Help needed for my 9 year old son

[Martin I Pettinger]

Hi

My eldest son has to have a laptop for school as he has an inoperable brain tumour which makes it difficult for him to write. Hence he has a Compaq Aero 8000 laptop for his school work.

However the other week his laptop lost its power and he lost all his homework - files could be put back using ActiveSync thankfully. However as a surprise I've bought him a Samsung 128 mB Compact Flash Card.

The Aero 8000 has two CF slots an external and internal slot. When I installed the CF Card using the external slot it tried to format the card only to return an error 31 as it couldn't write to sector 32.

Hence I tried to read the card in my iPAQ 3850 using the CF+ Sleeve I have and my iPAQ reports that the card has no storage space. Question is do I need to reformat the card and if so - how?

My friend has a digital camera and we are going to try the card on that - maybe the camera will try and format. Is there a way of formatting the card from the iPAQ 3850?

Maybe its me and the card is too large, too modern for the Aero and it has partially formatted the card such that is no good for the Aero or the iPAQ. Hope someone can help! Son is non too happy

Martin

[rhmorrison]

I'm sorry to hear of your son's condition and hope that he is still able to live a happy and eventfull life.

In order to format a compact flash card in your PDA you will need a special program but since your son has a laptop I ASSUME that it has at least one PCMCIA (PC card) slot (usually 2) so all you need to do is buy an inexpensive CompactFlash to PCMCIA adapter (should cost less than 20 Euros/Dollars, maybe even 10). Then you can format the card using the notebook.

[AZMark]

the Areo 8000 is also a CE device. My guess that version of CE also has no format.

But still good advice, if you have another laptop handy. But most CF cards come formatted. If your's has a bad sector, your best move might be to return it for another. Even tho you might be able to fix it with a format, if you can still return it, now may be the time to do it.

[rhmorrison]

If your's has a bad sector, your best move might be to return it for another. Even tho you might be able to fix it with a format, if you can still return it, now may be the time to do it.
This is true, if it's under warrenty RETURN IT.
The idea of formatting it in the camera should also work. All digital cameras that I know of that accept CompactFlash cards can format them.

[Kaber]

Can you run scandisk on it on the laptop?

update: my bad, i didn't check to see it was a winCE device.

too bad something like Storage Tools (http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html) wouldn't work on it... i think

but of course you could always install the demo on your ipaq and use that scandisk...

[dcharles18]

too bad something like Storage Tools (http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html) wouldn't work on it... i think

but of course you could always install the demo on your ipaq and use that scandisk...

Why wouldn't it work? I would think installing that on your ipaq and formatting the card that way would do the trick, no?

[Kaber]

I was meaning to say, its a shame that software won't work on the Aero itself. I just wanted to link the s/w because it was mentioned in an earlier thread without a link.

There is also this software (http://www.cnetx.com/format/)

Oh and this is freeware (http://www.stephbel.com/ppc.html) and is what i use on my ipaq. The page is in French.

[PetiteFlower]

I would actually say spend the $20 and get a CF reader for your desktop PC, assuming you have one. Then you can run Scandisk and Format utilities from Windows the same as you would on your hard drive.

[Martin I Pettinger]

Kaber

Thanks for the link to the formatting trial for the iPAQ - I installed the trial on my iPAQ 3850 and managed to format the 128mB CF Card just fine.

Now I am using the iPAQ Backup utility (Not the Sprite one unfortunately) to back up my iPAQ

I'll also transfer some photo's onto the CF Card - i.e. David Beckham and see if the eldest boy's Aero will now read the card tonight.

Thanks for everyone elses suggestions - this is a great community, with great members who have great knowledge!

Martin

[Kaber]

Let us know how it turns out.