SD card acting funny

[Joelacrane]

Ive got a sandisk 512mb card in my rx3115. Weird folders keep popping up, and it denies me access to delete them. They are named weird things like $#@(&%#$. Also, programs fail to launch sometimes, and PocketPlayer crashes when it reachs some songs.

Ok... whats going on?

Ive already tried formatting it with my digital camera (No USB SD reader). If i formatted it again, how would my pocket pc react when all of the programs dissapeared?

[Brad Adrian]

That sounds an awful like a bad card or an incorrect format. I've found that some of my digital phones have formattted cards in ways that either sporadically confuse a Pocket PC or render them completely unusable by them.

If you have a utility on your Pocket PC that allows you to view your card stats and format it, try formatting it with your Pocket PC. If you're not sure you want to buy such a utility, you can download a trial version from sites like Handango.

But remember, once you reformat that card, your Pocket PC will no longer be able to read the programs you've installed. The built-in functionality will remain, but anything that was on that card will be gone. So, you'll have to re-install them after a format.

If reformatting the card doesn't solve the issues, you've got a bad card. You should be able to return it to your place of purchase for a refund or replacement.

[David_C]

Pocket Mechanic is a good utility for formatting your cards.

I use it all the time for my CF and SD card.


Dave

[DrAT]

SD cards can become corrupted. In my experience, they are less stable than CF cards. It happens mostly when I think my iPAQ has frozen (when it hasn't) and I reset it when it's still writing to the card.
I keep a copy of my SD card on my PC so that I can format it and copy the files back when I need to.
I you haven't got a backup, try putting the bad card in a card reader and copying what you can to your PC. If you keep getting errors, you'll need to copy one folder (or even one file) at a time to avoide the corrupted regions. I can recover most of the files on a card like this. Pocket Mechanic and Storage tools are able to fix a card like this sometimes. If you have a card reader, NortonDisk Doctor can be used to repair a card and is more successful in my experience. Recover what you can before attempting a fix and always re-format the card before restoring anything. You'll need to re-install those applications that were in the corrupted region.
Always format your disks on your PPC. I use Pocket Mechanic because it uses different formats to improve performance depending on the use planned for the card.
Once you're up and running again, make a copy of the card!
Other, more serious, but less common causes of this problem can be:
Faulty SD card
Faulty SD card slot connector
Damaged motherboard.
I am sure there are others but I've experienced all of these with PPCs.