4 GB doesn't work, it says 30 MB

[Chillseeker]

Hello,

I've a problem with my new 4 GB SD-card. On my computer it says it has the capacity of 30 MB

How do I format my SD-card?
And how can I implement FAT32 or FAT16 to it? (it's now FAT12 I think)

Firmware= 2.50 beta


Greetings

[tobbis]

1. Connect the D2 to the computer (the sd card should be in the D2)
2. Right click on the SD-card on my computer and click on "format"
3. Select FAT32 as file system
4. Click on start

This should work...atleast if you use windows.

[Chillseeker]

Well..

I've tryed it..but I can only select FAT, 29,1MB and clustersize standard.

So that won't work, I guess...

Any other solutions? Or is this card wrecked?

[GSV3MiaC]

Where did you get this card from? It sounds either wrecked or faked, or jsut not compatible with the D2 for some reason .. not an eBay special, was it?? Have you updated your D2 to the latest firmware (the older firmware didn't support SDHC cards properly).

If you run chkdsk from WinXP (start, run, cmd, then type 'chkdsk <drive letter> of the SDcard) it should report what is actually there .. which may bear no resemblance to what is printed on the outside of the card. What does it say?

What were you using to format it with? in XP, Disk management is the place to be. From there you should be able to delete any volume that was there by accident, and then force it to FAT32 .. assuming it is visible at all.

[Chillseeker]

Thnx!

Chkdsk says:

Filesystem = FAT32 (which is not what I expected, while 'My computer' right-click 'format' says FAT)
Volume made in 2004

(the next text was in Dutch, but I tried to translate it)
Windows found problems on the disk, but won't fix it because chkdsk was 'performed' whitout the parameter /F
The first cluster is not valid
//here comes some text, I don't think is very important...//
//and a question at last...//
The lost chain/sequence invert to files? Y/N

So... what to do? Invert those chains/sequences?
Or run chkdsk /f ?

-edit-
I did choose N, then there came a list with numbers.. :

39.076.544 kB Total diskspace
750.016 kB in 1.730 hidden files
347.008 kB in 10.737 folders
34.888.832 kB in 117.503 files
3.087.968 kB free/avaible

32.768 bytes per cluster
1.221.142 clusters in total on disk
96.499 clusters avaible on disk

[Cyberdyskinesia]

Partition table problem ? ( look for the table into the Disk Manager )

[Chillseeker]

Where can I find Disk Manager?!
Is it a Windows thing? Or a downloadable program/utility?

[Cyberdyskinesia]

As far as I remember it belongs to the Config Panel -> Administration Tools -> Computer Management (set of tools).

[GSV3MiaC]

You have to run chkdsk with the /f option, to convert the corrupt pieces to files (or just throw them away). But read on first. Would be nice to see what all these hidden files/folders are .. you can do that from windows explorer if you go to tools, options, view, and tick the boxes to view hidden files and folder, and system files and folders. Or you can just reformat the whole thing using disk manager (start, run discmgmt.msc). However it would be interesting to see what is there, and why.

Since the total size is given as 40GB, I suspect that whatever is reading the card is not doing it correctly. Is this in a proper SDHC card reader, or are you using the D2 to access the card? If the D2, then you MUST have the right version of the firmware - the earlier versions don't have a clue about SDHC cards.

fwiw, 'Fat' now seems to be a synonym for FAT32 - back in my yoof it was a synonym for FAT16 (and even earlier probably FAT12), which has caught me out before now.

[Chillseeker]

Thnx a lot, again

I will try chkdsk /f in a moment, but I'm first gonna check those hidden files out

I do not have a card reader, I use my D2 for that purpose.

And which firmware do I have to use? 2.50beta is installed on it (from the cowonglobal.com website) but I read in the Firmware Topic that there's also a v3.50.
Is this a Korean version, or can everyone use it?

[Cyberdyskinesia]

So.. have you found the disk manager ( discmgmt.msc ) ?
What does it tell you about the media and partition sizes ?

The 2.50b firmware is perfectly fine for SDHC support, as I said problem is most likely due to a broken partition table and I don't think chkdsk ( which is filesystem related ) will be helpful here. You just need to compare the two sizes above. If the media size is 4gb ( while the partition size is 30Mb ) then the hardware is ok and you just have to delete the partition (all, if many) and create a new one at the maximum size. If the media size is different than 4gb then the card is not ok. Clear enough ? [smile]


39.076.544 kB Total diskspace
750.016 kB in 1.730 hidden files
BTW this doesn't look like a SD card at all, more likely your C: drive.

[Chillseeker]

Thnx!

And yes... it was my C-drive I scanned.. :s (how stupid.. but 'chkdsk i' won't work..)

discmgmt.msc doesn't work here...
but I found something in configuration panel > systemmanager > computermanagement.. (I've a Dutch version of windows, I don't know the proper English words..)
Then I choose something like drive-management/disk-manager
I can see all my drives, with their names, FAT-systems and filesize (all this is presented in a white box with a blue line.
It says 29 MB and FAT.
I can format it with FAT or FAT32. But when I format it with FAT32 I get an error; volume too small for selected filesystem

So I think I didn't get a 4 GB SD-card, but a 32 MB SD-card instead... and therefore this seller will get a accusation :D

[Cyberdyskinesia]

You're looking at the right place, but the value that interests you isn't the partition(partition = drive, e.g C:, D:, ...) size but the media(e.g "Disk 0", "Disk 1", "CD-ROM 0", ..) size.
To be more clear, on this screenshot :

http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/Disk%20Management/DiskManagement01.jpg

the "media size" of the first hard disk(Disk 0) is 28.63 GB.

Is the "media size" of the SD card also 30 MB ?

[GSV3MiaC]

Nice reply. Also nice system - or was that just an example (spanned drives are about as common as hen's teeth).

Good catch on why the OP was seeing 40GB on a 4GB card!!

[Chillseeker]

Thnx!

I use that discmanager.

SD-card has a partition of 29 MB. So I don't think I will ever get 4 GB on it... :s

The seller says he's got 4 GB on the card with an HP photo camera..

[GSV3MiaC]

It's not the PARTITION size that matters, it is the total size of the media. If you have disc manager, you should be able to see the whole size. If there is a 30MB partition set up, you probably need to delete that partition and then format a new one to the maximum size of the card.

AFAIK they don't even make SDHC cards as small as 30MB .. a fake would normally be much bigger than that, so something strange is going on.

[Chillseeker]

Well... discmanager says that there's a total discspace of 30 MB (or 29..)
But when I format it, I can only format it in FAT. But I want to try to change this to FAT32, but this is not possible (I think)

[azgarth]

did someone format it to ext2 then? if the dude tried to use it with linux or something.
windows does not recognize ext2, i don't know about disk manager, don't use it.
i know offhand that acronis supports it, but unless you shell out some money, you won't get it.
google for some alternatives an see

[mrxcowon]

sounds like a fake memory card