Database Users

[Q] SD Card for newbies

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

Milestone 2 with 16GB C10 TF card

hi, I have bought a Class 10 Micro SD card for my milestone 2 today.
But I found the screen will running out after locking from both button and time out. And the system will run slow down after boot up immediately. Anyone have the same situation and I would like to know is not supporting 16GB card, or brand (A-data), or Class 10 (too fast??).
Thank you and sorry for my English...

I have a 32GB class 2 card (Sandisk). Much as with yours, the system runs slowly for a brief time after startup (an icon displays in the status bar displays saying that the SD card is being prepared during this time). I think it's normal, though if it continues for more than about 30 seconds I'd say there might be a problem...
My screen timeouts etc are normal. Does this only happen when your MicroSD is inserted?

yes, this problem only takes place when I put the Class 10 card into the phone.
The blank screen shows up after once the screen locked.
It makes me frustrated as I bought the card and hope I can enjoy it.
But the error checking is super fast although I got 4GB small files inside.

Update: When I put the blank card in, it seems works fine...

An 16gb transcend class6 microsdhc card works on my phone not correctly. If the system write on the sdcard, the system hangs and work very slow. An class4 card from sandisk works very fine.
...Tapatalk

Rennert said:
An 16gb transcend class6 microsdhc card works on my phone not correctly. If the system write on the sdcard, the system hangs and work very slow. An class4 card from sandisk works very fine.
...Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly the same problem here. I bought a 16GB Transcend Class 6 card and I have problems all the time. The phone hangs and only battery pull helps. Titanium /Backup is slow and hags, etc., etc.

hey bros, I found the issue may be caused by the card slot. The card is working fine on the phone.

littlekp said:
hey bros, I found the issue may be caused by the card slot. The card is working fine on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean?

Hey guys,
i've had the same problem with my Milestone 2.
I think i found a fix :
Simply format the sd card while in your phone with the built in "format" found in "settings".
!Dont! format the sd card with your PC !
Did that with mine and my phone is running perfectly now.

wernersen said:
Hey guys,
i've had the same problem with my Milestone 2.
I think i found a fix :
Simply format the sd card while in your phone with the built in "format" found in "settings".
!Dont! format the sd card with your PC !
Did that with mine and my phone is running perfectly now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought about it. I am going to try it too.

I just formatted the card in my phone and put the data back on.
I did a quick test - tried backing up my stuff in TiB. No luck it still hang like it did before.

thank
I was to help this discussion ... I had the problem with a memory of 32 GB then decided to go to 16 gb and all perfect ...!

my card is working now suddenly on one day I put it back on the phone to test again.
I think this problem is caused by the design of the card slot which may lead incorrect touch of the contact surface between phone and card.

Hi, sorry for ressurecting this thread, but I believe I found a solution:
Put your high class cards on the phone and boot it up. On rootexplorer, go to /sys/device/virtual/dbi/179:0 and /sys/device/virtual/dbi/179:32, longpress read_ahead_kb and choose edit as text file. You'll see a value of 128. Change to 1024. Save and exit. Test if your cards are still missbehaving. I saw it on a EVO tutorial, tried here and my 16gb class 10 card worked normally. The only problem is that you have to do it every time your phone reboots.
Proof:
img811(dot)imageshack(dot)us/img811/2496/20110307034724.png (replace the (dot) with an actual dot) (the notification bar and theme looks different because I'm using Argen2Stone)

Got same problem here with a class 2 16 gb

Same issue but I have used a 32gb class 4 and it was fine. My 32gb broke and I put back in the 8gb class 4. Its fine too! I just bought a 16gb Adata class 10 and its giving me the same problems as you guys but its only when i use more than 3 gb of information. So I think the phone cant handle class 10 cards

If problems starts when you use more than xxxx GB, maybe it´s a fake capacity card.
Make sure to check the SD on pc with h2test to see if it´s fake or not.

