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Read-Only MicroSD cards suck!

Ok, been fighting with my G1 phone for over a month.
First it was the phone shutting down because the battery life was a whopping 5mins of any use. That was killing the OS, so kept having to reinstall.
Now that I got a replacement battery, it seems that something is causing my 8GB MicroSD card to stay 'read only' when I plug it into my usb-flash reader on my Ubuntu system.
I severely need to reformat my whole phone and start fresh but seem to be kinda screwed at the moment because of this damn card issue.
I have scoured the web and it seems this is some sort of stupidly common problem and I am just stunned at the sheer lack of solutions that work.
So, I am hoping that someone here can help and direct me to have a decent phone once again and not feel totally worthless and ashamed when I tell people I am a tech but can't fix my own damn phone.....

30 year-old trick does that job!
http://www.camerahacker.com/Forums/DisplayComments.php?file=Storage/memory_card_locked.html

This is just a guess, but I remember back when I was using linux (Gentoo or Ubuntu I think) FAT32 partitions were mounted read only, it was a limitation of the OS. I remember the documentation saying it was possible to mount it read/write but strongly discouraged.
This was a long time ago though, and to be honest I'm not sure if it was a FAT32 or NTFS partition that I had that problem with.

That's NTFS. Hasn't been any problem writing to FAT32 in a looooooooooong time. Also it has been safe to write to NTFS for some years now.
Are you using a MicroSD to SD adapter? There's a little switch on all SD cards making them read-only. Flip it and you should be good to go.
EDIT: Just saw you just noticed it

Actually wasn't a switch. A poorly designed adapter that broke at some point where the 'switch' is supposed to be. Cheap plastic.

[Q] How hard can you push the internal storage before it is likely to die?

Simple story, my Transformer is becoming my primary system for just about everything that doesn't require Direct3D. By primary, I mean that e.g. if I can do something off my transformer, I likely will be doing it. Maybe I'm nuts .
My question is, what kind of endurance can be expected out of the Transformer's internal memory? Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) should probably mean something here, lol. Does anyone know how hard you can push the internal memory before it will fail from steady usage?
I'm somewhat worried that the storage system will wear out before my unit gets retired. Thus I am likely using my Transformer 12-16 hours a day with infrequent reboots; probably will be doing so for 2-3 years (or at least until a TF3). That's going to be everything from what "Normal" people use phones for to what dedicated servers have to suffer.
My experience for wearing out storage is with 5 1/4" floppies and PATA/SATA drives. I've used SD/MicroSD cards but never this heavily. So I don't know if it's wiser to try and do most stuff using external memory, or hope the emmc (or whatever it is inside) can take survive a long and hard tour of I/O duty.

So, what's the SD card situation in ICS?

So, if you haven't heard, the news we have so far says ICS removes USB mass storage, likely due to Google's efforts to pressure everyone to use the cloud instead. so now I'm curious have they nerfed sd card support as well? for example, in honeycomb, there was already no support for writing to sd, which meant you couldn't even install apps to an sd card, like earlier android versions. I'm wondering if they're planning to carry the limitation over to ICS.
It wouldn't surprise me if they never gave the function to tablets; after all, since it was a limitation for Honeycomb tabs to begin with, all the manufacturers started out releasing honeycomb tabs with larger memory than they did to phones, since users wouldn't be able to get much use out of a tab with only 300 MB to write to. but since ICS is for phones AND tabs, and so many existing phones don't have a large amount of onboard storage, no write support would mean google is effectively banning a LARGE amount of otherwise good phones from ICS by blocking adoption of Market apps, which gives users less incentive to stay in the Android ecosystem when they get their next upgrade.
anyway, what's the situation? anyone know, maybe some devs who've looked at the ICS source?

