Related
hi
can't format the MicroDrive with the FORMAT MICRODRIVE TOOL
give me , The microdrive cannot be Accessed
HELP PLZ
tnx david
Did you tried the "Recover microdrive" option? (there are two possibilities - format or recover microdrive). Anyway, this seems to be a quite common problem, unfortunately...
thank you very match
it is working..
tried the "Recover microdrive
Yes i tried the "Recover microdrive ,it not help
tnx david
Help for FAT Corruption on MicroDrive
I experienced same Prob's in the past and was struggeling to get this fixed.
Switch off Device by pressing On/Off Button for several seconds.
when Off, take out the battery for about 30 seconds or so, then re-insert the Battery, switch on Ameo/Athena again by pressing On/Off for some seconds. After that, Microdrive should reappear....
next steps....
First: I recovered my lost data with Ac[email protected] by connecting my T-Mobile Ameo (DE) via WM5Storage and USB Connection to my WinXP-based Laptop. In most cases the Directory names are lost, but the DataFiles were recovered perfectly in shape.
Second: after having recovered the Contend of my MDrive, I reformated the Microdrive via WinXP Explorer right-click menu 'Format'. Choose FAT32 as Format, do NOT use quick format, as it will not really hit all sectors with reformat.
Third: After Soft-Reset on the Ameo/Athena go to all Applications and set configuration to NOT storing anything on MicroDrive. Use SD-Card or Device Mem instead.
Forth: Switch off Device by pressing On/Off Button for several seconds.
when Off, take out the battery for about 30 seconds or so, then re-insert the Battery, switch on Ameo/Athena again by pressing On/Off for some seconds.
Well, you are now done.
You may now reconfigure any Application to use Microdrive for Storage, but do it Step by Step. Until Now, I can not tell,if any and/or which Application had impact in the past. I reactivate step by step, 1 App per week, to check...
...Until now, my MicroDrive is perfectly in a healthy state...
AND Very important !!! It looks like the Build-in Microdrive Format Tool does not work correctly. Low level checks after formating with this tool did show problems with the FAT-Tables. some tools show FAT12 (which can not address 8GB fully), some show FAT16 (Can address 8GB, but is not supported from most OS), some show FAT32 (which is best choise for that size)
SO, my conclusion is to NOT use MicoDrive Format Tool at all....
Till now, it's paying off for me....
Update from years later......
some additional infos: To prevent ocassional corruption look a likes(see below), disable any auto startup routines from Navigation Software(e.g. TomTom, Navigon) to be found on SD-Card or elsewhere and mainly located in Dir called 2577. Those may interfere with the initialisation of the MD and then, Directory of the MD shows some very strange File and directory names.
If you prevent the autostarts, after switching the device totally off(holding Power button some seconds) and switch on again, this will recover to the original Data, Names und Files on the MD.
I found this, due to the fact, that after this corruption look a like, the Memory Page of Taskmanager still showed the original number of used space on the MD. so I started to do some try and error.....
Well, taking both steps, Format and disable Autorun, I haven't had a corruption sign since now more than one year....
UweWeber said:
I experienced same Prob's in the past and was struggeling to get this fixed.
Switch off Device by pressing On/Off Button for several seconds.
when Off, take out the battery for about 30 seconds or so, then re-insert the Battery, switch on Ameo/Athena again by pressing On/Off for some seconds. After that, Microdrive should reappear....
next steps....
First: I recovered my lost data with [email protected] by connecting my T-Mobile Ameo (DE) via WM5Storage and USB Connection to my WinXP-based Laptop. In most cases the Directory names are lost, but the DataFiles were recovered perfectly in shape.
Second: after having recovered the Contend of my MDrive, I reformated the Microdrive via WinXP Explorer right-click menu 'Format'. Choose FAT32 as Format, do NOT use quick format, as it will not really hit all sectors with reformat.
Third: After Soft-Reset on the Ameo/Athena go to all Applications and set configuration to NOT storing anything on MicroDrive. Use SD-Card or Device Mem instead.
