Formatting 4GB Flash Card - help!

So I just bought a Sandisk Ultra II 4GB SD card. Problem is, Windows won't format it. It requires FAT32, which is fine -- I formatted an 8GB Microdrive with FAT32 on my system before, and my current 2GB which is being used in my X50v (WM5 A02) was also formatted with FAT32, again, no problems.

Now, my card reader (or the system, whichever) seems to have developed a problem with certain flash drives and such. It won't read my 8GB microdrive anymore for some reason. My 4GB drive however it recognized right away (well, second attempt; first attempt it didn't see it) but when I try and format it, it goes through the motions, it brings up an alert stating, "Windows was unable to complete the format." Hitting "Close" in the format dialog issues a further alert box, stating "This disk cannot be formatted."

Fine. Let's try the back door. Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Storage->Disk Management. There's the drive, recognized as it should be and supposedly "healthy" but unformatted. So, let's try and format it there.

No luck. "The format did not complete successfully."

On a whim I decided to try playing with cluster sizes and even using regular FAT. Naturally, no such luck.

FORMAT P: /FS:FAT32 from a command prompt didn't work either.

So, my question is in two parts:

1) How the hell am I supposed to format this thing? (My PocketPC cannot format disks internally, and my Treo 680, which can potentially access cards greater than 2GB, can't read this particular card, which is a known issue with the phone)

2) Can card readers have compatibility issues with certain file systems? (i.e. can a card reader have problems reading FAT32?) I would have thought this sort of thing was purely handled by the OS and that the reader hardware pretty much didn't care about the format, but if there are special hardware considerations for large-size flash cards (such as having to access certain pins for certain functions that may not be supported) then this may explain things.

[oditius]

OK this may sound dumb, but are you sure the slide bar on SD card isn't in the locked position? My laptop has a SD card reader on the side, and I had no problem formatting my 4gb card. So maybe it is the readers problem?

Now, my card reader (or the system, whichever) seems to have developed a problem with certain flash drives and such. It won't read my 8GB microdrive anymore for some reason. My 4GB drive however it recognized right away (well, second attempt; first attempt it didn't see it) but when I try and format it, it goes through the motions, it brings up an alert stating, "Windows was unable to complete the format." Hitting "Close" in the format dialog issues a further alert box, stating "This disk cannot be formatted."

Okaaay, so your card reader used to read your 8GB card and now won't anymore. Plus, it required 2 attempts to even show the 4GB card. It sure sounds like your card reader is hosed. I would spend the $8 to buy another card reader and try that out.

Also another option: have you tried formatting it IN your Axim? Resco Explorer, Pocket Mechanic, and SK Tools can all do this. All come with free trials, as well.

[Cannibul]

You did not by chance buy this card on eBay did you? Most all of the larger capacity CF cards on eBay are counterfit.

Here's the link

[Mokubai]

Storagetools has a free version that is capable of formatting from your PocketPC.

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

I just got a 4GB SD card and found that my USB2 card reader doesn't like large SD cards, it reports the 4GB as 978MB while another card reader (USB1.1 :( ) reports it properly as 4GB and works properly so it could just be a limit of your card reader.

As a side, the card was also painfully slow (~1-2 seconds to delete a file) until I got the cluster size right using repeated formats with storagetools.

[Menneisyys]

Storagetools has a free version that is capable of formatting from your PocketPC.

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

I just got a 4GB SD card and found that my USB2 card reader doesn't like large SD cards, it reports the 4GB as 978MB while another card reader (USB1.1 :( ) reports it properly as 4GB and works properly so it could just be a limit of your card reader.

As a side, the card was also painfully slow (~1-2 seconds to delete a file) until I got the cluster size right using repeated formats with storagetools.

I also recommend the tutorial at http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17921 on these questions.

[L.P.]

I also recommend the tutorial at http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17921 on these questions.

Menneisyys:

Is there any tips or changes from that tutorial for larger cards, 4GB SD. Just wondering because the cards used were 1GB and smaller.