Develop Bugs

Help!! Sd Card Not Seen By Device

Help! I have an XDA IIs which was working fine for the last two years. It has a 1GB SD Card in there. I used it for TomTom all this time, with no problems at all.
A couple of days ago, I forgot to grab my device from the car as I was in a rush and I left it in the car (powered off, but with TomTom running) most of the day.
When I got back in the car, TomTom wasn't working right so I closed it and tried to re-open it, whereupon I received the nasty message "Cannot determine location of data".
To put it simply, the device no longer recognises the presence of an SD Card! It's not in File Explorer, nor under Settings / Memory / Storage Card.
What is going on?
Here's a list of what I've tried already (none of these ideas has solved the issue):
o Tried a different SD Card
o Tried a soft reset on the device
o Tried a hard-reset on the device
o After hard-reset, tried a restore from a recent Active Sync backup-to-PC.
o Downloaded PocketPC Mechanic and played around A LITTLE (didn't do anything that seemed dangerous like defragging, registry cleaning, etc)
Any help will be VERY gratefully received!
Thanks
Matt

Update... but still have problem
Quick update
I also tried formatting the SD Card. No help (I have since copied all data back onto the card and it still doesn't work).

mattyboy said:
Quick update
I also tried formatting the SD Card. No help (I have since copied all data back onto the card and it still doesn't work).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently, the motherboard your device is dies slowly.

Have you tried a diifferent sd card? reinstalling the software all over again?

Replying to Rafa1215
Yes, I have tried a different SD Card (as noted in the original post, list of things I have tried). It's a 128MB one which works fine in the SD Card reader slot on my PC (my main 1GB card works fine in PC slot as well).
Here's a further titbit of information which may or may not be useful in helping me:
I've tried several times to restore the backup-to-PC I made at the end of April (essentially the same stuff on the device then as now, luckily). Normally, when you insert (or remove) the card, it turns the screen on. Each time I perform the restore (of the same backup, over and over again), the SD Card slot actually performs this function when I insert the card again - but ONLY ONCE each time I restore from backup.
As for reinstalling software all over again... I have performed a hard-reset on the device, and tried the card as soon as it is ready to use... no luck there either.
In reply to vovaxxxx:
Is that a serious comment? The motherboard slowly dies? If that's true then this device is fit for nothing but the rubbish bin!
More ideas are welcome please, I thank you for the feedback!!

If you're luck enough to have a friend that have a BA you could test his sd card on your BA and your sd card on his BA. If his BA can read your card and yours can't read his then you have 2 situations:
1) Your sd card slot is dirty or slightly melted so you have no good contacts, try to clean it.
2) Time to buy a new phone or try to buy a new circuit board for your phone but for the price I think is better you get a new phone.
Edit: If you have $100 you can get a new circuit board here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=310283

search google for panasonic sd formatter or something like this, this is a lil program which is used to format your SD properly. Insert your SD card into the card reader, start the program and reformat the SD card.
The problem is within the SD card file system

xplode said:
search google for panasonic sd formatter or something like this, this is a lil program which is used to format your SD properly. Insert your SD card into the card reader, start the program and reformat the SD card.
The problem is within the SD card file system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that doesn't work try
Storage Tools by softwinter.com
You can at least do a Scandisk and fix any errors during the scan

OK I formatted the SD card with the Panasonic formatting utility. (Backed everything up to the PC first, from the card!)
Still no difference. To reiterate - the SD Card(s) I am trying to use are working fine in my PC's SD Card reading slot.
I think it's the hardware (i.e. the XDA itself)... LGSilva says I could try cleaning the contacts. Any recommended ways on doing this? The slot is too small to get any kind of decent cleaning implement in there, and I can't dismantle the device because it's held together with special screws (6-pointed-star-shaped heads).

Hi
the company i work for has around 300 device and this happens every now and again. not sure if this will help but normally call our mobile network and get a replacement. it's normally the card reader in the device.

mattyboy said:
The slot is too small to get any kind of decent cleaning implement in there, and I can't dismantle the device because it's held together with special screws (6-pointed-star-shaped heads).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screws are size 6 Torx bits, suitable sets of these drivers can be bought from Maplins in the UK, although you don't mention where you are located.
There is also a guide to taking the BA to bits in the WiKi and a very comprehensive one containing pictures etc. at the bottom of the WiKi page, well worth reading both before you try taking it to bits - Mike

8GB MicroSDHC Card

Hi -
I purchased the 8GB MicroSDHC card from Verizon a week ago. It worked fine on my AT&T Tilt for a few days and than it lost all information! Fortunately, I was able to restore from backup, and it seems to be OK again. Here's the strange part: even though the original files and directories are gone, the card still counts them in used memory. I.e., the used memory is about 200 MB more than it should be, the amount of space I was using before the card crashed. This applies whether I check the memory on the device, connected by USB, or with the Card Adapter that came with the card.
Any ideas what might be causing this and how to recover the used memory short of reformatting the card?
Thanks!