Forth: Switch off Device by pressing On/Off Button for several seconds.
when Off, take out the battery for about 30 seconds or so, then re-insert the Battery, switch on Ameo/Athena again by pressing On/Off for some seconds.
Well, you are now done.
You may now reconfigure any Application to use Microdrive for Storage, but do it Step by Step. Until Now, I can not tell,if any and/or which Application had impact in the past. I reactivate step by step, 1 App per week, to check...
...Until now, my MicroDrive is perfectly in a healthy state...
AND Very important !!! It looks like the Build-in Microdrive Format Tool does not work correctly. Low level checks after formating with this tool did show problems with the FAT-Tables. some tools show FAT12 (which can not address 8GB fully), some show FAT16 (Can address 8GB, but is not supported from most OS), some show FAT32 (which is best choise for that size)
SO, my conclusion is to NOT use MicoDrive Format Tool at all....
Till now, it's paying off for me....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UweWeber,
This is a good post. Thanks for your good effort.
This [email protected] thingy. Is it a software that runs on the PC side? Where can I get this software?
Keep up the good work, mate.
Great "step by step".
So am I getting it right that for people who don't yet have a problem with their Ameo MD, to prevent problems they should reformat at FAT32 in XP? ie start the step by step from step 2.
Great!
What Wm5 storage version are you using (1.73, 1.75,...) ?
Currupted MD - No Way
i'm using V1.73.
I would not recommend to format perfect working MDrive. Think that it's formated correctly in Factory.
Mine has worked fine in the beginning, until..., I have reformated it, because that looked faster to me than deleting 12000 files by hand from it. That was the point, where trouble started....
eaglesteve said:
UweWeber,
This is a good post. Thanks for your good effort.
This [email protected] thingy. Is it a software that runs on the PC side? Where can I get this software?
Keep up the good work, mate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check out http://www.active-undelete.com
This piece of code has protected my a.. several times...it's worth the $$
and it's running on PC. Please check Options, not sure if all available versions support Removable Media.
I personally use Enterprise Network Edition V5.5.000
Uweweber,
Great post. This is the one part of the X7501 (WM6) I felt was the greatest let down.
Btw, I found V1.8 at http://www.freewareppc.com/communication/wm5torage.shtml.
I was hoping to make clear to all (and to me) your instruction to " go to all Applications and set configuration to NOT storing anything on MicroDrive."
1) Did you mean go to 'Settings', 'System', 'Storage Manager' then select the Mirdodrive (Dsk1) then properties then unmount?
2) Do you now always use WM5Storage and USB to load or remove items from the Microdrive?
3) Have you ever not been able to open 'Storage Manager' - damn thing won't open now - even after a warm reset
Thanks for the tips - here''s hoping!
X7501 -- MicroDrive corruption
Fixerboy,
never told to to do anything like...unmounting MDrive...Ok. it's an Application, yes, ok - Addition to the post (UweWeber) please do not tell WM5Storage to not use Microdrive....
BTW: after Weeks of testing, no Application was the source of corruption, it was just the wrong formated MDrive...since it was formated in FAT32, no more probs...
Just updated now to WM 6 , no probs ....
Hi
Your post (I don't know why don't read earlier?) may solve my problem.
I lost many times my data on MD, but I tryed format with internal tool. More than half year I only use MD for nothing because really problematic, but me a need a storege for music, pictures, videos.
I try again use MD with your format tutorial.
So I thank your post
This is just a quick heads up. It was new to me and I had never came across the issue before on here, so I am posting my results.
I was doing some routine maintenance on my PC and I had accidentally left one of my external USB Stick drives in the machine. I noticed that in the Defrag options, it now gave me an option to Defrag the external drive. I thought to myself, thats kinda cool, I bet my 6gb Micro SD card on my phone could benift from a good defrag. I quickly popped my Micro SD card from my phone, plunked it into a USB Key Reader and told Diskeeper to Defrag the Micro Card. I was thinking, this should be great, I have thousands of files on my Micro Card, a good Defrag should be a cool thing. A few mins later it said it was done so I pulled it out and put it in back in my phone.
