Database Users

SD Card issues

So I originally asked this in Amon_RA's recovery thread, but was kindly asked to move it here. So here's my issue.
My G1 is not recognizing or creating any ext partitions using either the manual parted method or the automatic script include in Amons recovery. Using the manual method to make ext2 I get the following error:
Error: Input/output error during write on /dev/block/mmcblk0
Retry/Ignore/Cancel
Fat32 gets created fine.
I used fdisk on my laptop to create the partitions and it seems to take, but once I put the sd card back into my phone it disappears. Taking the card out of my phone and back in my laptop, the ext and swap partitions are gone. Anyone have any idea as to what the problem could be, or is my card just pretty much bricked?

SpiggidyBob said:
So I originally asked this in Amon_RA's recovery thread, but was kindly asked to move it here. So here's my issue.
My G1 is not recognizing or creating any ext partitions using either the manual parted method or the automatic script include in Amons recovery. Using the manual method to make ext2 I get the following error:
Error: Input/output error during write on /dev/block/mmcblk0
Retry/Ignore/Cancel
Fat32 gets created fine.
I used fdisk on my laptop to create the partitions and it seems to take, but once I put the sd card back into my phone it disappears. Taking the card out of my phone and back in my laptop, the ext and swap partitions are gone. Anyone have any idea as to what the problem could be, or is my card just pretty much bricked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try paragon partition manager 9.0. see if that works for you. if not hit up newegg or meritline for a new card

Bad SD Card
b0ricuaguerrero said:
try paragon partition manager 9.0. see if that works for you. if not hit up newegg or meritline for a new card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been pulling my hair out for the last day trying to figure out why it would act like it partitioned fine, but then when I did a 'print' in parted it would only show one FAT32 partition. I had the EXACT problem the OP was having.
Half my day spent looking for some other resolution and then realized I had another SD card with me (just half the size) and tried it in the Recovery with that one with complete success. No errors or anything. I'm trying Paragon Partition Manager for my larger card, but not finding an option for the ext2 (or other UNIX) formats. It's the free 2010 version so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Bad SD Card - Paragon Killing USB Drivers?
vwyankee said:
I've been pulling my hair out for the last day trying to figure out why it would act like it partitioned fine, but then when I did a 'print' in parted it would only show one FAT32 partition. I had the EXACT problem the OP was having.
Half my day spent looking for some other resolution and then realized I had another SD card with me (just half the size) and tried it in the Recovery with that one with complete success. No errors or anything. I'm trying Paragon Partition Manager for my larger card, but not finding an option for the ext2 (or other UNIX) formats. It's the free 2010 version so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, version 9.0 has the options for the needed Linux partitions. With that, it would appear I have a bum 8GB card. As stated, the 4GB works just fine - both Transcend Class 6 cards. On one PC it was having a difficult time in the formatting process after creating the partition and I had to kill the application via task manager in Windows. Then it got to where my USB port drivers couldn't start so I couldn't read via SD card adapter or USB cable to the phone with the card mounted. I'm in IT so I've dealt with drivers failing before, but I'm finding myself having to ask my friend Google now as even after uninstalling the drivers I have the same result. I'm afraid it might be due to the Paragon application. More on that below.
I installed Paragon on another laptop at home and it went through the process successfully (at least appeared to) with the 8GB card. Joy had returned to my frustrated being and I proceeded to use the restore image to upgrade from ext2 to ext3 - success! - Then it was wipe and flash. All seemed well in the world until I went into the settings after getting into the OS for the first time (again) to look at my secondary SD Card space and found it at "unknown." Looking at the card via Paragon Partition Manager once again it was showing as only two partitions instead of three with the ext3(2) being "unformatted." Just to be sure, I put in the 4GB card to verify in Paragon it's showing as expected (three partitions in correct formats).
Being the stubborn sod I am, I came to work determined to get the 8GB card working and installed Paragon on a test machine (I run a large testing lab) and redid the partitions. Removing and re-adding the partitions on the 8GB with "success" then simply unmounting and mounting the card to the PC revealed the card is definitely the major flaw all along. After mounting it came up as just the two partitions again - FAT32 and unformatted for the 2nd, even though it was only 10 seconds ago it showed successful creation of the three and formatting. Because I'm one to verify a verification I repeated my steps to see the same result. However, not only did I see this same result I now DIDN'T see the SDCard via Explorer, but could via Paragon. Inspection of Device Manager showed the exact same thing as on my home laptop that stopped being able to read the Android phone with card or adapter with card.
So, my last couple days of fighting and frustration were all because of the SD card of which I've never had a problem with it storing data for the last year with many times reformatting and re-applying data. Odd, to say the least. I am back up and running, but now I have USB drivers failing to start problem on two PC's! This is not a concern with the one at work since I'll just restage it, but I'm afraid it might take restaging my laptop for this to be fixed which as we all know is just not very convenient.
Anyhow, the lengthy explanation was more for those like me that were Googling/searching for a long time for a similar situation.
Cheers.

