SD card formatting impossible, what to do Solved

Question

Hello everyone,
I bought a 4 GB 150x Transcend SD card yesterday and tested it on my Palm Tungsten TX, which recognized the 4 GB perfectly (3918 MB to be exact).
However, when I try to use it on my PC (Windows XP Home Edition), it is impossible to read the card! The Explorer asks me to format the card. I even tried, but it says it cannot format it. I then read on the forum that many people had issues with SD cards larger than 1 GB, and I saw some solutions to retrieve 2 GB.

1: Is there a solution to format a 4 GB SD card?
If so, how can I do it?

2: If I can format my SD card to 4 GB, will I be able to read it on my Palm? Configuration: Windows XP
Internet Explorer 7.0

stospro · Accepted Answer

Just buy a micro SD – USB card reader and you're good to go. You need to download the SDFormatter V 2.0 software (install it) and then insert the micro SD card into the USB reader, which should be connected to your computer. Launch SDFormatter; it will recognize the card, then start the formatting process, and there you go. The card will regain its original size, which for me is 4 GB instead of the 2 GB that my phone was showing (LG KU 990i)
And of course, do not format the card with the phone, because oooops, back to 2 GB.
Keep your phone in mass storage mode
A+

zoomphotos · Answer

up

ericpointcom · Answer

+1 same problem, and the solutions for the 2 GB cards are not valid for the 4 GB ones...

zoomphotos · Answer

up

dj.spike · Answer

I have exactly the same card as you. A buddy explained a trick to me that I'm trying tonight. I'll let you know if it works!

ll0ll · Answer

The problem probably comes from the fact that Palm runs on Mac, and that the Windows and Mac partitions are not the same... I'm giving you the reason I suspect, but I can't guide you further.

Enjoy the little hitchhiking trip!

zoomphotos · Answer

Hello everyone,
I'm coming back to tell you that apparently the only known solution right now is using a separate USB2 adapter (I bought mine on eBay) that allows you to read/write to a 4 or 8 GB SD card, which must be compatible with SDHC. (SD V2)
The issue seems to come from the incompatibility between the ROM of SD cards, which is not the same as that of compact flash cards for reading/writing.

That's it
See you soon
Zoomphotos.

kwenla · Answer

Same problem

4GB SD card without a brand.

I wanted to copy files from a VISTA computer to the SD card reader, it asked me to format it and I answered YES a bit too quickly. It offered 122 MB of size, and since then I can't access it anymore.

I tried to format it again with Windows and still got this size of 122 MB, and in the end, it asks me to format it again.
I tried formatting with a USB reader purchased at the same time as the card, but I have the same problem :-(
I tried using Panasonic's SDFormatter v2.0.2 downloaded yesterday from Panasonic and it asks me to unlock the card even though it is already unlocked.

Does anyone know of other ways to recover it?

Redbart · Answer

M^m concern that you have a 2GB SD card stuck at 1GB after a failed transfer and proper formatting via disk management

Lucky break, I did a quick format on the card in Explorer and I found my 2GB back, no more problems since!!!
Installed in TT GO Europe

Good Luck

Redbart · Answer

try quick format  it worked for a 2GB SD card stuck at 1GB

mapou · Answer

I purchased 2 unbranded 4GB SD cards on eBay. When I insert it into my Samsung digital camera, it says card error and if I want to format it, it indicates format error. I contacted the seller and he suggested formatting it on my PC first, and that should resolve my issue. I followed his advice by inserting my SD card into the reader I bought at the same time and connecting it to my computer's USB port. I executed the quick format without any problems but it still doesn’t work with my camera. I keep getting the same messages. Can anyone help me? I'm not a computer whiz at all, so if you have a solution for me, it will need to be quite detailed. Thank you in advance!!!

Redbart · Answer

check if your camera accepts the 4GB before looking further  if your camera accepts the 4GB, it should also be able to format them!

Redbart · Answer

http://www.samsungcamera.com/en/product/pro_main.asp  on this site the digital cameras accept 256 MB

Orl · Answer

Hello, I know the problem, or rather the confusion. A large number of cards >4Gb are not SD format but SDHC format. Indeed, it's impossible to format, and only the most recent cameras will accept this format. There are adapters for SD, SD HC, Ultra II SD, and others, but it's possible that not all will recognize them since some SDHCs have a very limited reading format. The wisest thing is to buy the USB adapter with the card, and that's it. (For your CPU only, as it's impossible to connect an adapter to a camera.) I bought my card on eBay, it says SD 4Gb on it, and only by taking a look at the manufacturer's website (SanDisk) did I find out that this model is SD HC. So who now has a card that is useless... it's me.

samidu86 · Answer

Hello, I have a 4GB SD card that I forgot to format. The problem is that I recorded videos at a wedding but I can't access the content of the card because I forgot to format it. This is very important to me if you could please help me, I would be eternally grateful I tried a decompression program but it doesn't work!!! Here is my hardware configuration in case it helps Windows XP Home Service Pack 2 351 MHz 480MB of RAM   Thank you in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hamster_dame · Answer

