SD Card Problems

[adrenalinemotion]

I just wanted to share my experience with my droid x this morning. I woke up, saw the LED blinking on my phone, had a few texts and emails, and 30% battery left. I put my phone down and started my day. A few minutes later, my phone goes off, but it's not the notification I had set for texts. I pushed the home button and pulled down the status bar. I had a text and a notification telling me that my SD card was blank and needed to be formatted. I was surprised to see this and kind of angry. I have lots of pictures on my SD card and they are not backed up on my computer (my fault I guess). I tried rebooting the phone a few times to no avail. I pulled the SD card out of the phone and plugged it into my computer. My computer wouldn't even recognize the card. I left the card plugged in and google'd my problem to try and see if it was an isolated incident or if there was a solution. A few minutes later, my computer came up with an option to format the card. Not wanting to take this route, I put the card back in the phone and tried connecting the phone to the computer. This wouldn't work either. After a few more tries plugging the card into the computer, and getting the format option, I gave up. I tried to format the card using my computer. It would not format. I put the card in my phone and tried to format it, this wouldn't work either. At this point I have considered my SD card and all the pictures it contains to be a lost cause. I'm using the old 16gb memory card from my droid 1. I should add that the memory card in question is the one that came with my X.
Sorry for the long read, I thought I should explain the situation in its entirety. If anyone can point me in a direction on how to get all my information back, I would appreciate it. Hopefully there is a solution. Thanks in advance.

 

[zonaRSX]

You just described my very exact problem. What is this bull crap about!?! How can the SDcard just go bad all of a sudden? I'm very not happy with the Droid X right now....

 

[TwerpPoet]

Absolutely agree. The manufacturers should have the card send you a warning at least three days in advance of the SD card going bad.

Seriously, hardware does fail, and there is no way any manufacturer is going to be able to tell you when, or prevent it from ever happening. The most they can do is make sure you see one of those irritating popups that ask you if you want to back up your data now. It would also help if they installed the best quality SD card available in the phone, of course. But that's probably a pipe dream, and some people will still have cards fail.

I know how frustrating loosing your data can be. I've been there. Just learn the lesson. Back up your data. And if/when you replace the card spend a little time and money to get a quality replacement. It will improve your odds against another failure.

As far as getting your data back off the failed card. Very unlikely. There are a few companies that specialize in hardware data recovery. Even if they say it is possible I doubt you want your pictures badly enough to pay.

 

[TwerpPoet]

I should clarify about why I don't think you can get your data back. It is possible to recover data from SD cards that have been corrupted or the files accidentally deleted. There are several tools on line for that. However you said that you couldn't even format the card. That indicates a hardware failure, not deletion or corruption of the cards information.

Still, I could be wrong. There are at least a couple freeware tools. Search for 'SD card recovery freeware', download one and give it a try.

 

[zonaRSX]

I should clarify about why I don't think you can get your data back. It is possible to recover data from SD cards that have been corrupted or the files accidentally deleted. There are several tools on line for that. However you said that you couldn't even format the card. That indicates a hardware failure, not deletion or corruption of the cards information.

Still, I could be wrong. There are at least a couple freeware tools. Search for 'SD card recovery freeware', download one and give it a try.

Are you suggesting that the actual card reader on the phone is bad? I've done a bit of searching and that could be the case. I read one guys post about his same issue, took it to verizon and got a new SD card. the SD card worked for a couple days and went bad... After that it's pretty safe to assume it's the actual phone itself. I'm afraid I have a bad phone :icon_evil: If so, this will be my 3rd Droid X replacement! I had to return the first 2 because of pixel issues! Holy crap what a headache... And thanks hookbill, my bad.

 

[TwerpPoet]

Are you suggesting that the actual card reader on the phone is bad? I've done a bit of searching and that could be the case. I read one guys post about his same issue, took it to verizon and got a new SD card. the SD card worked for a couple days and went bad... After that it's pretty safe to assume it's the actual phone itself. I'm afraid I have a bad phone :icon_evil: If so, this will be my 3rd Droid X replacement! I had to return the first 2 because of pixel issues! Holy crap what a headache... And thanks hookbill, my bad.