The next day I went to launch TomTom and it took 5 mins just to launch the app. I thought it had froze or something. I was fighting with it, driving me nuts. I re-installed TomTom, still taking 5-8mins now to load the app. When I tried to get directions it would take up to a min just to plot a route. (should only take a few seconds) I re-flashed the phone with a new ROM, then reinstalled TomTom and it did not help at all. Everything on the storage card was taking forever to load. Even the music apps were bogging down really badly.
Today, I yanked the Micro Card out of the phone, placed it in a USB key and copied the contents to a temp Dir on my desktop, formated the card, then wrote some data to the card and formated again.
Finally I put all my data from the temp Dir back onto the card and put the card back in my phone. Launched TomTom and took about 5 seconds rather than 5 mins to load. Everything is back to perfect.
I was hoping to Increase speeds with the Defrag of the Micro SD card and in fact it killed it horribly.
Lol, good to know. I would have thought the same thing!
a little common sense would have told you that would be a bad idea.
defragging is designed to 'defragment' files and put the most used files all together at the start of the drive. meaning a hdd head doesn't have to do a lot of skipping about for one file. then yet more skipping to find the next file, and a whole load more skipping to find different pieces of that file, etc etc.
the fact that solid state media doesn't have a drive head renders defragmenting unnecessary, plus as SSDs also have a limited number of write cycles the excessive writing required to move files around the card reduces its lifespan.
hope this helps
It depends
After owning several Pocket PCs with various expansion types, defragging has it's benefits and it's pitfalls.
(The following comments are based on percieved experience. I've not done any benchmarking.)
I've found using cheap card readers can definitely cause problems with cards, particularly when defragging. It can result in various errors in the files and sometimes even render the card unreadable/unwritable. Even reformatting has no effect. To solve the problem I've often had to use a digital camera to reformat the card before it can be read/written by a PC via card reader.
Multi-media files seem to be the type of file that benefits most from a contiguous file that needs to be read/written by the Windows Mobile device. Particularly video. Why this is so, I do not know. But when watching video or listening to audio skipping and stuttering seem to be much less aparent when the file is contiguous. Also, I've been able to resurrect some .jpg files unreadableby my WM device by doing a defrag. Again, no idea why.
Almost any file that needs to be constantly read seems to benefit from a contiguous file, e.g. GPS maps.
Safest way to make files contiguous is to copy the contents of the card to a hard disk, reformat the card, then rewrite to the card.
Just my 2 cents.
Would be interested in anyone else's observations, particularly with media files.
Defragging files on flashcards is pointless - skipping from sector to sector in a row takes as much time as to skip into random sectors...
Frequent writes on cards descrease their lifetime... So that - defragging anything else than hard disks is harmful for media.
maybe unrelated, but is the option "encrypt files in the storage" (or something sounds like that) from within the windows mobile's settings pose any danger? i.e. conflicting with PIM backup files etc.
thanks
Please read
Just found this article
dave852 said:
a little common sense would have told you that would be a bad idea.
defragging is designed to 'defragment' files and put the most used files all together at the start of the drive. meaning a hdd head doesn't have to do a lot of skipping about for one file. then yet more skipping to find the next file, and a whole load more skipping to find different pieces of that file, etc etc.
the fact that solid state media doesn't have a drive head renders defragmenting unnecessary, plus as SSDs also have a limited number of write cycles the excessive writing required to move files around the card reduces its lifespan.
hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said, SD cards and USB drives are flash drives and as so they don't need defragmentation and also as it was mentioned in the quote, it reduces it's lifespan.
Cheers
With Sandisk offering a 5-year limited warranty for their ordinary microSDHC and a 10-year limited warranty on their Ultra microSDHC cards and an expected minimum life of 15 years and maximum of 75 years (according to a Sandisk forum moderator) does it really matter what you do?
With storage memory sizes and formats moving so fast, who expects to keep using these things bought today on a daily basis on 5 or even 10 years' time?
Hello,
since I purchased the HD, every day or so (sometimes more frequently, sometimes less) the SD card disappears (in file explorer list there is no storage card icon, files are not accessible etc.) both when the phone is in stand-by or during normal operation.
