Database Users

How do i format Storage card

Like title say id like to find out how do i format my MicroSD card on my phone and/or computer while connected to phone.
thanks for help

i want to bring this topic to front once more and for the last time. the deal is my card is corrupted so i have to format it- deleting broken files dont help.
any ideas?

Get a program that does it for you like Resco Explorer. An alternative (which you don't seem to want) is to insert the card into a card reader connected to a computer and format that way in "My Computer."

i dont have a card reader and resco explorer is payable isnt it? thanks for your answer

bbezja1 said:
i dont have a card reader and resco explorer is payable isnt it? thanks for your answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
7 day trial
klick me

"cant format selected storage card. check if card is unlocked." in Resco when i press format. everything is unloaded, i tried to format the moment i put the card in... any ideas?

I have the same problem, i can still use the files on my card, but cant remove/format them or add any new files. for some reason my card is write protected, though it doesnt have a physical switch. For some reason there is a software lock that is activated by unkown reasons, it happend to mine by disrupting file synchronising by pulling the cable out of the phone... (or at least that is what i think.
I have searched the internet for many hours, i have read about people with the same problem. only solution is: return it to the point where you bought it and use your warrenty, I believe it is like 3 years. I cant do it because i threw away the receipt. So only option left for me is buy a new card... they arent that expensive anyway these days....
So if someone does know a solution please let me know, but I dont think there is any...
Teun
PS. i have sandisk 8gb

You two have 2 options:
1. Use trial verison of Resco
2. Or, take the MicroSD card out and use a USB card reader and mount it in the PC and format it thru Windows.
I used the 2nd one.

first option doesnt work cause (if you read my and teunl's post) resco cant format it
second option doesnt work if you dont have a card reader. cause i only have one 8GB card and i dont see any reason to have a usb card reader when i have a usb connection to my phone.
so.. any other options please? thanks!

bbezja1 said:
first option doesnt work cause (if you read my and teunl's post) resco cant format it
second option doesnt work if you dont have a card reader. cause i only have one 8GB card and i dont see any reason to have a usb card reader when i have a usb connection to my phone.
so.. any other options please? thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, well now you have a reason. Go down to Best Buy and pick up a card reader they're only $19.95.

teunl said:
I have the same problem, i can still use the files on my card, but cant remove/format them or add any new files. for some reason my card is write protected, though it doesnt have a physical switch. For some reason there is a software lock that is activated by unkown reasons, it happend to mine by disrupting file synchronising by pulling the cable out of the phone... (or at least that is what i think.
I have searched the internet for many hours, i have read about people with the same problem. only solution is: return it to the point where you bought it and use your warrenty, I believe it is like 3 years. I cant do it because i threw away the receipt. So only option left for me is buy a new card... they arent that expensive anyway these days....
So if someone does know a solution please let me know, but I dont think there is any...
Teun
PS. i have sandisk 8gb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have that same problem. Can't format, neither using Resco Explorer nor a card reader, can't copy files, delete files, move files, anything... but my files are still there! Any changes I apply to the card, if I soft reset my Cruise they are gone, but I can still see my files.
Seems to me that the card's FAT is corrupt or stuck, and can't be modified. Mine still has warranty, so I'll have to use it.
BTW, it's a Sandisk too, SDHC 6gb.

i dont have a warranty anymore so i can throw all 8GB away? come on stop acting stupid and let someone who has any clue about this to say something

bbezja1 said:
i dont have a warranty anymore so i can throw all 8GB away? come on stop acting stupid and let someone who has any clue about this to say something
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to be rude, but with your time wasted here you can pick up a new 8gb microSD card with a reader on Ebay for $15.75 US dollars. Look up auction item 320324507199.

