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Hey guys ive been lurking around for a while troubleshooting my builds, I have figured out that when I run my android build off of the sd card by itself everything runs well, but once i put in my 10GB of music everything starts to fall appart and i get sod after a minute or two in the lockscreen. I was wondering if creating a separate ext2 partition for android to boot from and keeping my data on the other partition would provide me with any more stability. BTW im using the stock 16 gig class 2 card that came with the phone
Where on the SD card is your music? Root or in the Android folder. I ask because I have a 2 year old 8GB class 4 SD card that came with my preloaded CGO8 navigation (ICO8, but for US) and have never formatted. I've loaded most of the Android builds and most I've had no problems, other than typical for the build.
SD cards are digital. Unlike analog hard disks data is not fragmented. Formatting does not serve a useful purpose for an SD card. Even deleting files (except protected) deleting is just as, if not more, effective.
Do some research, think independently to come up with your own conclusions, but these are mine.
Oh, by the way, this is not the right forum for your question....you should have done some research before posting.
i was not asking about formating i was asking about partitioning and if running android from an ext2 partition on the sd card would create more stability on the build
audscott said:
SD cards are digital. Unlike analog hard disks data is not fragmented.
Do some research, think independently to come up with your own conclusions, but these are mine.
Oh, by the way, this is not the right forum for your question....you should have done some research before posting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Analog hard disks? No fragmentation on flash media? Wow, sounds like you need to do some research...
I also have the same issue where if I put Android along with my music on the 16gb card, it gets stuck at jumping to kernal on reboot.
im copying my music on the new sd now will report back if the problem persists, but i have a feeling that running off of an ext2 partition will provide us with better r/w speeds, similar to ubuntu running on an ntfs partition instead of ext4
Having music (anything else) on your SD card should not really affect Android. Most builds are in an 'Android' folder, so that is where the system looks for its information. This may slow things down a bit (just like an overloaded HDD) but generally there should not be much difference.
Creating and ext2 partition will not help. Of course, now that I have said that, I have an ext2 partition on my SD card that was left from using my rooted G1 with cyanogen mod and Apps2SD. By default, my android build on my HD2 automatically looked in that partition for apps (froyo does this).
So, I do not think it will change anything about freezing or 'jumping to kernal' but it does have its uses.
EDIT: And, since WinMo is actually booting android, I don't think containing your android stuff in an .ext2 partition would even work. Needs to be FAT32 for haret to see it. (this is my assumption, not necessarily a fact)
Isn't the rootfs.img file actually like a simulated ext2 filesystem? Doesn't this file emulate the device memory? I'm not exactly sure, maybe someone else can expand on this. I don't think there is any benefit to partitioning the card in the current state of the hd2's development. Maybe when we are able to flash nand, nand will be formatted to ext2.
polo735 said:
Isn't the rootfs.img file actually like a simulated ext2 filesystem? Doesn't this file emulate the device memory? I'm not exactly sure, maybe someone else can expand on this. I don't think there is any benefit to partitioning the card in the current state of the hd2's development. Maybe when we are able to flash nand, nand will be formatted to ext2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, there is that and the system.ext2 and data.img. This is all the files in Android (basically).
But with these files, android knows where to look to find them, placing them in your own ext2 partition will hide them from android.
When we are able to flash to nand (and now) an ext2 partition will allow you to store apps on that partition, given you are able to move apps to SD, which is not currently possible in our builds.
I installed apps to my SD card on my G1 (on an ext2 partition), so when I used Froyo on my HD2, android was able to read from that partition and use my old apps. All that means is that I did not have to reinstall all my old apps, and save space in the data.img created by android.
audscott said:
Where on the SD card is your music? Root or in the Android folder. I ask because I have a 2 year old 8GB class 4 SD card that came with my preloaded CGO8 navigation (ICO8, but for US) and have never formatted. I've loaded most of the Android builds and most I've had no problems, other than typical for the build.
SD cards are digital. Unlike analog hard disks data is not fragmented. Formatting does not serve a useful purpose for an SD card. Even deleting files (except protected) deleting is just as, if not more, effective.
Do some research, think independently to come up with your own conclusions, but these are mine.
