Sd Memory Card Formatter 5.0.2 For Sd Sdhc Sdxc
Curtis Cassel
SD cards a kind of memory card that is usually used in mobile phones, digital cameras, and other digital devices for data saving, backup, or transfer. But, it will stop working and become inaccessible while it is corrupted due to some reasons. The SD Card Formatter formats the SD/SDXC/SDHC Memory cards following (considering) the SD File System Specification formed by the SD Card Association (SDA).
We can use formatting tools provided with Windows/Mac operating systems to format SD cards. Still, it is usually recommended (preferred) to use the SD Card Formatter to format SD / SDXC/ SDHC Memory Cards.
The SD Association launches the SD Card Formatter. SD Formatter is a program (application) that allows easy and quick access to SD, SDHC, and SCXC memory card formats, and has been framed to clear out all the files stored on your SD card at one time.
It is strongly recommended to use SD Card Formatter to get the best performance from your SD cards, as these can collapse under the weight of everything that comes through the messaging services to your mobile phone.
One day I decided to plug it into a cheap camera. The camera said something to the tune of "memory card error" and it reformatted my card to only have 32GB space. (lost everything immediately! I would not recommend using that camera...)
Anyways, I've taken the card out of the camera and want to put it back into my phone, but it is now formatted to have 1 32GB partition and I cannot see any other partitions using the windows 7 disk manager.
The SD Card Association actually does not recommend using just any formatting utility, including the one provided by the OS. Instead they have developed their own software called SD Formatter, which they recommend for the following reason:
The SD Formatter was created specifically for memory cards using the SD/SDHC/SDXC standards. It is strongly recommended to use the SD Formatter instead of formatting utilities provided with operating systems that format various types of storage media. Using generic formatting utilities may result in less than optimal performance for your memory cards.
The SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards have a "Protected Area" on the card for the SD standard's security function. The SD Formatter does not format the "Protected Area". Please use appropriate application software or SD-compatible device that provides SD security function to format the "Protected Area" in the memory card.
I don't know how my card got in such a rut, but putting it into the win7 / win8 computer with various combinations of MicroSD card reader, SD card reader + adaptor, or through my GoPro did not cause the card to appear at all (whereas it was a few days ago). Therefore both of the above answers were not an option (the card did not show up in windows, nor with the SD Formatter utility).
I put it back into my phone to give that another try, and it formatted straight into 59GB of space!I did actually try this a few days ago, but my phone was android version 4.0.4 back then, whereas is it 4.1.0 now, That might have something to do with it.
Sounds like the camera resized the SD card's partition. Windows has a built-in partition editor that you can use to fix this. With the card plugged into your computer, click Start, type partition, and choose "Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions." You should see a list of all the different volumes on your computer. One of them should be the 32GB SD card partition. Right click it, and choose "Extend Volume." There will be an item called "Maximum available space in MB." Type that value into "Select the amount of space in MB." Then follow the wizard to its completion.
I don't believe that Rebels of that vintage knew how to handle cards that large. So even if you succeeded in formatting the card correctly, there's a good chance that the camera wouldn't be able to see it all. And at least a risk that images would get misplaced, lost, or garbled.
If the previous response is correct (that you can put about 2000 RAW files on a 32GB memory card) if it worked in your camera you'd be able to take 8000 shots with that 128GB. 2000 or 8000... That's way, way too many images per card, in my opinion. Just imagine if you filled up the card, then lost it or it failed for some reason!
I use 16GB and 8GB cards with my more recent models (that generate much larger RAW files than your camera). Those give me approx. 500 and 250 images per card, respectively. Even when I'm doing an intensive shoot and fill up a dozen or more memory cards in a day, it only takes a few seconds each time I need to swap in a fresh card. I have four memory card cases: three Pelican (practically bulletproof!) that hold 4 memory cards apiece, and one Think Tank "wallet" that holds eight.
Incidentally... write your name and phone number or email address on each of your cards with a permanent marker... just in case. On another forum someone reported finding a memory card full of a large number of wedding images, lying on the sidewalk where someone obviously had dropped it. Using the images, the person who found it was able to identify the church, then called or visited it to track them down and return the card to one very grateful photographer! But, not everyone is so nice... And not every lost card is found.
