Secure Digital (SD) Card reports too low a memory

[Guest]

Hi guys, wonder if you can help me here....

I have a 2GB SD card that I connect to Win XP via a USB 2.0 card reader. It
is FAT formatted but only has/shows 1GB of allocated space. Looking on disk
manager there is 1GB of unallocated space (and 1GB of allocated space), but I
am unable (or don't know how) to reallocate or reformat the card back to 2GB.
I only have the options to format the card FAT or FAT32.

Any ideas.....

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Most of the memory cards (most types) all require FAT format. Do not try
to format it as NTFS (unless stated by the manufacturer info/utilities).

Have you tried to format the card with the device that you need to use it
with (other than the USB 2.0 card reader in XP??)


Have you contacted the SD card manufacturer to see if this problem may be
common?

 

[Guest]

Hi Yves, Thanks for your ideas.

I have tried formatting the card in my camera: it only reads it as 1GB
because it can only format the allocated memory. I have tried the
manufacturer (Sandisk) they say it's a win XP problem to allocate the
unallocated space.

Still stuck I'm afraid...

All the best Paul

 

[Thomas Wendell]

In DiskManager, remove that 1GB partition, then create a new partition of
2GB, but don't format it. Let the camera try formatting that. If the camera
won't format that, it must be concluded that the camera doesn't like bigger
cards than 1GB....


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[Guest]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for ths info. Can you point me as to how to remove the partition.
I'm having difficulty removing the partition on the Memory card: it appears
simple on a physical drive, but not a removable one, do you know how to
remove the partition? Cheers, all the best
Paul

 

[Thomas Wendell]

In DiskManager, Rclick on the 1G partition, there should be a choice of
"delete partition"...
Then, again Rclick, and "create partition", make it 2G (it should give the
full card as default)

Maybe also format, but remeber to make it FAT, not FAT32 or NTFS..



If it doesn't work, it might be that the card can't hold a _single_ 2G
partition...
And I don't think the camera does know how to use 2 partitions...


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[Guest]

Thomas,

Thanks for the help. I have tried this in Disk manager to no avail
unfortunately. On the Active 1GB the option to Delete Partition and also to
Make Partition Active are greyed out. On the unallocated 1GB New Partition
is greyed out.

Still stuck unfortunately, anyone know of how to get round this....

Many thanks
Paul

 

[Thomas Wendell]

Haven't got a clue.. maybe the camera makes it own if you made that
partition in the first time. And maybe it doesn't know about bigger
cards....

(Maybe PartitionMagic can do, but I'm out of ideas..)
Ask the camera mfg what it can eat etc..


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[Thomas Wendell]

Or maybe this can do something with it..

<snip>

I would format the flash drive as there may be issues with "it".

There is a neat program from HP that is designed to do just that. I have
used it on a few different make drives and it seems to work on all of them.
You can get it here (free)
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/20306.html

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Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

<end snip>



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[Guest]

Hi All,

Thanks for your help. You put me on the right track and I've fixed it now.
I downloaded Swiss Knife frin CompuApps, and this had the ability to
partition the SD card across the whole 2GB: somehting that XP didn't give me
the option to do.

Thanks for getting me to the solution. All the best
Paul

 

[Thomas Wendell]

Glad you got it worked out..


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