Related
a stupid trick: connect your blackstone to the PC in "drive mode", and defragment it from the PC by right-clicking on the disk drive, properties --> tools-->defragment!
...no need of special software...
i knew that it is not reccomended to defragment flash drives/cards
Why would you defrag? No heads to move to the appropriate sector, no gain from defrag.
On other devices i used PocketMechanic very often to defragment cards, repair of loose clusters and such card stuff. Allways without any problem.
But PocketMechanic doesn't work stabil on the HD, be careful!
no moving parts of flash mean seektime is very very low
and as such fragmentation dont slow things down
and flash having a limited number of writes before it dies
like a cd-rw/dvd-rw just more of them
so defragging flash mem lowers it's life because of the writes
and dont speed things up because seektimes is not an issue
memory cards are older than the blackstone!
tons of information on the topic, let's start from the internal one:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/inde...ocket PC memory cards? Do I need this at all?
I think we may look at memory cards in the same way as a SATA SSD. In this case you can consolidate free space, which is excessively lighter on the writes than an old fashion full defrag.
Software that offers this option is available, and one example is Perfect Disc 10 and 11 (to my experience/knowledge).
So my advise is that if you need to defrag your SD card, which is a type of solid state drive, try to use free space consolidation only. This will be much easier on the wearing of the cells. I'm not quite sure of the P/E specs of SD Cards, or if they provide some wear leveling, but I'm reluctant to believe the latter is provided today for SD Cards like it is for most SATA SSD's.
I think SD card defragmentation is worth it when you have a HUGE and SLOW SD card.
I have a 32Gb SD card (from Kingston) in my Nexus One. I use Google Music Beta, Google Listen and Titanium Backup a lot! Since I reinstall/often upgrade my phone (I'm a geek after all and I'm totally happy!), the Music Beta Cache if often wiped out, I do daily Titanium Backup tasks and at least 3-5 podcasts are downloaded/wiped everyday.
This means a lot of fragmentation is "building up" on my SD card. Since, it is a slow SD, I often experience sluggishness or long load time even after a "fresh" install. The OS must read large files that are splitted on my VERY slow SD card, this does not help!
The problem is to get real numbers to prove this, It is mostly noticeable by navigating through the UI and/or loading some apps.
This was my 2 cents...
Not sure what's happening. I was trying to move a 1gb file to my Sd card from my laptop. The phone goes berserk. It freezes then wont start up while the file was transferring. Then it restarts and goes to main unlock screen the restarts again. I cant seem to transfer files unless they are below 200mb. Is there something wrong with the SD card?/
Also a few times it starts off as a fast transfer but then 75% done it slows down to a point where it transfers less than 1mb/sec
Is this a persistent issue? If you are bricked, the only advice I can give is get a decent quality sd card reader (preferably bundled with a micro sd to sd card adapter). I can recommend one. Actually I have yet to try editing my sd card directly - just a best guess.
Also you might try different means of transfer. Three examples are a) mounting phone as hard drive on computer and copying (which I presume you are doing already). b) dropbox c) adb push mega.mp4 /sdcard/mega.mp4
Hi, I recently purchased a Dell Venue Pro and I am going to get it some time this weekend. The main concern I have with this phone is the small amount of storage. 8gb is simply not enough for me. Perhaps I missed something, but I've been reading through this forum and haven't found a very good explanation for newbies on how to replace the SD Card. I have actually seen some posts that say that they managed to exchange their 8gb SD Card for a Sandisk 32GB micro SD card Class 2. However, I would like to have some guidance and instruction from someone experienced doing this; I wouldn't want a bricked Dell Venue Pro.
Therefore, could anyone please instruct me with a step by step guide on how to replace my SD card without crashing my system and which sd cards are compatible? Thank you.
Believe me when I tell you this will not work. What you will end up with is a bricked phone that needs to be replaced.
If you have a device that was shipped between December and now you don't have an engineering sample, those are the only devices that can actually format the sd card to the proper filesystem and lock the card down in way you'd expect it to.
If you'd like to test that theory, simply replace the card while it's off. Perform a hard reset on the device (the CAM + VOL DN combination does not work), shut it down and put the card back in an SD reader. It won't be formatted and won't be locked down.
You might be able to format the card on a Windows CE machine with storage manager, but the most I've been able to do is get the SD card test to show a 114 not ok instead of a 115 not ok.
After that, if you're lucky, you'll be able to simply throw the old card back in the device and proceed with enjoying your phone with the original SD card. If you're unlucky your phone will not boot.
Food for thought:
In the diagnostics application there is a button for "Service Center" which displays two boxes: Zune and Composite.
When you press the CAM key during boot this puts the device into a "restore" mode that Zune is supposed to work with at some point in the future.
I'm guessing if we can figure out a way to flip the mode to Composite (currently requires a password) that the "test/debug" bootloader will allow us to format the cards properly.
It's also entirely possible that the reason the engineering samples work and the retail devices don't is that the eng samples are in this mode already.