Well, I wasn't really suggesting that, but if you have had two cards in a row go bad it is definitely a possibility, or you are just having really bad luck with SD cards. Were these quality SD cards or cheapest off the shelf cards? I'd consider that before making up my mind. If you can afford it I suggest trying one more card before replacing the phone.

Also, plug the card directly into the computer using a card reader (not the phone). If it works on the computer then your phone is the problem.

 

[georgepink]

My SD went bad also, and had it replaced quickly. Since then, to be safe, I have been putting my phone in Charge mode before removing from the pc. I think it's possible to corrupt the data and even though it was a hardware issue for me, and sounds like your problem too, I might be able to avoid other issues by doing this.

 

[TheQueb]

Exact same problem here. Called tech and one of the first things they wanted me to do was format. lol So I went to the local Verizon store and they tried to tell me to contact Sandisk and that the card only has a 30 day warranty with Verizon. I got them to understand that this card came with the phone, originally supplied from them and should be warrantied by Verizon as long as the phone is under warranty. Still... they didn't have a 16gb in stock. I'll have to travel another 20 minutes to get it at another store tomorrow. :icon_evil:

 

[zonaRSX]

Exact same problem here. Called tech and one of the first things they wanted me to do was format. lol So I went to the local Verizon store and they tried to tell me to contact Sandisk and that the card only has a 30 day warranty with Verizon. I got them to understand that this card came with the phone, originally supplied from them and should be warrantied by Verizon as long as the phone is under warranty. Still... they didn't have a 16gb in stock. I'll have to travel another 20 minutes to get it at another store tomorrow. :icon_evil:

wow that's such BS! sorry to hear dude. annoying problems like these are never fun to deal with

 

[jiggyb21]

Same for me too. Verizon and Wirefly (where I got my X) both said that the card is not warrantied AT ALL but they would gladly sell me a new one.

 

[TheQueb]

My wife's card has since gone bad. Went to the store and they said it was out of the 30 day period so they (the store) could not but that Sandisk would warranty it. On the way home I called *611 and talked to customer support and they are sending her a new card AND adding 150 free minutes to the account for the month "for our troubles". I think he saw that we never go over on our minutes and figured they had nothing to lose with the gift... lol Anyway, getting another replacement for free...

 

[Sherry]

I have experienced several issues with my SD card I have not seen addressed here. This all happened after I got the GB update and have no idea if it is related. I noticed that I would delete pictures (stored on the card) using the stock app, Gallery. When I go back to the Gallery and look the pictures are still there. In order to permanently delete them I now have to use something like Astro and delete them. After the update I was moving a few apps from internal to SD using Manage Applications. The next day I tried to use one of them and noticed the icon was the greyed out green android generic icon. I started looking and the icons on SD tab showed the apps, gave the choice to move to phone, but would not allow the move. The apps that were on the SD prior to the update were fine, only the new ones would not function. I called Verizon and they had not heard this issue before and suggested formatting the SD and starting over and said they really don't think the SD card is for anything but pictures, music and other media. I did remind them about the picture issue but that resulted in a "let us know after you format the SD if it is still an issue".

I finally resolved the issue with the apps by deleting what was there, re downloaded the apps, went into the Manage Applications and using the options under the SD Card tab was able to move the apps to the SD. They work now. I have no idea why it didn't work before but I moved them from the All Apps tab rather than the SD tab. Just plain odd. However, the pictures issue still exists but easier to resolve than reformatting.

In fairness, this is the first time the Verizon folks were not able to help me.

 

[gem266]

I had my SD card die on me about a month and a half ago. Called Verizon, they told me I had to get it replaced by card manufacturer. Took about 2 weeks to get new card.

 

[Sherry]

I think that might be the issue. My "fixes" didn't stay fixed and the pictures I deleted are all back. In the last couple of days I have started see an error message saying "SD care error, click to ..." Rats!

 

[mccabedj]

Two weeks ago my Incredible S was working fine. Now it says "Please insert an SD card" when ever I try to take pictures or even look at old pictures. My SD card is not full, and works fine when I plug it in to my computer. I have the same problem when I use other peoples SD cards, and theirs work fine in their phones.

I can't even take pictures and save them to my phone's memory...

I need help. If someone has found a way to fix this I could really use the advice