No Sd
If this is the case it'll suck!! lol

Even if this is the case and they do not offer SD storage on ICS it will not effect cooked roms at all (devs will get apps2sd going). With that said ICS does come in the phone flavor so I really do not see Google going backwards and removing features such as SD storage but like you said everyone is pushing for cloud storage.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

ICS supports SD cards, it just does not support usb mass storage. That means when you hook your phone up with usb, you cannot read/write to the SD card. This is actually more of an issue with phones that DON'T have an SD card, as I can just take my SD card out and put it into my computer and do everything I need to. This doesn't mean you can't add or remove files, you just use MTP to do it. Yea, it is a little bit of a pain in the ass, but we will get use to it. And really, what is the alternative? An Iphone? Then you will have to go about it the same way..just with Itunes.
Alot of people prefer MTP because it doesn't unmount the SD card to achieve mass storage capabilities.

lowandbehold said:
ICS supports SD cards, it just does not support usb mass storage. That means when you hook your phone up with usb, you cannot read/write to the SD card. This is actually more of an issue with phones that DON'T have an SD card, as I can just take my SD card out and put it into my computer and do everything I need to. This doesn't mean you can't add or remove files, you just use MTP to do it. Yea, it is a little bit of a pain in the ass, but we will get use to it. And really, what is the alternative? An Iphone? Then you will have to go about it the same way..just with Itunes.
Alot of people prefer MTP because it doesn't unmount the SD card to achieve mass storage capabilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MTP may have its advantages, but it can't fully replace USB mass storage's functions. without drag and drop to ANY computer, file transfer and management becomes limited. this is one of THE major reasons I chose Android as a smartphone OS to begin with, after hassling with an iPod touch for 2 years. Fact is, I have actually NEEDED the function many times; the lack of it would have caused some serious problems for me. I'm not going to go into each situation I've had here, but here's my bottom line: *most interesting man in the world impression* I don't always need USB mass storage, but when I need, it, I NEED it.
anyway, from a non-ranting perspective, I'm intrigued as to what this OS change is going to do to the market for smartphones. Assuming Google doesn't give the option back, I'm predicting three consequences, each not too big on its own, but altogether, problematic:
1. OEMs may be even more reluctant to update existing phones to ICS, for fear their users will be upset at the loss of the function - as if the updates situation wasn't constricted enough already.
2. for the same reason as above, some OEMs may be more likely to release their upcoming phones with 2.3 instead of 4.0+. keep in mind, some OEMs are still releasing "new" phones on froyo, despite it having been replaced by Gingerbread for a while now. they do this now almost entirely as a cost cutting measure. when you add in the fact of at least one functional downgrade? they'll get worried that at least some new customers will get spooked by it and... (see problem 3). something also worth considering here, which many people have already pointed out, is that many of the new features of ICS, especially its new interface changes, are very similar to mods that Samsung and HTC have already put into already released versions of Sense and Touchwiz. So many regular users, when browsing for a new phone in store, wouldn't even see all the "new" features of ICS as any different than many of the other in store models. most people don't spend hour after hour online researching every little feature and quirk of every phone; they just go in, play with demo models a little bit, ask maybe a couple questions about the phone itself, which the worker probably can't answer, then picked based on a few minor differences.
3. as you pointed out, the alternative is to buy an iPhone - which many people will do. Android's only real advantage over the iPhone isn't that it works better, because it doesn't: its major market advantage is that it does MORE than the iPhone, even if it could use improvement in its implementation. If Android's ability to do more keeps getting slowly downgraded, AND the iPhone slowly but surely copies more of what Android does (see EVERYTHING in iOS 5 for example) then there's going to be a significant amount of people choosing iOS over Android. maybe not people on this board, but believe me, that's how a significant amount of regular people are going to look at it.

Oook...all I did was answer your question...so buy a phone with an SD card...no issues then. Just pop it into a converter and pop it into your computer...drag and drop until your hearts content.

lowandbehold said:
Oook...all I did was answer your question...so buy a phone with an SD card...no issues then. Just pop it into a converter and pop it into your computer...drag and drop until your hearts content.
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Click to collapse
sry if I came across as defensive or something, I'm actually just really into analyzing the issues with the development of tech markets.
removing the sd card can solve the problem sometimes.... but not all the time. many computers don't have sd card ports, especially ones at businesses, but also personal computers that are just slightly low end, or only slightly older. (macbooks didnt have SD card ports until 2009, and they tend to last pretty long, so those models will be around for a while.) even if a computer does have an sd port, it's usually a regular size one, not micro, so you need an adapter on hand. yet those adapters are less likely to be around than a micro usb cable is.

