How to format an SDXC card using Linux

[levi]

I recently bought a 64GB SDXC card largely for the purpose of using it with my Pandora when it arrives, and I've read the advice to use the Panasonic formatter on a Windows machine, but I don't have a Windows machine set up at the moment.


I would assume I can use 'parted' and repartition and reformat the card with some suitable format (does the Pandora OS support UFS, by the way?), but this is the second 64GB card I've bought - the first went pop when I did the above to such an extent that now most devices don't even recognise there's a card inserted, and my camera crashes fairly spectacularly when I try to turn it on with that card in. So I'd rather not risk that with this new card.


Admittedly when I prepared the previous card I used a card reader which predates the SDXC spec, but I didn't expect to be able to get a card into the present state using it. It's a shame these cards come preformatted with exFAT, so I've no way of checking I can read that card and it plays okay before formatting.


Can I use 'parted'? Do I need to leave blank space at the front and back? Was my previous card just dodgy and I should apply for a refund?

 

[Linux-SWAT]

You should try the formatter included in your camera (if it can boot).


It's recommended to leave 16M free at the beginning of 64G and more cards.


I use parted myself, and sandisk cards. Never had a problem.

 

[levi]

That's a good idea. Unfortunately it doesn't boot with the card in, and doesn't give me the option to format.


Both cards are Sandisk by the way. The borked one, an Ultra Class 4, my new one an Extreme UHS 1. parted reports promising looking partition sizes when reading the partition table using this new SDXC branded card reader (and my old Sandisk multicard reader, it seems - just not in the original nobrand reader that broke the old card).


I'll do some more digging then probably format it in parted, leaving 16.8GB at the start and 0.1GB at the end.

 

[levi]

To conclude, after checking the card reader by getting parted to print out the partition table, I ended up using mke2fs to format the existing partition without modifying the partition table - just 'sudo mke2fs -t ext2 /dev/sdd1'. This now automounts on my machine after I unplugged it and plugged the card reader back in. Curiously, mke2fs silently ignores the -t argument if it's not something it supports and defaults to ext2.

 

[Grench]

There is actually a very simple way to do this - if you're talking about using a desktop Linux distro.


http://code.google.com/p/exfat/


Once you have the ExFat drivers installed on your Desktop Linux workstation, you can put the SDXC card in a proper USB reader and format it using the included utility.


I would LOVE to have this ExFAT driver brought onto the Pandora. There are some qualms about doing this though since M$oft owns the patent on it - even though they've said it's free to use and the Google supplied ExFAT drivers are provided free.


But - you CAN do ExFAT in Linux, just not in Linux on the Pandora. For now.