No longer can write to SD card

jsigmo

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Jan 22, 2012
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This is kind of strange. I can no longer write to, delete from, or format the micro SD card in my Galaxy skyrocket SII.

This is an AT&T phone with ICS on it. It's all worked great for a long time, but all of a sudden, it's as if the SD card is "write protected". I can read existing files, but anything writing to, deleting from, or formatting does not work. It acts like it's working, I can even (supposedly) create folders, etc. But then later, when you check, nothing has changed, so files I think I've written to the card are gone. I tried formatting it in the phone, and while it all acts like it's doing it, when you then check, all of the old data is still there - nothing has changed.

I don't have an adapter to put the micro SD card into a PC card reader, so I have not tried doing any of that in a PC.

I guess I'll have to buy a new micro SD card, but get one with the adapter this time and then I can test the old card and try the new one in the phone.

Has anyone else had this happen?
 

TvTechGuru

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Nov 25, 2009
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I haven't had that happen, that really sucks. Sorry to hear that. Yeah you'll probably have to buy a new one.

A week ago my Micro SD just wiped itself clean! I don't know how it happened. I'm guessing either something in Android on my phone did it or something within the card itself went bad. Anyway all I had to do was reformat the card. Luckily I had about 90% of the contents backed up so I only lost a few pictures and videos from my camera gallery. It taught me that I should back up my card even more often than I already do.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
 

jsigmo

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Jan 22, 2012
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Followup:

I bought a new MicroSD card with an adapter and replaced the one I had in the phone. The new one seems to work perfectly, just the way the original one did when it was new.

Of course, the new card started off with nothing on it, and I formatted it in the phone right off, too. The original card was very close to full. Both are 32 Gig cards. The first one had only about 800 meg left out of that 32 gig. Perhaps it's not wise to allow them to get so full.

With the adapter that came with the new card, I tested the old card in my main PC. It behaves just as it did in the phone.

I can delete a directory or file, and Windows 7's Windows Explorer thinks the file or directory is gone. But if I unmount the card and then reinstall it, lo and behold the deleted file/directory is still there.

So the card is giving the OS the impression that these write/erase/format operations are being carried out properly, but the actual flash memory is not being written. I can somewhat understand how a failure like this could occur since the OS in the PC or phone is "isolated" from the actual memory in the chip by the chip's own microcontroller and interface logic. It presents a disk interface simulation to the host machine, obeying the protocols the hosts expect, but then writing/reading and doing housekeeping and wear-leveling, etc., for the actual flash memory behind the scenes.

Maybe this card just lost its ability to actually write to the flash memory, but the interface system and buffer memory is all working fine. I think writing to the flash cells requires a higher voltage be applied, or some sort of bias. Maybe the little DC-DC converter circuit in the chip died, so it can't generate the required write bias. Who knows - all idle speculation.

Anyhow, just replacing the card appears to have been the cheap/easy fix. I now seem to have a ROM with almost all of my old data on it. It could have been a LOT worse. This is a fairly "painless" failure mode, I guess, since I didn't lose much. Only files I tried to write to it recently (only to find that they were actually not being written) were "lost". Nothing important, fortunately.
 

jsigmo

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Jan 22, 2012
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I haven't had that happen, that really sucks. Sorry to hear that. Yeah you'll probably have to buy a new one.

A week ago my Micro SD just wiped itself clean! I don't know how it happened. I'm guessing either something in Android on my phone did it or something within the card itself went bad. Anyway all I had to do was reformat the card. Luckily I had about 90% of the contents backed up so I only lost a few pictures and videos from my camera gallery. It taught me that I should back up my card even more often than I already do.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727

That kind of makes a person nervous, doesn't it? One wonders if it's OK to trust the SD card after it's wiped itself. As you point out, it's not clear whether it was the card or the phone that wiped it, though. But You'll always wonder if the card might be flaky now. So as you also point out, it's probably a great idea for all of us to back up everything important on our phones on a regular basis!
 

alloutz1

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Dec 22, 2012
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this is my 2nd micro sd card, and it works fine for a few days, then half my pics start going corrupt and I can't view them anymore......I might get a third micro sd card, but I'm beginning to thing it's the phone doing this....... I'm not happy at all... I wanted to get a Nexus4, but it's sold out!!! dammit!

AT&T GS2Skyrocketon ICS
 

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