Problems with 128 MB SD Card

alert5 · 02-07-03, 10:20 PM

Those with interest in the initial topic please read.

My latest discovery on this troublesome issue. The card appeared to be filling up with blank folders. It turns out it happened again and they were actually 2K "chk" files. Remember the old chkdsk /f dos command that would scan your drive and create these file fragments. You could then at least delete them to free up space. Why they were all 2 KB is anybody's guess.

My SD Card format was FAT 16, 512 byte sectors and 2 KB clusters. I have no idea why this storage media was going nuts and filling itself with .chk files, but clearly this is not acceptable behavior. The SanDisk site had nothing to say on the subject.

I downloaded and installed a utility called StorageTool ($14.95).

http://www.softwinter.com/storagetool.html

I was troubled from the git-go that this card never requested a full blown format prior to use. I used StorageTool to reformat the device. The program gives you the option for fat12, fat16 and fat32. I stuck with fat16, but changed the cluster size to 4 KB. The process took a couple of minutes, which was a good sign. Before when I was prompted to do a format, it was almost instantaneous so I didn't really believe anything good had happened.

After formatting I ran the disk verification checks and defrag. Everything looked good and the tool was reporting 120 MB available which is about right for a 128 MB disk.

Rebooted and surfed the web to populate the Temporary Internet folders. I then cut and pasted a bunch of files onto the disk. Did a soft reset and ran the tools again. Everything was reported OK, so we'll see what happens next.

maarten · 02-22-03, 02:10 PM

I just experienced the same thing woth a 2nd hand few months old SanDisk 256MB... filled with black folders, axim asked to format it after a reset.

I just copied 1 MP3 to the SD from a shared netword drive, 7.8mb shows up as 25MB :crooked:

02-22-03, 02:13 PM

I think its safe to say that SanDisk SD cards should not be used with the Axim. I hadn't any trouble for over a month, but my SD card just crapped out like everyone has said. I'm off to buy a Kingston or Viking card.

maarten · 02-22-03, 02:18 PM

I just reformatted the SD with the storagetool.. as FAT 16 and the 7.8mb file occupies 7.8mb now..

Maybe it's the FAT32 filesystem that was originally on the SD not compatible with the axim.

02-22-03, 02:21 PM

Even people with Toshiba Pocket PCs have trouble...

http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/show...?threadid=8568

This is a SanDisk problem if I ever saw one...

02-22-03, 03:16 PM

I've been using Sandisk CF cards for several years and never had a problem with any of them. Just ordered a 256 MB SD this week.

02-22-03, 06:59 PM

I don't have any problem with the 256meg card, just the 128meg. The more you research it, the more you see how much of a problem SanDisk 128meg SD cards are. I'm going to email them and see if I get a response.

Just got back from Fry's Electronics with a Viking 128 meg card.

Pacman · 02-22-03, 09:40 PM

i hope there isn't a problem with the 256mb card... i just ordered one that should get here monday.....

Sequitur · 02-22-03, 10:39 PM

Search the boards -- I asked a question specifically about the reliability of SanDisk 256 MB SD cards. The results weren't scienctific, but what I heard troubled me enough such that I purchased a Lexar. To date, no problems.

02-22-03, 11:31 PM

What weird is that I had not had any trouble with my SanDisk for about the 2 months I've used it, until today. I lost all my programs and Sync & Go data off of the card. I had seen everyone have trouble, but couldn't relate. Now I can.

cuttooth21 · 02-22-03, 11:33 PM

I have a Sandisk 256 MB SD card and have had problems with it since day one. When I copy large files over, it would seem like everything is copying over fine, then I would get a "not enough space to copy files" error message. But I would be nowhere near the 256 MB limit!! Then I would notice there were a bunch of empty folders in the card. Like about 20-30 of them. When I would try to browse the card using my Axim it would say the card needs to be formatted, so basically I lost all the data that I had on the card. I would get the same problem when I tried to make backups onto the card. For some reason when you copy a lot of data to the card at one time, the card would corrupt itself.

So I bought a 6 in 1 Reader/Writer from Buy.com and haven't had any problems since. It seems 10x faster than using the Axim to write to the card. It supports USB 2 but I don't even need that cause I'm satisified with current USB speed. I recommend it to everyone who is having a Sandisk SD card issue. They used to sell it for $20 after rebate but it's $27 now. Still a good price to get rid of that headache!!

Here's the link:

Sandisk 6 in 1 Reader

maarten · 02-23-03, 12:14 PM

Has anyone had the same problem twice?

So you bought the card, lost data (with or without the empty maps all over) formatted it and after some time, same problem?

how did you format it? fat12/16/32? let the axim do it or some storagesoftware?

I formatted mine tot fat16, no problem (yet?) after a lot of copying back and forth.

alert5 · 02-23-03, 05:46 PM

Well folks after over a week of heavy use, the 128 MB card is rock solid.

I last formatted as a FAT 32 with 2 KB cluster size and have not experienced any problems since.

The utility I used also defrags and does appear to free up memory/storage space.

Go figure?

02-25-03, 04:15 PM

Just got in a 256 MB SD SanDisk today. The only thing that I noticed that seemed odd after plugging it into the Axim was that there wasn't any folders on it. I was expecting to see a My Documents folder created on it as part of putting the card in the Axim. Since Pocket PC OS always looks in My Documents folders all over the place, I created a new folder called My Documents on the new SD card. I have a little over 32 MB on it which was mostly drug over there from a CF card using ActiveSync Explore. Some were rather large files such as mp3 and mapopolis files and ebooks. Drug some stuff over from the desktop. Also drug an over 2 MB Excel Spreadsheet over from the Company server. Had no problems opening and running any of the programs that used the new data on the SD card. All files seem to be appearing when opening Word regardless of which storage card they are on (Built in, CF or SD) as long as they are in a My Documents folder.

I've used SanDisk CF cards for years without problem. We'll see if the 256 MB SD will hold up but so far it is doing great.

Do you think some of the previous problems are being caused by people just storing data in the root directory of the card instead of putting them in a My Documents folder?

maarten · 02-25-03, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by metreece

Do you think some of the previous problems are being caused by people just storing data in the root directory of the card instead of putting them in a My Documents folder?

I doubt that.

I don;t have a My Documents folder on my SD card, I just browse around with appz that need files that are at the SD card.

one weird file appeared on the card though: ignore_my_docs what it's there for?? :rolling: