HDD GURU FORUMS

Hello,
I have 32 gb Sandisk micro SD card. ( fat32 format)

I attached to my 32 bit vista laptop and tried to copy around 4gb of files to this card.
During copy process it said 32 mins or more...and aft 10 mts or so it seems it is stuck and no change
I tried to cancel gracefully by click on cancel
but no luck and i had to kill the process of coping.
After that when i attached card to pc, i can see some files but cant delete it or create new one.
I tried to format using dos command Format f: /fs:Fat32 it says format unsuccessfull and disk unusable.

I tried run Low level format from hddguru.com - it says format 100% but aft that i insert card to pc it still show same file and cant add or remove files.

is there anyway to save this card?
pls help

That behaviour usually means one thing, but let's see if these answers point in that direction...

Where (online? ebay? staples? etc.) and when did you buy that card? Can you send it back for warranty replacement?

How much data have you stored on it successfully, before you tried to copy those
4GB onto it, or is that the first time you've used it, or ...?

I got it with other item and cant claim as it was from personal party ( craigslist)
So there is no option of warranty or replacement.
I used first time only.
I can see many files name on it but cant delete as it says file specified not found. cant preview the image of jpg file.i can see some files.
Whenever i insert card to pc, pop up window appear to view the files. i can see the folders on window but cant delete or add new file.
I run chkdsk cmd without argument it is say 59% complete and command completed.
now i just executed chkdsk cmd with /r argument and it stuck on 1% completed.

I m not bothered about data as i have copy but like to see if there is any option to save the card. it cost arnd 45 to 50$ (32 gb micro sd card)


C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>dir f:
Volume in drive F has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 5A33-F08F

Directory of F:\

07/25/2011 03:46 PM <DIR> LOST.DIR
07/16/2011 11:21 PM <DIR> Tulip11
0 File(s) 0 bytes
2 Dir(s) 30,872,076,288 bytes free

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk f: /r
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is 5A33-F08F
Windows is verifying files and folders...
1 percent completed..

uhs74 wrote:I got it with other item and cant claim as it was from personal party ( craigslist)
So there is no option of warranty or replacement.
I used first time only.

Sorry to say but this is fairly typical behaviour of a counterfeit / fake card - e.g. a 1GB / 2GB / 4GB card is marked and programmed to show it's a larger card (e.g. 16GB or 32GB), but the card malfunctions when its real capacity is exceeded. The cards are typically sold on market stalls, ebay, craigslist etc.

I suggest you read this website, which discusses the fake flash problems:

http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/

and if the H2testw software recognises your card, then since you don't want the data on it, you can see what that software (which can be downloaded from that website) says about your card (it overwites the card to try to find its actual capacity, hence why you don't want to use that software on a card containing data).

Unlike fake USB flash drives, where the controllers can sometimes be reprogrammed to show the real capacity of the drive (so people can get some usage out of their fake drives - although I wouldn't trust them!), I haven't seen such controller programming software for the controllers in (micro)SD cards (though I haven't spent much time looking).

Short answer - card is unlikely to be usable or reliable, based on those symptoms and the source.

thanks for quick reply. I downloaded that s/w and run
it can see 32 gb space and then i run write and verify run test and got following error.
so it seems some sectors are corrupted.


Error writing file 'F:\1.h2w', offset 0x0.
It is still possible to verify the test data written up to this point.
(The drive cannot find the sector requested. Code 27)
Warning: Only 1024 of 30424 MByte tested.
Writing speed: 0.00 KByte/s
H2testw v1.4

not sure now i should now give up or still try to find some low level format utility

Hi,

You'll need to do the research yourself (I haven't used that software for a long time), but from my memory of previously using it (no pun intended), that might be telling you that the card is really only a 1GB. It certainly seems to be reporting that it can't write to the card (which is one of the failure modes of fake flash).

uhs74 wrote:it can see 32 gb space

No! The fact that it says it's testing up to 30424MB is based on its reported (potentially fake) capacity - that is how much the software would try to test, not how much is definitely there!

If I was in your shoes, I would give up as I think you're wasting your time with that card, unfortunately.

From my experience the fake ones do not have brand names on them. Can you post a pic of the Card?

It could be just a faulty card and the person that sold it to you was not completely upfront with the issues.

You can buy a new one on amazon for under 50 bucks... so i would just go that route.

thanks it is sandisk
yesterday i tried following commands. but l think now there is no option.

C:\Users\admin>format j: /fs:FAT32
Insert new disk for drive J:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Verifying 30432M
Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable.

C:\Users\admin>chkdsk j:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is 5A33-F08F
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
31,154,688 KB total disk space.
96 KB in 3 folders.
1,006,048 KB in 285 files.
30,148,512 KB are available.

32,768 bytes in each allocation unit.
973,584 total allocation units on disk.
942,141 allocation units available on disk.

C:\Users\admin>

uhs74 wrote:thanks it is sandisk

This is the most commonly faked brand, in my experience.

If it is genuine Sandisk, it will have a serial number which Sandisk can verify - but note that I have even seen fakes which copy a valid Sandisk serial number! There can also be other anti-counterfeiting measures (e.g. laser etching of numbers or logos) which again Sandisk support can guide you towards checking.

If it is genuine Sandisk, then they often have a lifetime warranty. However my bet is that this is not genuine - at least you can check with Sandisk, as I explained.

Vulcan is correct. Check the serial number on the back and contact Sandisk to verify authenticity. If it is authentic, RMA it. If they verify it is not one of theirs...then you may be screwed.