Dreaded SD card problem

[Fergus]

Transferred about 100Mb in total consisting of mp3s, the total size of the transfer was 120mb but had to cancel due to running out of space on the card. No problem, then went into Pocket Player to listen to one of the songs, fine, stopped the song and switched off.
Half an hour later I switch on and find some of my icons on the today screen have blanked (i keep all my apps on SD, for safe keeping!!) I go to programs and click on a few programs and get an error that the app cannot be found at this location. So annoying but nothing a soft reset hasn't fixed before, not so this time. I go to file explorer on the ipaq but its only showing 2 obscure empty folders on the SD. I pop out the sd card a few times to see if its a dodgy contact problem but no luck. I do a hard reset but i fair no better. Later when i get back I put my ipaq in the cradle and see if i can use file explorer on the pc to explore the card, no luck.
So its looks like the FAT structure has been corrupted? and unfortunately i don't have a card reader on my pc to double check. Memory in Settings is telling me i have 237.10mb in use with 6.03 free which gives me some hope that the card and its data are not lost forever, is this hope misplaced? Is it worth getting a card reader and some SD card memory tools to inspect the card and hopefully fix it.

Is it better to use activesync to transfer files, with the above transfer i used explorer on my pc and pasted the files directly to my SD card, by doing this am i asking for trouble?

Are 256mb SD cards a bit hit and miss as regards reliability, should i use 2 x 128mb cards instead?

I have seen people write that transferring large files can lead to problems, but my transfer was 10 mp3s each about 10mb so not sure what went wrong.

Bit embarrased about asking this but how do i get my ipaq to backup to my pc since i cant trust that my backup on sd can be reachable after this fiasco.

Could it be that an application i am using to read/write from the SD could have been the cause of the problem? I have some suspicions over Pocket Player 2.5 but not sure.

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for reading this far, if you have any suggestions or have suffered the same fate I would really like to know just to see how widespread this problem is?

Fergus

Ipaq 4350
Kingston 256Mb SD card

[jimski]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I had a Sandisk 128MB SD card that went batty a few weeks ago. There was no indication of a problem and then one day, only one or two empty folders were readable and the rest, a couple large apps, music and photos were gone. The card was a few years old so I just replaced it with a 256MB and moved on.

This just helps to remind us all that no form of media is safe from failure. On both my laptop and desktop (home) I backup my critical files to an external hard drive AND a RW DVD on a weekly (or more often) basis.

Hopefully you did not lose anything that can't be replaced. I wouldn't lose all faith in flash memory because of this experience.

[Fergus]

Did a hard reset and bit the bullet and half way to installing everything it happens again arrghhhh! Did a soft reset and used pocket mechanic to do a physical and logical scan of the SD but all was reported fine!! Okay so what the hell is going on. I have now done a low level format followed by a thorough logical card format FAT32. So the card is physically okay but then how come the FAT is somehow becoming corrupt as this does seem to be the case. If it were a problem with the card then the scans should have told me. So now i am assuming its a software issue.
I should add i have been using the card for about 4/5 months so far and it was fine apart from the odd hiccup when the card wasn't being read but this was always remedied by a soft reset.

Fergus :?

[Janak Parekh]

Short of putting it in a desktop card reader, I don't know if there's much you can do at this point. :( It is not impossible that the card has mysteriously gone bad, at which point contacting the manufacturer would be your recourse.

--janak

[Fergus]

Really would like to get to the bottom of this, anyway what is the general conscensus as regards the most reliable SD cards one can get?

Fergus

[Kati Compton]

I'm good with a Viking card.

I thought I heard a rumor somewhere that Lexus was using the same cards as Sandisk at one point. Not sure if that was true, and if so, if they still are.

[mrkablooey]

I thought I heard a rumor somewhere that Lexus was using the same cards as Sandisk at one point.

Lexar. :wink:

[Janak Parekh]

I thought I heard a rumor somewhere that Lexus was using the same cards as Sandisk at one point. Not sure if that was true, and if so, if they still are.
From what I've heard, Lexar has been using several different sources. FWIW, I've had zero problems with a Lexar 256MB and 512MB, running in a iPAQ 1910, 3870, 4150, in a Samsung i700, and a Toshiba e800. Then of course, I've had basically no problems with a Sandisk 128MB either (sits in an Exilim camera now).

--janak

[Kati Compton]

I thought I heard a rumor somewhere that Lexus was using the same cards as Sandisk at one point.

Lexar. :wink:
Whoops! :oops:

[Fergus]

Well took me most of the day to rebuild my ipaq installation on my card and get rid of stuff i wasn't going to use. Decided to do a low level format followed by a FAT32 logical format of my card. I then installed applications a bunch at a time to the SD and did an ipaq backup followed by a full backup of my SD to my PC. Managed to complete the installation and get to today without any problems.
I am guessing that some kind of FAT corruption was going on but don't know how and somehow the low level format followed by the FAT32 thorough logical format did the job.
I won't make the mistake of not backing up my SD again and I suggest that we have sticky for new owners and put this as a number one priority.

* Backup your SD, CF etc to PC after doing an ipaq backup, it will save you buckets of time cause flash card corruption is a reality!

* Have a spare SD, CF which mirrors your plugged in card so when you are on holiday with no access to your syncing pc you can at least get a 99.99% recovery.

Cheers for everyones help
Fergus

[Vidge]

I used Panasonic-branded SD cards only. Since there are only 3 SD card manufacturers (Panasonic, Toshiba and SanDisk), I stay away from rebranded cards for fear that they are SanDisks. Toshibas aren't too bad, either, but Panasonics are the best. They cost a bit more but are fast and reliable.

BTW - is there a utility for PPC that shows the card manufacturer, like there is for Palm?

[sudermatt]

I had this EXACT problem....card not recognized...

I happened to have my old nokia 3600 phone lying around and popped the card in there to drill around and see if the card was toast or just confused...

Well, according to the 3600, everything was there...so I took the card out and put it back into my baby (6315),.....voiala! its all there.

makes me wonder, how a symbian operating system like the nokia has could somehow fix a fat32 problem on the card.

my .02
Matt