Oh, by the way, this is not the right forum for your question....you should have done some research before posting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, before you call someone out you might want to do some research of your own so you don't come across looking like a moron. Fragmentation happens regardless of the actual hardware, and most file systems are vulnerable (whether it be fat, ntfs, ext2, ext4, etc). And while deleting files and reformatting end in the same result, a quick reformat makes far fewer writes to the card by simply wiping the allocation table. Each file name must be modified individually if you delete them, adding unnecessary wear to the card. As for a hard drive being "analog", it stores its data the same way as a memory card - 0's and 1's - which is digital. Just a little refresher there.
Now, as for the question at hand, which is completely appropriate for this forum as it directly concerns the development and installation of android on our HD2's, the use of ext2 for the android files has been done successfully on other winmo devices in order to increase stability and speed in the system. In fact I have done this very thing on my Kaiser in the past. Whether its possible with our current HD2 setup is another matter, so I'll direct you to these links - do a little reading and play around with it, let us know what you find. I'll probably look at it myself this weekend as a stop-gap until a full NAND flash becomes available, which hopefully is sooner rather than later - I'll report back if I find something.
http://www.androidonhtc.com/wiki/Installing_Android
http://android-devs.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=194&sid=69cc2d8c93262ff8c70de594d50e5874
In my own experience, I have a 4Gig class 10 and 16Gig class 2 (stock).
I use my 4Gig for Android test runs.
I use my 16Gig for my Android currently in use.
I have my Music in at the root /Music
Android is in the traditional /Android
Any pics I take I just move over /DCIM
I haven't experience any corruption. Before testing, I format the SD card on my computer with 64k or 32K blocks. I copy over my saved /Music and /DCIM and then load the new Android in /Android.
ALWAYS Eject the SD card. Keeping those rules and I haven't had issues.
Well I switched to my other 16gig class 2 and my problems went away, it seems the stock card was going bad but not using a 20yr old file system would be nice regardless
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
... oh, and about fragmentation, I'm not a software engineer (I'm electronics engineer), but I wouldn't get too worried about SD card fragmentation. It can happen, but not in the same way as a physical HD.
SD cards can do random access reads/writes much better than a physical hard drive. However, if you've formatted your blocks too small, the controller has to piece together two bits of info instead of one.
Example: 64k file written to 8k formatted SD, will have to piece together 8 blocks.
A 64k file written to 64k formatted SD is written all to one block.
The flip-side is if you have a bunch of small files (1k - 5k) and you're formatted at 64k, you've just wasted 63k of a 64k block writing a 1k file. It's inefficient.
willgill said:
Example: 64k file written to 8k formatted SD, will have to piece together 8 blocks.
A 64k file written to 64k formatted SD is written all to one block.
The flip-side is if you have a bunch of small files (1k - 5k) and you're formatted at 64k, you've just wasted 63k of a 64k block writing a 1k file. It's inefficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering the sizes of most music and picture files these days and the fact that all Android little files are inside one large file, I believe going with 64k blocks would be better. Even going with a larger block size than 64k might be a good idea. Too bad 64k is the limit.
Larger block sizes might be inefficient when dealing with system folders like C drive in windows or system folder in linux since they contain a huge number of small files. That is why windows default is 4k.
I bought 64 gb card and it works on samsung stock galaxy s3 rom BUT when i switched to Cyanogen10 mod it started showing damaged card,
I know it is because the stock has driver for that card,
My question is has someone ported or can someone please port the driver from stock and make it workable on custom roms.
Thanks.
exFAT is not and probably will never be supported by CM9 or 10.
Your card needs to be FAT32-formatted to work.
Alright trying hopefully this works and doesnt screw up my card.
d4fseeker said:
exFAT is not and probably will never be supported by CM9 or 10.
Your card needs to be FAT32-formatted to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
didnt work now the phone doesnt even show damaged card, its acting like card is not even inserted.
How exactly have you formatted the card? Windows onboard utilities won't let you format a 64GB card as FAT32, so my guess is you formatted it as NTFS.
Unfortunately CM cannot read NTFS either, you'll need another kernel for that. (And to date none has been released)
Try the HP Usb Format utility to create a FAT32 partition.
d4fseeker said:
exFAT is not and probably will never be supported by CM9 or 10.
Your card needs to be FAT32-formatted to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is this?! Does AOSP not come with exFAT support, it's something Samsung builds into the kernel afterwards?
Disappointed, as I was tempted to try CM, but no 64GB support renders my card next to useless.