I have a similar problem. One of my SD cards of 1 GB has ext 2 and 3. But the main one of 2 GB can be partitioned only with ext 2. I am using Amon Recovery 1.5.2. When I press create ext 3 I get an error and not even from console it doesn't work, I get upgrade_fs not found.

adair said:
I have a similar problem. One of my SD cards of 1 GB has ext 2 and 3. But the main one of 2 GB can be partitioned only with ext 2. I am using Amon Recovery 1.5.2. When I press create ext 3 I get an error and not even from console it doesn't work, I get upgrade_fs not found.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say it IS the same problem and that your card is not being partitioned properly. The reason it can't upgrade from ext2 to ext3 is because there isn't ext2 to begin with even though the partition process gave a "success" result in the Recovery. I'm using the same Amon 1.5.2 as well. It somehow will not format as the space will be there unformatted if you open the card in a partition application with GUI.
Going to the SD Card settings from within the OS you'll see the SD Card secondary use grayed out and showing "unknown."

So what is the solution? What if I buy a new card Class 6 that can't be partitioned?

adair said:
So what is the solution? What if I buy a new card Class 6 that can't be partitioned?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say keep your receipt and return it for another. I've had issues with SD cards before where they kept going corrupt within a day of use and just returned them for another (same brand, same model) that would work fine.

It's not a hardware problem, I managed to partition it after some tries. I think that Amon RA recovery does not recognize the sd card sometimes. It worked after I hit the reboot button in recovery and pull out the battery. After that I went back to recovery and I could partition it.

vwyankee said:
So, version 9.0 has the options for the needed Linux pblah blah blah blah
.... windows .....
blah blah blah
Googling/searching for a long time for a similar situation.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bug a friend with a linux///mac machine and partition it with that. i've seen lots of problems with usb/partitioning on windows ,and never had the same problem on mac/linux. 3 microsd cards were 'unusable' according to vista, reeformated just fine with osx.
give it a shot.

adair said:
It's not a hardware problem, I managed to partition it after some tries. I think that Amon RA recovery does not recognize the sd card sometimes. It worked after I hit the reboot button in recovery and pull out the battery. After that I went back to recovery and I could partition it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You verified it worked with looking in the SD card and Phone storage settings?
I've also discovered that the 4GB card that I was able to partition without a problem was one I should've thrown out as I couldn't remember where it came from until after dealing a couple days of constant lockups on the phone (now that things are running off the SD). It was thrown in a drawer due to going corrupt every few days where the data on it was lost/gone/unreadable. Going out to get a new SD card today.
To the statement about bugging someone with a mac/linux, that doesn't appear to be the issue here since it won't work with using Gparted either (at least in my case).

Just an FYI update, that after buying a new (not the lowest end) SDHC class 6 8GB card, it partitioned just fine in the recovery image along with being able to upgrade the ext2 to ext3 then ext4. Now I'm finally seeing the speedy benefits running Cyanogen's latest ROM. No issues since replacing with a good card.

I need testers willing to sacrifice their SD card.

