Just Sharing This SD Cards

[Topper]

One of the more common storage devices with cameras etc. I have a number of cards two of which are 4GB. Soon after purchase of one of them I received a message on the camera saying there was a read write error on the SD card. I was able to extract the photos taken using a German program on my old laptop and proceeded to attempt to reformat the card. The format would not complete and the useless message just said unable to format. Over the last few years I have tried numerous programs and methods to reformat this card, even low level formatting, nothing worked. I have recently had reason to set up my first and very old Win98 SE laptop for security reasons and having updated it to accept USB stuff, plugged in an old USB camera and suddenly thought why not plug in the SD card via an adaptor. It was recognised and initially would not format the card, still showed 0 bytes free 0 bytes available. I ran the scandisc function telling it to repair errors and then the card formatted successfully. 98SE still proving a worthwhile operating system.

 

[Lazarus]

Yes, it can be a pig sorting them out.

I binned a few during the Windows days as they appeared to be dead, but kicked myself when I later discovered that the Palimpsest Disk (sic) Manager on most Linux Distros copes with ease.

 

[Topper]

Yes, it can be a pig sorting them out.

I binned a few during the Windows days as they appeared to be dead, but kicked myself when I later discovered that the Palimpsest Disk (sic) Manager on most Linux Distros copes with ease.

Perhaps I need to update my version of Mint, it is not included on that

 

[Lazarus]

Actually it is - they don't call it Palimpsest if it comes with the distro natively - they just call it "Disks".

It's available from the Repositories for smaller distros and bears its original name. Having got into Linux via Crunchbang, I'm afraid I still refer to it by its given name!

 

[2cvbloke]

I've only had one SD card fail on me, well, technically it was the mother's and it was a MicroSD card, but it too gave errors like that, might see if it's still about and feed it to Windows98SE, see if it recovers the use of it or not, assuming I can find the thing and it's adaptor...

 

[pontiend]

I have had a few go on me.Sometimes I have had linux on them,and windows does not see them.Sometimes the file allocation table has gone missing.Gparted usually sorts them.

 

[PaulR]

...98SE still proving a worthwhile operating system.

Did Channel Hopper pay you to say that?

 

[hairybadger]

Is it worth the risk? They're so cheap that if they're showing signs of failure surely it's best to get the data off, wipe them, hammer them into little pieces, burn them then hammer again, then buy a new one

 

[Lazarus]

Have you ever been to Yorkshire?

 

[Topper]

Is it worth the risk? They're so cheap that if they're showing signs of failure surely it's best to get the data off, wipe them, hammer them into little pieces, burn them then hammer again, then buy a new one

We make do and mend up ere

 

[hairybadger]

Have you ever been to Yorkshire?

On occasion, yes. I even found I could understand the quaint dialect the locals use ;)

 

[Channel Hopper]

wipe them, hammer them into little pieces, burn them then hammer again, then buy a new one

On occasion, yes. I even found I could understand the quaint dialect the locals use ;)

The literal translation of Ecky Thump ?

 

[hairybadger]

The literal translation of Ecky Thump ?

God, no. Have you any idea how soft and southern I am? I said *on occasion*
(have just googled it - although I'd heard it before I had no idea what it meant!)

 

[hexah]

One of the more common storage devices with cameras etc. I have a number of cards two of which are 4GB.

I wonder how much you paid for that.

You can get 64GB SHXC cards now for £15!

 

[Topper]

I wonder how much you paid for that.

You can get 64GB SHXC cards now for £15!

Yes at the time, about four years ago it was £9.99 IIRC

 

[2cvbloke]

You can get 64GB SHXC cards now for £15!

At that price, they must be factory seconds...

 

[hexah]

I hope not!

I think I would stress test it over a couple of weeks before using it for anything important.

The storage chips are getting smaller and cheaper, the cost of SSDs is falling as well but I expect they sell many times more cards for devices than hard drives and cards are easier to make which might explain the price difference.

 

[PaulR]

Be careful of suspiciously cheap SD cards. There are a lot of counterfeit ones on the market. If you put "fake sd card" into your favourite search engine there are lots of posts on the subject.

I always test new cards with H2testw (search online for it - it's free) to confirm their capacity.

BTW, you can't even rely on packaged cards http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Identifying-fake-SanDisk-Ultra-SD-cards-/10000000012181196/g.html

 

[hexah]

I always test new cards with H2testw (search online for it - it's free) to confirm their capacity.

That is a very useful program.

I find that windoze users who format the SD card for the first time on their computer usually make the mistake of not unchecking the Quick Format box. It is checked by default so they just accept the default. Doing the longer low level format can ward off or cure early problems caused by the Quick Format 'resetting' the card when the long format goes through all the memory on the card and flags up any crap bits so they will not be written to.

It makes sense to do a low level format from time to time to help the controller on the card avoid any useless bits.

 

[T_G]

Is it worth the risk? They're so cheap that if they're showing signs of failure surely it's best to get the data off, wipe them, hammer them into little pieces, burn them then hammer again, then buy a new one

Badger, I am surprised how lightly you treat the matter of security of old data carriers. I do all of the above, then take the hammer to a furnace and melt it. I then don't go out and buy a new hammer, oh no! I recycle the molten metal by casting a new hammer, but the trick is to sprinkle the ashes of the previously killed SD drive into the still boiling metal. That way any data still readable is confined to the inside of my hammer, which is hanging from my belt 24/7. That is what I call safety!