Issue with Dell Axim X50 and 2GB SD card

chui · 07-31-09, 01:33 PM

Hi,

I'm a newbie here, was just was given a Dell Axim X50 by my job that was lying around gathering dust, and was told I could install up to a 4GB SD card in it. It's Pocket PC 2003 (4.20.1081), Processor PXA255.

I bought an HP 2GB SD card for it, the first problem I discovered upon taking it home was that when I popped it into my trusty usb card reader, Windows wouldn't recognize the card (it froze up Windows Explorer, then finally told me the card wasn't formatted, and would I like to do so, upon clicking yes I got an error message stating the card couldn't be formatted.)

At this point, I did some Googling, and read a post that said I should install Flash Format on my Axim and work from there. I formatted the card to FAT32 with a 16kb cluster size, it seemed to work out fine. At this point it said the capacity was 1.9GB (in the Flash Format tool).

I popped it back in my card reader, this time neither the card reader or Windows recognized it. So I put it back in my Axim, and began to copy files over the long way. At about 963MB, I got the Windows/error that I couldn't add any more files onto it. When I try to copy files from my CF card to my SD card at this point (while both are loaded in the Axim), I get the message "Cannot copy 'filename'. Error code 27. The drive cannot find the sector requested.

I would just stick with the CF card, but since that slot is used for my wireless, it's a bit of a hassle. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks :)

ikehiker · 07-31-09, 04:50 PM

It's been a while since I've seen this issue addressed, but I believe there is a limit to the number of files/folders that each folder can contain (256 come to mind) and that could result in an error like you received. If this is the problem, the solution is to make subfolders and divide the files amongst them.

I'd be somewhat suspicious of the card, though, if you cannot read it in your PC.

spunker88 · 07-31-09, 05:12 PM

Sounds like it could be a bad card. Any card that you buy today should be preformatted and be plug and play in the axim as well as your card reader, especially a 2gb. Ive used numerous 2gb cards in my x50 with no probs.

JakeRich · 08-01-09, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by ikehiker

It's been a while since I've seen this issue addressed, but I believe there is a limit to the number of files/folders that each folder can contain (256 come to mind) and that could result in an error like you received. If this is the problem, the solution is to make subfolders and divide the files amongst them.

I'd be somewhat suspicious of the card, though, if you cannot read it in your PC.

That had crossed my mind, too, but the OP said it reported "sector not found" and the error for too many files in the root is that the card has no space left. But it's good to bring this up periodically anyway, as a reminder to new visitors.

chui · 08-02-09, 04:41 PM

Thanks for the advice! :) I went and returned the card, got a replacement, had no problems with plug and play / Windows. I also did make a bunch of subfolders on the new card to break up my file structure, as I had indeed dumped (or tried to, about 1200 book folders into 1 folder).

I still appear to be having an issue where once I hit over 1GB of data on my card (using the card reader to fil it up), the Axim starts showing folders as empty (aka it won't list the content of folders when I look at them in file explorer - folder could have 5 items or 99), or won't load files. I was hoping that I could use the full 2GB, but oh well.

Thanks again for the help though!

Ivan Awfulitch · 08-03-09, 06:11 PM

If you have access to another card reader, give that a try first.

That card isn't an SDHC card is it? You should be able to read and use all 2 gigs of data. I have a NON-SDHC 4 gig card and can access all 4 gigs on both Windows and the Axim.