Wow thanks a lot for the very thorough answer. Do you think we will see memory expansion as a possibility in the near future?
Ok, without trying to insult anyone, 'm gonna call Bullshxt. I now have 3 VP's in my possession. Ok....1 I dropped and it doesn't start any more. But that still leaves 2. On both of them I have removed the SD card, replaced hte card with bigger and smaller SD cards and have even left the SD card slot empty. I have NEVER bricked my phone.
Let's leave performance behind first...and not consider it. Lets just talk about changing cards.
The key to changing cards is process. Take the card out and restart your device, it won't boot. there is no external keys for hard reset. Place that same card back in your device, it will start.
To change out a card, do this:
1. Hard reset your device
2. On the reboot portion, remove the battery and then remove the card
3. Put the battery back in and let the device start up
4. Walk through startup and your phone is ready to use.
Keep this same process each time. You cannot remove a card, without first going through the hard reset process. You cannot add a card with out first going through the hard reset process. The hard reset process initializes the card to the device.
I've done this at least a dozen times, with cards ranging from 2,4, 8 and 16g. I've done it with cards pulled out of Google phones and an HD2. I've done it with cards that have never been used before. Its 1, 2, 3, 4. No matter what combination of removal and add....1,2, 3, 4. Remove a card, its 1,2 ,3, 4. Add a card, 1,2,3,4. Simple.
Now...if you want to talk about Performance....thats another conversation....
Again....no insult intended with the BS call.
Sorry...forgot to add 1 thing.....this has been described on this forum several weeks ago...so...what I'm saying is not a huge discovery from me...but rather from the guy that posted this around christmas.....I just repeated it is all !!!
Oh OK, sweet thanks for the thorough step by step guide! This is exactly what I needed.
A few questions though.
On step 2. you mention a reboot portion. What does that mean? After hard resetting what is my "queue" to remomving my battery and SD Card
Also, you never state in the 4 step process when exactly I put my alternative SD Card in. Would I put it in step 3 when I put my battery in?
Finally, you say Performance is a different story. Are you saying that replacing SD Cards will make the phone slower or more prone to crashing or working less stably?
Thank you.
I think once the phone is ready to use again, you then start the process over again at Step 1, except instead of removing the SD card in Step 2, you put the new one in.
What I want to know is, if taking out the provided SD card voids the warranty, how do you get a new phone without paying for it? Or does the warranty not cover that specification?
none taken, but your claim about the device not booting if you remove the card is false.
It will boot, sans card, with ~15mb of free storage space with no customizations. It's also likely though that if your device does boot into this state, you will never be able to get another SD card to work in it ever again.
Even if it boots into the "no storage" state it's still possible to put in the old card (in most cases) and have it work. I'm just saying that has not been the case for everyone.
Looks like I've found quite a good amount of posts from people stating that they have swapped SD cards succcessfully so might try this if I feel like I require more storage. Would anyone happen to know if there are certain types of SD Cards I should use to make this work? Also, alodar1, you have stated something about performance being another story? Would I be sacrificing performance by swapping cards? What kinds of issues would I be having?
1) Open settings-> about menu in phone
2) Press "reset"
3) Press "yes" twice. The phone will start to reboot.
4) Wait until the phone shuts down and begins to reboot, and take the battery out. NOTE: If you take out the battery too early, it will not work correctly. I waited until I first saw the Dell logo pop up and then pulled the battery, and that worked.
5) Remove the old SD card (I used a very small eyeglass screwdriver to gently pry it out since it isn't spring loaded)
6) Put in new card, replace battery, restart phone
7) Go through the setup process
That should do it. My phone hasn't crashed since I replaced the card on Sunday, so its been a success for me. I have not had any performance issues with my new card - but I suppose that really depends on your card. Granted, I actually downgraded - I went to a Sandisk Class 4 8GB card. Soon enough I'll be getting a 32GB card and trying that one out.
Ah things are much clearer now thank you very much, will try this. I'll pray my phone doesn't go bad... gulp.
Also, are you saying you were a victim of the crashes and replacing the SD Card fixed it?
OK so I'm going to buy an SD Card, a 16gb, so should I go for a class 2 or class 4? What's the difference between the two and is any one of those two incompatible with the venue pro?
Erchino said:
Ah things are much clearer now thank you very much, will try this. I'll pray my phone doesn't go bad... gulp.
Also, are you saying you were a victim of the crashes and replacing the SD Card fixed it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes - my phone crashed very frequently with the 16GB card. Many times a day. I've now gone a full week without a crash with the new card.
Erchino said:
OK so I'm going to buy an SD Card, a 16gb, so should I go for a class 2 or class 4? What's the difference between the two and is any one of those two incompatible with the venue pro?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is class 4. The problem here is that there is no official specification. The class rating refers to data transfer speed - but the requirement for Windows Phone 7 is random access speed, which the card manufacturers don't advertise. Early reports actually showed that higher class (6+ cards) actually perform worse in WP7.