Disappointed, as I was tempted to try CM, but no 64GB support renders my card next to useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FAT32 doesn't mean the card is restricted to 32GB, it means a file can be 2^32 bytes long which is 4GB.
FAT64 (ExFat) has a limit of 2^64 bytes per file which equals 16 Exabyte (1Exabyte = 1024 Terabyte)
It's possible for FAT32 partitions to be as large as 8 Terabyte, which is roughly 1000 times the size of harddisks when FAT32 was released.
Windows, for some stupid compatibility reason with a 12 year old operating system (Windows 2000) does not allow to format FAT32 partitions to a size larger than 32GB, hence the usual confusion.
As described above, here is the tool you need: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool.shtml
Why is this?! Does AOSP not come with exFAT support, it's something Samsung builds into the kernel afterwards?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ExFat is patent-encumbered, meaning every distributed binary copy of Cyanogenmod would theoretically cost the developers the license fee.
(At least for US-based downloads, most other countries see software patents as what they are - ridiculous and unenforceable)
Furthermore -and a very big issue- is the instability of the exFat code for GNU/Linux (and by extension, Android) which causes data loss, corruption and other negative side effects.
It's highly recommended not to use exFAT with Samsung-firmwares either.
d4fseeker said:
How exactly have you formatted the card? Windows onboard utilities won't let you format a 64GB card as FAT32, so my guess is you formatted it as NTFS.
Unfortunately CM cannot read NTFS either, you'll need another kernel for that. (And to date none has been released)
Try the HP Usb Format utility to create a FAT32 partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i used easeus partition: i deleted partition first and made new one with fat32 file system,
which didnt work, after that i deleted the partition again and formatted using stock galaxy s3 rom and it works again but limited to stock rom only like before.
atleast the card isnt dead.
d4fseeker said:
How exactly have you formatted the card? Windows onboard utilities won't let you format a 64GB card as FAT32, so my guess is you formatted it as NTFS.
Unfortunately CM cannot read NTFS either, you'll need another kernel for that. (And to date none has been released)
Try the HP Usb Format utility to create a FAT32 partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ill try this software as well.
d4fseeker said:
How exactly have you formatted the card? Windows onboard utilities won't let you format a 64GB card as FAT32, so my guess is you formatted it as NTFS.
Unfortunately CM cannot read NTFS either, you'll need another kernel for that. (And to date none has been released)
Try the HP Usb Format utility to create a FAT32 partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didnt get a chance to try Hp software i cant across this other software and it work.
Thank you though
d4fseeker said:
FAT32 doesn't mean the card is restricted to 32GB, it means a file can be 2^32 bytes long which is 4GB.
FAT64 (ExFat) has a limit of 2^64 bytes per file which equals 16 Exabyte (1Exabyte = 1024 Terabyte)
It's possible for FAT32 partitions to be as large as 8 Terabyte, which is roughly 1000 times the size of harddisks when FAT32 was released.
Windows, for some stupid compatibility reason with a 12 year old operating system (Windows 2000) does not allow to format FAT32 partitions to a size larger than 32GB, hence the usual confusion.
As described above, here is the tool you need: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool.shtml
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, though I realised this - the whole reason I need a 64GB card is to copy movies onto there, because I travel a lot... many of them are over 4GB, which is the issue I have with using FAT32.
d4fseeker said:
ExFat is patent-encumbered, meaning every distributed binary copy of Cyanogenmod would theoretically cost the developers the license fee.
(At least for US-based downloads, most other countries see software patents as what they are - ridiculous and unenforceable)
Furthermore -and a very big issue- is the instability of the exFat code for GNU/Linux (and by extension, Android) which causes data loss, corruption and other negative side effects.
It's highly recommended not to use exFAT with Samsung-firmwares either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I should look at ext3 instead, though then I'd have problems putting it straight into my Windows machine. Though, exFAT has been 100% stable for me so far.
many of them are over 4GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok that is a problem for FAT32. You didn't mention it so I assumed you mistook the 32 in FAT32 for 32GB as many people do.
Maybe I should look at ext3 instead
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you should never need to remove or directly access the card (MTP mode or File transfer through 'Samba Fileshare' App) that should be a solution. For your own computers, you could use the following driver:
http://www.fs-driver.org/
It allows read-write access to EXT2. EXT2 being EXT3 without journaling support (and thus fully backwards compatile) that could do the trick.
