MicroSD memory problem

[Guest]

I am having a problem with my MicroSD card. I have been using it in Linux
and XP Professional and it has 1GB of memory. The problem starts when I add
a file to the card. When I do, everything is fine, but when I stick it in my
device, it says the file size is 0 bytes, when it was originally 32 mb. I
put it back in my pc, and it's true, the file size is 0 bytes. I then delete
the file, but something went wrong along the way.

My card still acted like the original file was there! I backed up
everything to my pc, and deleted everything, INCLUDING hidden files and
folders. But...it said that there was only about 670 mb left on my 1GB card.

I don't know what happened. If it's a memory leak or something, is there
a way to format the microSD card?

I am 16 years old, but I am also very good with computers. Can someone
give me any hint on what might be the problem?

 

[Duplex]

I don't know what happened. If it's a memory leak or something, is
there
a way to format the microSD card?

I am 16 years old, but I am also very good with computers. Can
someone
give me any hint on what might be the problem?

You should be able to format it just like a disk drive. Open up My
Computer, find the card, right clock and choose Format.

In linux you could format it with:

mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1 (assuming the first partition on the card)

If you have other USB stuff, it might be a different device number than
sda, so you'd still have to figure that out. One way to do that is to make
sure it isn't plugged in, open a terminal window, plug the device in,
wait about 10 seconds, then type:

dmesg

It should show you the device and partition number. Most likely it will be
sda and sda1 if it's the only thing USB.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:15:00 -0700, Nathan D. <Nathan

I am having a problem with my MicroSD card. I have been using it in Linux
and XP Professional and it has 1GB of memory. The problem starts when I add
a file to the card. When I do, everything is fine, but when I stick it in my
device, it says the file size is 0 bytes, when it was originally 32 mb. I
put it back in my pc, and it's true, the file size is 0 bytes. I then delete
the file, but something went wrong along the way.

My card still acted like the original file was there! I backed up
everything to my pc, and deleted everything, INCLUDING hidden files and
folders. But...it said that there was only about 670 mb left on my 1GB card.

It sounds like one of two things:

1) Corrupted file system from interrupted writes

Like CDRWs and DVDRWs, flash drives have a limited write life, and are
also quite slow for writes. So most OSs delay the actual writes to
the device for "later", so as to combine multiple write ops into fewer
of these - thus faster, storage lasts longer before failing.

Each OS may have different "rules" for removal of flash drives and
memory cards, so as to prevent pending write operations from being
interrupted. In my experience, SD cards (I haven't used micro-SD) are
faster and more tolerant than flash drives, but same may apply.

2) Bad storage hardware

The best tool I've found for testing HDs, that also works on flash
drives and SD cards, is HD Tune from www.hdtune.com - a free,
Windows-based utility that will also work from Bart CDR boot.

You won't see SMART or temerature (which is also SMART-dependent) for
USB sticks, SD cards, or HDs interfaced via USB, but you will be able
to do the "slow" surface test. I'm half-expecting a swathe of errors.

The nice thing about HD Tune is that it doesn't care about file
systems or partitrions, and won't try to "fix" anything. It just
checks ALL of the hardware storage area and reports to you.

If there's something similar for Linux, let me know; I'm far less
familiar with Linux, how it works, and what's available for it

------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Our senses are our UI to reality