BleepingComputer.com: 16gb Micro SD no longer recognized through Reader.

My dad uses a Micro SD card and reader as a Memory stick. He was doing some file transfers last nigh and left it on all night, It began to be problematic - every hour or so it would cut out. They became more regular, and have resulted in just stopping.

In an attempt to fix it I have
1. unplugged it, Left it out, and tried again, but with no positive results.
2. I used a different reader and computer, which also didn't read it.
3. I placed it in a phone which did read it! *Yay* I then formatted it to make it fresh and clean, Placed it back in the reader and....nothing.
4. I placed it in a micro SD -> SD card reader, and placed it in my camera, which has a cable. That read it, and i could access it via the computer, But it is only displayed as 14.5gb (I understand that it usually isn't the whole size that is displayed, but a whole gig less?...) I formatted it AGAIN. then still 14.5 gb. I put it back in the reader, and nothing.

I know the reader is working as it is picked up by the pc and other micro SD cards work. Anyone know what this problem could be?
Thanks a lot
- Danny

The card reader or cable is the problem based on your post. The phone, camera attached to the PC recognizes the card but not the card reader.

I thought this, but as i said the card reader detects other cards. Weird.

On more than one occasion, I have had people bring me SD and micro SD cards that they could not get their computer to read and they needed the data from it.

My secret trick (not so secret now) is to put it in a camera and hook the camera up to a computer just like you did and recover the data.

I don't know why it works but like I said, I've done it successfully more than once. Then the cards are presumed bad and thrown away.

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Is 14.5 GB what Windows says is the capacity? If you plug it into a Linux computer it will probably say 16GB. I have a freshly formatted (FAT32) Kingston Traveler 16GB USB stick right next to me and I put it in my Windows 7 PC and it says 14.9GB and

just a second...

I put it in an Ubuntu Linux netbook and it says 16GB.

Hmmm... something to do with how Windows calculates the capacity.

James

Hmm Odd. Well, I'll poke around with it a bit more and see what i come up with.
Thanks for the help, if i work it out - It'll be on here
Danny

Definitely let us know if you find the answer to either question.

Why does it work through the camera and not a card reader?

Why is the capacity such a different number on Windows than on Linux?

I never had time to dig into those mysteries

James

Fixed. Bought a new Reader and it worked, The old one was only reading the odd card, So it could read a 2gb, but not a 4gb, etc. Strange, But thanks for the help!