If you could tell us what you did for it to crash it would help
You probably tried to partition it or something...?
Looks like you will have to format the whole card.
Maybe there is a simple way to do this but here is how i would do, if it helps :
- install WM5Storage on your PDA main memory
- start wm5storage with the option memory card and connect your PDA to your PC
Activsync then wont be sync'ing and your memory card will be seen from your PC as an USB-key. Open it on your PC and check to make sure it is your memory card that you see (and not your PDA main memory).
Then use whatever format tool to format your "USB key" with FAT like format, for example you can use HPtool (be carefull to format the key and not another drive !!!).
After this do not forget to turn off wm5storage, otherwise you will not be able to "see" the memory card on PDA side...
Hope it helps, let us know...

by the way maybe you could try this :
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
I've used it sometimes when i had started to format a hard drive instead of an usb key by mistake.
Windows was asking for formating everytime i wanted to open the hard drive folder. However, using this Testdisk tool, i was able to mount the hard drive and recover everything including my photos and music and stuff... Maybe you want to try this awesome tool, plus it is free and OpenSource.
Use wm5storage tool to use your PDA as an usb-key, then use Testdisk on this usb-drive, it might be able to see, list and recover all the "lost" files and heal the whole partition at same time.

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll post again when I have the chance to try them -

No luck
Had a similar problem with my Kaiser (HTC Rom). Yesterday I did something (don't know if it was memmaid - my guess, because otherwise I just installed some cabs I had previously installed in my Wizard with no problem) and my SanDisk 6 GB MicroSD was completely 'erased".
I just noticed after the Kaiser had created new folders over it (Application Data, Cookies, History and Temporary Intenet Folders). My assumption is that something destroyed my partition table (that's why I suspect memmaid, it may have cleaned something wrong) and now I have another partition over the old one.
I tried file recovery and found 1 GB good of files, but there were 5 Gigs on the card... I really wanted to find "program files" so I didn't have to re-install lots of stuff, but no luck.
Tried Testdisk as suggested above, but it never detects any partition, not even the current one. I guess I will have to reformat it and re-do all stuff.
Well, I may be saying lots of dumb stuff, but that's my guess.
Thanks if there is any possible help in this...

Ah, and when I insert the card via a card reader in my notebook and right click properties, it says 717MB free, which means my old files are there waiting for me (new folders have only 736KB of data)... What to do?

Guys need advise do you have to do any patch to be able to use 4-8GB mini SDHC card on your PDA?
I have a Asus P535. Have asked their support site and the reply I got is the max supported is only 4GB.

I believe I've read in more than one place that the Kaiser may support up to 32 Gig, which is the MicroSD maximum. But I may be wrong...
Fact is this has never happened with my Wizard and its 1 Gig MiniSD. Now I'm gonna increase backup and cloning so I don't have to reinstall everything...
But I'll check if there is a patch anyway. Thanks.

I am able to use Sandisk microSDHC 8GB can on Asus P535.
But need a micro adapter to miniSD

mbernstein said:
Ah, and when I insert the card via a card reader in my notebook and right click properties, it says 717MB free, which means my old files are there waiting for me (new folders have only 736KB of data)... What to do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Click properties and then click theTools tab. Run Error-checking with both options checked. When you check your card, you will hopefully see a new directory with recovered files. You can then delete them and regain your disk space. This is what worked for me -

Thanks. I tried that at the time to no avail. I did have to reformat, and then reinstall everything... Now I'm using Sprite Backup, so everything including Storage Card is backed up in case this thing happens again.
And/Or said:
Click properties and then click theTools tab. Run Error-checking with both options checked. When you check your card, you will hopefully see a new directory with recovered files. You can then delete them and regain your disk space. This is what worked for me -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It could be WINXP patch
I have the Sandisk 8G , it came with a small USB reader and all was working fine. However my ASUS W5 laptop also has a built-in SD slot so I installed a patch issued by Microsoft to make it HCSD compatible, and it read and write it OK but then I suddenly got the same problem that you've described here.
The disk goes blank but the files still occupy the space, even attempting to reformat the card in the built-in slot will ignore that space,i.e it shows only 5G card.
But reformatting using the small USB card reader was fine and from now on I only use the cardreader to read and write and everything is OK. In my view the XP patch was causing that problem