Hello everyone. I'm explaining my problem, which is somewhat similar to yours:  I bought a 4GB "performance extrememory" SD card. I was able to take photos directly on my Nikon camera without needing to format it. Unfortunately, I can no longer use my USB cable to transfer them to my PC (XP SP2, really outdated) because the camera's port seems to no longer work (why? well, it doesn't matter). So I'm using my card reader: no problem unloading my 512MB SD card, but when I insert the 4GB card, the PC asks to format it (so I transferred my photos onto a CD at a supermarket => no problem with the PC at Leclerc) ... I then formatted it via my PC in FAT32: capacity 983MB... (??)  in FAT: the same. The card only shows 983MB according to my PC, but I can access it normally from the computer and load files onto it. Finally, the last problem is that when I put the 4GB card back into my Nikon, it asks me to format it.  So in summary: the PC wants to format it: 4GB = 983MB, and then the camera wants to format the 983MB into 4GB.  Thank you^^, and I'm trying to find a solution!

urockdbg · Answer

HELLO THIS SOFTWARE RECOVERS AND FORMATS YOUR SD CARDS. BE CAREFUL TO USE A COMPATIBLE READER FOR SD CARDS > 2 GB:   http://www.sdcard.org/about/downloads/  my 4 GB kingston SD card was recognized as a 2 GB SD card after formatting with Vista on my built-in reader.

Fernand romain · Answer

You must not format the card on the machine but format it on your phone or delete your files if you have.
If you formatted it on your machine, the card is unusable. The seller probably sent you cards formatted on his machine.
Knowing this, that's why he sold his two cards.
If you format it normally, very good cards, fast, good resolution, and powerful.
Keep me updated.
I have two cards, one 1 GB and one 2 GB, never had any problems.
On phone: K800i (same issue on photo devices).

Check it anyway; I think the problem lies with him.

Fernand Romain

beru 28 · Answer

I bought an Emtec 4G HC SD card the other day. When I put it in the computer's card reader, it said <formatting impossible=""> and I couldn't paste any documents onto it.
I went back to see the seller, and he told me that my computer doesn't support high-definition SD cards.
I had to buy a removable card reader, and it worked.
Best regards.</formatting>

nettlebay · Answer

Hello,
I just received a new 16 Go SDHC card (class 6) bought secondhand for my EeePC (XP). I had the same problem, as it was recognized by Windows' "Disk Management" but with a RAW format. I couldn't format it with SDFormatter either. I went to the indicated link and downloaded the software (which turned out to be SDFormatter as well). It uninstalled my previous version, and then I reinstalled it. And there, miracle! My card was formatted 5 seconds later. I haven't tried it on my EeePC yet, but on the EeeBox, it works perfectly. It's detected as 15.62 Go in Fat 32. Note that it was delivered to me with its reader; I could have used it that way.
http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter/sdfv2000.exe
Merry Christmas everyone!

khadija · Answer

my computer won't format, it gives me this message "err.disk press a key to restart "

Mike · Answer

Hello, I have a problem with my 2GB SD card, Windows won't format it and I can't access it.. please provide some info, thanks ;)

Le_minaw · Answer

Hi everyone,
I had the same problem with a 4-gigabit SDHC.
I was using a Micro SD / USB adapter, but I couldn't format it; the allocation table was corrupted...
(This adapter worked perfectly with another 2-gigabyte micro SD.)
A friend lent me another certified USB 2.0 adapter. Since the card was still not detected, I used the Windows command prompt:
format <volume_letter:> /V:<volume_name> /FS:<file_system>
Which, in my case, is:
format G: /V:SDCard /FS:FAT32
And my volume works in FAT32.
I therefore recommend performing the operation either with the adapter provided with the card or with a certified USB 2.0 adapter.

See you soon!

Mélusine18 · Answer

Hello,
I am reaching out to you to solve a problem.
I have an SD card with games that I can't format.
I installed the software mentioned in the first message, but I am still encountering issues with formatting.
The error message says that the card is protected and that I need to remove this protection... Yes, but I don't know how to do that...
Can anyone help me? Thank you.

dd delavéga · Answer

Yes, there is a very, very, very simple solution!!! I PUT IT IN SD IN MY SONY S TABLET AND I DELETED ALL THE CONTENT, THEN I PUT IT BACK IN MY COMPUTER AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY!!!

atsama · Answer

I put my memory card in the MP3 player, but when I take the card out to put it back in the phone, a message appears. Card damaged.

chris-alex-gaby · Answer

Hello, for me too it was a real hassle to format my SD card, the only software that worked is EAST TEC ERASER. You select the card, then erase the free space, erase the weakness, scramble the properties, and finally scramble the system, and there you go, good luck!

SD card formatting impossible, what to do

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