I have an ATT Tilt that I'm still running WM 5 on. (Correction: it is actually WM 6) I am having some trouble with some corrupt files showing up on my memory card. I went so far as to buy a new memory card and removed several 3rd party apps that I had installed. Even after this, the files returned on the new card. I cannot access or delete them. I cannot tell which files are being corrupted, I assume they are program and documents that should be otherwise usable. The file names show up as a series of squares, other odd shapes, numbers and letters.
Some of the 3rd party apps I am using are
Total Commander
WMWifiRouter (added after this problem started)
Google Maps and Mobile Apps
Opera Mini
I haven't made any alterations to ROM or anything else.
Any help would be appreciated on how to proceed in clearing this up. One app that I notice is affected is "Notes". I have lost some data that I had saved in that.
Thanks!
How did you get windows mobile 5 on it?
I have the same problem from time to time. There is no real fix that I have found. What I think is happening is, the phone is reading/writing to the memory card, and either it stops (beause you put the phone to sleep, or soft reset it) or some other method. Since the file was never closed/finished correctly, it gets curroped. I strongly recommend backing up your SD card every month or 2. That way, when things do crash, you do not lose all your files.
Last time it crashed. I hard reset the phone, and re-formated the sd card in my PC. It has been 3 months and so far no problems. Maybe you can try that...
Oops my mistake I have WM 6
CE OS 5.c.1622
Sorry
other things to check or try changing include:
1. the brand of the micro sd card
2. any power saving settings that might be getting applied to the micro sd card (in my opinion, power saving settings are notorious for such behavior and my advice is to just disable any power saving settings for the micro sd card/slot)
3. your usage habits regarding closing programs. my recommendation is to CLOSE programs (as opposed to MINIMIZING them to the background) when you are done using them.
4. how/when you remove the card from the device (if you ever do) and/or how you remove the card from your desktop/laptop (if you occasionally use a card reader). on your desktop/laptop, it is advised to "Safely remove hardware" before physically removing the card from the card reader. on your device, it is advised to close all programs that might be accessing files from the card, wait a few seconds, and then remove the card. most people will suggest shutting down the device before removing the card but it is my understanding that the card slots in the kaiser are indeed hot swappable (i've been using it that way for almost 2 years and have never experienced any issues with my 8GB sandisk).
5. getting a card reader is highly recommended, especially if you want to try to recover lost data or to repair the file system on the card. as a bonus, the card reader will also allow nearly 5 to 10 times faster read/write access when transferring files onto/off the card from your desktop/laptop as compared to activesync via usb sync cable.
6. avoid setting your programs to use the card as "cache". example, some people like to set their browsers' cache folders to the storage card. this can also cause file system errors in some rare and remote scenarios.
all these portable devices (phones, digital cameras, mp3 players) use the fragile FAT32 format as their file system but i've always hoped that M$ would some day provide an alternative file system (something like NTFS without its security features perhaps to keep things simple for the pda phone), but alas that day has yet to come!
Try copying all your files to your computer (in case something happens)and run an error check from your PC with a card reader. Right click on the card in Windows Explorer (if you have Windows), choose Properties, then choose the Tools tab, then click Error Check, and run the check.
had the same problem, lost all my programs. I copied a very old back up over to the card . once I had done that the original files reappeared.
Related
Hi,
I have a tmobile wing and I got the phone a few days ago.
This is my first windows mobile phone and therefore i don't have much experience and knowledge here.
I am facing a problem that has surfaced three time in the last week or so. The applications that i have on my storage card become unavailable and when i try to open the applications i get an error saying that sd card is not available. Also starnge folders with strange names (a lot of different characters such as boxes appear on the storage card and i am unable to delete them, where it says that there are system files in these folders).
The problem is only resolved if i do a hard reset and format my storage card by using a card reader (format of the card is essential as even after doing a hard reset the storage card does not become available). Initially i thought that it was some problem with the applications that i had on my phone but now since this is the third time that this has happened I am worried that there may be something wrong with my phone. Since my phone is still under warranty i can return it. So please advise rearding the same. The applications that I normally have on my phone are as follows,
a) Resco file explorer and Registry explorer
b) SK Tools
c) Opera Explorer
d) Mio Maps
e) Google Maps
f) Space time
g) CE Convertor
If this has something to do with the offical wing ROM, please advise which ROM to use as again I'd like to iterate that I am totally illeterate regarding this. What I want is a ROM that gives me plenty of RAM so that I can run my GPS software and MP3's at the same time, other than that there are no special requirements and I don't need plenty of pre-installed applications.
Thanks for your help!!!
faisalsiddiqui said:
Hi,
I have a tmobile wing and I got the phone a few days ago.