Falkner09 said:
sry if I came across as defensive or something, I'm actually just really into analyzing the issues with the development of tech markets.
removing the sd card can solve the problem sometimes.... but not all the time. many computers don't have sd card ports, especially ones at businesses, but also personal computers that are just slightly low end, or only slightly older. (macbooks didnt have SD card ports until 2009, and they tend to last pretty long, so those models will be around for a while.) even if a computer does have an sd port, it's usually a regular size one, not micro, so you need an adapter on hand. yet those adapters are less likely to be around than a micro usb cable is.
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Click to collapse
They sell the adapters at wal mart for like $5, and you can get an SD card reader with USB to attach to a computer for a couple dollars as well..I completely agree that the loss of USB mass storage capability sucks...but we are still better off than apple users. And im pretty sure the devs will figure out how to get it working on custom ROM's.

Lack of mass storage will be major step back in my opinion, Looks like everyone is heading towards Apple way of thinking. Forcing the user to use the "ecosystem."

What are these?
What are these files? Will they work on my 3G only Xoom? Or is it just wishfull thinking?
http://goo-inside.me/roms/teameos/stingray_cdma
Eos-stingray_cdma-9.zip
Eos-stingray_cdma-9a.zip
full_stingray3g-ota-eng.solarnz.zip
---------- Post added at 04:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:10 AM ----------
I just realised that I posted in the wrong place. Sorry people.

How many times can you flash?

I dabble in microprocssors such as AVRs and such and they have a flash life of around 40,000 flashes before they are dead.
I was wondering what the "Flash Life" of tablets are. Will there be a time when they will finally burn out?
Now 40,000 flashes are more than anyone would be able to flash this device in a reasonable tablet lifetime before it is obsolete. Just wondering what the number would be.

Since all flash is in the eMMC, firmware flashes count as normal writes. The eMMC is using MLC or even TLC, so we are talking about a few 1000 writes for each cell, distributed over the full capacity by the eMMC's FTL for wear leveling. So let's say 64 GB * 1000 = 64 TB total writes, but this has to be divided by the write amplification factor. It's a bit hard to estimate write amplification due to the primitive controller and FTL - it could even be up to 1000 in the worst case of all random 4 kB writes (each would need to rewrite a full erase block). More realistic may be a factor of 5 to 20 - so let's guess 64 TB / 10 = about 6 TB written in total.

Fascinating question:
Only thing I see are claims from Hynix (formerly Hyundai) that their recent SSD and NAND memory has up to 2,000,000 hours MTBF.
Don't see how this claim would hold water in a real sense....just a calculated guess on the manufacturers part.
Hard to tell when write failure will occur at the lower voltage levels used for eMMC's.
I'd think 40 to 60,000 hours would be more in line.

Thanks _that.
I should be able to burn this thing out in a month or so. LOL J/K.
When flashing does the eMMC get totally erased before writing or are just the addresses used in the code written to the chip? This would determine the life of the chip as a total erase would shorten the life. Am I correct in assuming this or is my understanding all wrong?
Is there a data sheet available for the eMMC used in these devices or is it an ASUS trade secret?
Thats OK, are you talking about actual hours flashing or just the run time of the chip?

Dee Envy said:
Thanks _that.
I should be able to burn this thing out in a month or so. LOL J/K.
When flashing does the eMMC get totally erased before writing or are just the addresses used in the code written to the chip? This would determine the life of the chip as a total erase would shorten the life. Am I correct in assuming this or is my understanding all wrong?
Is there a data sheet available for the eMMC used in these devices or is it an ASUS trade secret?
Thats OK, are you talking about actual hours flashing or just the run time of the chip?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I was looking at time before failure on Hynix eNAND.
That 2 million hours seemed a bit way out.
Just searching around for a data sheet on the Hynix M26M64002BNR is turning into a dead end.
Everything goes to an HY27 number looks like the chip has been replaced from the maker.
I was hoping I could find actual read\write white paper for the chip.

