Database Users

Strange MicroSD Problem

As some of you know, the Hermes has some problems recognizing the MicroSD card at times. I've read for some solutions for this.
However that is not my problem.
It recognizes fine, but some things disappear randomly. For example, one day all my music in a folder on the card will disappear, then the next day, all my music will appear again.
My main problem is the "My Documents" folder. This folder is automatically created whenever pictures/videos are taken. Recently, I had to use the camera alot and I have the setting on the camera so that it saves to the storage card. However, if I go back to look for it in the "My Documents" folder, there is nothing in there. I put the MicroSD card into the transflash adapter and put it into the adapter for the computer. It doesn't show the files.
Now I know that it took the pictures and saved it because each time I take a photo, the storage on my card goes down. It's probably hidden somewhere.
Is there any way I can find these files?
Thanks
Edit: I would like to clarify that this is a 1GB card.

This is the same issue..
Who is the manufacturer of the card, and where was it made?
If it is not Kingston with a Made in Japan stamp on the tiny MicroSD card itself, then get one.

Ahh yes I read your post. I have a cheapo SanDisk. Will pick up a Kingston after I recover some of my files!
Anyone know how I can access these files though? They're there, but it seems hidden.

I'd love to find out where these "hidden files" are on my card. Any help? I have a Sandisk 2.0GB made in Taiwan and i've been experiencing these problems too. I had no clue it had to do with where the card was made.
I was going to reformat the card, but if I can get the pix back from it i'd be super psyched! TIA.

Files are missing from the memory card!

Hi,
I am having a weird problem and that is any file that I copy on the memory card goes missing and I can not see it. Files are on the card though since checking the memory card size is giving the approximate correct used space. Is there anyone else having the similar issue? I tried even a hard reset but it didn't help. by the way I am running TouchFlo v14 for the wing.
Also is anyone know how to format a memory card, I couldn't find it anywhere.
thanks,

The disappearing storage cards is a common thing.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=294324&highlight=disappearing+sd
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=304346&highlight=disappearing+sd
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=289980&highlight=corrupt+SD
As far as formatting the card, I use a program called CNETX flash format which installs on the phone.

Missing 1go Kingston card
I carefully followed all of the above instructions for the pagefile change. It appears to work///got the dos window etc. but upon restart, my storage card with all the programs has disappeared...nowhere to be found "not installed"!
What did I do wrong please??? have I somehow destroyed the card? Is the disappearing act related to this tweak or simply coincidental. I would really appreciate some feedback here!

wow at first i thought that this is only a problem for a few but it seems many suffer from it! i think i am going to use the last link for future updates on this issue. i just formatted my device to see what will happen...
which instructions did you use shepperd?

actually i lost all the pictures and music on my card a couple times. the first time i just recreated the my pictures and my music folder on my storage card and it all came back. the second time this didn't work and i ended up having to bring the microsd card to my friends dorm who had a card reader in his laptop and i used a freeware undelete utility to recover all the missing files.
this happened to me both times while reflashing the phone so from now on i've removed the microsd card while flashing the phone and i've had no problems since.

applecarriage said:
actually i lost all the pictures and music on my card a couple times. the first time i just recreated the my pictures and my music folder on my storage card and it all came back. the second time this didn't work and i ended up having to bring the microsd card to my friends dorm who had a card reader in his laptop and i used a freeware undelete utility to recover all the missing files.
this happened to me both times while reflashing the phone so from now on i've removed the microsd card while flashing the phone and i've had no problems since.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks. i think this is useful information. by the way can i ask you the name of the software you used in your friends laptop?
thank you!
Never mind. I think any undelete program should work...

my SD Card is slow! Please help

Hello,
I was using my HD normally until today morning when suddenly it starts to be very very slow to open programs or even usinf touchflo. I reset the telephone and the problem continues. So I´ve tried to reset it without the SD Card (SanDisk 16gb) and discovered that the telephone started to work properly.
So, the telephone is working good without the SD Card, but with it is just a very very slow pda.
What I have to do?
Sorry about my english.
Luiz Victor

Apparently the allocated cluster size during formating makes a big difference in performance, have you formated yours before using it? You can copy all the contents to your hard disk, format the card through windows and move everything back, see if that helps. Also found a couple of good sites explaining this by searching google for "microsd allocated cluster size".