No it's not. M2 just doesn't get along with class 6+ cards =/
Rocking with my M2 and XDA app

AragornPE said:
No it's not. M2 just doesn't get along with class 6+ cards =/
Rocking with my M2 and XDA app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Refer to my thread.
Sent from my MotoA953 using XDA Premium App

Thats not true. Im using class 6 and class 10, and both work perfectly.

help!...weird wp7 issues

Hello everyone ,flashed magldr 1.13 and a wp7 rom and my phone reboots and freezes along with when my phone goes into sleep mode and I press a key to wake it up,it usually doesn't respond or just reboots....any suggestions ?

Sounds like you're using an incompatible sd card... WP7 is very picky with what SD cards work with it. You need one with good random access speed (which has nothing to do with class... in fact higher class cards tend to have lower random access speeds).

zarathustrax said:
Sounds like you're using an incompatible sd card... WP7 is very picky with what SD cards work with it. You need one with good random access speed (which has nothing to do with class... in fact higher class cards tend to have lower random access speeds).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Confirmation
I agree with you, the symptoms are exactly like what I used to have with my first attempts with WP7 using the originally supplied sdcard (T-Mobile HD2). Believe it or not, I exchanged my sdcard with my brother's (from his omnia1) which was the same make, size, and class; voila, no more problems.
Later on, I purchased an 8 GB class 4 and tried it with WP7 and the same problems returned... so, it REALLY is picky about sdcards.
I hope this helps - as a confirmation.

Good info guys,using the mobile 16gig that came with phone...also bought a 8gig class 4 sd card yesterday and still same problem ...gonna buy another 16gig class 2 when I get home later ....do I have to flash rom again when I change sd card?????

WP7 doesn't support swapping of SDcards, so its going to reset immediately anyhow! For the sake of thoroughness, turn your phone off, put in the new SD, goto magldr's USB Flasher mode, and flash the DFT WP7 ROM.
Enjoy
Note: check out the thread on compatible sdcards before buying your new one. Cheers

bayou slim said:
Good info guys,using the mobile 16gig that came with phone...also bought a 8gig class 4 sd card yesterday and still same problem ...gonna buy another 16gig class 2 when I get home later ....do I have to flash rom again when I change sd card?????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no you don't, follow the steps from this site
http://www.techienote.com/tag/technology
you will get your information back with the old system, but but!!! if you didn't get a stable wp7 i mean if you didn't use it for a good time more than 5 days.
it would be better to flash new wp7 on ur new SD card.

So the AT&T Focus come with no card?

Does the Focus come with a memory card?

No, but it comes with a micro SD Slot.
However, there are no officially certified cards that work with the focus. You can look at the sticky of this forum to see a lit of cards that have been tested by the members.

KonAitor said:
No, but it comes with a micro SD Slot.
However, there are no officially certified cards that work with the focus. You can look at the sticky of this forum to see a lit of cards that have been tested by the members.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I gave the sticky a good looking and saw it works with the Samsung 16GB C4 card. Good enough for me. Just needed to know if there was a card in it when I get mine so that I can install one before accumulating data and stuff.

Popular formatting method?
Is there a preferred method of formatting the cards, or will WinXP formatting tool be sufficient?
Thanks

MartyLK said:
Is there a preferred method of formatting the cards, or will WinXP formatting tool be sufficient?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All you'll need to do is put the card into the phone, and then do what's called the three-finger-salute. You'll need to hold down the power, volume-down, and camera buttons until it asks to do a hard reset/format.

MartyLK said:
Is there a preferred method of formatting the cards, or will WinXP formatting tool be sufficient?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need format it inside the phone together with the phone storage, e.g. hard reset/format the entire phone with the card inserted.
Also, if for some reason the card gives you issue with the phone and you decide not to use it anymore. You need to re-format the phone again. And your card will be useless unless you have a Nokia phone running Symbian OS. That's the only device that can re-format the card that is pulled out of WP7 phones like Focus.

Using a Sandisk 16GB C4 card. Formatted in WinXP, inserted it into phone and did the "Volume" + "Camera" + "Power" button combo to format in phone and initialize it.
A little off topic...I haven't had time to use the Focus yet. I had to make a quick run to a local mall to have the Ghost Armor put on the highly scratchable "Gorilla-Glass" screen. Been reading horror stories about how scratchable the Focus' screen is.