I think i may have come across something of a program corrupting memory cards. Twice in less than a week , I have had an SD card get corrupted by the Eco. Both times I was running the program wardrive. Both times, the program was either running or had not completely shut down before I did a restart or shutdown. When the phone came back up, the card was reported being corrupted. This time, I have everything backed up at home.
Could someone verify this so I can make sure it isn't just me and I will tell the programmer of that app about that.
The test is very simple. FIRST, BACK UP ALL YOUR CONTENTS OF YOUR CARD TO A SAFE PLACE BECAUSE THIS COULD BORK YOUR CARD (A FORMAT WILL FIX IT I THINK). Install the app wardrive. Turn on your WiFi and go and fire up the program and go for a walk or drive with the program running. While its collecting data, shut down the phone or restart it if you have that app to reboot with. If what I suspect is true, the card will be corrupt when the phone is restarted. I tried rescuing the info on it but it didn't work. Post your findings here. I have a sandisk 16gb card BTW. If you format the card and copy your backed up stuff back to the card, everything "should" be okay then, although I am not promising any success. Try at your own risk, but I would appreciate if someone else could verify this.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I don't know if it makes any difference but I'm running Damage Control 3.2.3 rom
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Testing now. Ive used wardrive several times without it affecting my sd card. but lets see......

Booting up now......
Nope. Everything is still working just fine on my SD card. Guess its just you. LOL

Im also on DC 3.2.3 FYI.

Another thing I forgot to mention that might make a difference is that before, I had maybe 6.5gb of stuff on the card. About 5.6 of that was around 4000 apk files. Maybe having that many files had something to do with it. What I'm thinking is that while the or a program was writing to the card, the system shut down before it finished writing the file(s) or updating the file allocation table/list on the card. Windows did that stuff all the time if power was lost while the harddrive was accessing. When you rebooted, you got the bsod or it wanted to run check disk. Any other theories?
I'm trying this experiment on the same card but empty and cannot recreate the problem. I will have to throw all the files back on when I get home later and see if that has something to do with it.
One last note:
Last night I spent well over an hour formatting this card with xp in fat32, just like the phone does. I did a full format, not quick. The phone seems to just be a quick format.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

[Q] sd card ext partition...............?

Hello, i was searching these forums and couldn't find my answer. I just got a new 32gb sd card and would like to do a ext3 partition and instsall S2E. I copied orginal sd card to pc, then tried to do a 512mb, 0 swap on new sd. But for some reason rom manager gives me this triangle exclamation error picture. i really want to set up my 32gb correctly like you pro's! please explain how to set this situation up. greatly appreciated.

Is gparted the easiest way? Also should I use dt a2sd, or s2e?
"the only good bug is a dead bug"

gparted is what i recommend. Ive gotten Rom manager to work as well but a lot of people seem to run into the same problem you do when using it to partition.
And I prefer s2e for its simplicity and the fact that it persists through flashing nightlies (unless you do a full wipe). Its never given me any issues what so ever. DTa2sd works great and the only problems ive ever had with it are the getting it to initially flash. But once it installs its always worked for me. But if you're on cm7 theres no reason not to run s2e

Thank so much for replying and helping me out. Going to Google about gparted this weekend and figure it out. Again thanks for your two cents.
"the only good bug is a dead bug"

Gparted is fairly easy to do. Boot your computer into Ubuntu and connect your SD card to your USB port using a USB card reader (not your through your phone). Then just go to gparted in the application list and reformat and partition the card the way you wish.
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App

Just remember that the first (main) partition needs to be FAT32, followed by your smaller ext partition.

Gparted is not as easy as mentioned above. If you use windows system and not familiar with linux, it's quite complicated for my pont of view.
I guess you have two choices:
1. Gparted under win (Gparted+VMwareplayer), faster reading speed
2. Partition Magic(but reading speed for sd card might be slower than solution 1), easier operation.

So I ran the CD and my 32gb shows 26gb at fat32 and 4gb unallocated? Is my 4gb lost? ok... Got that problem resolved, now a new one. ive made my main fat32 and then for some reason i get a flag on my /dev/sdc2 ext3 partition after ive selected apply.

