A Little Heads-Up

[fearofshorts]

This may not belong here, but I wanted to inform as many Windows users as possible of the best method of solving issues with SD cards...
The Official SD Formatter (also called the "Panasonic SD Formatter").

You see, Windows XP, Vista and 7 all do a terrible job at formatting SD cards, which can lead to serious issues down the line. The Panasonic SD Formatter will, ~95% of the time, solve and prevent these issues.

I have used the SD Formatter to speed up SD cards that have become slow due to failing blocks and repeated formats from windows (0.5 MB/s write to 2.5 MB/s in one case!), detect and correct when an SD card's filesystem is set to the wrong size (this happens with fake cards- which are quite common with disreputable online stores) and (of course) fix each and every file system issue.

If you have any issues with your SD Cards (or just get a new one) I highly recommend a full backup and reformat with the SD Formatter.

Trust me, it can make a massive difference.

 

[Mithrildor]

Thanks, added to the sticky as helpful thread

 

[Caine]

Just format them with the Pandora.

 

[fearofshorts]

The Pandora has these issues too. But I think that it is a step up from Windows.

PS: Thanks for the mention and indirect sticky

 

[Shirohagen]

How do you format the card using the Pandora itself?

 

[Shirohagen]

Also: Is a Pandora SD card formatted differently than usual?

I only ask as the only device my Pandora-supplied SD card will mount on is the Pandora itself.

My Mac, PC and digital camera all fail to recognise it at all...

...is this usual?

 

[Tom`]

Also: Is a Pandora SD card formatted differently than usual?

I only ask as the only device my Pandora-supplied SD card will mount on is the Pandora itself.

My Mac, PC and digital camera all fail to recognise it at all...

...is this usual?

It shouldn't be - however, you can format the card any way you like, and the Pandora should be able to read it (well, maybe not some extremely obscure file systems, or very new ones like ext4 or exFAT, but FAT32, ntfs, ext2/3 or even HFS should be fine, provided you've installed the patented codec pack).

 

[paulguy]

I wouldn't recommend HFS for use in linux. I believe you might get reliable read only support for NON journaled HFS, but HFS+ I believe is completely out. I haven't had much luck at all with HFS and variants on linux.

As for formatting on the Pandora and making sure EVERYTHING can use it, you're a bit SOL. Pretty much the only tool I've ever used that has produced SD cards that everything was happy with is the Panasonic SD formatter. Though if the partition structure and everything is fine, you might just be able to mkdosfs/mke2fs on top of the existing filesystem if a format is required and the formatter isn't available.

If you use fdisk and mkdosfs on the pandora to format an SD card, linux, windows and likely mac machines should be able to use it, but a lot of embedded stuff (camera, camcorders, set-top boxes, flashcarts, etc.) probably will choke on it (or even format the card automatically. D as that stuff is often shitty, cheapo, buggy and poorly designed.

 

[torpor]

The important thing when formatted SD cards under Linux for use on other systems is to not screw with the partition table .. there should only be *one* partition, primary, and formatted as VFAT .. this is to allow the SD card to be used in simple devices that have very limited FAT support .. parsing the partition table and allowing for the primary/secondary offsets is not something that your average camera can do, so use fdisk to delete the partitions if you have this problem, make only *one* partition on the SD card, then format it as VFAT .. oh and be sure to put a LABEL with the "-n" option to mkfs.vfat - you'd be surprised how many cameras whine if they can't find a volume label, even if they're not using it ..

 

[cosam]

I only ask as the only device my Pandora-supplied SD card will mount on is the Pandora itself.

My Mac, PC and digital camera all fail to recognise it at all...

...is this usual?

Is it an SDHC card and do your other devices support SDHC (or only SD?). I've had trouble with PC card readers even when the allegedly do support SHDC. Thankfully one of my cards came with the SDHC version of this thing, which works on everything I've tried it on:

 

[Shirohagen]

Hi guys, the 8Gb card came with the Pandora direct from Craig et al, it has SDHC written on it.

At the moment it's just acting as a HD in the Pandora really, I'm using a USB stick to ferry files to and from my Mac, but I'd far rather be able to mount the SD card on the Mac.

My card reader my not be an SDHC one so that could be the issue.

I'll read up on fdisk and see if that helps.

Cheers!

 

[benced]

Reading though the forums there seem to be a lot of people having issues that can't be replicated that I think may be because a Class 6 minimum SD Card isn't being used, not sure where this should be highlighted but I'm bunging it into this thread....

Just speculating though as I havn't got my panda yet so can't try to replicate any issues yet...

 

[Prometheus]

All but one of my SDHC Cards are Class 4 (with one Class 6 card in there, too), and I've had no issues whatsoever, so I'm not too sure that your theory's on the right track...

Why do you think it's to do with card speed?

 

[benced]

All but one of my SDHC Cards are Class 4 (with one Class 6 card in there, too), and I've had no issues whatsoever, so I'm not too sure that your theory's on the right track...

Why do you think it's to do with card speed?

Hi, sorry, perhaps i did post in the wrong place, my post wasn't in response to Shirohagen or any other formatting issues more problems like the stutters in this video but it turns out my theory was wrong

bce23w
13 hours ago
Stutters? Interesting. What class SDHC card are you using?

Dddef0
11 hours ago
@bce23w It's a PQI class 6 card, so I'm a bit surprised with the stutters, too.

I read here and elsewhere that Class 4 should be fine but to go for Class 6 to be on the safe side (i also notice now you've been given credit for the guide )

I was theorising that for more intensive applications perhaps a Class 6 would be required as it would need that little extra read/write oomph, but yeah seems I was wrong, ah well...

I think the SD guide at pandora press is very good, perhaps this formatting stuff could be added there,

Also perhaps all this SD Card stuff, if not already (i've tried a quick search but couldn't find it) could be added to the pandorawiki, I would have added it already if I wasn't 100% sure it hadn't already been added,

cheers

 

[Prometheus]

(i also notice now you've been given credit for the guide )

I should clarify that that's due to the stuff about fake cards - I don't know a huge amount about speeds and whatnot.