
I had the same problem with my S3 and tried to recover data from card but nothing worked. Luckily I had most of it backed up. At the end had to get a new card
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda app-developers app
Same issue happened with my ADATA card. I was able to recover the files by wiping the SD Card in TWRP first. Then recovering the boot partions/files using TestDisk. It worked for a while but ultimately, like Lehocki said, I had to get a new card. I was able to return it and get a replacement.
Weird, I had just had the same problem and am also using Tweaked 3.0. Interesting. I also had luck recovering many files using TestDisk,,,however several files were corrupted.
Same problem.
ultimatdan said:
So in short my Droid Charge's SD card is screwed up.
I keep getting the message Damaged SD Card message in my notifications and I click it every time to format but then it doesnt do anything. When I try to view my photo gallery it says the sd card is blank or that there is no sd card. It wont let me use the camera because theres no sd card.
I'm rooted running Tweaked 3.0 with the latest FP5 updates after unrooting back to stock in order to get them. Tried to Odin back to stock a few times and then reflashing Tweaked a few times and still the same thing. Did factory/data reset, cache wipe, dalvik wipe a thousand times as well.
I am able to mount the sd card briefly in ClockworkMod Recovery, to view the files on the sd card but then about a minute or less later the sd card seems to unmount itself and becomes unrecognizable. Same for when I connect the phone via USB to my Windows 7 PC. If I pull out the physical sd card from the device, put it back in, hit connect to storage...the PC will recognize it for about a minute basically teasing me, letting me transfer a couple small files...and then unmounts itself and stops being read. Because of this I cant seem to partition the sd card in Windows 7 nor can I get it to complete and Check Disk.
I even bit the bullet while trying to format the sd card in CWM, and then while connect to the PC and I cant even get the card to format...
Obviously I'd prefer to some how save all the files on there before having to format if possible.
Tried searching around the forums but nothing seems to be similar to my problem. The ONLY thing I can come up with for the cause was that I mistakenly flashed the charge.PIT file while flashing Tweaked 3 in Odin. Not sure if thats the cause...
Any help and suggestions would be great. Thanks!!
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Click to collapse
Ref : Thanks!

[Q] USB won't mount after TWRP wipe of Internal Storage + Android Secure

USB Storage and USB Debugging will not mount to Windows 7 PC or Mac
*I'm posting this thread because I have exhausted every option discussed on the internet*
One day I decided to wipe more than usual using TWRP. I wiped Internal Storage and Android Secure. Ever since then, I have not been able to mount USB to my PC. No PC computer on planet earth will recognize my skyrocket. "Unkown Device" is all I get. Every USB cable, every USB port, every PC, every Mac I have tried. I've tried every driver set, I've tried formatting my PC and reinstalling fresh samsung drivers, I've tried Kies, I've tried formatting my SD storage, I've fixed permissions and wiped everything known to Android. Odin will not detect the phone without working windows drivers and neither will SuperOneClick. I'm out of cards. Game over. Every other function of the device works just fine, and I've gotten by using my 64GB external SD card as a means to transfer files between PC and phone. Come to think, this all started when I put that 64gb SD card in my phone and tried to format it and everything else in TWRP. External SD card works, but nothing will mount.
Before I explore the final possibility that the USB plug on my phone is physically damaged, I'd like to know if anyone out there has had any problems with USB mounting as a result of TWRP wiping and/or External SD Card installation/formatting causing things to go awry.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I will donate to anyone helps me solve the issue, as I need to be able to sell this phone with a clear conscience.
Thanks!
What version of twrp are you using. I saw another post where it wouldn't mount internal with 2.4.0.0. Seems it might be an issue with that version.
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It was using 2.2.3 at the time. I feel strongly that this is an issue with formatting the internal SD card via twrp while adding an external SD card to the phone. I believe the system partition responsible for mounting the phone is corrupted. Maybe a re-partition is the solution? If I could somehow restore the system partition files. I am an avid flasher but partitioning is beyond my scope. Maybe someone can point me to a guide about partitioning.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
digitalryan said:
It was using 2.2.3 at the time. I feel strongly that this is an issue with formatting the internal SD card via twrp while adding an external SD card to the phone. I believe the system partition responsible for mounting the phone is corrupted. Maybe a re-partition is the solution? If I could somehow restore the system partition files. I am an avid flasher but partitioning is beyond my scope. Maybe someone can point me to a guide about partitioning.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man did you ever resolve this issue? I just erased a bunch of folders on my internal SD and it won't mount anymore. I'm using a Droid4 and, of course, the problem is consistent on both ROM and stock.
I guess for now I'll have to download from my dropbox account.
Cheers
I'm on the Note 2 (N7100) and have the same issue. I formatted internal storage in TWRP. Now USB is not detected on any pc. Any updates?
Lodd said:
I'm on the Note 2 (N7100) and have the same issue. I formatted internal storage in TWRP. Now USB is not detected on any pc. Any updates?
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Click to collapse
Nvm
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