Secure Digital (SD) cards are a widely used memory card format used by many technology brands brands in portable electronic devices such as digital cameras.

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What's the life expectancy of an SD card?

I have some SD cards that I use. Is there a limit to how many times I can write over them? If I leave information on a card, is there anything that can cause it to lose this information eventually ...
15
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5answers
944 views

Is there any way to tell if an SD card has been used?

I ordered a “new” micro SD card from Amazon Marketplace. However, it was sent in a small cheap plastic bag instead of the original package. I put it into my PC and found it to be empty but formatted. ...
15
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5answers
5k views

Recover data from SD card

I have a 2 GB Kingston microSD card which is about three years old. I put it in a reader today in my Windows Vista computer, wrote a 32 MB file onto it, safely removed it, and then tried to ...
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5answers
5k views

Is it possible to disable the “scan and fix” message when inserting an SD Card?

Every time I insert the SD card from my camera into the card reader, I get this dialog: Of course there is no need to scan it. Is there a way to disable it?
11
votes
3answers
324 views

What is the replacement of the floppy

While CD (and to an lesser extend DVD) disks have reached the price-point of the floppy, they have one significant downside, it is WORM (Write-Once Read-Many) media, allowing it to be used only one ...
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votes
4answers
18k views

How to access an SD card from a virtual machine?

I want to format an SD card from my Linux virtual machine. I have a built-in SD card reader in my laptop. I tried using VirtualBox and VMware Player and installed Ubuntu 10.04 guest. None of them are ...
11
votes
4answers
29k views

Reformat SD card to NTFS

I want to reformat a 16G SD card to NTFS so that I can use to transfer large files (larger than 4G) from one computer to another easily but my computer will only allow FAT variations. HELP!!
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6answers
7k views

Does ReadyBoost really improve performance? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Does Windows ReadyBoost have a meaningful impact on performance? Does using an SD card with ReadyBoost help? Would I notice any difference on a 32-bit netbook with ...
10
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1answer
2k views

What does 100x mean, for an SD card?

When I read the information about an SD card, I notice there is an information that is reported as 100x. What does that mean? To what is it referring?
9
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1answer
387 views

How can I debug user mode driver failures in Windows 8

I have a 32 GB SD Card. Whenever I insert this card in to my newly upgraded Windows 8 laptop the OS stops responding normally. Metro Apps won't work. The system may or may not log in. Desktop apps ...
8
votes
2answers
230 views

How easy is to crack the following copy protection?

I am trying to copyprotect some work, which is a bootable SD card booting a linux kernel on ARM device (Raspberry pi). I am using this approach: The approach uses an initrd to mount an encrypted ...
8
votes
2answers
480 views

How to delete files from my indestructable memory card?

A week ago I started getting intermittent IO errors accessing the SD card on my rooted Evo 4g. I eventually plugged it into my windows machine and tried to format it. It appeared to work, but when I ...
8
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3answers
6k views

Choice of filesystem for GNU/Linux on an SD card

I have am embedded ARM-based system running on an SD card. It's currently Debian GNU/Linux using ext3 as filesystem. As I'm about to reinstall the system, I started wondering about changing to a more ...
7
votes
1answer
706 views

Is flash storage affected by magnetic fields?

I have several SD cards and USB flash drives that are often laying around my work space. Do I have to be careful to keep magnets away from them? (This paranoia is showing my age - I remember needing ...
7
votes
5answers
14k views

Installing Windows on an SD Card

Assuming you have a built-in slot, is it feasible to install Windows 7 (Vista, or XP for that matter) onto a 32gig SD card? By install, I mean house your windows folder and any OS required folders and ...
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3answers
4k views

Restoring a SD card after using it to root a device

I recently purchased the Nook Touch reading device. I rooted it using the instructions on nookdevs.com Rooting included using win32diskimager to somehow transfer an .img file onto the card. Rooting ...
7
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2answers
3k views

Can I use something like the SSD TRIM command on a SD card?

SSD flash hard drives have started to support TRIM in order to avoid the slowdown that occurs after a while. How do I do something similar on a SD card ? Like reformating the SD card, but at a ...
6
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4answers
2k views

Is the lock mechanism on an SD card hardware, firmware, or software (driver,OS) enforced?

