Database Develop

Storage Card Woes(A Public Service Announcement)

People have been reporting problems with corruption and losing files on memory cards, particularly 2GB ones.
I am having the same problem with a PQI 2GB bought from Fry's(PLU# 5044075 and P/N: AE62-2030R01F4) in Houston, TX.
When I try to download something from an FTP Client to the storage card, it fails and when I leave stuff on it, it becomes corrupt and stuff disappears. Also, when transferring files over FTP, it moves at about 5-8 KBps.
I took my roommate's 64MB PQI from his Sidekick III and it worked like a charm. It was as follows.
1 Head
1 Cylinder
Type: FAT12
Sector: 512 Bytes
Cluster Size: 16 KB
BackupFAT: Yes
I used Pocket Mechanic(amazing interface) and Resco which is great and clean as well! Thank you for the recommendation. I scanned my card for bad sectors and they were all good.
This morning I used my co-workers SanDisk 1GB card and downloaded files from my FTP at 22KBps over EDGE which blew my mind. Furthermore, they weren't corrupted. His file system was FAT32.
My conclusion is that it isn't the formatting options, but the PQI cards and the old motto of "You get what you pay for". I am going to have to break down and buy another card which I really didn't want to do, but it's obvious that SanDisk clearly holds it's weight in these devices.
Thanks to everyone who made recommendations and turned me on to some great apps in the process. I'll update this when I get my new card and let you guys know how it went. Thanks again for being a great community!
EDIT: Could people without problems with a 2GB Post the following info to help those trying to buy a card?
Brand:
Part No:
Format Method
Type:
Sector:
Cluster Size:

Flash memory doesn't have heads or cylinders

I know, but the stat was there so I included it in case someone got a different value reported back to them...

soopahfly said:
Flash memory doesn't have heads or cylinders
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, but there may still be logical heads and cylinders for backwords compatibility with some OSes or software.
I dont know about the case with SD cards, but CF cards can be directly connected to an IDE bus and emulate an HD.

Problem installing to MicroSD with Activesync 4.5?

Hi all,
First post, and really hope this is a stupid newbie question! Just taken posession of my new Vario III and got a 6Gb Sandisk MicroSD to fill with my junk
The card is recognised fine in the kaiser and can access it and install cabs directly from it with no problem. The unit gives me the option where to install once I run a cab as expected...
However when I fire up Activesync and use an EXE installer (same apps) via the PC for anything, the 'Install to default directory' option is ticked and greyed out...I don't think its app specific henve Activesync isn't getting wind of the SD card at all?
Am I doing something really daft here or is there a problem? Can't find any references to this on the net hence I'm hoping its the former!!!! Why would the card behave fine in the PDA but drop off the face of the earth in Activesync?
Cheers for any help.

Bump
Hmm, well its looking increasingly like card problem...this morning my Opera icons were all scrambled (its installed on the MicroSD card) and File Explorer reported rubbish filenames on the card itself (random characters).
Soft reset it, and so far its okay again (but can't try Activesync as not on my home PC).
Its a Sandisk 6Gb card from MobyMemory - what are the chances its a bad card versus a bad unit from T-Mobile? Presumably high?!? Odd that noone else has reported similar issues though?
Cheers for any advice...

I am not sure ... but I dont install software in the microSDHC card.
I always install int he phone ROM. Hey we have 128 MB I installed bunch of apps and still have 97 MB free ...
Oh btw, I use that new SanDisk 6 GB MicroSDHC as well, just to store all the data, movies and PIE cache ... it works fine till now.

Storage card pretents to be empty when it is not?

I am running Duttys March 4 Dual Touch, No Cube on my Kaiser. Probably unrelated, but yesterday every thing on my 6GB Sandisk Storage Card disappeared
About 750mb of data! The card appears empty in File Manager until I select "Show all files" when a single folder called WMDRM containing a single 132kb file shows up.
If I go to Settings> System> Memory The storage card shows 738mb used and 5084mb free. So it appears the data is there but inaccessible. If I browse the card from activeSync the same is also the case. Properties tell be 738mb used, but nothing is visibel except the single small file.
Any ideas on how I might be able to get it back? Really want to get my data back....

