How did my micro SD card die?

grpweld

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Jul 31, 2012
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So here is the scenario! Put in a new Samsung 64 gig sd card in everything working great, a couple of days later I switched carriers. At the retail store of the new carrier they popped out my sim card and didn't realize the sd card was on the same brkt. oops she said as it flipped out onto the counter. No set up for (safe eject either). Another day later I had to do a hard reset of the phone to get the bluetooth to work again. Two days after that I try to take pictures for the first time since before switching carriers, now the sd card is empty or not formatted. Tried to reformat to no avail.
Do I have any options?
What do you think killed my SD card?

Thanks
 

Rukbat

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Feb 12, 2012
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Re: Please vote! Help! how did my P.E. kill my SD card?

Taking it out while it was mounted. Bring it back to the store and talk to the manager - have him replace the card and arrange for some compensation for the work you're going to have to do to restore all the backed-up data (whatever amount your time is worth by whatever time you think i'll take plus an "annoyance by a moron" fee).

If you get nowhere, call the carrier's Retention department and tell them that what their employee did is going to cost them a customer (you) plus a lot of negative publicity on the internet - unless they make it right.

(My policy is "you broke it, you replace it - if AT&T agrees with that [they replaced an out of warranty phone that an update broke], almost any carrier will. And I only had to speak to 1 supervisor in customer service. When he said, "well, there are two options, replace the phone" I stopped him and took that one.)
 

LongbranchPennywhistle

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Sep 18, 2015
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Re: Please vote! Help! how did my P.E. kill my SD card?

Taking it out while it was mounted. Bring it back to the store and talk to the manager - have him replace the card and arrange for some compensation for the work you're going to have to do to restore all the backed-up data (whatever amount your time is worth by whatever time you think i'll take plus an "annoyance by a moron" fee).

If you get nowhere, call the carrier's Retention department and tell them that what their employee did is going to cost them a customer (you) plus a lot of negative publicity on the internet - unless they make it right.

(My policy is "you broke it, you replace it - if AT&T agrees with that [they replaced an out of warranty phone that an update broke], almost any carrier will. And I only had to speak to 1 supervisor in customer service. When he said, "well, there are two options, replace the phone" I stopped him and took that one.)

The SD card itself could potentially still be repaired, but the data is most likely definitely lost. You might be able to revive the SD through a clean, repair, and reformat through something like Windows Disk Part utility or Disk Management. You'd most likely need to go in, delete the volumes present on the SD card, rebuild them, and reformat.

I've recovered flash drives in that manner before whenever they would no longer be recognized or format. I would think it would work for an SD card as well.
 

grpweld

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Re: Please vote! Help! how did my P.E. kill my SD card?

The SD card itself could potentially still be repaired, but the data is most likely definitely lost. You might be able to revive the SD through a clean, repair, and reformat through something like Windows Disk Part utility or Disk Management. You'd most likely need to go in, delete the volumes present on the SD card, rebuild them, and reformat.

I've recovered flash drives in that manner before whenever they would no longer be recognized or format. I would think it would work for an SD card as well.

Thanks! I was able to re-format with SD Formatter :) what a relief
 

Cindy B1

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I don't understand how it got damaged. What is the procedure to remove an SD card? I have one in my new droid turbo 2 (ended up here looking for camera app advice). I'm using it to store my media, mainly photos that I take. I don't plan to put apps or anything on it. I don't understand what "mounting" is. Can I just remove my card anytime to switch between devices or computers?
 

grpweld

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I don't understand how it got damaged. What is the procedure to remove an SD card? I have one in my new droid turbo 2 (ended up here looking for camera app advice). I'm using it to store my media, mainly photos that I take. I don't plan to put apps or anything on it. I don't understand what "mounting" is. Can I just remove my card anytime to switch between devices or computers?
You will need to go to settings, storage, sd card, unmount
 

thymeless

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I've had cards fail from being used in multiple devices and OS. Seems there's some variability in how they all access and write to the card. As annoying as it sounds, I've had the best card reliability by leaving the card in the device for formatting, reading and writing.

I still swap cards in my phone with the unmount and mount options, but all those cards have been formatted in the phone and only written to in the phone. Usually written by being connected to my computer via USB, but some via cloud services. Since becoming attentive to doing it this way, I've not had a card fail in the last 3 years. Before, they used to become corrupted in about 6 months.

I do the same with my camera, only formatting and writing to it there.
 

Cindy B1

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I still don't get it. What is "mounting"? Is there a procedure? When I first got my SD card I just popped out the holder and put the card in the phone and was prompted as to whether i want to transfer my media to it. Is it now mounted or not? Can't I just pop it out to use in an sd card reader to transfer to a computer or to store in a drawer for the future? Must I "unmount" it? In my digital cameras I have always just removed them with no special procedures. I intend to use it to store photos as I take them. I may transfer to my laptop with a card reader, and/or I may just replace the card when it gets a few months of photos on it, and keep it in a safe place as a backup to what's on my pc and in the cloud. I may add some photos to it that are currently on my laptop. Is mounting just a safer way to do what I am trying to do?