This is my first windows mobile phone and therefore i don't have much experience and knowledge here.
I am facing a problem that has surfaced three time in the last week or so. The applications that i have on my storage card become unavailable and when i try to open the applications i get an error saying that sd card is not available. Also starnge folders with strange names (a lot of different characters such as boxes appear on the storage card and i am unable to delete them, where it says that there are system files in these folders).
The problem is only resolved if i do a hard reset and format my storage card by using a card reader (format of the card is essential as even after doing a hard reset the storage card does not become available). Initially i thought that it was some problem with the applications that i had on my phone but now since this is the third time that this has happened I am worried that there may be something wrong with my phone. Since my phone is still under warranty i can return it. So please advise rearding the same. The applications that I normally have on my phone are as follows,
a) Resco file explorer and Registry explorer
b) SK Tools
c) Opera Explorer
d) Mio Maps
e) Google Maps
f) Space time
g) CE Convertor
If this has something to do with the offical wing ROM, please advise which ROM to use as again I'd like to iterate that I am totally illeterate regarding this. What I want is a ROM that gives me plenty of RAM so that I can run my GPS software and MP3's at the same time, other than that there are no special requirements and I don't need plenty of pre-installed applications.
Thanks for your help!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you set your temp for IE to the SD?
This tends to do it for me.
Yes I read somewhere that this helps and I did shift my internet folders to the storage card.
So is this the culprit??
Do a search for SD Card Corruption and you'll find this is a very common problem
These are just a few topics from the Herald forum only ... but if you search the whole site, you'll find alot more. Basically, you can't install anything onto your SD card that needs to run all the time... so anytime ur phone hibernates, if you have a program running from the SD card, it will corrupt your SD card.
Corrupt SD card
MicroSD keeps coming up with corruption
virus on wing!?!?
Thanks a lot for your help, i guess i will be more careful now.
I make a weekly copy of my whole storage card in case I lose everything. I'd suggest doing the same.
I also had the SD card corruption problem. I upgraded to WM6 and it has not happened again
You should knock on wood.
Hi Faisal Aswk,
I had the same problem for many days when i first purchased my Wing. The folder names used to get corrupt and the applications could not be accessed. At first i thought it was the ROM. I tried several ROMS but the same problem resurfaced. Then i was led to believe that my microSD card (Kingston 1gb) was going bad. I then bought a Sandisk 1gb. Everything worked fine with the Sandisk. No corruption for weeks, up until one day i formatted the Sandisk card using the windows format utility and the corruption reappeared. Later i did some research and found out there is special formatting on microSD cards to be able to function properly with devices. I assumed the Kingston did not have that sort of formatting. I reformatted the kingston card using a panasonic utility suggested by a user in one of the XDA forums. Here is the link...
http://panasonic.jp/support/audio/sd/download/ftp/sdfv2002.exe
I am using the Kingston MicroSD now. 3 months till date and no sign of corruption. I have both PIE and Opera Cache on there. I have several MP3 files i keep moving around, stored and deleted several 500+ MB movies files. All my applications are installed on that card.
I cannot say for sure that it was coz of the special formatting, but i have strong hunch that it is. Hope this fixes your problem and for others as well.
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?!?
I've been using a 6G ScanDisk card for the last 6 months, without any problems. I needed to move some files from the Tilt's internal memory to the Card, and to my surprise there was only a folder named "FilesToBeDeleted" on the Card. I DID NOT CREATE THIS FOLDER! Oh, and by the way the folder was empty!
Checking the storage of the card from the Memory Setting of the PPC, shows about 3 G in use, which is about what I had on it.
Can anyone shed any light on what could have happened? I can re-format the Card....but is it going to loose data again? Is this something that has happened to others?
Thanks for any help,
mlpoland said:
I've been using a 6G ScanDisk card for the last 6 months, without any problems. I needed to move some files from the Tilt's internal memory to the Card, and to my surprise there was only a folder named "FilesToBeDeleted" on the Card. I DID NOT CREATE THIS FOLDER! Oh, and by the way the folder was empty!
Checking the storage of the card from the Memory Setting of the PPC, shows about 3 G in use, which is about what I had on it.
Can anyone shed any light on what could have happened? I can re-format the Card....but is it going to loose data again? Is this something that has happened to others?
Thanks for any help,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have read that this has happened to some people .. not me yet (fingers crossed) don't know what causes this. You could try a recovery software and see if you can get the stuff back.
Can you or anyone suggest a recovery software? Checking the MicroSD on my laptop shows 2.88 GB being used, (and of course 2.78 GB Free) so the data should be there. I have also saved additional data to the card and it works fine.
