SD card keeps formatting and changing file system.

[twdo]

I have a 1 GB SD card that I want to use as a way to move files
between my Motorola Q (cell phone), my laptop, and my desktop. The
problem that I am having is that when I get the card formatted and get
all the files and directories onto the card that I want to keep, it
completely wipes itself clean and changes the file system to look as
though I just took it out of my digital camera.

For example. I just wiped it clean and copied over 2 folders from my
laptop. I copied 1 folder named MP3 and another folder named Dev.
Within the MP3 folder I had about 100 MP3s and within the Dev folder I
had a few web development projects. The structure looked like this.

/MP3
- Song1.mp3
- Blah.mp3
- etc
- etc

/Dev
- /SomeWebsite.com
- index.aspx
- index.aspx.vb
- blah.html
- etc
- etc

After taking it out of my laptop, I popped it into my cell phone and
saw all of my files. I moved a new MP3 from my cell phone to the SD
card. I popped the card out and into my desktop's card reader. The
card formatted and defaulted to the structure below.

/DCIM
- /100HP733

/MISC
- AUTPRINT.MRK

So, from my desktop, I deleted everything once again and copied over a
structure similiar to what I did the first time. I took the card out
of my desktop's card reader and popped it into my laptop. Once again,
the card wiped itself clean and it took the exact same structure it
did the last time it formatted on its own (DCIM, MISC).

Thinking it may be a card issue, I went out and got a new 2 GB card
and the same thing keeps happening. What is going on? Am I totally
losing my mind? Please help me out here. I KNOW that this can't be the
intended behavior of SD cards; otherwise, what is the point of using
them for anything but a digital camera?

Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.
- John

 

[Grinder]

I have a 1 GB SD card that I want to use as a way to move files
between my Motorola Q (cell phone), my laptop, and my desktop. The
problem that I am having is that when I get the card formatted and get
all the files and directories onto the card that I want to keep, it
completely wipes itself clean and changes the file system to look as
though I just took it out of my digital camera.

For example. I just wiped it clean and copied over 2 folders from my
laptop. I copied 1 folder named MP3 and another folder named Dev.
Within the MP3 folder I had about 100 MP3s and within the Dev folder I
had a few web development projects. The structure looked like this.

/MP3
- Song1.mp3
- Blah.mp3
- etc
- etc

/Dev
- /SomeWebsite.com
- index.aspx
- index.aspx.vb
- blah.html
- etc
- etc

After taking it out of my laptop, I popped it into my cell phone and
saw all of my files. I moved a new MP3 from my cell phone to the SD
card. I popped the card out and into my desktop's card reader. The
card formatted and defaulted to the structure below.

/DCIM
- /100HP733

/MISC
- AUTPRINT.MRK

So, from my desktop, I deleted everything once again and copied over a
structure similiar to what I did the first time. I took the card out
of my desktop's card reader and popped it into my laptop. Once again,
the card wiped itself clean and it took the exact same structure it
did the last time it formatted on its own (DCIM, MISC).

Thinking it may be a card issue, I went out and got a new 2 GB card
and the same thing keeps happening. What is going on? Am I totally
losing my mind? Please help me out here. I KNOW that this can't be the
intended behavior of SD cards; otherwise, what is the point of using
them for anything but a digital camera?

Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.
- John

Just shooting away in the dark: Perhaps you have some sort of really
aggressive media manager on your PC. Windows Media Player, for
instance, tries to identify MP3 players when they've been connected in
order to manage their contents. Practically any USB mass storage can
look like an MP3 to such programs.

It recreates the same file structure every time? You're right in that
it looks like it's prepping the card for use with an HP digital camera.
Do you, in fact have an HP Photosmart 733? Did you install any
software for that camera? Check out the settings for that software if
you did, or completely uninstalling it to see if you can get it to leave
your memory card alone.