Corrupt SD Card

[Peter Loveday]

My Brennan B2 has an old style 64Gb SD card to store my music files. During a recent software update the power was removed and on repowering all I got was flashing Red & Green LEDs. I sent for a new SD card and the B2 now works fine but it came on a 16Gb SD card which is too small to hold all my music. Is it possible to transfer the new operating software to the old SD card?

[JFBUK]

Hi,

your old 64Gb card could well be damaged beyond repair.

Do you have the capability to look at its contents on another computer  to check whether it is still useable ?

Even if you can reformat it , the fact that it has failed once would encourage me to get a new card.

Did you buy your B2 with a 64Gb card ?

You need to talk to Brennan again about getting a replacement of 64Gb or greater.

John

[Mark Fishman]

I think we're talking about a "diskless" B2, i.e., the model without hard disk. Those did come with 64GB SD cards, and cannot use an HD (the necessary parts aren't there).

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Peter,

This issue needs to treated carefully because the B2 software and Operating System share the same storage device as the music  This makes the recovery process more delicate as it would be very easy to delete your whole music collection by accident.

I'm assuming that you do not have a recent full Export backup.

The basic problem is that in order to revive your 64GB SD card, the card has to be reformatted and that will delete the existing music collection.  So your music collection needs to be backed up to another location that is not on the B2.

First, can you Export (back up) the music from the old 66GB card to a PC or Mac?  You will need a 'USB to SD card adapter'.  If you don't have sufficient space on a PC/Mac, then you should also buy a 64GB USB stick.

Important note:  Do not purchase USB sticks or memory cards from Amazon or eBay as many of these devices are fake and you will probably lose your collection.  Buy these devices from reputable retailers such as Curry's or Argos in the UK or Best Buy in the USA.

To recover and rebuild your B2 and music collection here is the process.

1.  Using a PC/Mac and a 'USB to SD card adapter' copy the contents of the 'music' directory from the B2's 64GB SD card to a safe location and verify that the music content is complete.

2.  Power the B2 down if not already done.

3.  Plug the  new16GB SD card into the side of the B2

4.  Remove the USB adapter and SD card from the PC and plug it into the B2's USC C port.

5.  Go to 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' -- 'Advanced' --> 'SD card to C'   (this will copy the B2 software areas from the 16GB card on to the 64GB card).

6.  Press and hold the 'Play/Stop' button until 'Saving' is displayed.

7.  Power the B2 down.

8.  Remove the USB adapter from the USB C port

9.  Swap the 16GB card for the 64GB card, so that the 64GB card is now the B2 boot device.

10.  Power up the B2 and check that is is functioning correctly and that it reports 62GB capacity (approximately) with 0GB used.

At this point you B2 is up and running, but with no music loaded.

11.  Run 'Settings' --> 'Web Upgrade'

12.  Plug the USB stick into the B2 and run 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' --> 'Format USB C'

13.  Remove the USB stick from the B2 and plug it into the PC

12.  On the USB stick, 'create a folder named 'music' and copy all of the artist folders into this folder.

13.  Plug this USB stick into the USB C port on the B2.

14.  Select 'USB Functions' --> 'Import from C'

15.  The Import will probably run for  about 2 hours depending on how much music has to be loaded.

That should be it.

At step 5, if the there are any errors reported, it could mean that the 64GB card is permanently damaged, but in my experience it will probably OK.  But you might need to purchase a new 64GB card.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards,

Peter.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi John,

The crux of this issue with Peter's B2 64G is, as Mark has stated, that this is the diskless model, where the SD card stores the O/S, the B2 application code and the music content.  This is only the second B2 64G issue that I have processed.  For the first call, I converted one of my B2's into this model so that the proposed solution was tested, and I did learn a few new points at the time.

For today's problem, I recreated a diskless version (a B2 32G as I could not locate a 64G SD card) and ran though the process.  Creating a working bootable 64GB SD card is straight forward; it is securing and restoring the music content that is more tricky.

So, with a following wind, Peter's B2 should be up and running again very soon.

Regards,

Peter.

[Peter Loveday]

Thanks to all for your helpful suggestions particularly Peter. It will take me a couple of days to get a new 64Gb SD card (don't want to risk the old one being faulty) and I'll let you know how I get on. Incidentaly I have the music files well backed up.

Best regards

Peter

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Peter,

Good to know that you have backups already done.  That will simplify the recovery.  From the above instructions, you can start at step 5 and go from there.

Regards,

Peter.

[Peter Loveday]

Hi Peter

I've carried out all the steps you suggested using both a new 64Gb SD card and the old card but without success. The B2 software copying process takes just 7 seconds not the up to 5 minutes suggested, the display shows Writing then Done after 7 secs. I've carried out the process a number of times and checked the USB adapter and both SD cards which are FAT32 formatted and all seem to function correctly. The result with the 64Gb cards is always the same, flashing red & green leds but no display. The 16Gb card always works fine when put back in the B2. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Best regards Peter

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Peter,

I made an error in the previous post; I should have said 'you can start at step 2'  (not step 5) because you have the Export done already.  My apologies for that mistake.  Also, I have made a change to step 4 in order to clarify the instruction here.