Get a card marked as an "SDHC" card ... it will have a capacity which is 32GB or less. If it has a capacity more than 32GB then it isn't an SDHC card... it's an "SDXC" card and your camera will not be able to recognize the filesystem format.
True "SD" cards use an MS-DOS "FAT12" or "FAT16" filesystem. FAT12 was designed for use with floppy diskettes. FAT16 (the replacement for FAT12) was updated to address the "large" disks that people started using in their PCs... like 20MB hard drives (that wasn't a typo... a typical PC had a 10MB or 20MB hard drive... if you had a 30MB hard drive then that was really big). The FAT16 filesystem's maximum addressable capacity was 2GB... a size so incredibly lare that nobody ever thought hard drives would be that big (well that's we all thought back in the 1980's). Now just one image from 5D Mk IV would take more space then the entire capacity of the hard drive (a typeical RAW file from that camera is around 45MB... varying slightly from shot to shot.)
This is when your camera is built... in an age where the "FAT32" filesystem exists (which your camera can use) but larger filesystem types do not exist. Your camera doesn't know how to deal with filesystems that didn't exist when it was made.
The industry stagnated for a bit... or more accurately it forked off in many non-unified directions. Microsoft pushed their own NTFS filesystem for large filesystem types. Apple used HFS+. Linux used ext2 followed by ext3, etc. and unfortunately there was no single large common filesystem type that would be recognized regardless of which computer or device uses it.
The "SDXC" cards use this filesystem. It is used for filesystems larger than 32GB and up to it's max limit of 2TB (though I don't think anybody makes a card with a 2TB storage density... at least not yet.)
The advantage of exFAT is "in theory" you should be able to take the card from a modern camera (one new enough that the camera was designed and released after the filesystem exists and knows how to take advantage of it) and that same card can be used in any modern computer (PC, Mac, Linux, etc.) and they can all recognize and use the filesystem type.
The good stuff first: If you're seeing the "Card not formatted, format card with this camera" and then after the instructions you get "Cannot format, change card" it is because the camera is not directly SDXC compatible. I found a solution for my 64 GB SDXC card -
I used a program (or search "Ridgecrop FAT32 GUI") and click on the giant image to download it (weird, but they're British). I scanned it and it was clean & safe, but I won't guarantee anything about it. Windows' built in programs will not let you format as FAT32 - but this will. I believe Mac OS will format as FAT32 just fine but I can't confirm.
It opens right away and then you just tell it to format your SDXC card (make sure it is the correct one! formatting deletes everything on the device). It will format the SDXC card as FAT32. Popping it into the Rebel XS camera just worked and I was able to take pictures and they were saved without fanfare.
I do want to note important technical information. SDHC cards are limited to 32 GB sizes but that's not because of the file system. SDHC cards' filesystem is defined to be ONLY FAT32. SDXC cards are limited to 2 TB sizes (we're not there yet) and again that is not because of the filesystem. SDXC cards' filesystem is defined to be ONLY exFAT.
SDHC and SDXC cards are probably the same physically - but the old Rebel XS series will not be able to read exFAT since they were never programmed to do so. A computer setting an SDXC card to FAT32 will be readable by the Rebel XS though, and so that's why it works if you make the formatting happen.
The FAT32 filesystem can handle at least 2 TB sized cards or drives. Windows itself will throw a hissy fit if you try to format a drive that's larger than 32 GB as FAT32 - but there are plenty of programs that let you do it (see above) and then Windows will interact with it just fine. And any other OS will do it as well. You can format a 2 TB drive as FAT32 if you wanted. The downside to the FAT32 filesystem is it can only handle 4 GB or smaller files - which means big videos or anything large won't work, but that's not a problem for single picture cameras.
Sum up:
The exFAT filesystem can handle up to 128 PB (PetaBytes) but they recommend to limit yourself to 512 TB since it lacks filesystem overhead features that protect large amounts of data from corruption. The file size limit is as large as the drive. The downside to the exFAT filesystem is that it is not universal - Microsoft owns exFAT, like they own NTFS, and thus support becomes limited - especially in various Linux OSes. Mac OS has come around to supporting exFAT but it is not preferred by Apple.
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