Fat32 and memory card on XP

Tom Dunne

This is one of those threads that falls neatly between two fora, so I'll try here first.

Got me a lovely 2gig miniSD card for my phone for Christmas. In short, my laptop won't read it (using in-built memory card reader).

However, the card works in another laptop and my laptop can read normal SD cards.

So, anyone know what to do to get a computer to read miniSD cards?

I have updated drivers on the memory card reader, btw. The format of the card is showing up as RAW.

8T8

Have you got one of those mini-SD to SD card adapters ?

Those always did the trick for me with my Dell notebooks built in SD Card reader, I have had terrible bad luck with those USB external readers they seem to destroy whatever gets put into them in my own experience.

Just format as FAT(16) in XP when the drive shows up in explorer.

Tom Dunne

8T8 wrote:

Have you got one of those mini-SD to SD card adapters ?

I do. It was a Dell laptop that it worked in.

8T8 wrote:

Just format as FAT(16) in XP when the drive shows up in explorer.

See therin lies the problem - I don't know for certain if my phone can read Fat32/Fat16 (it's an O2 Atom). I don't want to risk it until I have exhausted all other options.

8T8

It should read FAT16 according to some of the Google searches I've seen.

Though O2's own site says they only tested up to 1GB miniSD cards still I would imagine it should work, the only bad thing that could happen I think if it doesn't work is that the O2 wont see the card or ask to format it.

Anti

i know with alot of phones you have to flash them to read over 1gb cards. but i see no reason why your laptop cant read it. My viao can read 4gb ones no problems at all.

Gadgetman496

tom dunne wrote:

This is one of those threads that falls neatly between two fora, so I'll try here first.

Got me a lovely 2gig miniSD card for my phone for Christmas. In short, my laptop won't read it (using in-built memory card reader).

However, the card works in another laptop and my laptop can read normal SD cards.

So, anyone know what to do to get a computer to read miniSD cards?

I have updated drivers on the memory card reader, btw. The format of the card is showing up as RAW.

As with USB Pen Drives, SD Cards need a special format utillity in order to format them correctly. Formatting them using windows will not work,
You can get the utillity here.
http://www.sdcard.org/Downloads.aspx

8T8

All that does is format them in FAT32, still handy utility anyway thanks for the link.

Tom Dunne

gadgetman496 wrote:

As with USB Pen Drives, SD Cards need a special format utillity in order to format them correctly. Formatting them using windows will not work,
You can get the utillity here.
http://www.sdcard.org/Downloads.aspx

But that doesn't explain why the card will read/write no problem on one laptop and not on my laptop.

I didn't have to do anything to it to get it to read on the other laptop - just stuck it in.

8T8

Are both laptops Dell models do they have the same type of SD Card reader built into them ?

Tom Dunne

No, one's a brand new Dell, mine is a crappy two year old HP Pavillion.

I can't fathom why mine will read SD cards no problem, but won't read miniSD - I thought they were identical, apart from their physical size?

It has to be something on my laptop, but I'm just not sure what.

8T8

thought they were identical, apart from their physical size?

I though so too & the wiki entry seems to say so as well.

Do you have a driver for the SD Card reader in the device manager as mine does in the Dell it has an "SDA Standard Compliant SD host Controller" & the driver provider is Microsoft.

Could it be the HP has a third party driver not from Microsoft for it's controller ?

Tom Dunne

8T8 wrote:

Do you have a driver for the SD Card reader in the device manager as mine does in the Dell it has an "SDA Standard Compliant SD host Controller" & the driver provider is Microsoft.

On my HP laptop, they have the card reader configured as a second PCMCIA controller. The SD drive is showing as a Texas Instruments PCMCIA SD Controller.

8T8 wrote:

Could it be the HP has a third party driver not from Microsoft for it's controller ?

Yes, it's the Texas Instruments driver being used. Off to www.ti.com for me to see if I can find anything.

8T8

If you don't find anything on TI's site I'd try HP's as well, also Station Drivers have some drivers for TI media readers.