Reformat the card. I experienced the same thing with mine after taking a photo and aparantly it became written on a bad sector or something on the card. So HTC Album constantly tried to read the file to present the thumbnail and the phone became very, VERY slow. Be sure not to just make a quick format but to check for errors after that, because if you don't, you'll have the same problem again.

HD2 destroyed my SD card?

Hello.
After trying the android booting, for 5-6'th time (all working), now the phone can't see the SD card. I thought it was only on the phone, but when i insert the card, in adapter and connect to pc, then NOTHING happens. Like if the card wasn't there.. Hmm, any clue? Usually I just formatted. But now, I can't format a SD card which "isn't there."
Please.

any one??? :S

mooooooa said:
Hello.
After trying the android booting, for 5-6'th time (all working), now the phone can't see the SD card. I thought it was only on the phone, but when i insert the card, in adapter and connect to pc, then NOTHING happens. Like if the card wasn't there.. Hmm, any clue? Usually I just formatted. But now, I can't format a SD card which "isn't there."
Please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like your sd card maybe corrupt, they can die for no apparent reason, its happen to me twice in about 4yrs, tho i always buy from CEX they offer a 1yr warranty & just replace it if its within that time.
There's been a few threads about this;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712281
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=646731

Which brand?
mooooooa said:
Hello.
After trying the android booting, for 5-6'th time (all working), now the phone can't see the SD card. I thought it was only on the phone, but when i insert the card, in adapter and connect to pc, then NOTHING happens. Like if the card wasn't there.. Hmm, any clue? Usually I just formatted. But now, I can't format a SD card which "isn't there."
Please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the brand of the memory card?

hey dude,i got the same problem as yours few days ago..cant do much abt it,i just buy a new one..some says the htc that makes the sd card problem

Hi,
My 8 GB sd card lags when i`m scrolling in the file manager.
In addition, the sd card drains the HD2 battery. I loose 35% in 6 hours in flight mode, but only 4% when not in flight mode without the sd card... ( this also yields for the original sandisk 2 GB sd card that was supplied with the phone).
Anyone experienced the same issue?
Is this hardware or software related, and can i fix this myself?

Error check your microSD card using your computer then switch your phone off, put the card back in it and switch your phone back on. The phone will need to index your music/video files etc so go to the relevant tabs and let it do its stuff. See how that helps.

mooooooa said:
Hello.
After trying the android booting, for 5-6'th time (all working), now the phone can't see the SD card. I thought it was only on the phone, but when i insert the card, in adapter and connect to pc, then NOTHING happens. Like if the card wasn't there.. Hmm, any clue? Usually I just formatted. But now, I can't format a SD card which "isn't there."
Please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i got a new HD2 and it came with a MicroSD card. I put a couple of cooked ROMs on it and everything was fine for about a week and then the card jsut stopped working. I didnot use it on any other phone or on my PC and it just died.
I own an HTC Hero as well and i put the card in it but it wouldnt recognize it. It has never happened to me before. Never has a card died on me.
I think its a problem with the way the HD2 accesses the SDcard. I wouldnt know specifics but this is the first phone that fried my SD card.

Hey guys, I had the same issue. The SD card stopped working and cannot be formatted now via computer.

