SD Card Using RAW File Format?

[DrGonzo2k2]

Hey All,

I've been having a heck of a time using my 1 gig Sandisk SD Card in my Belkin Card Reader. It won't recognize it until I put a CF card in the reader as well. I figured it was the card reader, as my Axim has no problem using the card at all. It's a minor inconvenience, but annoying none-the-less. Last night I brought up the properties of the card once I could get the reader to recognize it, and it said it is using the RAW file format. I didn't format it when I got it, but I thought the Axim did when I inserted it for the first time, but I could be mistaken.

Anyways, I figure that if I re-format the card using FAT-16 or FAT-32 that perhaps the card reader would have better luck recognizing it. The problem is that I have several programs installed on the card, and I don't want to have to re-install everything. If I copy everything from the card to my desktop, format the card, and then copy everything back to the card will everything be okay, or will switching the file formats screw something up? I thought about ghosting the card, but when I re-image it won't it just change the file format back to RAW?

Also, if I do re-format the card which file system is best to use for my Axim x50v? Will it work with NTFS?

Thanks,
Dr. Gonzo

[Howard2k]

I've never heard of RAW??

You can't use NTFS. FAT16 or FAT32 are ok.

When you copy the files, just be sure to copy any hidden files etc. too. Maybe even use a backup tool and then restore back to the card. That works on a file level so should be ok.

[Howard2k]

Found this link:

http://www.techie-one.com/new-1019090-4608.html

CE2 purports to format CF cards as FAT16, but often it'll format them RAW. Which can be read only by CE.

Learned something new :)

[DrGonzo2k2]

Thanks for the link. I knew something funny was going on because I remember formatting the card with my Axim. Am I correct in assuming that if I make an image of the card with Norton Ghost, format the card using my card reader, and then put the image back on the card it will be reverted to RAW format? If so, what backup program would you reccomend (hopefully shareware or freeware as I'll only need to use it once)? Also, would you reccomend fat-16 or fat-32?

BTW, the only reason I'm familiar with the RAW format is that our MPEG-2 encoding system here at work uses it for the RAID array storage. The only thing inside of Windows that is able to access the RAID array is the MPEG stream export utility which converts the files and drops them on an NTFS drive for importing into our authoring system. I always just assumed by "raw" it meant no file system.

Thanks,
Dr. Gonzo

[Howard2k]

I use Sprite Backup but it's not freeware. Sorry.

Isn't there a backup utility included with the X50?