Pententially you'll need to re-enable the journal again through tune2fs on the Smartphone after having used an EXT2-driver. Not sure though since the journal is only relevant until a clean dismount is made.
You should however also be able to load the NTFS-module in the kernel or recompile the CM10 kernel with the required options.
If you need to plug the SDcard into your computer a lot, that may be the only solution until Gokhanmoral is back.
If you have been having issue with exfat card even after formatting it to fat32 this is probably the solution for you
The 64gb exfat card i have never worked on custom roms no matter what software i used to format it to fat32.
But finally it worked with this one software, Just make sure you follow the instruction correctly.
http://software-files-a.cnet.com/s/...&pid=12572695&psid=10863346&&fileName=epm.exe
First use easeus to delete the partion in 64 gb card.
then Click Start menu, select Run and enter diskmgmt.msc
You need to find the disk with unallocated space. Right click on it and select "New Partition" and follow these steps, clicking "Next"
Enter the maximum size for the Partition Size
Choose assign a drive letter. I used F:
Select "Do not Format this partition"
Click Finish
Now you have a drive letter, this is what we will pass to the formatter
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/download/fat32format.zip
Now download a copy of fat32format. Extract the EXE file to C:\
Click Start->Run and enter cmd (as admin)
type this - C:\fat32format f:
enter y to continue
Now the sd card should work on phone.
Source: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm
Thanks to DroidGnome for linking me this site.
An easier alternative which doesn't require CMD or the use of multiple tools is HP Usb Format Utility:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool.shtml
d4fseeker said:
An easier alternative which doesn't require CMD or the use of multiple tools is HP Usb Format Utility:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool.shtml
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it works then sure. i already used 3 recommended softwares all failed so i dont know if this will work.
Thanks for this guide
I always format and re-partition in Linux ...
I always format and re-partition in Linux ... and currently all my large microSD cards have been re-partitioned with the following layout:
- free space (4 MB on 32GB, 16 MB on 64GB - since that's how those came from factory )
- main partition (primary partition 1 - I format that as Fat32 in Linux but then I go to Win7 and re-format to exFat; exFat works perfectly in Android 4.x from Samsung (and good mods) and the CWM recovery from CrisKelo ROM can work just perfectly with exFat when doing backup/restore; other (even newer) CWM versions/alternatives might NOT be OK with exFAT or stuff over 32GB!
- 512 MB Linux swap (primary partition 2) - this gets mounted by special mods that give the kernel virtual memory
- free space at the end (at least 4 MB on 32GB, at least 16 MB on 64GB)!
The only drawback is that at this moment there is no program (on PC or phone) that can resize exFAT - so you need to reformat! That is in contrast to NTFS / FAT32 / ext2 / ext3 / ext4 - which can all be resized perfectly - and IMHO NTFS could be a better option that exFAT (for journaling, even if I do not write that much anyway), but unfortunately there is no serious support for it on CWM; ext3/ext4 could also be even better from the Linux standpoint (but not for the usual Windows user that might have problems reading it) - but again is (surprisingly) not so supported by either CWM nor most ROMs
Just got new Sandisk 64GB cards and was having a heck of a time getting them to play nice with Paranoid Android, this guide was simple, painless and most of all, effective. Thank you much for posting this information.
Works with cyanogenmod nightly 2013-02-17 and ubuntu
So I have tried it out and it worked.
omar300 said:
If you have been having issue with exfat card even after formatting it to fat32 this is probably the solution for you
The 64gb exfat card i have never worked on custom roms no matter what software i used to format it to fat32.
But finally it worked with this one software, Just make sure you follow the instruction correctly.
http://software-files-a.cnet.com/s/...&pid=12572695&psid=10863346&&fileName=epm.exe
Link seems broken.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!! Was wondering what I had done wrong with a custom ROM not reading the 64Gb card I had, now it does: )
great to see i helped some people.
ok so software to erase partition is called EaseUS incase this link gets broken in future just google, if im late with reply again in future.
http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Partition-Master-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html
Just wanted to say THANKS
I have been trying to get my 64GB working for days after install wicked rom 5.1 for my Samsung S4, noting worked till I found this post GREAT work and thanks so much!!!!
YOU RULE!