I don't know if it's a problem or just how the Focus is with 7004 firmware but, sometimes it acts funky about loading the main screen...where the tiles are. Sometimes, generally after running an app, when I go to the main screen, the tiles are slow about loading or showing. One time I had to reboot and then they all loaded right. Other times it take a few seconds to stabilize.

IIRC, slow loading home screen is a typical symton that the SD card is not working out well. Even after NoDo update, it will be the same. Microsoft did very little to fix the SD card issues. That hints it is the Samsung problem.

Since I've got the nodo update, all in all the phone is more stable, but I have been having the same problem with the main screen taking a few seconds to load, however its only when using the xda app and nothing else. Using a Kingston 16gb c4 sd card as well
Sent from my Focus using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

aksmurf said:
Since I've got the nodo update, all in all the phone is more stable, but I have been having the same problem with the main screen taking a few seconds to load, however its only when using the xda app and nothing else. Using a Kingston 16gb c4 sd card as well
Sent from my Focus using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I notice the slow main screen loading issue when the phone is tasked with other stuff, like installing apps or updating email or news and such as that. My HD7 did the same thing from time to time. But my concern is with the installed card. It's a class 4 card and the experts are saying it isn't about speed or throughput but the ability to keep up with WP7. The class 2 cards may have slower read/writes times but they seem to be more capable of keeping up with WP7.
One thing is sure, I won't buy one of those highly over-priced certified models. I'll wait till the larger cards get certified and buy the common version...the one without the expensive WP7 logo.

Using larger than 8GB SD

I'm sorry to be bothering ya'll again but, I have a question in regards to usable SD card sizes to install CM7 on. Here is the issue I'm trying to work with. I'm going to be taking rather long bus ride fairly soon (southern Missouri to Copeland, Idaho) and I'm wanting to install a couple of compressed movies on my Nook to watch while traveling. I know I can just remove the CM7 SD card and install a card with movies on it and use the original Nook software, but I have problems ( big fat fingers ) removing and installing the cards in the Nook and I'm always nervous about breaking the Nook or a card. Are there any SD cards 16GB or larger that work reliably with CM7 and can the partition sections be made larger to hold a couple of movies? I would set this card up with CM7, make the partition for the movies larger and then install the movies I want to view. Is this even possible? I've been scanning the forum and don't seem to be seeing anything like I want to do.

GrampaBear said:
I'm sorry to be bothering ya'll again but, I have a question in regards to usable SD card sizes to install CM7 on. Here is the issue I'm trying to work with. I'm going to be taking rather long bus ride fairly soon (southern Missouri to Copeland, Idaho) and I'm wanting to install a couple of compressed movies on my Nook to watch while traveling. I know I can just remove the CM7 SD card and install a card with movies on it and use the original Nook software, but I have problems ( big fat fingers ) removing and installing the cards in the Nook and I'm always nervous about breaking the Nook or a card. Are there any SD cards 16GB or larger that work reliably with CM7 and can the partition sections be made larger to hold a couple of movies? I would set this card up with CM7, make the partition for the movies larger and then install the movies I want to view. Is this even possible? I've been scanning the forum and don't seem to be seeing anything like I want to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you already have your CM7 set up on the 8GB card and you just want to run it on a bigger card so you can watch movies, I have an item on my tips thread linked in my signature on how to do just that. Look at item B9 in the second post of that thread. You can also use partitioning software to "clone" the 8GB card to a bigger card.

The cloning would be nice, that way could keep my calendar, e-mail, programs, and chess game as they are. The one thing is that are the 16 GB class 4 Sandisk SD cards reliable for the CM7 as the smaller recommended 4 and 8 GB cards? I tried with a install on a 16 GB Kingston class 4 SD card and had an issue with freezing and forced close, though it is a card my granddaughter had used in her phone and gave to me when she got a larger one. It could have issues I guess, though it was working OK in her phone.