Storage Card scrambled files?
logger said:
I am running Duttys March 4 Dual Touch, No Cube on my Kaiser. Probably unrelated, but yesterday every thing on my 6GB Sandisk Storage Card disappeared
About 750mb of data! The card appears empty in File Manager until I select "Show all files" when a single folder called WMDRM containing a single 132kb file shows up.
If I go to Settings> System> Memory The storage card shows 738mb used and 5084mb free. So it appears the data is there but inaccessible. If I browse the card from activeSync the same is also the case. Properties tell be 738mb used, but nothing is visibel except the single small file.
Any ideas on how I might be able to get it back? Really want to get my data back....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may have scrambled your files.
Put it into a USB card reader and try to access it on your PC - if it looks the same there, try looking at it with a good file undeleter like Fix-It Utilities or Norton, see if you can recover anything.
I just had a laptop hard drive fail on my last week, so I feel your pain. Fortunately I had fairly recent backups so I didn't lose too much.
Makes me think of someone's tagline I saw once:
"There are 2 kinds of people in this world, those with a backup plan in place, and those that have not yet had a catastrophic disk failure"
Good luck!

Search this site for SD CARD2
Most likely the issue is cause by the infamous Win CE bug.
If I have not posted the solution here, do a google search in the Web, you'll find detailed instructions.
[Edit] Your data is there, so don't do anything foolish, or else you'll have to reinstall everything. The SD CARD2 issue is very simple to resolve.

Thanks guys. Had a look as SD CARD2 threads and they did not seem to relate to me. Ran Pocket Mechanic and its Scandisk feature on the Card and it reported loads of "lost clusters". I then ran it again with "Automatically fix errors" and "discard lost clusters" and it merrily removed them all. So now my 738mb of data has gone. Rats. Oh well I will just start again a fresh and hope it does nto happen again.

i feel your pain. it's happened to me quite a few times on my XDA II, and once recently on my Kaiser when i damaged the mini-usb port (entirely my fault) and it started writing corrupted data onto the card when copying files over through activesync
I've since taken to keeping copies of my card data in addition to backups of my device. i usually carry 2 cards with me, one backup and one "current"; and i also keep backups of my SD cards on my PC, just in case.

Strangely, After a few hours most of the data on the card spontaneously returned. One minute it was empty and the next it had all the folders and files back again. Albeit with a lot of lost clusters and a heap of files reported as 32kb. Was able to recover a lot of the stuff and have got another 2GB card to use in the mean time.
Is there much point in reformatting the card? From experience, does anyone know if formatting might "fix" whatever caused it to lose clusters and go bad? Am considering sending it back for a warranty claim but how can I ascertain if it is actaully faulty once I reformat it.

Reformat or replace?
logger said:
Strangely, After a few hours most of the data on the card spontaneously returned. One minute it was empty and the next it had all the folders and files back again. Albeit with a lot of lost clusters and a heap of files reported as 32kb. Was able to recover a lot of the stuff and have got another 2GB card to use in the mean time.
Is there much point in reformatting the card? From experience, does anyone know if formatting might "fix" whatever caused it to lose clusters and go bad? Am considering sending it back for a warranty claim but how can I ascertain if it is actaully faulty once I reformat it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had USB flash memory seem to be faulty, especially when trying to transfer large amounts of data for a backup - then rebooted and re-inserted and had readable data. I would try reformatting, and then back up often and watch it like a hawk. Or, if it wasn't too expensive, just discard. Or, try to get a replacement - I did get an SD card replaced once at N/C because it wouldn't read in anything I tried it in, and I complained and was heard.

I bought a replacement 2GB panasonic microSD in Japan a couple of days back. (Always find the memory quality excellent there.) Their eyes were out on stalks when they saw my 6GB card. Must not be wideley available there yet. Anyway I plan to use the 2gb for the time being to rule out hardware and software causes. Have reformatted the suspect 6gb card. Will soon start using it again with everything backed up to the max and hopefully the problem will not return. I have been flashing a few different ROMs. Because of this I am becoming ever more reliant on the Storage Card for system recovery. So cant afford to have a dodgy one.