Where is the lock to read-only mode enforced with SD cards? Is this done inside the card itself physically, in the firmware of readers, or in the OS? (Some other place?)
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2answers
2k views

Standard SD card and Micro SD card with adapter; same speed?

I'm going to buy a new SD card to be used in my car's audio player. What I would like to know is, if I buy a micro SD card with adapter, will it provide the same read/write speed as a standard SD card ...
6
votes
3answers
891 views

Copy files from SD Card

I have a brand new 4GB SanDisc SD card. With lot of personal files. (jpg, exe, zip, rar, doc...) When I insert card in my notebook internal reader... first I get this message. Then, if I want to ...
6
votes
4answers
2k views

Which consumes more power: hard drive or SD card/card reader?

If I want to maximize the battery life on my laptop, where should I store my programs: my magnetic hard drive or my 16GB SD card? If you say hard drive, does a card reader draw significantly more ...
6
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3answers
3k views

Does it make sense to put your operating system on a SD card?

A friend suggested putting the whole operating system on a SD card, arguing that access time delays where much shorter than a regular hard drive, which needs to spin up first. Wikipedia, however, ...
6
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2answers
8k views

what appropriate “Allocation Unit Size” for an exFAT SD card with ReadyBoost

I've brought an 4GB SD card and I'm dedicating it for use by ReadyBoost (on Windows7) Im looking to get the most profit on performance, so i've formatted it with exFAT (as recommended by Microsoft) ...
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7answers
900 views

Mac OS X program to recover images from a memory card

I'm looking for a Mac OS X program to recover images from a corrupted memory card.
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4answers
4k views

My 4 GB microSD card only allows me to use 1 GB

My phone came with a 4 GB microSD card. On the card it lists that 3 GB goes to Muve Music which is Cricket's music program, and I get 1 GB... Well, I don't pay for Muve Music, so why ...
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3answers
1k views

Windows 7 ReadyBoost - What File System To Use With Flash Card/Drive?

NTFS, exFAT or FAT32? I know that FAT32 has a limit of 4GB transfer per file, but is it faster and better than NTFS or exFAT? Since Windows 7 by itself uses NTFS, it remains logical to format flash ...
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votes
2answers
3k views

Using an SD card as a “LiveCD” on a MacBook Pro

I have a 4GB SD card on which I'd like to use like a Linux "LiveCD" (except of course it's not a CD) for my MacBook Pro. Any idea how I could do that? I'd prefer to not use rEFIt. To boot Mac OS from ...
4
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6answers
3k views

ReadyBoost in Windows 7

I've bought an SD card today for my phot frame, but when I inserted it into my notebook I saw I could use it for ReadyBoost. Some background I'm a .net developer, using VMs and developing web ...
4
votes
3answers
614 views

How much does it wear an SD card to be frequently removed/reinserted?

My digital camera (a Sony α55) stores photos on an SD card. When I want to transfer these to my computer (a mid-2010 MacBook Pro), I have two options: use the USB cable to connect the camera to the ...
4
votes
2answers
906 views

Does an SDHC card have any write (ECC) error recovery?

What happen if an SDHC card gets a write error (damaged cell / bad sector)? Will the whole card be unusable (to trash, all data written to that sector now and in future will be lost)? Or rewrite ...
4
votes
1answer
116 views

Are UHS SD Cards backwards compatible with existing readers and other hardware?

I was shopping for a couple of new memory cards for new cameras this year and noticed that there are some SD cards that are now UHS-1 compatible. I wasn't sure what that really meant so I went looking ...
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votes
2answers
1k views

Mounting a multi-partition disk image in Linux

I downloaded an raw SD card image that has two partitions. It caused some file system errors when I tried to dd it directly into an SD card. I am not sure if the card is defective or the image. Is ...
4
votes
1answer
227 views

How can I set a Removable External Device as a built-in Hard Drive?

I am using SSD with my laptop and running out of free space.. So I bought an 64GB microSD card as a secondary storage. But, when I launch My Computer, the SD card drive is recognized as, of course, ...
3
votes
4answers
1k views

What would be the down side(s) to backup archival via SD cards?

