SD Nightmare!!!! Help!!!

03-28-06, 11:02 AM

:exc:

I have an x51v, WM5, ROM A06 (I'm pretty sure the latest ROM version). I have never had problems with my SanDisk 1GB Ultra II SD card until this morning. I store all documents, mp3's, pictures, books, backup, email attachments on this SD card. So I have about 404MB of free storage left. I would go into File Explorer on my Axim and all the folders would show up....UNTIL this morning!!! When I go to my SD card in File Explorer all my folders are wiped out expect for last nights backup (Spb Backup) and an empty mail attachments folder.

However, on the today screen it still shows that I only have the 404MB of free space remaining. Where did my files go??? I tried a soft reset...nothing. I tried re-inserting the SD card...nothing. When I sync with Active Sync and go to Explore PC I see the same two folders. Again, does anyone know where all my other data went??? This is very seriouly because I feel that information.
Any help will be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

03-28-06, 11:15 AM

Help...Please!!!

Bagelsnbrew · 03-28-06, 11:15 AM

First, try a soft reset. If you have access to a card reader, try accessing the card there. If you still can't see the files, there are several file recovery tools available. Maybe someone else can make a recommendation. I had a Sandisk 256mb card go bad in my digicam and tried all the free tools I could find, none were able to recover the files. We lost the pictures of my younger son getting his first haircut. Good luck!

nasatech · 03-28-06, 11:46 AM

You stated that your last backup is present - have you tried restoring the backup?

03-28-06, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by nasatech

You stated that your last backup is present - have you tried restoring the backup?

No, I haven't tried doing the backup yet. I want to find out what is the cause first, then try a plan of action.
Thank you for your help. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to help another.:approve:

MarcFou · 03-28-06, 12:06 PM

Do you have a card reader so you can check the contents of the card on your PC? I once had a similar problem and was able to use checkdisk on the sd card, repair the errors and recovered 99% of my files.

While it may be open for debate to some, you can effectively defrag and repair sd card errors on your pc.

Also. For the future, you can back up your sd card to your pc using a card reader or by accessing the card through Activesync. I do a backup once per month.

03-28-06, 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by MarcFou

Do you have a card reader so you can check the contents of the card on your PC? I once had a similar problem and was able to use checkdisk on the sd card, repair the errors and recovered 99% of my files.

While it may be open for debate to some, you can effectively defrag and repair sd card errors on your pc.

Also. For the future, you can back up your sd card to your pc using a card reader or by accessing the card through Activesync. I do a backup once per month.

I have a card reader at home. Unfortunately, I don't have one here at work. However, I will definitely try that at home. Hopefully they show up.

How can I do a checkdisk on the sd card? I would really appreciate it.

MarcFou · 03-28-06, 12:31 PM

You should be able to open My Computer, right click on the card reader and select properties. Go to the tools tab. There you should have check disk for errors and defrag.

solara · 03-28-06, 12:32 PM

You defininitely should try to access it from your PC through a card reader. You can run chkdsk from the command prompt in Windows.

You can use this program to recover the deleted files - lots of people have good success with this freeware program:

http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_medi...uk/welcome.htm

03-28-06, 01:25 PM

Thanks MarcFou and solara. I really appreciate all of your help. Thanks for taking the time. I will give an update later today after I try your suggestions. Have a great day.

midnightmaraud · 03-28-06, 10:16 PM

Please let me know if it works. After a hard reset I too lost all files..atleast they are not showing up on the axim or through active synch. Weird issue though, the memory option is showing that the sd card is about halfway filled still. The same amount it was with the files on . I just bought a card reader through ebay and will try some things but wanna see if you have any luck

03-29-06, 02:07 AM

Sorry everyone. The card reader shown me the same thing as my Axim and the ActiveSync Explore PC. I tried the restore program from solara...it did restore some of the notes...but none of the Word docs. It seems that program is more for restoring images rather than documents. I did set it to Pocket Word; however, only Notes were restored and none of my essential Word documents.

mignightmaraud...do you have any suggestions for me. The card reader still shows I have 404MB of free space...but the files are just not there. Please help!

MarcFou · 03-29-06, 02:21 AM

Have you performed a checkdisk?

03-29-06, 06:26 AM

I am going to through out a suggestion to everyone - don't laugh...

Do you think the support department for the card manufacture may have an idea of what to do?

Personally I have recovered my card info twice. Once half of the stuff looked like wing-dings, the other time everything disappeared. I used Norton scan disk.

I now make backups of my SD card every few weeks, or whenever I make major changes.

midnightmaraud · 03-29-06, 08:58 AM

Making backups of the sd card is a good idea and something i'll do in the future..but right now we have an issue of not only losing files which is unexplained and we'll have to deal with , but now we have a loss of storage space. In other words on my card I have 2 gigs total space. WIht all the files that were on there it amounted to just under one gig. Well that space is still being used up but the files are not present. So I attempted to install about 2 gigs worth of stuff to see if it was a misreading error and sure enough it only held about 900mb of stuff. So wtf do I do now? I can accept losing my files as I have them on the pc but how do i reclaim the space back from the storage card?