Hello, I also had the same problem but only until I have put on my phone the latest official HTC Rom. I was curios what happened and I have seen that with the new ROM when I insert the storage card into the phone automatically it's created on it a file named "EncFiltLog.menc" (it dose not matter if you install the new ROM with the card inside or not). I believe this file is the cause why we can not format the storage card (I can see this file on the PC when I place the storage card in the card reader). I have search the web for a solution but I had found nothing, so for me the solution was to buy a card reader and now I can format the storage card and copy files on it much more faster than via activesync. I hope I was helpful.

tacginc said:
Not to be rude, but with your time wasted here you can pick up a new 8gb microSD card with a reader on Ebay for $15.75 US dollars. Look up auction item 320324507199.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do i have to repeat myself? -.- i aint buying new card or card reader to read one single card in its lifetime. i dont have big daddy to budget me. i rather sell my TC
..
now that i see cicads answer it seems that i aint getting any usefull help here. thanks everyone for your kind of help, tho i cant call "throw away 25 euros and waste another, and if you get lucky in a year or so you will have to waste yet another 25 euros etc" help to be helpfull
DEEP regards

Like i said before, there isnt any solution available... I have searched the internet, forums etc etc etc....
If your problems are the same as i discribed, then your just ****ed.. card is corupted. if it happened because of the official htc rom that would suck
though i have a card reader, but it still doesnt work for me.
corrupted card=no solution as of yet. Well unless you include warranty and throwing it away and buying a new one.
Sorry but as far as I know there isn't anyone who can help you (and me) if you ever find a solution, let me know.
Good luck
Teun

bbezja1 said:
i dont have a warranty anymore so i can throw all 8GB away? come on stop acting stupid and let someone who has any clue about this to say something
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, let's cut to the chase: your card is corrupt, and there's nothing you can do about it. You won't be able to format it in any way. Well, you can always try tools like HP USB disk storage format tool, but you have to buy a cheap $5 USB card reader first.Anyway, I doubt it'll work.
You don't have warranty? Pitty. Yeah, throw away your 8gb card, and buy another one.
Are you angry about that? I would be too. Well... s%|t happens, live with it.

Phantom1275 said:
Are you angry about that? I would be too. Well... s%|t happens, live with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROFL ok someone sticky this please, really useful material in here
and btw Einstein, its not the card that is corrupt its the data

Help! Memory card undetectable!

Very confused, I minute I was listening to music and the next minute my memory card became unreadable. I have resetted the phone several times and have taken the memory card out and reinserted it and still it will not read that card and when booting as majority of my programs is on the card error messages on boot gallore. Also tried my sd card on my friends HTC and also same problem.
Any way to fix this problem as it still shows that the SD card has 1gig of information on it but it cannot see.
Hope someone can shed some light on this. THanks

USB?
I understand that it's highly unlikely ..........But, you're not connected via the usb cable to a PC are you? this will hide the starage card (unless by activesync)

Nope not connected to anything.. In Fact when I connect it to the computer, the computer won't recognize it either ..

Simply read these threads. Not that it will fix your card, but it will help you accept you simply need to buy a new one (given that you claim your PC also does not recognize it)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=476229
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=470184
Personally, I consider myself lucky that it is the card that broke, not the phone.

Check out the StorageTools app mentioned in the Thread above.
This has a verify option for SD cards. I used it on my 16gig card when it started behaving strange (due to some weird app I used and terminated).
Later I used the format option to fix the card - worked fine !!

Storage card "Error 13 changing to dir"

I got a new 8GB MicroSDHC (kingston),
and I received this error several times, on several occations,
even after re-formatting the card in the HD2.
Most of the time, it occured after writing to the StorageCard while connected with "ActiveSync" and using windows (XP) explorer to write to the card.
Another occation was when I tried moving files (with the device's file explorer) from one directory to another on the storage card.
I have tested the card - "Search for bad sectors" (with the HD2 connected as a storage device) - and the report came out clean.
Did anyone else encountered this ?
Does the hotfix for the storage card has anything to do with this ?

Som30ne said:
Does the hotfix for the storage card has anything to do with this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The hotfix for the storage card was to address the issue with 8gig+ cards when the camera application miscalculated the amount of storage space left for photos or video capture.

morpheus1982 said:
The hotfix for the storage card was to address the issue with 8gig+ cards when the camera application miscalculated the amount of storage space left for photos or video capture.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, So I guess the hot-fix would not fix this.
Thanks for the reply.
Anyone else had this problem ?