While doing some photography reading, i came across some support for archiving photos, videos on SD Cards. The process looked like: Fill up SD Card with DSLR Share/publish any choice items via the ...
3
votes
5answers
9k views

IOCTL call error when trying to format an SD card

Found an SD card (1GB) lying around. Thought I might pop that into my card reader and see if anything is on it. Nothing. There isn't even a file system on it. I right-click and go "format" but ...
3
votes
3answers
668 views

What type of SD card do I need to use as Windows Ready Boost memory?

I have a laptop with an SD card reader and was wanting to buy and SD card to use as ready boost memory. Is there a specific type of SD card that is required so that windows can access it?
3
votes
4answers
8k views

Recover files from a dead SD card in linux? (Possibly killed by a Nokia E71)

I have an SD Micro card that is not working any more. Background: What happened is I took it out of my old cellphone (it was working fine), and put it into my new cellphone (a Nokia E71). The Nokia ...
3
votes
4answers
4k views

What to do with a corrupted SD card: reformat it or trash it?

I recovered all the files from my corrupted SD card today. What should I do with it now? Reformat and continue using it or throw it away and buy a new one Here's the details on the card and how ...
3
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3answers
2k views

Can we format SD Cards with the exFAT format?

I don't have one to test this at the moment but I plan to buy an 8GB card and use it with ReadyBoost (Windows 7) on my laptop.
3
votes
2answers
2k views

Do SDXC cards need a special card reader, or is software support sufficient?

Can a card reader that accepts SD and SDHC cards support SDXC cards with the appropriate software support, or is a card reader specifically designed to accept SDXC cards needed? I'm looking for an ...
3
votes
2answers
485 views

SD hard drive: does it exist?

I'm looking for a portable hard drive enclosure (2.5" notebook) that plugs into an SD card slot and LOOKS like an SD card to the camera. The obvious advantage being unlimited space for video ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views

How do I shrink an SD Card image?

I imaged a 16 GB SD card using the dd command. The card however, does not have more than 4 GB of data on it across 2 partitions (FAT32 & ext3). I would like to transfer this image on to a 8GB SD ...
3
votes
3answers
2k views

Cloning an SD card onto a larger SD card

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04. I have an old 4GB SD card, and have just bought a new 16GB SD card. I would like to copy everything from my old 4GB SD card onto the new 16GB SD card. I was afraid that the ...
3
votes
2answers
790 views

Running Operating System From Flash Card Or Flash Drive On Laptop?

I heard that flash memory cards are better than flash drives for this and they are also small things that fit into flash reader slot in laptop that don't stick and hang so you would be able to carry ...
3
votes
1answer
319 views

Rotated pictures on SD card can't be displayed on my camera

While viewing pictures on my computer directly from an SD card, I decided to rotate some of them. I then put the SD card back into the camera. However, now the camera does not show the rotated ...
3
votes
3answers
873 views

Recover SDHC card used in SD card reader

A while ago when SDHC cards were fairly new and all the office computers had only SD card readers I made a 4 gig Class 6 A Data SDHC unreadable and unformattable by trying to get it to work in SD card ...
3
votes
3answers
188 views

Access denied to a file on FAT file system

I just got a new phone which is supplied with a 2 GB SD card. I bought a bigger card to replace it and I want to copy the preloaded data to the new card. The default card's filesystem is FAT and I've ...
3
votes
2answers
382 views

Can software operation damage an SD card?

My SD card has a broken boot sector and the tools I've tried say that it's not repairable (I've tried TestDisk, DriveRestore Pro and Easeus Partition Recovery). The card was in my Android phone and ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views

MicroSD card getting corrupted for no good reason

I recently bought an MicroSD card online. It's a Sandisk 16GB class 2. However, it has a nasty problem. Every time I fill it with my data, the fat tables get corrupted. I've tried reformatting it, ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views

SD cards and CPRM protection

Before buying an SD memory card, I'd like to know something more about the CPRM protection, in particular: Does CPRM influence the way I am supposed to access my own data? That is, does CPRM encrypt ...

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