[SGVLUG] problems reading 2 GB SD card

[Mic Chow]

It is an SDHC card?  I ran into a similar issue with SDHC cards.  I
picked up two 4GB SD cards (not knowing that there is a major difference
between SD and SDHC cards) for my Nokia N800.  I knew I had to flash my
tablet to a newer version of BusyBox to make it recognize the card, but
I assumed that my old card readers could read the cards too.  The
physical interface is the same between SD and SDHC cards.  My digital
camera could not recognize the SDHC card at all.  I had to get a new USB
2.0 version card reader to read the SDHC card.  Once I got that, it did
not matter the OS(Windows, Mac, or Nix), the card mounted and is
completely readable.  If these are SDHC cards, then I would check with
the vendor websites to see if they have software upgradeable firmware
and see if they have one to update your card readers.  Chances are slim,
but Canon is usually pretty good about supporting their customers.
Toshiba may have a fix for you.  If all you want is 2Gigs then hopefully
you can return them and replace them for a different type of SD, making
sure it is NOT SDHC.  If memory serves me right standard SD cards
internally are the same up to 2GB, when jumping from 2GB and up, the
internal electronics and logic had to be changed to accommodate the
increased data density, hence the need to change reading/writing devices.

Hope this helps.

-- 
Mic
North Hollywood, CA
N34° 8'33.02"
W118° 21'39.62"

Claude Felizardo wrote:
> I picked up a 2 GB SD card for my digital camera (Canon A610 ~2005)
> and I'm having a problem reading the darn thing either directly using
> the build-in slot in my laptop (Toshiba Satellite M35 ~2005) as well
> as various USB adapters, both internal and external.  WinXP hangs for
> several minutes before timing out.  Under Linux (Mandrake 2008 with
> 2.6.22.18) I can see the partition type is FAT16 but I eventually get
> errors when I try to read it.  I can change the partition type to
> FAT32 but it fails while trying to format. If I put it back in the
> camera it reports a media error but it can reformat the card.  Camera
> takes pics but I can only retrieve the images via USB cable.   I have
> a similar problem with a 2 GB microSD card in my smartphone - neither
> winXP nor Laptop can read the card.  I have not tried to reformat that
> card.  Don't recall if I was able to get camera to use card formatted
> FAT32.  Don't recall if I tried Partition Magic on the laptop to
> access the built-in slot but I do have a writable FAT32 partition on
> the HD.
> 
> Do I need a new card reader?   I believe most of the card readers I
> tried (internal, external and built-in) were purchased prior 2006
> though I might have one that was more recent but I'd have to open
> things up to see where it is.
> 
> claude
> 
>