Can't access storage card

I've recently ran into a problem where i cannot access my memory card on my dash.
I was playing around with my friends phone and wanted to see if i could send him some mp3's but bluetooth didn't work, so i decided to take out my microsd card out of my dash and put it in his phone.
I couldn't find the storage space on his phone so i asked him to look for it. He found it and the phone couldn't read the card so it prompted him to format and before i could say no, he clicked yes.
I put the card back into my dash and tried to boot up but failed, got stuck on the startup screen. Im guessing its because i have so many startup programs stored on my storage card. So i performed a hard reset and it no longer got stuck at the startup screen.
Now the problem is that when i go to my file explorer, it won't detect my microsd card. Is this caused by the hard reset or perhaps because my friend decided to format my memory card on his phone?
Any help would be appreciated as to how to save my memory card. Maybe i just need to go buy a new card, just thought I would ask on the forum before i did that.

So if it doesnt detect it, no option to format it, right?
I would but it in a pc and see if it detects it. If it does, format it to Fat or Fat32 and put it back in your phone and see what happens.

Strange SD card Problem

I have been using Touch 4.02 with an 8gb card for ages now with no troubles then yesterday the storage card is no longer recognised by the phone? I tried the usual soft reset, taking the card out wiping it put it back in still no joy.
Reinstalled the sdhc cab file didnt work, Have just re-flashed with the new diamond look a like rom and still it aint recognising the card.
Has anyone got any ideas??

mikehulme1983 said:
I have been using Touch 4.02 with an 8gb card for ages now with no troubles then yesterday the storage card is no longer recognised by the phone? I tried the usual soft reset, taking the card out wiping it put it back in still no joy.
Reinstalled the sdhc cab file didnt work, Have just re-flashed with the new diamond look a like rom and still it aint recognising the card.
Has anyone got any ideas??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably your card is broken....
Try to insert it in a card reader and see if it recognizes the card....

Yeh will have to wait till I get home not sure my memory card supports SDHC though?

I have a similar problem, and like you I've been happily using an 8gb card for a while, but in the last week it has stopped working correctly.
Occasionally it is fine, but most of the time access to the card is either very slow or it doesn't appear at all.
I've tried the following but with no success:
- Using another MicroSD card (2gb)
- Reading the cards in a card reader and they are fine
- Reinstalling Artemis Touch 4.02 WM6.1
- Formatting the card (FAT32)
- Shimming the MicroSD card with bits of cardboard as I've read there can be a loose fit
- Cleaning the contacts on the card reader
- Pulling the contact pins out a bit to get a better fit
Does anyone have any ideas of anything else to try?

Does WM5torage work?

I did the followings to make my 4GB Micro SD usable by my Artemis:
1-flashed it to FAT32 in my laptop (I Had to format my laptop partition D of my HDD to FAT32 to make the microSD recognizable by my NTFS system).
2-copied the "system folder" from my older 512 MGB card as it is (hidden) to the root of my 4GB
3-The 4GB is readable by my artemis by now.
4-To make sure the crad will be working good in the future, I installed the "Flashcard" Cab in my Artemis and reflashed the card to FAT32, 512 Bytes 4KB clusters.
The card is just fine under Artemis windows, but I gatta take it out when flashing any new ROMs or Radio.
Hope that'd help you.

uniqueboy said:
Does WM5torage work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No - WM5torage behaves the same ... i.e. occasionally works (if the phone can see the card), but most of the time it just reports an error

It is deffothe memory card just put my old 2gb back in the phone and it worked, I have tried the 8gb in my PC card reader and in y camcorder that takes sdhc and neither recognised it.
This explains why my phone started goin so slow it would take ages to do anything then the memory card was unrecognised a few days later.
Im guessing there is no way to repair these?

If you can't read it, you can't do anything...
R.I.P.... :|
Cheers

Gutted oh well

not as gutted as i am ... looks like i'll have to buy a new phone!

Just try to format it by these criteria
FAT32, 512 Bytes 4KB clusters
then let us know.

dude dont panic try to recover the card first before you format it. i am sure there are some imp data there eh?
use a disk recovery utility on ur pc
my best choice is Recover My Files http://www.recovermyfiles.com/
if you are using windows os also try to run scan disk
use pocket mechanic then on ur ppc
let us know how well u do

Sorry for posting...Wrong thread...

