SD card keeps formatting and changing file system.
I have a 1 GB SD card that I want to use as a way to move files
between my Motorola Q (cell phone), my laptop, and my desktop. The
problem that I am having is that when I get the card formatted and get
all the files and directories onto the card that I want to keep, it
completely wipes itself clean and changes the file system to look as
though I just took it out of my digital camera.
For example. I just wiped it clean and copied over 2 folders from my
laptop. I copied 1 folder named MP3 and another folder named Dev.
Within the MP3 folder I had about 100 MP3s and within the Dev folder I
had a few web development projects. The structure looked like this.
After taking it out of my laptop, I popped it into my cell phone and
saw all of my files. I moved a new MP3 from my cell phone to the SD
card. I popped the card out and into my desktop's card reader. The
card formatted and defaulted to the structure below.
/DCIM
- /100HP733
/MISC
- AUTPRINT.MRK
So, from my desktop, I deleted everything once again and copied over a
structure similiar to what I did the first time. I took the card out
of my desktop's card reader and popped it into my laptop. Once again,
the card wiped itself clean and it took the exact same structure it
did the last time it formatted on its own (DCIM, MISC).
Thinking it may be a card issue, I went out and got a new 2 GB card
and the same thing keeps happening. What is going on? Am I totally
losing my mind? Please help me out here. I KNOW that this can't be the
intended behavior of SD cards; otherwise, what is the point of using
them for anything but a digital camera?
Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.
- John
Re: SD card keeps formatting and changing file system.
twdo wrote:
> I have a 1 GB SD card that I want to use as a way to move files
> between my Motorola Q (cell phone), my laptop, and my desktop. The
> problem that I am having is that when I get the card formatted and get
> all the files and directories onto the card that I want to keep, it
> completely wipes itself clean and changes the file system to look as
> though I just took it out of my digital camera.
>
> For example. I just wiped it clean and copied over 2 folders from my
> laptop. I copied 1 folder named MP3 and another folder named Dev.
> Within the MP3 folder I had about 100 MP3s and within the Dev folder I
> had a few web development projects. The structure looked like this.
>
> /MP3
> - Song1.mp3
> - Blah.mp3
> - etc
> - etc
>
> /Dev
> - /SomeWebsite.com
> - index.aspx
> - index.aspx.vb
> - blah.html
> - etc
> - etc
>
> After taking it out of my laptop, I popped it into my cell phone and
> saw all of my files. I moved a new MP3 from my cell phone to the SD
> card. I popped the card out and into my desktop's card reader. The
> card formatted and defaulted to the structure below.
>
> /DCIM
> - /100HP733
>
> /MISC
> - AUTPRINT.MRK
>
> So, from my desktop, I deleted everything once again and copied over a
> structure similiar to what I did the first time. I took the card out
> of my desktop's card reader and popped it into my laptop. Once again,
> the card wiped itself clean and it took the exact same structure it
> did the last time it formatted on its own (DCIM, MISC).
>
> Thinking it may be a card issue, I went out and got a new 2 GB card
> and the same thing keeps happening. What is going on? Am I totally
> losing my mind? Please help me out here. I KNOW that this can't be the
> intended behavior of SD cards; otherwise, what is the point of using
> them for anything but a digital camera?
>
> Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.
> - John
Just shooting away in the dark: Perhaps you have some sort of really
aggressive media manager on your PC. Windows Media Player, for
instance, tries to identify MP3 players when they've been connected in
order to manage their contents. Practically any USB mass storage can
look like an MP3 to such programs.
It recreates the same file structure every time? You're right in that
it looks like it's prepping the card for use with an HP digital camera.
Do you, in fact have an HP Photosmart 733? Did you install any
software for that camera? Check out the settings for that software if
you did, or completely uninstalling it to see if you can get it to leave
your memory card alone.
>I have a 1 GB SD card that I want to use as a way to move files
>between my Motorola Q (cell phone), my laptop, and my desktop. The
>problem that I am having is that when I get the card formatted and get
>all the files and directories onto the card that I want to keep, it
>completely wipes itself clean and changes the file system to look as
>though I just took it out of my digital camera.
>
>For example. I just wiped it clean and copied over 2 folders from my
>laptop.
How exactly did you wipe it clean? Go into windows Disk
Management and create one partition, formatted as FAT32 IF
your phone can handle FAT32, if it can't then use FAT(16).
>I copied 1 folder named MP3 and another folder named Dev.
>Within the MP3 folder I had about 100 MP3s and within the Dev folder I
>had a few web development projects. The structure looked like this.
>
>/MP3
> - Song1.mp3
> - Blah.mp3
> - etc
> - etc
>
>/Dev
> - /SomeWebsite.com
> - index.aspx
> - index.aspx.vb
> - blah.html
> - etc
> - etc
>
>After taking it out of my laptop, I popped it into my cell phone and
>saw all of my files.
>I moved a new MP3 from my cell phone to the SD
>card.
Try this again, but this time only confirm your cell phone
can see the files, but do not write anything from the cell
phone to the card, then take it out and see if it is still
losing the files.
>I popped the card out and into my desktop's card reader. The
>card formatted and defaulted to the structure below.
>
>/DCIM
> - /100HP733
>
>/MISC
> - AUTPRINT.MRK
>
Try this again but don't put it in the desktop, see what is
visible from the laptop. Is it possible you have some kind
of DRM laden application for (an MP3 player/etc or from some
audio CD) on either or both the laptop and desktop?
>So, from my desktop, I deleted everything once again and copied over a
>structure similiar to what I did the first time. I took the card out
>of my desktop's card reader and popped it into my laptop. Once again,
>the card wiped itself clean and it took the exact same structure it
>did the last time it formatted on its own (DCIM, MISC).
>
>Thinking it may be a card issue, I went out and got a new 2 GB card
>and the same thing keeps happening. What is going on? Am I totally
>losing my mind? Please help me out here. I KNOW that this can't be the
>intended behavior of SD cards; otherwise, what is the point of using
>them for anything but a digital camera?
True, this is not due to it being an SD card, I move stuff
around all the time from camera, MP3 player, desktop and
laptop with one - though I usually use a USB thumbdrive
instead but you don't have that option with a cellphone.
Either one of the *systems* is choosing to reformat the card
every time it writes to it because of some firmware flaw, or
one has some application resident that is doing it instead.
Be sure to keep looking at the partition and filesystem info
in Disk Management to see if this changes, and how much free
space there is in case it is creating a 2nd partition and
hiding it... not that I'd expect it to but this is a strange
case.
SD card keeps formatting and changing file system. 
Linear Mode