To restore working I have to take out and reinsert the card and this is of course quite annoying. I have not noticed any corruption in the files, simply it is as the entire card is not present.
I am running the factory rom but not using TF3D. Did anybody else experience the same? Any possible explanation or is just a problem of faulty phone?
TIA
graz
The only time my Memory Card "disappears" is when I have the USB Cable plugged in from my PC and I select "Disk Mode".
Same for me, the "Disk Mode" gives the PC exclusive access to the SD card, that disappears from the resources accessible directly from the phone, but re-appears as soon as I unplug the usb cable.
cxar71 said:
Same for me, the "Disk Mode" gives the PC exclusive access to the SD card, that disappears from the resources accessible directly from the phone, but re-appears as soon as I unplug the usb cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for your reply. I am familiar with this, the behaviour I am mentioning occurs randomly, even when phone is in sleep mode (e.g. I push power and no sd card....), writing messages, etc. I am not even sure it happens when it is accessing the card...
Of course I have already tried with a brand new card with same results. If nobody else noticed this I really suspect a fault in the equipment.
I'm having the same problem every now and then the card disappears and then i have to reboot to get it back.
try it perhaps it will help
perhaps this helps
Use ADVANCED CONFIG and change under "Performances the PNP unload delay or the PNP wait I/O delay to a higher value .
xdawis said:
perhaps this helps
Use ADVANCED CONFIG and change under "Performances the PNP unload delay or the PNP wait I/O delay to a higher value .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx, will try. On the other hand I assume that everybody else is on standard values so there must be another cause why I am the only (or one of the few) to report this problem (apart for an hardware fault of course).
I have the same problem here. Ive been rebooting to get the card back, never thought about just taking the card out and putting it back in again.
Same problem with Touch Pro once a month or so. Reinserting the card without reset also works
Here is an application I heard about today, it might help:
"StorageTools for Windows Mobile" http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html
I'm not too sure if the unregistered version does correction.
But, I have used it to do a verify (found a few errors on my 16 gig) card.
Once again scan disc let me down, im back on my trusty 8gig samsung card.
My point being about making this thread, is there any way to recover the cards data?
I know this has been asked before, but heres the the details-
* the card cannot be accessed or detected in a card reader
* in the phone the card can be detected but it wont let me unmount/ mount or format the card
The card literly just died, no factors such as power issues via readers, water or temp.
Totally gutted as theres pics on there i really wanted to keep
Hiya
Not sure if it will work, but try putting it into another phone or a digital camera and see if its recognised by those, if it is you will probably have the option to then format it, once formatted it should then be recognised by windows.
Devices such as mobile phones dont normally do a low level format, meaning you could then use a 3rd party software such as Easus data recovery to recover your info.
I've had major issues with SD cards in my DHD, the phone just refuses to "see" any card at all, tried 3 different ones in total ;(
not sure how it'll work if it can't be seen by your reader though.some readers won't read sdhc cards,so maybe try a different reader(a friends)
http://www.petapixel.com/2010/10/13/how-to-recover-deleted-photos-from-a-memory-card-with-photorec/
No joy in either card reader or camera, i guess i lost everything?
Im so pissed and gutted!
http://www.htcaccessorystore.com/uk/p_htc_item.aspx?i=173933
This is what i brought and where i got it from, i be honest i couldnt give a crap about getting a replacement im just gutted i lost the data on the existing one!
.......right in the middle of a super demanding day, the message "damaged SD Card / Reformat" appeared on my Epic, when I least expected it (inopportune is the word)............ changing firmware is never without its more interesting moments, + this may or may not be a symptom (went froyo to gingerbread), however,........... am sharing this post to the Epic community, as i sense this to be an important enough issue...........no one really knows the specific cause of sd card corruption + failure: it's variable + always somewhat circumstantial (ie, saw it mentioned elsewhere that overheating from an overclocked cpu could cause damage as well)...................so, moving forward I simply want to contribute as a brief description, here, how i was able to recover (most) of the files from my 'damaged micro sd card:'
First, when i saw 'damaged sd card / format card' on the phone, when it became possible 4 me to do so many hours later, instead of 'formatting' I replaced the damaged card for a new one (pny 16gb sdhc class 10)...booted the phone everything was fine (15.91gb space available)........as expected, no files in the SD Card......................next:
(1) placed 'damaged' sd card into the reader that came w/ the device, and mounted to pc, selected the drive (followed by confirmation beep 'device detected' sound, then the language: 'd:\ not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable' came on the screen..........went to RUN and typed CMD........from new window, I typed Chkdsk d: /r and the PC began reading the contents of the damaged SD card (most of the android zip files etcetera were there, as were a number of files w/ no content) + next i typed 'exit' (no quotations, just the letters) to return to the windows desktop.......OK, so now the only files missing are the pix + video mov's (far as I can remember).
