Upgrading my BB1 memory (progress report)

[John Jones]

So I ordered a 512GB sd card from Amazon - it looked like a Sandisk (the chip colors) - it turns out it wasn't and took a long time to arrive, but I was in no rush. I assume the delay was because they were out, because they sent me a 1TB sd card instead (with no brand name) and the card I ordered is no longer available on Amazon.

It came formatted FAT32 so I followed the instructions for setting it up... it seemed to go through all the motions including setting up the P3. I didn't copy any songs over. It fired up and went into the BB1 opening display, so I shut it down and put in a thumb drive to load a few tunes. When I went to fire it up again, it brought up the BRENNAN logo display and then nothing happened. So I turned power off - it wouldn't turn off - so I held the power button down till it shut down. Tried again a couple of times with the same results. So I pulled the sd card and tried it all again. This time I tried reformatting the card - lo luck - everything I tried refused to format FAT32. BUT - I did find that the Format USB A in the Advanced menu on the BB1 would successfully format the 1TB card to FAT32.

So I ordered a new 512GB card and this time made sure it was a Sandisk card. While I was waiting for it to arrive, I found I already had a 512GB Samsung MicroSDXC EVO Select memory card (not FAT32) and formatted it using the BB1 Advanced menu, followed the rest of the upgrade instructions including copying the P3 from the original card. SUCCESS - all the songs I had installed on the BB1 were there - everything worked and it now reported having 512GB available.

So, I can confirm the the BB1 will work with a 512GB memory card.

I have tried the 1TB card a few time more, but with varying results - the last time I went through all the steps including copying the P3 songs. It seemed to work properly this last time, but seemed very slow doing anything including going to the NEXT song. But when I hooked the BB1 to my Ethernet, it locked up and then wouldn't work again after that, so I put my 512GB card back in and all is working properly.

So my question is... has anyone successfully installed 1 1TB card? I suspect that the problems I had were because of the off-brand 1TB card and not because the BB1 cannot handle a 1TB card.

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

Hi Cornu,

It is very likely that the 1TB SD card is a fake card. If you look in the forum there are instructions/tools you can use to prove this.

Fred

[Peter Lowham]

Hi John,

As Fred has stated your 1TB card is most probably a fake, as it is displaying the symptoms for this such as slow running and erratic behaviour.  Below is a link to a forum thread entitled "Fake/ cheap SD, microSD cards and USB sticks: Advice and Warning" which discuses this as well as pointing to a link from which you can download a small application that will test the card and tell you if it is fake or not.

Amazon and eBay are awash with these dud cards.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/brennanb2/1BakkcoHSQQ/sXqO8ZJkBgAJ

Let us know how you get on.

Regards,

Peter.

[Rob Harriman]

@Peter - The info in the above thread is great, but unfortunately the h2testw tool is Windows only. 

 Whilst there are some open source tools that claim to work with Linux or macOS the actual installation processes are a bit of a nightmare and definitely not the sort of thing that a general user could follow or perform.

For example I've been trying to install 'F3' and gave up when it required me to install the command line developer tools on my iMac, for which the download was estimated to require nearly 11 hours to complete.  Needless to say I didn't wait around to see if that system estimate was accurate.  Also, my unix and linux skills are very rusty, having long retired.

So - Does anyone know of an h2testw equivalent for macOS that doesn't require considerable unix command line knowledge to install and run? 

Or failing that - has anyone installed such a tool and can provide a crib-sheet for how they did it?  Here's hoping.

I only buy my storage media from reputable sellers and so haven't experienced this problem, but I thought it would be useful to have such a tool in reserve.

Little did I know :-)

TIA.

Rob   

[Jeff. M.]

Anyone in the UK I have found ebuyer is very good, you just don't get the free postage with smaller items. They've never let me down,

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Rob,

With regard to the H2Testw softare only being available for Windows only, I should have stated that in the post, and I will do so in future.  I'm not aware of an equivalent tool for Macs unfortunately.

Regards,

Peter.

[Daniel Taylor]

Isn't there an emulator program that runs on a Mac that allows you to run Windows programs through it?

[JFBUK]

Hi all,

Google helped me find  this which may be of interest

https://ecoobs.com/testing-sd-cards/

[Rob Harriman]

Hi John.

Thanks for your link.  I've had a look at it and unfortunately the tool is based on and requires f3 to be installed beforehand. As that was the tool that I was already struggling to install, I'll pass on this option.

Hi Daniel,

I hadn't thought about installing Windows, because the last time I looked at it a few years back you had to pay for both Windows and the emulator (VMWare).  I see things have greatly moved on with the Apple 'Boot Camp Assistant' emulator now part of macOS and most helpfully Windows 10 being a free and kosher install from Microsoft.  So it's a definite possibility now. That being said I'm going to have more of a think about whether it's something I really want to do, considering the capability to test SD cards is nothing more than a 'nice to have' from my perspective at this time.  Still thanks for getting me to look into this again.

Cheers,

Rob 

[Daniel Taylor]

Hi Rob,

I really didn't know anything about it, other than I thought there was such a thing.  I've been keeping it in the back of my mind in case I should ever need to change to Mac.  I agree that it's a major step just to be able to check an SD card (or USB stick).  But if there might be a greater desire to run other Windows programs, it might be worth it.  Of course, if the need for Windows programs is too great, might as well get a Windows machine.  So I guess the emulator is only for the sweet spot somewhere in the middle ground.