Ext SD Card Problem

[gerryex]

Hi ALL,

I have a 16 GB ext SD card with a bunch of videos. My next project is to try to get some full movies on it for use when I travel. On my PC I have one or two of those "digital copies" that you get along with a Blu Ray disc. I figured they were encrypted as they need some kind of license to play but just to see I copied it over to the Ext SD card and tried to play it and it was unplayable. Then I went to delete it and it no longer shows up but the reported capacity of the ext SD is not back to where it was before. Before the copy there was about 9 GB free out of 15 GB. The file was about 2 GB and now even though its been deleted its showing only 7 GB free. I used HD File Mgr to delete it and I know some people have been having problems with that. Is there any way I can get the free space back to what it should be?

Also, I hooked up the A500 to my PC and while I can see the ext SD it only shows up some folders but not all of them. Specifically the Videos folder does not show up. Not sure if this is related or not.

Any help will be appreicated!

Gerry

 

[Douvie]

Gerry,

Take the SD CARD out of the A500 and put it into your card reader on the PC. Use a data recovery utility, available on the web, to recover the lost data. Then, try delete the data using your PC. If this doesn't work, backup the files/folders you can see and the format the SD CARD. If after you format the card and you still don't get the 16GB, then your card has failed.

A failing SD CARD can give some intermittent operation. So my opinion at this point get a new one. And don't use FILE MANAGER HD. It is possible that FILE MANAGER has caused corruption of the FAT table on the SD CARD which causes the card to lose storage. Maybe a low-level format of the card may fix it.

 

[gerryex]

Gerry,

Take the SD CARD out of the A500 and put it into your card reader on the PC. Use a data recovery utility, available on the web, to recover the lost data. Then, try delete the data using your PC. If this doesn't work, backup the files/folders you can see and the format the SD CARD. If after you format the card and you still don't get the 16GB, then your card has failed.

A failing SD CARD can give some intermittent operation. So my opinion at this point get a new one. And don't use FILE MANAGER HD. It is possible that FILE MANAGER has caused corruption of the FAT table on the SD CARD which causes the card to lose storage. Maybe a low-level format of the card may fix it.

Hi Douvie,

I was hoping you would answer as I knew you had problems with HD File Mgr before!

The A500's been powered off overnight but I doubt that will make any difference. So if its still showing the lower free space number I planed to do exactly what you said. Actually I didn't loose any specific files its just not giving me the space back from the deletion of the 2 GB file. So I'll just copy the files from the SD into a temp directory, do a format of the SD (not a quick format) and then copy the files back and see what that does. If its still showing the wrong amount then I'll order a new SD!

By the way do you have any thoughts as to why when I hooked the A500 directly to the PC I was able to see only some of the directories from the SD? Of the directories I could see they seemed fine. But the directory with the videos in it did not show up on the PC. Strange!!

Thanks,
Gerry

 

[gerryex]

Hi Douvie,

Well, my 16 GB SD is back to normal! The only reader I have is on an old single core laptop and it took a long time to do a non-quick format. But once it was done and I copied back all of the files it showed 9.4 GB free. Then I put it back into the A500 and it too is showing 9.4 GB so it looks like the HD File Mgr did mess up something. In the future I'll only use it to look at things and not make changes.

Not sure if its related but now the Flixster app to play back Ultraviolet movies is having a problem. Possibly it stored something on the SD and it was not restored properly. Next time I'll uninstall Flixster and then re-install.

Boy, this stuff can drive you CRAZY!!!!

Gerry

 

[Douvie]

What happens in most cases when you delete a file, the delete action doesn't actually remove the file from the card. The first letter of the name of the file is removed and replaced with another character which makes the file non-viewable - it disappears from view/the listing. But in reality the file still exists and is recoverable by utilities software. Same applies to directories/folders.

What happened in your case is that FILE MANAGER has attempted to delete the file/folder and has corrupted the FAT table on your card showing only 2 GB. Every file listed in the FAT table has a file start location bit and file end location bit. Even the FAT table has a start bit and an end bit. If either of these bits are removed for FAT, file, or folders then the file/folder/FAT will get corrupted and either the file/folder/FAT becomes lost and unreadable.

The sad thing about the whole issue is that I like FILE MANAGER because of it layout. I have written to the developers of the app but it seems they're not interested in responding.

But the good news is that you have your SD CARD back. This makes me happy.

 

[gerryex]

. . .
The sad thing about the whole issue is that I like FILE MANAGER because of it layout. I have written to the developers of the app but it seems they're not interested in responding.

But the good news is that you have your SD CARD back. This makes me happy.

Thanks! Yeah, I figured the FAT got screwed up and that's why I didn't just do a quick format as I wanted the format to go through all the blocks to make sure the SD was OK. It took a while but at least now its showing the proper free space. I also like the way HD File Mgr works but from now on I'll only use to to look at things and not make any changes.

What I've been playing around with is to try and get some movies on the A500 so I can watch them when I travel. I have some other threads on Ultraviolet (seems overly complicated and now is not working on the A500) and just plain ripping DVDs. Just bought DVD Catalyst 4 for $10 and its working quite nicely.

Bye for now!
Gerry