I don't have the DVP yet. Will the warranty be void when the SD card is replaced/removed? Thanks.
NeverSummer07 said:
I don't have the DVP yet. Will the warranty be void when the SD card is replaced/removed? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the black tape shows "VOID" after you remove it. A prior warning would be nice, since the tape doesn't say that on the outside.
DeekoVB5 said:
Yes, the black tape shows "VOID" after you remove it. A prior warning would be nice, since the tape doesn't say that on the outside.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it really say "VOID"? I removed the tape but I can't discern any letters left on the device. However, I can see an "O" on the tape.
yep, it says VOID and the black VOID letters are left behind when you remove the sticker.
So for those who have replaced their cards, how is the phone holding up? Able to use wifi and the marketplace and IE with no crashes?
Erchino said:
Looks like I've found quite a good amount of posts from people stating that they have swapped SD cards succcessfully so might try this if I feel like I require more storage. Would anyone happen to know if there are certain types of SD Cards I should use to make this work? Also, alodar1, you have stated something about performance being another story? Would I be sacrificing performance by swapping cards? What kinds of issues would I be having?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry for the delay in replying. No, not necessarily. Personally I believe there is an issue with the specific cards Dell used. But what do I know for sure. I swapped to another 16g card...nothing fancy...just directly out of the HD2.....it worked and performance was better. A couple of friends of mine did a similar swap, looking at specific R/W speeds, class types, etc. They had mixed results. So, my guess is, there is something else that is a trigger that no one has hit on yet. I know my 16g performance is not as good as the 8g performance....in smoothness of card access. If I swap down to an 8g card...or even a 4g card....I can see the difference.....the performance is smoother.
Now, this doesn't say that those people with the 32g cards are NOT seeing that smoothness. I'm saying that I tried this as a test because I had cards laying around....and noticed a difference. The difference strongly indicates the shipped 16g cards are not what they should be. But, this does not mean the 32g cards on the market right now are the answer.
HELP !!!
I tried changing my 8GB SD card to a 16GB SD card. it booted up fine everything seemed ok, but when I restart the phone it loses all settings. So I put the original card back in, followed the same steps. Now my phone only sees 16 MEGABYTES of storage, I've tried multiple factory resets, after a reset it doesnt even go through the normal setup process. All it does is go back to the homescreen with only the normal tiles accept all the newsroom, tmobile family room and stuff isn't there either. If I pin an app to the start screen then restart the phone the pinned app is gone from the start up screen can someone PLEASE help, I'd be happy just to get it back to normal, with the original SD card in it
Hi All,
I've searched the forums and I'm unable to find a resolution to my problem.
I'm having horribly slow transfer speeds from the computer to my Atrix internal SD card. I am transferring about 7GB of music from my 64-bit Win7 PC and status says about 4-hours. Used to only take a few minutes on my Captivate.
I've tried formatting the internal card, re-flashing back to stock, different USB ports on the PC, etc all without any luck.
Any ideas before I completely tear my hair out?
Thanks in advance.
EDIT: When the internal SD gets mounted, Windows is slow to find the drive and list its contents. The 2GB external that I have in the phone comes right up.
Wow. No idea. Iwas quite surprised at how fast toshiba emmc is. What speeds are you getting btw? Oh, i do know one thing possibly. Do you transfer files a lot? Flash memory has a limited life, though many of us never see flash die or start to die. But if you do these types large file tansfers, 7gb often, youre using up write cycles much quicker. Also, the folder youre transferring to is about 12 gigs right? Say you have 4 gigs of stuff in their already, and youre trying to put 7 gigs in, more than likely youre transfer speed will be slowed down. You need space to actually to fill stuff up, and the more space, the faster you can fill it up. I wish i could be a little more detailed. I know about this from solid state drives, and the concept is basically the same, but works a little different. I dont know if that is your problem though.
I voided my warranty.
n7slc said:
Hi All,
I've searched the forums and I'm unable to find a resolution to my problem.
I'm having horribly slow transfer speeds from the computer to my Atrix internal SD card. I am transferring about 7GB of music from my 64-bit Win7 PC and status says about 4-hours. Used to only take a few minutes on my Captivate.
I've tried formatting the internal card, re-flashing back to stock, different USB ports on the PC, etc all without any luck.
Any ideas before I completely tear my hair out?
Thanks in advance.
EDIT: When the internal SD gets mounted, Windows is slow to find the drive and list its contents. The 2GB external that I have in the phone comes right up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take the SD card out of the phone and put in the adapter. Try measuring speeds via adapter. Your SC card might be dying.
His internal card.
I voided my warranty.
Just thought I'd throw this out there, when you format an SD card it asks you for the amount of "bits" you want to format it with. I would research which number is best suited for your particular SD card depending on how big it is. Cause the standard number it automatically inserts may not be the best.
edit: ignore post. For some reason when I read it, my eyes saw external SD card instead of internal. Derp and Derp.
Which of the four (well, three) USB modes are you using to do the transfer?
.......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.
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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).