My experience with Windows Mobile is that the SD/CF driver is the weakest link. The problem seems to be simultaneous accesses drive it bonkers. I've had the disappearing card problem on other PDAs but usually removing it, doing a reboot with it out, and then inserting it after the reboot is complete will fix it. If it doesn't show up immediately DON'T do anything for a while, it could be doing a CHKDSK on the card, and if you mess with it it will screw it up worse.
Once it shows up what I would recommend is hooking up via USB in CF Disk mode (not Activesync) and doing a format on the drive from Windows.
Last night I got a new 32gb Class 4 MicroSD from China (unnamed) and stuck it in, worked fine, so I backed up all my data to my 'puter off the T-Mobile Class 2 16gb and changed to the new 32gb SD. I started the copy and after a while went to bed.
This morning I got up and it had died during the copy. It was giving me an error on the new MicroSD. It had copied about 75% but was asking to continue or skip. I ended up having to cancel it because it appeared full but it was not. After a reboot I found a ton of FILEXXX.CHK files which indicated it was doing a chkdsk.
Looking at it with SoftWinter.com's Storage Tools the disk was formatted with 512 byte cluster size, way too small for such a large disk, so it was not really out of space just out of cluster nodes. If you have lots of files (I had 10,000) each takes up at least one, even if the file is only 5 bytes. So I reformatted it from the 'puter to 32k cluster size and started the copy over. Seems to be working better now.
Please note that using larger cluster size also will help performance when writing and reading large files as it has to do less directory accesses. Small cluster size is good if you have a lot of small files as it doesn't waste as much space. You lose on average 1/2 the cluster size for each file, as the last node is almost never full.

mknewman said:
My experience with Windows Mobile is that the SD/CF driver is the weakest link. The problem seems to be simultaneous accesses drive it bonkers. I've had the disappearing card problem on other PDAs but usually removing it, doing a reboot with it out, and then inserting it after the reboot is complete will fix it. If it doesn't show up immediately DON'T do anything for a while, it could be doing a CHKDSK on the card, and if you mess with it it will screw it up worse.
Once it shows up what I would recommend is hooking up via USB in CF Disk mode (not Activesync) and doing a format on the drive from Windows.
Last night I got a new 32gb Class 4 MicroSD from China (unnamed) and stuck it in, worked fine, so I backed up all my data to my 'puter off the T-Mobile Class 2 16gb and changed to the new 32gb SD. I started the copy and after a while went to bed.
This morning I got up and it had died during the copy. It was giving me an error on the new MicroSD. It had copied about 75% but was asking to continue or skip. I ended up having to cancel it because it appeared full but it was not. After a reboot I found a ton of FILEXXX.CHK files which indicated it was doing a chkdsk.
Looking at it with SoftWinter.com's Storage Tools the disk was formatted with 512 byte cluster size, way too small for such a large disk, so it was not really out of space just out of cluster nodes. If you have lots of files (I had 10,000) each takes up at least one, even if the file is only 5 bytes. So I reformatted it from the 'puter to 32k cluster size and started the copy over. Seems to be working better now.
Please note that using larger cluster size also will help performance when writing and reading large files as it has to do less directory accesses. Small cluster size is good if you have a lot of small files as it doesn't waste as much space. You lose on average 1/2 the cluster size for each file, as the last node is almost never full.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey
i hope for your sake im wrong, but as far as ive been able to find out in my own searching, only san disk has released a 32gb micro sd & its only class 2.
there has been a lot of talk of fake 32gb micro sd's from china, most are actually 4gb re-programed to read as 32gb on your phone or pc, but when you start to fill them with files more than their actual capacity they will only overwrite prev' files & become corrupt.
i actually pick up 1 (32gb) last weekend from a local store, tried to copy the contents of my 16gb, 7gb copied then an error occurred, 2nd attempt 9gb copied but files unreadable by phone or pc, fortunately i always buy from this store & they refunded (£50), straight away, still have 2 16gb cards ive had for about 9mnths with no probs.
there is another longer thread over in the Q&A section, you guys may find some useful feed back over there: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=646731

Well, the one I got says SanDisk and I have done a full format and surface analysis, it checks out, but I am having trouble writing to it. Not sure what is up with it right now. I knew it was a fake but I thought it was a real fake, not a piece of junk. I hope you are wrong.