[Q] best way to change your SD card ?

Hi guys,
I have a 32g class 10 sd card I bought to use instead of my 16gb class 2 but I have been facing quite some issues in the last couple of weeks
I took the 32g, put it in my win7 PC, formatted it to FAT32, safely removed it and now the arc doesnt recognize it... I just wanted to format it via the settings-> storage -> erase card in order to make sure everything is all peaches and cream before loading 20+gig of music in it.
...
All I want to do is finally transfer all my music (24ish gig) to the new 32g , and back up all my apps and stuff via Titanium Back Up pro.
Simply said, I want to have my 16g card data in my 32g one , with all my beat
Please could someone share some tips or links, I'll do homeworks and have been, but I have been facing so many complications since the last few weeks
Thanks in advance

Does your phone recognize another card properly?
Did you apply a volume name when formatting the 32GB card?
Did you try the 32GB card in the phone before formatting it?
I've done pretty much the same as you with a 32GB card (Kingston Class 4) and had no problem.
Are you sure the 32GB card is good and not a counterfeit?
Try formatting it again to with FAT32, default parameters, short or no volume name. Try copying your files to the card on the PC to see if it actual works.

robsaw said:
Does your phone recognize another card properly?
Did you apply a volume name when formatting the 32GB card?
Did you try the 32GB card in the phone before formatting it?
I've done pretty much the same as you with a 32GB card (Kingston Class 4) and had no problem.
Are you sure the 32GB card is good and not a counterfeit?
Try formatting it again to with FAT32, default parameters, short or no volume name. Try copying your files to the card on the PC to see if it actual works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I did put a volume name. That might explain it.
Yes the card already worked ( plenty of times ). I have been trying numerous time to transfert the music ( takes forever to transfer 20gig to an SD card , even class 10... ), and had mixed results that always ended up failing ( most of the times because of me... like forgeting to safely remove the sd card from my laptop made the card unrecognizable by the phone afterward...of course I just finished to tranfers the 20gig and was too happy to safely remove it... )
I will try that right now. thanks again
*EDIT*
Bah still same problem I must be doing stupid... SD card is not recognized by the phone. In the settings menu ( storage ) I cannot mount or unmount it and thus format it via the phone itself
That even after reformating it to default FAT32 partition with no volume name using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home
So number 1 priority is getting the SD card to be recognized again by the phone
**EDIT2**
When browsing the card with astro it says problem creating external cache , with root explorer it only says directory is empty. Still can't do anything in the settings menu

Obvious statement, but did you set it to primary?
sinkster©

What brand? I have a transcend card, and its not reconized by anything at all..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

sinkster said:
Obvious statement, but did you set it to primary?
sinkster©
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm it is being formated by the default win7 tool at the moment non quick format tho so it takes some times and I can't look for sure.
bruflot said:
What brand? I have a transcend card, and its not reconized by anything at all..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a memorette class 10 :S

Or format it wrong, Arc will say it's damaged and say that it has to format it to detect it.
Should fix it, too.
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

Flo95 said:
Or format it wrong, Arc will say it's damaged and say that it has to format it to detect it.
Should fix it, too.
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya I'd love to get to this point ( which I got in the past hehe ) but at the moment it's still not even recognizing the sd card anymore
still formating btw....

How did you recover your issue?
I think I have a similar SD card problem. But, I encountered it after I did factory reset with SD card erase option selected. I didn't do anything after all. When I connect to PC, on the phone upper bar, there is no notification regarding USB. The middle button seems not working either.

Try formatting the card with this Panasonic SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card formatter.

That's strange why not just do a quick format in Win7 or WinXP, to FAT32? I use a 32GB as well and Arc has no issue with it. Coming from the 8GB, here's what I did.
1. Take off the 8GB from the Arc and placed in a USB reader.
2. Copy off all the files to your PC. I used WinRAR to accomplish this, just archive everything and STORE it (no need to compress so operation is faster). Or you can just use drag and drop plain copying its all the same.
3. Analyze the copied files and remove all unneeded bloats (ie. old movies u don't intend to watch anymore, clear out useless temp files, etc)
4. Copy back the files on your new FAT32 formatted card using the USB reader, then put in your Arc.
If you notice, the entire data migration is done via card reader/USB. Using the Arc as such will slowdown your progress and introduces unnecessary delays.

You can also use usb tool, it basicaly creates a back up image and can be restored to the new sd
Sent from my LT15i using Tapatalk