Removing Formatting from a Memory Card

[Nibbler]

Hi Everyone

I need help – surprise there eh!!!

Other half bought an 8gb memory card and on inserting it into the computer (Windows XP running it) it formats only to a 4gb card!!!

I think I have it sussed now for correctly formatting it but – this is the big BUT – I cant remove the original formatting. Can see how it can be done but don’t want to try it myself in case I knacker the computer as well as the card.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is the second card we have had from the seller – oops.

[blueivy]

Hi Everyone

I need help – surprise there eh!!!

Other half bought an 8gb memory card and on inserting it into the computer (Windows XP running it) it formats only to a 4gb card!!!

I think I have it sussed now for correctly formatting it but – this is the big BUT – I cant remove the original formatting. Can see how it can be done but don’t want to try it myself in case I knacker the computer as well as the card.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is the second card we have had from the seller – oops.

What filesystem are you formatting it with? FAT or FAT32 (it should tell you that when you format it)? I suspect it is FAT which only supports a maximum of 4 GB. FAT32 can support a maximum more than that.

[Nibbler]

Hi Paul

I think originally it was FAT but I have since tried to re-format with FAT32 and it just allows the same space - 3.51gb.

I am clueless when it comes to this kind of thing and I did see something about how to clear the formatting but, to be honest, I dont know if that would solve it or not.

Really appreciate your reply.

[blueivy]

Find out which drive letter the disk is using when it's plugged in.

If you go into Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management (option on the left) and then click the drive on the top half, when it appears in the bottom half it tells you about the disk on the left hand side. It should say something like Disk 2, Removable, 8GB, Online. What does yours say?

[Nibbler]

Hi Paul

The card shows as E:

When in disk management it comes up with:

Disk 1
Removable
3.51GB
Online

Something I looked at earlier mentioned the partition and that it needed to be removed but when right clicked (in disk management) the option to delete is not available.

I am in a right pickle

[blueivy]

That means that Windows is only seeing your card as 4GB. What make and model is the card and does it say SDHC on it?

What make and model is your computer and how old roughly is it?

Is the card being plugged into the computer itself (through a built-in slot) or are you using a card reader that the card is pluigged into and then the reader plugged into the computer?

[Nibbler]

Hi Paul

The card is a SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo 8.0GB MagicGate

The computer is coming up to be two and a half years old. It is running Windows XP. It is an Evesham laptop and I have checked under system in the control panel but it doesn't give a model.

The card is being plugged directly into the computer.

The place where we got the card did say (after we had problems) that it could be something to do with the operating system being XP. He said it was not set up to recognise cards over 4gb as hardly anyone was using them. Vista, apparently, will recognise a card over 8 gb.

[blueivy]

Ahhhh. Try this hotfix from Microsoft and see if it works.

[Nibbler]

Hi Paul

Downloaded the hot fix but (would have to be me) the card is still formatting as a 4gb.

Computer automatically restarted after download so not sure now.

Will leave it for tonight. I'm knackered

Thanks for all your help this evening though Paul. Cheers

[blueivy]

No problem. If it still shows up as a 4GB card under Disk Management then I'd say it's maybe your card reader hardware?

[Stefan]

Or you simply got a fake card.
Hope not.
You got a mate who could check the card for you?

Is your XP updated with all the latest kaboodle from Microsoft?
Try a windows update, if not....

I use 16GB cards and USB flash drives with my XP without any problems.

If your card reader was the problem it would most likely simply not read it but not formatting it at the wrong size. I could be wrong though.

[Nibbler]

Hi Stefan

This is the second card we have had and I dont believe it to be the card itself. I think it is the computer - it says no!!!!

Well, not no, but it says the card is 4gb.

I can get to ma parents pc but I would think it would say the same - as in 4gb.

From what I could find out, online, it seems that the partition is not allowing the card to format to 8gb now that is has been formatted to 4gb. There was some instructions on how to get rid of the partition but I really dont want to go down that route myself as I could end up knackering said computer!!

I aint totally stupid (well, some days are better than others) but this has me flumoxed!!

[Stefan]

Can you take it back to the shop and ask them to format it for you?
I never had such a problem before, even on my 12 year old laptop all my cards and usb devices run fine.
And that's a WinXP / USB 1.1 with a 5.99 tesco card reader.

How would you even format a card to a different size? If you bought a card that is formatted wrongly then surely the shop needs to sort it out.

I have had a mate who bought two 8GB usb sticks and they were "formatted" to 1GB, turned out he was ripped off and they were indeed just 1GB capacity.

It was a deal too good to be true...

[Nibbler]

Hi Stefan

I think I will try the shop - see if they can format it. The card was sent out without being formatted and it was here that we tried to format it. (Says it all really!!)

Thanks for your help.

[blueivy]

The Disk Management window under Computer Management will tend to show you how big the disk is regardless of partitions. I'd try it in a different computer, especially one that can already read 8GB cards. While we all think that your computer should be able to read the cards full size, we don't know if it can.

[TBH]

The Disk Management window under Computer Management will tend to show you how big the disk is regardless of partitions. I'd try it in a different computer, especially one that can already read 8GB cards. While we all think that your computer should be able to read the cards full size, we don't know if it can.

If they formated the card using disk management, would they get the full memory of the card?
I had to do this with a usb drive that I was using to boot linux. When I tried to format the drive by right clicking it and clicking format, it seemed to format okay but the drive was showing it as only having half the memory that the drive originaly had. I had to right click my computer/manage/disc management then delete the partition I had created and format the drive to get the original size back?

[blueivy]

Format will only format partitions whereas in Disk Management you can manage those partitions, as you know. However the format command will be the same in both. It could be something as simple as Windows not liking or understanding any non-Windows partition types.

[Nibbler]

I have sent the card back and the guy is going to see if he can do anything with it or try another make/brand of card. He has been really helpful throughout this.

I did think at one point this computer doesn't recognise cards over 4gb but it does as my mobile phone memory card is over 4gb and I can transfer files from it no problem.

Thank you so much guys for your input/help. It is very much appreciated. Will just wait and see what comes back. Hopefully I wont have any more problems.

[TBH]

Format will only format partitions whereas in Disk Management you can manage those partitions, as you know. However the format command will be the same in both. It could be something as simple as Windows not liking or understanding any non-Windows partition types.

So in my case the fact that I createdpartitions for linux made formating impossible until I deleted the partitions?

[blueivy]

So in my case the fact that I createdpartitions for linux made formating impossible until I deleted the partitions?

I can't say for sure until I reproduce it here. My gut reaction is that it shouldn't have made any difference if you were formatting an already created partition but it all depends on how the disk was partition and which one you were formatting in the order.

What I would chalk it down to is that Microsoft just refuse to play nice with Linux partitions and it's just another attempt to annoy those of us who don't use Windows for everything and understand more than NTFS. I used to believe Microsoft went out of it's way to deliberately make it as awkward as possible to use Linux 'bits' in any shape or form with Windows.