GrampaBear said:
The cloning would be nice, that way could keep my calendar, e-mail, programs, and chess game as they are. The one thing is that are the 16 GB class 4 Sandisk SD cards reliable for the CM7 as the smaller recommended 4 and 8 GB cards? I tried with a install on a 16 GB Kingston class 4 SD card and had an issue with freezing and forced close, though it is a card my granddaughter had used in her phone and gave to me when she got a larger one. It could have issues I guess, though it was working OK in her phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Kingston class 4 should have been ok, but the Sandisk 16 class 4 are great. No issues at all.

I have 2 class 4 Sandisk 32GB cards. I use these with no issues. I had no end of issues with non-Sandisk cards.

Back to pester again.
leapinlar said:
If you already have your CM7 set up on the 8GB card and you just want to run it on a bigger card so you can watch movies, I have an item on my tips thread linked in my signature on how to do just that. Look at item B9 in the second post of that thread. You can also use partitioning software to "clone" the 8GB card to a bigger card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried to copy the image from my working SD card to put it on a larger card before my trip but wasn't successful. I have been trying to finish the project since I returned with no success. I am using the Win32diskimager program but I am having a bit of a hitch. When I start up the program it will open up but all of the options ( cancel - read - write ) are grayed out and I cannot seem to make an image. I have redownloaded copies fresh and installed them into different folders, but I get the same result. Can anyone give me an idea of what I am doing wrong? I am doing all of this on a new desktop computer (well, new to me anyway) computer with Windows 7 and I'm using a USB card reader/writer as suggested. I thought maybe it was a problem with the card reader but I've tried 4 different brands, all with the same result. I've looked for more information but seem to be finding more porn sites than information. Sorry to be a pain in the backside

I am using a Sandisk 32 Gb Class 4 SD Card - I wrote Leapinlar's modification of the Verygreen Installer ("larger Version 4) using win32 disk imager, installed the Kanged CM7 build, and finally also installed the modded CWM recovery (the special one for SD Cards). I also made a nandroid backup to the card and CM7 on the SD card works flawlessly.
BTW, Amazon has a very good price on this 32 Gb card - got mine for $17.

GrampaBear said:
I tried to copy the image from my working SD card to put it on a larger card before my trip but wasn't successful. I have been trying to finish the project since I returned with no success. I am using the Win32diskimager program but I am having a bit of a hitch. When I start up the program it will open up but all of the options ( cancel - read - write ) are grayed out and I cannot seem to make an image. I have redownloaded copies fresh and installed them into different folders, but I get the same result. Can anyone give me an idea of what I am doing wrong? I am doing all of this on a new desktop computer (well, new to me anyway) computer with Windows 7 and I'm using a USB card reader/writer as suggested. I thought maybe it was a problem with the card reader but I've tried 4 different brands, all with the same result. I've looked for more information but seem to be finding more porn sites than information. Sorry to be a pain in the backside
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GB. I think the problem with win32diskimager for you is you have not selected the card reader drive with the upper right hand box. Those lower boxes will stay greyed out until you have a drive selected in that box.

leapinlar said:
GB. I think the problem with win32diskimager for you is you have not selected the card reader drive with the upper right hand box. Those lower boxes will stay greyed out until you have a drive selected in that box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You also have to give it a file name prior to reading or writing... you'd think you could read the SD then give it a file name... but it doesn't work that way with Win32DiskImager

It appears that the USB on my "new" desktop was bad and causing the problem. Found this out after a smart young fella I let hunt squirrel on my property took a look at what I was trying to do.Took it back to the store where I purchased it and they replaced the motherboard under warranty. They weren't very happy about it as the only board they had for the processor was a bit on the expensive side and I had to persuade them that it would be better to make me happy, then themselves. I picked it up yesterday afternoon and worked with it last night. After a couple of tries I made an image and after a couple more had the image on my new 16 GB SD card. This morning after chores I installed a free partition manger and expanded the SD partition to take up the rest of the space, put it in the Nook and it booted right up. I'm so happy, I fired up the wood burning oven in the yard and I'm going to have me some roast chicken and roasted fresh vegetables for dinner tonight with a big bottle of cold, home brewed mead. Thanks to everyone for your help. Gonna try to put a movie on the card later and see if it will work later, unless I have more than one bottle of mead that is. This Nook stuff aint always easy but its getting to be a bit fun.

Ya gotta give it up, the man knows how to party.