Oh, another thing -
it hapened mostly (maybe only) after the card had more than (or close to) 2GB in use.
(Up to ~ 2 GB, everything seemed to work just fine)

That sounds like a dodgy card. You can reprogram the cards to say they have more memory on them than they actually do.
Where did you get it from? (Please don't say eBay )
Edit:
Try this - with the HD2 connected as a storage device, fill the card with 8GB worth of files (or near enough), and make sure you can copy all those files back off. If that doesn't work then it's the card and it will need to be replaced.

johncmolyneux said:
That sounds like a dodgy card. You can reprogram the cards to say they have more memory on them than they actually do.
Where did you get it from? (Please don't say eBay )
Edit:
Try this - with the HD2 connected as a storage device, fill the card with 8GB worth of files (or near enough), and make sure you can copy all those files back off. If that doesn't work then it's the card and it will need to be replaced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a nice Idea.
I'd try it.
No, I did not buy it from eBay.
I bought it in a store that I buy computer stuff from for several years . . .

Som30ne said:
No, I did not buy it from eBay.
I bought it in a store that I buy computer stuff from for several years . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good then. At least if there is a fault in the card then you can take it back. If you trust the store though, I'd doubt they'd be selling spoofed cards.

johncmolyneux said:
That's good then. At least if there is a fault in the card then you can take it back. If you trust the store though, I'd doubt they'd be selling spoofed cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I did just that.
I went there, and requested a replacement.
We (the store's lab guy and me) checked the card, in the device, and in a card reader - in both it acted the same.
The interesting thing is - we tried 2 more cards (of the same brand and type) - the other two acted just the same.
I still have to check this with a different brand card and see how things turn out . . .

16GB SDHC not showing?

Hey all,
This morning I have noticed that the "storage card" option isn't showing in file explorer. If I click on the drop down box at top left of the screen, the only option I see is "my device" Yesterday the storage card was visible in the file explorer, but today is isn't there.
I have tried taking the SDHC out of my HD2, and re-inserting, but nothing. Plus I am currently charging the HD2 via my PC, and the "autoPlay" pops up on my screen for the SDHC, while it's inserted in the HD2.
Any ideas why I can't get the SDHC to show up on my device?
Cheers.

take the storage card out of the phone and restart the phone, use file explorer to search and see if you see a file called storage card, if you do, then rename it to storage card2 or something similar, insert your 16gb card back in into the phone again and delete the one you called storage card 2.
I have had a similar problem like this before and the steps above resolved the issue. I think it was caused when i connected to the laptop and picked use phone as a disk drive instead of active sync.
The steps above worked for a 4gig card but I also have a 16Gb card which is not recognised by the phone or laptop anymore and I have seen similar threads with this issue and hope that you card is not faulty.

xtreme__boi said:
Plus I am currently charging the HD2 via my PC, and the "autoPlay" pops up on my screen for the SDHC, while it's inserted in the HD2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This probably has to do with choosing 'disc drive' instead of ActiveSync; so when your phone is connected to your PC it will open to see the files on your phone (like it would with an external hard disc or USB stick).

HasC said:
take the storage card out of the phone and restart the phone, use file explorer to search and see if you see a file called storage card, if you do, then rename it to storage card2 or something similar, insert your 16gb card back in into the phone again and delete the one you called storage card 2.
I have had a similar problem like this before and the steps above resolved the issue. I think it was caused when i connected to the laptop and picked use phone as a disk drive instead of active sync.
The steps above worked for a 4gig card but I also have a 16Gb card which is not recognised by the phone or laptop anymore and I have seen similar threads with this issue and hope that you card is not faulty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's didn't work.
I'm quite sure the SD card ain't faulty, as my PC is able to read it, no problem at all. It's just the HD2 ain't reading it today, but was reading if fine yesterday.

xtreme__boi said:
That's didn't work.
I'm quite sure the SD card ain't faulty, as my PC is able to read it, no problem at all. It's just the HD2 ain't reading it today, but was reading if fine yesterday.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't be too sure your card is ok. I had the same problem as you, I was able to copy files to the card, seemingly without problems, but when I took a closer look at the copied files on the card, they turned out to be corrupt. Testing the card showed the card was defective. I also had the problem of the card not showing up in the file explorer on my phone.