..........(2) next, to recover pix + video, from the pc desktop i opened ZARecovery (if you do not already have it go to Data Recovery Software, Solutions, Tutorials, Forum - ZAR Data Recovery and download the free recovery program from that site).
.............(3) from the ZARrecovery main page, selected sd card as device, selected 'next', selected 'root' folder for all files that ZAR was able to detect as recoverable, entered destination folder name (for transfer of recovered pix + video to PC....note: NEVER to sd card itself!), + lastly, selected 'start copying selected files'.........and that was it, closed ZAR + began viewing the content of the recovery folder to get an assessment of what had actually been recovered, and what had been lost.................fortunately 4 me, the loss was minimal, as I tend to create backups (Nandroids, every half year; pic, videos, email attachments = pretty regularly).
Hope this helps those of you that have been experiencing microSD Card damage (from whatever source).
Remember, + not to speak to the Choir, but can not to overstate this: BACKUP............. BACKUP............. BACKUP.............BACKUP
MODS STICKY THIS!!!!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
I see you took my advice, nice.
PLEASE STICKY!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Thank you to the Mod that stickied this. Sonarchist...you have arrived!
sonarchist said:
.......fortunately 4 me, the loss was minimal, as I tend to create backups (Nandroids, every half year; pic, videos, email attachments = pretty regularly).
Hope this helps those of you that have been experiencing microSD Card damage (from whatever source).
Remember, + not to speak to the Choir, but can not to overstate this: BACKUP............. BACKUP............. BACKUP.............BACKUP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yikes! I make nandroids before I do anything I consider major like updating Superuser when the reviews are sketchy, or when I do something like apply a new patch, a new tweak, or anything that I think could give me trouble. As I have my phone tuned absolutely perfect, where I want to bring my phone back to normal with a minimum of work.
I guess I am lazy. I nandroid every 3 to 7 days.
mouseglider said:
I nandroid every 3 to 7 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.....you're awesome!.......my personal history, when I find stability, is to live w/ a perfect set-up for as long as i can surf that wave (hence: nandroid every 6 mo's)........but this is being idealistic.........for example, when testing a beta ROM, an average of at least 6-9 nandroids in the sd card thru several versions of the beta, and at least 3 in the Nandroid Folder in the pc (which is altogether another story: visualizing + creating a pc backup that is operative in a worse-case scenario.)
sonarchist said:
.....you're awesome!.......my personal history, when I find stability, is to live w/ a perfect set-up for as long as i can surf that wave (hence: nandroid every 6 mo's)........but this is being idealistic.........for example, when testing a beta ROM, an average of at least 6-9 nandroids in the sd card thru several versions of the beta, and at least 3 in the Nandroid Folder in the pc (which is altogether another story: visualizing + creating a pc backup that is operative in a worse-case scenario.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should add that one of the reason I nandroid so often, is that if I do it every 3 to 4 months (on my wife's epic because she travels) when she gets back, I have a ton of updates to catch up on - mine of course is always up to date.
mouseglider said:
I should add that one of the reason I nandroid so often, is that if I do it every 3 to 4 months (on my wife's epic because she travels) when she gets back, I have a ton of updates to catch up on - mine of course is always up to date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha! Same with me and my GFs...she never updates! So if your sd card crashes you will seriously need this tutorial since all your nandroids are there.