Hi, folks.
I use a HTC cruise with WM6.1 from Bepe. This morning, all files from my 8GB miniSD card just vanisehd!!! I removed the card from the phone and tried to access the files in windows with a sd card reader, but no file was seen. Although, there was only 3,5GB free!!! The files weren't there, but they kept occupying space. I used this software to recover the files. Awesome! They were all there, except for the ones stored in root. Also,I had to rename all root folders, the subfolders were OK. I just had to filter files marked as "good" and then copied them to my HD. The phone is working as usual, but I can't explain why exactly this happened? Would it be a vicious virus? A joke from Micro$oft? Any ideas?!?

SDHC corruption problem

My 16gb sandisk card got corrupted yesterday and apparently it has something to do with this file EncFiltLog. I cannot copy anything to the card, cannot delete anything from the card and cannot format it. I found the solution in Blackstone forum...but as a kaiser owner I cannot benefit from it because we don't have DISK MODE on kaiser. Apparently it's been cooked in a few new roms for kaiser but Disk mode doesn't work. Has anyone successfully fixed this on kaiser? I,ve spend 60 pounds on the card and I don't feel like buying another one especialy if the problem might occur again.
krnkris said:
PROBLEM:
Now, the problem all started when try to format the micro SDHC on the phone or on the PC with card reader.
Tried with differ format program also low level not worked.
DONT USE THESE!!! Waste of time!!!
SOLUTION:
So after doing some thinking about the situation, I figured that there was a problem with the card inserted and find the file EncFiltLog on it.
It is the WM 6.1 encription file. You can't delete, move files from or in to the SDHC.
The best way to solve this issue, as the hard-reset DOES NOTHING to fix this issue, would be to have windows hopefully find the connected device and format it. Here are the EASY steps which DO NOT involve using a dozen computers and has provided the same result EVERY time; which is a working on my 8gig memory in my HTC HD.
1. Connect the HD to the computer and select DISK DRIVE as the option on the on-screen popup on your phone. Don’t select ACTIVE SYNC. If you miss it, then go into your phone and press START>SETTINGS>CONNECTIONS TAB>USB to PC and select the bullet of DISK DRIVE and hit ok.
2. On your computer, (USING A WINDOWS XP MACHINE), go into your "My computer"
3. A window for will open with two columns.(If not, change the view to "Group") We are looking at the RIGHT side right now. In there is has three categories, and we are only focusing on ONE of them. LOOK for STORAGE which should be the center category.
4. Click with right to the desired "Storage device; A: ; D: E;", it will take a minute or two depending on your computer speed and environment to populate your hard drive and connected memory devices.
5. You will eventually see your PHONE internal storage listed. IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME BECAUSE YOUR PHONE INTERNAL STORAGE IS CORRUPTED!
***BE SURE WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT IS IN FACT YOUR PHONE AND NOTHING SOMETHING ELSE LIKE YOUR MAIN HARD DRIVE OR SOME OTHER STORAGE DEVICE WITH IMPORTANT FILES ON THERE***
****I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU FORMAT THE WRONG DEVICE***
6. Choose format and let it format the drive. This should also take a few minutes. Select FAT32 and name is whatever you want! Let this finish COMPLETLY!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

-Arturo- said:
My 16gb sandisk card got corrupted yesterday and apparently it has something to do with this file EncFiltLog. I cannot copy anything to the card, cannot delete anything from the card and cannot format it. I found the solution in Blackstone forum...but as a kaiser owner I cannot benefit from it because we don't have DISK MODE on kaiser. Apparently it's been cooked in a few new roms for kaiser but Disk mode doesn't work. Has anyone successfully fixed this on kaiser? I,ve spend 60 pounds on the card and I don't feel like buying another one especialy if the problem might occur again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I received a corruption error a few months back because windows media player decided to sync my media files to my storage card. what error did you receive when you attempted to format it? I do not want to sound arrogant but when you placed the card into the micro sd/sd adapter did you unlock the adapter?