HasC said:
take the storage card out of the phone and restart the phone, use file explorer to search and see if you see a file called storage card, if you do, then rename it to storage card2 or something similar, insert your 16gb card back in into the phone again and delete the one you called storage card 2.
I have had a similar problem like this before and the steps above resolved the issue. I think it was caused when i connected to the laptop and picked use phone as a disk drive instead of active sync.
The steps above worked for a 4gig card but I also have a 16Gb card which is not recognised by the phone or laptop anymore and I have seen similar threads with this issue and hope that you card is not faulty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had this same issue and managed to resolve it by changing the name back

Argh, I am SO dumb!
It was because I had the HD2 connected via USB on charge, so as the card was read by the PC, the HD2 won't read the card while connected to the PC.
I should have remembered this when I had a windows phone (T-Mobile vario III) 18 months ago, Do'h! Since then I have been on Blackberry for the past 18 months, but am now back on Windows Mobile
Now the only other thing I need to resolve/fix is the fact that Windows Mobile Device Centre / ActiveSync will not work when I am connecting the HD2 to my PC via USB. Very, very annoying!

Unlock SD Card

i used an adata 8gb class 6 sdcard in my focus.
when i take it out. nothing can recognize it. when i put it into my memory reader and use disk part to clear it and repartition it, the computer says no media is inserted, when it is.
i can take it out and put it back in the focus, and it works just fine. I can put in another focus and it says its the wrong sdcard for this phone.
so the sdcard works, i just need to change its format back to normal. how is that possible when windows and 3 different card readers can not detect it?
Edit: i also tried doing a windows 7 format and when the phone reset i pulled out the sdcard while the phone was off. no go.

Cant you just mount it on your card reader, then hit the Start Orb on Windows 7 then right click on Computer, choose "Manage" then choose the card and delete the partition, then you should be able to format it correctly under windows 7.

serialtoon said:
Cant you just mount it on your card reader, then hit the Start Orb on Windows 7 then right click on Computer, choose "Manage" then choose the card and delete the partition, then you should be able to format it correctly under windows 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't. the card is not detected, as stated above. windows 7 says, no media. the sdcard is 'locked'.
according to this you use the phone to unlock the card. ive tried it and it does nothing.

Even using the method i told you it doesnt show up at all? Wow, thats really hardcore then.

according to this website. the phone locks the sdcard and encrypts them, so nothing else but a windows phone 7 can understand it.
however, i am currently unable to unlock it.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news...but the sd card is now a part of the phone...there's some threads going around about this. WP7, for speed and security will assimilate the SD card into the filesystem so instead of two partitions you have one continuous unit. much like raid 0 (data stripping)
Sorry bud, there isn't a way to undo this yet...eventually there will be.

V DidDy 210 said:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news...but the sd card is now a part of the phone...there's some threads going around about this. WP7, for speed and security will assimilate the SD card into the filesystem so instead of two partitions you have one continuous unit. much like raid 0 (data stripping)
Sorry bud, there isn't a way to undo this yet...eventually there will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
seems to be true. even using the suggested methods in the linked websites i posted, do not work.

Symbian is your answer
So I was in the same boat you are in. Nothing could read the card except for my Nokia n97 mini. It recognized the card as "locked" and prompted for a password. I bypassed the prompt and went to the file manager. From there it let me format the card and it is back to normal. See, Symbian is good for something after all!
PS: I tried the same process with an E71 and had the same successful results. All recent Symbian phones should work as it appears they can handle the encryption and password. The card is now happily back in my HTC EVO.

RotoRooter said:
So I was in the same boat you are in. Nothing could read the card except for my Nokia n97 mini. It recognized the card as "locked" and prompted for a password. I bypassed the prompt and went to the file manager. From there it let me format the card and it is back to normal. See, Symbian is good for something after all!
PS: I tried the same process with an E71 and had the same successful results. All recent Symbian phones should work as it appears they can handle the encryption and password. The card is now happily back in my HTC EVO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW , good find
I just spread the word and post it on the wp7 general .