Awesome info. Thanks for sharing!
kennyglass123 said:
Haha! Same with me and my GFs...she never updates! So if your sd card crashes you will seriously need this tutorial since all your nandroids are there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am so paranoid about sd crashes and corruption because I have had my share when upgrading to the next bigger card (had a 2,4,8,16, and now 32gb in each epic) that I sync my epic cards to my PC on two separate drives for both my wife and myself (my PC has three physical (not virtual)l hard drives C, D, E) every 3 to 4 weeks. So for her, I am pretty safe except for those long updates in between her trips home. I feel pretty safe in case I do something stupid, which I do from time to time.
I actually tried to convince her to get an iPhone, because I think there would be less updates than Android, but she won't give up the physical KB. Not that I don't like updates, but I set her epic to be a 98% clone of mine, so we each have a lot of apps and each app is eventually updated and often!
mouseglider said:
I should add that one of the reason I nandroid so often, is that if I do it every 3 to 4 months (on my wife's epic because she travels) when she gets back, I have a ton of updates to catch up on - mine of course is always up to date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NITDH.......you don't want that!........(nandroid-in-the-dog-house)....lol
.........arrival of the backup evangelists!
kennyglass123 said:
Thank you to the Mod that stickied this. Sonarchist...you have arrived!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
........a hi-5 to the Mods for Sticky'ing this: thanks guys!....... props to kennyglass123 + xopher.hunter for suggesting it to 'em.............nothing more stressful than going down that gopher hole attempting to recover data, it's no picnic!...........so am hopeful that we can salvage some valuable data + find ways to hinder that inevitable moment when the sd card reads 0%.............as they say, there's many more ways than 1 to skin a grape, or in this case, a corrupt microSD Card.
There is an undelete beta app on the market. Check it out.
Also, check out testdisk for when the partition table is fried.
Also, recuva. Pretty awesome, by the makers of ccleaner.
sent from my always aosp epic
mouseglider said:
I am so paranoid about sd crashes and corruption because I have had my share when upgrading to the next bigger card (had a 2,4,8,16, and now 32gb in each epic) that I sync my epic cards to my PC on two separate drives for both my wife and myself (my PC has three physical (not virtual)l hard drives C, D, E) every 3 to 4 weeks. So for her, I am pretty safe except for those long updates in between her trips home. I feel pretty safe in case I do something stupid, which I do from time to time.
I actually tried to convince her to get an iPhone, because I think there would be less updates than Android, but she won't give up the physical KB. Not that I don't like updates, but I set her epic to be a 98% clone of mine, so we each have a lot of apps and each app is eventually updated and often!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gr8 backup regimen..........'best practices' worthy.........given the 1,000 cumulative hrs leading to your perfect setup, worth all the special handling to keep devices singing!
props on the recovery
Mine took a dump today but it may be a total failure. I just got home and this is what the preliminary tests show. I would appreciate any input.
chkdsk
The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.
testdisk
Capacity incorrectly showed at 8225kb/8032kb (16gb card)
Analyze feature reports a Partition Rear Error
As a sidenote, the TitaniumBackup sync-to-Dropbox feature has probably saved my butt as far as apps/data goes. I highly suggest using it to protect against dead cards.
Sadly SD cards and USB sticks are very unreliable when it comes to data. They are easily damage and anything slight can cause them to be corrupted.
This is a great guide, glad you were able to restore your data!
Most data in flash type memory cards (excepting physical cracks in the microSD Card housing + damage to the memory chip itself) can be recovered w/ several DIY software programs available on the android market..........ugothkd shared a few of these, several posts up.........in the event that there is NO BACKUP available to you + having exhausted all personal DIY recovery avenues, there are still ways to step-up the process and very likely recover some of your data..........am quoting the following language from Recoverfab (maker of enterprise flash readers to the trade):
'In general, there are two reasons why the data on memory flash devices (cards, USB-sticks, SSD) becomes inaccessible.
Logical damage prevents access to the data/pictures on the drive, but the drive is still physically recognized by the computer operating system. In this case some specialized types of recovery software can help. Sometimes free recovery tools like Zero Assumption Recovery can also solve this problem.