I´ve got problems too. I have two SanDisk 16 GB microSDHC cards and both of them are giving similar problems.
I´ve got my HD2 a few days ago and initially I used my old 16 GB card I bought with the X1 (then used with my TP2 and latest the HD2). Everything was working fine initially but then the problems arose. Now I have those problems:
1. Audio Manager has problems reading my music library. iPlay can read it though. Windows Media Player takes a long time building my music library but manages to do that eventually.
2. HTC Album can read my albums sometimes - sometimes not.
3. Resco Photo Manager can read the albums but sometimes it takes a long time to do it.
4. The computer can access the card without any problems after formatting and it seems not to be any problems reading or writing files to it. Installations of cabs stored on the memory card works.
5. Total Commander can access the card without any problems but takes slightly longer time than before to show all folders.
6. Running chkdsk in Windows gives the result of a perfectly working card.
7. The phone is draining battery in an abnormal way with the card inserted.
8. Flashing ROMs from the card worked initially but not any longer. Now it shows the threecolor bootloader screen instead.
The interesting thing is the fact both of my 16 GB cards has the exactly the same symptoms. I will try them in my X1, TP2 and Vivaz later to check out their behaviour.
When I inserts my old 8 GB card (everything made by SanDisk) everything works without any problems. Flashing ROMs work normally etc.
I´m running the Omega XT 3.0 and are using HardSPL3. The 16 GB card has worked perfectly initially with this ROM and HSPL so I don´t think they are related.
The whole thing seems to indicate some kind of "incompatibility" between the phone and the 16 GB cards. It´s like it is unable to handle that size of card correctly. It seems like it "trashes" the file system. My older 16 GB card started to behave badly which caused me to buy a replacement and now that replacement has the exactly the same behaviour.
My 8 GB card is an "ultra" SanDisk card. The troublesome cards are Class 2 cards. I began to have the impression the problem is some kind of issue with Class 2 - because the cards itself seems to be working after formatting.
I have formatted them with either Panasonic SDFormatter and the Format SD application on the phone. Both options gives the same result.

Help on Transfering pics to mircoSD

Alright so Ive been running NAND on my HD2 for 7 months with no issues,
one day the sandisk 16gig microSD failed on me, it wouldnt read,
I contact sandisk and they couldnt offer me a recovering but they did send me to another company,
anything more than 8gig is $175 which is stupid,
I decide to upgrade to a 32gig and I just received it today, my issue is Ive transfer all my music with no issue but the pictures/ camera pics arent showing up.
I formatted the SD card already, anyone know whats going on or what I need to do ?
Thank you

you can do it via computer if you have the detected port or if you don't like me I did it at fed-ex when I had the same problem.

kevin37 said:
you can do it via computer if you have the detected port or if you don't like me I did it at fed-ex when I had the same problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive done that , the issue is , the pics are loading on the microSD card but on the PHONE it doesnt show up , none of the pictures are showing up.
the music is showing up( Mp3) but none of the pictures on my phone.
if I mount my 4gig microSD card back , everything else works...
im running NAND Andriod 2.3

DoHBoi1o1 said:
Alright so Ive been running NAND on my HD2 for 7 months with no issues,
one day the sandisk 16gig microSD failed on me, it wouldnt read,
I contact sandisk and they couldnt offer me a recovering but they did send me to another company,
anything more than 8gig is $175 which is stupid,
I decide to upgrade to a 32gig and I just received it today, my issue is Ive transfer all my music with no issue but the pictures/ camera pics arent showing up.
I formatted the SD card already, anyone know whats going on or what I need to do ?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have reformated your old SD card then everything is gone from it with no recovering it. I am asumming you formated your new 32G card. As far as your pictures i don't really know what to tell you if they are not showing up on your computer when you have it plugged into your computer with a reader.