redbandana said:
I received a corruption error a few months back because windows media player decided to sync my media files to my storage card. what error did you receive when you attempted to format it? I do not want to sound arrogant but when you placed the card into the micro sd/sd adapter did you unlock the adapter?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that was the first thing i did. I tried formatting it on my laptop with 2 different apps and also on my PPC without success. I'm able to copy about 90% of my files to my laptop's harddrive but cannot save anything to the card or format it. The problem occured yesterday when I was creating a new Word document on my PPC... it wouldn't save to storage card and some error window poped out. Since then the phone has been a mess. It was barely usable because I had a lot of programs on my memory card which were used all the time by the ppc, had to hard reset and it's fine now of course until I try to browse files on my card.
I'm guessing that you didn't have any problems formatting your card?
Windows native formatting program gave this error: Windows cannot complete formatting
SDFormatter: the memory card is write-protected. please release the write protect switch"(have tried formatting the card with the switch in both positions to no avail)
some ppc formatting app "told" me to check whether any programs placed on SDHC card are being used by the system at the moment

I had the same problem with my 8 GB SDHC card. I spend few days trying to find solution. Most likely you card is gone for good. There is only one thing that I didn’t try and that maybe could work is to format card on Linux. They said it helps in some of the cases. Good luck with your card but be ready for the worst.

ado31 said:
I had the same problem with my 8 GB SDHC card. I spend few days trying to find solution. Most likely you card is gone for good. There is only one thing that I didn’t try and that maybe could work is to format card on Linux. They said it helps in some of the cases. Good luck with your card but be ready for the worst.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks...I've tried deleting files and formatting under linux using Qparted....didn't work
Yes this doesn't look too good....I think the only thing I can do now is to look for a Kaiser rom with working DISK MODE and try to use HD users solution.

SDFormatter V2 from Panasonic
I once had the probleme and I did use the mentionned program.
It did solved my issue.
You should be able to find it for free on internet.
Regards.
Pascal

Perhaps this is different than I've experienced, but multiple times my SD card has become unreadable on my Tilt, and I just run a disk check on it, it finds weird/bad stuff, then it's fine again when it's done.
Not sure what's going on with that, as I've never made any sense of the chkdisk files that are created that are parts of the bad data.

khaytsus said:
Perhaps this is different than I've experienced, but multiple times my SD card has become unreadable on my Tilt, and I just run a disk check on it, it finds weird/bad stuff, then it's fine again when it's done.
Not sure what's going on with that, as I've never made any sense of the chkdisk files that are created that are parts of the bad data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks all, I've tried that Panasonic formatting program hell I have tried at least 10 other programs for formatting, repairing and checking(chkdisk didn't help either) cards none of them have worked. And the most annoying thing is that I sent an email to sandisk on thursday last week and they haven't replied yet...I'm going to claim warranty replacement.

Do you have a digital camera? If so try and format with that as i had a simlar problem again a SanDisk to which the computer would not format, the phone would not format yet i used Fuji DSLR to format and it worked.

stylez said:
Do you have a digital camera? If so try and format with that as i had a simlar problem again a SanDisk to which the computer would not format, the phone would not format yet i used Fuji DSLR to format and it worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Crap...I do have a digital camera but it uses XD cards they are of different shape than SD's. I'll try to find someone with a SD capable digital camera.
Thanks.
Ok looks like my dad has a SD camera one problem though it is some ancient device it's not SDHC capable. Will it work and if it will, won't I waste my card in some way?

-Arturo- said:
Crap...I do have a digital camera but it uses XD cards they are of different shape than SD's. I'll try to find someone with a SD capable digital camera.
Thanks.
Ok looks like my dad has a SD camera one problem though it is some ancient device it's not SDHC capable. Will it work and if it will, won't I waste my card in some way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will need to be SDHC compatable and as i say i can't be sure every camera will work, just did for me but if your going to have ti exchange it or it's duff then whats the risk?
Sounded like last ditch efforts to me

to bad ther is no followup on this matter, but i would advise a digital camera to. it always helped me out. lowlevel format on a nikkon dslr!

