2GB sd card problem - any ideas?

[biglouis]

I recently purchased a 2GB Sandisk SD card for use in my PPC. It worked fine and the PPC reported it as having 2GB free space.

I then put it into my camera and decided to format the card before using it for pictures.

Now the card resolutely believes it is a 1GB card.

Using Windows XP Disk Management, I can see that there is a 1GB (969MB) Active/Healthy partition and a 1GB (969MB) unallocated partition. I was hoping I could delete the partition and format the card so I could start over again but that option is greyed out on the disk managment context menu (and NO, I have not write protected the card).

At present I am at a loss as to what else I can do. Does anyone here have any ideas or a solution?

LouisB

[stevelam]

Sorry I can't help you, but where on earth did you manage to get a 2gb SD card. All of the one that I can find are always out of stock.

*idea* You could try Pocket Mechanic, the demo is here (http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=12178&associateid=373). I do not know if it will work but I have heard good things about it. *idea*

[applejosh]

This may seem like an obvious question, but does your logon account on XP have administrative rights? I'm going to assume you do, but it's good to ask.

As far as the partitioning thing, I've never tried to partition a removable device. But in checking I see that I am not able to repartition a removable device (I looked at a 1GB SD card and my iPod's drive). (From Microsoft's site: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/sag_diskconcepts_11.mspx)

I don't know if there's a way around that using a third party tool (I just checked and Partition Magic 8 doesn't do removable drives) or possibly Linux if you're familiar with it, but I haven't checked to be sure.

[SteveHoward999]

Did you try reformatting with the command prompt?

fDisk x: should do the trick if I remember right. Obviously replace x with the correct drive letter ... Maybe it is smart enough to reformat the entire drive.

You can also delete pertitions etc from the command prompt, but you should look at the help to check how :-)

[SteveHoward999]

try this


http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html

[biglouis]

To answer a few questions:

1. I got the 2GB from eBay - the company is called Bluetron and they ship from the US to the UK. Given the low value of the item and the fact it comes via the postal services it rarely attracts customs duties, btw.

2. I don't want to sound a complete dweeb but can anyone tell me where to get a copy of FDISK from? Its been years since I've used DOS (thank goodness), so I'm a bit unclear.

3. For information, neither the softwinter product or flashformat can cope with this problem. They resolutely believe this to now be a 1GB sd card. They only see the primary volume and completely fail to see that the card is bigger.

My PC is Windows XP Pro SP2, so do I have to create bootdisks and the like to be able to FDISK the SD card (assuming I can even get the USB drivers to load under DOS) or is there a simpler way of doing things?

LouisB

[biglouis]

I'm posting a solution to this problem provided to me by a respondent in the micrsoft.public.pocketpc usenet group.

Given that there is some confusion as to whether you can or cannot remove partitions from SD cards, I'm leaving the instructions here in case anyone needs this solution in the future.

Two caveats:

1. The solution worked for me but that is no guarantee it will work for you and it is offered at your own risk of usage

2. The utility I used, Diskman, has the capacity to seriously screw up your drives if you do not use it correctly - so backup your system before use, is my advice!


Scenario:

Having formatted my SD 2GB card in my Casio Exlim digital camera the capacity has been changed from 2GB to 1GB because the Exlim has partitioned the SD card as one 969MB volume only. Reformatting the card using Windows XP format or PPC tools (Cnetx, softwinter, or PPC formatter) does not resolve the problem. Under XP Disk Management the partition tools are greyed out, presumably because XP does not support partitioning removeable drives (per reported statements at the Microsoft site).

Solution:

Use a Windows utility available from http://www.diskman.co.uk - diskman 4.2 (or later)

1. Download diskman 4.2 to your PC and unzip to a directory (I chose my C root directory and gave it a folder name of dman)

2. Insert your SD card into a reader and confirm that Windows can see the logical drive and it is working (e.g. transfer some files to it)

2. Go into XP Drive Management (control panel, administrative tools) and check that you can see the physical drive - take a note of its volume number (not its drive letter)

3. Open a DOS window in XP (Run, Command)

4. cd to dman folder, (e.g. cd \ then cd dman)

5. Then type the following at the command prompt:

diskman4 console (starts the diskman console)

drive list hostp (lists the physical volumes, allows you to check that the
SD card is recognised in the program)

drive mount hostp x: (replace x with the drive letter of your card)

drive part 1 1 (make your card partitionable)

drive remount 1 (remount the card to activate the changes)

volume list (check the number of volumes)

volume delete 1 (assuming there is only one volume)

exit (close the diskman console)

6. Remove the SD card from the reader and reinsert. You will probably find at this point that XP will not allow your to format the SD card. Instead, place it in your PPC and use the native SD card formatter (message should come up when you put in the SD slot).

6. You should now find that your SD card has been reformatted to a single partition of the card's capacity, in my case 2GB.

I still don't understand why when I formatted the card in the Casio Exlim it created a single 1GB partition. Must have some limitation in its formatting software or something.

I wish I could properly identify the provider of the above solution but it was anonymous. Reminds me of the old lone ranger series I watched as a kid, "who was that masked man? I would like to have thanked him!"

Louis

[victore]

biglouis, the diskman site is 404. do you still have a copy of the app? can you send it to me?

[atlantabriguy]

Anyone have the diskman program? The site is down, and I need it! Please PM me!