Just wondering...is there some kind of virus out there that would do this? For all the data to be "hidden" and a new folder to be created....the card just didn't create a folder by itself....
WM a card killer
The same thing happened to my 4GB SD card in Blue Angel (twice ). It seems to me that WM kills allocation table while writing to the card. I tried lots of different soft to recover my card and finally PC Inspector File Recovery did the job. I used card reader and this soft on PC to recover most of my files but the folder and filenames were sometimes messed up. When using PCI FR do not mark to many files to recover/save at the one time because it crashes.
Don't save anything on your card before recovering !
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1
Hope my Kaiser is not going to do this to me
rafgerm said:
The same thing happened to my 4GB SD card in Blue Angel (twice ). It seems to me that WM kills allocation table while writing to the card. I tried lots of different soft to recover my card and finally PC Inspector File Recovery did the job. I used card reader and this soft on PC to recover most of my files but the folder and filenames were sometimes messed up. When using PCI FR do not mark to many files to recover/save at the one time because it crashes.
Don't save anything on your card before recovering !
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1
Hope my Kaiser is not going to do this to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, I used that program too. Recovered "missing files" problems on my previous hw6515 and twice on my TytnII 8GB micro SDdisk.
I've always had that "FilesToBeDeleted" folder too, it's normally hidden and when I delete it it comes back. Nothing special, just some folder the system wants there for some reason apparently, just like the other couple of hidden ones like WMDRM. If you didn't see it before and it now appeared it might have been hidden and the same thing that corrupt the FAT unhid it for some reason.
If you can see 2.88GB used on the PC, are you sure you have also have forced hidden files to display? Your data might be there but just hidden for some reason.
I have also saved additional data to the card and it works fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NEVER EVER do that to a media with a problem you might need to recover data from. This might just have ruined your last chance. On the opposite, when possible like on SD cards the first thing you'll want to do is set it as read-only.
When files are deleted, only their reference in the file table are, but the data itself is still present on the media, which allows recovery. But the locations the data is saved on are now marked as free, and anything you'll write on the card now can overwrite it, causing definitive loss.
Thanks a ton!!! The PC Inspector program worked great!! I was able to recover my files Next step, I guess, is to format the card and use it untill it decides to wipe my files out again. Of course my failth is the card will never be the same, and I'll keep a back up of the card also.....actually I was foolishly keeping the back-up for my Tilt on the card...can't trust that method anymore!
Thanks again for all the advise and information. As with all problems, you can always treat them as "learning opportunities", or...... throw the d*** thing out a window!!!!!
Same problem here, just ran into it last night and it's driving me nuts. Is there a way to recover/format the card from within the kaiser? Unfortunately the card reader I have has a max size limitation of 2gb and the card I'm using is 4gb - lame. Any suggestions? Thanks.
sammy-e said:
Unfortunately the card reader I have has a max size limitation of 2gb and the card I'm using is 4gb - lame. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Borrow, lend, or steal another card reader.
When I purchased this MicroCard, from ScanDisk, it came with a SD adapter plus a USB Card reader. I threw the USB Card reader in my desk thinking that I would not need this. I found out, by accident, that this USB card reader was the only way I could read the card on a PC. Built in card readers on both my home desk top and laptop would not access the card....
Just passing on this little bit of information, because it never occured to me that I had to use that USB Card reader!
This happened to my girlfriend's phone too. One day some of her programs just didn't work and most everything was gone on her card. Never fixed it, just reformatted card. Scary though.
Yeah, I tried recovering the data using TestDisk, saw some recommendations for it from others with the same problem, but wasn't able to get anywhere with it unfortunately. So in the end all I could do was format it and start over. Ahhh, backups... if I'd only made one.
I think this is a WM issue. Since other devices have the same problem.
here is a quote from another thread
Dutchman said:
I have the same issue with my tytn2.
Sometimes when i play some mp3s from my SD card and the device goes to standby or the program is closed my SD card is suddenly empty.
Removing the SD card and put it back in usually fixes it, sometimes a softreset also works.
So i believe this is a WM issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=376050
I had the problem that my SD Card was empty after activating Power Managment for it, disabled it and now it works for half a year perfectly
mlpoland said:
I've been using a 6G ScanDisk card for the last 6 months, without any problems. I needed to move some files from the Tilt's internal memory to the Card, and to my surprise there was only a folder named "FilesToBeDeleted" on the Card. I DID NOT CREATE THIS FOLDER! Oh, and by the way the folder was empty!
Checking the storage of the card from the Memory Setting of the PPC, shows about 3 G in use, which is about what I had on it.
