MicroSD formatting problem

Author
Discussion

tenohfive

Original Poster:

6,276 posts

182 months

Friday 24th March 2017
quotequote all
Recently bought a 128GB Samsung microSD card ready for use in an Android phone. I formatted it (exFAT) and then ran it through H2testw although I didn't really know what I was doing with it.

I've now tried using it in the phone and it tries formatting and gives up, and doesn't then recognise it until I restart.

So I've just tried formatting it again in Windows. After two hours it pinged up, "Windows was unable to complete the format." Following a guide I came across I used diskpart to clean the card, then opening Disk Management was faced with the card concerned - 119.73GB exFAT Healthy (Primary Partition) and 16MB unallocated. On selecting the Primary Partition and attempting to (quick) format it immediately pings up unsuccessful.

I'm out of my depth here. What do I need to do?

anonymous-user

54 months

Friday 24th March 2017
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Phone should just accept the card out of the box if it accepts 128gb cards.

Check the write protected switch on the card hasn't been nudged in the lock position - failing that it's possible it's a dud and it might be less hassle to just exchange it.

Vaud

50,458 posts

155 months

Friday 24th March 2017
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It may be a fake card...

daemon

35,814 posts

197 months

Friday 24th March 2017
quotequote all
tenohfive said:
Recently bought a 128GB Samsung microSD card ready for use in an Android phone. I formatted it (exFAT) and then ran it through H2testw although I didn't really know what I was doing with it.

I've now tried using it in the phone and it tries formatting and gives up, and doesn't then recognise it until I restart.

So I've just tried formatting it again in Windows. After two hours it pinged up, "Windows was unable to complete the format." Following a guide I came across I used diskpart to clean the card, then opening Disk Management was faced with the card concerned - 119.73GB exFAT Healthy (Primary Partition) and 16MB unallocated. On selecting the Primary Partition and attempting to (quick) format it immediately pings up unsuccessful.

I'm out of my depth here. What do I need to do?
Can your phone and Windows device handle a 128GB SD card?

My laptop has a SD card slot and it cant handle anything above 64GB. Its a 2016 HP Envy i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and Win10, so not exactly old spec.

How are you mounting the card on the windows device? Through a card slot, or with an external card reader connected via an SD port.


tenohfive

Original Poster:

6,276 posts

182 months

Friday 24th March 2017
quotequote all
Phone can handle 128GB.
PC? It manages a 128GB SD (as opposed to microSD) card fine so I don't see why not.

No write protection switch on microSD's, I'm plugging it into a card reader that accepts it without needing an adapter.

It could be a fake card but it was bought (supplied by, not fulfilled by) Amazon.

Cerberus90

1,553 posts

213 months

Sunday 26th March 2017
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tenohfive said:
Phone can handle 128GB.
PC? It manages a 128GB SD (as opposed to microSD) card fine so I don't see why not.

No write protection switch on microSD's, I'm plugging it into a card reader that accepts it without needing an adapter.

It could be a fake card but it was bought (supplied by, not fulfilled by) Amazon.
I had a Kingston card that I bought direct from amazon and it turned out to be a fake. Contacted Kingston who took the serial no and confirmed it was fake, they sent me a replacement for free.

Andehh

7,110 posts

206 months

Monday 27th March 2017
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Vaud said:
It may be a fake card...
wot e said.

So many of them are fake, especially off Ebay/Amazon market place etc, they look & act like the legit thing, they just mysteriously read as 128gb but can only be formatted to something a fraction of their stated size.

Get in contact with Amazon, they will post you out a new one for tomorrow & just ask you to return yours sometime over the next month. Their customer service is ace!


Nimby

4,589 posts

150 months

Monday 27th March 2017
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Try the SD Association formatter and set the "size adjustment" to ON.

I've found this has worked with cards that nothing else has fixed.

tenohfive

Original Poster:

6,276 posts

182 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
Nimby said:
Try the SD Association formatter and set the "size adjustment" to ON.

I've found this has worked with cards that nothing else has fixed.
Didn't work.

And deliberately avoided the Amazon Marketplace, went with Amazon themselves. Didn't want to wait so ordered another and that's loaded up fine. When adopting it as internal storage it Android suggested it was a bit too slow but will see how it goes. Will send the old one back.

Funk

26,273 posts

209 months

Monday 27th March 2017
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Another here who'd never buy SD cards etc off Amazon - they just can't be trusted.

I always use 7dayshop who've been brilliant and zero issues.

tr7v8

7,192 posts

228 months

Monday 27th March 2017
quotequote all
Funk said:
Another here who'd never buy SD cards etc off Amazon - they just can't be trusted.

I always use 7dayshop who've been brilliant and zero issues.
This or My Memory