Rather strange problem with my CF card!

[Leo_Straight6]

Hello,

I've just encountered a really weird problem with the CF card in my HX4700! Its a 4 gig high speed 100 card made by PQI

I lent the card to a friend of mine overnight and when I wanted to use it in my PDA, ALL my files had been deleted. I checked to see how much space was left in it and it was exactly the same as when I had given it to my friend! (1.6 gig free)

I thought the files had just been corrupted somehow. I called up my friend and interrogated him about whether he had been ill-treating my card but he seems pretty clean. All he did was put it into his dad's laptop and copy some files over.

I then put the card into my PC and the filesystem had changed from FAT to RAW. Apparently this means everything has been corrupted (from a bit of research...)

I didn't know how to format the card on my computer so I simply put it into my old digital camera and formated it through there (Canon Powershot A30 Powershot). Now for some strange reason my 4gig card thinks that it's a 2gig card!

I suspect that its because my camera is rather old and 4 gig cards werent recognisable to it!

Now my card is permantly a 2gig card and I am quite displeased...

What should I do?

[Sherlock1971]

Hello,

I've just encountered a really weird problem with the CF card in my HX4700! Its a 4 gig high speed 100 card made by PQI

I lent the card to a friend of mine overnight and when I wanted to use it in my PDA, ALL my files had been deleted. I checked to see how much space was left in it and it was exactly the same as when I had given it to my friend! (1.6 gig free)

I thought the files had just been corrupted somehow. I called up my friend and interrogated him about whether he had been ill-treating my card but he seems pretty clean. All he did was put it into his dad's laptop and copy some files over.

I then put the card into my PC and the filesystem had changed from FAT to RAW. Apparently this means everything has been corrupted (from a bit of research...)

I didn't know how to format the card on my computer so I simply put it into my old digital camera and formated it through there (Canon Powershot A30 Powershot). Now for some strange reason my 4gig card thinks that it's a 2gig card!

I suspect that its because my camera is rather old and 4 gig cards werent recognisable to it!

Now my card is permantly a 2gig card and I am quite displeased...

What should I do?

Hi,

What you need to do is put the CF card back into your computer, and open windows explorer (asuming you are using Windows). Right click the drive that is your CF reader and select format...In the Filesystem combo-box select FAT32, and in the Allocation unit size combo-box make sure 'Default allocation size' is selected. You can set the Volume label here too, if you want, but I ususally leave this blank and then click "Start".

Your hx4700 should now see it as the 4Gb card and not the 2Gb as this was the FAT/FAT16 size limit.

Hope this helps.

[Leo_Straight6]

Thanks for the reply!

But it didn't work

I right clicked on the CF card....clicked format.

I selected default allocation and FAT32 but the only option it would let me do for capicity was 1.99gig! I formated it and its still 2gig

Can someone help me please!

[dfmclore]

I am wondering if a partition was set up somehow?

[Leo_Straight6]

There was no partition set...

Does anyone have any idea how on earth to fix it?

[Sherlock1971]

Thanks for the reply!

But it didn't work

I right clicked on the CF card....clicked format.

I selected default allocation and FAT32 but the only option it would let me do for capicity was 1.99gig! I formated it and its still 2gig

Can someone help me please!

Hmmmm...

What version of Windows are you using?

[Leo_Straight6]

Windows XP!

[Julie]

I found these instructions on SanDisk's website some time ago for this problem - don't know if it will fix it for your PQI card, but might be worth a shot:

Problem: Memory card is showing the wrong size and formatting card did not correct it.

Answer: Severe corruption on card or card has been reformatted incorrectly

Solution:
If you have a PC card adapter or a Parallel port ImageMate, you can do the following

FDISK your SanDisk Card.

1) Enter the Device Manager by holding the ALT key on your keyboard, and clicking twice on
the "My Computer" icon. This takes you to System Properties wherein a tab called Device Manager resides.

2) Click on "Device Manager".

3) Go down to Disk Drives and click twice on it.

4) Parallel Flash or EUSB Flash or USBAT , DISK TYPE 00 or DISK TYPE 80 or 16 and double click on it.

5) Verify in the Settings window of the drive letter assignment to assure you are looking at our card. (i.e. if your card is using drive letter E: than please verify that in the Current Drive Letter Assignment is E)

6) Click to uncheck the Int 13 unit box, and then hit "OK".

7) Click the "OK" button again to exit the System Properties window.

8) Reboot your computer.

9) When rebooted, go to "Start" > "Run" and type "cmd" without the quotes.

10) At the c:\windows> directory, type cd\

11) You should now be at c:\>

12) Type: "fdisk" and hit enter

13) You will see a yes or no question about disk space. Type: y, and hit enter

14) At this point you should have an option number 5. Type 5, and hit enter

15) Choose the option that displays the drive letter of your card. (i.e. if it's using E:, select the number that is referring to E: and hit enter.)

16) You should be back at the main menu now.

17) Select option 3, Delete Partition or Logical DOS Drive.

18) Select option 1, Delete Primary DOS Partition.

19) You should be back at the main menu.

20) Select option 1, Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive.

21) Partition created, hit escape until you get the C:\> prompt

22) Type: format (your drive letter here)

23) Type: y, and hit enter.

24) Type: Exit

25) You should be in Windows again.

Done!

[Leo_Straight6]

After a few months of utter and complete frustration I have FINALLY found a solution to the problem

Julie's solution didn't work for me but I have found a very simple and elegant solution!

http://www.pscience5.net/downloads/CFP/SP27213.exe

Download this program and you can simply format your storage card and you it will restore your lost space.... well it did for me anyway!

I found the program from How to partition a Compact Flash (CF) card into multiple drives

The part explaining what the program is and what its suposed to do...

Well, I chanced upon a public utility published by HP here (local copy here - 2.0MB) that will format and make a USB flashdrive bootable - and effectively a CF on the end of a USB adaptor is just a USB flashdrive. HP's utility was intended for use with their own devices but fortunately is generic and seems to work with just about any flash device on USB. You need to have the necessary DOS files on your PC in order to make a bootable drive but thoughtfully HP also provided these (local copy here - 295KB). In addition to this of course, you need a CF-USB reader

I'VE GOT ALL FOUR GIGS BACK