Can anyone shed any light on what could have happened? I can re-format the Card....but is it going to loose data again? Is this something that has happened to others?
Thanks for any help,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IT'S A COMPUTER, I always carry a spare card, simple, job done. more time for girls/beer/pizza.
scilor said:
I had the problem that my SD Card was empty after activating Power Managment for it, disabled it and now it works for half a year perfectly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any hints on how to disable this? I did a quick search and found mention of it but nothing detailing how to control it. Thanks.
scilor said:
I had the problem that my SD Card was empty after activating Power Managment for it, disabled it and now it works for half a year perfectly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disabled it w/ kaiser tweak. Still i have the issue
Has anyone had the issue while pretty much not ever using Windows Media Player mobile? I was playing DRM'd audio files, is that possibly a common theme?
Could it be Moving PIE Cache?
Happened to me too. 8GB card. Just getting back up and running...wish I had read this last night. I put a bunch of stuff back on the card. Oops. Oh well. I think the common thread may be:
moving your PIE Cache to the SD Card.
Anyone else with this problem also move PIE Cache? Used Memmaid 2.0 to change it.
different in my case, I haven't changed any of the cache settings for PIE.
My SD card has started acting up on me. Recently, a ton of folders with gibberish symbol names showed up. I can't delete these folders in either my phone or my PC. These folders have nothing in them. I can't transfer files to or from it. While in my computer, the card window will occasionally freeze and tell me the thing has stopped responding. I have made sure the lock switch is open on the adapter. I'd like to flash a new ROM but the card won't even open in my PC. Says I need to format it before I can use it, but no method (freeware, Explorer, CMD) will work. I get thrown messages about how it won't work or whatever. In fact, I was trying diskmgmt.msc while typing this earlier but I got a BSOD memory dump. First time I've had one on this PC. Anyway, anyone know what I can do? I just want it to work, I paid a lot for this card. I have a feeling it's because I let the device format it, but I dunno. IF it helps, I'm running Win7 x64. Thanks.
Like you said, your MicroSD is probably done for. You might try to format it using your PC. But it probably won't work.
Some manufacturers offer lifetime warranty on flash memory so you might be able to swap it for a new one since this obviously isn't your fault. I've done so with at least two memory cards before (but then again I'm from Europe so it might be different for me).
I'm on my second MicroSD card, after I started getting warnings that certain files couldn't be accessed.
Actually, the second one (both are 8gb: first was a SanDisk, 2nd is a Kingston) gave me a warning yesterday.
Never has this problem with other phones... I don't know if the MicroSD format is prone to this sort of thing, or it is an interaction with the X1 - but it doesn't inspire confidence.
I think I will do a weekly copy of all files from the card onto my PC.
ok well im trying to clean off my 8 gb micro sd card so im copying all the files to my desktop, well every so often i get the error "cannot convert file(random file) reached the end of the file" iv tried changing the name, file type, the only thing i can do is delete it or leave it, now i can run the cab file and it works fine from my phone. Iv tried to use my usb card reader and tower card reader but niether will even read my card, anyone have any ideas on why this is happening &/ or have to fix this, iv had the card for a couple years and never any problems and this tilt almost a year any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated , thanks
btw i just noticed something new why is this [OP] next to some names and icons now, didnt notice it before
the "[OP]" next to a person's name within a thread being viewed indicates that this person started the thread you are viewing, i.e. he/she is the "original poster" or some such.
regarding your problem, i assume you are stuck with using activesync to access your microsd card (because you say no card reader will read the card)? when microsd cards start acting up, most people will suggest sticking it into your pc via a card reader to copy files and run data recovery software and to eventually reformat the card. once again, i am assuming this is out of the question because your card readers will not see the data on the card.
activesync's file system access is sufficient but not very flexible and fairly poor. i have noticed that the remote desktop client on windows mobile is able to make your device's microsd card available to the pc you are connected to via remote desktop during the entire session. you might want to attempt a copy via this kind of a connection.
another alternate is to try "schap's network plugin". this will allow you to map a folder shared on your pc (remember to give this folder full write access) onto your device's \Network folder. then you can freely copy/paste stuff to/from your pc using the device's file explorer.
final option is to copy problematic files on to your device's memory and see if activesync is able to read from the device's memory. this is really only feasible if the largest problematic file can fit into the limited free space available on the device's memory.
when you are completely done and satisfied with the files you have recovered, stick the card back into the card readers connected to your pc and see if you can get the card reformatted while its in there even though the current file system/data on the card is not being detected.
finally, remember that most microsd cards (like nearly all other things) have a limited life...so maybe the card just needs to be replaced with a spanking new one now.