So I was wondering is the flag icon going to be a problem? Or is this puppy ready go!!!

Found the problem.....faulty SD card!!!! This a lesson to myself. Never buy a no name SD card from ebay. I grabbed a patriot, made myself an ext3 partition using gparted. No flag popped up and installed s2e and we are good now. Thank peeps. Delete this thread if you want.

I know you solved this but just throwing this out as an FYI...
I have the same triangle/exclamatiuon problem almost whenever I do a backup/restore etc...
I found if I pull the battery, and immediately reboot into recovery manually -- by pressing vol down and power, the phone takes the previous command (like backup/restore/partition) and goes ahead with it...
Maybe Mines' a failing SD card...but I back it up regularly

[Q] Problems with dual boot Phiremod/HC update, expanding sd card etc.

Can anyone help me out with updating the dual boot Phiremod/HC install?
My pc is a Windows 7 64-bit and I'm having absolutely no luck expanding the sd card to use the full 8GB.
Windows 7 and Easeus don't see the partitions, and Gparted does, but won't let me expand to include the free space (listed as unallocated).
I finally managed to mount the sd card via ADB, and have copied the phiremod update zip there, but when I try to install it, I get an error (bad) and after a restart, the file has vanished from the partition.
I'm very new at this, but can usually follow detailed instructions.

Here's what I did to update to 6.3:
Insert SD Card into my computer's card reader
Download EASUS Partition Manager (also using W7 64-bit)
Take the SD Card partition (#6 I believe) and extend it using the unallocated space left (mine was about 6Gb left on my 8Gb card)
Run the job in the partition manager
Throw SD Card and boot into Phiremod 6.2
connect to computer via USB and copy the 6.3 update to the SD Card
reboot in recovery, clear cache and dalvik cache (under advanced)
flash the 6.3 update zip
Mine hung at the android... screen for about 10min then I did a hard reboot and it fired up and has been working fine.
I was getting gmail force closes until I wiped cache and dalvik cache so I added that step in before flashing.
Let me know how it goes!

Ummm.... yeah, what he said above.
Thanks "toosurreal01"
It's great when a community like this helps each other out.
-Racks

toosurreal01 said:
Here's what I did to update to 6.3:
Insert SD Card into my computer's card reader
Download EASUS Partition Manager (also using W7 64-bit)
Take the SD Card partition (#6 I believe) and extend it using the unallocated space left (mine was about 6Gb left on my 8Gb card)
Let me know how it goes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the step by step instructions, but for me the buck stops at trying to extend the partition. Easus only sees the boot partition. Gparted shows all the partitions, but won't extend the sd partition. It looks like it should work (lets me drag the extender thingy), but when I apply the action, it reverts back to the original, with no error message. Just doesn't do it.
Should I start over and reformat the card?

It wouldn't hurt. Only thing you would lose are apps you've installed.
You could always use Titanium Backup for that though.
If you do reformat make sure you do a full format and not a "quick" one so no data is still lingering on the card.
Let us know how it goes!

siskiou said:
Thanks for the step by step instructions, but for me the buck stops at trying to extend the partition. Easus only sees the boot partition. Gparted shows all the partitions, but won't extend the sd partition. It looks like it should work (lets me drag the extender thingy), but when I apply the action, it reverts back to the original, with no error message. Just doesn't do it.
Should I start over and reformat the card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a shot in the dark. But did you unmount the partitions first before applyin your changes in EAsus?

racks11479 said:
Just a shot in the dark. But did you unmount the partitions first before applyin your changes in EAsus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, no, I don't think so.
How would I do that? Card in Nook, or in PC?
Again, Easus only shows the boot partition, and nothing else.