ok maybe I should have rephrase it,
the pictures that I transfer from my 4gig sd to my PC is showing,
then from my PC back to my 32gig SD , shows up in my card and in my PC display.
when the 32g goes into the phone, the pictures arent displaying at all.
even on my 4gig card, I have a folder label PICS .
when I try to copy and move the PICS folder into the 32 gig , it is not showing up as soon as its plugged into my phone..
im stump on this one, I havent had the slighest idea what to do now, as Ive search all over the place.
the card is already formatted , a friend said I may need to patitrion the card because its too big ? but I dont see that still helping to display the pictures...
any other ideas guys and gals ?
Thanks

DoHBoi1o1 said:
ok maybe I should have rephrase it,
the pictures that I transfer from my 4gig sd to my PC is showing,
then from my PC back to my 32gig SD , shows up in my card and in my PC display.
when the 32g goes into the phone, the pictures arent displaying at all.
even on my 4gig card, I have a folder label PICS .
when I try to copy and move the PICS folder into the 32 gig , it is not showing up as soon as its plugged into my phone..
im stump on this one, I havent had the slighest idea what to do now, as Ive search all over the place.
the card is already formatted , a friend said I may need to patitrion the card because its too big ? but I dont see that still helping to display the pictures...
any other ideas guys and gals ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really see partitioning the SD card as something you need to do either as the HD2 is speced as being able to handle a 32G SD card. Besides if you partition the SD card wouldn't that really defeat the purpose of having a 32G card as it would reduce the storage space to whatever you partition it to. Maybe you had a bad format when you formatted it. You could try to format it again, but try to use some different software maybe the formatting tools found here or the Panasonic utility.

wait, lets take a step back. i understand your description of the problem. my question is, when you say you can't see the pictures when you insert the loaded 32gb card in the phone, do you mean the album/gallery application doesn't show them? have you tried seeing if the picture files are there using a file explorer app on the phone (try app called "root explorer")?
if the pictures are appearing in the file explorer but NOT in the album/gallery application, then i suspect it is an issue of the album/gallery application's "cache". these applications typically maintain a cache of thumbnails as well as a background process that periodically monitors changes on your sd card and builds/maintains its cache. try to search for ways to clear the cache to give the background process a clean slate to begin re-indexing your pictures on your new sd card.
let us know if this helps.

ASCIIker said:
wait, lets take a step back. i understand your description of the problem. my question is, when you say you can't see the pictures when you insert the loaded 32gb card in the phone, do you mean the album/gallery application doesn't show them? have you tried seeing if the picture files are there using a file explorer app on the phone (try app called "root explorer")?
if the pictures are appearing in the file explorer but NOT in the album/gallery application, then i suspect it is an issue of the album/gallery application's "cache". these applications typically maintain a cache of thumbnails as well as a background process that periodically monitors changes on your sd card and builds/maintains its cache. try to search for ways to clear the cache to give the background process a clean slate to begin re-indexing your pictures on your new sd card.
let us know if this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
acually the gallery , astro viewer, file manager , none of if shows up the pictures,
before I could swap my 4 gig or 16 gig with no issues, I would transfer pics from my PC straight to the phone and use those images or jpgs for either caller IDs or just to have them on my phone.
now, nothing is showing up which is werid , Never had an issue until I swap out this 32gig card, Could it be not formatted right ?
I will check into the cache, not sure how to go about this but I will mess with the phone now

well tried the cache thing , didnt help...
I have no idea whats going on , not sure why it wont read any of the pics in the 32gig card,
but when I plug back my 4gig , all my pics show up.
you guys think this has to do with the way its format ?
I formatted the card thru my computer , not thru the phone, I dont see any options to format it on my phone.
Cyanmods NAND 2.3.2
not sure if that helps

are you hot-swapping your cards?
Reboot the phone with the 32gb card inside and see if the phone picks them up then.
Iyts a known issue with Android when cards are mounted for USB mass storage on the |PC that cards sometimes dont pick up the new files.

I never did try that , thanks man !!

nopes that didnt help at all...