Thanks!! I have only been able to get my Scan Disk Ultra 64G card to work with Perseus kernel and would have to flash it to all Roms then use a hack to swap the internal to get it to work. It was a Pain in the ass and limited my Kernel usage. THANK YOU SO MUCH WHAT A USEFUL POST!! Stick to this plan it works. I have yet to see any other solution. I been dealing with this problem since I had my Galaxy note2 almost a year now.
PS do not use that crappy HP USB format 2.2 whatever program some guy suggested a bunch of malwar garbage I cant get off my computer now THANKS BUDDY Crawl back under a rock which you came.
Thanks for the wonderful help everyone who got it working
Sent from my SHG-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
so which format type is better for some1 running stock rom on galaxy note 2..... with a 64g sandisk ultra..... its alrdy working without any particular format....worked with factory settings but right now d mmry card is acting up cos of d script I used 2 swap....am only guessing.... so is it better 2 format to ex fat or fat32?
mortallkombat said:
so which format type is better for some1 running stock rom on galaxy note 2..... with a 64g sandisk ultra..... its alrdy working without any particular format....worked with factory settings but right now d mmry card is acting up cos of d script I used 2 swap....am only guessing.... so is it better 2 format to ex fat or fat32?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have no idea the swap system, as stock, it already has driver for ex fat but since you changed some stuff it might have ruined that driver.
try your card on another phone with stock rom and same android version. if it works then you dont need to change sd card format, just reinstall ROM on your phone.
PhatNerd said:
Thanks!! I have only been able to get my Scan Disk Ultra 64G card to work with Perseus kernel and would have to flash it to all Roms then use a hack to swap the internal to get it to work. It was a Pain in the ass and limited my Kernel usage. THANK YOU SO MUCH WHAT A USEFUL POST!! Stick to this plan it works. I have yet to see any other solution. I been dealing with this problem since I had my Galaxy note2 almost a year now.
PS do not use that crappy HP USB format 2.2 whatever program some guy suggested a bunch of malwar garbage I cant get off my computer now THANKS BUDDY Crawl back under a rock which you came.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know, that is reason i posted this. i tried about 10 software and then i found this weird way of doing it and it actually works.
all those fancy software dont do anything besides slowing computer down.
glad to know i was of some use
Q: How do I format an SD card so it can hold a 6GB file.
It is for an sqlite map application so it needs that one big file.
I have a Ubuntu laptop and HTC Dream phone, so I don't care about Windows compatibility.
Phone: Android 2.2.1
SD CARD: 16GB
More info.
When I format on Ubuntu using ext2, the phone didn't recognize it.
When I format in the phone, Linux identifies it as msdos format which limits to 4GB...
Thanks for helping.
I will give kudos on our website, wikispeedia.org and hit your tip jar!
-cellurl
cellurl said:
Q: How do I format an SD card so it can hold a 6GB file.
It is for an sqlite map application so it needs that one big file.
I have a Ubuntu laptop and HTC Dream phone, so I don't care about Windows compatibility.
Phone: Android 2.2.1
SD CARD: 16GB
More info.
When I format on Ubuntu using ext2, the phone didn't recognize it.
When I format in the phone, Linux identifies it as msdos format which limits to 4GB...
Thanks for helping.
I will give kudos on our website, wikispeedia.org and hit your tip jar!
-cellurl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like your device doesn't have ext[2,3,4] support in the kernel (probably using yaffs2 or something like that?), but it seems to have vfat support in it (fat32).
Your only option is to flash on your device a kernel that's got ext[2,3,4] support compiled in. (if i'm missing something, please chime in)
how do i determine what my 2.2.0 kernel is capable of?
I tried to browse thru the sourcecode, but couldn't figure it out.
I had to just stuff my SD card in various peoples phones and I have experimentally figured out that
4.4.4 stock didn't appear to work, however 4.4.0 ROM of some sort DOES support >4GB SD cards...
Thanks for the reply beekay201 !
I put kudos on my site!
cellurl said:
Q: How do I format an SD card so it can hold a 6GB file.
It is for an sqlite map application so it needs that one big file.
I have a Ubuntu laptop and HTC Dream phone, so I don't care about Windows compatibility.
Phone: Android 2.2.1
SD CARD: 16GB
More info.
When I format on Ubuntu using ext2, the phone didn't recognize it.
When I format in the phone, Linux identifies it as msdos format which limits to 4GB...
