Android can read my MicrosSD card but Windows cannot

Question

I have recently bought this MicroSD card. The disk was working nicely with my both Android device and Windows PC (through its built-in MemoryCard reader).

This is what I have done to cause the problem and to try to fix it :

1. I did some formatting operations with the disk using an Android app namely Paragon NTFS and HFS+

2. Aften that, I inserted my MicrosSD card into my Windows PC's built-in MemoryCard reader. Windows asked me to scan and format the disk. I accepted but Windows couldn't finish the operation.

3. Then, I inserted the disk into my Android phone's memory card slot. My phone noticed that the disk is damaged and needs to reformat it before it can be used. I reformatted and sdcard got ready to use in my Android. Also I completely erased my MicroSD card via Android settings (in where you can un/mount the sdcard).

4. Again, I inserted the disk into my Windows PC, but Windows couldn't detect the memory card drive (E:) and the disk. I used a partitioning and data recovery tool namely Eassos PartitionGuru Proffessional to check and partition the disk. The whole disk was reported by that tool and also other recovery tools with bad sectors. Therefore, I erased the entire disk with overwriting zero (from sector 0 to the last one). However, the bad sector problem still continued.

5. I removed the disk and inserted it to the phone. Again, phone asked me to reformat the disk. I did, and the disk was successfully mounted and worked like a charm in my Android device.

6. With my MicroSD card inserted in the phone, I connected the phone to my PC via USB cable. The MicroSD card appeared in My Computer folder as a new drive. I could successfully access the card and do copy/delete operation with it. With my phone still connected to the PC (via USB cable), I scanned the disk for bad sectors using PartitionGuru software. Surprisingly, there was no bad sector with my MicroSD card. However, the disk is not accessible when it is inserted into the PC's memory card reader.

Any idea on this issue and how to solve it?

Answer 1

The HFS+ files system was developed by Apple. This proprietary directory structure cannot be read by Windows OS's "out of the box", but there are a number of applications that can be used to read and write to that file system:

1. Since you already use Paragon HFS+ , you might try their application for Windows OS.

2. Catacombae HFSExplorer is a free tool, but requires running Java.

3. Mediafour MacDrive 10 seems to offer what Paragon does, but is more expensive.

4. If there is no overwhelming reason to use HFS+, reformat the card in a Windows machine to FAT32. This may be the best solution, since FAT32 performs less manipulation of the file structure during writes, which should lengthen the lifetime of the card because flash memory has a finite number of write cycles per cell.