Another user reported being able to reformat these post WP7 Micro SD cards in his Windows Mobile 6.5 handset.
Can anyone try this and confirm?

Seed 2.0 said:
Another user reported being able to reformat these post WP7 Micro SD cards in his Windows Mobile 6.5 handset.
Can anyone try this and confirm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my hd2 can not.

RotoRooter said:
So I was in the same boat you are in. Nothing could read the card except for my Nokia n97 mini. It recognized the card as "locked" and prompted for a password. I bypassed the prompt and went to the file manager. From there it let me format the card and it is back to normal. See, Symbian is good for something after all!
PS: I tried the same process with an E71 and had the same successful results. All recent Symbian phones should work as it appears they can handle the encryption and password. The card is now happily back in my HTC EVO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used a friends t-mobile Nokia 5230, running S60 5th Edition, to recover my 8GB microSD. It was a pain finding the format option (no familiarity with S60) but I now have a working SD card again.

RotoRooter said:
So I was in the same boat you are in. Nothing could read the card except for my Nokia n97 mini. It recognized the card as "locked" and prompted for a password. I bypassed the prompt and went to the file manager. From there it let me format the card and it is back to normal. See, Symbian is good for something after all!
PS: I tried the same process with an E71 and had the same successful results. All recent Symbian phones should work as it appears they can handle the encryption and password. The card is now happily back in my HTC EVO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is really a great find. Now that we have a password prompt, how long before someone recovers the password? 3 ... 2 ...

rexian said:
This is really a great find. Now that we have a password prompt, how long before someone recovers the password? 3 ... 2 ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whatever it is, it isn't simple. Just for fun I tried all zero's, 1234, 1111, etc. That's when I just gave up and formatted.

That's interesting cause even with Linux the sd card wasn't recognized by the kernel.. You'd think Linux would ignore that stuff. I guess it. Prob has something to do with the way computers mount the sd card.. And the nokias can just bypass that...

theres 2 different issues we are seeing here. in my case and alvinswim case the sdcard DID NOT prompt a password. Nothing showed up. Its like it was never inserted.
in naplesbill and a few others, they are getting prompts for passwords which allows for partition editing.

songokussm said:
theres 2 different issues we are seeing here. in my case and alvinswim case the sdcard DID NOT prompt a password. Nothing showed up. Its like it was never inserted.
in naplesbill and a few others, they are getting prompts for passwords which allows for partition editing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it in an older Nokia phone I have (Symbian) and the same thing happened. It turned out that device does not support MicroSDHC. I was able to do it using a new Nokia (Symbian) device.

Same here, using a Nokia 5800xm. In File Browser, the card shows up with a red line through it 0/0 bytes. But the utility can reformat the card, no problem. Perhaps Windows and Linux look for a mbr of some sort and there isn't one, which would make the OS think there is no mountable device, where the Symbian OS ignores higher level disk structures and mounts the device using its own methods.
I'm guessing the password is probably even randomized for each individual phone, but that's based on my own fantasy. I did read up a bit on SD card password protection and the way Nokia phones store this password, the unlock code is a variation of your cell phone number. Some say last four digits, others say phone number, minus area code. I guess it's possible.

I am going to test this out on a Sony Ericson Vivaz tomorrow to see if it works on other non Nokia symbian phones.
Update:
Sony Ericsson Vivaz worked just fine

Guys, what's happening is that the phone is locking the card with a random 128-bit key. It's futile to try to guess it.
However, you *can* send an force erase command to the card to delete all the data on it, and reset the key. That's what Symbian is doing, and why it works to reformat the card.
Unfortunately, Windows, OSX and Linux don't know anything about SD cards, so they're not going to be able to help you erase the card, since they don't know how to send the command.
All of this is described in section 4.3.7 of this spec:
sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdcard/pls/Simplified_Physical_Layer_Spec.pdf