Thanks for helping.
I will give kudos on our website, wikispeedia.org and hit your tip jar!
-cellurl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
short answer, you can't put 6GB on 2.2 kernel. I bought a new phone with 4.0.4 and it creates a funky sd arrangement, instead of /mnt/sdcard it instead makes /mnt/extsd1 which will hold a 4GB file max.. I ended up splitting my 6GB file into two 4GB files. They both fit in /mnt/extsd1 just fine.
I know using a thread it not necessarily the best way to ask a question but since the cause of this issue is unknown (and might just be SD corruption) and there are a few other threads where it might come up, this thread can be used as a reference.
The issue is: An SD card that rather suddenly became unwritable in every way and can no longer be mounted by Android (although it is detected) but on which all existing data was undamaged, can be viewed and copied via USB card reader to Windows or Linux PC. The drive behaves much as if it was write protected or as if the file system (particularly the FAT) was corrupted in a way that mimics digital SD write protection. Here are the details.
L5.1.1/CM12.1 December 2015, SuperSU 2.65, TWRP3.0.2,
- 64GB Sandisk Ultra SD, initially accepted as formatted or formatted upon first use to Fat32; Working fine for a few months as repository for static data (ROM zips and app apks), work material (frequently edited text, DOCX and XLSX files), as well as apps and app data with a dynamic presence on the drive.
- Drive suddenly stopped appearing on device in CM and in TWRP. When re-inserted in CM, the system detects a card but times out as it is unable to find a mount point. Attempts to mount SD card in ROM result in the following error in CatLog:
"E/Vold (222): /dev/block/vold/179:65 failed to mount via VFAT (No such device or address)
E/Vold (222): Volume sdcard1 found no suitable devices for mounting "
- Attempts to repair, partition or format the drive in TWRP result in mount error and the details of the drive have zeros where there should probably be other values.
/external_sd | | Size: 0MB Used: 0MB Free: 0MB Backup Size: 0MB
Flags: Can_Be_Mounted Can_Be_Wiped Wipe_Available_in_GUI Removable Is_Storage
Primary_Block_Device: /dev/block/mmcblk1p1
Alternate_Block_Device: /dev/block/mmcblk1
Display_Name: MicroSD Card
Storage_Name: MicroSD Card
Backup_Path: /external_sd
Backup_Name: external_sd
Backup_Display_Name: MicroSD Card
Storage_Path: /external_sd
Current_File_System: auto
Fstab_File_System: auto
Backup_Method: files
MTP_Storage_ID: 65537
- With SD in card reader attached to PC, the contents of SD are visible and can be copied to PC but files cannot be copied from PC to SD card. It looks like they are copied but they are gone when card reader is disconnected then reconnected. Same in Linux Ubuntu 14.x.
- Unable to delete or reformat partitions in any utility that I tested including: Dedicated GParted boot USB, EaseUS Partition Master, HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool on PC, GParted in Ubuntu 14 VM, GParted in Ubuntu 10.x live CD/USB.
- Although the SD drive shows as Fat32 in GParted, Windows 7 only offers exFat and NTFS as formatting options. Some research shows exFat can digitally "write protect" drives with a dirty bit or byte which causes very similar symptoms.
- Windows Chkdsk requests to convert lost chains to files but must not be doing so as this occurs on every scan.
Soooo...the questions are: What in the realm of relatively normal android use might cause this? Has anyone heard of a disk or partition management setting or common form of drive corruption that could cause this? Could such a thing be caused by a file manager? A 32GB replacement SD is doing OK but I'm left wondering if the issue with the 64GB SD card was caused by a utility on the device or if it was just SD corruption (that looks conspicuously like digital write protection).
[EDIT] A minor correction I should make: The reason Windows 7 only offers NTFS and exFAT is not because the drive is damaged (although it may be) but rather because Windows 7 cannot format USB drives over 32GB with FAT32 although it can mount and use larger FAT32 SD drives that were formatted elsewhere. In this case I let android do the initial format months ago (Fat32) and never had problems during the times I connected it to card reader (although I usually leave it in the device and use Wifi or MTP through device USB to PC).