Physical damage causes the drive to be unrecognized by the computer's operating system, making it impossible to access the contents of the flash-memory chip. This type of damage happens in more than 80% of all known cases. These are most frequently caused by electrical problems that lead to physical damage. Flash devices consist of a memory chip and a controller. The controller writes and reads the data from the memory chip. In most cases, recovery is possible from a flash device with a damaged controller and mostly undamaged memory chips.
Formatting is required? The controller of the memory card is not in the position to inform the PC operating system about the characteristics of the memory card. Therefore, the PC assumes that the memory card is not formatted and requests formatting. One might think that the memory card problems would be solved by formatting, but unfortunately it does not work due to the damaged controller. Instead, the computer will communicate that formatting is not possible. Such an error is a clear indicator that no kind of software (including special formatting or rescue software!!) will be able to access the memory card.
.....Recovery Process: If the flash storage device is not recognized in the computer or it is impossible to access the data on it, there is only one way to get the data: unsolder the memory chip from the printed circuit board and directly access the raw data with a programmable chip reader.' <end quote>
OK......that was a long quote!.....worth repeating, if only to begin to address the sort of things that can damage / corrupt SD Cards (+ also to give those of you that really want to recover your lost data super badly some HOPE).
Heat, liquid, dust, some of the things that WILL damage your SD Card (numerous other things can corrupt your data as well) .....then you hear cases of individuals that have NEVER HAD ANY DAMAGE WHATSOEVER...........some burnin' Q's: is the fragile nature of the card itself doomed to failure? ...If the card is going to fail eventually, what kind of data would you be willing to risk storing in there?...... if the data is that important to you, would you be willing to make a 'twin' copy? (twin SD Card could be swapped quickly in case of ER) ..... + lastly, has anyone here found a fail-safe or fairly sound way to run voluminous or frequent data transfers between your device's SD Card + pc?
sonarchist said:
Most data in flash type memory cards............. if the data is that important to you, would you be willing to make a 'twin' copy? (twin SD Card could be swapped quickly in case of ER) ..... + lastly, has anyone here found a fail-safe or fairly sound way to run voluminous or frequent data transfers between your device's SD Card + pc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, I have a spare twin identical card Lexar 32gb class 10 waiting in the wings as a backup.
I use a program that can transfer and/or sync in many different ways my card to my PC, which I do every three or four weeks. It is called FolderMatch v3.44. I am sure there is a newer version out, but the one I have does the job
I simply plug my USB cable into my PC and the other end into my epic and simply choose synchronize, then chose make left folder (my PC) to be the same as the right folder (my epic) - depending on how many files you are syncing determines the speed of the sync. Works good for me!
quick99si said:
Mine took a dump today but it may be a total failure. I just got home and this is what the preliminary tests show. I would appreciate any input.
chkdsk
The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.
testdisk
Capacity incorrectly showed at 8225kb/8032kb (16gb card)
Analyze feature reports a Partition Rear Error
As a sidenote, the TitaniumBackup sync-to-Dropbox feature has probably saved my butt as far as apps/data goes. I highly suggest using it to protect against dead cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ZAR has an 'unformat' option for Raw File Systems, you may want to explore if there is data remaining in your SD Card that you may want to recover (there's a brief tutorial posted on their website) ........ here's a glimpse:
"Unformat is the process of data recovery from a storage device (which can be a hard drive, a camera memory card, an USB pen drive) that was formatted.
The step-by-step tutorial below describes the procedure to recover data when the drive was accidentally formatted and you want to unformat the drive Windows reports "raw filesystem", or the drive is "not formatted" <end quote>
The above makes reference to a specific type of recovery (accidental format of a drive, as an example), but the application will recover from a number of file types + systems............worth checking it out.
*edit* as another example, 'accidental format of a drive' can also refer to split-second decisions we make when we guickly hit 'reformat sd card' on our device the very first time we ever encounter a 'corrupted external card / reformat?' type of message........in the moment, life goes on + it's only later that we begin to think of the lost data..................however, chances are pretty good that the data is recoverable (files are still inside the 'reformatted' sd card, only unreadable, ie RAW).