Have you tried this little baby.... http://www.cnetx.com/format/download.asp
The trial allows you to format without purchasing, but it's worth buying for the next time it happens - I was stuck with all other programs not working until this one.
Good luck.
Ps. Sorry if it doesn't work and I get your hopes up!!

Had a similar problem 2 days ago with my micro SD SanDisk Class 2 8Gb that I use on my HD. Became corrupted after trying to erase some movies while connected to my PS3.
Tried this: www[dot]sdcard[dot]org/consumers/formatter [didn't work: Micro SD write protected]
Tried GParted on Ubuntu, didn't work!
Tried MiniTool Partition Wizard and other XP formatting tools, didn't work!
Tried formatting with the SD inside the Blackstone and connected to PC, didn't work!
Got VERY frustrated and bought a new cheap micro SD 8Gb class 6+adaptor [1300Yen, about 15Eur]
Now I followed the Digital camera trick, and formatted the corrupted microSD in less than 5 sec!!!
I think it doesn't matter what phone you use the SD in, any relatively recent digital camera will do the trick for you.
THANK YOU

Contents of the storage card dissappeared!

Yesterday when I attempted to play some games that were installed on the storage card, the links under Programs/Games no longer worked. Turns out the data on the storage card got wiped out.
The file explorer and Total commander both show only one folder in the storage card. Its called WMDRM. And there is one file in that folder called B1DA8AC498FF588D471330048DEFE8FA02D6350B.hds. Other than that the storage card seems empty.
But the funny thing is, the Memory app under settings shows that 700 MB of data on the storage card is in use. Also, under Windows Explorer, when I try to browse the contents of the phone, I can see ~700 megs of data being used on the storage card (check attached image.)
Can someone explain to me whats going on? Is all my data lost? Is there a way to recover it?
Thanks in advance

Did you get the problem resolved yet
If not just reply and I could help you out

hidden files?
This actually happend to me recently. In my case I somehow, and I still have no idea how, checked the box to hide the files. It drove me nuts for about 20 minutes until I figured it out. as soon as I unchecked the box, everthing reappeared.

This has happened on my sons phone twice.. One time I magically fixed it by copying somethign back that "dissappeared" and once that file was "Back" everything else reappeared as well... Not sure what is going on.. and ideas?

ashoooo said:
Is all my data lost? Is there a way to recover it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try reading the memory cards contents by using the USB reader that came with it. I have a Sandisk 6 GB card that kept on doing this but since retiring that to out of phone duties with its card reader and using my 16 GB Sandisk card in my TyTN II, all is now well. What card is it that you have?
If you search the forum you'll see this is a relatively common problem and people have been able to recover files in this way using specialist file recovery software. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure though so make sure your memory card is fully backed up in future.

Flying Kiwi said:
If you search the forum you'll see this is a relatively common problem and people have been able to recover files in this way using specialist file recovery software./QUOTE]
Which software do you recommend? I've been trawling the search results, but either I'm simply using the wrong search terms, or I simply can't see the wood for the trees. I have a similar issue - my 8Gb card is showing as empty, despite apparently having 2.5Gb in use. And this statistic is reported both on my phone and a colleagues, as well as two different PCs when using a card reader.
Any help would be great.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

R3dF1v3 said:
Flying Kiwi said:
If you search the forum you'll see this is a relatively common problem and people have been able to recover files in this way using specialist file recovery software./QUOTE]
Which software do you recommend? I've been trawling the search results, but either I'm simply using the wrong search terms, or I simply can't see the wood for the trees. I have a similar issue - my 8Gb card is showing as empty, despite apparently having 2.5Gb in use. And this statistic is reported both on my phone and a colleagues, as well as two different PCs when using a card reader.
Any help would be great.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*Bump*
Any ideas, anyone?
Thanks.
Thanks, guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

rola_electronics, thanks for the offer.
Everybody, thanks for your replies, guys.
When right clicking on the card, and selecting properties, it only showed like 5 files, but 700 megs in use. I had to reformat my card. Hard reset my phone (but that was because my phone was starting to get sluggish) reinstall everything.
But after a couple of weeks, it happened again (2 days ago.) I was playing Astraware sudoku, when the battery died. On recharging and rebooting, the card was fuxor3d again. Had to delete everything on it, and reinstall stuff again.
As for the suggestion of copying a new file and deleting it again for contents to reappear, I noticed that when I copied a file and deleted it, a ton of temporary files appeared on it. I deleted them manally later.
Kiwi, my card is Sandisk 6GB microSD.

