Test SD Card integrity

[Spies]

Is there any way to test an SD card so I can rule it out in my tomtom problems?

[Pocketgps]

Hello Spies

Not sure what the problem is with storage cards, but last week I bought 2
1GB SD cards from a Jessops store, 1 worked fine on the PDA and the other would not, same data, same card reader to put the data onto the cards, took it back, they changed it, this one would not work either, changed it again, and this time it worked.

I have always bought Lexar cards and never had any problems with them (have 7), I would not normally use any other brand but needed the cards quickly and could not find any other make that day.

All of these Jessops cards looked OK on the card reader, could move the data to them from my main HD, tried formating them and that worked OK, all showed the same number of bytes, so you just cannot tell why they do not work.

I found a program for the PDA called 'Flash Format - by CNetX' this showed the cards had the same number of bytes on them when in the PDA, BUT, it showed the cards that did not work as having no data on them, using this program on the PDA, re-formatted the bad ones, but nothing worked.

Very strange.

[DavidW]

The easiest way to rule out memory card related problems is to use a different memory card - which is fine if, like me, you have a 'known good' memory card (Panasonic made 512MB).

If not, there's a couple of things you can do.


Firstly, post the markings on the back of the card together with all the information on the front. I may be able to recognise the card for you. If you tell me there's a letter followed by eleven numbers and nothing else on the back of an SD card, it's almost certainly a bad card!

Secondly, do all you can to 'torture' the card yourself. If you've got something like Pocket Mechanic, that will help you torture the card, as will putting the card in a card reader on your PC and copying files on and off it (preferably several simultaneous file operations - that tends to show up bad cards).



David

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