siskiou said:
Hm, no, I don't think so.
How would I do that? Card in Nook, or in PC?
Again, Easus only shows the boot partition, and nothing else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant gparted. Sorry. Did u unmount the partition before attempting to extend it?
And when doing so. Please don't do it while card is in nook. Only when its in PC directly with a nmicrosd card reader
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

racks11479 said:
I meant gparted. Sorry. Did u unmount the partition before attempting to extend it?
And when doing so. Please don't do it while card is in nook. Only when its in PC directly with a nmicrosd card reader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, do I need a usb micro sd card reader?
I only have a regular size sd card adapter for it.
And no, I didn't unmount the partition. I checked earlier, but there is no such option in the gparted menu, and I don't have much advanced partitioning knowledge.
A google search didn't help much.
Would appreciate if you could tell me how to do this!

siskiou said:
Ah, do I need a usb micro sd card reader?
I only have a regular size sd card adapter for it.
And no, I didn't unmount the partition. I checked earlier, but there is no such option in the gparted menu, and I don't have much advanced partitioning knowledge.
A google search didn't help much.
Would appreciate if you could tell me how to do this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is preferred to use a micro sdcard reader. I assume you are using a Linux box or live CD with gparted. But there should definitely be a n option for you to unmount the partition. You will not be able to make any changes to mounted partitions.
Right click over the partition that you want to work with. It should give you a menu. And unmount should be one of the options.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

racks11479 said:
Right click over the partition that you want to work with. It should give you a menu. And unmount should be one of the options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all your help!
I'm using a live cd on a Win 7 pc, and there is definitely no unmount option in the right click menu when I boot into gparted. Not even a greyed out one.
I'll try and burn another cd and see if that changes things.

siskiou said:
Thanks for all your help!
I'm using a live cd on a Win 7 pc, and there is definitely no unmount option in the right click menu when I boot into gparted. Not even a greyed out one.
I'll try and burn another cd and see if that changes things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is very strange. There should always be an umoint option for partitions if gparyed recoginizes the drive. Hmmmm.... which version of Ubuntu are you using?
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

I downloaded the Gparted live version 0.8.1-3.iso.

siskiou said:
I downloaded the Gparted live version 0.8.1-3.iso.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. Then there shouldn't be an issue. :/
It might just be an issue with your card reader.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

Thanks again. I'll report back in once I get a usb card reader!

racks11479 said:
It might just be an issue with your card reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got a card reader and Easeus and Win 7 Disk Management can now see all the partitions.
No luck expanding the sd partition, though. The action seems to happen, but then everything reverts back to what it was originally.
No mount/unmount option anywhere to be found, not with Easeus, nor with Gparted or Win 7.
I'm out of ideas at this point and will reformat the card and start over.
Edited to add: Aaand I'm now having trouble doing *that*, too.
Tried it on the pc: no go.
Tried it on the Nook: it claimed the card was sucessfully formatted in about 1 sec, and then got stuck on that notice.
Waited 5 minutes, still stuck. Turned it off and back on, and Nook booted into Phiremod.
Any ideas how I can reformat this demon card?
Edited to add: Am now using a low level formatting tool and get "format error occurred at offset ...". The program is still running and seems to be formatting the rest of the card.
Does this sound like the sd card is damaged?

A couple other options for you to try:
SD Formatter 3.0 - Made specifically to format SD cards - http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
Partition Wizard - This is the software I used to extend the SD Card partition. Really simple to use - http://download.cnet.com/Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition/3000-2094_4-10962200.html?tag=mncol;7
I would try formatting the SD card, reinstalling the dualboot image, the using Partition Wizard to extend the SD card partition.
As far as updating, I haven't tried the newest update the when I updated from 6.1 to 6.2 I plugged my Nook into my computer, dropped the update file onto the Nook's internal memory, then moved it to the SD card with the Root Explorer app.
Hope any of that helps. Good luck!

kwyrt said:
A couple other options for you to try:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I will give those a try, since everything was still on the card after the low level format.
Who knew that reformatting would be such a problem!
Did you have to unmount the sd partition, before extending it?

I extended the partition with Partition Wizard immediately after burning the dual boot image. Never messed with mounting or unmounting anything. I'm a little new to this myself really. Why would you need to mount the SD card partition?