Dee Envy said:
When flashing does the eMMC get totally erased before writing or are just the addresses used in the code written to the chip?
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Click to collapse
Flash memory has 3 operations: erase, write, read.
Magnetic storage has only 2: (over)write, read.
So, to overwrite something in flash memory, an erase operation is always necessary. And this operation has a granularity in the megabyte range - that's why random 4k writes are so slow.
If you want to know how flash cards work, read this:
https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/KernelArchived/Projects/FlashCardSurvey

Thanks for the link, _that.
There's some good reading there.:good:

what if i do a LOT of write on an SD partition? destroy partition or the entire sd?

if i make a second partition in the last zone of an sd, after too many write, the primary partition will still works and only the second partition will blow up or it will broke the entire sd?

washwash said:
if i make a second partition in the last zone of an sd, after too many write, the primary partition will still works and only the second partition will blow up or it will broke the entire sd?
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Can be anything bro
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i'm asking because i want to use swap, but if the swap partition will destroy only the partition zone instead of the entire sd...i will choose the partition instead of the swap file

washwash said:
i'm asking because i want to use swap, but if the swap partition will destroy only the partition zone instead of the entire sd...i will choose the partition instead of the swap file
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont believe there is a definitive answer to your question.
a sd card is flash memory, so theoretically, it should only burn out the sectors in the partition, but there is no guarantee the damage wouldnt unexpectedly cause the whole card to be dead.
i would go with the partition. at least you have a chance at only damaging part of the card, instead of all of it for sure.

washwash said:
if i make a second partition in the last zone of an sd, after too many write, the primary partition will still works and only the second partition will blow up or it will broke the entire sd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Physical Damage
First, cards can be actually physically broken. You can bend them in half pretty easily if you try, but in general they're actually pretty resilient. Many are effectively water-proof even if not marketed that way. I've sent cards through the laundry, and once I dropped one full of precious baby photos right into hot coffee — no problem! Now, I wouldn't recommend pushing your luck, but if you're careful, this is unlikely.
Electrostatic discharge could also damage the electronics, although again most cards are surprisingly well-resistant. (Try to intentionally destroy a card with static and your success rate will be low.)
Flash isn't particularly light-sensitive, so airport x-rays aren't a real risk (longer exposure to high-energy x-rays is another story). It's also surprisingly heat-resistant — the plastic housing is probably at more risk than the memory itself.
Filesystem and File Corruption
Physical damage is at the most basic level. At the higher end, you can have corruption and data loss without anything fundamentally going wrong. The firmware in cameras and card readers (that is, the mini-os and software that runs on the device) can make mistakes, or be caught in situations it can't handle.
The most obvious is that you can mess things up if you pull out the card while trying to write to it. Don't do that. (And remember that with caching, that can happen quite a while after you think the data transfer is done.) With SD or Compact Flash cards, it's usually reasonably safe to remove the card from a reader while it's mounted for read access; beware that if you happen to have an xD card device that this is not safe.
A bug could happen in deleting files, or if the card fills up. And, it's theoretically possible that if you format the card on a computer conflicting filesystem bugs will cause issues.
Presuming you avoid the yank-the-card-out scenario, and don't have a hardware failure, these are also pretty rare, because the filesystem implementations used in cameras have been around for a long time and are very well tested.
It's also possible that bad cables, bad USB ports, or problems in the computer itself could corrupt files on transfer. Trying again on another system is always a good first diagnostic.
In all of these cases, the card itself is really fine — reformat and you can use it again.
Bad Blocks
Then, there's the SD card really going corrupt.
This happens in two major ways:
Manufacturing Defects
There's a lot of pressure to produce small, cheap, high-capacity devices. In order to do this, manufacturers have learned to not worry about perfection, and ship devices with something like 2-5% of the memory already bad, right out of the factory. These initial bad blocks are masked out and shouldn't affect anything, but actually do have a long term effect — see below.
And it's possible that a particular card will have a lot more than it's supposed to, including blocks which weren't properly masked out. This is much more likely with cheap cards.
Accumulated Failure
Flash memory inherently has a limited number of write/erase cycles. Inevitably, electrons get trapped where they're not wanted, and the voltage levels shift, eventually causing read or write failure. Any given bit of flash memory is specified for a certain number of cycles before failure, but really it's a random process and there could be a problem long before the numbers would predict on average.
Coping Mechanisms
Because these things are inevitable, SD cards are designed to minimize the damage. In addition to the masking out of bad blocks initially, they detect and mask out new bad blocks as they appear. They're made with excess capacity initially, and as blocks wear out, spare blocks are transparently substituted, so everything keeps working. The flash card's built-in controller will use error correction to prevent the errors from corrupting data as they occur.
But, cheaper cards may have less sophisticated error correction, and are likely to have less spare capacity for covering up for bad blocks.
Flash devices also use wear leveling, so that writes are spread across the whole device, not just always using the same area over and over. Here again, cheap cards may do a worse job of this.