rola_electronics, thanks for the offer.
Everybody, thanks for your replies, guys.
When right clicking on the card, and selecting properties, it only showed like 5 files, but 700 megs in use. I had to reformat my card. Hard reset my phone (but that was because my phone was starting to get sluggish) reinstall everything.
But after a couple of weeks, it happened again (2 days ago.) I was playing Astraware sudoku, when the battery died. On recharging and rebooting, the card was fuxor3d again. Had to delete everything on it, and reinstall stuff again.
As for the suggestion of copying a new file and deleting it again for contents to reappear, I noticed that when I copied a file and deleted it, a ton of temporary files appeared on it. I deleted them manally later.
Kiwi, my card is Sandisk 6GB microSD.

I'm not sure what ROMs you are using, but I know there have been issues with some that have the SD Power Management enabed. There are threads kicking around about it. You can disable it with Advanced Config.
Good luck

I'm using ATT stock, minus the bloatware (with the soft reset just before config trick)

your card -could- so to speak, dying. Do you have another one handy? Try using it for a while if you do and see what happens.

FWIW my ROM was the same as the one I'm still using (HTC standard throughout) and I've made no configuration changes associated with the microSD card other than swapping the 6 GB Sandisk with a 16 GB Sandisk. I've not used advanced config or similar and it's a plain 'as from the factory' setup. I strongly suspect this is associated with the card or at least a compatibility issue between the card and phone. Although power related issues may contribute to the likelyhood of problems in some cases, that wasn't the case with me.
When I did loose the card contents, I wasn't able to recover them using any software (I've read here that others had some luck however - though I don't recall what software they used). I had all my crucial files backed up and just low level erased the card in its USB reader using the HDD Wipe tool from the HDD Guru website (Sandisks own utility to perform these functions was not free - unlike every other HDD manufacturer I know of that does provide free HDD utility software to work with its drives, hence why I found the HDD Guru tool). I then formatted the card in Windows and restored my files from backup using Win XP Professionals native drive backup program. It was good as new (but did the same thing about 3 times in total before I became fed up with it and swapped out the card). I would suggest that those considering the purchase of a card to use with the TyTN II be wary of (at least some) Sandisk 6 GB microSDHC cards.

Thanks for your responses, Kiwi and kaiserII101.
Kiwi, what app do you recommend to backup the SD card?
If it gets corrupted again, can I just reformat it, and restore the backed up files (file copy)?

ashoooo said:
Kiwi, what app do you recommend to backup the SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned in my post above I just used the native backup and restore app built into Windows XP and used the card reader so the card showed as a drive and backed up everything. I'm using Win 7 now but haven't checked out all its similar options yet. The answer to your second question is yes (from within the app). Have a read of the Windows help relating to the backup/restore program. Not sure what it's called under Vista but I suspect something similar will be there built into the software. Otherwise you can simply copy all the files and folders across to a dedicated folder on your PC and if you prefer, just zip them up into a backup archive using something like Winzip.

Thank you Kiwi. The Win 7 app is also called "Backup and Restore".
So, if simple file copy suffices, I guess I'm just going to do that. Thanks for your help again.

I'd go for the backup - restore option
ashoooo said:
The Win 7 app is also called "Backup and Restore".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I put that into my Win 7 search box and found it but haven't used it yet - it looks like it does the same sort of thing the Win XP app did though so that will do it fine and it'll be much easier than having to copy files over and zipping them up manually.
So, if simple file copy suffices, I guess I'm just going to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'll depend what kinds of files you have and if they're not all straightforward things like mp3s, avi files or jpgs etc then you may run into problems if file attributes are changed by copying them directly. I think your best bet is to play it safe and use the backup - restore utility and just backup the whole card. It's usually easier and results in less space being used on the backup media because the files are automatically compressed (depending on configuration choices).