Let me know if these changes resolve the problem.

To recover and rebuild your B2 and music collection here is the process.

1.  Using a PC/Mac and a 'USB to SD card adapter' copy the contents of the 'music' directory from the B2's 64GB SD card to a safe location and verify that the music content is complete.

2.  Power the B2 down if not already done.

3.  Plug the new16GB SD card into the side of the B2

4.  Using the USB adapter and  the new 64GB SD card, plug it into the B2's USC C port.

5.  Go to 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' -- 'Advanced' --> 'SD card to C'   (this will copy the B2 software areas from the 16GB card on to the 64GB card).

6.  Press and hold the 'Play/Stop' button until 'Saving' is displayed.

7.  Power the B2 down.

8.  Remove the USB adapter from the USB C port

9.  Swap the 16GB card for the 64GB card, so that the 64GB card is now the B2 boot device.

10.  Power up the B2 and check that is is functioning correctly and that it reports 62GB capacity (approximately) with 0GB used.

At this point you B2 is up and running, but with no music loaded.

11.  Run 'Settings' --> 'Web Upgrade'

12.  Plug the USB stick into the B2 and run 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' --> 'Format USB C'

13.  Remove the USB stick from the B2 and plug it into the PC

12.  On the USB stick, 'create a folder named 'music' and copy all of the artist folders into this folder.

13.  Plug this USB stick into the USB C port on the B2.

14.  Select 'USB Functions' --> 'Import from C'

15.  The Import will probably run for  about 2 hours depending on how much music has to be loaded.

That should be it.

Regards,

Peter.

[Peter Loveday]

Hi Peter

Unfortunately the changes haven't cured the problem, still no software copied to the 64Gb card.

Regards Peter

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

My head hurts!!!!!!

Can we take a small step back and check.

1) that the write protect switch is not on

2) that data can actually be written to the card at all (ie is the card faulty)

Fred

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Peter,

I'll run through the instruction list with a new SD card this morning to see what is not working correctly.

I'll update here shortly.

Regards,

Peter.

[Mark Fishman]

Peter, 

I'm a bit puzzled as to why you don't have to format the 64GB SD card in the B2, between steps 4 and 5. I don't have a 64GB card here, but the 128GB cards I have arrived with an exFAT format (apparently phones can use exFAT), and the B2 might be unhappy with the card.

There are some instructions at the bottom of https://www.brennan.co.uk/itemcontent.php/content/Techy that say it might be helpful to format the new card.

[Mark Fishman]

Fred, there's a write-protect switch on SD cards? I've only got microSD cards, and haven't seen a switch.

[Peter Loveday]

Hi all

I can confirm that the cards are formated FAT32, the write protect switches are off and data can be written to both cards.

Regards Peter

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Perhaps I am wrong about a switch on a micro SD !

Ok, but there is still something screwy happening!!

Can you test the annoying card with the H2test utility to ensure it is what it purports  to be

Fred

[Peter Lowham]

Hi All,

@ Mark; as far as I can tell, the 'SD card to C' function is a Linux 'dd' function so it is copying the raw partition images from the SD card to the new SD card in the C port.  To test this more fully I have just formatted an SD card to NTFS (in a PC) and then used that in USB C as the target drive.  So I have an incorrectly formatted card in USB C.

The result was still a success; I moved the new 64GB card into the B2's card slot and it booted up perfectly.  I have also imported eight albums from an Export backup and that has worked correctly onto the SD card.

Yes, the SD cards have a 'Lock' read only switch, but microSD cards do not.

@ Peter; the crux of the problem seems to be that the copying of the SD card images is failing.  The fact that you only see 'Writing' for 7 seconds indicates that.  I timed the 'Writing' this morning and it was present for 3.5 minutes in my test.

I am wondering if the USB SD card adapter might be the problem here.  I have two of these adapters because I could not get a SD card to format in a B2 and eventually I bought another adapter and this fixed the problem.  The 'bad' adapter works in Macs and PCs and sometimes with the B2, but sometimes it doesn't.

Do you have access to another USB SD card adapter to try this?  I think that the problem one in my case was USB 3, so I got a USB 2 version (from what I can recall).

Regards,

Peter.

On Tuesday, 12 April 2022 at 12:03:37 UTC+1 retepy...@gmail.com wrote:

[Peter Loveday]

Hi Peter

I've just got back to looking at the issue again and I think you're right that the SD card adapter is the problem, it's USB 3. I have managed to reformat the SD Cards and copy the operating software to USB C but I had to do the formating several times before it worked. Once that was done copying went ahead and everything is back to normal. Thanks so much for your help with this.

Best Regards

Peter