[] AL [] said:
Since your running 12.1, I imagine that you don't flash too many nightly build's... So this (not) variable is may be put aside from suspects list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correctamundo
[] AL [] said:
Recovery: well, I don't know but for that, I'm always following the if it ain't broke, don't fix it rule. You have specific reasons to keep it updated? Like you, I've also read many posts reporting USB related issues with v > 3.0. I still use v2.8.7.0 on my device and don't feel the need to update soon.
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I'm now on the fence about reverting to the longer standing 2.8.7 version of TWRP, but since the primary maintainer for my Otus CM12.1 and CM13 ROMS (@squid2) also creates the build of TWRP and has included in his 3.0.2 version some forward fixes that might be better for CM13 especially where encryption is used, I have been updating it. A consideration in this regard is; what if it was not the different version of TWRP that caused this but rather a one-time instance of something that went wrong in the act of flashing it - which I would be more at risk of because I do occasionally update TWRP.
Hmmmm...I did recently restore a nandroid of stock Moto L 5.0.2 then flashed stock recovery in an attempt to install a pending L5.1 OTA (Moto finally released it!) which failed AFAIK due to unlocked bootloader, then I flashed TWRP 3.0.2 and restored a CM12.1 nandroid. If that was a factor it merely planted the seed of the problem but did not grow into the problem until some other later action .
[] AL [] said:
As for apps, what I find strange is that even a format didn't fix things up with it.
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The drive became un-writable in every way including the ability to format or change any properties of the drive in any drive/partition manager even though the data was all there in perfect shape. Ironically the problem with the drive is now protecting the data
[] AL [] said:
...I would hope to believe that a file explorer alone can not mess it up THAT much alone...
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Likewise but at this point it would not surprise me considering that Android is a bit fast and loose with more basal aspects of the system including drive management.
Ultramanoid said:
I've used extensively SanDisk 64 GB microsdxc cards with Android. Given all the information you've given, I'd lean towards physical card failure.
It happens. In my experience, very rarely, but it does.
If the same thing happens again to another of your cards anytime soon, that's when you should start a serious investigation about it.
To be honest I've had more smartphones failing on me for a myriad different reasons in the last few years than problems with a card from a reliable manufacturer.
I have washed some of these cards in the washing machine by mistake, and I've used some intensively non-stop every single day for two or three years without an issue. I've run OSes from them often, and always replaced them for another because of speed or space concerns, very rarely because of failure.
They are incredibly resilient. And yet sometimes ( again, rarely ) one will spit input / output errors, or simply die on me, no matter what the format, filesystem, or OS. In fact it happened once with a brand new card that I had just used for a couple of weeks, the irony...
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Good points. Thanks! I've had similar experiences with Micro SDs surviving through accidental washings as well as heavy use as USB boot drives running various utilities or Linux distributions (one of which had a persistent cache cache right on the card - thats a lot of read/writes) and I can't remember encountering a corrupted SD card that was not physically damaged.
That being said I did once support an outdoor system of over 300 units each of which ran off of a proprietary Linux system on an 8GB SD card where SD card corruption was not uncommon but those "devices" were exposed to thermal extremes, traffic vibrations, and poor quality field work and remote management the likes of which our devices rarely experience.
At first I was leaning toward SD card corruption but now wonder if this was an accidental digital write-protect, perhaps caused by an extremely localized bit of SD card corruption... or something like that... and that is an area where android is faster and looser than many other device/OS combinations.
What is the result of fsck with Linux ?
Ultramanoid said:
What is the result of fsck with Linux ?
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Similar to Windows chkdsk; In Ubuntu 14.x Live USB boot, fsck (supposedly) reclaims lost clusters, and reports "free cluster summary wrong...". When option to fix is selected the command cannot gain write access to the drive. Re-scan verifies same errors persist.
Here's an idea that worked for me once with a card that refused to be formatted on Linux and OS X; try with a digital camera or DSLR, you may need a micro to SD adapter.
In that case though, mine was a defective card indeed. The camera did format it, and was usable for a little while, before giving errors again, and I discarded it definitely.
Edit : to be precise, the camera did not recognize it and offered to format it ( to FAT being an old DSLR, but a new camera might go for exFAT, and you already suspect foul play because of exFAT ), which worked, and then I could format it again ( ext4 ) in Linux. As mentioned, the card failed again soon afterwards anyway.
Ultramanoid said:
Here's an idea that worked for me once with a card that refused to be formatted on Linux and OS X; try with a digital camera or DSLR, you may need a micro to SD adapter.