I didn't think I had to, but racks11479 mentioned it as a possible solution in this thread, so I thought I'd ask.
None of the programs had any success in reformatting my card, so I returned it to the store and got a replacement.
Now I'm very ambivalent about trying again and possibly messing up another card.
Can anyone here think of anything that I might have done (or should have done) to cause the card to act this way?
And if anyone feels like posting a baby step guide for someone like me, I'd very much appreciate it!
Edited to add: I just found the following
*********
It also will produce a multi partition removable disk for which windows will not allow you to re-partition. If you want to get back to "normal" disk you can reformat it with Hewlett-Packard Company's HPUSBFW.exe
***********
Also, I used an old 2GB card to reformat my NC (went fabulously easy) and then reformatted that and tried a CM7 rom, which worked, but was way too slow. This reformatted again, without any problems, so I'm not sure if the above statement (regarding bootable sd cards) is correct or not.
And if anyone feels like posting a baby step guide for someone like me, I'd very much appreciate it!

[Q] SD card problems

Hi,
I was trying to flash my HD2 when i ran in a bad problem.
Whenever I try to read or write to SD my phone freezes. I tried several SD cards.
It happens when I try to install a ROM from SD, try to partition a card or when I mount it and try to put files on it from my computer.
I also prepared a card at my computer with EXT4/FAT32, trying to install a ROM it freezes.
Can anyone help me?

RudolfVe said:
Hi,
I was trying to flash my HD2 when i ran in a bad problem.
Whenever I try to read or write to SD my phone freezes. I tried several SD cards.
It happens when I try to install a ROM from SD, try to partition a card or when I mount it and try to put files on it from my computer.
I also prepared a card at my computer with EXT4/FAT32, trying to install a ROM it freezes.
Can anyone help me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok weird but anyhow you have two things to try either:
Format your sd and try your repartitioning from your pc and start over
Or
Format sd and partition right through the advanced menu in clockwork mod recovery. Personally I always do this but keep in mind that if you require an ext4 partition you must use ext4 recobery as normal cwm is only capable of creating an ext3 partition. Let me know how it goes and if notbwe will take different approach bud. Good luck
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

rawdaddymagraden said:
Ok weird but anyhow you have two things to try either:
Format your sd and try your repartitioning from your pc and start over
Or
Format sd and partition right through the advanced menu in clockwork mod recovery. Personally I always do this but keep in mind that if you require an ext4 partition you must use ext4 recobery as normal cwm is only capable of creating an ext3 partition. Let me know how it goes and if notbwe will take different approach bud. Good luck
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks rawdaddymagraden for your reply.
I did so already, I started to use clockwork to prepare my SD card, it did create the FAT32 partition but never created the ext4, at first I was thinking it was busy creating because of the "please wait" notification. After an hour of waiting i suspected the phone hung in process, I tried so wih 2 cards.
Next I prepared the card from my computer, I used MiniTool Partition Wizard for it. I have put the prepared card into my phone and continued my installation. When I mounted the phone and tried to copy my install files it became unmounted after it started copying the file.
Finaly I wiped the card, prepared it and have copied the files from it on my computer. After I did put the card back I started te installation from it, it starts installing but it freezes after a few seconds.
I'm lost.....

RudolfVe said:
Thanks rawdaddymagraden for your reply.
I did so already, I started to use clockwork to prepare my SD card, it did create the FAT32 partition but never created the ext4, at first I was thinking it was busy creating because of the "please wait" notification. After an hour of waiting i suspected the phone hung in process, I tried so wih 2 cards.
Next I prepared the card from my computer, I used MiniTool Partition Wizard for it. I have put the prepared card into my phone and continued my installation. When I mounted the phone and tried to copy my install files it became unmounted after it started copying the file.
Finaly I wiped the card, prepared it and have copied the files from it on my computer. After I did put the card back I started te installation from it, it starts installing but it freezes after a few seconds.
I'm lost.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm..... well have you tried to do a task29 on your phone and then install recovery again and repartition.
Also, what boot loader and recovery are you using?
P.s. you can always press the thanks button as well as saying it :thumbup:
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2