In that case though, mine was a defective card indeed. The camera did format it, and was usable for a little while, before giving errors again, and I discarded it definitely.
Edit : to be precise, the camera did not recognize it and offered to format it ( to FAT being an old DSLR, but a new camera might go for exFAT, and you already suspect foul play because of exFAT ), which worked, and then I could format it again ( ext4 ) in Linux. As mentioned, the card failed again soon afterwards anyway.
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I tried that yesterday in a relatively new camera that is supposedly capable of handling 64GB SDXC but the camera reports that the card could not be used but offered not other information.
As to exFAT - this correction to my initial assessment of the situation: The reason Windows 7 only offers NTFS and exFAT as formatting options is not necessarily because the drive is damaged or had a read only flag applied (although both off those thing now seem likely*) but rather because Windows 7 cannot format USB drives over 32GB as FAT32 even though it can mount and use them if they were formatted elsewhere. This does not really change things other than meaning that the available Windows formatting options are not informative.
* I just called SanDisk support and learned that the card supposedly has some sort of data preservation feature where; when an imminent potential failure is detected the card is indeed digitally write protected. This might mean that there is a way to undo the digital protection although that would put the data risk and the protection is non-standard as the Windows Diskpart command line utility does not show the disk or the volume as write protected.SanDisk even offered to replace the card but I declined (for now) because I want to hack at it some more. At least there now seems to be an understandable mechanism for how this happened.
Thanks for throwing some thought into it
It's interesting, the card I mentioned was a 64GB one, but the camera formatted it to FAT creating a 32GB partition, same limit as Windows. It pretty much ignored the other half of the card that showed up just as free space, but it also undid whatever was blocking the formatting before, which may have been that protection scheme from SanDisk as in your case. Good to learn about that.
Interesting...
I have the same issue with my Samsung 64gb sd. I was moving a zip file from internal sd to external sd with ES File Explorer and all of a sudden my phone froze and I had to hard reset. When I rebooted external was screwed. I have been looking for days for a fix and have come up with nothing. TWRP can see the card but no values. Please any help would be very much appreciated because I have ALL the pictures of my 2 week old son stored in ext sd.
noob4598 said:
I have the same issue with my Samsung 64gb sd. I was moving a zip file from internal sd to external sd with ES File Explorer and all of a sudden my phone froze and I had to hard reset. When I rebooted external was screwed. I have been looking for days for a fix and have come up with nothing. TWRP can see the card but no values. Please any help would be very much appreciated because I have ALL the pictures of my 2 week old son stored in ext sd.
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See if this helps. Read through it, it has allot of helpful information.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1192508
noob4598 said:
I have the same issue with my Samsung 64gb sd. I was moving a zip file from internal sd to external sd with ES File Explorer and all of a sudden my phone froze and I had to hard reset. When I rebooted external was screwed. I have been looking for days for a fix and have come up with nothing. TWRP can see the card but no values. Please any help would be very much appreciated because I have ALL the pictures of my 2 week old son stored in ext sd.
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The incident about which I created this thread was sudden as yours was. Try viewing the contents of the SD card in a card-reader on a computer. If you can see the contents and copy to the computer but cannot write to the SD card you may be experiencing the same issue describe in the OP of this thread (irreversible dirty bit write protection due to impending failure detected), in which case you would have to backup the data on the card and get a new one. Also, it is best to keep internal/adoptable storage completely out of this equation as that re-formats and encrypts the SD card.
@MatisyahuSerious
Since this was a bit OT for LOS I've expanded upon this post (https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=71903594&postcount=4155) here where the reply is less off topic.
Off course there are many other bad things that can happen to SD cards, and frequent ROM flashing and TiBU backups put a particular stress on them. Another factor, at least in my case, is that when a high speed SD card (eg Sandisk Ultra red/grey) is used in a USB 3 port (to move data much quicker than MTP) the SD card gets so hot that the painted logo scorches and changes color. Those thermal cycles cant be good for the cards either. I've had 3 go bad in about 6 years, one in the manner described in linked post.
A bit of somewhat related OT: For what this is worth I once supported a system which ran Linux based OS from 8GB SD cards and the most frequent fix was to replace corrupted SD cards. SD cards have gotten better, and some brands may be better than others, but they were not originally designed to handle so much fast R/W and IMO the SD industry is still catching up.